The Pleasure of Discretion: Books 1-6 by Elle Thorne

The Pleasure of Discretion: Books 1-6
By: Elle Thorne
Publisher: Barbed Border Press
Published: November 13, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Content: M/F, F/F, M/F/F, Ménage, Multiple Partners, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Anal Play, Oral Sex, Toys
Length: Collection of Six Novellas
Heat Level: Sigh, Sweet, Spicy, Scorching
Reviewer: Dana
Date: May 14, 2015

 

The Pleasure of Discretion is a new adult series that delves into relationships and complications. Sex can be one of those complications. As the series progresses, some of the scenes may push the boundaries for some. In the same way that life pushes boundaries at times. It spans the relationships between couples, and at times, others.

Jessica, a college student raising her teenage brother needs a job. She needs a job a lot more than she needs a boyfriend. And she doesn't need her boyfriend to be the nephew of her new boss. Not that player, hell no.

Rick just wants to sink into women and booze. And self-torture. That's the only way he can deal with the demons that haunt him.

Lucas owns a club that caters to those who want to explore their kinks and sensual pleasures. He doesn't need his stepsister- the one he made the mistake of falling in love with- reentering his life.

Miranda wasn't bothering anyone. Just stripping at Trinkets, snorting her recreational coke. Who said she had to want more out of life? Who said she had to want Lucas?

Jessica's Dilemma - Book One
Heat Level - Sigh

Jessica is willing to do anything to keep her job. Even staying away from her boss' manwhore nephew. Jessica doesn't think it will be too hard, considering she has sworn off men and has too much to lose if she loses her job. Except that she didn't expect Rick, the manwhore, to be as H*O*T* as he is. 

When fate throws them together, can Jessica resist?

Clearly, this first story is setting us up for what's to come, and aside from a few stolen kisses, not much happens between Jessica and Rick.

I'm still trying to figure out if there is any real chemistry between them. Both have secrets and clearly are in need of a friend. Until they can rid themselves of their demons, they'd better stick to being friends only.

Jessica Released - Book Two
Heat Level - Sweet

Rick and Jessica get closer despite Jessica's hesitation. Again, not much happens, except that this ended with the pair going to Discretion, a sex club because Rick won tickets in a poker game. The pair don't stay long, but Jessica's libido come out of hiding while there.

I would like this book better if Jessica stopped sounding like a middle school student.

Breaking Jessica's Rules - Book Three
Heat Level - Scorching

Jessica has two rules: Rick's dick belongs only to her, and Rick's mouth belongs only to her. Break them, and they are through.

Rick and Jessica have been together for a year now. It is Jessica's 23rd birthday and Rick has planned a surprise. He is bringing in a third to the mix. Miranda is supposed to be Jessica's surprise birthday present. Except that surprises are just that. Miranda was late and Jessica was on time, so Rick never had time to explain to Miranda that this night was for Jessica only. He was to be only an observer. Rick also had a few other surprises for Jessica that night, like a few video cameras to capture everything. 

Jessica is still annoyingly immature, but now that I know her age, it makes more sense. Rick is reverting back to his pre-Jessica ways, which may signal the end of the pair.

Miranda's Unfinished Business - Book  Four
Heat Level - Spicy

This book was all about Miranda and her stepbrother/boyfriend Lucas. Miranda is clearly very angry at the world, but the author uses Lucas to narrate that Miranda had been abused by an uncle, and her mother did nothing to stop it. It never got as far as rape, but it went far enough for a little girl. 

Miranda is bi-sexual, and doesn't quite understand why the only man she has ever loved is her stepbrother. 

When she goes to Club Hedonist for the night to drink away her sorrows, she spies Jessica there. Miranda hits on her, still thinking about their steamy night together on Jessica's birthday, and while Jessica is responsive, she ultimately stays faithful to Rick.

This book really offered nothing in the way of a background story on Miranda or Lucas, and how or why they are together, except that Lucas will do anything for Miranda and hates to see her self-sabotage.

Paying Jessica's Price - Book  Five
Heat Level - Spicy

Jessica finds out something awful about Rick and breaks up with him immediately. She then quits her job and disappears. In the meantime, her brother gets into an accident and is arrested for drunk driving. With bills mounting up, Jessica takes a job as a hostess at Discretion, after using Miranda's name to get in. Jessica maintains that she will not be a part of anything sexual, but the book takes a very weird turn and Jessica agrees to become a masked attendant because it is more money. On her first night as attendant, Jessica is drugged by another attendant and almost raped by the man who requested her, who had a connection with Jessica's supervisor. She is rescued by Rick's brother and her friend Levi.

This story just didn't work for me. The only thing I got from the story was that Jessica was desperate for money. Even the backstory part of this scene was bizarre.

