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SPOILER ALERT!

The One Hundred

To One Hundred (#dirtysexygeeks Book 1) - Melissa Blue

This is the first book that I've read by this author. It wasn't what I expected. Not in a bad way, but it was a bit deeper than I expected. I kind of thought it would be a fun geeky romance, but a couple of the characters in this book have mental health issues. The heroine attempted suicide during a dark period of her life and she currently suffers panic attacks. The hero's brother is bi-polar and the rest of the hero's "family" seem to have issues that are alluded to, but not specifically addressed (future books).

 

I found the title odd. But, it's based on some Internet sex game of counting backwards from 100 while engaging in sexual activities with the goal of orgasm at 0. I don't know if this is a real thing or not.

 

So, Grady is an adjunct instructor at a college. Eva does web work. They meet on a forum for the show "Firefly". They share a love of the show and other "geeky" things. They get to know each other very well over a four month time period, but Eva has strict rules about keeping a certain amount of distance. They've never talked on the phone or met in person, but have exchanged pictures. They are supposed to have an Internet "date" one afternoon, but Eva has to cancel because her sister shows up. As a sort of apology, Eva sends Grady an audio file of her touching herself while engaging in The One Hundred game. He's very hooked.

 

Then she shows up in his classroom the next day. Her employer has offered to increase her salary if she completes her degree. The story takes off after that classroom meeting.

Grady is all in from the beginning. There's really no hesitation on his part. He doesn't want to hide his relationship with Eva. He doesn't care if it gets him in trouble with the college or starts rumors, etc. Because of his experience with his brother being bi-polar, he knows how to deal with Eva's panic attacks and other issues. He's really a pretty great hero.

 

Eva is damaged. She's recovered a lot of herself, but still has issues with her sister. Her sister became more of a parental figure after Eva's trauma and attempted suicide and can't break out of the role.

 

There are all kinds of emotions here. It is a good story. I struggled a bit with the author's writing style. I don't know if it was her phrasing, her punctuation or that I felt like she started a lot of dialogue between characters as if the conversation were in progress. I felt as if I came in part way through a thought and couldn't immediately grasp the meaning. I know there were some punctuation issues - things like missing commas. That bothered me because I had to go back and try to figure out what I missed. It usually turned out that I hadn't missed (or misread) anything and if I kept going anyway, it would eventually make sense.