Lucy V. MorganCritiques

This book is erotic romance with emphasis on the darker side of erotica, with sex scenes that fit well in the story, but if you dislike anything other than vanilla sex in your books be warned – this has more, much ,much more...
Leila Vaughn is a tax lawyer at a prestigious London law firm. Discovering her parents are in danger of losing their business and her childhood home having supported her through training, she takes a second job as a call girl – not a cheap street corner whore though, but a very very expensive, exclusive one working through an agency which caters to all sorts of fantasies. An affair with her older boss while she was still in training has given her a pit of darker desires, which her alter ego Charlotte the call girl has eagerly embraced. When her year as an escort is almost over and debts almost paid she's ready to retire as a call girl. Going to the latest job she walks into the hotel room to discover the clients are.... her colleague Matt and her sexy boss Joseph...

i adored this book! I read it in such a hurry but i needed to see how it would play out. Leila and Joseph so cute!!

A super cute little story. Very British in language. Friends to lovers story that I really liked. Not a lot of description of people and places. the emphasis was on the character development of the heroine. The love/sex scenes felt fresh and fun. Nice way to spend about a half an hour.

4 stars

I liked many things about this story and others not as much. At times the story seemed disjointed and the writing style was hard to get into. However, the premise was good and unusual. The last 10% of the book really changed though and sucked me in.

There is a second part that I will have to check out.

This was such a short story, and that's really my only complaint! I thought it was sweet and loved the interaction between Bails and the guys. Way too short, would have loved a whole story full of these characters!

Buddy read with Cam.

This book just wasn’t... enough. It was parody that bordered on political satire, but never really went there. It wanted to break the fourth wall, but it kinda wanted to stay in straight parody, too.



Positives first. This was well written. This was funny. I mean, come on, Sparkle von Fancypants? There is a vagina-door that Enid loves running through, and screeching, “There’s no place like womb!” There was a mention of a gangbang by plastic dinosaurs, and I have Dinobot toys. Made of plastic! (So sexy, mmmm! But then they wouldn’t be mint, which is my issue, I know. Maybe I need to buy some plastic dinosaur toys, but I’d rather sleep with my squishy, stuffed Grimlock, Snarl and Sludge.) Look, I’m just saying that line/storyline was a big, big plus for me. This novel also doesn’t rely solely on poking at other novels; while there are some pretty funny references - Rabies Maddox, anyone? - it also mocks general tropes and cliches. I wasn’t sure how I felt about this until the end, but decided I liked the two methods working together. You don’t need to know about the specific titles while it’s a nice bonus for those who do.

However, there was enough fail for me to wonder if it’ll be worth continuing with this series. Enid was slut shamed by the narrator, in a mockery of the usual slut shaming, but at times it seemed a little more serious. You seem to reward her only when she stops ‘whoring‘, and she continues to get hit hard when she does stay promiscuous. And yes, you comment that men can get away with it, and that there’s a double standard, but when you gleefully skewer Enid for being a whore and fall into the same traps... It didn’t feel really all that convincing. Much like when the Feminist Society has a slave auction, and you have one line that asks what that has to do with feminism, then ignore that question. Really? Because that made the slut shaming Enid endures by nearly everyone in the book, even if it’s second hand slut shaming with comments like the fratbros say that she’s a whore, seem even less of a parody and more like what you might be trying to say.

But this ties into so many of my problems. If you’re going to commit to social commentary, which you skirt on doing, just commit and go all the way. Wavering like this made me twitch a little. Then again, the author did this time and time again. She broke the fourth wall, went straight, broke the fourth wall again, went straight... well, rinse and repeat a whole bunch of times. So, so uneven. If you’re going to break that wall, my experience has shown that you either throw in a clever, witty reference - Giles telling Buffy the subtext was quickly becoming text - and then drop it, or go all the way via Supernatural’s The French Mistake. The constant tightrope walk this novel played was not only not convincing, but it made me tense. I did not like. I did not want.

And let’s not even go how you throw it all at us at the end, making me grit my teeth so hard I was afraid they’d break. Why even pretend this is going to be a straight novel if you’re going to throw that at us in the end? All I could think was that the author was really wishy-washy about it from the beginning, or she decided to go that way in the end, and couldn’t be bothered to edit the novel to make it seamless.

I had high expectations from the descriptions and the name Sparkles von Fancypants - which I’d seen before I started reading - but unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped.½

"me gusta ese tajo
que ayer conoci
me gusta ese tajo
que ayer conoci
ella me calienta
la quiero invitar a dormir..."

