Review: Exclusive Access

Exclusive Access by Ravenna Tate

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars



 

Whiplash, anyone? In EXCLUSIVE ACCESS, Julianne Wallis is a reformed reporter who is determined to get her story from Kane Bannerman. Too bad she screwed him both literally and figuratively when she interviewed him five years ago.

This story did not work as well for me as the last three. I must have been reading too fast because the four good friends is now expanded to a group of twelve Weathermen. In addition, it seems the Weathermen may not be such a covert group. In fact, it seems as if they are an open secret. I must have not been paying close attention with the last three books because the whiplash I'm talking about isn't the light kinky sex in this book. It's because I'm trying to figure out if I missed a book between the last one I read and this one.

These disgruntlements aside, my desire to see more plot movement and more progress on dismantling the Madelaine project is completely unfulfilled. Granted, this series is more about the romance between a Weatherman and a "chosen" female. Unfortunately, my interest is in the geeky computer parts and the sleuthing. I want to take the bad guys down. This deferred gratification is not working for me.

The romance part of this story didn't work at all for me. It's not because the sex sucked or the chemistry didn't work between Kane and Julianne. It's because I didn't like Julianne. Journalism and investigative reporting used to be a respectable field. In today's world, and as it reflects in this story, reporters are biased, lazy and have a selfish agenda they try to push off as "the public's right to know". There is a certain balance which is required between "right to know" and better keep quiet. Ms. Tate does a great job in showing how Julianne violates this balance and continues to think and act like a gossip rag writer. When I have a problem liking a character, it affects how I enjoy the book. As far as I'm concerned, Julianne can be drop kicked off a cliff. For it to take her that long to figure out why keeping the Weathermen's projects quiet shows how lacking in intelligence she possesses.

To be fair, Kane doesn't demonstrate how he can run a multi-billion dollar company. Maybe the point is to show how a man who has so much control loses it all for a woman. For me, it makes Kane seem weak and led by his dick. Whilst I can't agree with how Kane's father treats him, I can understand why Kane's judgment is called in question. Not impressed with Kane.

Overall, this story fell more rushed and disjointed compared to the first three books. Either I didn't pay close enough attention to the worldbuilding in the first three books or Ms. Tate has suddenly expanded the scope of this story by three-folds. Either way, my prediction is that this will take another eight books until I get my answers.



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