Tag: The Pleasures

Guest Review: Passionate Pleasures by Bertrice Small

Posted May 19, 2010 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 0 Comments

Judith’s review of Passionate Pleasures by Bertrice Small

Librarians are expected to be a bit stuffy. But not Kathryn St. John. Miss Kathy keeps everyone up-to-date with the latest trends, literary and otherwise. She’s content in her career – and with her fantasies on the Channel, that secret interactive cable network known only to women. Any of her favorite literary heroes can become her lover on the Channel, while her public life remains scandal-free which is a m ust for a descendent of one of her town’s founding families.

But when Egret Pointe’s middle school gets a new principal, everything changes. One look at the town’s proper librarian, and Tim Blair is lost. That he’s several years her junion doesn’t matter to him at all. He knows he can offer the lady passionate pleasures that will go beyond her wildest dreams. But getting Kathy to give up her fantasies for reality isn’t easy until the Channel’s CEO takes a hand in the matter—because even the devil himself can have a soft spot for love and a pretty woman.

The Devil himself – yes, he is one of the important characters in this novel. To be sure, he is a shadow in the background, but as CEO of The Channel, he is trolling for the souls of women who can become his as he feeds them their sexual fantasies. However, Lucifer Nicolas as he is named in Small’s book, finds that even though Kathryn St. John (pronounced sin gin) has been a subscriber to The Channel for many years, she has not sucumbed to the wooing of Nicolas with the result that her subscription is summarily terminated. Nicolas has determined that Kathryn is too good and cannot be corrupted, and thus she must now find her personal satisfaction in a real, human, one-on-one relationship.

Now we get down to the nuts and bolts of this story: Can this 48-year-old librarian have anything to offer to a man like Tim Blair who is five years her junior? Can she hope to find the kind of sexual satisfaction in real life that she has so consistently experienced night after night on The Channel? Tim Blair knows that he has wanted Kathryn from the moment he encountered her in the grocery store, even though she was chastising him for leaving his dog in the car on a warm day. He hasn’t responded to a woman like this since his fiance was killed two days before their wedding. He is savvy about the social pressures of being one of the founding families of a small community, but he pursues Kathryn anyway. She begins to see past their age differences and begins to hope that her future might just hold a warm, sexy, good-looking man. Tim is fun and a gentleman. He doesn’t even try to kiss her on their first date. But he knows she is skittish and determines to woo her, even to the point of making her over-protective brother like him and accept the fact that Tim is dating Kathryn.

Now Bertrice has written quite a few books but the only other of her novels that I have read was The Border Lord & the Lady which I reviewed for The Book Binge some time ago. I loved that book and have determined it is one of those “re-read” musts. I am not sure about this book. It is set in a modern time and I like its premise. I think Small writes complicated stories with complicated plots. My one criticism of this book is that I grew tired of all the dialogue and repartee that just kept going on and on—often, in my opinion, to the detriment of the story. Now this just may be my bias, but I don’t think that is all of it. I am reading a number of books that are set in a wide variety of contexts. I liked the idea that genuine loving and respect can overcome temptation, even when perpetrated by the devil’s nephew. I like the idea that real people found real love which carried more weight and value than all the fantasies money could buy. I just think the book sometimes got unnecessarily wordy. All that aside, there’s lots to like here and I really loved Tim, his simple and focused pursuit of Kathryn, loved Kathryn’s consistent resistance to her overbearing brother, and her friendships that meant so much to her. I liked her sense of tradition but I also liked that she was willing to allow Tim into her life, even though she was almost ready t o throw in the towel due to her age.

I like that Small has told a story that was about someone other than two people in their twenties or thirties. She has given us a novel that celebrates not only the older adult but the nature of genuine love over the social barriers of age. Good job, Ms Small!!

I give this book a 3.75 rating out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place

This book is available from Berkley. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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Guest Review: Dangerous Pleasures by Bertrice Small

Posted August 30, 2008 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 2 Comments


Kris‘ review of Dangerous Pleasures (Pleasures Book 4) by Bertrice Small

Annie Miller, a widow with five kids, didn’t have any fantasies. She didn’t have the time or the money. But then her younger sister enters her in a contest. Annie wins, and suddenly her life falls into place. Whisked off to The Spa at Egret Pointe Annie discovers The Channel for the first time. And after her week of pampering she’s offered a job at the spa. Wanting to have the wherewithall to help her children have a few small luxuries Annie finds she has a talent for business, and climbing the corporate ladder is more fun than she ever anticipated. But Dangerous Pleasures may cost Annie everything she holds dear. Still, it is really all for the children. Isn’t it?

If you are interested in a good erotic story then this one is pretty good. The first three books in the series had an HEA but this one does not. This is an erotic story not an erotic romance. Which I think is surprising from Ms Small. I thought this was a romance so I kept looking for a hero and waiting for her to fall for one of the guys in the story but it did not happen.

The story was interesting but not what I was expecting so that detracted a lot. The synopsis on the book is a good one and summarizes it better than I could. She gets sucked into her job so much that she never sees her kid and they become raised by their nanny that her new job pays for, but keeps saying that she is doing it for the kids and I know that that is supposed to be the irony of it but I think because it was about her kids it bugged me that she could be that self absorbed. She was an okay heroine for a erotic story but not for a romance.

For the most part these books can be read in any order, but this one has a lot of Nora Buckley in it, who is the heroine from the first book, Private Pleasures. If you have read the other books I will say that you find out interesting stuff about Mr Nicholas (the guy who owns The Channel) and about The Channel itself.

Because of the lack of HEA I would have to give this one a 2.5 out of 5.

But even if I knew that it had been just erotica I still think I only would have given it a 3 out of 5.

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This book is available from NAL Trade. You can buy it here.


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