Review: Anything He Wants (Dominated by the Billionaire #1-5)

Title: Anything He Wants (Dominated by the Billionaire #1-5)
Author: Sara Fawkes
Publication Date: November 27, 2012
Source: NetGalley
Summary (from Goodreads):

First published as a five-part e serial novel, Anything He Wants inflamed imaginations everywhere and became a national bestseller.  Now available for the first time ever as a complete book, this edition contains never-before-released scenes and special bonus material. Don’t miss this erotic tale of  a powerful billionaire who always gets what he wants and the young woman who’s about to enter his exclusive realm--a world of glittering opulence and all-consuming passion, where she’ll explore the darkest reaches of her own desire.

Lucy Delacourt's temp position isn't quite her dream job but it pays the bills. The highlight of her day is riding the elevator in the mornings with a handsome stranger. Tall, dark, and sexy as hell, Lucy knows he's way out of her league, but a girl can look, right?

Everything changes the day the stranger seduces her. Completely out of character, she yields without a fight, but she has no idea her wanton acts with a man whose name she doesn't know will change her life forever. Because the sexy stranger is none other than Jeremiah Hamilton, billionaire CEO of Hamilton Industries, and one taste isn't nearly enough to satisfy his need.  As the billionaire pulls Lucy deeper into his world of high stakes business deals and ruthless takeovers, he demands nothing less than her complete surrender.  But even as enemies seek deadly revenge against him, she’ll discover that her greatest threat is falling for her fiercely guarded boss…and yielding to her own darkest needs.

I requested this book so I really only have myself to blame, I suppose. The summary sounded good, although a little too much like Shades and that itself should have warned me to stay away. But I didn’t; I was desperate for some erotica. I think I could have liked this book until I read this line…

“His casual dismissal annoyed me.”

….and saw red. She’s trying to fight off this guy’s advances and the author refers to it as a “casual dismissal” when he ignores her and continues to do whatever the hell he wants to her?

Um, this isn’t like an idea being brushed off by your boss. This isn’t your boyfriend shrugging off the comment that you’re pissed at him. This isn’t your mother telling you you’re just being overly sensitive when she comments on your slight weight gain. All of those would be “casual dismissal” of your feelings or thoughts.

 This is a woman fighting a guy off who wants to have sex with her. Just because she was too shell shocked in an elevator and went along with his feel up doesn’t give him the right to attack her in a parking garage and ignore her attempts at fighting him off. I don’t care if she wasn’t afraid or angry, she told him to let her go. This isn’t some role playing act between lovers; this was a second attack by a guy she only knows by riding an elevator. That is called rape—not a “casual dismissal”.

“I would never take a woman who doesn’t want me.” What the fuck did he think he was doing?! She’s struggling to get away, even if she suddenly finds herself turned on, and he won’t let her go! She hasn’t said yes, yet he’s feeling her up all the while telling her he would never take a woman who didn’t want him?

Hey, I’m all for sexy reluctance play; it’s sometimes hot to be coaxed into giving it up—by my husband. Not some random creep off an elevator. This was not sexy. This was…degrading. Disturbing. Sickening.

But then he says the “magic words” and suddenly she’s into, so I guess that makes it all okay, right? Fuck. That.

Keep in mind however, by the end of book one she does sell her body and soul and becomes a glorified whore personal assistant. Sure, whatever. She’s been living with a friend for too long, she has student loans to pay off, blah, blah, blah. Call it whatever you want, the only personal assistance she was going to be giving was to her boss’s dick.

That’s as far as I got and I couldn’t put my poor brain through anymore—the twenty minutes it took to read those first 60 pages was painful enough. I didn’t like the original 50 Shades; I can’t torture myself to read another billionaire taking a sudden interest in yet another plain, boring doe eyed woman. Make these women worth something! Make them work for it! Make them have at least one redeeming quality to make a man want them. I’m sick of reading the same alpha male hero seducing the same innocent, meek female lead.

I read some of the other reviews for this book and think maybe I gave up too soon. But the truth is, even with my rage aside from that rape sex scene, if I had been reading this as separate books like it had been originally written I would never have picked up the second part, therefore this is a did not finish for me.