Ahhhh , no puedo evitarlo , me gustan los libros eróticos y este fue sorprendentemente bueno .

3.5 (Casi , casi cuatro )

Twisted indeed .

Better than many. Really only a 2.5 star; started off well and finished too fast, but forgettable, too.

I enjoy reading parodies and when the opportunity came to review Lucy V. Morgan’s TOUSLE ME, I couldn’t pass up the chance! I’ve read a handful of New Adult books and the plots can be clichéd and the characters carbon copies of each other.

We have good character development. I adored each of Morgan’s characters in TOUSLE ME. Our main heroine is Cammibelle Hicks, who like most New Adult heroines is a virgin. She’s also shy and doesn’t think she’s beautiful. Unlike our usual heroines, she has a unique hobby. She’s a book blogger! That’s right folks and I loved how Morgan incorporated this into her novel. Then we have Hunter von Styles who is your typical bad boy, but he’s a jack of all trades. Finally we have a hero who is not only a billionaire, but an ex-rocker and an occasional cage fighter with his own secrets. Did I mention he’s British? Talk about swoon worthy! We have a few secondary characters that play a vital role including Lebron, Hunter’s personal assistant and friend. Of course we have to have a character who suffers from unrequited love and that’s Archer who is friends with Cammi. Finally, we have Enid who sleeps around and is secretly in love with Archer.

I won’t go into detail regarding what Morgan’s book is about since the synopsis pretty much sums it up. I really enjoyed TOUSLE ME! Readers of New Adult will easily recognize well known books published in the past year. Morgan cleverly uses various character names, book titles, and plot lines throughout TOUSLE ME that even a casual reader of New Adult will be able to identify. I loved how she inserted these titles. For example, there’s a Gabriel’s Wrapture for a restaurant instead of GABRIEL'S RAPTURE. There’s a pet octopus named Rule. The list could go on and on, but I’ll leave it up to you to find the hidden Easter eggs to enjoy.

If I can take a moment to talk about Morgan’s mention of book blogging…I had fun reading this aspect! As a blogger, it’s difficult at times for others to take what we do seriously and I think many of us have been in that situation where people can’t quite understand why we blog about books. I really liked how Morgan inserted the situation regarding Goodreads deleting people’s reviews and of course Hunter’s solution was one of a kind.

Overall, TOUSLE ME is an enjoyable read. At times, I felt Morgan tries a little too hard to make certain situations funny, but despite this, I had fun reading it. There are a few Britishisms that sound a bit odd when you take into account that the story takes place in America. For some, it may throw you off, but I think it’s slight that you won’t notice right off the bat. Though, I have to say, I really enjoyed how unique Hunter’s nickname for Cammi was. I can’t wait to read the rest in the series and see what’s in store in for Enid and Archer.

If you’re a fan of New Adult, you’ll enjoy Lucy V. Morgan’s TOUSLE ME. If anything, you’ll at least enjoy the unicorn.

Cute. Well written novella in that there were no info dumps. Lots of background delivered organically.

Low score is for use of derogatory terms that I am uncomfortable reading, and they were in large volumes.
I think with minimum effort she could have come up with adorable derogatory terms (she did it quite often) that didn't use offensively stereotypical terms.

Not interested in the follow-up books.

Leila is a full time lawyer and part time whore. She needs the money to keep a roof over her parents head, but she has come to enjoy life as her alter ego Charlotte. Hired by an exclusive prostitute service, she has a plethora of clients who want her to do scenes ranging from role-play to lesbianism. She only has a few rules, the most important of which is that she doesn’t do lawyers. Imagine her surprise when she walks into her latest job’s hotel room and there sits her desk-mate Matt and her boss Joseph. Nervous for her job, but more than a little turned on, she sees one of her dirtiest fantasies come to life when she engages in a very smutty threesome with the two very different men. Once Matt leaves the room, Joseph tells her in no uncertain terms that she cannot sell her body anymore if she wants to keep her job. Instead he offers her an alternative job; become his personal whore for the three remaining jobs she needs to do to pay off the mortgage on her parents’ house.

Having no alternative but to accept his offer, Leila finds herself becoming the personal sex slave to the Chairman of the Whored. When Matt starts to try to date her, she finds herself between two men and some very twisted games. Can she come to terms with the Leila she wants to be and the Charlotte who wants to escape?

