Audiobook reviews: new fiction by Sylvia Day, Catherine Lowell and Camilla Lackberg
The latest chapter in the Crossfire erotica series, a debut novel inspired by Jane Eyre and a psychological crime thriller are this week’s selections
by Sylvia Day (read by Jill Redfield and Jeremy York)
Brilliant Audio (audiobook)
3 stars
It’s been a little while since I’ve dipped into Sylvia Day, though plunge and thrust is more Ms Day’s speed. For people new to Day, she raised her bestselling head at roughly the same time that E.L. James bashed the hell out of poor Anastasia Steele. In fact, Day had been writing erotica for some time before Christian Grey mixed spanking monkey business with pleasure. One with You is her 17th novel: previous title, Pride and Pleasure, would surely have Jane Austen doing something besides turning in her grave. This new Day is the fifth part of her Crossfire series, in which for mysterious reasons Eva Tramell (hints of Basic Instinct) is again drawn to handsome billionaire Gideon Cross. The couple, sometimes called Gideva, share tormented childhoods and torrid, if heavily branded presents which have now lasted longer than beauty-beast Gideon in full throttle. The fun is hearing Jill Redfield read lines like “A low sound of hunger left me. I yearned for and craved him, shivering with delight that he was once again pressed against me” without sniggering. Yearned for and craved? And did you hear tummy rumbles with that ‘low sound of hunger’? Still, it’s all good, dirty fun, and you can’t say that about E.L. James these days.
by Catherine Lowell (read by Caitlin Thorburn)