#TBRChallenge 2020: His Secret and Their Secret

Admittedly I had an entirely different book picked out for this month's Challenge, but when I still hadn't read a single word of it as of Monday I knew 2020 had struck again. With my concentration continuing to be shot I knew I was going to have to leave my print TBR in favor for my digital TBR and find a novella that fit this month's Series theme. What I found was the Secret Pleasures quartet by Portia Da Costa and just to be an overachiever for a change - I read the first two.

The Book: His Secret by Portia Da Costa

The Particular: Erotic romance novella, originally published as The Retreat 2009, self-published edition 2014, eBook only, book 1 in series

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: Da Costa has been an autobuy for me for as long as I've been reading erotic romance. Um, that's a long time y'all!

The Review: Sarah met Ben at work, and they've been quietly dating for a while. Truly, he's the perfect boyfriend: dashing, charming, considerate, and good in bed.  Really, what more could a girl want?  But Sarah can't help having this feeling like something is missing.  And she finds out what it is when Ben whisks her away on a weekend getaway at the posh boutique hotel, The Retreat.  Because wouldn't you know it?  The Retreat is one of those quietly naughty hotels that cater to their guests every need (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). And perfect boyfriend Ben is, well, kinky. This turns out to be OK because Sarah discovers she likes it very much indeed when Ben is, well, kinky.

This is a short read, only clocking in around 50 pages. Even at that page count I wasn't disappointed in things like character development. Do you get to crawl around in the dark, deep recesses of their minds?  No. But they're an established couple and I got enough internal musings to not feel like the marriage proposal at the end of the story was a huge rush.  The erotic elements are what I would classify as light BDSM. There's spanking, there's a blindfold, there's some sex toys. I'm read tamer, I've read kinkier. 

Did this story change my life? Well, no. That's Wendy speak for "It was fine." But it was a quick read that made me feel like I managed to accomplish something.  Also, I wasn't upset that I had the next 3 novellas in  my TBR.

Final Grade = C+

The Book: Their Secret by Portia Da Costa

The Particulars: Erotic romance novella, originally part of Mastered box set (no longer available), self-published edition 2014, eBook only, book 2 in series

The Review: Maggie Jenkins has met a man she only knows as "Mr. Jones" in a kink chat room. The online correspondence has been going on for a while, long enough for them to float the idea of actually meeting in person. Maggie works, and is friends, with Sarah from the first book and she recommends Maggie meet her mystery man at The Retreat. Between their reputation and their security, it's the safe bet.  Maggie almost chickens out, but decides she has to know - so she heads for the rendezvous.  What she gets is the surprise of her life when she finds out who "Mr. Jones" really is.

This is slightly longer, at around 80 pages, and I think the story is better for it.  It's obvious who Mr. Jones is going to turn out to be once Da Costa tips her hand - but given the short word count that's expected.  This is, once again, light BDSM with spanking, blindfolds, and some outdoor sex to round out the shenanigans.  What keeps this from being a retread of book 1, just with different characters, is that Da Costa gives readers a glimpse of the fall-out afterward.  Once our couple leaves the secluded hideaway of The Retreat, having explored their kinky desires, how will that translate once they're back to "their real world."  Especially given who Mr. Jones turns out to be.

This was another quick, sexy read and the final chapters really tie it all together.

Final Grade = B

Retro Wendy: If You Build It, They Will Come: Erotic World-Building

This post originally ran at Heroes & Heartbreakers on August 5, 2012

Even though I’ve currently declared a moratorium on paranormal reading, that does not mean I ignore the subgenre completely; I still buy plenty for my library patrons to read, and I follow many bloggers who are diehard paranormal fans. One thing that is typically always mentioned in reviews for paranormal books is the world-building. Was it good, bad, or indifferent? In some cases, the world-building can make or break a book for a reader—too much and the romance gets lost. Not enough and the reader is slogging through wallpaper. But what about world-building in other corners of romance? 

Any story worth its salt—regardless of genre or subgenre—needs to have decent world-building. It’s what helps transport the reader into the story, as opposed to relegating us to the sidelines where we’re barely interested observers. I love getting lost in a book, sucked in to the point where I don’t want to come up for air. World-building does that for me.

