Monthly Archives: November 2013

Book Review: Captured by the Billionaire (The Complete Series) by Julia Sykes

25 Monday Nov 2013

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Captured by the Billionaire

Author: Julia Sykes
Publisher: Independently Published via Kindle Direct & CreateSpace
Genre: Erotica/BDSM Romance
Rating:  2 Stars

This is the compiled version of all six installations of the series: Pursue, Captured, Teased, Bound, Tested, & Collared.

The story starts off with Mallory working as a server for Jake’s party, where we learn that he knows all the right people and has more money than any one person should ever really have. From the moment the two meet, Jake seems to want Mallory, and goes to lengths to get her to agree to go out with him. It than follows their ups and downs as he shows her the BDSM lifestyle he lives by to her ultimately agreeing to wear his collar.

The story over all would be an interesting one, except for the fact that I don’t feel that the characters are given enough time to truly develop. Everything happens so fast, and certain betrayals that should take a couple days to work through and get over ends up being worked through in a matter of hours. In that regard, it’s just a matter of pacing. I feel like if she’d lengthened the ‘books’ to be longer, worked out more of the character’s personalities and reactions to a more believable time frame, this would have been a lot better.

I also had problems with how Jake handled Mallory. Their very first time together, he bound her hands with a belt. To me, having Mallory just go with it and find it hot, this stranger she isn’t even sure she likes binding her with a belt like that, is a little too fast when she’s supposed to have been a straight vanilla before Jake entered her life. As well there are a couple scenes where he knocks her knees out from under her in order to settle her on her knees in front of him, or knock her to the ground. I know this is supposed to be a BDSM book, but personally I don’t see that as anything but manhandling her in all the wrong ways, BDSM relationship or not. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t feel like doing that to a woman shows all that much respect or care, which is supposed to be at the very heart of a relationship like this.

Over all, the premises is interesting, but the execution of it just really didn’t hit me as great. It also could have used an editor, because a couple sections were littered with spelling errors and it completely throws me off to find more than one or two.

And thus starts week two…

12 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in Personal Thoughts, Writing

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As many are aware, we’re currently in the flurries of National Novel Writing Month. Pens, keyboard, tablets. They’re all being exhausted as thousands of people across the world write vigorously to try and reach that 50,000 word goal. Or in some cases, surpass that 50,000 count goal.

And me? I’m completely caught up in the insanity. And so far, I’m doing good. Though, it is only a day or so into the second week. My over all goal is to write 2,000 words a day minimum in order to not only reach the 50,000 words this month, but hopefully surpass them and get my book as close to complete as possible.  With the goal to have my rough draft done by Christmas so that come the new year I can start to work on editing it after the Hols are over.

I have found that sometimes it’s a struggle to get my word count done depending on the kind of day I had, but I’ve been fighting harder over all to work through it and get things done. I will say, even with occasionally fighting, there’s a mighty great feeling to know that I’ve gotten my goal completed for the day and I go to bed a little more relaxed because of it.

Today I’ve taken a slight pause in time that could otherwise be spent writing to type up this and to work out the map of my fantasy land that my character will be traveling for the remainder of my novel. I wanted to have a visual that I could go back to and go okay, they should be reaching this forest soon, or this town soon.

Though, the fault lays down in naming everything, because the map starts to look barren when you only have your plot relevant locations on it. And then I have to start filing things in with forests, mountains, random towns to speckle the land.

So. On map creation. Question for the masses.
Do you meticulously plot out each location when you create your maps or do you just kind of toss things at the board and let the land kind of form itself the way it wants to?
Do you name everything you put on the map right away or do you let some towns or forests or lakes lay nameless until they are of importance or their name comes to you later?