For those of you that have defied the odds and actually looked forward to BBGT (or at least half of BBGT) doing Entwined With You, your time has finally come. [Matthew says: But I’m still going to be here on Ariel’s posts, adding my two cents and dick jokes.] In case you forgot, the last book ended with Eva discovering that Gideon had murdered Nathan, Eva’s rapist stepbrother who repeatedly sexually abused her as a child. So, you know, a generally loveable and affable fellow whose loss will be felt throughout the world.
Not to mention it was Detective Graves who revealed all this to Eva and was like, “Damn it, Eva I can’t prove Gideon murdered Nathan, but here is how everything went down blow by blow. I also don’t even really want to prove I’m right because the power of your love has moved me despite my surly and hardened exterior!” So obviously super believable and realistic all around. [Matthew says: Basically, the psychologist scene from Psycho, which was everyone’s favorite.]
Chapter 1
We open with Eva in a cab, contemplating how she really walks to talk to someone about her understandably complex feelings about her boyfriend having murdered someone for her. Granted, in the last book she appeared to have no complicated feelings about this whatsoever, but I guess Sylvia Day needed some way to get the ball rolling with this book. [Matthew says: Or she realized it was really fucking unbelievable.]
In case you’re wondering where all the sex is, here’s why Eva has just left Gideon’s apartment.
I’d left Gideon alone because I couldn’t trust Graves’s motives. I couldn’t take the chance that she’d told me her suspicions just to see if I’d run to him and prove that his breakup with me was a well-crafted lie.
Isn’t believing in true love motivation enough for you, Eva? I don’t think the motivations of people in this universe get much more complicated than that. [Matthew says: Certainly not in the Crossfire universe.]
You know, I almost applauded Eva for questioning this detective’s motives, but the fact is Eva did run right over to Gideon’s right after their conversation! Unless Graves bugged Eva during their Krav Maga class, which let’s face it, no one in this book is smart enough to do, Graves would have no way of knowing what kind of conversation Eva and Gideon were having in that apartment. This is just a contrived way for us to get Eva in a car alone thinking Gideon’s name dramatically. Seriously. Here is a direct quote.
Gideon
Moving stuff.
Moments later, as Eva is about to step into her apartment, a reporter stops her and asks if she’d like to talk about Gideon Cross. Jesus, Day, let me settle back into this book before throwing this kind of shit at me again:
A rock settled in the bottom of my stomach. She was so exactly Gideon’s type—tall, slender, dark-haired, and golden-skinned. So very unlike me.
“Are you sure you want to go down this road?” I asked quietly, intuitively certain she’d fucked my man at some point in the past. “He isn’t someone I’d want to cross.” (Gideon Cross.)
It’s a known rule in these kinds of books that any time you meet an attractive woman, she has probably fucked your man at some point in the past.
Within two more paragraphs, the book reminds us of both Dr. Terrance Lucas (evil doctor who helped covered up Gideon’s past sexual abuse) and Brett Kline (Eva’s ex-boyfriend who wrote a super romantic song about how amazing her blowjobs are and how much he misses her [Matthew says: You can even watch my rendition of that song, because, seriously, that song.]). Guess maybe they’ll show up again! The thing is, the way we’re reminded of them is so forced and doesn’t make too much sense. I’ll paraphrase:
Reporter Lady: Talk to me about Gideon! My motives may be unclear, but damn it, we need our revenge.
Eva: No thanks, I’m cool.
Reporter: Gideon can’t do what he wants just becuz he has money!
Eva (thinks): Hmmm Dr. Terrance Lucas said something like that to me once…
Eva says: No, I’m still cool.
Reporter: Well, not all of us have a rockstar boyfriend to fall back on :((((
Eva (thinks): She must be referring to Brett Kline. The man who wrote the blowjob song about me! [Matthew says: …who is not her boyfriend so… reporter lady really showed up out of nowhere to suddenly be an antagonist.]
Deanna, the reporter in question, says everyone’s got a dark side [Matthew says: Her reporting is getting dramatically more subjective as this scene goes on.] and that she thinks Eva will be able to give her some dirt on Gideon. Eva tells her maybe they’ll talk some other time, so she has the option to keep tabs on dis bitch.
Eva takes a shower, and when she gets out, Gideon is there waiting for her.
I’d given him a key, but he owned the building. Getting to me without leaving a trail that could be followed was possible with that advantage … just as he’d been able to get to Nathan.
Yes, that’s exactly the sort of comparison you want to make about your boyfriend, one that inspires confidence and comfort I’m sure.
Eva and Gideon tensely discuss their desperate need for one another and how they can’t breathe when they’re apart, and Eva admits to us that she must be twisted because she just doesn’t care he murdered her awful stepbrother. Guess her feelings weren’t so complicated after all. [Matthew says: Much like my feelings about not wanting to read this book myself.] They agree to hide the murder together, and Eva is like, “I felt a little weird that we were colluding to cover up a murder, but that’s what relationships and true love are all about, so it’s totes fine, and now it’s time to drop my towel and bone Gideon.”
And with that the first boning of Entwined With You officially begins, because nothing, and I mean nothing, is sexier than some good old fashioned colluding.