Friday 24 March 2017

*** RELEASE AND REVIEW *** SEX HOLLYWOOD LOVE SERIES by Jillian Dodd




Sex by Jillian Dodd
Release date:  March 24, 2017
 Synopsis
Meet Riley Johnson. CEO of Captive Films.
Hot. Rich. Privileged. Seriously Single.
There could never be a reality show about my life. It’d just be work and sex. Lots and lots of sex. No breakups. No fights with friends. Zero drama. Drama’s for the movies. Not for me.
I’m Riley Johnson. I’ve got it all. Brand new jet. Exotic cars. Luxury penthouse. Black card. A different aspiring actress (or two) in my bed every night. I run Captive Films. Where we leave you begging for more. Or maybe that’s just me.
My life is perfect. . . Until she walks back into it.

The Hollywood Love series follows the lives and loves of those who work at Captive Films:  Hot, successful, playboy Riley Johnson, whose business success far exceeds his success in love. Movie star, Keatyn Douglas, whose epic love story has spawned a series of books and movies. And Dawson Johnson, who joins Captive with a tragic past. Expect lots of drama, sex, and tabloid-worthy events.
  
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Sex by Jillian Dodd is the 8th installment in the original Captive Films series.  I say installment because these books started as weekly serials for fans to catch up on the characters of the Keatyn Chronicles.  At some point, the serials were bundled into books for each season and now the first three seasons are bundled in a box set called the Hollywood Love Series

My introduction to the world of Hollywood Love and the Keatyn crew started with Sex.  I could tell right away that I couldn’t start at this book and purchased the bundle to learn some of the backgrounds.  My review is going to incorporate the first three books because it is the only way it makes sense to me. 

What I Like: 

I like the addictive appeal of the book.  It is interesting to me that the story kept pulling me in even though I can’t say I like the characters that much.  The story reminds me of the closed world of the old soap operas.  Even though it is set in a big city, it has a small-town feel.  Everyone knows everyone else.  Everyone’s life is linked in some way to the other characters. 

As much as I wanted to put the book down and move on it kept calling me in the habitual way that the old afternoon half-hour shows pulled me in.  The story moves quickly, but nothing is accomplished in those thirty minutes for several weeks or even months but there are teases in each episode.

By the end of season one, the characters are familiar enough to care about them even if you didn’t read the Keatyn series.  They characters are all wealthy and live the high-life, and sometimes make bad decisions.  There is the constant introduction of lovers, betrayal, hurting the ones you want to love, and so on and so on.


The individual episodes feature a character but most of the other main characters make an appearance. There is plenty of action throughout all four books.  There are hook-ups, weddings, children, misunderstandings, cheating, etc.—everything you would expect on a soap. Also, there is someone making a decision that will come back and bite someone in the ass keeping him/her from the one she really wants.  


I’m sure I’m giving the wrong impression because some of the characters are entertaining and people I can root for, while others are shallow and spineless.  I think the biggest disappointment for me is Riley.  I don’t get him.  I guess he is a sexaholic and blames his shallow behavior on a past love gone wrong even though she knows she made a mistake and tries to make amends.  Not good enough for lover-boy though.  He is involved in a triangle and made me angry, and like a soap, the reader knows one leg of the triangle is trash, but he doesn’t see it and will hurt the one who really loves him. 

What I don’t like:

Like a soap opera, there is always the character that happens on a scene to see or overhear something and misunderstand, runs off without asking questions, and makes bad decisions.  The misunderstanding makes matters worse and makes this reader pissed off.  Trust me when I say I know people like Riley who are taken in and led around by the big D by a conniving bitch and then ends up hurting the person who really loves him.   I wish I could say he was an exaggeration or caricature. 

I am grateful that I’m coming late in these serials.  I never would make it through all the cliffhangers and Sex ends with another cliffhanger.  I think after forty-five or fifty years of age end of life is within sight.  A cliffhanger means there is a potential that my end will come before the series ends.  I don’t like them and don’t start them until I can read the ending. 

A couple years ago, I waited so long for the final book in a series, I made my kids promise if anything happened to me they would sit by my grave and read me the last book.  You laugh, but I’m serious.  I binge read and binge watch TV so I can get the ending—cliffhangers are for the young.

What's Next:

The next book Love is scheduled to release later this year.  I don’t know if this will be the end or another cliffhanger.  I do hope that Ariela grows a pair and says I made the right decision when I left you, Riley, the first time around.

I want her to find someone who loves only her and wants only her.  She’s had enough men who want multiple sex partners and can’t commit.  Riley, you go enjoy your sluts, don’t ever forgive me, and live in the muck that you make.  Oh, by the way, Riley, you decided to throw your happiness away for a baby that isn’t yours. 


Jillian Dodd is a good writer.  She held me captive. She even has me thinking about taking a chance on another potential cliffhanger (if I’m still around) so I can find out what happens next.  What can I say--like the afternoon soap, you can come back when you're home sick or on a staycation and pick up right where you left off.  

4 STAMPS 


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