American King by Sierra Simone

I am slightly shocked to say that I really enjoyed American King. It might even be favorite of Sierra Simone’s New Camelot series. 

As the name suggests, Simone’s New Camelot series is a retelling of the King Arthur story. Ash takes the role of Arthur. Greer is Queen Guinevere and Embry is Lancelot. Simone's major twist is that instead of Lancelot and Guinevere having an affair behind Arthur's back, they have a three-way relationship with Arthur. Ash, Embry, and Greer fall in love with each other and fight to make their relationship work. There are plenty of wannabe foils - a crazy cousin who thinks she would make a better wife for Ash, an incestuous coupling, and a kidnapper to name a few. None of these things stop Embry, Greer, and Arthur from coming together multiple times. This wasn't the first book I’ve read about a three-sided romance, but it is the best. Sometimes a threesome really feels like a couple who likes to play with a third on occasion. Here each of relationships – Greer and Ash, Ash and Embry, and Embry and Greer – feels complete and real, as does their relationship as a unit. I like to think of them as an equilateral triangle, each relationship feels equal.

As many will know, this series explores dominant-submissive relationship. Ash can snap his fingers and Greer falls to her knees at his feet. Embry prefers to fight before giving in, but he does always submit too. The submissiveness in the first two books gave me pause. In American King I started to not like it, but accept it. It wasn’t until I got Ash's point of view that I began to understand and appreciate (or like) Ash as a character. He is honorable and caring. That made the intimacy between the three characters that much more steamier and romantic.

American King is the end of the trilogy. (There are two novellas that follow but they're about side characters rather than the main three.) The end threw me for a loop. There was a happy ending I didn’t think was going to happen. I was pleasantly and happily surprised.

American Prince by Sierra Simone

  American Prince is book number two in Sierra Simone's menage-a-trois New Camelot series. In the first book we heard from the queen, Greer Galloway, aka Queen Quinevere, aka the first lady of the United States. This time it's VP Embry Moore's turn, aka Sir Lancelot.
  
American Prince picks up where American Queen left off, with Greer having disappeared.  Her husband, President Maxen "Ash" Colchester can't go after her himself so he sends his vice president. Thankfully, Greer's disappearance is quickly resolved with minimal violence.

So many thoughts - where to begin?

First, Greer, Ash, and Embry have a dominant-submissive relationship with Ash being the dominant one. Greer is a total submissive. Ash snaps his fingers and Greer falls to her knees on his feet. Embry is a different kind of submissive. He always gives in to Ash, there's never really a question that he won't, but he likes to argue more. I have a hard time with the dominant-submissive relationship between Greer and Ash. On the one hand, I accept that they both want this type of relationship. On the other hand, at the end of the day I see Ash as a rich, powerful man who gets to have what he wants, whenever he wants, the way the wants it. He literally gets to treat the people he claims to love like objects, like his personal playthings, like slaves. I just don't find anything sexy or romantic about that. Technically they have a safe word but Greer never uses it so the idea that Ash will stop doesn't quite seem like a real thing. Supposedly Ash and Greer are equals outside the bedroom but it never feels that way.

But this Embry's story, so second, I like Embry slightly more, if only because he doesn't need to hurt or dominate his loved ones in the same way Ash does. He isn't a true submissive in the way Greer is and as such, his relationship with Ash seems to be on more equal grounds. I loved reading about how the relationship between Embry and Ash developed. Whereas Greer and Ash meet, have a 2-minute conversation, and decide they're in love, Embry and Ash's relationship develops over several years. They are colleagues, then friends, and then lovers. It was sweet, sexy, and romantic.

Third, a common complaint about bad erotica for that matter is the lack of a story. Good erotica should have a good story along with the sexy bits. There is definitely a story here. Admittedly, I am not well versed in the King Arthur legend so I can only assume that Ms. Simone is following the outline of the legend. Perhaps that is why I find some parts of the story so disturbing. There's incest. There's drugged sex. I feel like I've been reading a soap opera in the best and worst ways.

On to book three, American King. It's Ash's story so who knows how that will go.

American Queen by Sierra Simone

American Queen is the first in a trilogy (or pentalogy if you include the two novellas about side characters) that recasts the Arthurian legend with an American president, the president’s wife, and the vice president. That is, Maxen (also called Ash), Greer, and Embry.

