I read the blurb for Taint like...
I was so here for Justice Drake's bluntness a la Drew from Tangled. I'm all for man-speak that's straight, no chaser versus the flowery, PC bullshit that we get from Romancelandia heroes so many times. Even though I might not have loved what he was saying, I just knew that JD was going to be the 'say it like he means it' alpha I met in the blurb which spoke of something different than what I'm used to reading. For about 20-25% of Taint, I did get that. Then the plot shifts from JD's focus on giving the ladies instruction to his focus on Ally. That's when things went to a place that made me read this story and JD's inner dialogue like, WHAT IN THE HELL?!?!
JD went from hot sexpert alpha to mooning, maudlin, and emo, which is the kind of hero that I usually try to avoid at all costs. I wanted to get out of JD's constant musings about Ally's fiery halo of red hair, her cerulean eyes, and perfect body made for sin. I understand a hero who is brought to his knees by meeting The One, but this was as if JD had had a friggin' lobotomy after meeting Ally in his seminar.
Then there was Ally. I just didn't understand her motives for trying to save a marriage with Evan that was so obviously broken from the start and not worthy of fixing.
I felt like I missed some major plot point to explain Ally. She was supposed to be a smart, Ivy League educated, trust fund baby, not a woman without options stuck in a bad marriage to a millionaire. I will save my pity party for another day rather than waste it on Ally.
The premise of JD's sex bootcamp hit some serious womanist buttons for me. Laying the fault of bad marriages and men with straying dicks SOLELY at women's feet (or their vaginas) is not what I'm here for Ms. Jennings.
Lastly, but not major in light of everything else, was my wish for a better more fleshed out ending and epilogue. The book's pace was, for the most part, too slow for such a rushed ending, IMO. Otherwise, what humor there was here was welcome and cute, if a bit clichéd and predictable. Taint won't make it to my 'best of' list but not a horrible read, just not what I was expecting.
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