Unmoved

The Unbroken trilogy is composed of three novellas about a group of young adult friends living in a small town in Texas. Each story is a very quick read that will probably take no longer than 2 hours for the average reader, and they’re very simple HEA (happily ever after) erotic romances that prominently feature insta-love and plenty of sex.

Overhead is the story of how Luke overhears his good friend Gracie complaining to another mutual friend at a get-together that her boyfriend didn’t satisfy her in bed, so she had broken up with him earlier in the morning. Luke, who never felt like any of Gracie’s boyfriends were ever good enough for her, decides he wants to take advantage of the opportunity to take his relationship with Gracie to the next level, starting by giving her what she wants in bed.

Undenied is about Payton and Wes, who had an awkward sexual encounter back as teens. Payton never stopped being attracted to Wes, who for his part is weirdly traumatized by the belief that he gave Payton some unforgivably awful sex (spoiler alert — she doesn’t think of it that way.) On a mission to get Wes over his damage and give it another go, Payton begins a decidedly non-subtle seduction.

The content of these stories is exactly as advertised. The love scenes are pretty steamy and well-done, but the overall writing of both novellas was a bit pedestrian. Maya Banks has a lot of fans, so I’m curious to read one of her full-length books to see what she does when she has the opportunity to develop her characters better and make the relationship between them more genuine, as opposed to “NOW KISS!” These novellas aren’t bad, but they aren’t especially memorable. If I had to pick between the two, I’d suggest Overheard — the love scenes pushed the envelope a little bit more. Otherwise, it’s like I said in the title of this post: at the end of the day, I’m unmoved.