As the granddaughter of a former vice president, Greer has grown up in politics and intentionally chose the quiet life of an academic as an adult. She first meets Ash when she’s a teenager and he’s a soldier. They share a passionate kiss (he has enough sense to realize that it shouldn’t go further at that time) and they don’t see each other for several years. But that kiss was enough for Greer to fall madly in love with him. Years later Greer meets Embry and shares some sexy time with him, neither realizing that they both a connection to Maxen/Ash. Greer and Embry’s time together is short lived, and she doesn’t see Embry again until year later when he walks back into her life and tells her the now President Maxen/Ash would like to see her, and so it begins…

The relationship between Maxen/Ash and Greer (and between Maxen/Ash and Embry) is that of a dominant and submissive. I often have hard time with stories where a woman is submissive to a man. That being said, Sierra Simone made it a palatable and even understandable. Unlike say Fifty Shades of Grey, it is always clear that being a submissive in the bedroom is what Greer wants and craves. Maxen/Ash doesn’t introduce the idea to her. He doesn’t talk her into it or in any way coerce her. In finding each other, Greer and Maxen/Ash truly find their other half. Then they find their third. (I know that math doesn’t quite work; go with the metaphor.) Their relationship always felt consensual and I very much appreciated that. I don’t think I have ever read anything quite like this before. 

I am eager to read the next book in the series, American Prince, which will be from Embry’s point of view. Told from Greer’s point of view American Queen was hot, but I imagine being inside Embry’s mind will feel like a sauna.

Sinner by Sierra Simone

 

So good! Sinner is the second in what God willing ends up being a trilogy or maybe even a tetralogy. Priest, the first book in the series, centered on Tyler Bell, the second of the four Irish Catholic Bell brothers. They had a sister who committed suicide year earlier after being assaulted by a priest. Most of the Bell family left the church and turned away from God after that. Except Tyler. Tyler still had faith and wanted to reform the church from the inside out so he became a priest. While he loved serving God and his community, he had doubts about whether a life of celibacy was really for him.

“I’m not a good man, and I’ve never pretended to be I don’t believe in goodness or God, or any happy ending that isn’t paid for in advance. What do I believe in? Money. Sex. Macallan 18.They have words for men like me – playboy. Womanizer. Skirt chaser. My brother used to be a priest, and he only has one word. Sinner.”

Sinner focuses on the eldest Bell brother, Sean. Sean is an unapologetic manwhore and millionaire. I was never quite sure what his job was but whatever Sean did, he made a lot of money doing it. He enjoyed it and he liked to celebrate work victories with a victory lap in bed. Sean likes to describe himself as a bad man or at least not a good one, but I never quite bought it. His mother is dying of cancer and of the four brothers, Sean is the one who most involved in her day-to-day of care. Not that the other brothers are bad sons, it’s just that as the oldest, Sean took on the role of caretaker. He is the brother who takes notes when doctors and nurses talk, the one who makes sure his parents make it to doctor appointments, and the one who orders groceries or whatever else his parents need to make home their life easier as they deal with living with cancer. 

The cutest thing about Sean is his love of a romance novels and the fact that he and his mother have had a two-person book club since he was a teenager. When his mother is too tired or weak to read, he reads to her. He even has a personal collection of historical romance novels that he categorizes by subgenre. How can a guy who shelves his romance novels based on whether they are set in the Regency or Victorian eras or the American West possibly be a bad guy? It's too adorable.

Sean is about to celebrate his latest work victory when he runs in to Zenny, his best friend’s little sister. He hasn’t seen her in years. Now 21, Zenny is working on her nursing and midwifery degrees. She’s also a preparing to become a nun! Sean can't quite figure out what surprises him most - the fact that Zenny wants to be a nun or that the girl he once babysat is now a smoking hot woman.

Zenny may be committed to God and helping others through her community service and social work, but even her mentor the Reverend Mother questions whether Zenny really understands what she is about to give up by becoming a bride of Christ. So the Revered Mother advises Zenny to take some time and explore the carnal world a little more before taking vows. Zenny really believes joining the sisterhood is her calling but she also hasn't had much sexual experience. She knows Sean and trusts him and decides to ask him to be her final fling before she takes her sisterly vows.

Sean is stunned by Zenny’s request but also tempted. Contrary to his bad boy persona, at heart Sean is a good guy. He worries Zenny is too innocent and given that he is 15 years older than her, much too young for him. But as his brother points out, Zenny is an adult capable of making her own decisions. She is also persistent and Sean has a hard time saying no to her. It is supposed to be a month of sexy fun and friendship with nothing deeper than that. But anyone who has ever read a romance novel, watched a romcom, or who simply has a heart can guess how that turns out.

Sinner is a sexy, sultry interracial romance. In addition to the romance and the sex, the characters deal with issues of faith and religion. Sean really struggles to reconcile the idea of faith in God with the reality of what happened to his sister. As much as he admires Zenny for her selfless commitment to helping others, he is largely mystified by her ability to believe in a God he doesn’t thinks exists. His struggle with his faith is almost as compelling as his sexy times with Zenny.

