Fever
By Maya Banks
Fever by Maya Banks is possibly the worst book I’ve ever read. The story follows Bethany Willis and Jace Crestwell in their, frankly, abusive “love story.”
The book begins with Jace as he gives congratulations to Gabe Hamilton, one of Jace’s best friends, and Mia Crestwell, Jace’s sister. He then just goes right into thoughts about his sex life and his kinks. It’s weird. The main plot line of the first 12 chapters is the fact that Jace and his other best friend, Ash McIntyre, always have sex with women together. They’re chronic threesomers.
Anyway, with Bethany working as a waitress for the engagement party, Jace spots her from across the room and is mesmerized. Ash apparently tracks his gaze and proposes that they approach her. Jace immediately gets aggressive with Ash and tells him not to—it’s a really weird dynamic.
Switching to Bethany’s POV, she laments how hard her life is and, while looking at the engaged couple dancing together, says that she wishes she had love as well, but “fairy tales don’t happen to ‘girls like her’.” Bethany then leaves the main hall feeling sorry for herself and heads to the kitchen—both Ash and Jace watch her do so. She shares some words with a guy named Jack, who becomes relevant to the plot later.
As she waves Jack off and he leaves, Ash literally comes up behind her and creepily asks if Jack is her boyfriend. It turns into this really harass-y, rape-y interaction.
Case and point: He asks if she has a boyfriend, she says no. He then asks her name and Bethany asks why he wants it and he says: “Because we’re not in the habit of fucking women we don’t the name of.” I’m speechless.
He then follows that up with: “Jace wants you… And I’ve decided I want you.” Woah! Bethany rightfully says she won’t deal with harassment on the job and says she’s going to file a complaint. Ash’s response? Here: “Cool your jets, sweetheart. I’m not harassing. I’m propositioning. Big difference.”
Three strikes you’re out!
By that point, I was ready to put down this book, and frankly, I wish I did. That was ten pages in, and let me tell you, it never got better. The absolutely horrific dialogue I read throughout all 406 pages of this book should have the author serving jail time and paying my therapy bills.
Jace suddenly comes in, and oh my god, Bethany nearly has an orgasm. She’s just absolutely fawning over this guy and his hair, eyes, body—the like. However, we will touch on this point later: she calls him “brooding,” keep that in mind.
Jace is pissed at Ash for confronting her, but Bethany is head over heels for him at this point, so of course, when Jace asks, she says yes to the threesome, but only if they give her dinner. Oh, that’s another thing—she’s homeless on the streets of New York City, and she hasn’t eaten in days.
Jace pulls some magical strings and gets the event to end 30 minutes earlier so he can take her to the hotel room. Jace picks her up from the kitchen and all I can think about is how no one else on the staff witnessed this series of events. Is she the only one working? Are you telling me that no one else is in the kitchen? I digress…
Jace grabs her and she asks where the hotel is and he, of course, flexes that he owns it. She then goes on and on about how handsome he is, gorgeous, pushes all her buttons, and is… brooding. Second mention of him being brooding and all I can think about is WTF does that even mean?
They get up to the hotel room, and Ash is waiting for them with food. It’s awkward; she’s really timid and both of the guys are creepy. I mean, Bethany is totally into Jace but couldn’t care less about Ash. Honestly, if I had been approached like that, I wouldn’t be into the guy either, so I’ll give this to her. The meal scene is okay, but then it gets weird again. Out of the blue, Ash states that they—Jace and Ash—call all the shots and have total control of the situation. Further, he says that they will make it good for her, yes, but if she has a problem with the control aspect, she can leave. Rape-y much? I was begging her to GTFO but of course, that wouldn’t lead to the first smut scene of the book. That will be detailed more in the Smactions but let’s just say I wanted to gouge my eyes out.
Okay, I want to finish the rest of the book as quickly as possible: Threesome ends and Jace is obsessed with her and details that she is now his, oh, but not to her—just in his head! Jace wakes up and Bethany is gone. He loses his shit. We skip to two weeks later and he’s been searching for her. Ash is confused as to why he’s so stuck on her and tells him to move on… Jace loses his shit. Watch for a trend here. Jace finds out that Bethany is homeless and damn near throws a chair. SO dramatic. He goes to a woman’s shelter that he found out she frequents and tells the volunteer to watch out for Bethany and to give him a call. She calls when Bethany returns. Jace leaves his office in a rush and gets there.
Bethany was beaten up because Jack was in debt to some drug dealers. Jace sees her in a hurt state and effectively loses his shit. He then KIDNAPS HER. Not joking, he takes her to his sister’s apartment which is no longer being used, and tells her she’s not allowed to leave. Jace cuddles with her on the couch? Which is odd because… well, because it’s odd as shit.
