D500

Suspect it is going to be very good indeed. I know the type of book is not everyone's choice and understand that a lot of people would not read it, nor would they see the film, but sad how many people have implied the film would be a turkey without even waiting to see reactions to it when released. Hate those who pre-judge, no problem with opinions offered once a book is read or a film watched and even if they are negative where my own are positive, we don't all see things the same. It's good that the author had a massive say in the end product, I believe Sylvia has not got quite the same involvement for the Crossfire tv series so fingers crossed it is as true to the books as it can be.

A US friend went to the Today screening and won't say too much but confirms that it is pretty true to the book and the s*x scenes are pretty hot.

And they confirmed today that the other two books will be filmed.

Another clip

http://www.today.com/popculture/fifty-shades-grey-exclusive-christian-makes-ana-special-offer-new-2D80469481

The movie is just the first book, if it is a success then the other two will be filmed. I agree neither actor seemed right for the part but I suspect once we've seen the film we'll be happy with them. E L James tweeted a link to a clip from the film - the scene in the hardware store with the cable clips - and I thought they both came over well (the spoken bits shown in the trailers seemed a bit wooden but as they were just tiny bits of speech and not in the context of the film I wasn't judging them on that). Link below, I don't think it is on You Tube but there's so many fake links on there to the 'full movie' (which of course they do not).

It's difficult when we are already invested in how we imagine a character to look and suddenly a real person is in that role but Dornan is a good actor and from the clip it looks as if Dakota is carrying off the role of Ana.

http://www.today.com/popculture/fifty-shades-grey-extended-clip-reveals-just-what-christian-wants-2D80467460

Tonight Sylvia posted on Facebook some photos of her filming interviews with Penguin which we are to watch out for in February - fingers crossed they are teasers for this book.

But has he really had hundreds of women or was that just something said to Anne when he was making her think he had treated a lot of women how he had treated her. He's obviously had a fair few women as they would have been falling over themselves to get to someone as attractive and rich as he is, but apart from Anne and Corrine they all seemed to be one night stands.

Agreed he may not have followed through with intercourse, with Eva it is pretty much his realisation that intercourse IS possible, that he can get it up and get it off, and it doesn't have to involve any little extras, although he'd obviously like the occasional diversion from vanilla. He may have needed his other women to be cuffed as he probably doesn't really like them touching him, but something must have clicked with Eva and he allowed her free reign with him apart from when he was really angry and reverted to his need for kink.

The Deanna thing is intriguing and I am adding that to my list of really would like to know more and get a better resolution than her just accepting the exclusive of the wedding pictures - backing down over what seemed to be a big deal to her to a few photos doesn't seem right, I don't think she is as bad as Anne, who is the real danger, but something has wound her up. And again, could that be Anne - if Deanna was seeing Anne for therapy and Anne was already wanting to get back at Gideon, then winding Deanna up over what was basically something trivial as Shan12 mentions, and knowing he has a reputation for one night stands, why is Deanna bent on getting back at him? Okay as a journalist it would be a scoop to get the dirty low down on someone in the news, but as he's already seen as a playboy it would probably only enhance that reputation, not mar it.

Maybe it is just Anne manipulating people to get her own revenge - wonder how she is going to feel when she finds out that Gideon was also getting revenge on her husband for lieing about the abuse, and Hugh for carrying out the abuse. Although Gideon did say something to Anne about her husband, I wonder if she knows the real reason Gideon took that action - would her husband have told her Gideon was abused - if he did would it have been during the Gideon/Anne affair or after? If during, as a therapist she should have had the sense to handle things properly for someone who had childhood abuse, and maybe would have realised the way he treated her was to do with that and even if told afterwards it would have made her think about it. Her comments in CBY made me think she didn't know about the abuse at all.

Wow - thank you to whoever compiled this originally and to Sharonm745 for adding it. I think this means the end of CBY is in week 11 (?) with them due to see Dr Peterson together. The book covered two weekends but the scope was probably only 13 days (opening on the Friday and ending Wednesday with them seeing Dr P the next day?

The quicker CBY gets released around the world, the sooner we will be able to finish the story. I know some on good reads etc. thought the book would be released on the back of the FSOG movie but as Anne and jmhope mentioned, it is highly unlikely that will happen unless Penguin can do a rush release. May/June would be great but hopefully no later.

