At Any Price by Brenna Aubrey (Gaming the System #1)
Released: December 4, 2012
Contemporary Romance
Self Published

Reviewed by Mandi

This review has some spoilers.

I had to laugh at myself a bit as I read this book. The blurb threw me off a little. Very rich man bids for innocent heroine’s virginity so she can go to medical school and help her mother who has cancer. Selling your virginity for that? Very noble. (and yes, slight eye roll). But I had heard some good twitter buzz about this one so I decided to try it.

I immediately liked Mia. She posts this virgin manifesto on her popular gaming blog that comes about because:

The auction idea had spawned from that necessity, despite the “high ideals” of the Virginity Manifesto. I honestly had posted it to open the conversation on reclaiming the age-old tradition of profiting from a woman’s purity. And yes, I’d wanted to make a statement about the value of my virginity being used for my own gain. I firmly believed in those ideals but my number one motivation was money, security.

I actually could have done without the ill mother and school bills. But on we go. Her best friend Heath narrows down the bidding to one particular man. His name is Adam Drake. He is a self made rich guy, having started a software company at a young age. He actually makes the computer games that Mia loves so much so Heath thinks they will have much in common. They meet in a conference room to discuss the contract and the money and how things will proceed the night of the big debauchery. It was all very cold and a little suspenseful and I really started to get into it. Adam was mysterious and powerful and I wanted to know why he was going to spend almost a million dollars on a virgin. I couldn’t wait to see what this million dollar cock could do!

So he flies her to Amsterdam so this transfer of money for sex is legal and the big night arrives. I was excited, ignoring laundry and pets and various other household chores. And then….then…..NOTHING HAPPENS. His phone rings and he has to work and then the next day they fly home. Wait, what? So then Adam plans another night for a week later and guess what? Yeah – he puts it off again.  I was denied by ‘hot billionaire – stranger- virgin’ sex. Instead they get to know each other. We learn Mia was sexually abused in the past and Adam also has reasons in his past for not wanting to take advantage of Mia. Damn it. Also – Mia seemed very nonchalant about not completing this ‘transaction’ meaning she didn’t get paid. I expected her to be more worried about the money.

We don’t get sex for a very long time, and then when it actually happens, honestly it was not climatic. It just kind of happens and then Adam has to go to work. His working creates conflict, and other stuff creates conflict and he wants a relationship but Mia is scared of commitment.

Look, this isn’t a bad book by any means. I know I just complained a lot but for the most part I was pretty into it. Well, at least the first half. I like Mia. I liked Adam at first but I lost interest in him towards the end. I liked that he is a nicer billionaire, and more down to earth. But I wanted to really get to know him better and that was a little lost on me.

Maybe if I didn’t have so much anticipation for the hot deflowering of Mia, I would have been more satisfied. So maybe if you read it now and know it doesn’t come right away, you can relax and enjoy it more.

This book ends with a HEA but the next book also features this couple.

Rating: C-ish

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