Some of my favorite worlds have been built within the realm of erotica and erotic romance. An excellent example would be Logan Belle’s Blue Angel series. It follows the travails of Mallory Dale, a law student who hangs up her legal briefs for pasties when she gets sucked into the world of the New York City burlesque scene. What Belle has done very well in this series is flesh out that scene for readers. She’s got an excellent back-drop to populate her characters with, she sprinkles in plenty of drama, and gives readers a soap opera feeling against what, for many of us, is an exotic lifestyle.

Megan Hart takes a slightly different approach, especially in her early Spice novels, Dirty and Broken. It wasn’t the setting so much as the characters. She has a way of slyly interesting recurring characters without beating readers over the head with a series-baiting stick. Newcomers won’t feel like they’re missing anything, but fans will get a giddy thrill recognizing and seeing former secondary players again, waltzing across the pages of multiple books.

But as well as Hart does this, Portia Da Costa is the pro. Da Costa has a long and extensive career that carries across several publishers and lines. What I love about her books is that she’s designed her own erotic universe. It’s like all the characters she’s ever created reside in this giant bubble, and they can pop up in any given book.

One couple that the author seems especially fond of is Maria and the enigmatic Mr. Stone. These two got their own book with Entertaining Mr. Stone, showed up in In Too Deep, and even crossed publishers to make an appearance in the recent Carina Press book, Intimate Exposure. Then there was the time the couple from In Too Deep, one of my personal favorites, was spotted in a crowded restaurant scene in Kiss It Better. It detracts nothing for the newbies, but for someone who had read all those stories, it caused my heart to skip a beat.

The misconception with erotic writing is that as long as the author delivers the sex, readers will happily return to the trough to gorge. Is the sex important? Yes, but it’s not nearly enough. For a book we can really sink our teeth into, one that will linger beyond just a few scintillating moments of feeling naughty? We need the characters and we need the world.

What are some of your favorite moments of world-building in erotica and erotic romance?

#TBRChallenge 2018: Hotbed

The Book: Hotbed by Portia Da Costa

The Particulars: Contemporary erotica, Black Lace, 2002, In Print

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?:  Before the term "erotic romance" was coined, there were only a few select authors in Romancelandia pushing those sexual boundaries.  Which means if you wanted to get your kicks, you went across the pond to the Virgin Publishing imprint, Black Lace.  The majority of what they were publishing was erotica, but there were a few authors who specialized in happy endings, albeit "not traditional" ones.  After discovering Emma Holly through her 2002 Berkley historical romance, Beyond Seduction, I was on a mission to find her Black Lace titles and discovered other authors along the way, including Da Costa.

The Review: It's been a while since I've read a Black Lace novel and it's going to take me a few days to recover.  I have no idea how I'm going to review this or how I'm going to assign a grade to it - but let's get this party started and see where we end up, shall we?

First things first, this is erotica.  It's not erotica with a tinge of romance, it's not erotic romance - no, it's foot to the floor, fast and furious, erotica.  In recent years Da Costa's writing interests have taken her firmly into erotic romance territory (and hot vanilla at that), but she got her start writing erotica and this is most definitely from her erotica period.  Repeat after me: This. Is. Erotica. Not. Erotic. Romance.

Natalie is slowly getting pushed out of her magazine job in London and decides to head back to the quaint English village where she grew up and where her half-sister Patti still lives.  But this isn't a visit to see her sister, not really.  No, there's a shady politician, one of those Moral Majority-types, who is rumored to have his sticky fingers in a lot of pies.  In a bid to jump-start her flagging career, she's looking to do a bit of muckracking.  What she finds instead is a whole lot of sexual shenanigans.  Good Lord, the shenanigans!  In her tiny, dull hometown?!  Who woulda thunk it?

Sure, Natalie is living in cosmopolitan London - but it's Patti who is having all the fun, with a hunky window-washer roommate, a drag queen, and various other participants at said drag queen's BDSM club.  Because, of course!  This drag queen, with the EPIC name of Stella Fontayne, is basically the puppet master in the story - pulling various strings, manipulating everybody to basically amuse themselves. (Gender identity and pronouns aren't discussed but reading in between the lines, Stella struck me as bisexual with a fluid gender identity).

It's not long before Natalie, hot on the trail of the politician, is getting distracted by her hormones.  There are men.  Many men.  There is humiliation and BDSM and, you know, the whole half-sister thing.

