Sarah

Maybe Megumi and Michael eloped when she said "goodbye" and called his bluff at lunch that day!

Ooooh, I don't know if I believe that, but I like it.

My guess is that Lacey really is/has been out of town, and Megumi is at home (digusing her voice to sound sick when she calls work) hiding a black eye given to her by Michael, who did not take her rejection well.  Another possibility is that her voice sounds so awful because she's got a broken jaw.   

I might be in the minority, here, but I love that we don't get to see inside Gideon's head.  So many times I'm reading along, thinking, "OK, this is terrible, there's no excuse for this," and then we later find out what Gideon was really doing/thinking/feeling (because he tells Eva part or all of it) and - click - it makes sense.  I also love the way both characters' perceptions and actions are colored by their insecurities.  The places we see Eva being an unreliable narrator are clever and well done.  IMO, these bits are what makes it so much fun to reread the Crossfire books.  A lot of authors attempt it [unreliable narrators, misunderstandings] but Day does it so very well!  I find myself nodding along rather than being frustrated.

I just bought Gone Girl (Gillian Flynn) and the latest Anita Blake, Vampire Slayer novel (Affliction, Laurel K. Hamilton) for next week's vacation.  I'll probably be seeking wifi mid-route for additional downloads!

 

I don't read any genre exclusively, but I do enjoy dipping into erotic romance occasionally. 

 

For those of you who are romance fans, a friend of mine recently published her second Harlequin Special Edition and I enjoyed it (though I would have preferred a slightly different ending).  Her name is Amanda Berry, and her two (unrelated) novels are L.A. Cinderella (great fun) and Father by Choice.  The thing I liked best about Father by Choice is that while the heroine knows exactly how she feels about the hero, he doesn't see her the same way at first.  The way he comes around to admitting to himself how he feels about her felt unusual and realistic to me.

 

For paranormal romance fans, a woman in one of my writing groups, Angie Fox, writes the popular Accidental Demon Slayer books and they're fast-paced fun.  A new title (My Big Fat Demon Slayer Wedding) just published.  The books are about a preschool teacher who suddenly starts seeing demons and learns that her grandmother is part of a gang of biker witches (kiss my asphalt!).  Funny. 

 

I really enjoyed Fifty Shades (despite its literary flaws, there's a good story there, IMO) and the Crossfire books are my first experiences with Sylvia Day.  Obviously, I love them!  Thanks for all the great suggestions; I'll be working my way through some of your reading lists!

Nathalia,

 

I posed this question a while ago and thought I would re-pose it now.

 

-Where was Eva born and raised? For some reason I always thought it was NY however she talks about being in NY and it being her adopted home. So if she was not born and raised in NY I would assume it would be CA, which is where her parents met. Although she doesn't talk much about her childhood it is made to sound like Victor was not around often and I am assuming it they lived in CA then she would have had a closer relationship with her Dad, including but not limited to when Nathan was raping her. So the question again is where was she raised and will we ever learn more about her childhood and relationships with her parents in her formative years?

 

Victor, after finding out about what Nathan did to Eva, in EWY even talks about how he should have fought harder to keep Eva with him.  Again which makes us think that she was not in CA.

 

I have no idea where Eva grew up, but I think the hints in the text are that it was not New York City or California.  Eva talks about her love affair with NYC, how everyone walking around the city is used to it but it's all new to her and she's infatuated, etc.  And then the quote from Victor about how he noticed something was wrong when she moved to California.  The only other hint I noticed was that when Gideon and Eva went to North Carolina, I think she said something about her mother's second husband (the gambler) having a place on a lake so she has fond memories of beaches.  Since it was on a lake I'll go out on a limb and guess it was not especially near either coast (maybe one of the Great Lakes?).  That still leaves a lot of the country!  I wouldn't be surprised if each of Monica's husbands lived in a different city.

It sounds like book 4 will be released before the end of the year, though.  Hopefully!

My husband has an Audible subscription and gets the one free book per month deal.  He listens to books while he's mowing the lawn and in the car when he's driving from office to office at work (he directs a sattelite office but has frequent meetings at corporate headquarters with senior execs).  He finished his last book over the weekend and I downloaded Bared to You onto his phone this week.  He obligingly started it yesterday and got up to Eva's lunch with Stanton . . .

