Review of Corporate Seduction by Bridget Midway

Bridget Midway
Corporate Seduction
Lulu.com, 2007

Backblurb:
Maybelline "May" Davenport wants a few things in her life: to move up at work after she obtained her college degree, and to find a man who could sweep her off of her feet like the heroes in her erotic romance novels. She's sure she won't find that while working for a man she calls "the totem pole with style" even though she finds him attractive.
Winston Biggers thinks he wants a dominant type of woman in his life. And although she doesn't seem the type, Win can't stop thinking about May, his administrative assistant. But he can't let her go. Not just yet. So he hides her newly-acquired degree to keep her as his assistant. But there are other important aspects about his life that he's hiding. When the truth comes out, will it be too much for May to take? Or will staying with this man make her Win Bigg?

Series:
It’s the first of three Corporate novels, that each have their own H/h.

Genre & Keywords:
M/F, Contemporary, BDSM, Boss-employee & interracial relationship

~~~~~
Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
Heat level: 2 out of 3 flames
~~~~~

Why I read it:
I received a review copy from the author

I’m sorry to say but this novel was just not my cup of tea. It’s not that I don’t like a good BDSM themed novel every now and then. It’s not even that I mind if the D/s roles switch between the hero and heroine. It’s just that all of this didn’t feel genuine or authentic in this novel. I wondered constantly about the reasons why they both acted as they did. In my opinion neither Win nor May were convincing as a Dom, or as a sub for that matter. For example, the reason why May starts working at a BDSM club, supposedly because she needs the money for her grandmother, makes me think that she’s only playing a role. And the grandmother seems to be solely an easy excuse since she’s never mentioned again. On the other hand, the reason why Win starts going to the club stays in the dark too. It seems odd that he goes there to get dominated since he has a history of being a Dom. It’s just a convenient, but not very believable, way to bring him and May together outside the office.

Additionally the characters came across as mean and unsympathetic. Not only when they play the dominant part, also in the non-sexual scenes. For example, Winston apparently lusted after May for years, yet he treated her badly at work without ever showing her his feelings or personal interest. May on the other hand acts like a brat and unprofessionally, e.g. ignoring the orders of her boss when he dictates a note she should add to a bouquet of flowers, because she’s mad at him. I need to at least like the protags and preferably understand why they behave like they behave. But the main characters were a big mystery to me and I couldn’t sympathize with them at all.
Besides all that, the plot felt rather unlikely and had many holes in it, which made the protags seem inconsistent. I couldn’t shake off the image that the characters were part of a puppet theatre connected to a puppet player who moved them around too wildly. Getting through a list of erotic scenes.

I can’t make it more beautiful than it is and I’m aware that other readers might enjoy this novel, even though I couldn’t. Maybe if you read it just for the erotic scenes and not for the love story, you won’t get disappointed. It’s just that I’m always looking for a nice balance between the sexy and romantic elements, and I couldn’t find that in this novel. For me it was too focused on the sexual components. I guess it has something to do with the expectations you have, and yours might be different from mine.

~~~~~
Bridget Midway’s website | weblog | on Goodreads
~~~~~