Judith’s review of Lost in Bliss (Nights in Bliss, Colorado #4) by Sophie Oak
Laura Niles left her past behind. She fled Washington, DC, with her career in ruins and her love life decimated. In her desperate flight, she found a home in Bliss, Colorado. For five years, Rafe Kincaid and Cameron Briggs have searched for the only woman they’ve ever loved. The FBI agents couldn’t share her before, and it tore them apart. Now they have tracked her down, and they want answers. Why did she run? Why did she hide? Why are there so many naked people in Bliss? Laura is shocked when her former loves show up in her new home. And when they bring the full force of the FBI with them, Laura knows Bliss is in for a rough ride, because a killer has been watching and waiting for a second chance. And so have Rafe and Cam.
Sophie Oak is one of those writers of erotic romance fiction who manages to display her talents in every sentence she writes. I often compare her to a baseball grand slam home run–she hits it out of the park every time! This fourth book in the Nights in Bliss series is no exception. It is erotic romance at its best–with passion, conflict, deep emotion, loss, and disappointment around the edges of relationships that are often unusual, tenuous and perhaps destined for failure, yet the people who live in these stories are gutsy, going for broke in spite of the losses and upheavals of the past.
While the features players in the novel are in and of themselves fascinating and keep the reader’s interest from the first, the community of Bliss, Colorado is also a star player. Ms Oak has created a town where every conceivable misfit has found refuge, where people with all sorts of strange and weird qualities and histories and penchants are considered “family.” The women are strong; that fact comes out in nearly every novel in this series. These gals have endured just about everything life can throw at them, and they have all come out swinging. Many of them have found life-mates that are opinionated and chauvanistic–your quintessential alpha male, but who seem capable of opening their hearts while embracing the challenges that a long-term, loving relationship brings with it. I have often found myself chuckling over the quirks, the strange and humorous repartee that these people share. And as if that weren’t enough, there is a nudist colony in Bliss, one that is filled with delightful people who manage to shake things up, especially when strolling through town during the tourist season–au natural. What fun!! Keeps the sheriff hopping, that’s for sure.
Perhaps the best quality I have encountered in this series and most recently in this novel is the bonds that are in place because of deep and abiding respect. When the community is threatened, everyone is “on board” to do whatever is necessary. But that is equally true when just one person or family is threatened. Thus, when this novel’s “killer” seeks to do the worst, the reader is happily aware of Bliss at its best. It is perhaps Ms Oak’s way of reminding us that it is possible for weird and “out of sync” people to live together in harmony–that perhaps Bliss, Colorado is meant to be a small but powerful “picture” of a world where people can really get along.
I found this novel to be captivating from the first, a treat for the mind and a pleasant massage for the libido. It is beautifully written, flows well from scene to scene, and never seems to lag or falter as the story progresses. The editing is good, and Ms Oak and her editors have given us a novel that uses language well, properly spelled words, with correct tenses and such. Sorry, but those are bits and pieces that make a novel enjoyable for me.
So those of you who enjoy erotic romance with a hefty dose of quirky thrown in will like this book a lot. It is well worth the price, the time and effort to read. It’s on my favorites list already.
I give it a rating of 4.5 out of 5
You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.
This book is available from Siren Publishing. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
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