 

which means that on his way to corp for a meeting today, he'll be listening to the scene of Eva and Gideon "negotiating" in his office . . . and on his couch . . . until Scott interrupts.

 

This should be interesting.

 Hi Sarah,

I read your posting and I just have to say Tom Cruise is an odd little fellow.

 

All joking aside, you point is valid. When someone in Hollywood sets their mind on an actor for a specific role, they make the adjustments necessary to make that actor fulfill the role. 

Agreed on both counts!

 

(Now that I'm looking at actors' height, I'm finding other surprises.  Scott Caan and Daniel Radcliff are only 5'5"! Prince is 5'2"! Seth Green is 5'4".  None of these is as surprising to me - well, maybe Scott Caan - as the big action movie heros who are surprisingly short, like Tom Cruise, Robert Downey, Jr., and Sylvester Stallone.  Daniel Craig is 5'10", which is not short, but he doesn't really fit the "tall, dark, and handsome" Bond stereotype, either. I was surprised at how much I like him as Bond.)

 

OK, I'm done diverting this thread!

Hi Sarah,

I was thinking about your suggestion of R.P. and I don't think that he actually has the physical stature to play either of these roles.  I think that both of these characters are either 6'2' or 6'4' and RP isn't that tall.  He also isn't physically muscular either.  I am not sure if he could build a good forty pounds of muscle.  How do you think RP might overcome his physical limitations and make the viewer believe that he is either character?  Any ideas?  What do you think? 

Gigi,

 

Again, I don't see Pattinson as either Gideon or Christian.  My point was that it's logical to imagine Pattinson as Grey because Pattinson played Edward Cullen and Christian Grey is based on Stephenie Meyers's description of Edward Cullen.

 

One reason I'm not a Hollywood casting agent (hah!) is because I have a hard time seeing past the way actors look in order to see how they *could* look. 

 

But I don't think Pattinson as Grey is such a huge stretch, even though he's not how *I* imagine that character.  FWIW, Pattinson is 6'1" tall and fairly ripped.  He's got something closer to an 8-pack than a 6-pack, and Grey is not described as being bulky, just strong and fit.  But height doesn't really matter so much in movies.  After all, Tom Cruise and Robert Downey, Jr. are only 5'7" tall, and they're far from the only shorter male movie stars.  They frequently play taller men and are even shown in romantic roles with taller women.  They wear lifts in their shoes, stand on boxes, or are just shot in such a way that they appear taller than they are.  If you watch Iron Man 3 you'll see that Gwyneth Paltrow/Pepper Potts is almost always barefoot when she's next to RDJ/Tony Stark.  (Conversely, Thorin Oakenshield, a dwarf far shorter than elves, humans, and wizards in the movie The Hobbit, is played by Richard Armitage, who is 6'2".  Hollywood can work its magic where necessary!)

Gigi, fan fiction is stories written by fans.  For example, a lot of people loved Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Some of them wanted to "see" more than Joss Wedon showed in the episodes, so they wrote their own stories with the Buffy characters.  Maybe someone wanted to give Buffy and Angel a happily ever after, or show what might have happened if Buffy faced off against a character from another book/show, or whatever.  So fans write stories about characters they like and post them online.  Authors have varying responses to this.  Some are flattered, but many are NOT.  Many authors feel that their characters and the worlds they've built are *theirs* and not for others to capitalize on . . . especially not for sale.  Lately, fanfiction has gained more mainstream traction, not least because of E.L. James and Fifty Shades of Grey and the guy who's now publishing those Harry Potter-related books that have nothing to do with J. K. Rowling.  Crossfire fan fiction might involve, say, the sex scenes between Monica and Victor or Cary and Trey that we never see.  Or maybe a scene from Gideon's POV, or whatever else a fan wanted to imagine and write about. 

 

(Note: In case you didn't realize this, E. L. James wrote a fanfic version of Twilight in which Bella and Edward do have sex.  It got a lot of attention online, and she found a publisher willing to publish the novel after she'd rewritten it.  James rewrote her Twilight fanfic story, getting rid of the supernatural elements and creating Ana Steele from Bella Swan, Christian Grey from Edward Cullen, etc. James took references from a lot of other places in addition to Twilight.  There are names, bits of dialogue, and even scenes from The Avengers, Pretty Woman, and probably other movies/books that I missed.)