And that's how you know this is erotica.  A big deal is made over them being half-sisters (because that somehow makes this less squirky?!) - but eventually there's several instances of voyeurism and a scene at the end where they speed right across that line.  Also there are some dubious consent issues at play here.  Characters are coaxed into things they're not completely comfortable with from the start.  They end up having the best orgasms of their lives, but it doesn't make the consent issues any less squishy.

Go ahead, think less of me - but I still read this book with a kind of morbid fascination that's hard for me to describe.  This is erotica and I compartmentalize erotica completely different from romance.  I, personally, don't have to be "turned on" by what the characters are doing to read and/or enjoy the story - and ultimately getting "turned on" is not why I read erotica. I'm into erotica, predominantly, for heroines who aren't persecuted for being sexual beings and to be "challenged."  Challenging erotica, for me, involves taboo, how the author addresses those taboos, and how the characters operate in the world they inhabit.  Certainly there are things I do not want to read about - and I think any erotica reader will tell you that.  So yes, even as wrong as half-sisters are?  I read this.  Go ahead.  Judge me.

As if the incest weren't enough, other problematic elements rear their ugly head with the ending, when I felt like Natalie morally and ethically sells out. Also, the Stella character.  I mean, I'm glad Natalie is having a grand ol' time, but Stella is a manipulator.  I don't expect a happy ending in my erotica but I do like the heroine to be "in a better spot" at the end - and I didn't get that here.  Stella will continue to manipulate and Natalie sells out. 

I'm going to cop-out and assign this an average C grade.  It's erotica.  It's problematic.  But that's exactly what I want from my erotica - for it to be problematic.  But I can't think of who I would recommend this to (dear Lord, no one!) and as much as I love some of Da Costa's work (and I do!) this one is strictly for fans - those curious to read her entire backlist and follow her evolution as a writer.  Now I'm off to have a glass or two (or three) of whiskey.

Final Grade = C

Mini-Reviews: Suspense, Billionaires and Fluff

I love it when other bloggers post mini-reviews or reading recaps, but I'm such a slow reader (also having spent most of 2015 thus far in a slump) that I don't capitalize on the format all that often.  However between books I just never got around to reviewing, audiobooks and books I wrote about at other places, I've finally got enough backlog to deliver some minis!

I tend to really like Jill Sorenson's suspense novels and Backwoods is part of her very loosely connected Aftershock series.  I find that Sorenson excels at writing complicated relationships, and that's certainly on display here - with the hero's ex-wife and the heroine's ex-husband having had an affair with each other and eventually marrying.  The heroine suffers from panic attacks and anxiety thanks to the earthquake that rocked San Diego.  The hero is a former baseball player who had a very public fall from grace thanks to his alcoholism.  They're now spending time together thanks to their college-aged kids and a family vacation hiking in the woods that their exes bailed on.  The suspense here is lighter than in previous books in this series, with the romance and relationships taking more of center stage.  I liked that both hero and heroine had "real" problems, and felt that the author handled the relationship between the 19-year-old step-siblings extremely well.  Honestly, that could have been a disaster.  I missed the stronger suspense thread that I've come to enjoy in the author's previous books in this series though - so it ended up being a B- for me. 

The only reason I would ever read a book with a title like How to Seduce a Billionaire is because of the author name attached to it - which in this case is Portia Da Costa.  Obviously I'm fine with billionaires, per se.  I mean, I do love category romance after all.  But the "new" breed of billionaire who digs BDSM because Mommy didn't love him enough and stalks the heroine in his spare time isn't really in my wheelhouse.  However I figured if anyone was going to make me tolerate the idea of a billionaire hero and a 29-year-old virgin heroine, it would be Da Costa.  I wrote about this for Heroes & Heartbreakers and on the Wendy scale this ended up being the very definition of a C read.  It was nice.  It was pleasant.  But I didn't love it, I didn't hate it and it didn't change my life.  If the idea of this story makes you break out into hives, there's probably not a lot within the pages of this book to make you change your mind.  Likewise, if you like the Alphahole billionaire and the virgin heroine who is so clueless that she doesn't have an e-mail address - there's probably not a lot here you're going to like.  Da Costa doesn't write clueless virgins and while the hero is selfish and a dreaded I'll Never Love Again Now That My Sainted First Wife Is Dead - she pretty much stays away from the tropes that made EL James a butt-ton of money for reasons that largely escape me - but hey, just because that's my yuck doesn't mean it can't be your yum.

