“Boundaries”
If you like minimal and not particularly graphic sex scenes, lots of sexual tension, third person perspective from both the female and male love interests, and perpetually dickish male love interests (think Christian Grey sans the “BDSM”), Boundaries is for you. Fair warning, rants and spoilers ahead.
First, let’s talk about the good. Iova clearly knows how the wrangle the English language. The writing is clean, the formatting is easy to read. All around it looks ten times better than anything I could ever manage. I also love sexual tension. Sexual tension is my bread and butter; I will eat that up all day every day and Boundaries has quite a bit of it. The only thing I love more than sexual tension is a romance told from a perspective that includes the male love interest. This also has that. Unfortunately, the love interest in this case is Landon Godchild.
I hate Landon Godchild.
If you cannot feel my loathing of him through your computer screen, there’s something wrong with your computer. (Don’t worry if you’re on mobile, though. My wrath isn’t iOS or Android compatible yet.) I’m pretty sure Boundaries got its name from all the boundaries Landon (our main douche) likes to cross. If you’re looking for prime examples of males dismissing females, sexual harassment in the work place, guys not giving a shit if they end a woman’s career or threaten her reputation, and social support systems utterly failing women, grab a couple highlighters and dig in. Landon is full of white male privilege and over all manages to be just this master amalgamation of every characteristic in guys that I personally avoid like the plague. He is the avatar of everything I loath in a man.
Landon is the sort of entitled, oblivious bro that, when rejected, decides a “romantic” meal in the office is in order. But, as you can tell by the quotation marks, instead of doing something small and sincere that might speak towards his consideration for Gabriela (our poor sacrifice to the frat gods), he uses his power as her boss to clear out the entire office (not thinking for a minute what sort of harm that could do her in the work place), set up a meal complete with crystal glasses for a “romantic” drink and fire hazardy candles to light her way from entrance to table. Several things that might be worth noting here. Firstly, Gabriela has already told him she won’t be going out with him. The fact that she didn’t say anything about dining inside with him is not the god damn point, Landon. Unless you’re playing with magic or legal contracts, verbal loopholes aren’t actually a thing. Secondly, Gabriela has to struggle with a heavy box all the way to the office all alone, with no one to help her. Landon doesn’t even get the door for her, she has to get that with her elbow then trips and spills her box into some sort of black hole as it neither catches fire on on the candles nor does Gabriela see fit to tend to it after it’s hit the ground. And, finally, they’re both still on the clock so why the hell are there wine glasses involved with this meal?
Which brings us to the prostitution portion of the program. Because as soon as Gabriela tries, once again, to back out of this hellishly awkward and unsolicited office romance that could legitimately destroy her future in her dream field of work, Landon interrupts her with “Sure you can. You are on the clock. I’m paying you.” He’s paying her for a romantic dinner. Now, on its own, that line is just extremely insulting and has all the red flags associated with brushing up your resume, getting in contact with HR about sexual harassment policies, and hunting down a new job. However, when pared with this little gem a few minutes later:
“Gaby, I’ll be honest. I can’t get you out of my head,” his voice became husky. “I know you’re not looking for a relationship, I get that. Don’t think I am either, but you are driving me insane. How about this? I’ll pay you one hundred thousand dollars to sleep with me one more time. No strings attached.”
You start to realize Landon seems to be confusing “potential romantic suitor” with “expensive prostitute.” Is there a rich guy equivalent to Craig’s List we can hook this dude up with? Clearly the general female population shouldn’t be forced to deal with this. Also, way to shift blame for your own lust and lack of self control onto a woman who has literally no control over this situation. If i can train my dog not to hump the couch, you should be able to train your dick to stay in your pants.
Also, pro tip, once you offer to pay a co-worker (or anyone, really) for sex, do not immediately follow them to the bar. Because he does. And that is stupid.
Not only does she end up apologizing for calling him a pig after he apologizes for “hurting her feelings” and not, you know, for committing an actual crime. (You’re both god damn lawyers, how do you not know solicitation is illegal?) But he also gets invited over to her house to help unpack her things. Because. You know. There might be heavy boxes. And that’s totally worth inviting a disrespectful ass into your home (alone) for.