 

Rogue, I completely agree about the characters in fanfic, and how so many writers get the characters all wrong.  The thing that bothered me most about the FSOG/Crossfire fanfic novel I skimmed was how terribly wrong the writer got her version of Gideon.  What she did to him was unbearable.  She completely immasculated him and made him weak and impulsive.  All these are the opposite of Day's Gideon with his strength, focus, and intense need for control.

Thank you.  I was speedreading (skimming, skipping parts, looking for Gideon/Eva interaction) and should have stopped reading long before I did!

 

I notice there's a "Like This" button on posts in this forum.  Does that feature work, and if so, does it kick in once I've been a member for longer?  Every time I try to "like" someone's post, it tells me I've exceeded my quota for today (but I've never successfully liked any posts).

I have a fanfiction confession.  I *want* to like fanfiction, but I usually don't.  A lot of it is so poorly written, or the characters are so "off" that it just doesn't work for me.  But when I finished Entwined with You I was so desperate for more Crossfire that I sought out some fanfiction.  I stumbled upon a ff novel that was a crossover between FSOG and Crossfire.  I stayed up late reading waaaaaay too much of it.  It was well-written enough that it was almost believably part of the series . . . but the writer killed off Eva and Christian (from FSOG) and married Ana to Gideon!!!  I was so messed up by that I had to reread part of FSOG and all of Bared to You, Reflected in You, and Entwined with You to get the bad taste out of my mouth.  I don't think I'll be seeking out more fanfiction any time soon.

Thanks for replying (re: realistic work hours), Sharon, SME, and Nrock. 

 

***

 

I don't have the same distaste many of you have for Robert Pattison.  I think he's a good actor and could probably pull off the Christian Grey role.  Mostly we've seen him trying to play a high school kid (Harry Potter, Twilight) but I bet he's ready to grow into a more adult role.  Yes, he's young, but he's actually exactly the right age to play Christian Grey or Gideon.  (I don't picture him as either, especially not Gideon.)  It's hard for me to picture these characters as young as they really are.  Most successful businessmen and men I find attractive these days are somewhat older than CG and GC.

 

(I'm not a huge Twilight fan - books or movies - but I remember that Stephenie Meyer said Henry Cavill was her ideal Edward Cullen - except that he's too old. And Christian Grey in Fifty Shades was based on Meyer's description of Edward.  Pattison ended up playing Edward successfully, so it's not so crazy to think he might play Christian, as well. http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/movie_archives.html)

We danced to Boccerini's Minuet in E Major - no lyrics at all! 

I didn't exactly go into a series of novels about gorgeous, powerful, young millionaires and billionaires who have electric chemistry and sex several times a day expecting perfect realism.   

 

But I will say that the one thing that kept jumping out at me as unrealistic was GIdeon's and Eva's work schedules.  I was surprised that Eva, even as an entry-level employee, works only 9-5 with an hour for lunch plus scheduled breaks in advertising in NYC.  I've never had an office job like that!  (It's more common, IME, to get 8-5 with lunch, but most people in the offices I'm familiar with tend to work longer hours than "required.")  As for Gideon . . . my husband is a young executive and he bucks the corporate trend by being home for breakfast AND dinner every day.  He puts in plenty of hours working from home in the evenings to make that happen (we have little kids and he puts them ahead of his career at this point).  But in no job he's ever had, has 9-5 including lunch and breaks been the norm.  Eva talks about Gideon "working late" if he has a meeting until 6:00.  I'd expect his norm to be at *least* 12 hour days in the office, with work at home after that. She acknowledges that he must be taking time away from his career to be with her, and I suspect that's true in a big way!  Sharing a limo to work at 9:00 AM?  What happened to his first three hours of morning meetings?!  (To be fair, if Gideon and Eva had only 6 hours a day outside of work, to include eating, sleeping, sex, and plot development, it would be challenging to tell an exciting story within those constraints.)

Barb, that's it exactly! 

 

I too enjoy Gabaldon's Outlander series.  But I also read epic/high fantasy so the really long novels aren't an obstacle. 