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins has been compared a lot to Gone Girl - mostly because people lack imagination and feel like they need to compare this with that in order to sell books.  It's similar in respect that it features completely unlikable characters - some of whom are women.  It's different from Gone Girl in the respect that egads, the beginning is slow as mud and the ending is much more traditional suspense (take a wild guess which ending Wendy prefers?).  Heroine who is raging alcoholic prone to blackouts rides train everyday and makes up stories in her head about couple who lives in a house near tracks.  Wife goes missing.  Husband suspected.  And they just so happen to live down the street from the heroine's ex, who cheated on her with a Hot Young Thang and naturally knocked her up.  If I had read this I probably would  have DNF'ed it because of the slow beginning and characters I generally loathed - but like Gone Girl, it's very good on audio.  I did see the ending coming, but I liked it.  A solid B for the audio version.

Royal Wedding by Meg Cabot is releasing on June 2 and I just submitted my First Look of it for Heroes & Heartbreakers.  This is the first adult novel in Cabot's wildly successful Princess Diaries series, with Mia and her friends now being in their mid-twenties.  The last book in the YA incarnation, Forever Princess, in 2009 was, I felt, a very excellent way to wrap up the series - so while I was insanely excited to read this book, I was also a little leery.  Was Cabot going to muck up all my fond memories by giving rebirth to Mia as a grown-up?  Turns out I had nothing to fear.  I really enjoyed this for what it was - pure fluff in almost a chick lit vein.  I have no idea if it will hold up for readers not familiar with the YA series, but if you're already a fan?  You'll want to read this.  As a fan I would say my grade is probably somewhere around a B+.

When Diamonds Fail To Sparkle

Like any reader, I have my favorite authors.  I also have favorite books, swoon-worthy ones that I will gush about endlessly when you pour a cocktail into me and I'm surrounded by like-minded readers.  So while I exhibit pretty typically behavior in those regards, I am immediately suspicious of any reader who squeees!!!! about every single book an author has written.  You know the readers I'm talking about.  Everything that author writes is an A++++, there are animated gifs involved in the "review" process, and there are always copious exclamation points.  I am, sadly for authors probably, not one of those readers.  Case in point, my reaction to Diamonds In The Rough, the latest full-length novel in Portia Da Costa's Victorian Ladies Sewing Circle universe.  I adore Da Costa like crazy-cakes and have enjoyed many, many of her books.  I've even enjoyed several of the short stories in this series.  But the full-length novels?  Yeah, not so much.  The first book I actually DNF'ed, and this one?  Well......

Adela Ruffington is well and truly on the shelf.  No raving beauty anyway, a slightly crooked nose (after an altercation with a tree branch....), some chicken pox scars, not to mention her family's only asset being a lavish diamond necklace, means men on the marriage mart aren't exactly falling all over themselves to get her attention.  But Adela is a breathtakingly modern-thinking sort of female.  She supplements her family's income with her naughty erotic artwork, and relieves her sexual yearnings with the aid of hired gigolo's that work at a friend's "establishment."  She's not desperately lonely, or feels like she's missing out on anything in life, that is until she runs into her distant cousin, Wilson, at a house party.  The same distant cousin Wilson who divested her of her virginity some years earlier.....

Wilson has always been intrigued by Adela, but theirs is a sticky situation thanks to family.  When Adela's father died, and her mother having only born three girls, her grandfather desiring an heir with a penis turned to Wilson - a distant relation.  Adela's mother has always coveted a match between her daughter and Wilson - mostly because Wilson is inheriting what she feels should be her daughters' birthright and also because with only a meager allowance, the money would welcome.  Wilson knows this - which means while he and Adela did share a sexy tryst in their younger years, wasn't about to be trapped into marriage.  However his last paramour has just tossed him over for an elderly, albeit ridiculously wealthy, Italian count and his wee lil' male pride is hurt.  And who should he see at the house party he inexplicably accepted an invitation to?  His cousin.  The same cousin who sets his blood on fire.

