Article first published as Book Review: The Ninety Days of Genevieve by Lucinda Carrington on Blogcritics.
The Ninety Days of Genevieve was first published over a decade ago, and has now been re-released with a subtle, simple new cover, which has a graphic proclaiming “If you like Fifty Shades of Grey You’ll LOVE this!”. I certainly don’t blame anyone for jumping on the bandwagon, and I can definitely see the similarities between this book and the infamous Fifty Shades.
However, although I liked Fifty Shades (I did a piece on its many faults, too!), I didn’t love The Ninety Days of Genevieve. The premise is that Genevieve Loften has a 90-day contract with businessman James Sinclair. In order for her to win his extremely sought-after custom for the advertising agency she works for, she’ll do whatever he orders – in a sexual sense – for the duration of the contract. As a high-flying, determined career girl, Genevieve agrees to Sinclair’s terms, thinking of the early promotion she’ll get at the end of it.
However, despite the rumours about Sinclair and his interesting sexual tastes, Genevieve doesn’t expect to be thrown into the kinky, exotic and sometimes risky situations that he subjects her to. She always has the option to back out – but the huge pay-off keeps her going, as the stakes get ever higher. But as their contract draws closer to its end, Genevieve makes some discoveries about herself that will likely change her forever.
Overall, The Ninety Days of Genevieve was a tad disappointing. Don’t get me wrong, the writing itself is much better than Fifty Shades, and the premise is interesting. But for some reason, I just couldn’t engage with or make myself care about the characters. Throughout, the sex scenes are conducted in such a business-like manner – as per Genevieve and James’ arrangement – that I just didn’t find them all that hot. I feel the parts that should have been erotic lacked passion and therefore I was pretty indifferent. I saw the twist at the ending coming, but even if I hadn’t, I suspect I still would have found it quite mediocre.
Despite all that, it’s still worth a read for the premise and the writing, and others may engage with it as I didn’t, but it won’t be a keeper on my bookshelf.
Available from:
Amazon UK
Amazon US
Book Depository