The only mention of OWY on Sylvia's web site is in the FAQ about the Crossfire books and the information is just that CBY has not yet released in all countries. Anyone on here in publishing and know how long it is likely to take to get the book released around the world, and why it takes so long (I know they have to be translated but that can't take months and months??)

I don't think the books have reached October yet, the time period so far for the whole series seems to be 10 weeks (in Eva and Cary's conversation they mention how to lose a guy in 10 weeks). Plus Sylvia has said that Gideon is Virgo so born between 23 August and 22 September - surely his birthday would have been mentioned if it had already taken place. Also Mark has to give notice so he can start with Cross Industries in October, not sure how much notice has to be given in the US - my old job was 4 weeks notice which then changed to 3 months, I'd guess Mark has to be giving between two and four week's notice (depending on when in October he would start).

I'm hoping the opening of OWY will be the two of them getting firmly back together and dealing with the various enemies. As this is a virtually day by day account and I can't believe OWY will be a massive book, I'm wondering if we will even reach their second wedding, that may just be handled in any epilogue, although as sscrph says, the weather may mean the wedding is dealt with - Monica is going to have to pull her finger out and get on with organising it. I suppose they could hold the private wedding ceremony and the more open reception could take place later. And it would be good to see them on their honeymoon but I don't think there is going to be space in the book to fill us in on all of that.

There are too many other threads to tie up, some can be handled as easily as the bracelet and Megumi scenarios (I think the Megumi storyline was purely to bring Eva into the frame of mind of wanting to work with the Crossroads foundation rather than as a major side story).

A lot of reviewers seemed disappointed that those scenarios were dealt with so quickly, but the series isn't a thriller, it's a romance between two abuse survivors and how they handle what happened to them and the healing from that. Eva had an earlier start on recovery than Gideon and he still has quite a way to go so I don't think that at the end of the story (not including any epilogue) he is going to be fully recovered.

Oh and when I read some reviews I begin to think there are two versions of this book - according to some there is sex on every other page or the book is 80% sex - can't say I noticed 80% or even seeing something smutty on every other page. Sylvia struck the balance about right for the erotic side of the story, and it is important to our understanding of the story to explain what they do, how they relate to each other and their thoughts at the time.

When did Gideon say that he was married, planned to stay that way and that he doesn't cheat?

Towards the end of chapter 18 (kindle location approx. 4341) Gideon has just told Eva to beware of Anne and mentions having been to see her. He then mentions Corrine is getting divorced "Don't take that tone, Eva. It doesn't make a d*mn bit of difference to me if she's married or single. I'm married. That's never going to change and I'm not a man who cheats. I have more respect for you - and me - than to be that kind of husband."

I sneaked in to the next chapter but haven't yet fully read it. I did notice something I missed the first time round - Gideon did a little more explaining to Eva about Anne. In the lines just after she told Gideon he has an amazing body and a huge c*ck and he finally tells Eva it was different with Anne. He says that she reminds him of Hugh some of which he can explain, some he can't. He says the line between them (Hugh and Anne) blurred in his mind and he did things to her he'd never done with anyone else, things that made him feel sick when he thought about them.

He then says "It was twisted between Anne and me. I twisted her." so presumably he introduced Anne to the flogger etc. I believe we've always thought his previous experiences had been vanilla and in the f*ck pad. Somewhere along the line though he has either seen or experienced a sex swing and he knows the rudiments of dbsm so presumably at some point he has visited a sex club (wonder if he found Christopher there!)?

Quote "jmhope - Gideon uses sex to quiet Eva and she wants/needs sex to be a connection and to mean something"

I re-read the chapter this morning and thought that as Dr Peterson is currently only treating Gideon for his father's death as he has not yet been told about the childhood abuse, Gideon is actually also using sex as a connection.

I wonder if Gideon will talk about his previous sexual encounters during couples therapy, or restrict it to his one to ones with Dr P, part of me hopes it is the latter - if it were me I wouldn't want to know about the depravity.

Sylvia's web site has the following which I believe only appeared in the last few days:

When will One with You (Crossfire #5) release?

