Melissasfandomworld's Reviews > Driven

Ok, so this was a difficult review to write. I don't like to put a negative vibe on a review, you know? And it's sometimes hard to find the right words when describing what you didn't like about a book. I always want to highlight the things I did like as well, but mostly this is a book I just couldn't fall in love with and I feel very sad about that because I had high hopes for it!

I wanted to read this book because it was on my kindle, the synopsis sounds great and I know that Passionflix even turned it into a movie. So I was quite intrigued and felt like reading it all of a sudden, so I started reading it. And even though it wasn't to my liking, I still felt like reviewing it and sharing my review so here we go!



The start of the books is quite unbelievable already I think. She sees him making out with someone in a dark corner, finds herself then trapped in a closet and starts having a panic attack. He then 'rescues' her and out of the frigging blue they start making out, like wtf. And the moment when she recognizes him as the man who was busy with another woman a minute ago, she still lets herself loose on him. Like WTF.. < I'm all for insta-lust and sometimes also act on it fast, but the situation has to be right for it, and this situation didn't feel right to me personally. 

The story-line was okay-ish I guess, but there wasn't really a lot of refreshment present. I did like some elements like the minor characters and the social work elements added into the story. Those were very interesting to read about. So the details of the characters work, the settings etc were different but other than that, there were quite a lot of similarities with the 50 shades of Grey books for example. Quite a lot indeed...

Our male lead for example, is almost exactly like Christian Grey but with another name: Colton Donovan. He's troubled by his past, he 'can't' love someone as he so clearly states at some point, he doesn't want children and doesn't do relationships in a traditional way.

“You know that deep down, a tiny part of that proper, respectable woman you are, wants to visit that reckless, sexy, uninhibited place inside you that’s begging to get out. A place I can undoubtedly help you find.”

I so so sooo wanted to love this character because his intensity was quite mesmerizing and I liked the goodness he had in him as well as the sexy mystery surrounding him. I could forgive him for some of his actions because of the things that happened to him in the past - that we barely get information about so it's a lot of guessing -. We know he's traumatized because of his early childhood but my sympathy only goes So far, especially when there's barely any elaboration as to What happened to him - I guess the author's saving this for the sequel since it ends on a Cliffhanger as well. There wasn't any refreshing quality to his character in the end and that was quite a shame I guess.

One moment our female lead is a strong character who defends herself at times, but in the moments she needs to step up her game, she doesn't. I was so frustrated with her throughout the entire book. I'm not one to speak up for myself or who easily confronts people, but this character was the cherry to the cake. I wanted to shake her so badly sometimes. There was just no way I could get a good feel for her. I could say she acts this way because of his behavior towards her, which is partly true I guess, but for the most part I think this character was just all over the place and gave me a whiplash with how often she changed her mind about things from one second to the next.

“He is my fire on a cold night, the sun warming my skin on a cool spring morning, the wind caressing my face on an autumn day—he is everything that makes me feel alive, and whole, and beautiful.”

So yeah, because of the extremely amount of back and forths between these two characters, the romance wasn't always quite believable to me. It's obvious he has feelings for her and he'll probably takes his time recognizing them for what they are - Hello Christian! - and act upon them after making some stupid mistakes, but I don't know. I couldn't really get myself to care for it all unfortunately.

The chemistry and sexy times between these two characters though, was quite well written and enthralling to read, so there's that haha!



This book was just not for me I guess. I normally really like books like these, with such intense characters and an intense romance but this book.. The writing.. It was ALL over the place. The characters gave me whiplash, both of them. One moment, they're all lovey-dovey, the next they're not. One moment they're head strong and determined and within a span of only seconds, they completely turn around and decide to act completely different. It was frustrating and agitating to me.

And I'm one of those readers out there who really loved the 50 shades books when I first read them so many years ago - yeah, so shoot me, lol. And sure, there's a lot to say about the books and I know a lot of people don't like them but to me they're guilty pleasure.

So normally I wouldn't mind reading a book that has similarities with the 50 shades books - and I guess that alone can be a turnoff for lots of people for example - but I thought the execution of this book was just lacking? There definitely was potential here, but it unfortunately didn't turn for the better the more I read of it.

And even though I find the execution of this book lacking, it was still a fast-paced read to me. That's so funny though, because I more often than not didn't really like the characters and the execution of this entire story, but I couldn't stop reading either, lol.

So I finished the book, which ends in a Cliffhanger which I foresaw seeing it has A lot of similarities to 50 shades, lol - because I wanted to see the entire picture and see if I was missing something here and if maybe the book would turn into something better, but to me it ends here. I won't be reading its sequel.

I personally don't understand why so many people are so in love with this book but it was originally published in 2013 and that was right in the middle of the 50 shades HYPE so maybe that's why a lot of people started loving on this book back then? And of course, everyone's entitled to have their own opinions and feelings about a book so seeing I didn't love it, definitely doesn't mean someone else can't love it. If you like this synopsis and a story that has similarities to 50 shades, this may be a book you'd end up enjoying!

Thanks for reading!