Copyright: 2007
Pages: 352 (trade-size paperback edition)
Setting/Type: Contemporary/D/s
Series: Wicked Ties #1 (the author had another release this month with a follow-up story about the hero’s business partner)
Grade: C-
When a stalker ratchets up his attempts to get to her, cable sex talk show host Morgan O’Malley turns to Jack Cole-a self-proclaimed dominant- for help. Though Jack is a bodyguard, Morgan feels anything but safe in his presence. Because slowly and seductively, Jack is bringing her deepest fantasies to the surface. And when he bends her to his will, what’s more shocking than her surrender is how much she enjoys it and how she starts to crave his masterful touch. A willing player in Jack’s games, Morgan knows that his motives aren’t pure. But she has no idea how personal they are.
Weeeeel, for anybody who is looking for some hot one on one action (with a thrown in ménage) hits probably jackpot with this one. Up until the last part of Wicked Ties I thought of this book as a guilty pleasure keeper. There is a number of rather “over the top” moments in the story and a heroine that made me gnashing my teeth but in the end I thoroughly enjoyed it, like I did years ago with flowery Virgina Henleys and magic love sticks *g*. For those who are reluctant to touch this book because of the D/s theme, don’t worry, it’s a very tame D/s story and quite certainly not even too much for unused reader.
Jack has been a Dom for years and embraces this lifestyle with his whole being. After a successful career in the army he decided upon a career as … (yes you won half a washing machine) … security expert/bodyguard. For the last three years he has been plotting revenge against the SOB who ravished his now divorced wife. Enter the heroine. She’s a “grown-up” version of early Blaze heroines. Instead of being a virginal media-person she’s a well-versed woman with a catholic number of three (unsatisfying) lovers and a successful TV show about sexual matters named Turn It On. Morgan does have a number of D/s fantasies but because of her strict upbringing and a former uptight fiancé she feels like the most perverted person in the Almighty’s Universe.
Jack’s enemy is Morgan’s half-brother, and Morgan is Jack’s ticket to a satisfactory revenge. His original plan is to help her in her researches about BDSM for her next show, fuck her and leave her. Alas, he didn’t count on finding the redhead more tempting than he expected.
Morgan is a typical BDSM heroine. Wanting, not wanting, contradicting, bratty, and sometimes too much so that you want to give her a good shake. Jack uses a sure mix between coercion, arousal, technique and sternness to bring Morgan to a point of boundless submission … more or less successful. There’s nothing really outstanding about those two. You will find a lot of similar Morgan’s and Jack’s out there … just change their names. All in all they are rather likable, nice and up to a certain point original.
What made this book turn from a guilty pleasure B grade keeper into a C- book without keeper status was Jack’s behaviour during the end of the story. Morgan is very insecure about her wants, she thinks of herself as a kind of perverted whore and it takes her ages to open up to Jack. Jack promises Morgan to help her in her quest to bring her satisfaction without shame and to never betray her trust … and then promptly walks away from her (TWICE) after two very intensive sessions. They sort it out, eventually, but sorry, no, his behaviour is a total trust breaker.
For erotic romance junkies this book is a sure bet because it contains a number of highly erotic and entertaining love scenes. The plot is non-existent and ridiculous, but hey, that’s nothing new in this sub-genre. I think I will give this author another try with the second book in this mini-series about Jack’s business partner Deke.
As an aside: I know it’s all the rage to create exotic heroes, in this case a hot blooded Cajun. I have no concept about Cajun French but I do have a firm grasp of the French language and also consulted a native speaker about certain phrases in this book. There are definitely differences between French and Cajun French but I doubt they are so convoluted as to mix up 3rd person singular nouns with 3rd person plural verbs and new adjective positions and a masculine endearment for a female person. In the day and age of Internet it’s become so easy to properly research language. There are fans out there, native speakers who would jump at the option of helping an author, there are boards and Internet platforms … please PLEASE it’s simply horrible and leaves a rather bad image with the reader.