Sylvia is presently working with her publishers to set a release date for One with You, the final book in the Crossfire® series, keeping in mind that some international territories haven’t yet released Captivated by You. She hopes to announce a date soon!

I wonder how big a market there is to buy a 4 book box set when most people will already have purchased the individual books - also the release date of the e-book of the four on both Amazon and iTunes has been changed from (in the UK, not sure about US) 27 January to 13 January. Again I can't see that many will buy this as anyone wanting the books in one e-book volume would surely wait until all 5 are available??

Think she needs to tie up the following story lines (not sure if I'm covering all the important bits)

MUST COVER

Elizabeth Vidal and her relationship with Gideon

Christopher Vidal and why he dislikes his half brother

Anne Lucas and why she feels Gideon has a debt to pay

Would be nice to know about:

Monica and her past

Things that may re-appear and therefore need ending

Corrine and the book

Deanna (just that she leaves them alone and is out of the picture)

Brett (as with Deanna)

Would be good if we learnt:

Cary is not the father of Tatiana's baby (or she's not actually pregnant)

Cary and Trey become an item

What I don't expect is to learn Eva is pregnant (she had a period in the last few days)as it's not necessary for the HEA we need for them bearing in mind the timescale of the story so far (but would be good for them to have a conversation about the possibility of a family - Gideon did write children into the pre-nup but they haven't talked about this type of future and they do need to)

This list isn't complete, I may be back with more and open to others ideas.

I don't remember Christopher walking in on them? Could you tell me what book/page that happens?

Bared to You, Chapter 16 second part of the Library encounter. Kindle location approx. 3342 and in the paperback starts bottom of page 237.

He seems well read about things relevant to s*x e.g. checking up in Bared to You if Eva had recently waxed so he may just have trawled the internet (probably as a teenager or young adult) to find out what was what?

However he does say during the elevator scene that 'I can't snap. Not with you.' and when Eva asked if he was different with the others and didn't hold back he replies 'Yes, I was different! You made me different.' Maybe, other than Corrine where we do not know if he had normal relations, his encounters had only been with women who needed 'taming' as he also mentioned in CBY.

Remember though that after he told Anne about the hundreds of women, in his head he was thinking "I wish what I'd said were true, but I had been particularly depraved with her, seeing ghosts of her brother in the curve of her smile, her mannerisms - " . Presumably he was doing to Anne what he was doing to Hugh in his nightmares. Hugh taught Gideon to get excited by looking at pictures of women similar to his own mother, m****bated him and penetrated him - he may also have tied him up (in the 'playing with his millions' blow job scene he mentions "the sensation of being bound dredging up memories I kept ruthlessly buried." Hugh also taught Gideon that the way to control his anger was with s*x and it does seem that the s*x Hugh taught him was aggressive. Not sure if it was Angus who introduced Gideon to MMA as an alternative anger control method but it seems likely as no other adult in the Vidal household seemed capable of sorting this out. I can't see that Gideon stopped being the angry youth/teenager under Hugh's therapy, I'd have thought it made him more angry, especially after Lucas had checked him over and said nothing had been done to him and, presumably, Hugh was able to continue with the abuse.

Deanna had heard he was 'dark' - she may have picked that up from rumour or direct from Anne. We know Deanna didn't get what she wanted from Gideon.

I don't think he lies to Eva, just doesn't tell her everything - only what he feels she can cope with. Just the possibility of a nightmare making him attack her is enough for her to deal with, without knowing what he used to do with women.

I have read in comments on other sites that Sylvia once said the books were 'vanilla', not sure if that just meant Gideon and Eva or any s*x in the books. But her plans for the story could have changed, I do remember reading her commenting that she would not write from Gideon's POV as there was so much going on in his head, and she changed her mind on that.

Whatever, with Eva he found he was capable of having a vanilla relationship although he exercised a level of control (for instance holding her hands down so she couldn't touch him - and if someone knows why not having your woman touch you is needed for control during s*x I'd love to know the answer).

Through Eva Gideon has also realised he actually enjoys the excitement from the risk that comes with having s*x in places where you might be walked in on. Eva didn't seem to be too disturbed when Maggie walked into the library and saw Gideon eating her, and only slightly perturbed when Christopher later walked in when Gideon and Eva were actually having s*x. Gideon wasn't aware of Maggie but he was of Christopher and he continued in Christopher's prescence.