This book confused me. I have never felt so much animosity towards characters in a book I have enjoyed; I honestly felt a bit dirty. This is the way I explained it to a friend. The characters didn’t annoy me; I simply didn’t like them. I can’t read a book where I want to kill the characters because they irritate me, but I didn’t feel this way about these lot. I will do my disclaimers now. For those who care, this book deals with infidelity, edge play, lesbianism, voyeurism, ménage, anal sex, anal play, prostitution, knife play and a whole host of smutty smutty sex. I class this book as erotica and therefore the plot revolves around sex. Still with me? Good, because this book is definitely worth a read.

Someone once told me I had a low expectation of character development in erotica. Well, I got to know the three characters in this one. They were so unbelievably flawed that I was entranced by them. I wanted to find out more about them, work out what made them tick. It was a little disconcerting to know that this twisted side of me exists. Leila was a heroine that didn’t know which way was up. She was a very dirty girl, but she made herself feel better about the choices she made by putting her actions down to Charlotte, her alter-ego. I could understand her, hell I could even slightly relate to her. She enjoyed the down-right dirty things she did in her part-time job, and rarely had to fake an orgasm or arousal, but she thought she was twisted for doing it, so hid behind a mask. I’m not sure I believe that she would have ever given up Charlotte, but that became a null point when the pair of prats stepped foot into her world. I honestly felt sorry for her and I think that the strong author voice that came through the entire novel helped me relate to Leila; we all have secret sides to ourselves that we feel the need to hide from everyone else….hell, I don’t even admit to fondness for smut to my off-line friends but It’s OK on the internet.

These two men were the men you don’t read about in cosmo, that your mamma warns you against. Both of them love her whorish side. One doesn’t want to meet anything other than that side and the other wants to suppress it and change her (unless he wants sex or course). I honestly don’t know which one I disliked more and to be honest, I wanted her to kick both of them to the curb and run away with her sex-scene partner (he is fab!) Joseph has the morals of a snake. He likes to use prostitutes (even whilst attached) and is the one to hatch the plot to hire her to share with Matt. I have absolutely no doubts he went in with the plan to blackmail her into becoming his personal servicer; he just didn’t need to because turns out she likes her second job. I hated the slimy toad but the sex scenes which he initiates were some of the most erotic in the book. I felt dirty for hating him yet finding him so damn arousing in the book; I think I know where Leila was coming from! The thing that annoyed me the most about him was that he only wanted to have the sexual side of her but he was willing to mess with every other aspect of her life for absolutely no reason what so ever. He was a cock.

Matt wasn’t much better. He tried to court her with his eyes open, yet still tried to judge her for her choices and change her. I don’t care if Leila had a foot fetish and liked to have sex whilst dressed as a chicken, no one should be made to feel bad about their preferences. He made my blood boil. There were several parts of the plot I wanted to slap the judgemental little worm, but I could understand her need to feel “normal” and have a “normal” boyfriend. I just hoped to God it wasn’t with him. He hated what she did, yet loved the tricks she picked up along the way. He was contradicting himself constantly throughout their relationships…I guess you could say he hit a nerve.

I hated the two male characters, yet I was so engaged by the female lead I had to keep reading. The sex was off the charts erotic and the plot was so twisty I couldn’t guess what would happen next.

Ever since she got involved with Joseph Merchant, Leila’s life has dramatically altered. She has become his personal prostitute after his discovery of her side job as Charlotte the prostitute and has spent months enjoying debauched sex with the Chairman of the Whored himself. Since her break-up with Matt, Joseph has been less discrete about their affair, showing her off to his oldest friends and work-colleges with a devil-may-care attitude that is at odds with the reality of the situation. No one must know what Leila is, what she does when she lets Charlotte out to play, but Joseph seems to be treating her as more of a lover than a whore, drawing unwelcome attention to their relationship.

There are two jobs left on her contract as Josephs personal sex slave, the first being her exclusive service during their trip to New York. But as the week progresses, their darker sides come out to play, fusing them together in a way they never imagined. In the midst of all the blood and bondage, they realise that they may have found something they didn’t realise they ever wanted; the other half of their twisted souls.

Joseph’s lack of discretion starts tongues wagging and before long someone discovers all of Leila’s secrets. To protect the things she holds dear, they want her to give up everything that she cares about. But, will she be able to give up the Chairman of the Whored?
A couple of things to mention before I properly start this review. Don’t bother reading it if you haven’t read the first, it won’t make sense. Do read them both though as they are pretty excellent
This book contains knife play and sex with foreign objects so be warned
The female lead is a masochist; there is a lot of sex with pain.

You have been warned…….

