Helpful Score: 2
Evangeline Anderson does it again! After reading and enjoying Planet X, I looked forward to reading this one and was not disappointed. Alex and Cole enjoy working together as homicide detectives and life is good with a comfortable comaraderie and mutual repect the keywords in their partnership. That is until a string of murders mimicking behaviors from the BDSM community lands in their laps. All of a sudden Alex's secret sideline becomes a major risk in her life and the great relationship she shares with Cole is threatened as they struggle to maintain their professional attitudes in very tempting situations. Good read!
Helpful Score: 2
Erotic Contemporary Romance from Loose ID. Fantastic! Alex is a tough policewoman, with deep, secret submissive desires. Her best friend and partner Cole has no idea. While working a serial murder case, where each crime scene comes out of an erotic novel, Alex has to come to terms with her own suppressed sexuality. Each chapter is written from the point of view of Alex or Cole, so the reader can know the feelings of each of the main characters. Couldn't put it down, read it in one day (400+ pages). Its a terrific crime thriller and well as a great erotic romance. Love It.
Helpful Score: 1
Except for the BDSM theme, I would almost call this "romantic suspense" or "romantic mystery" rather than erotica. Most of the book is the h&h solving a case. The heroine is a cop who secretly fantasized about being submissive and is a BDSM author. The hero is her cop partner who is naturally dominant but has no interest in the BDSM "scene" and who only dominates her to please her.
With the exception of a few cheesy sections here and there, the writing was well done and crisp with interesting situations and unique characters. But the "erotic" part was pretty weak. There are really only two sex scenes and a couple of very tame BDSM scenes. It was steamy but I've read Kresley Cole and Lisa Kleypas books that are much hotter and even more graphic than the scenes in this book and neither of them get listed as "erotic fiction". I guess the spanky-panky puts it automatically in that genre. Perhaps unfair to the author whose book is overlooked in the contemporary romance category and forced in to a very niche category.
Some of it was new material - the introduction of a BDSM "trainer" who gave pointers. That was kind of sexy. But I was kind of put off by the constant references to the notion that liking a little dominance or pain with sex in relationships is "sick" and "wrong". Then it is over-explained and justified - sort of. Is the author trying to rationalize why she's writing about this stuff or fantasizing about it? Seems like if you're reading this kind of book, you want to just enjoy the fantasy - we don't need half a book of lecture about it. Unfortunately a lot of books in this genre do exactly that, and this was another disappointing example.
Despite my complaints, it had a strong story and if you aren't looking for erotic fiction, a la Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, or Opal Carew, then this is a pretty good book. But not a keeper for me. 2-1/2 stars
With the exception of a few cheesy sections here and there, the writing was well done and crisp with interesting situations and unique characters. But the "erotic" part was pretty weak. There are really only two sex scenes and a couple of very tame BDSM scenes. It was steamy but I've read Kresley Cole and Lisa Kleypas books that are much hotter and even more graphic than the scenes in this book and neither of them get listed as "erotic fiction". I guess the spanky-panky puts it automatically in that genre. Perhaps unfair to the author whose book is overlooked in the contemporary romance category and forced in to a very niche category.
Some of it was new material - the introduction of a BDSM "trainer" who gave pointers. That was kind of sexy. But I was kind of put off by the constant references to the notion that liking a little dominance or pain with sex in relationships is "sick" and "wrong". Then it is over-explained and justified - sort of. Is the author trying to rationalize why she's writing about this stuff or fantasizing about it? Seems like if you're reading this kind of book, you want to just enjoy the fantasy - we don't need half a book of lecture about it. Unfortunately a lot of books in this genre do exactly that, and this was another disappointing example.
Despite my complaints, it had a strong story and if you aren't looking for erotic fiction, a la Emma Holly, Lora Leigh, or Opal Carew, then this is a pretty good book. But not a keeper for me. 2-1/2 stars
