Guest Review: And Best Friend Makes Three by Lynn LaFleur

A teasing remark from his best friend sends Eric McFarland back to his college days when sex was wild and plentiful. Now he is engaged to Brenna West and he had no desire to be with any other woman. Now that best friend, Keith Dillard, is visiting and Eric decides to turn that remark into reality.

Brenna loves Eric with all her heart and doesn’t want to be with any other man. Yet when Eric and Keith say they want to give her one night of incredible passion and pleasure, Brenna is not going to turn down their generous offer.

In the world of erotic romance, menage de trois is certainly not out of the ordinary and probably occurs in real life far more often than most people realize. It is also my observation that in most erotic literary situations, there is not necessarily a threesome that is permanent, although such is not really unusual either. Such is the case with these three individuals. Eric and Brenna have been dating for a year and on during the celebration of their first year together, Eric proposes and Brenna is delighted to accept. They are, however, interrupted by Brenna’s boss who calls her away from her special weekend to travel for her company. So they really didn’t have any opportunity to discuss wedding, set a date, really do anything substantive regarding their future except agree that they would honeymoon in Athens.

During Brenna’s absence, Eric’s best friend shows up (they had previously agreed to the visit) as friend Keith was a foreign correspondant and needed some R & R. In discussing Keith’s long sexual “dry” spell, the two friends’ bantering led to a tease about sharing Brenna. At first Eric is essentially negative and let Keith know that he will introduce him to some of the women in his company. Later, he began to re-think his response. Brenna was an enthusiastic lover, creative and willing to try nearly anything. She was passionate and had never backed away from a sexual challenge. The more Eric thought about Keith’s idea, the more he desired to give his bride-to-be this innovative night which would be unlike anything they had shared together.

Brenna was surprised, somewhat bewildered, that Eric would bring Keith into their bed. Yet there was a secret fantasy she had kept hidden–being loved just once by two kind and generous lovers. This was her chance.

Now this is not necessarily a very long read–a novella, after all, and it is not necessarily including anything very kinky. Yet I think the one factor in this story is that Eric knew that Brenna was open to new experiences, and even though he knew in his heart that each was sexually enough for the other, he wanted to give her this one fantasy as his love gift to her. After her initial shock, Brenna saw this as Eric’s gift and accepted it as such.

I think my greatest impression of this couple was that they were completely secure in one another’s love. Nothing that happened on this wild night caused the world to shift on its axis nor did they waiver in their determination that they were a couple and that the menage experience was only a one night thing. I also think that they truly believed that not only was this a gift to Brenna, but it was also a gift to Keith–sharing their love and their bed.

This is, as I have already said, is not a long or complicated book. It’s plot is straight forward and is really about their one-night encounter. For fans of erotic romantic literature, this is as good as it gets. Eric is a gentle and kind person; Brenna is hard-working, intelligent, good at what she does, yet she has given her heart to Eric and there it will securely remain. I think the reader will also pick up on the fact that in the midst of his “glamorous” high-profile media job, Keith was tired to the bone, lonely, and needing roots in his life. A very brief but cogent commentary on the emptiness that success can never fill.

I like this story–I liked the characters and I liked their loyalty to one another. It is a fun fast read and I give it a rating of 3.75 out of 5.

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

This book is available from Ellora’s Cave. You can buy it here in e-format.