Tag Archives: Ménage

Review: Colters’ Gift by Maya Banks

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Colters' Gift (Colters' Legacy, #5)Colters’ Gift by Maya Banks

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for a honest review at Seductive Musings.

Colters’ Gift is the latest entry in Maya Banks’ Colters’ Legacy series and with Colters’ Legacy, the additional novella included as a bonus, it concludes the story of the Colter family and their multiple generations of brothers who share and love a single woman together forever.

We last saw Lauren Wilder in Colters’ Promise, when she was rescued from an abusive relationship by her brother Max and the two men he had hired to protect her. In that story Max, happily married to Callie Colter, convinced Lauren to leave New York for Clyde, Colorado, where she could be looked after by the whole extended Colter family. Now months later, Lauren is just starting to regain her confidence and feel like herself again, while her two bodyguards, Noah and Liam, are still in New York trying to find the man who had abused Lauren. What they don’t know and Lauren hasn’t shared is that her ex-boyfriend Joel Knight is a dangerous criminal kingpin who uses his wealth and influence with corrupt law enforcement officials to do whatever he wants, including drug trafficking, prostitution, and worse. When Noah and Liam realize the danger Lauren is in, they return to Clyde both to protect her and claim her for their own. But Joel hasn’t given up looking for Lauren, and when he finds her, the entire Colter clan rallies to eliminate the danger to her and themselves once and for all.

So much of Colters’ Gift was taken up with the threat to Lauren’s life that the romance between her and the two bodyguards suffered by comparison for me. I hadn’t gotten a sense from the previous book that either Liam or Noah had harbored deeper feelings for her, let alone ones so strong that they were willing to share her. Of course the idea of being shared wouldn’t be out of the question for Lauren after seeing how happy her in-laws were in their relationships, but it almost seemed like it was being forced into the plot just to keep with the overall menage theme of the series. What I found especially odd was how the story just seemed to end suddenly with Colters’ Gift, and then the actual happy ending for everyone was in the bonus novella, Colters’ Legacy. It would have made more sense to me to just have that in the one book, but perhaps there were other issues not obvious to the reader forcing that decision.

As a longtime reader of the Colters’ Legacy series, I was happy to have final closure on the characters’ lives, but beyond that, Colters’ Gift was just an okay read for me. There really wasn’t anywhere else for Maya Banks to go with the story and I’m glad she was able to end it on a positive note with everyone happy, safe and loved.

Ratings:

Overall: 3
Sensuality level: 4 (MFM menage including anal sex, multiple threats of sexual violence)

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Review: Bind and Keep Me by Cari Silverwood

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Bind and Keep Me (Pierced Hearts, #2)Bind and Keep Me by Cari Silverwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own enjoyment.

THIS BOOK IS SO NOT FOR EVERYONE. But if this is the sort of book you’d like, you’re probably going to love it.

I think the last time I felt this compelled to finish a book was when I read the first book in this incredible Pierced Hearts series. I’m not normally a big fan of MFF menage, as some part of me subconsciously sees it as a betrayal of the original pair-bond. (Yes, I know that’s irrational when I love reading MFM and MMF, but there it is nonetheless.) But I stuck with it and was rewarded by a plot and character development that not only got past my innate discomfort but made me enjoy every moment of how the new member is subsumed into the undeniable love between Klaus and Jodie. And the ending, which I thought I could predict, went off into such a perfect alternative to my guess that I’m just as mad to read the next book as I was to read this after completing the first one. My hat’s off to you, Cari Silverwood. Well done.

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Review: Escape From Obsession by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

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Escape from Obsession (The American Soldier Collection #1)

This review originally appeared at Seductive Musings

Review: Escape From Obsession by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

I am a regular reader of the “Ménage Everlasting” erotic romances published by Siren Bookstrand, so when I was offered the opportunity to review this new-to-me author, I jumped in with both feet. A MFMM erotic romance featuring three hot and broody military brothers is just the sort of book I love to read, and I had hoped that Dixie Lynn Dwyer’s “Escape from Obsession” would be no exception. Unfortunately for me, what good there was to enjoy in this book was constantly overshadowed by awkward phrasing, excessive repetition and an ending that I found implausible at best.

The story begins several months earlier in New York, when Gia is still Gianna, a young impressionable woman being controlled by her domineering boyfriend, Antonio, who is up to his neck in drug dealing and other major financial wrongdoings. When Antonio attempts to force Gianna to submit sexually to his business partner, Valdere, she realizes she is in a dangerous situation and only manages to escape when another angry business associate crashes into their apartment and the cops show up to drag Antonio off to jail. Gianna moves to Texas, settles in a new job and apartment near her beloved cousin, Teddy, and changes her first name to Gia in an attempt to stay hidden from anyone who might come looking for her there.