The strong positive to this story is Adela, which isn't that surprising since I've always felt the strength in Da Costa's writing is her heroines.  She writes great heroines - smart, funny, adventurous, but with enough foibles that they seem refreshingly real.  Adela is one of those radical new-thinking Victorian women.  She thinks women shouldn't be shackled in corsets, that it's perfectly acceptable that they have sexual desires, but is also cognizant of the fact that she can't just go around behaving radically and creating scandal.  She certainly does scandalous things (using "French letters," paying men to sexually service her, selling naughty artwork under a pseudonym), but as the reader you buy into this because for all outward appearances she behaves herself.  The only real criticism I have of her character is that like, too many romance heroines to name, she has a traitorous body when she comes within the same air space as the hero.

Wilson was the real fly in the ointment for me.  He's this odd mix of Super Genius Geek Boy and Asshole Alpha.  Adela, naturally, gives as good as she gets - which means Wilson finds out how she gets her sexual kicks and with whom.  He, in turn, gets all worked up over this and Ye Olde Double Standard comes into play.  Certainly it's OK that he had a mistress, but it's not OK that Adela is out getting her kicks with anybody other than him.  Would men in the 19th century think this way?  Hell, men in the 21st century think this way!  Doesn't mean I necessarily want to read about them.

The pace of the story plods along, with several sex scenes tossed in to keep the reader (hopefully) engaged until the author brings the villain of the story (an oily blackmailer targeting Adela's sister) to a full boil.  The problem was that it takes an awful long time for all of this to come around, and given that Wilson wasn't working for me for a long stretch, this was a slog of a read.  I also questioned whether a relationship with Wilson was really in Adela's best interests.  As any woman will tell you, "just sex" can be fun and fulfilling, but sex with all the emotional love-dovey stuff attached to it is a different kettle of fish.  I never felt a strong connection of the lovey-dovey stuff between Wilson and Adela.  Heck, I'm wondering why she didn't just stay single and keep paying for male prostitutes.

Things do perk up in the final 100 pages or so - mostly because the author brings the external conflict to a full boil.  I also appreciated that Da Costa's Victorian world actually reads Victorian.  So often in Romance Novel Land Victorian falls into the Vaguely Drawn Pseudo-Regency-Like trap.  But other than that?  Meh.  This may be a case of an author's contemporary work resonating with me better than her historicals.

Final Grade = C

Call Me Anytime

Note: If anything good came out of the nightmare that was That Trilogy That Shall Not Be Named hype - it was that the Black Lace imprint relaunched.  Sadly though, it appears that relaunch has not quite extended to US distribution yet.  I'm not finding this book for sale (new in print or in digital) in the US, which will likely annoy some blog followers.  To which I say, Americans aren't the only ones using the Internet, and Lord knows over the years the Europeans have been screwed by book distribution much more than US readers have.  So, um, yeah.....

I've blathered enough about it all over the Internet that I'm pretty sure even small children in Africa know that I am "over" BDSM.  Which would beg the question on why I'm reading The Accidental Call Girl by Portia Da Costa.  The reasons?  I like Da Costa.  Even when her books don't work for me (the grade spread ranges everywhere from DNF to A), I still like Da Costa.  Why?  Because while she certainly has her pet themes and tropes (more on those in a minute), she's one of the few erotic writers who consistently gives readers characters that feel like they could exist in real life.  Even the enigmatic billionaire types.  They feel like guys you could see walking down the street.

Lizzie has skipped out on a party and finds herself at the bar of the Waverley Grange Hotel.  Across the bar she spies an impossibly beautiful man, looks are exchanged, he sends over a drink, and before you know it - he's coming over to talk with her.  What follows is Lizzie realizing that he thinks she's an escort.  With her Bettie-Page-like haircut, her stylish, innocent-yet-somehow-naughty clothing, and the silent exchange they just shared - she knows she should be insulted, but she understands how the presumption occurred.  Instead of correcting him though, she plays along.  She's "Bettie," and he's unimaginatively, "John Smith."  Before you can say Erotica As Fantasy, these two are burning up the sheets - although it's certainly not a one-time-deal.  John's in town on business, and the sex is so off the charts (for both of them), that staying away from each other isn't in the cards.

