“This is who I am. This is what I want. Now I need a man dangerous enough to give it to me.”
Graduate student Vivienne Charles is afraid of her own desires—ashamed to admit that she fantasizes about being taken by force, by a man who will claim her completely and without mercy. When the magnetic, mysterious Jonah Marks learns her secret, he makes an offer that stuns her: they will remain near-strangers to each other, and meet in secret so that he can fulfill her fantasy.
Their arrangement is twisted. The sex is incredible. And—despite their attempts to stay apart—soon their emotions are bound together as tightly as the rope around Vivienne’s wrists. But the secrets in their pasts threaten to turn their affair even darker…
***Reader Advisory: Asking for It deals explicitly with fantasies of non-consensual sex. Readers sensitive to portrayals of non-consensual sex should be advised.
About the Author:
Lilah Pace is a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling YA author. This is her first adult novel.
Jennifer’s Review of Asking For It
Review (4 Stars): First of all, this book deals with a very sensitive subject matter and some readers may have a difficult time with this. I wasn’t sure if this book would be something that I would be interested in but that all changed when I started reading Vivienne and Jonah’s story together. Vivienne is a rape survivor and has had a difficult time with her previous relationships because of this traumatic experience. She also has fantasies of non-consensual sex and even though she tells herself this is wrong and messed up, she still has these fantasies. Then she meets Jonah, a dark and sexy stranger, who makes her an offer that she can’t refuse and he agrees to be a willing participant in these fantasies.
One of the things that I liked about this book was the relationship between Vivienne and Jonah. They were virtually strangers but everything they did was discussed in long detail before anything happened. He wanted to make sure that everything that happened between them was fantasy and never crossed the line to the real thing. The thing that I noticed about Jonah was very careful in everything that he did and always seemed to know when something was wrong in Vivienne’s life even when her closest friends didn’t see beyond the mask she presented to everyone. I felt that he used this fantasy life to get close to her because he wanted to know the real Vivienne.
Vivienne knew that these thoughts and feelings were wrong but she couldn’t stop herself from having them. I felt that Vivienne wanted to take back control of that situation with these fantasies because she didn’t have the control of that traumatic experience then. No one believed her when she told them about her rape and because of that, she felt that she couldn’t really trust anyone, including her own family. My heart broke for Vivienne when she was labeled a liar and that she was actually blamed for what had really happened. Still makes my blood boil when I think about it. The one person that she could trust with her secrets was Jonah but when the truth does comes out it changes everything.
Ms. Pace handled this very dark subject matter with grace and respect for what Vivienne experienced in her life. I saw Asking For It as a psychological and emotional journey of a beautiful character that was still broken because of her experience. She was able to find someone that she could trust to share her experience with and finally have someone believe in her. After the ending of Asking For It, I’m curious to see where Vivienne and Jonah’s relationship goes from here in Begging For It and how the truth will affect the life that Vivienne wanted to build with Jonah.
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