Anyway, he then demands for her to tell him who hurt her. Jace also loses his shit when Bethany won’t tell him. Anyway, Ash had a background check run on her a couple of scenes earlier and told Jace she had a previous drug possession charge. Jace brings it up with dear ol’Beth. She cries, he kisses her? Then she brings up how she’s worried for Jack… what does Jace do? He loses his shit. When Jace does this, she makes a run for it, but he tells the doorman not to let her go. This whole time, he’s having some really possessive, creepy thoughts. BTW, he calls her “Baby.” Freak. Let’s actually speed through this because I hate talking about this book.
Jace keeps Bethany in his apartment. They start a messed-up relationship. Smut. He takes her shopping. Smut. He hires her bodyguards? It’s odd. Jace has like angry separation anxiety when he has to go to work and not stay with her. Gabe, his best friend and sister’s husband, and Ash call him out for being a bad friend. Jace kind of apologizes. Jace watches Bethany bathe. Smut. Back to the office.
Mia, his sister, and Jace talk about Bethany. Jace discloses that Bethany has had a drug problem for some reason? Jace gets a call that Bethany ditched her security team and is now out in NYC by herself. And Jace? Loses his shit.
Bethany meets with Jack, who we find out is her “brother from another mother” type. She invites him to the apartment, but he says she’s better without him (she is). Bethany cries and leaves. Back in the apartment, Jace is pacing, and when Bethany gets back, he gets all angry at her. He cools off, kind of, and he tells her that he’s “holding back from the relationship” and it’s “killing him.” We’ll find out what exactly he’s holding back.
Smut scene. Sike! They talk but she’s naked and kneeling (!) on the rug. They go and have an actual talk about what relationship dynamics HE wants. So… IDK if you’ve guessed yet but Jace is heavily dominant and dabbles in that BDSM lifestyle. Yeah, so he wants her to be his sub, and she agrees. Smut. Jace and Bethany are going to a Christmas dinner with Gabe, Mia, Ash, and Gabe’s parents. It’s going okay until Bethany acts like a stupid little idiot. Jace and Bethany leave. It’s embarrassing.
Smut. More smut. Jack shows up at the apartment when Jace is at work. He gives her pills and then asks her to keep his bag in the apartment for a little bit. She rejects the pills but says yes to the bag. Bethany invites Jack over for dinner and leaves to get groceries after he goes on his way. She gets back, and Jace loses his shit. She leaves. She comes back. They fight. He kidnaps her again. Smut. Jace confronts Jack.
Filler stuff: Mia and Bethany go clubbing. Smut. Ash and Bethany have a heart-to-heart because it’s been awkward. Jace misinterprets what they’re doing and loses his shit. Bethany cries, Jace tries to apologize, Ash is pissed. Jace goes to work; Jack comes back over (lots of ‘J’ names). Admits he has more than sisterly feelings for her. Jack drugs her. She goes to the hospital, Jace loses his shit, she crashes out, loses more of his shit, calls the police on Jack (Jack was trying to commit suicide but gave her the wrong cup? Yeah, IDK how that happens either). Bethany wakes up and forgives him. In the last chapter, Jace proposes and she says yes. The End.
My ratings, reactions, and feelings
Oh wow. So. This was a -10/10. I can’t begin to explain how bad this book is. This is a book that was meant to stay a draft OR be posted on the depths of Wattpad. This book is the epitome of fantasizing about unhealthy and dangerous power dynamics and relationships. On top of being a simply horrific plot, the writing was bad. The repetition of adjectives was really getting to me… in particular, the amount of times that Jace is described as “brooding.” A total of 11 times is brooding or some variation of the word used. And sometimes not even properly! Terms like “walked broodingly,” or in place of “said,” Jace “brooded” at her. What I imagine is that scene in Twilight when Edward smells Bella in the classroom and then stares at her oddly… Or whenever he looks at her in general!
The men in this book also did a fair amount of growling! This was meant to stay a fanfic, simply. The way that they also talked about women was so appalling—I am still shocked a woman could’ve written this.
In this book, women are objects for submission and sex. They will listen to the man, and that’s that. I was disgusted with the ways that women were made sex objects and nothing more. Nauseating. Misogyny was so poignant in this book. Jace’s POV was filled with him fantasizing about having complete control over Bethany in all aspects. He even lays it out by saying that she will have no choice in what they eat, where they eat, what she buys, when they go out or not, and she has to listen to every one of his commands.
That’s an extreme BDSM, everyday lifestyle, which would be fine but holy (I will elaborate more in the Smactions about the sexual aspect of this) the disregard for safety and health in a Dom-sub dynamic was so screwed in this book. With something like this, there should be a safe word for Bethany—Jace never has a sit-down conversation about how this would work for their every day and how she could tell him that something is too far. In fact, he uses this dynamic to try and manipulate her in arguments. He “commands” her not to leave and take space for processing. He yells at her and then “demands” her to go to bed with him. It’s so messed up. Being dominant and being manipulative/abusive is not the same thing.
