Book 3 / 100
Book: Scarlet
Author: Leigh Marsden
ISBN: 978-0-14-356544-4
Okay, so, part of the appeal of this book was its local
origins, the author lives in a town not 50 minutes drive from where I am :) as
well, I read somewhere that it was Penguin’s (the publisher) sauciest book ever,
and since at the time I brought it I was wanting to recapture the feelings I
got from the Fifty Shades trilogy, it seemed to suit. Ultimately I was right,
but it did take some work to get there.
So the story follows George Scarlet, a thirty year old
waitress (yes, a female with the name George, get over it :P) and her route
down the road to happiness. We learn as the story unflolds, through flashbacks,
that she had some serious daddy issues stemming from her father’s inability to
display his affections, not just for her but also for her sister and mother.
There is a scene that anyone who loves animals will want to avoid where the
father, almost casually, puts down George’s pet dog after an accident. Later on
we also learn how her mother died during a house (well, farmhouse) invasion and
attempted robbery (attempted only because they didn’t have anything worth
stealing), and how all these elements led to George running away from home and becoming
almost a man-eater.
In the current period we follow George through her
relationship with her fellow waitress Cass, her affair with her married
flatmate Justin and the various flings with essentially strangers. Things come
to a head when Cass takes George along to a sex party, a sex party that’s a
front… For a forced pornography ring. Using her wits and brains George escapes
the set and with the help of Justin and his wife she moves into a flat with two
female police officers.
Spurred on George undergoes a transformation, trimming
off her long red locks and going blonde, getting a new job (because she couldn’t
go back to the restaurant where Cass was) and meeting a new guy, her perfect
match one could say. She has a chance encounter with her estranged sister
(estranged because as a teen George had an affair with her brother-in-law)
opens the opportunity to reconnect with her family, and the niece she never
knew she had.
The Cass situation turns nasty when through another
chance meeting, Cass drugs George and forces her onto a porn set. Fortunately the
police officer flatmates were on the case and had been keeping an eye out, it
seems George wasn’t the first person this had happened to.
Highlights (good and bad)… This story was a bit hard to
follow at the start, it was jumping back and forth between various flashbacks
and now, however once it settled down the story was very engaging.
Rating… 4 out of 5 stars. It’s worth a shot if you can
push past the slightly disjointed start, and can cope with the terrible things
that happen to George, don’t worry, it’s a happy ending :)