Sarah,

When I first joined the forum in May, I started a thread called Books as Good as the Crossfire Series. There were only a few replies, so the thread is on the second page of the section listing the crossfire threads. You might check for what is listed. I wish I had thought to add to it when people gave a suggestion. Maybe we can start it up again. Sounds like we can definitely add Afterburn and Aftershock. In the future.

Thank you!  There have been a lot of interesting suggestions over the past several pages of this thread; I'll have to go through and copy them over sometime. 

Thank you, Barb!

Is there already a thread for Other Books?  If not, there should be!  I'll never find all the great recommendations for authors/series/books again when I'm ready to shop for new books.  This thread is fabulous, but too long to easily search through! 

Krav Maga: Eva already has used her new training . . . against Gideon!  She used some of the techniques she was taught, but the first and most useful lesson was how to react in case of attack.  The second time she found herself caught in Gideon's nightmare, she did not freeze.  She reacted quickly and effectively to remove herself from the situation.  I think her increasing skills with krav maga will give Eva greater confidence (which she needs).  And, perhaps, it will also give Gideon confidence that she can handle herself.

 

I've often worried about how Gideon can never talk to anyone (except Eva and vice versa) about Nathan.  It seems to me that he needs professional help with his "atypical sexual parasomnia," but not being able to confide in his therapist about one source of his problems could be a huge block.  A scenario that occurs to me: Graves told Eva what she suspected Gideon did to encourage them to get back together and relax their guard so that the police/prosecutors could go after Gideon.  A case against Gideon might depend heavily on Eva's testimony since there's reasonable doubt (the bracelet) and very little physical evidence (apparently).  But Eva can't be compelled to testify against her husband, which brings in the secret marriage plot point.  Bonus.  Once Gideon's been found not guilty of Nathan Barker's murder, he can't be tried for the same crime again (double jeapordy).  Perhaps then he could talk safely with his psychiatrist about Nathan without worrying about the doctor reporting his knowledge of the crime to authorities.

Sharon, thank you for the wonderful - and detailed! - reports!

 

Re: Oedipus: Corrine (Cor-INN or Cor-EEN?) is surprised when she meets Eva, because Eva doesn't look like her.  Gideon is perplexed.  He tells Eva that if he was picking women who looked like Corrine, he didn't realize it.

 

I think it's more likely he was picking women who look like his mother.  He claims he wasn't looking for love and he certainly wasn't going about his personal relationships as though he were seeking a deep, abiding, intimate connection with a woman (segregating the women he is friends with from the ones he sleeps with, not allowing women into his home, rarely having sex with his hook-ups, etc.).  I think he was protecting himself from further rejection (from women who remind him subconciously of his mother) while subconciously seeking love and affirmation from women who remind him of his mother.

 

His mother didn't love him enough (his words) and as an adult he's still trying to fill that void. 

 

I'm *very* curious to learn the backstory about what's she's done to/with his friends, though.  Gideon's parting line to his mother at the end of the garden party was fascinating.  Has she slept with his friends in the past? Gotten too close to them to try to get closer to him?  And did that prompt Gideon to draw a line in the sand: these are my friends and you're not allowed to ___ with them?

Thank you, Barb!!  (How much do I love that Gideon listens to the Indigo Girls? Very much.)

What song do Gideon and Eva dance to in "their" new apartment the night they eat lasagna?  The one that has "dark and dangerous" in the lyrics?

Going back a page or two . . . I don't think a sex tape showing "Golden" and Brett would hurt the band at all.  In fact, I think it would be great for album sales.

 

But Sam might have approached Christopher about the tape.  Christopher has the most to gain (other than Sam and money) from release of the tape.  He'd love to hurt Gideon and I'm sure he knows how jealous and possessive Gideon can be, even if he's not (known to be) with Eva at the moment.

 

I suspect Brett knows about the existence of the footage, though.  It seems a little odd that Sam would have been videotaping Brett for years - and using some of that footage to create a music video - without Brett having any knowledge of that.  Why wouldn't Brett have been suspicious that Sam somehow created a music video out of something personal that happened to Brett in private?  It must have been like watching his memories and fantasies coming to life.

 

I would hope that Brett doesn't know Sam is hoping to sell the tape.  I don't think Day has written Brett as that evil/callous . . .

Scottish brogue.  It's definitely a thing.  A lovely, lovely thing. 

 

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