Guest Review: 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.