Move Over Christian Grey, There’s a New Man in Town

Ladies, power up your Nooks, Kindles, and iPads or get to your local Barnes and Noble stat because I have the solution to the empty void you are feeling after reading the Fifty Shades trilogy.  As you all may know, I am self-proclaimed #GREYsessed, and have had a secret love affair with Mr. Christian Grey, much like every other woman I’ve seen reading the mass-market phenomenon on the beach, subway or elsewhere. In fact, I will continue to obsess over who they will cast as Mr. Fifty Shades and Ana Steele until it is set in stone by Hollywood execs.  However, on the insistence of several close friends and even Barnes and Noble, who keeps a close tally on all of my guilty pleasure reads, I decided to delve into Bared to You, by Sylvia Day, and I have to say, Mr. Gideon Cross, the book’s male interest, sure gives Christian Grey a run for his money, pun intended.

Set in Manhattan and chronicling the intense relationship between Eva Tramell and Gideon Cross, the book is the first of three in the Crossfire Series by Day, and offers readers the same emotional attachment to characters and steamy sex scenes that kept us hooked on Fifty Shades and other guilty pleasure reads.  Tramell is a San Diego transplant that moves to New York City with Clay Taylor, her gay best friend, and lives in a swanky Upper West Side apartment thanks to her stepfather and mother, for whom money is no object.  All on her own, she lands an entry-level position at an advertisement agency, and along with her dream job, into her life walks Gideon Cross, an irresistible mega-millionaire that openly lusts after Tramell.  I am only about fifty (how ironic) pages into the novel, and can already see some parallels to Fifty Shades, including an overbearing and controlling, yet eye-catching and wealthy man, an intense physical relationship, some secrets that will keep us flipping page after page and even the cover illustration.

I know, I know, at first it felt somewhat like cheating on Mr. Grey, but trust me, Gideon Cross, is well worth the guilt.  Schedule a date with your B.O.B. (battery-operated boyfriend) because you’re definitely going to need him after this read!