Stripped Bare

Rebecca
Moon
Genre: 
New Adult

Sally spends two years licking her wounds after her live-in boyfriend wanders to greener pastures. Through a mutual friend she meets Damien, a high school buddy whose time in the Navy has produced success and a hard-earned physique. It’s heavy breathing at first sight, but a misunderstanding finds Sally back-peddling into the arms of Nick, a guy just passing by one rainy night. Both men assist in the resurrection of Sally’s confidence, but she can only keep one.

“Stripped Bare” is for readers who like the sizzle turned up high in their romance novels.  The arc is not complex - girl gets dumped and is consumed by depression. Girl meets old friend. Old friend wants in her pants. Every other scene is sex. Guy neglects to mention he’s only separated, and girl misinterprets a communication between guy and his ex-wife. Girl dumps guy, and meets another guy. More sex with new guy. Girl recognizes her mistake, dumps second guy and jumps back into bed with first guy. 

The writing in “Stripped Bare” contains novice mistakes. Several unexpected and incorrectly placed POV shifts throw a reader off the story. Dialogue is very rough. Too much time is spent attempting to garner reader’s empathy as to why Sally allowed her ex to break her confidence. Damien has extremely rough sex with an old flame when he’s separated from Sally. This tarnishes the hero’s image, no matter what the reason. 

Ms. Moon writes the reality of contemporary relationships. Love often hides under the sheepskin of sex and passion. Sally and Damien’s story is far from roses, but in the end there is forgiveness and forever.   

Warning: Content includes coarse language.

Sloane Austen