I need to re-read (not quite caught up), but hope I'm remembering this properly - after speaking to Chris Snr Gideon broke down. He was drinking (can't remember if he was drunk but Eva had realised he had been drinking and up to this point in the books he only seemed to have occasional drinks). He was angry and had said to Eva that his unexplainable reaction to her original conversation with Chris Snr was to be incredibly turned on. Hugh had possibly conditioned Gideon to use sex to alleviate his anger. I thought in what Gideon said to Eva during the earlier part of the elevator scene that he was wary of his actions towards her while in this state - I guess he would have been a bit like this when with Anne and her description of what he did to her was fuelled by anger - so he's probably scared of getting that carried away with Eva.

I suspect the 'you brought this on' was because everything had led him to lose his usual control over himself and the anger had come to the fore rather than be buried inside in the way he does.

In turn Eva is angry with him - he ties her up and seemingly walks away leaving her worried she is going to be exposed to other residents, until she realises it is a private lift and can't go anywhere. She was also expecting Gideon to turn up at her apartment for some s*xy time and had chosen a s*xy outfit - I thought at first she taunted him with the outfit when she removed the coat which was when he tied her to the elevator rail and disappeared. Now I wonder did she show him what she was wearing as she knew it would make him not want to wait to have her - and in doing that was she showing him that she trusted him, even when he was in the state she found him, to take care of her and not hurt her? One reviewer did mention a rape scene which I presume was about this scene, which I would have probably also thought was the case if the scene had been written from Gideon's POV, but it is from Eva's and all along she seems okay with his actions. Angry s*x when controlled can be exciting, but Gideon was not in control of himself plus during s*x he was used to being the one in control (which seemed to be part of his method in the f*ck pad taming the women he took there).

I do wonder if Sylvia had not intended to take the story down the avenue of bdsm, Gideon's comments to Eva in one of the other books (I think when he gave her the promise ring and she likened it to a collar) were that he did not need any of that with her. But as the story grew I wonder if Sylvia decided to put something in relating to bdsm. There were hints from Gideon as he knew about safe words and hand cuffs and how the person wearing the cuffs should feel, plus he knew about a sex swing (although that all could be learnt from p*rn magazines which most young males would have accessed).

Not sure if any of that makes sense and sorry if I've added anything glaringly obvious, I'm kind of thinking aloud on paper here :)

Yes i believe it does using Fifty Shades of Gray as my reference...LOL

I thought the same (again with 50 shades as reference), I felt that Gideon had pretty much 'lost it' when using Anne as he said he had been more depraved with her than with the other women (and I wonder how depraved he had been with them as he seemed to have gained a reputation for being dark - although that could just have been Anne giving Deanna that information prior to Gideon using Deanna to deflect Anne). I'm also assuming Anne was happy with having this done to her, and possibly encouraged him - she may even have introduced him to using a flogger and sex toys, hopefully not long till we learn more. He has said he doesn't need those things with Eva, bits of me hopes he didn't need them with the majority of the women he went with.

He does appear to have anger management issues, with Hugh teaching him to use sex (m****tur***tion in the first instance) to alleviate, and presumably Angus then got him into MMA to disperse the anger. From what Angus said in one of the other books Gideon 'knew when to stop' but when it came to the events leading up to the elevator scene, too many things hit Gideon at once and he pretty much lost the plot completely, and I don't blame him, he could obviously cope with holding back over one or two scenarios which made him angry, but finally to discover Chris Senior had no idea Gideon had been abused, and if only G had gone to Chris Snr instead of to Elizabeth, life for Gideon might have been so much nicer, enough to send anyone off the rails. On my first read I felt G was being churlish towards Chris senior in that scene - the man was after all virtually apologising for not knowing and had taken steps to do something about it, but my second read remembering the other events of the day made it a little clearer.