This was also the last book in Jessica's story. It ends with Rick and Jessica being pushed together to talk. I was expecting more. I was hoping for at least some closure between the two, but didn't receive it.

Miranda Unlocked - Book  Five
Heat Level - Scorching

This last story was all about Miranda and Lucas. Miranda is trying and failing to get her life back on track. She meets Lucas at his club Discretion and they watch a foursome play with some new toys and new friends. As they are leaving, Miranda runs into an old nemesis, but because there is no backstory on who this man is, I don't know why Miranda cannot stand him. Words between the two are exchanged, and then the next scene is Lucas getting a call that Miranda has been drugged, attacked and brutally beaten and is in the hospital.

Lucas convinces Miranda to go to a special rehab where they can go and heal together. 

When Miranda's attacker winds up dead, both Miranda and Lucas are considered suspects.

At rehab, Miranda is slowly recovering, but a surprise visit from her mother has her falling back a few steps. Again, not sure why there is such animosity between the two, because it clearly is more than just the mother not protecting her daughter from her lecherous uncle.

Because Lucas is a suspect in Miranda's attacker's murder, Lucas is forced to leave the country and Miranda is forced to stay behind with her stepfather and continue to pick up the pieces of her life. Lucas and Miranda both promise to stay connected.

What grabbed my attention to want to read this collection were the blurbs.  A blurb can make or break a story.  While the blurbs made me want to pick up the stories, the stories themselves unfortunately failed to deliver what was promised.  

Ms. Thorne has a vivid imagination and her writing is satisfactory, but the story ideas seemed to be too complex and didn't flourish as they could have.  There were too many histories untold and complexities of families left behind; especially the additions of Lucas and Miranda’s individual stories.  While they were a great addition to the stories as characters, their individual stories seemed incomplete and forced.

One of the biggest distractions for me while I was reading the collection was the editing and/or formatting. I’m not sure if the problem of missing words, or improper placement of punctuation were due to formatting or not, but all I can say is that it was a constant bother and disrupted the flow of the books.  It led to the lack of clarity of sentence structuring and understanding, which made reading dialog and narrative very confusing at times.  All of these problems lead to me not having an enjoyable experience reading this collection.

While this is my opinion, others love the collection.  It just wasn't for me, but you never know for you.  Read the blurbs, other reviews and pick this collection up if you love New Adult romances filled with budding relationships, packed with complications of sex and youth.  You never know, you might find a beautiful gem.  

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Snow Angels by Sabrina York

Snow Angels
By: Sabrina York
Publisher: Decadent Publishing Company
Published: December 1, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
Length: Novella
Heat Level: Spicy
Reviewer: Dana
Date: April 5, 2015

 

The last thing Wade Masters wants on his month-long getaway to his sister’s wilderness cabin is company. A wounded warrior, Wade is looking for complete isolation to deal with the tragedy of his life and his screaming guilt.

But company he gets, in the form of Lyssa Salk, a spunky, diminutive massage therapist. Who says she can talk to dead people.

Trapped together in the snowbound cabin, Wade and Lyssa have little else to do but help each other heal, spiritually, physically and sexually.

Wade is coming off a long recuperation period, and after agreeing to be Mr. December for his friends' Wounded Vets calendar campaign, Wade just needs a little privacy. Especially from the stalkery-ish women who have been showing up in the most unexpected of places (like naked in his bed) all for a piece of him. So escaping to his sister Val's remote country cabin with his war wounded dog, seems like a good idea. Until she shows up with...that.

Lyssa is escaping her past, and her best friend Val has generously shared the use of her "empty" remote country cabin until Lyssa can get back on her feet again. Except when she arrives at the cabin with her furry cat in tow, she's horrified to see that the cabin isn't as empty as she had hoped.

Wade wasn't expecting anyone, but when Lyssa walked in, his body parts that had been "dead' for a year, suddenly spring back to life. However, he thinks that she is just another stalker after him because he was a Calendar man, so he's less than chivalrous. When Lyssa explains that her car is stuck in a snow ditch, and that she walked a mile to the house, Wade relents and lets her stay the night. When the truth comes out that Val has set them up, Wade is less wary of Lyssa, but he can't shake the ghost of his dead girlfriend, and the fact that Lyssa talks to herself, still makes Wade keep his distance.

Wade is still in extreme pain from almost being blown in two, and when Lyssa offers to massage away the pain, he asks her if she is a Physical Therapist. Her non-committal answer, and her magic hands has him believing he was right. Until Lyssa finally confesses that she is a Healer, and that she is a medium, of sorts.

This is where the book got a little too Sixth Sense for me. I am not a fan of characters who can "heal" the sick with their magic touch, or speak to the dead. But, I overlooked it because of the chemistry that Wade and Lyssa had. Both had baggage that they were dealing with (more than just the clothes they brought with them) and together they are able to deal with it, not to mention consume mass amounts of bacon together.