I can’t even stick up for Bethany, though. She’s stuck in this situation where she’s either with Jace or literally homeless. However, she makes every bad decision possible, is so pitiful, can’t just behave in social situations like a normal person would, and annoys the hell out of me. I hate to say it, but I literally like Ash more than her… and he sucks! Gabe and Mia were probably the best characters, but they were barely a part of the plot. So essentially, to be a good character in this book, you need to not even be one. That’s how bad the character work is. On top of that, the genuine switch-up from Ash from the beginning to the end of the book was so not believable. He was a misogynist pig who harassed women, to being ultra respectful and telling Jace how to have a relationship. What? I don’t know how that even happened in the 5-weeks that this book took place over!
THE PACING!!!!! The pacing of not only the plot but how time moved in the book. To put this in context, this all happens in the span of 5-weeks, two of which were used by Jace to search for her. Fights and make-ups happen in a couple of days. Drugs and Jack happen in a week? Bethany overdoses, dies, and is resuscitated, and accepts a marriage offer in two days. It’s shocking. Now, put that in the context of their developing relationship. They are saying “I love you” after a week and establishing a Dom-sub relationship in even less time than that. I also have a problem with how this book is being advertised by the summary. Most of the book is about Jace freaking out over Jack—Ash and Jace have fights but not nearly as badly as the back describes.
The plot with Jack was simply terrible because I am so sure that Maya Banks had no idea what she was talking about.
I wanted to write about this book funnily because it truly is laughable but there were just too many actual issues with it that I can’t. There were parts where I was just horribly disgusted that things like that had been written down in a way that was not pointing out how wrong it was—but instead, affirming very harmful ideas. However, I do find it funny that the “praise for the book” was actually “praise for other novels written by Maya Banks,” meaning no reputable romance reviewer had anything good to say about this. Bad plot, terrible dialogue, horrific pacing, and genuinely hatable characters. Someone needs to do a welfare check on Mrs. Banks and see what kind of crack she’s smoking that allows her to write and publish books such as these.
Fever is only the second book of a three-part series. This means that Maya has had three chances to make a good book and miserably failed on the second… how bad will the third be?
Smactions, Smines, and Smating!
(Smut reactions, Smut lines, and Smut rating)
Well… if you’re looking for more smut than plot, this is the book for you! A firm 3/4 of this book is Jace and Bethany going at it like bunnies. It was not enjoyable in the least. I had a really tough time reading the smut scenes because they were just so terrible.
The “dirty talk” made me want to die and shrivel up into a tiny ball. More, the play-by-play of the sex was just awful. Adjectives were thrown around every which way, and most times, they never made sense OR it was so fictional that I just had to pause and laugh.
Jace never, and I mean NEVER, did the correct preparation for anal sex… so much so that I just had to wonder how Bethany didn’t have a torn asshole. There was a whole smut scene where the point was Jace didn’t want to wait to prepare her and just dove right in (IFYKWIM). Also, there was a lot of anal sex in this book in general. I just had to sit back and wonder how this woman was getting anal sprung on her every couple of days and had zero pushback—But hey, this book was filled with depraved people and their freaky habits.
The descriptions of body parts were also disgusting. If I hear a vagina referred to as a “mound,” I will be pressing charges. Mound, folds, her entrance, her opening, plush folds, velvety heat, silken heat, and the p-word were all ways that this book described her vagina, and I hate all of them. Most of the descriptions of sex in this book are also dramatic and fictitious. Jace describes Bethany’s reactions in such a way that I’m laughing at how exaggerated it is.
On to the dynamics: The Dom-sub dynamic being described in this book is so unhealthy and wrong.
First, they never talked about establishing the dynamic until he literally demanded submission from her and had her kneeling on his floor. This is when she goes out to say: what do you even expect from me in this position? What am I to expect from you? In that, Jace is never really clear at all.
The communication is so terrible, as well, which is what this whole dynamic is supposed to be based on! He never gives her a safe word, in or out of sex. He puts a collar on her without explaining what that means. And he was fully aware that he had done this in a really manipulative way. More than that, they never made a contract for this. He listed several things HE liked to do in bed and she said ‘Oh okay that’s fine’.
They never went over hard-no’s, and he had virtually no understanding of what she liked. This whole book was centered around Jace being this sex god that reformed her to better submissive sex, and apparently, that means that now her pleasure was solely based on his. The established power dynamics also don’t help. He is 38; she is 23. He is rich and has all the financial power, without him, Bethany is poor and homeless. Physically, Jace is miles stronger than her. Maybe if it was a little more balanced, this whole thing would not be a big deal to me, but in every way, Bethany is losing the fight. She has no ground to stand on, so who is she to say no to this man? Overall, the power dynamics were extremely unbalanced, and it just makes me die a little on the inside.
