Driven by K. Bromberg

DNF @ 5%

My friends' reviews for this book are actually pretty terrifying. There's a whole line of one-star DNF reviews, which is why I think I've owned this book for years without touching it. I must have gotten it for free from the Kindle store because this isn't the type of book I'd buy. It's one of those FIFTY SHADES OF GREY knock-offs that were so popular in the wake of FSoG's blistering popularity, where people were scrambling to find new ways to write the authoritarian man/doormat naif trope and make it "hott."

The book opens with our dunce heroine marveling at her ability to remember things (no, seriously) and fretting about her organza dress and heels, when she hears people in a supply closet doing things that definitely don't sound like inventorying (I mean, unless inventory is your passion-- I'm sure someone out there goes "OH GOD" and "YES" while checking the database, and I am equally certain that this person is probably not very popular at parties).

Anyway, the heroine judges this unseen and vocal inventorist, thinking smugly "I wouldn't do that if you paid me." Which is kind of true, because not five pages later, she does it for free. You know, before deciding better of it (she's not that kind of girl, you know), and thereby giving the hero a chance to show off his rapey side by saying "I don't take anything that isn't given to me so you must have been giving it to me" (because gaslighting) and going all apeshit at the idea of refusal.

From there, you just know it's going to be a hot mess of courting (i.e. stalking), relationship issues (i.e. other women and more rapeyness), and setting boundaries (i.e. cutting down on said rapeyness and turning down expensive gifts for moral reasons, i.e. not being that kind of girl). I'm not psychic, I've just read enough of these FSoG-alikes to know the typical trajectory of the plot, and while I get that that predictability makes them fun for some, for me it's like nails on a chalkboard.

1 out of 5 stars