This book is the first in a trilogy following the couple and will undoubtedly draw a lot of comparisons to That Other Trilogy That Wendy Doesn't Want To Talk About.  You have an older hero (40-ish) who is a mysterious billionaire tycoon type, a younger heroine (20-ish), and naturally he introduces her to BDSM.  Uh, sort of.  The big difference?  Lizzie.  What I tend to love about Da Costa's heroines, besides that they always strike me as the perfect best gal-pal a girl could have, is that while they may be innocent in some sexual matters (in this case, being submissive), they're adventurous girls.  Lizzie doesn't cry or cower in a corner or simper and whimper.  In turn, John isn't an abusive asshole.  Yes he's mysterious, yes he's enigmatic, but deep down you know this is a good guy.  He won't hurt Lizzie, well outside of possibly breaking her heart, but our girl isn't going to end up in the ER because he's a dick.

This is familiar territory for Da Costa, who has been doing the Mysterious Hero Thing about as well as anybody for a number of years.  For fans I would classify this one as somewhere in the ballpark of Entertaining Mr. Stone (2006) meets Kiss It Better (2010).  And certainly Da Costa has loosely connected a number of her stories around the Waverley Grange.  The new thing is this trilogy idea, which plays well for these characters.  The vast majority of this story is told from Lizzie's point-of-view, although we do get a few teasing, tantalizing glimpses from John.  The author reveals just enough about him to hook readers, but leaves more than enough dangling to fill up two more volumes.  This is hardly a new idea, but an effective one - and the kicker?  John isn't a jackass so the prospect of two more books featuring him as a hero is certainly no hardship.

Like pretty much all of Da Costa's contemporary work, this one has a decidedly British feel to it - complete with slang.  Americans turned off by this sort of thing will likely be annoyed, but I tend to like it.  I don't know - characters talking dirty to each other just sounds sexier in an accent.  Maybe that's just me though.  Also, having explored BDSM themes before in previous books, Da Costa stays fairly true to form and continues with what I call BDSM-lite.  There's some light bondage, some spanking etc. - but again, John isn't hauling off and beating the crap out of the Lizzie.  Which, you know, thank God.

So where does that leave me, The Girl Who Is Over BDSM?  Well, I'm still over it.  But reading this book didn't make me want to drive my fist through a wall, didn't have me wishing I had more hard liquor in the Bat Cave, and heaven help us all - I'm totally on board for reading the next book in the series.  If you can roll with the British-ness and aren't over BDSM?  Your grade could very well be higher than mine.  As it is, it's a bloody miracle around these parts that I'm slapping a BDSM book with a B.  Cue the brass band!

Final Grade = B-

Digital Review: Intimate Exposure

While I certainly understand their popularity in romance and erotica quarters, BDSM stories tend to not be favorites of mine.  They're tricky to write.  The appeal of erotic-anything for me has always been focused on the "heroine's journey."  And if the author doesn't do a credible job of selling me on the power of the submissive role?  Yeah, BDSM stories tend to not be favorites of mine.

However, Portia Da Costa is a huge favorite, which means I'll always try her BDSM stories.  Intimate Exposure, a new novella from Carina Press, works fairly well for me - but it's not one of the author's offerings I'm lovingly going to want to reread someday.

The insurance company where Vicki Renard is a middle manager has just been bought out by the mysterious F.W. Shanley III.  Naturally people are curious about him, and worried about their jobs, but Vicki is more distracted by Red Webster, a photographer that Shanley has sent 'round to gather photos for a new company profile.  Little does Vicki or anybody else know - Red is actually Shanley.  He likes to get the lay of the land at the new companies he acquires, and it's easier to get the inside scoop playing the part of someone else.  Vicki intrigues him no end, and when he discovers she has a copy of The Story of O on her e-reader?  He's more intrigued than ever.  He has to have her, and lucky for him - as much as he annoys her at times - she's just as intrigued.

Admittedly a bit of a stumbling block for me is how Red deduces that Vicki might be up for exploring a BDSM relationship with him.  It's because she's reading The Story of O.  Um, OK - so what if he discovered a suspense novel about a serial killer on her e-reader?  Does that mean Vicki either 1) wants to be a serial killer and/or 2) has desires to be murdered by one?  Yeah, thin.  At least for me.  But then I'm a librarian who has never subscribed to the school of thought that You Are What You Read.

But I'm over-thinking it, and it's a way for our couple to hook up. 

