Review: Desperate Measures by Katee Robert

Desperate Measures by Katee Robert

Series: Wicked Villains #1

Publication date: October 15th, 2024

Pages: 320

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Synopsis:

Once upon a time, I was a sheltered princess. Now he owns me, body and soul.

One night, and my entire life went up in flames. All because of him. Jafar. As my world burned around me, he offered me a choice: walk away with nothing but my freedom... or rise to his challenge and win my fortune back.

I bargained.

I lost.

Now Jafar owns me, and even as my mind rails against him, my body loves the delicious punishments he deals out. It's almost enough to believe he cares. But a gilded cage is still a prison, and I'll do anything to obtain my freedom.

Even betray the man who captured my heart.

For all tropes, tags, and CWs, please check the author's website.

Rich bonus features include:

• Gorgeous b&w interior art
• Author annotations
• Additional scenes
• A spicy kink inventory
• And more!

Available at:

Story:

When I think of an Jasmine/Jafar love connection I can't really see it in my mind based off the Disney movie Aladdin that we all are familiar with. We all want to see the villains have something behind their eyes than just evil or greed. This story made Jafar every bit as evil as the Disney depiction but with a lot more of a forcefully sexual air about him. The story itself was trying way too hard to turn something that is meant to be fantasy and magical like Aladdin and turn it smutty. It seems to be a tread with authors these days and it is a very hit or miss situation. This was a miss for me. The story has so many plot holes in it that I could drive a 16-wheeler through it. There were a lot of times I would stop and flip back in the book thinking I missed something but instead it was just something glossed over; a very square peg trying to fit in a round hole. I couldn't get into the story or relate to the characters. I couldn't get over the odd writing style or the absolute inundating of sex through the whole thing. You want porn? Look no further. You want a spicy story featuring childhood characters you love? Look elsewhere.

Characters:

• Yasmina - Spoiled little rich girl with daddy issues that is kept under the thumb of yet another controlling man. She fights for independence throughout but it just comes across as whiny and garnered no sympathy from her. She was a grating character and as someone who loved the original Jasmine, I hated this depiction of her. Another attempt of turning the strong female lead of the movie into a modern day "princess". She felt super short of my expectations for her. Is her independence really something she worked towards if it was basically handed to her?

• Jafar - He tried to be that shadow daddy, dark anti-hero but it felt forced. In a lot of ways he was led around like a lost puppy by Yasmina and that made him thoroughly unlikeable for me. I didn't like that he tried to be bad but would melt anytime Yasmina tested him. Or he'd attempt to discipline her but then back down the minute she pouted. He was what I would call a 'fake Dom' the likes of which Christian Gray would stand next to in solidarity. 

Writing:

The writing was not abysmal as you would think with the rest of this review. But the plot slipped a number of times. It felt like the author was trying to throw their readers for a loop to earn some shock value and intrigue but it just left me with a confused expression on my face and a constant need to flip backwards in the book to see if I had missed something along the way. One minute she's completely happy and submitted to Jafar and the next she's hating his guts with no reason for it other than she just changed her mind on a whim. The characters were shaky, the plot was a struggle to follow, and the terminology was used on a continued repeat instead of changed up with the aid of a thesaurus. 

Overall:

The only thing that saved this book for me from being a 1-star or a DNF was that it was loosely based on characters I had grown up with and it was interesting to see a modernized version of events. Maybe Jafar wasn't all bad. Maybe Yasmina was a selfish, sheltered brat. Maybe Raja was only a safe word and not an actual pet. But the execution was not there for me. I might read the next book in the series to see if he author just had some growing pains with this one being the first in a series.