Roni Loren

I generally don't read modern romance with such young MCs (19, 22 and 24 I think) but this was recommended to me, and I am glad I did read it. It turned out I very much liked all of the characters, including the side characters, very much. O'Neal has been raised by her authoritarian evangelical grandparents after her mother was murdered. Auden is the older brother of O'Neal's best friend. He was raised in a loving home, but also one that subscribed to the same unyielding rules of church and thus he deals with a lot of shame around certain drives and desires I won't discuss here. Lennox is the hot artist with no real family. left to fend for himself. I loved the honesty of their interactions, the explicit message that in a relationship with three partners, especially one where kink is central, complete honesty is necessary. Everyone in this relationship is respectful and loving and smart. It was nice. The sex is pretty steamy, but at least to my eyes not particularly shocking or over the top. Everything they do is ushered in with something like "the minute you use your safe word se stop, and that is fine. It is surprisingly sweet for a kinky thruple scenario.

There were some issues. Once everyone was in love, the kink largely disappeared. Truthfully the kink was pretty tame to start. It matters because we are told that this is a primal drive for Auden, and that drive causes shame, but if that is so why does it largely disappear? Nothing wrong with dabbling and switching it up, that is all fun, but the story tells you it is more than that for him (maybe the others too, they certainly enjoy it, but Auden is billed as a dyed-in-the-wool dominant.) The other issue is that the story is really good, but the writing is not. It is not terrible, but also not as good as I wanted it to be. I am not looking for literary merit, but the clunky sentences weighed down the storytelling and as a result, exciting things were less exciting, romantic things were less romantic, sexy things were less sexy, etc.

This is a 3.5. There is a lot to love here and I expect to return to this writer.… (plus d'informations)

I disagree with the messages of the book. (context, the MMC worked as an escort for years but no longer is one when the mc's meet. He now works as a sex surrogate for patients). Anyway the FMC did not respect the MMC's surrogacy job until he was physically assaulted during a session with a patient. Another issues is how the book seems to say sex workers are only doing sw until they find something better and we should encourage them to pursue other careers effectively removing their agency. THEN the FMC decides she is interested in hiring an escort (that is not the MMC) the MMC busts up her first meet up with the escort by basically saying the guy she hired does his job well and will sweet talk her??? LIke yea, he's being paid for good customer service - it is his job. On top of that is the MMC's shitty understanding of consent - which is weird considering he is supposedly used to frequent sex clubs and is in the BDSM lifestyle. For instance, the FMC revokes her consent and the MMC does not accept and end the scene. Instead he coerces the FMC into changing her mind so he can fuck her. "No" or safe-wording is not a negotiation. It means stop, end of scene, do not proceed. These two mc's were bad for each other and I can only imagine how toxic their "hea" would have been. The romance genre is often hostile to sex work and sex workers. This is another example of that.

CW: the MC's work in a facility for rich and/or famous people come to receive mental health treatment in a judgement-free space. Many of these patients have experienced intense trauma in their lives and are attempting to work through that trauma, survival sex work, toxic intimate partner relationship, work relationship, one partner shaming the other partner into leaving a career they enjoy and thrive in, reversal of consent not respected… (plus d'informations)