I am actually pretty pissed that his just following her around being an ass worked so well because next thing you know, bam, they’re going out. Where the hell are Gabriela’s friends? Where are the people in her life going “hey! That dude clearly has no boundaries and loads of entitlement issues. Wtf are you doing giving him your address to help you unpack minutes after he’s twice solicited you for paid sex!” Where are these people? Gabriela very clearly needs these people blowing up her phone because even though she gets all pissy with Landon and halfway railroads him on a few things, she always caves when he makes half a point.
“There will be heavy boxes.”
“K, here’s my new address.”
No. Just no. Hell, with a boss like Landon, I’d invest in a freaking P.O.Box to get all my work mail at. No reason my home address should be on anything that dude might find. I mean, her career is very much on the line, whether anyone seems to fully realize that or not. Everyone at her job thinks she’s sleeping her way to the top and he’s only making things worse. Not to mention, while she’s pointing out that everyone is talking shit about her, he’s dismissing the matter entirely. I mean, it’s a great example of real world sexism and “don’t you worry your pretty little head about it” mansplaining or whatever, but this is not the sort of thing I want perpetuated. I don’t want Landon to be the good guy love interest that “gets the girl” in the end. I want him to be the asshole that gets his just desserts in the form of a knuckle sandwich and/or lawsuit.
The whole dynamic between Landon and Gaby seems pretty unhealthy. Landon shows up hungover on her doorstep out of the blue and, for obvious reasons is looking a bit confused. Landon takes her confused expression as not only a clear sign that she still cares but also finds her confusion sexy as hell. As a rule, it’s not Gaby’s intelligence in and out of the courtroom he finds sexy, it’s usually her skin, her perfume, and–apparently–confusion that get his blood pumping. Then there’s Gaby’s brief interlude with Mark, a man she hires to make Landon jealous. Landon not only pretty quickly knows where they are and that she’s with someone, but also decides, to hell with my woman’s own decision making, I’m coming to get her and take her away from this other person she’s chosen to spend her time with. That’s usually the sort of behavior that leads to restraining orders and/or mass shootings.
Not to mention that time she kicks him in the balls (in. the. balls.), beats the shit out of a car with a shovel, and all he has to say is “Feeling better” and “You are the hottest thing I’ve ever seen when you’re all fired up.” One, way to completely dismiss her anger. Two, you have enough time to say this but not to give that explanation you were just pleading to give her? Three, I have actually accidentally kneed a dude in the balls once (I am forever sorry, bro), and he was not in the mind to be making quipy remarks. He was mostly just trying to remember how breathing worked so I can’t imagine what sort of pain would come with a furious and well aimed kick the the junk.
Over all, I just could not get past my absolute hate of Landon. I’m sure there were some fun side characters and there were probably some beautiful moments in there but Landon found the control panel for my anger and spent 300 pages just flipping switches.
Breakdown
Pros:
Solid writing style. Iova has found her voice and it’s very consistent.
Lots of sexual tension
The sex is pretty PG, all the gory details pretty well glossed over with the phrase “made love.” It’s more than a fade to black but hell of a lot less than a Carabella novel.
Third person from two main perspectives. (Namely, the main love interests, Gabriela and Landon.)
Cons:
Landon.
I can’t put my finger on it but the way “domestic” is brought up through the book really bothers me.
The sex is pretty PG, all the gory details pretty well glossed over with the phrase “made love.” It’s more than a fade to black but hell of a lot less than a Carabella novel.
There are no gaps between drama points. (I.e., Landon shows up at her place looking like hell, they have a small conversation, she tells him to go, he leaves without a word, next page she’s rushing out to Landon’s place to discover him with some other woman—not like having sex with or kissing, just a woman being in his general area at his house making him laugh. Because clearly a well connected lawyer wouldn’t have a huge range of friends and associates.) There’s no room to savor the injustices or drama. It leave the dramatic moments feeling rather unsatisfying and very rushed.
The dialogue is hard to follow at times.
Deus ex machina amnesia.
Woman being bullied into relationship with a guy because of pregnancy. (I’ve dealt with enough domestic abuse to know that you’re usually better off with no dad than a shitty one.)
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this work for an honest review.