Anyhow, in some ways I enjoyed this book far more than the first; I actually liked Joseph in this one which was bloody surprising. He didn’t mellow at all; in some ways he was an even bigger prick, but by God was he a presence. They were like two twisted peas in a pod and it was disturbing to read but is certainly engaging. In the review of the first one, I wrote I’d never read a book where I hated every character in it, but still enjoyed it. This one has a totally different feel and I actually liked all the major players. The first book is a tale of sexual games, and could only be classed as erotica, but I think this one has a twisted romance running throughout its core. The writing is very smooth but my only complaint is that at a couple of points in the book, I couldn’t work out what was going on. The writing is brimming with different descriptive techniques but sometimes they detracted from the happenings of the story; there was a scene where I think they were having anal sex but I honestly still can’t tell you if that was what was definitely going on!

Leila is more conflicted in this one. At some points, it was a little odd because there were constant references to the fact that Charlotte was a complete separate entity to Leila. It felt like a cop-out at certain points, an easy excuse to explain away some of her more dubious character traits. Then Joseph states something that made me blink and consider what was actually going on; Charlotte is created by Leila to explain away all the things that she desires that she feels she shouldn’t. It is Charlotte who likes being fucked with a shoe, it is Charlotte who likes the fact her lover has carved his name across her stomach with a bread-knife and it is Charlotte who likes to be watched during sex. The one thing I really liked about this book is the message that no matter how twisted your desires, as long as you don’t hurt or abuse others, there really is nothing wrong with them.

Joseph is an arse, but I can honestly say that he is an arse that grows on you. He seems to know what she needs, seems to know that no matter how twisted his desires, Leila matches them. Yes, the fact that he has forced her into this arrangement, and is effectively paying her, is inescapable, but I don’t know how either of them mistook what was going on between them as a simple business transaction. He marked her as his, he couldn’t bear her relationship with Matt and he tried to protect her. He has his revenge on someone in this book and the method he uses is twisted and absolutely fucking perfect; I adored it.

My favourite character in the first book was the Aiden and he remains so for the second one. His protectiveness of Leila is lovely and his general attitude was highly entertaining….I want him to find a HEA with a nice boy/girl! There were a host of new characters in this one and the majority of them were fun to read about!

This isn’t an easy read; it’s kinky, twisted and slightly shocking in places. It thrilled me, aroused me and kept me entertained. All the characters are flawed, and they make dubious decisions, but that’s one of the things I liked the most.

After Bailey gets dumped by her long-term ex, her male friends decide to cheer her up the guy way. After getting her stinking drunk on Jaegermeister, they decide it’s about time to dish the dirt on the ex. After pointing out her lack of enthusiasm in her previous sexual experiences, they are all astounded to hear that she has never experienced an orgasm. Now feeling even crappier about her love life, she then has to contend with the sappy in love couples that frequent her wedding cake shop. Her friends are hell-bent on protecting her dignity by getting revenge on Craig (the ex) but one of them seems like he has more than a friendly reason for hoping she gets over her breakup quickly. Will she be able to get over the fact that he has always been her friend and chase that elusive orgasm?

This book blindsided me. It is uber short, but please don’t let that be a factor in deciding to read it. Also, a massive bonus that I didn’t realise is that it’s free on All Romance at the moment (I got the review copy from the author) Honestly, I’d have paid money for the giggle fit this novella gave me. Bailey is a bit of a whiny character at the start, but the last time I got dumped, I cried for a week, ate the entire counties weight in ice-cream and referred to all men as gits for a good 6 months….as break-up’s goes, I think she was fairly chipper! She lives with Tom and Ollie, with a permanent visitor in the shape of the lovely Linc. I loved the banter between them all and it was during them conversations that most of my laughing occurred. A particularly memorable moment was when Olly was referred to as a “Cunt Whisperer” because he knew exactly how to please a woman in bed (this particular quote got mixed reviews on twitter! ) They were a motley bunch of men but it was clear that all of their actions in this tale are done to protect her and cheer her up. As the book is written in first person, what we learn from the other characters is simply from Bailey’s POV, but the affection that she feels for them all comes across quite clearly. I could see the romance coming a mile off. From the way that Linc behaved towards her when she broke up with Craig, it was clear he didn’t quite see her as a friend. I won’t say more on this because I think you should go read it!

This was a hilarious novella with a very strong author voice. I’ll admit, my humour tends to border a little on the silly (and I happen to enjoy swearing) and I think this is one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much. There were a lot of very British insults thrown around (tosspot for one) and I understand that this could be difficult for American audiences but I implore you to give it a go. I’ll be looking for more from this lady cos I loved this!