I generally have no trouble suspending my disbelief even with this author's totally over the top stuff. I like most of her other books. It does have the same style and OTT sex that you'd expect. But this one went well beyond the realm of reality to an extent that I just. Could. Not. (Even though I ended up finishing it.) Just know that my issues with this book are that it touches on police action and state violence, without acknowledging or respecting that fact. That may be enough to warn off those who are more sensitive to these things.
------------Spoilers for some ~high drama moments~ and general reality vs. fiction stuff below (and kind of an SJW rant)... ----------
I willingly bought into the completely ridiculous political shenanigans! Up until the point where the NYPD and NY State Troopers have literally drawn their guns on each other because... their orders conflict? I don't know, maybe my anti-cop bias is too heavy, but something about law enforcement ever not backing each other up, even on bullshit orders, just totally brought me out of the story.
Actually, I think there's a general way in which the reality of how the American legal system works and the ways in which our law enforcement chooses to act, and the politics game overall, are just given lip service? I'm not expecting any nuanced analysis or anything! But there are just throw away references to certain charges, or police actions, or political machinations that don't make sense (e.g. "sex trafficking" is not a charge you would make against a sex worker!). It makes me feel like, if I'm being generous, the author didn't care enough to find out even very roughly how these things work, or what the terms meant that she chose to include. To be less generous, though, I felt disrespected as a reader--like the author thought we either wouldn't notice these glaringly impossible things, or wouldn't know well enough to realize how off it all was.
Another standoff that happened later on was even worse. This time it was the National Guard vs. the NYPD. The Guard is, for some reason, carrying out the Governor's aggressive orders in NYC? And they're doing so without question, even though they're being told to draw their weapons, and presumably will be asked to open fire shortly, on a group of NYC police officers and a couple unarmed, unprotected civilians... But wait! Then they hear a recording that makes them realize said Governor may have a *personal* motivation, rather than a legitimate "greater good" reason, for having them gun down a bunch of their fellow citizens--quelle surprise! It's at this point that they all fall back and disobey her orders. Sure, I mean, soldiers are generally trained to use their critical thinking skills to question orders from superiors, right? But only based on weird gimmicks, not their own common sense/moral compasses?
I wish I could write a detailed, logical response about why this is so offensive, but I can't. I just... Look. Police violence and military action are way too heavy and way too serious issues in this country to be in this kind of book, and it feels really disrespectful to include it for action/excitement, without any acknowledgement of how fucked up it all is. IDK y'all. It's just *a lot* in what should be pretty straightforward fun smut.