Teddy is already in a long term ménage relationship where he shares his wife Deanna with another man. Gia wonders how they can possibly be happy when she is still so horrified that Antonio wanted to give her to Valdere. It’s only when she finally comes out of her self-imposed social exile and joins in the fun at Casper’s, the local sports bar, that she meets a friendly bartender, Garrett McCallister, and realizes that she might be ready to trust a man again. A few days later, she meets Garrett’s brother, Wes, who is the football coach for her cousin’s son Dale, and just as attracted to her as Garrett was. The two brothers then contact their older brother Gunner, a Texas Ranger, once they both realize that Gia might be the one woman they have all hoped to find for a ménage relationship of their own. But Gia is still trapped in her fear of what happened in New York and what might happen again if she lets these men take her as their own.

The McCallister brothers are easily the best part of “Escape from Obsession” but the various ways they are described were also a major frustration for me. We are constantly reminded that they were “commandoes” (author’s spelling) in the “Marine Corp” and that they each have a matching “Royal Commandoes” back tattoo. Although such phrasing kept taking me out of the story, I did enjoy how each of the brothers treated with Gia with patience and love, especially in light of how she was so incredibly afraid to even go out on a real date with any of them. I found Gia’s reactions understandable at first, but as the story went on and on with her continuing to insist that men are pain and that no men could ever be trusted, I got impatient with her refusal to move on and wondered if she’d ever gotten any counseling after her experience in New York.

The other issue I had with “Escape from Obsession” was with the pacing and the plot choices as the story played out. I had a big problem with the moment when Gia decided to finally submit to the McCallister brothers, considering how understandably afraid she was of men attacking her and what had happened to her mere hours before they all had sex together for the first time. But the truly astonishing moment for me came toward the end when all the various threats in Gia’s life converge in a single horrific scene. I found that moment to be so preposterous that I wondered if book length constraints had forced the author’s hand, or if that was the resolution she really intended. At least at the end of it all, we know Gia will be happy and safe with her McCallister brothers, having finally escaped from her own obsession with her unhappy past.

Ratings:

Overall: 2.5
Sensuality level: 4 (MFMM ménage including anal sex, and multiple instances of attempted rape)

Review: Chains and Canes by Katie Porter

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Chains and Canes (Club Devant, #2)

This review originally appeared at Seductive Musings:

Review: Chains and Canes by Katie Porter

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own enjoyment.

“Chains and Canes” is the latest installment in Katie Porter’s Club Devant series and its intensity and passion more than live up to the expectations set by the previous book, “Lead and Follow”. In this book, a devoted couple discovers that what they do have isn’t nearly as wonderful as what they could have with a person who can provide them with that special spark that they didn’t even realize they were missing.

By all appearances, Daniel and Naya appear to be a couple perfectly in sync. Naya is the gifted but insecure dancer who could take the world by storm if she would only believe more in her own talent. Daniel is the quiet but powerful businessman with his own gift for raising and investing money, and who provides the security and balance Naya needs to keep herself from sinking in self-doubt. The one thing Daniel can’t give Naya, however, is the fulfillment she gets only from submitting herself to a Dominant for the extreme pain which clears her mind and settles her soul. He knows it’s what she needs and craves, but he just can’t bring himself to inflict any pain, no matter what.

When Naya begins her new job at Club Devant, the attraction between her and Remy, the lead choreographer and dancer, is electric. Their first practice dance together is just shy of full-on sexual intercourse, with no heed to who might be watching them on stage. When Daniel sees how Remy dominates Naya so thoroughly just in that dance, he realizes that Remy could be the perfect Dom for what Naya needs….and perhaps even for what he himself has always needed, but never admitted to himself before now. Remy is understandably suspicious when Daniel invites him to spend the evening with him and Naya, and their class differences are no help in calming his concerns. Why would a rich perfect couple want a Cajun river rat like himself for more than just casual sex? And how can Daniel and Naya be the same together again if Remy refuses to stay?

All three of the main characters in “Chains and Canes” were well developed and enjoyable to read about, and it was great to see how they fit in the Club Devant world already established in the first book. We also got to see more about how the club operates and a bit more background on the owner, Declan, and his omnipresent security cameras. Club Devant is a place that I wish really existed, because I’d love to go there and see the shows I read about in the series.

But ultimately for me, the key to my enjoyment of “Chains and Canes” was Daniel. Daniel was the character with the most to lose, and the one who underwent the most changes to his life and sense of self. What made him so compelling was that in spite of all the enormous changes he experiences in this story, he never wavers from who he is and what he wants. He knows he loves Naya and wants to do everything to make her happy. But he also realizes that he feels the same way about Remy, and for the same reasons. His loyalty to them both as well as his own quiet strength of purpose is what made me care for him most of all. I was actively rooting for him to succeed in his quest to protect his loved ones while still being true to his own wants and desires. His journey as a character is truly remarkable, and reason enough to read “Chains and Canes”. I look forward to new intriguing stories and passionate characters from Katie Porter in the next Club Devant book.

Ratings:

Overall: 4.5
Sensuality level: 4.5 (M/M/F menage, several BDSM scenes including caning and anal play)

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