Reviews with content warning for Alcohol - Bought

Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Bought by Lauren Landish, Willow Winters

5 reviews

kat_reads26's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is the first book of the Highest Bidder series that I have read and in short, it suffers from Standalone Story Syndrome. Despite the books being connected by their setting and having ties to other characters, they can definitely be read on their own and in almost any order. Despite the set up, I found that Bought had so much potential but fell short due to only being under 300 words and being intentionally a standalone story. It had so much potential to be a really hot and juicy read had we had more time to develop characters and get deeper into the Dom/Sub relationship between the two.

First off, the setting of Club X and the concept of the submissive auction is very promising. One of my favorite things about the book was the world building of Club X and establishing the rules. There was so much more of the club that I wanted to see.

The concept of the private rooms should have been utilized more as well as the erotic shows they breifly mention.

Again the concept of an auction where submissives are bid for by single doms has so much potential, and unfortunately it's only in the first quarter of the book. I really wished we got to see more of Club X, but perhaps my need will be sated within other books in the series.

Now more specifically about the main characters and their story. It feels incredibly rushed. I knew it would be when I saw how many pages this book contained and when I realized it was a standalone book. If you're looking for something hot and fast to read and you don't mind the very entry-level BDSM sex all throughout then you might devour this. I feel as though we barely scratched the surface on the dom and sub dynamic between the main characters and that their sex wasn't as heavily descriptive as I would have liked. The sex they have is very one note and repetitive. Really the only aspect of their sex life that is dom/sub is how Lucian speaks to her during their bedroom scenes. The sex itself is very entry level in terms of BDSM/kink. That's fine, but as someone that's looking for an incredibly kinky, morally gray spicy romance, I was left still hungry.

A major plot point is the FMC fighting her demons through this dom/sub arrangement. SO if mentions of sexual abuse by a relative is not your thing, then maybe skip this one. It doesn't go into explicit detail, but it is mentioned a lot. She literally can't get off unless their sex is CNC, so a lot of the story is spent catering to her trauma. If that sounds appealing to you, then great, but I was hoping for BDSM and spice that had less barriers.

I think Lucian is a very intriguing and sexy character, but where he lost me was the transition from only seeing Dahlia as a sub to seeing her as a lover. It felt rushed. The second thing that lost me was

when Lucian has Dahlia's predator uncle murdered. The book up until this point was not super dark and morally gray like a Haunting Adeline type of story. It was very light in terms of a kinky strangers to lovers spicy novel. This addition to the plot felt very out of place, and the fact that Dahlia took about one hour to forgive him and move on was nuts.

besides all that, his role as a dominant love interest was still very hot and I personally enjoyed his chapters much more than Dahlia's. Quite frankly, I wish the whole book was his POV.

As for Dahlia, I did not care for her at all. Without Lucian and the world building, I would have gave up on this story. She toes the line of "adorkable" and her only personality traits really are awkward and

abused

. Her dialogue is very predictable and her naiive persona becomes boring after awhile.

Overall, Bought has a very strong set up and is still a fun read even if it didn't meet all of my expectations for a spicy BDSM romance. It is definitely a fast burn. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a spicy strangers to lovers novel with BDSM themes that isn't too heavy and is more entry-level.

Content Warnings