I like that while Vicki is curious about the submissive role, she doesn't dive in head first and totally succumb.  She bristles a bit.  There are times when Red orders her about that she's not completely enthralled.  I also like that she flips the script on him.  "Oh yeah, you want me to do that do you - well how about I do this instead."  Also, nobody writes mental longing quite like Da Costa does.  Her characters really ache for each other when they are apart.  She uses this to excellent effect to ramp up the tension.

Unfortunately the story itself slides a bit for me at the end.  Given that Red isn't being honest with Vicki for the majority of the story (re: who he really is) - I wanted a lot more suffering on his part.  Frankly, I wanted him to grovel.  I wanted Vicki to make him grovel.  And this aspect of the conflict ends much more with a whimper instead of a bang.  I found this unfortunate since it was an opportunity for major emotional angst that fizzles out unexplored.  Still, it's a BDSM story that didn't make my blood pressure spike in an unpleasant way, and Da Costa has a way of writing stories that keep me engaged all the way through to the final sentence.

Final Grade = C+

Sidenote: Da Costa's has created her own sexually charged fictional universe that I just adore.  Popping up in this story?  Yeah, the delectable Mr. Stone and Maria.  It's a treat for fans, but not something so blatant that newbies will be annoyed.  I love that her characters don't exist in a vacuum.

TBR Challenge 2010: Clever Bobby

Warning: Minor Spoilers In Review Section

The Book: Entertaining Mr. Stone by Portia Da Costa

The Particulars: Black Lace, Contemporary Erotica, 2006, Out Of Print.

Why Was It In The Bat Cave TBR?: Before erotic romance broke through the mainstream, if I wanted something spicy to read, I went to Black Lace (at the time, part of Virgin Books). The disclaimer being that they generally published straight-up erotica, but I did discover a couple of writers who wrote stories with romantic elements. Portia Da Costa was one of them. I've got a couple of her books in the Bat Cave Keeper Stash, and I'm still working my way through her older back list titles.

The Review: After aborting two historical romance reads to meet this month's challenge, I decided that maybe I could benefit from a change of scenery. Hence me reading this erotic novel, set in England, about a low-level office drone and the affair she embarks on with her mysterious, high-powered boss.

Maria Lewis was living the party girl life in London when a negative bank account and the realization that her personal life is crap have her returning to her hometown. Once there she rents a flat and takes a job in a financial institution where she shuffles loan applications, stamps papers, and tries to keep from falling asleep at her desk. However it soon becomes apparent that the seemingly boring confines of the office are anything but. There are plenty of sexual shenanigans and office politics afoot, and our fair heroine has caught the eye of none other than the Director of Finance, Robert Stone.

Da Costa's work for Black Lace has two distinct personalities. Her earlier books are most definitely erotica, while in her later novels, romance becomes much more prominent and we get erotic romance. Entertaining Mr. Stone is a bit of an In-Between-er, and because of that, it never quite gelled for me.

The author's writing style continues to work for me, British slang and all. I often say that the heroines in a Da Costa book are the sorts of women I'd like to be friends with. The problem here is that I never felt that Maria was on an even playing field with the other characters in this story, most notably Mr. Stone, who plays the part of dominant, powerful, older man. Maria spends 95% of the book "reacting" to him. To what he wants her to do. The suggestions he makes. Eventually the author does tip the balance of power toward our heroine's favor with a final scene, but it was a bit too late for me at that point.

The other problem is that Stone is very much an enigma for the whole book. I never got a handle on this guy. He's very mysterious, one moment playing the absentminded professor, the next playing the Big Bad Wolf to the heroine's Little Red Riding Hood. And while I certainly appreciated the glimpses the author gave us into his past (namely, he's a widower) those glimpses only added to my unsettled feeling when it's revealed the heroine looks like said Dead Wife. I guess I wanted it spelled out to me that he was with the heroine because of who she was - not who she may have reminded him of. I also would have liked some positive reinforcement that the guy didn't make a habit of running around bangin' comely office drones.

Da Costa excels at writing "hot vanilla" sex - which means plenty of shagging, but nothing completely "out there," kinky or weird. This story tip-toes a bit farther into kinky territory than some of her other work. Certainly it's not the filthiest erotica novel I've ever read (not even close actually), but there are definitely elements at play here that may cause jaw-dropping in readers who aren't seasoned erotica-reading pros.

