Naked by M. Hart

When I first read the blurb for Naked by Megan Hart, it sounded really interesting and I couldn’t wait to read it.  However, after finishing it, I feel like I’m still waiting…waiting for something to happen.

No strings. No regrets. And no going back.

I didn’t think he wanted me. And I wasn’t about to get involved with him, not after what I’d heard. Alex Kennedy was tall, dark and unbearably hot, but I’ve been burned before. Maybe it was stupid of me to offer but he needed a place to crash and I needed to pay the rent, but now he’s my tenant…with benefits. And now that we’ve crossed that line, I can’t seem to find my way back.

But I can’t give my heart to a man who’s so…unconventional. His last sexual relationship was with a married couple. It’s enough that my ex-fiancé preferred men, I won’t take that chance again no matter how much my body thrives on Alex’s touch. I can’t risk it, but I can’t resist it, either.

Alex can be very convincing when he wants something.

And he wants me.

The story was good.  It kept my interest from the  moment I turned on my Kindle and I kept wanting to go back to it, but there never really seemed to be anything actiony.  That’s not really a word, I know, but Naked really didn’t have that much going on.  There could have been so much more conflict going on and yet most of the conflict was borderline dull.

Olivia is a very complex character and she was done well.  She has issues with personal identity and letting a man get close to her.  Considering the guys she hangs out with and how she knows them, this makes sense.  There were times I thought Olivia’s character could have dealt with some of the issues in her life a little more forcefully, but she comes off as very much a wallflower.  Not necessarily someone who simply watches everything around them, but is also just in their own little world.  She knows she’s missing a few things from her friends life and yet it doesn’t bother her to the point where she starts prying. She just accepts it and continues on.  I can’t really say too much about this personality quirk – I’m very much the same way.  So Olivia’s character doesn’t bother me too much, but I think if she had been more forceful in certain areas, the story might have gotten more interesting.

The one character that does bug me is Alex.  The man she’s willing to trust again and yet there was nothing about Alex that didn’t have alarms going off in my head.  He kept wanting to know about Olivia, but when she would ask things about him, he didn’t want to talk about it and that was it.  He kept insisting that he wasn’t like Patrick (Olivia’s gay ex), but every time there was a fight, he very much came off that way.  It was very obvious that he was hiding something from Olivia, even though he kept saying that he would never lie to her.  It got to the point where I was expecting him to announce at the end of the book that he used to be a she.  Seriously.  I’m not usually into those types of stories, but that was one of the main reasons I kept reading Naked.  I wanted him to come out with some off the wall secret that would make Olivia kick his ass to the curb.  For once, I really wasn’t rooting for the main character to get together with the muscular hotness that was in her life.

I just didn’t feel like there was a lot of chemistry between Olivia and Alex.  Maybe it’s just me hoping there isn’t any, but it seemed like all they had in common was great sex and there wasn’t even a lot of that.  Every time they had a fight, instead of working it out or having a screaming fight to get rid of the excess emotion, they instead ended up in bed.

Something else that bugs me is the incomplete subplots that were left dangling.  Olivia had an interesting relationship with her ex, Patrick.  She found out he was gay (and really cheating on her) two weeks before their wedding.  That would definitely scar a person; and yet they were still close.  Then her relationship with Alex blew up and things changed between them.  Patrick kept insisting that Alex was bad for Olivia, but the reasoning never came out.  Honestly, I think the story would have been a lot more interesting if Patrick had been a bigger role.  Plus, once Devon and Stephen were introduced, I felt like there was more going on there as well.  Stephen didn’t come off as someone who liked Olivia and yet he had every reason to love her.  There was something going on there and I would have liked to known about it.

In the end, Naked did keep my attention, but I really think that was because I kept waiting for something of interest to happen.  Even the final confrontation, where Alex’s big secret finally comes out, ends up being less than exciting.  I won’t say what it was, but it was just another fight, similar to ones they had earlier in the book.  It wasn’t anything huge and I really never saw any reason for Alex not to have brought it up prior to the end.  Especially considering Olivia’s own past.

Overall, Naked was an okay story.  It’s not one that has me rushing out to pick up more from Megan Hart, but since this isn’t my first Hart story, I know I’ll find better ones out there.  Maybe I went into Naked with higher expectations than I thought, but I’m left with a very dissatisfied feeling and I don’t like it.

Also reviewed by:
My Disorganized Ramblings
Book Fare Delights
Strictly Anti-Social
This Blonde Reads

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

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