Nose Graze — Young Adult book review
Real is a conflicting book for me. Overall, Real has very little substance to it other than "Oh my god, he's so hot. Oh my god, I'm so wet." It's the kind of book you read when you want pure, raw sex... and that's about it.
His lips curl and he meets my gaze. "Brooke Dumas." He just fucked my name right in front of me.
—Page 14
The first half of the book was like one big, giant sexual tease. There's not a lot of action, but there are plenty of descriptions of hard, solid, sweaty muscles. Oh, and don't forget clenching sex organs. At first I was enjoying the tease, but it got really old after a while. Anytime Remington was fighting, we got descriptions of his muscles and how they looked when his body moved. Then we'd get Brooke monologuing about how her sex organs were clenching and her panties were soaked. Every. Single. Time.
My sex muscles clench.
—Page 62
and my sex organs throb so fiercely.
—Page 69 (lol)
However, once the tease was over and they finally had sex (at about 50%), I kind of felt like I was satisfied and almost 'done' with the book. It's like the author drew it out for so long that it felt like that's what the book was aiming towards. And when we got there, I was like, "Okay, that was great. Now we can go home." I mean, don't get me wrong, the sex was freaking HOT, I just felt like there was very little left tying me to the book once I got my fix.
As for Brooke and Remington's relationship, it had pros and cons. On the one hand, Remington could be super sweet. He's pure, hot, alpha male, but he had a really sensitive side to him. I love the way he fought for Brooke and did so many selfless things to try to make her happy. But on the other hand, Remington said like 3 words for 70% of the book; I felt like I didn't know him at all, and Brooke didn't even know him at all... And yet, she was "so in love with him". Remington spends most of his time grunting, groaning, punching, and licking. Now, once we got to the end of the book, Remington had this huge like 2 page monologue that I thought was AWESOME. I was like, "Where has this guy been for the whole book?" He basically gave us a recap of his thoughts through the entire story. I really liked what he had to say and I enjoyed hearing from him, but I kind of felt like it was too late. It would have been perfect if those words and thoughts were intertwined throughout the story, but it was just all mushed together at the end.
Speaking of licking, by the way, there are a couple really strange sexual scenes in here that didn't do it for me. First, Remington is a LICKER. As in, Brooke constantly refers to him as a lion.
He scents the back of my ear. Then I feel his hand, scraping down my hair, softly petting me. His tongue follows, lightly lapping the place on my neck he bit in the shower. He drags it along the curve of my shoulders, my ear, awakening every inch of my skin.
I feel like he's a lazy lion, bathing me with his tongue, licking and nuzzling me.
—Page 186
He slowly, wetly, licks my jaw. My chin. And then... my lips.
Now I don't know what this is supposed to mean, but I'm literally imagining him tongue out licking her up and down. Her chin and jaw are probably wetter than the panty region.
Then, secondly, there's this extremely odd scene where she like humps his leg and orgasms. By humping his leg. Yes.
"You have no right to me," I say in a breathless anger.
His hand clenches. "You gave me the rights when you came on my thigh."
—Page 139
I obviously had several problems with this book, and not everything clicked with me, but I honestly enjoyed Real too. I read it really quickly, and other than the 50% post-sex-lull, I was entertained. The drama and plot do get amped up a bit at the end, even if it's not all completely realistic. It turns out that Brooke's sister is a crazy cocaine addict and is Remington's enemy's groupie. She's cold, emotionless, and kind of bitchy. But at the very end, Remington gets her back for Brooke, sticks her in rehab for like a month, and she comes out completely squeaky clean, as if she's her old, pure, naïve self. No longer interested in cocaine, suddenly all happy and cheery and delighted to see Brooke. She did a complete 180. If you're looking for something that's pure, raw sex, then I do recommend you give Real a try. If nothing else, it will satisfy that urge. It doesn't have a lot of substance plot or relationship-wise, but it is an entertaining enough book that it's worth reading if you're in the right mood.