This is a very hard book for me to review. It had the elements that I enjoy in the author's work (good heroine, sassy writing style), but I was unsettled by the plot and the hero. At the end of the day, I'm glad the heroine got herself some great sex, but I'm still a little worried about her emotional well-being. Is a relationship with Clever Bobby Stone really in her best interests? I'm not really convinced.....

Final Grade = C+

Someday My Prince...

Portia Da Costa is one of those writers whose "voice" just seems to work for me. Even when I'm not madly enthralled with a story she's written, it still tends to work for me on that basic, fundamental level. It also doesn't hurt that she really seems to have a knack for writing female characters. On these fronts, Kiss It Better worked extremely well for me. I didn't madly love it and want to have babies with it like last year's In Too Deep - but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. That all being said, I can see this story not working for some readers, and I'm here to tell you why.

Jay Bentley is mostly recovered now from a terrible car accident that not only smashed up a beautiful Aston Martin, but also his beautiful body. It's on his long road to recovery that he comes across a newspaper article and accompanying photograph of Sandy Jackson, who runs a small cafe in Kissley, England. He's floored. Sandy Jackson, owner of The Little Teapot Cafe, is the same woman he had a very brief interlude with fifteen years ago. He came to her rescue while on holiday, they never exchanged names, but he never forgot her.

Sandy's divorced, with a non-existent love life, and small thriving cafe that is now being threatened. A developer famous for a chain of "fun pubs" has purchased the vacant property across the way. She's at a rather dull chamber of commerce shindig hoping to score some gossip on the matter when she spies Jay, a man she has seen popping up all over town. He's dark, mysterious, and so sexy it sends her pulse racing. He also seems to have the knack for turning her into a sex maniac. While Jay had every intention of playing it smooth, being around Sandy has positively revitalized him. The car accident left him with certain lingering side-effects that he was beginning to fear were permanent.

Da Costa's early work is what I would very much classify as erotica. It hasn't been until more recently that she's firmly started planting herself in erotic romance territory. I found Kiss It Better an interesting mix of her two identities. There is a whopping load of shagging in this book. Seriously. Every. Single. Chapter. But in true Da Costa fashion, I never felt like she was trying to "out-do" herself or any other writer. This woman still somehow manages to write the hottest "vanilla" sex around without making it over-the-top kinky, weird or bizarre.

With all the sex that is literally plastered throughout this story, you're probably wondering about the plot. All good erotic stories have to have some sort of plot to hang the sex on to - and this one revolves around that old romance trope.....The Big Secret. Jay knows right off that Sandy is his mystery girl from fifteen years ago, but thanks to the car accident, surgeries and scarring, it takes Sandy longer to realize that he is "Prince Charming." Also, Jay's real life job is going to impact Sandy, and when she finds that out he knows it will not go over well.

If I didn't find Da Costa's writing so engaging, I could poke holes in this story all day long. Sandy probably should be asking questions about who Jay really is, but having led a fairly conventional life, and knowing he's only in town on business, she's determined to have a fun, sexy, no-strings fling. She's never had one, and damn, she wants one with Jay. (Seriously, I couldn't blame the girl. I'm surprised her panties didn't burst into flames at one point.)

Now Jay, he does tend to throw off Creepy Stalker Vibes. I mean, the story opens with him, ummmmm, having an inspirational moment with Sandy's photograph. Also, tracking down a mystery girl from fifteen years ago, even if discovering the newspaper article was pure coincidence, is sorta kinda creepy. But Da Costa does something very smart here - she gives the reader Jay's point of view quite a bit. Her last several stories have been firmly planted in first person from the heroine's perspective. With Kiss It Better, she gives us both hero and heroine point of view and it really helps to de-creepify Jay. It also doesn't hurt that he's very sexy, dark, mysterious, and wounded. All characteristics that generally make romance readers go weak in the knees. Hubba, hubba.

This story takes place over an extremely short time period, and relies quite heavily on the instant "connection" that Jay and Sandy experience. Sandy wants a fun, sexy, no-strings fling, and that's exactly what she gets for the majority of this novel. However there is a happy ending, and while Da Costa doesn't dress it up in traditional romance frippery, the reader is left with the very real impression that Sandy and Jay are together and that they are going to make it work. Hell, they have to. Their insatiable sexual appetites for each other pretty much have ruined them for any other romantic relationship.

Final Grade = B

(ISBN 9780352345219, $12.95, August 4, 2009, Erotic Romance, In Print)