Yep, Sylvia has said no more Jax and Gia - and says Crossfire stops at 5 books. There are people rumouring there could be 6 but that is probably because there still seem to be a lot of threads to tie and events to take place, I'd like to find out that Tatiana is either not pregnant or it is not Cary's baby and that he gets together with Trey, not bothered if we don't get Mark's wedding as it's not really relevant to Gideon and Eva's story. Maybe find out who Ireland's boyfriend is, and who it was who Megumi was involved with. We definitely need to know more about Elizabeth and Christopher with regards to Gideon, and why Anne has it in for Gideon. She seemed to have got what she wanted which was rough, unusual se*x - although she did not manage to retain any relationship with him when she supposedly fell in love with him. She did retain her husband though and any revenge she takes could rebound on that relationship. As someone else said I would love to know just what it is she feels Gideon's billions are not enough to pay for. I doubt she knows about Hugh's abuse of Gideon (I feel she would have brought that up in her chat to him and he only refers to his relationship with her having annoyed her husband) so I don't think she would be aware Hugh committed suicide some time after Gideon confronted him about the abuse.

Of course it may be that we are reading more into some of the lines in the book than Sylvia intended so we may not get answers to some of our queries :(

The entire series has so far covered just 10 weeks in the lives of Gideon and Eva, not very long to really get to know each other even if they were 'normal' people. Captivated By You is just two weeks of their time and unless the final book is a massive volume, it's not going to cover many more days/weeks of their lives. In chapter 2 of CBY, when chatting to Christine Field about whether Gideon approached the firm for the Kingsman campaign because Eva worked there, Eva's thoughts are that she had been "with Waters Field & Leamon longer than I'd been with Gideon, when I had been employed there only a couple of months."

As to what else happened in this book, Anne also revealed what some of Gideon's sexual practices had been (possibly only with her and down to the resemblance to Hugh), Gideon begins to become close to Ireland. After a second reading and some dipping into parts of the book, although Eva does seem annoying with how she handles Gideon, and her reason for running does seem trivial, but something had to break Gideon to get him to open up. It may be that Sylvia wanted to get that over and done with before book 5 and Eva leaving him forcing his arm could not be for a serious reason otherwise she might not come back to him, so to do it for a trivial reason but shake him up was probably the right way to achieve that end???

- - - - -

I dipped into reviews on Amazon, iTunes (UK) and Good Reads reading some from each of the star ratings. Some feel CBY is too short, some too long (Sylvia said on Facebook that the book has more words in it than the others). There's too much se x, or there's not enough - the se x is every other page (not in my copy it isn't) - the se x scenes are well written, they are badly written.

Some feel nothing whatsoever happened in the book or the book doesn't add anything to the story and need not have been written (quite a lot of comments along those lines). It's the same story line as the previous book (well it is part of the same story so there will be similarities).

Some found it difficult to work out which character's POV was in each chapter - even if you didn't work out they were doing alternate chapters, the clues were there in the first few lines. Some didn't like reading from Gideon's POV - not sure how the series could have progressed without his POV, understanding his mind and what his past included, not just the abuse but why Deanna, Anne and Corrine are how they are about him, needed to be put over (and there may be more to reveal).

Reviewers felt Gideon became whiney and/or weak in this book - beneath that steady alpha exterior he's probably always been a little weak - he lost his dad at an early age which caused anger issues (could that just be because his father left him, or was there more to it - did Gideon see his father's body - is he angry that his mother reinvented herself so quickly with her re-marriage to Vidal?) Looks like G was comfortable with his step father, but something happened to cause a rift between Gideon and his half-brother and then there's the abuse and how his mother acted and who knows what else has alienated Gideon from his mother.

A huge amount of the one star reviews were down to two reasons - the delay in publication and the fact the original trilogy became five books. My paperbacks and e-books - including an e-book of Bared to You with the female on the cover, all say the books are part of the Crossfire 'series' but I understand people in the States do have copies stating trilogy and I think the description on Amazon for one of the books mentions trilogy. Whatever the truth is, would one really rate a book one star just because it's one book more than originally expected from an author? Some of the one star reviews are from people who state they have not even read the book because of either the delay or the 5 books.

As with any book, there will be likers and dislikers, and those who have read in depth and those who skim through the book and miss some of the more subtle parts - I've certainly found this site helpful to make me understand the whole series, after discovering here it took me a long time to read through all the posts about the previous books, and the insights from various members plus guidance on some of the technicalities to do with abuse victims, US law and jobs etc.

