The Intergalactic Star Pilot Academy has accepted
Thierry Leroux into the elite class of sky year 2231. But the academy comes
with a hefty price tag, and there's no way he, a poor Sythe orphan, has the
credits the academy requires. Thierry’s brother, Corbin, a high-class
companion, suggests Thierry sell his virginity for the cost of tuition. It
seems like a ridiculous idea, but it may be Thierry’s only shot, so Thierry
asks Corbin to arrange a meeting on the pleasure planet of Wish.
On Wish, Thierry meets Corbin's boss, Monroe, and
they agree to auction off Thierry’s virginity. Thierry is grateful to the
masked buyer he knows only as “Dragonfly,” and Dragonfly is gentle, making
Thierry’s first time a good memory. When Dragonfly requests to see him again,
and pay for the pleasure, Thierry returns to Wish. But in this game, falling in
love is dangerous for the heart, and Thierry might not like the man behind the
mask.
My
Review:
3.5
stars
I enjoyed reading To the Highest Bidder. It was an entertaining, fun, and smexy read.
It also started as an insta-love story but then developed into a greater
romance.
First off, Thierry and Dragonfly fell in love
instantly, which I thought was a bit weird. Making sure someone has a good
first time does not mean you should fall in love with him. Everything just felt
rushed and made Thierry seem immature (which he is) and Dragonfly a bit creepy at
times (which he is). There are time skips that we don’t see, so their
relationship could have been growing in that time, but it was just a little
weird to me because it didn’t blend as well.
However, while it was insta-love between the
characters at first, I liked how the author ended up resolving their relationship
in a realistic and well-thought out way. First, the reveal of who Dragonfly was
worked well for me.
set up the end half of the book and really forced
Thierry to grow up and realize that relationships are not easy. One of the
characters basically calls Thierry out on the fact that he was immature and how
he said he was in love yet when that love was tested, he didn’t react well.
Although, I do understand why he reacted the way he did, I thought it was great
to see that things weren’t going to just wrap up in a neat bow.
This is also where the hot sex takes a backseat,
the plot becomes much more prevalent, and most of the angst comes in. While
there were still smexy times, I loved the new plot developments, as they all
helped (forced) the characters to grow up and evolve. Like I said, Thierry had
to mature and learn to work for his relationship while Dragonfly had to learn
to be a bit less cynical and jaded (even if it takes practically the entire
rest of the book for this to happen). And while there were times where the
angst between Thierry and the revealed Dragonfly became a bit repetitive and dragged
on, I think it still worked for the overall story.
My only other big issues with this novel were a
few conflicting details I noticed, which were annoying, and the time skips. As
I mentioned before, there are time skips throughout the novel, some only a few
weeks or a month, others half a year to a decade. Time skips are iffy to me
because while they can help drive the plot along, they can also hurt the
character development in a story. And while a few of the time skips worked
(i.e. the giant one between the final chapter and the epilogue), I didn’t like
many of the time skips as I felt I missed out on a lot of relationship and
character development. I also would have liked to see more of Thierry as a
pilot, since that was the reason behind why he started all of this in the first
place, but aside from seeing him do some homework and schoolwork, we didn’t get
to see much flying.
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