I enjoyed this book, and I loved that it took the pair a while before they jumped in the sack together. The author did a great job of shedding background light on the characters, as well as having them try and be friends before they became lovers.

I'm a huge fan of Sabrina York, and I've read other works of hers where the character jump each other before getting to know each other, and I liked that she changed it up a bit in this story.

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Say My Name by J. Kenner

Say My Name
By: J. Kenner
Publisher: Bantam Books (division of Random House)
Published: April 7, 2015
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Content: M/F, Spanking, Bondage, Rope Play
Length: Novel
Heat Level: Scorching
Reviewer: Dana
Date: March 11, 2015

 

New York Times bestselling author J. Kenner kicks off a smoking hot, emotionally compelling new trilogy that returns to the world of her beloved Stark novels: Release Me, Claim Me, and Complete Me. Say My Name features Jackson Steele, a strong-willed man who goes after what he wants, and Sylvia Brooks, a disciplined woman who’s hard to get—and exactly who Jackson needs.

I never let anyone get too close—but he’s the only man who’s ever made me feel alive.
Meeting Jackson Steele was a shock to my senses. Confident and commanding, he could take charge of any room . . . or any woman. And Jackson wanted me. The mere sight of him took my breath away, and his touch made me break all my rules.

Our bond was immediate, our passion untamed. I wanted to surrender completely to his kiss, but I couldn’t risk his knowing the truth about my past. Yet Jackson carried secrets too, and in our desire we found our escape, pushing our boundaries as far as they could go.

Learning to trust is never easy. In my mind, I knew I should run. But in my heart, I never felt a fire this strong—and it could either save me or scorch me forever.

J. Kenner has knocked it out of the park with her newest Alpha Male in Say My Name.

Jackson Steele is the newest rising star in the architect world. When he is approached by Stark International to design and build a family and adult resort on an island off the coast of California, he at first says no. When he is later approached by Sylvia, Damien Stark's assistant and lead on this project, Jackson says yes, but he has conditions. Jackson wants revenge on a relationship he had with Sylvia five years earlier, a relationship in which Sylvia ran from, without ever looking back. 

What Jackson doesn't know is that Sylvia had to run because being with Jackson was too painful. Her past kept threatening to tear her in two, and she couldn't submit to a dominant without giving pieces of herself away. Jackson also has secrets. Secrets that will threaten both their newly budding relationship, and the very project that they are working on together. 

Without trust, they are doomed. With trust, they just might make it.

I have to say, that this was probably one of the most frustrating, exciting and hot novels I have read in a long while. I wanted to jump into the book and shake the characters to reveal their secrets before it split them apart. I also loved catching up with Damien and Nikki Stark (if you haven't read her Stark series, I highly recommend you read it ASAP!). I can't wait until the next book in this new series comes out!

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Dealer's Choice by Desiree Holt

Dealer's Choice
By: Desiree Holt
Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing
Published: February 3, 2015
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Content: M/F, BDSM, Spanking, Bondage, D/s, Toys
Length: Short Story
Heat Level: Spicy
Reviewer: Dana
Date: March 9, 2015

 

Cut the Cards has become an exciting game at Club Fantasy. As the cards are dealt at each session, the players learn ways to spice up their playtime.

Fiona “Fee” Wilder, as a neophyte submissive, needs the games to guide her as she steps into the D/s world for the first time as anything other than an observer.

Cade Sullivan left Club Fantasy long before the game was introduced and takes a very skeptical view of it.

But as the evening begins, as they cut the cards and choose the night’s activities, the game becomes the foundation on which to build Fee’s introduction to BDSM and provides the base for Cade to ease Fee into a night’s activities. With each turn of the card, each chosen activity, the heat between the two increases in intensity until they wonder if the volcanic blaze they started will consume them both.

In the last book in the Club Fantasy series, we are introduced to Fiona (Fee) Wilder, who works as a manager for Club Fantasy and as an assistant to Dungeon Master Reulas. She has been a watcher on the scene for years, but has never participated, until now. Fee feels that she is a sub who has yet to be tapped, and she wants to start playing, but she wants a Dom who will understand that she is new to the scene and will go at the speed that she is comfortable with. 

Enter Cade. He used to be the best Dom teacher around. Until a scene he was participating in went very, very wrong. He left the BDSM world and vowed to never return. When his old friend Reulas asks him to teach his friend Fee what it's like to be a sub, Cade, at first, is dead set against it. Eventually, he is worn down and agrees to just one night of play, but nothing more. 

