Bared to You

A Crossfire Novel, Book 1

By: Sylvia Day

Narrated by: Jill Redfield

Length: 11 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sylvia Day comes the first novel in the Crossfire series - a provocative masterstroke of abandon and obsession that redefined the meaning of desire, and became a global phenomenon.

Gideon Cross came into my life like lightning in the darkness...

He was beautiful and brilliant, jagged and white-hot. I was drawn to him as I’d never been to anything or anyone in my life. I craved his touch like a drug, even knowing it would weaken me. I was flawed and damaged, and he opened those cracks in me so easily...

Gideon knew. He had demons of his own. And we would become the mirrors that reflected each other’s most private wounds...and desires.

The bonds of his love transformed me, even as I prayed that the torment of our pasts didn’t tear us apart...

©2012 by Sylvia Day. (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“If I were to recommend any book today to readers who enjoyed Fifty Shades of Grey… this would be the first one I would offer… Scorching love scenes.” ( Dear Author)

"An erotic romance that should not be missed.” ( Romance Novel News)

“Hot… page-meltingly hot.” ( Darhk Portal)

The sex is amazing!

I loved it. No dislikes to name. I can’t complain about anything. The love between them is fire!

A lot better written 50 Shades

This is such a much better written 50 Shades. There are trigger warnings that I wish I new about, but over all a good book.

Story line is fine, but….

It’s really difficult for me to get passed the narrators deep voice change when she speaks as the male characters.

TOUCHING & EMOTIONAL ROLLERCOASTER OF PASSION

Firstly, I cannot compare this awesome listen to FSOG as I haven't yet listened to the raved over book but all I can do is review this one.

This book totally consumed me as it unfolded to tell the heart renching story of two previously sexually abused people slowly learning to trust in each other, letting go of their pasts and eventually love again. I fell in love with Gideon not because he was handsome, filthy rich, successful at everything he did but because he was sooo vulnerable, caring and thoughtful when it came to Eva. He thought his life was just fine and wanted for nothing....... until he met her eyes - then sparks flew and they very quickly turned into embers which ignited into burning hot flames of passion filled pages.

Good plot, great primary and secondary characters and lots of 'hot and heavy' all go into the mix to create a well written and well narrated exceptional listen.

Worth a credit? DEFINATELY, TOTALLY and ABSOLUTELY YES.

STOP!! This IS what you are looking for!

If you are a Fifty Shades fan then you found your next fix. In fact, you have found a better fix. One that Fifty could not provide! Why? Well, I am always happy for someone in the Minor Leagues to step up and hit a home run out of the park, but nothing is as beautiful as watching the pro's do it.

Even if your not a Fifty's fan you may prefer that you never read Fifty and just found these books instead... how do I know? I don't know you, so I don't know. :)

At first I was tired of the roller coaster of emotions from the main character Ava that I was going to strangle her myself. But as I settled into the book I soon realized where the author was taking me and it was a delicious ride for sure.

Jill Redfield narrating is AMAZING! Really do I need to say more if she is AMAZING?
Perfection, nailed it, touchdown, home run, SCORE!! She made this book a thrill to listen too and at times had me really blushing.

This was my first experience with Sylvia Day's books and I am a fan. I can't wait for the final book of this series but I am also going to check out her other books and pray they are as thrilling as this.

Happy Reading! :))

Good drama but...

Where does Bared to You rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

It's one of the better romance books I've read although about middle of the pack in terms of reading quality among audio books.

Good plot but I wasn't thrilled with the reader's interpretations, particularly her interpretation of Gideon Cross. However, I found the story compelling enough that I found excuses (chores) to do just so I could finish the next little bit. Having read the Twilight and Fifty Shades series, I found this story to be somewhat similar but engaging: The male leads in all three books are wealthy and two of the three are prominent businessmen. I like alpha males but am about done with dysfunctional personalities, as is the case with Mr. Cross and with Christian Grey (Fifty Shades). Also, all three female leads have some small self esteem issues. As with Twilight and Fifty Shades, the female lead's parents are not together and the mother is somewhat, umm, flighty and even narcissistic. Also, all three books have elements of stalker/crazy behavior, including observing/photographing the female lead in each story and generally high levels of possessiveness and jealousy. On the other hand, it's kind of sweet when your significant other feels strongly about you like that. Yeah, I'm a little conflicted and my feminist mother would be appalled.Having said all of that, I like the story enough to listen to the second book. I guess I find myself wanting to like it more. We'll see how the rest of the story goes in book 2.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bared to You?

One of my favorite moments was where Gideon is revealed to have made a collage of Eva's pictures and he speaks of her photograph blowing him a kiss from her photo every day.

What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?

The reader is generally likable but I didn't care for the way she read male voices. She seems a bit out of her range and it changes the emotion of the character she's reading.

Disappointed in the end

This book was compared to Fifty Shades of Grey and that's a big reason why I went ahead and got it.

FSoG has been called 'abusive' and 'not a good example of a BDSM relationship'. I honestly think the people who have said that were listening to this book instead. The two main characters kept tearing each other apart and using sex alternately as a weapon and as glue to hold them together. Both had been sexually abused, but she got help and he wouldn't. He called himself a Dom and her a sub, but the only power exchange in their relationship was him making her hold on to something else while they were having sex.

The sex was fairly hot, it went a bit far on the vulgar language side for me (and I'm not prudish about that), so that should say something.

If all that wasn't bad enough, the ending was abrupt and half baked. I got down to the last half hour and was convinced that there wouldn't be a 'happily ever after' and I'm still not convinced there was even though the book is over. Frustrating.

Too much Sex

I got all three series, but in all fairness, there was just too much sex, and it could have been more discrete.

Very Good......but a definitely a copy

This is a very good read after Fifty Shades, but it is certainly a copied.

Pushes the Line

This story is well written and the narrator was great. I just had a hard time with the intensity. I didn't like the possessiveness and the neediness. It didn't feel like "love" really. It was obsession. It was too much love-hate, and it can be best described as UNHEALTHY. Not an uplifting love story. Lots of angst and fights and sex. I hated Gideon's thinking he owned Ava. The love scenes were very explicit and very intense and a lot of the time dirty. It was too intense for my taste.