- - - -

In business Gideon is used to being in charge, making the right decisions, his company has thrived and he is a billionaire. On the personal side he seems to have good relations with his male friends, gets on well with Maggie, probably had a reasonably good relationship at one time with Corrine, but his relationship with family is not great. His 'girlfriends' have virtually all been one night stands which may or may not have ended up at the f* pad, and he presumably had little problem with getting those females to understand it was a one night only scenario. He handled his family by leaving home, becoming independent and seemingly not needing them (although deep down inside I think he does need his mum but she is going to have to make a heck of a change and apology for things to come right).

And then he encounters Eva, who happily says no to him, and who is attracted to the person and not the money and what goes with that. We see how Gideon inter-acts with Arash and Eva can be a little like that - even though we know Eva was initially attracted to his looks and definitely wanted to bed him just for that, she made it clear she was not just an easy lay

Entwined with You and Captivated By You are both pretty much fillers between the story begun in the first two books, taking things forward for Gideon and Eva to reach book 5 where (fingers crossed) they will be a strongly united couple and will conquer their enemies. We may not even get to their official wedding unless Monica can pull her finger out and resolve everything so it can take place within maybe four weeks (assuming that could be the time period of the next book).

As with Sharonm745 I was disappointed Eva ran, where she ran to (knowing he would not follow her there), and how long it took her to even talk to him. He's the love of her life, she's well and truly over Brett and wants to be with Gideon, who has given up so much for her (he will never be fully over nightmares due to the Nathan scenario, she is going to have to be the therapist for that). My own feelings at the end of the book were that I was glad that Eva agreed to go to dinner with him, but it felt like that huge physical 'spark' they shared had gone and Sylvia is going to have to write a heck of a good first chapter getting them back together to regain the spark.

Question because as many times as I've read the books... Angus asked Eva if Chris believed Gideon. He knew all along?

Gideon always thought Chris Snr knew that Gideon had been abused as Gideon had overheard a conversation between his mother and Chris at dinner when Gideon lived at home. But as it turns out from the scenes in CBY, Chris did not know about Gideon's abuse so whatever Gideon overheard was not about himself. Angus must know about the abuse and probably had something to do with helping Gideon escape from it, hopefully we learn more about this in the last book.

For Gideon it cannot have been easy to realise that he turned to the wrong parent to rescue him from the abuse. Most children would turn to their mothers, and as Chris is Gideon's step-father it would probably never have occurred to Gideon to approach Chris about what was happening to him, after all you expect your natural parent to listen to you and believe you - for Gideon this was all made worse because those who were asked to check him out chose to lie and say there was no evidence of abuse - there must have been. It also probably did not help Gideon that he had anger problems, and still has. In CBY after he had seen Eva arrive to meet Brett (in San Diego, prior to the hotel room scene) his thoughts are "I was still tense and aggravated, spoiling for a fight."

I thought Eva was Mark's assistant. With no Mark there's no one for her to work with.

Usually the person leaving is replaced and would inherit the co-workers so it did seem odd that Eva immediately said she would lose her job. I think we maybe had to suspend reality for this as there needed to be a reason why Eva would leave Gideon in order for him to break and finally tell Dr Peterson all the reasons for his nightmares (well, all except for Nathan). Although I felt Eva was a little childish to leave Gideon for this particular reason, of all the things for her to run away because of, it is the one that is easiest to resolve for the story line to continue and for Gideon to realise that although he wants to control Eva there has to be some compromise on both sides.

Chapter 10:

Two questions....

How soundproof can a limo really be? (what Angus must hear lol)

I've been in something similar to the kind of limo they would be travelling in, once the drivers section is closed off there is complete privacy in the rear. Ours was quite a long limo as there were 8 of us travelling in it, one bench across the short end of the car, another along the side where the door was and the long side fitted with glasses, a refrigerated cabinet and champagne. Gideon does mention in CBY that he is not an exhibitionist, although has had to relax his attitude to that due to Eva's slight exhibitionist tendencies, and although Angus would not, at the time, be aware of what they were up to in the car, I bet he could work it out once they got out :)

Chapter 10

Don't remember, does Manuel work for G or is he just a friend?