Like the other books in this series, all it takes is one look, and Fee wants more from Cade. She wants to be his, in every way possible. However, Cade is still gun shy. He acts out this little fantasy that Fee has, but sticks to only play. There is no sex involved in their first meeting.  When neither can get their minds off of each other, Fee risks her feelings and goes to Cade, hoping that he feels about her as she feels about him.

I have to say, for an erotic BDSM novel, this one was on the vanilla side. I was hoping that the last book in this series would go off with a bang, and tie every book up, but, like Fee on her one night with Cade, I was left wanting. Because this is a short story, there are no cliffhangers, and it ends with a HEA, but there was absolutely nothing new in this story that you can't read elsewhere. 

At least you understand why Cade is the way he is, but still. I expected more, and I didn't get it.

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Three of a Kind by Desiree Holt

Three of a Kind
By: Desiree Holt
Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing
Published: December 17, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Content: M/F, M/F/M, Ménage, BDSM, Spanking, Bondage, D/s, Voyeurism, Exhibitionism, Anal Play, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Toys
Length: Short Story
Heat Level: Scorching
Reviewer: Dana
Date: March 8, 2015

 

Delaney Fox loves being a sub. She loves being Hunter Mills’ sub. She’s even in love with Hunter, something she had never expected to happen. But Delaney can’t make that permanent commitment because she still feels there’s something missing in her life. When Hunter’s twin brother, Taylor, comes to visit between his globetrotting jobs as a photojournalist, Delaney wonders if he could be the missing piece of the puzzle.

It takes a night at Club Fantasy and a game of Cut the Cards to show that three of a kind can work in love as well as it does in sex.

Delaney is in the midst of an orgasm when she realizes that as much as she loves playing with her Dom, Hunter, she feels that he isn't enough. Though all they have been doing together for the past 8 months, isn't enough. Which, is disheartening, because this is the first Dom Delaney has had who is her perfect match.

When Hunter's twin brother Taylor comes into town for a visit, Hunter wonders if adding a third to the mix is exactly what Delaney desires, but doesn't realize it.

I have to say, that in the fifth book of this Club Fantasy series, this was one of the better ones. This story had an actual beginning, middle and end, whereas the others, while compelling, only had a middle. I also enjoyed the fact that because of the card game, the sub has a say in what she desires, or knows what to expect of the evening. All parties are okay with the events of the evening, which is unlike other BDSM books, where the choice is solely in the hands of the Dom.

I must say, Ms. Holt certainly knows how to write a searingly hot page turner! Looking forward to reading the final story in this series!

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Blackjack by Desiree Holt

Blackjack
By: Desiree Holt
Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishers
Published: October 13, 2014
Genre: Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Content: M/F, M/M, BDSM, Spanking, Bondage, D/s, Toys
Length: Short Story
Heat Level: Scorching
Reviewer: Dana
Date: March 7, 2015

 

Who better to play a game of Cut the Cards than Nia “Queen of Hearts” March and Jack “Blackjack” Blackwell. It was just supposed hot be hot, inventive sex, led by the cards in the deck. But from the moment they met in the lounge of Club Fantasy, they both knew there was more in play than erotic activities. Strong emotions zapped the powerful Dom and his sought after sub, emotions neither of them were prepared to deal with. The cards they chose from the deck took them into an evening of sensual play that drove them both to unexpected heights and tightened that invisible bond wrapped around them, The evening was all that was promised and more. At the end of the night, as Blackjack brought his Queen of Hearts down from subspace, they had a big decision to make that would effect their lives going forward.

Nia, also known as the Queen of Hearts, is visiting her friend Kelly and joins both Kelly and Tanner at Club Fantasy as their guest for the night. Nia has been in the scene for a while, but has yet to connect with a Dom. She is looking forward to playing the Cut the Cards game, and hopes to enjoy herself. She doesn't expect to make a connection, but she's open to seeing what the night has to offer.

Jack, Blackjack to his subs, is also visiting and joins his friend Tanner for a night of fun. He's eagerly looking forward to playing this new card game that Tanner brought, and hopes that he enjoys his sub.

When Tanner connects the Queen of Hearts with Blackjack, sparks threaten to set Club Fantasy on fire. Loving that his new sub for the night gets off on pain, Blackjack starts thinking of more than just the one night. Little does he know, his Queen feels the same way.

While this story was beyond hot, for some reason, it left me a little cold. I felt that it was rushed. While it was pretty much the same length as the other three books in Ms. Holt's Club Fantasy series, I felt that this story was over before it had started. I enjoyed that Nia was a bit on the feisty side, but if you blinked, you missed it. Jack also seemed like a really, really nice, caring Dom, but again, you really don't get a chance to know him. I did enjoy catching up with Tanner and Kelly from Cut the Cards, however.

Again, if you are looking to spark your night and get you in the mood, and you don't have a lot of time before your evening begins, pick this up. It will leaving you wanting more!

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