Kinky Book Reviews

Author: Mandy Monroe
Genre: Paranormal Erotic Romance
Publisher: New Concept Publishing
Length: 100 Pages
Buy Links: New Concepts Publishing, Amazon

Rating: 3.5 of 5 Kinks!

Blurb:

Under pressure from her family to recapture the interest of her wealthy ex-husband, it was almost inevitable that it would occur to Nicole that making him jealous just might do the trick, and who better to do that than the fabulously sexy Jakman brothers? It still took a lot of pep talk to gather her nerve to ask for their help, to pretend an interest in her.

Neither Hugh nor Byron had any interest in or need to pretend. They wanted her and they were already having trouble controlling the wolf within. All it took was an invitation.

They had their own agenda, though—and letting her go back to her ex sure as hell wasn’t it.

Kitten’s Review:

For me, this story kept going back and forth. There were times that I really was enjoying myself, and then other time just putting it down and loathing to pick it up. I think my need to enjoy this story, kept me reading it. I have to say that by the end it was a satisfying read. I think I need to really break this down for anyone reading this review, because I am not clear. “So you loved it or hated it, Kitten. Really, get on with it!”

I’ll first talk about the things that I really liked about it. I really loved Huge and Byron. I mean, honestly, how could you not. This debaucherous duo were just steamy. Not only did they maintain their very Alpha stance throughout the whole book, but they showed compassion when necessary. It wasn’t an over done compassion to the point where you suddenly lose the whole stance of them being Dominant Alphas. They had personalities that were instantly likable. Monroe did an outstanding job with their banter. It didn’t feel forced, and it was a natural flow onto the page, and I was often looking forward to their conversations with one another. They talked naturally. What do I mean by that? Well, some editors feel the need to violate ‘natural speech’ and make a character talk totally without flow. “I cannot understand why you would do such a thing.” When a normal person would say, “I don’t know why you would do such a thing.” People, everyday normal people, talk in slang. Monroe gave natural flow to all conversation and it made the reading enjoyable for me. Hugh and Byron are for sure on my list of hunky Alpha wolves that I would love to be sandwiched between in some fantasy.

Second, the sex, oh good lord was the sex ever hot. I didn’t look forward to it, but it had a build. Such and balanced build that I was slowly finding that my own heart rate was getting more erratic, I was breathing hard, and I thinking “Holy crap, this is hot.” I could literally see the sex scenes in my head. There was one particular scene, with the three of them of course. She was riding Byron, facing away from him, and Byron reached around and spread her open, while inside her. Showing Hugh exactly what they looked like joined. By god I got sweat on my upper lip, and I was nearly panting. I knew that when the lead in to one of the intimate scenes came, it was going to explode like a thousand fireworks by the time it was done, even to the last few scenes in the book! If anything the ménage book is worth this! The intimacy, passion, and love were very real because these were so well written.

Now we have the inevitable downsides to the book, which, if I am honest, doesn’t make it not worth picking up and reading. I think as an erotic romance it is fully worth the read. I wasn’t keen on Nicole to the very end of the book. I think grabbing the reader’s attention with the female lead is extremely important. To make her not relatable and almost unrealistically daft, almost alienates the reader. I almost stopped reading multiple times because of her. I understand fearing change and being set in your ways. But him providing for a mother that is unwilling to work and a mother making a child be married to an abusive husband just didn’t really ring true for me. If this was a historical, I could believe it. That sort of thing was the norm in some time periods and cultures. But in the US, not so much for me. I didn’t really respect Nicole till the very end when she realized she was being silly, but it wasn’t even herself that realized this; it was Hugh and Byron that were insisting that she wake up!

The plot at times read a little disjointed. The uneven and jarring shifts in POV and plotline made it sometimes annoying to read. The idea that he was going to kill his ex wife for insurance came out of nowhere. The cookie cutter bad ex husband villain I wasn’t buying. He may have had his finger dipped into a lot of ‘pies’ in town, but he was so unlikable and in so much debt that I doubt he had any real pull. I just wanted Hugh and Byron to go in and rip him apart and dump his body in the woods. There, end of problem. But that would have ruined all the tension through the rest of the story. So, by the end of the book I totally understood the purpose behind it. It just weakened the story for me at about the 50 page mark and it was slow to bring me back in again as a reader.

As a whole, the book was a 3.5 rating for me. At the end of the day, I did enjoy the story. It was safe, sexy, and I cared about the ending, and that they all got what they desired in the end.