This is the second book I've read in 2019. So far my reading in 2019 has gotten off to a great start!

Giving It Up by Audra North

Everything about Audra North's Giving It Up suggests a sexy, erotica, romantic read. From the image on the cover, to the name of the series (Pushing Boundaries), to the tongue-in-cheek warning on the back cover that reads "Contains an out-of-her element, wannabe Domme who has no idea the power she wields, and a SWAT officer who can't wait to show her just how deeply he needs her command. Buckle up and keep your safeword handy." Unfortunately the story wasn't all that sexy or erotic, and worst of all, it wasn't that romantic.

Beatrice, or Bea for short, is the out-of-her element, wannabe Domme and Warren is a police officer on the SWAT team. The story opens at a wedding. Warren is one of the groomsmen. Bea is the photographer and a friend of the bride. Bea and Warren have met loads of times before the wedding at get-togethers hosted by their friends. They are both already infatuated with each other but have never pursued it. At the wedding Bea overhears Warren attempting to make an appointment with a professional dominatrix. On an impulse Bea suggests he hire her instead. So these two adults who secretly like each other but refuse to say so enter into a contractual arrangement where Warren agrees to pay Bea to engage in intimate behavior with him for an hour a week (but no actual sex because prostitution is illegal and Warren is a cop) and no feelings will be involved. What could go wrong?

My biggest problem with Giving It Up was that I never quite bought into the Bea and Warren romance. From page one they both kind of liked each other already but it was never clear why. Then they start their arrangement and to no one's surprise feelings are instantly involved. This is a romance so I expected a happily-ever-after (HEA) moment but some steps were missed on the way to the HEA. It all happened too quickly, too instantly.

Bea was the most interesting character in this book. I wanted to know more about her. All we get is that she came from a family that was very conservative and controlling. She was raised to be nice and docile, to do what she is told, and to be somebody's wife. She broke away from her family, put herself through college, and pursued a career as a photojournalist. Given her background one might reasonable to assume that sex was not something that was discussed in her home growing up and now here she is trying to be a dominatrix to a guy who isn't exactly a stranger but isn't someone she knows that well either. How did Bea got from A to Z? That's what I want to know. I'd read a book about that.

Warren is less interesting. He's a good guy who takes care of parents, his little sister, and her kid. Warren tells anyone who will listen that he can't possibly be in a relationship because he is super busy and a girlfriend would mean taking care of another person and he doesn't have the energy for that. In support of this theory he cites his ex-girlfriend who balked at having to share so much of him with his family. His insistence that all women are the same and want the same thing grew annoying very quickly. And anyway, everyone is busy and everyone has been hurt so Warren at least needed to come up with better excuses. Also, it was pretty clear to everyone except Warren that Bea was not only not looking for someone to take care of her, but was ready and willing to help him out with his complicated life.

So there's not much in terms of romance but at least there's a sexy story with a dominatrix right? Not quite. Neither Warren nor Bea are that knowledgeable or even into the domination and submissive scene. Bea is intrigued by it. (Again, would have loved to know more about her personal journey.) What Warren really wants is to relax and let someone else make decisions for a while. It wouldn't hurt if he had someone to talk to as well. Bea is totally willing to take control in the bedroom and she's a good listener. All that is cool but that doesn't live up to the warning on the book's back cover.

For Real by Alexis Hall

  Laurence Dalziel, Laurie to his friends and D to his casual BDSM hookups, is 37, six years out of last relationship, and emotionally stuck. His life is outwardly successful: he's a doctor with a nice house, but something is missing. He doesn't expect that something to be a 19-year-old. When Toby and Laurie meet there is immediate chemistry. Laurie takes Toby home expecting nothing more than a one-night stand. Toby wants more.

This is one of the best romances I've read in a while. It goes beyond the surface of two people meeting and delves into the depths of two people figuring out how to make a relationship work amidst the chaos of real life. Toby wants a real relationship while Laurie is skeptical of how a 19-year-old could possibly know what he wants. Laurie thought he had found the love of his life before and isn't sure he can go through losing that again. Toby is still figuring out what he wants to do with his life. He wants to be Laurie's equal but isn't sure what Laure will think or say when he realizes Toby works in a cafeteria and doesn't have much more than that going on in his life. Laurie worries about taking advantage of someone so young. Toby bristles at the idea that he needs that kind of protection; he knows what he wants and is willing to go after it. The two men come together quickly but it takes some time to work out if they want to stay together, and if so, what that is going to look like. It all adds up to a steamy, heartfelt romance.