Title:
Sexting
Author: G.B Hope
Publication Date: November 1. 2013
Source: NetGalley
Summary (from Goodreads):
Warning: Graphic sexual content.
English
writer, Michael Lincoln, embarks on an internet relationship with a
younger fan, Elise McHugh, who comes from Singapore.
Despite her
innate shyness, and his concerns over the age gap, things quickly hot
up, becoming raunchy and intense. But there is also a touching, soul
mate bond there between them, as they follow each other’s successes and
troubles in their real lives.
Elise, nineteen years old, is an
absolute darling: petite, black-haired, black-eyed, very cheeky, and,
despite being the daughter of a wealthy property developer, she is
genuine, sweet and principled – a well brought-up girl in strict
Singapore.
Michael, thirty-seven, is recently divorced, trying to
keep up contact with his daughter, while working at selling his crime
novels. He instantly adores Elise, but struggles to justify the eighteen
years and 9,000 miles between them. He finds her to be great company,
using his love of words to fulfil her wish to be brought out of her
shell. Soon they are enjoying conversation, cheeky banter, sex stories
and eventually, frantic, explicit sexting.
At the same time they
both explore relationships where they live, while trying to get to a
place where they can see about possibly getting together.
Will they ever find time to meet up in the real world?
This one was almost a
DNF for me. I gave up multiple times but, even though I didn’t enjoy the book,
there was something that always pulled me back. It kind of felt like sleeping
with someone you didn’t like. You have no idea why you’re doing it because you
know you’ll regret it in the morning but you don’t really care in that moment.
That’s what this book was. A book I didn’t even like but one I couldn’t stop
reading.
Sexting is a big thing
with a lot of couples—and non-couples. And it’s never really been the center
topic in a novel before. I was intrigued. My curiosity once again got the best
of me and in the end I felt like I needed a shower to wash off all the
creepiness of this book. Let me make it clear, I knew that I was getting a book
that featured sexual content blah blah blah. I like those kinds of books. I enjoy
those kinds of books. This, while it had sexual content in (although it really
wasn’t as graphic as most erotica that I’ve read), was not one of those books I
enjoy. I feel this had so much potential but it was completely wasted.
While I didn’t like
the book I do feel like the emotions and the personalities of the characters
are actually very honest and real. The confusion, the anger, the guilt that’s
inside these characters and their actions are very believable.
First, let’s talk
about Michael. Michael’s a creep—one of those very typical internet “player”
creeps. The way he interacts with his female Goodreads friends is very much
like most men interact with women on dating sites or chat rooms or whatever
where they’re really not looking for
anything meaningful just someone who will get them off. The flirting, the
inappropriate sexual comments, playing with their emotions, etc. is exactly
what this guy did. He pissed me off to no end, like all men who act like him
do—which is why I say his character is very real and believable.
There’s a part in the
book where he’s having a conversation with Elise about being a virgin and
orgasms and later he thinks to himself that he won’t talk to her about orgasms
anymore since it seems inappropriate. But two seconds later he’s thinking of
asking for a nude pic of her. So orgasm talk is off the table but show me your
goods?
And this girl, Elise,
is either really naïve or just totally stupid. After a few messages back and
forth with some guy who then asks for nude pics of her and she’s totally all
for it because he wants it “artsy”?? WTF?! I know there are girls out there
like this and seriously I just want to punch them in the face to knock some
sense into them. To Elise’s credit she didn’t actually send full nudes—until
later that is. And then she only sent one because Michael got pissed at her,
deleted and blocked her as a friend and she wanted to get him back. This again,
to me, seemed like a very real action for a young girl who thinks she might be
in love with someone she’s never met. She missed him, wanted to desperately
please him and crossed a line she wasn’t really comfortable with just to get
his attention again.
Irene is another one
of his email pals, but this one rarely messaged him and then only did to ask
for money. Michael of course sees this as an opportunity to expose the girl to
get a cheap thrill. I actually found the whole money asking thing believable
because I have had people on GR message me asking if I could “donate” to their
education, but I had an issue with Michael’s response. At first he was thinking
of it as an act of charity and then a split second later it was a “pay for
play” kind of thing. I’m not even sure many people would have even replied with
a “quote a figure” response to someone who they have messaged with twice,but then
this guy seems to fancy himself a player. After getting an erotic pic from her,
Michael than tells her she doesn’t have to do it again and their communication
basically ends there.
While Elise was his main GR virtual hump
buddy, he was also friends with Cindy. Their friendship was actually the most
normal and their conversations generally were about their day to day lives—even
though communication was sometimes blurred because of Cindy’s poor English.
Another thing that
annoyed me was the story had too many characters that didn’t really need to be
there. It was like they were thrown in just to lengthen the book, there was no
point to them at all. Rimski, all the Garrands and even the Prince of Darkness
weren’t really characters that benefited the book in any way. I skimmed over
their parts for the majority of the book for that exact reason. If you’re going
to have characters in the book at least have them in there for a purpose. Of
course people could argue their purpose proved in the end, but really, that
could have happened with any random Joe.
The ending was
something of a surprise. It takes place two years later and Michael is actually
in a real relationship with someone and settled. But it’s like it’s just
suddenly thrown at you with no explanation of how it happened or why Michael
chose the person he did to be with. I would have liked to have read how that
came together, and since Elise was such a major character in this story, what
happened to her as well. We do get some hint as to where she ended up and it
almost leaves an opening for a squeal to this, but I just felt like there could
have been more of an explanation of things.
I’m not entirely sure how to rate this one.
Like I said, I didn’t really like it but I did feel like there were parts of it
that very honestly described real life…..