Loved that the group cheered when Eva got on stag. Brave is a good choice, but F*cking Perfect would have been better IMO. Arash is a hoot saying "your turn lover boy" to G. Gideon saying this is for my wife was great and his song selection was too. Who knew that G could sing?! Hated when Eva kept thinking of Brett and comparing the two. Really?! Too bad also when she reverted back to the way she acted with Brett with Gideon in the limo with giving him a BJ and then wanting to ride him. Even that is what happened on their first date, except for the BJ of course.

Gideon saying I Love You back to Eva was major!!

Cary could have been a little more grateful about the apartment; "thanks for the pity f*ck to G was uncalled for, but G's reply was best "there is neither pity nor f**king included in the offer, otherwise you're welcome"

At least Eva admitted she was stubborn about wanting to work with Gideon, especially at the Crossroads Foundation.

At the end of chapter Gideon was "ready to throw down"!!!

Not sure about Manuel, first mention is that he is a Portfolio Manager, but Gideon does not say if that means Manuel works for him.

When Eva was comparing Gideon's singing to Brett my own interpretation was that helped her lose some of the fascination Brett still had for her - his voice had been one of the attractions she felt towards him (possibly the major attraction as that was what seemed to draw her back to him at the gig when she first saw him again) and now I think she finds Gideon's voice better than Brett's from the attraction point of view???

I hadn't related the incident in the limo to how Eva had been with Brett so need to re-read but will be doing that after Christmas (out and about quite a lot at the moment and not getting much chance to read - I think I'll start a re-read of the book in the new year and listen to the audio and see what more I can get from the story.)

Cary seems to be acting a little like a petulant child, but he didn't have much of a childhood, was abused and he too still needs to recover. His relationship with Eva has been good for him in some ways, bad in others (possibly too much reliance on someone who inevitably is not going to be in his life as much in the future as she is now) so he too has some adjusting to do. And although he's not too proud to take Stanton's help with living accommodation, that's probably because Eva is living with him. A move to Gideon's secondary apartment does mean he is no longer living with Eva - she might only be next door but that isn't the same as being in the next room.

Praying book 5 won't be too far away, it's a shame how many people are asking for dates on Sylvia's Facebook page - surely by now they know her methodology and will only tell people release dates once they are set in concrete and won't be changed. If the date isn't on her web site then there is no date.

All victims are of course individuals, and likewise their healing process. I have met many survivors of abuse through my job in mental health care, and life itself has given me experiences that I could easily been without. Some people can not make it through therapy, it is too tough opening up, for many of them they will start reliving all their traumas ( for some on a daily basis). It is very common that they struggle with other issues as a consequence of what they experienced, and for keeping the secret all to themselves, f.ex anxiety, depression and even more serious metal disorders. Abuse is unfortunately a reason why many people becomes addicted to drugs and alcohol.

It will be different for a victim that was raped once, and for victims that has been abused for years, although they are both very traumatised. There are many factors that will influence the recovery process.

I believe that he has potential of recovery, but it will cost him determination, strenght, endurance. I don't believe that he will ve "fixed" within a few weeks or months, more likely a year or two, or even more. He'll have to open up to everything, tell everything, don't hold anything back (like Eva said). Every incident that he can remember, or the emotion that he feels, needs to be processed. He needs to understand who he is, and why he reacts like he does. It is complicated. He will need a lot of support, patience, time, love and security from the people that are close to him. The chaotic and negative emotions within him, needs to be normalized.

The abuse will of course be the hardest part, but I guess he has some sort of grieving concerning his mothers rejection, but also it may be hard on him knowing that Chris Sr never knew after all... Realistically he can be healed, but I think that it will take longer than the series will last. There is a chance that the nightmares will follow him until the end of his life, but less frequently. He will carry his memories with him every day, but hopefully the pain will ease with time, and he will get some peace of mind.

There is so much to say about this, and it will naturally be speculating since we are all different people, with different needs and different experiences (and the book is fiction, but still realistic).

I don't know if this was what you were looking for D500, but I hope it made some sense.

Very helpful, thanks Anne. As it's fiction and spread over a short time span I guess Sylvia may speed up his recovery re the abuse (as we all want to know they can at the least share a bed and be close all night), but he will still have the killing of Nathan on his mind although I presume as he can talk to Eva about it she will have to be his therapist for that subject.