So Close

Blacklist, Book 1

By: Sylvia Day

Narrated by: Simon Mattacks, Caitlin Kelly, Dahlia Salem, Soneela Nankani

Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Crossfire® saga comes the beginning of a twisty tale of obsession and rage, as a trinity of women protect what they covet at any cost.

You can’t believe all of them, but can you trust any of them?

Widower Kane Black is still ruinously married to his late wife, Lily. Grief has hollowed him… until he sees a woman with his wife’s inimitable beauty on the streets of Manhattan. He whisks her up to his towering penthouse, protectively under guard, nestling her in dark opulence where Lily’s memory is a possessive beguiling force.

Aliyah, Kane’s mother, deals in science. There are too many questions, too few answers, and too much at stake. “Lily” has dangerous control over Kane and there can be only one queen on the throne.

Amy, Kane’s sister-in-law, has been bloodied by deceit and betrayal, and she’s devolving into murderous rage. She’s paid too high a price and now intends to claim what she’s owed.

Three women, linked by buried secrets, circle the man who unquestioningly accepts the return of his beloved long-dead wife. Kane is happier than he’s ever been, and he’ll do anything to stay that way.

Propulsive and sly, So Close is a lushly gothic novel of domestic suspense with the emotional intensity, scorching sensuality, and complex exploration of female trauma that are the hallmarks of multimillion-copy international bestseller Sylvia Day.

"So Close is a dangerous and sultry novel about lies, secrets, and the line between love and obsession. The perfect first entry of a two-book series, So Close drew me in and kept me reading, desperate to know what happened next. Domestic suspense at its sexiest."—Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author

©2023 Sylvia Day, LLC. (P)2022, 2023 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Disappointed

This book is so confusing. It starts out with storylines from so many family members and none of them make sense. The narration is good, but I think the Kane voice is terrible. DNF for me.

Lots of “happy endings”, except for the listener

Given all the pleasure everyone else in this book is receiving, I feel like I should have enjoyed it more. A little less Lily and a little more Amy may have helped.

Lily says repeatedly that she loves words, and she most definitely backs that claim up. So many eloquent, repetitive, poetic, mind numbing, nerve grating, repetitive words. Her favorite two words appear to be “my sex”… “Position my sex” “caress my sex” “enter my sex” “my slick sex”… “her sex” is probably mentioned 5,500 times. The verbiage in general and monotone narration got old about halfway through.

I can see this is meant to be a sequel with this being book one; it definitely left me hanging but I don’t think I care to listen to book two. But it is entertaining… I actually, and guiltily, enjoyed listening to vivid descriptions about appearance, fashion, etc. and the narrators were good overall. However, I did not enjoy Lily’s character, got burnt out on all of the explicit sex scenes, and I just hate the ending.

This just made me sad...

2.5 Stars 🌟

It has been YEARS since I read the Gideon Cross series, but I do remember that I really loved the series. I wasn't even aware until I started this book that it had a tie in to the main characters of Gideon and Eve. Honestly though, the tie is extremely superficial - only a couple of small mentions and then the fact that the business of these characters is located in Gideon's building. So why even mention it? Just in case someone is thinking that this book is an extension of that series or the next book.....

Okay. I guess after all is said and done, the word that comes to mind is disappointment. Maybe it's been too long. Maybe I remember it too fondly, but this book is so very far from the writing of the original series and the storyline and the drama and...well, just everything.

The plot - Mr. Kane Black is a widower who has not gotten over the death of his wife Lily. His penthouse is a shrine to her, he screws any woman that looks like her - but only once, never twice and doesn't even have the decency to walk this look alike out of his bedroom the morning after (which is not actually his bedroom because...HIS bedroom is a shrine - he has a bedroom specifically for the purpose of....the act) He has the butler walk her out. Yeah.....not a great start for me.

That does not even start to describe the despicable women he has in his life surrounding him. His mother, his sister-in-law (who is one of the "look-alikes" and he screwed and is bat***t crazy with feelings of rage and jealousy) and happens to be married to his brother.....yep, it's an insane asylum.

Without going into spoilers, I'm not sure how much more to say other than 'the reports of Lily's death have been greatly exaggerated" and everyone finds out that she is very much alive.

Now, with the wonderful women that surround Kane, everything is going to be flowers and roses, right? No0pe... These women are truly bonkers and we unfortunately get their POV's. It did make me sad because it took strong women and just crucified them with their characterizations. I can understand one being an antagonist - every story needs one but ALL of them...? UGH....

Where was Lily all this time? Did she leave him on purpose and stage her death? Does she remember? Does she really love Kane?

These are the questions that carry the storyline. Honestly, this storyline had SO much potential. There are a million places that it can go from here but WHERE it went, it just didn't work for me.

I will say that for some reason, I enjoyed whoever did the narration for the butler. I liked his character - even though that's kind of way out there. Go figure....

But the story in general was definitely a disappointment and that makes me very sad...

Felt lost but liked the mystery behind the storyline.

I like the overall storyline the mystery. But I felt I was lost at times. I feel I need to listen to the audio book again to see if I missed anything. But I liked the detail description for all the characters!

Huh???

I have no idea what this book was even about. Left me confused and annoyed.

A Sylvia Day twisted book of mystery and sex

Ok, I see how ppl may not like this book. It’s more of a suspenseful, moderately sexy book with a crazy plot that have these odd twists and turns. And who the hell is Lily (or Ivy or whatever she goes by)…? This crazy family is nuts, all with different motives! To me, it was a weird, twisted book that has a ton of questions unanswered. Does she even love Kane? Why does she leave him and hide, and he’s so obsessed with her? And she’s very keen (ppl don’t even realize it) and what’s her motive and plan? And how does she know so much? Taking the family business down? Revenge? Why? What does she really know? Lots of blabbering from everyone though which was kind of irritating. But you get to know each person’s real personalities, and the mother is a selfish bitch who creates chaos everywhere, just because she can. Sex scenes towards middle to end were just ok, but not all that frequent. But I still ended up reading the whole thing in two days. And Ava and Gideon made appearances which was really cool. Still miss Crossfire; Sylvia, I know you’re working on another Crossfire novel, lol. Just give it to us already! You know you’d make a mint writing another Crossfire novel, maybe with a twist? And bring back alpha Gideon, not the pussy whipped version! 😜

Greatly disappointed

I wish I had used my audible points to buy this. I could have returned it. Now I am out whatever I paid for it. I wondered why the audible add on was only 1.99?

If I had not known the author, I would have never guessed this book was written by Sylvia Day. The quality is not even close to the Cross Series…

I have been hoping she writes another fabulous series and have been greatly disappointed

every… single… time…

Come on Sylvia, reach into your gut and bring out what you’ve got inside, we all know you have it…

I am looking for new authors who write like the Cross Series anyone have ideas?

Not a good fit

The woman’s voice was too difficult to listen to and the story was so far fetched, I couldn’t even listen to the whole thing. So disappointed I spent the money.

the love she has for him

how she could read others and not get upset from what they say and the help she care for others and took care of them