UNLOCK YOURSELF An Introduction to the Desires Unlocked Series

TITLE: UNLOCK YOURSELF

AUTHOR: EVIE BLAKE

Pages: 48

Date: 12/11/2013

Grade: 5

Details: no. 0.5 Desires Unlocked

Own / Kindle

Blurb taken from the author’s website:

This sensuous short story is the prequel to Liberate Yourself (previously published as Valentina), the first novel in the Desires Unlocked Trilogy.

In Unlock Yourself let me draw you into the seductive world of Belle when she meets the iconic silent movie star Louise Brooks while wandering in the glittering wintry streets of Berlin in 1929 on a quest to unlock the deepest, most secret part of herself. Louise takes Belle to a place where she can explore her erotic dreams and fantasies while also experience the most intensely romantic liaison she has ever known.

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This novella is a wonderful introduction to the Desires Unlocked series.

The story is set in Berlin in 1928 and Ludwika has slipped away from her controlling husband. She is roaming the streets looking for something although she doesn’t know what.

“She needs some inspiration to keep her heart in motion, to stop herself from withering and fading away beneath her husband’s touch.”

Seen by her husband as the instrument necessary to provide him with the offspring he wants, Ludwika wants to feel passion:

“…a communion with a fellow soul.”

When she meets a beautiful young woman called Louise, Ludwika allows herself to be brought to a party which will open her eyes to passion and cause her to lose her long hair in favour of a haircut that makes a statement:

“I am no longer encumbered by the wants of men. What I want is what I want for myself.”

Ludwika may have to return to her cold husband before the night is over, she won’t be the same woman. With her newly acquired name, Belle, and an understanding of passion, the woman has discovered that freedom is achievable, even within the confines of an unhappy marriage, if only she has the courage to go look for it.

This free novella is a wonderful introduction to Evie Blake’s writing and her “Desires Unlocked” titles. Even with only 48 pages to work with Evie Blake gives her readers a wonderful sample of her exquisite writing, her wonderful way with words and impressive storytelling powers. At the same time, readers who have already read the first book in the trilogy, are given a wonderful opportunity to spend a little more time with Bella and find out how this wonderful character discovered her passion.

This is a lot more than just another erotic short; this is a sexy story told in a literary style. You’ll read this book for the beautiful writing as much as for the tantalizing subject.

Do yourself a huge favour and pick this free novella up from Amazon (UK or USA) and allow it to lead you on to the full Desires Unlocked Trilogy.

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The Desires Unlocked Trilogy: 

LIBERATE YOURSELF (currently available)

Blurb, taken from the author’s website:

Previously published under the title Valentina, the first book in the Desires Unlocked Trilogy is now available in e-book edition under the title Liberate Yourself 12th November 2013

AN EROTIC STORY OF LOVE, MYSTERY AND THE DARK SIDE OF DESIRE

Milan, 2012. Photographer Valentina Rosselli is living with her lover of one year, Theo Steen, but refuses to commit to anything more. When she is offered an intriguing photography assignment, to take pictures of those engaged in the darker side of desire, she gets drawn into a shadowy world that reveals a part of her she never knew existed….

Venice, 1929. Belle is the alter ego of a well-to-do socialite, trapped in an unhappy marriage and constrained by society. As Belle she plays out her fantasies by leading a secret life as a courtesan – but she will only truly be set free by finding the man who will love her.

Though decades separate them, Belle and Valentina’s lives are intertwined. Both will experience an awakening of their latent desires, but will they discover the connection between physical passion and true love?

'Both a heartbreaking love story and a romance raunchy enough to keep you warm at night' — Independent

For my review of “Valentina” click here.

LOSE YOURSELF (Currently available)

The blurb, taken from the author’s website:

Previously published in print and ebook as VALENTINA ON THE EDGE, the second book in the Desires Unlocked Trilogy is now available in e-book edition under the title Lose Yourself from 12th November 2013.

2012. Photographer Valentina Rosselli has been invited to participate in a show of erotic photography in London, an opportunity she finds impossible to turn down. Yet London is where her ex-lover Theo Steen now lives. Deep down Valentina knows that Theo is the only man she’s ever loved. Is it possible that they might be able to rekindle their passion, or has she lost him forever?



1948. Maria leaves Italy to study contemporary dance in London, where she falls passionately in love for the first time – but when she follows her lover to post-war Paris, with its hidden underworld of latent desire, she finds that love induces her to behave in ways she never thought possible.

As Valentina uncovers Maria’s story, and its ties to her own, she begins to question how much one should change for love. Is she brave enough to risk her heart and step over the edge?

For my review of "Valentina on the Edge" click here.

SURRENDER YOURSELF (to be published January 30^th, 2014)

New York, 2013. Valentina Rosselli is recovering her lust for life after the tragic death of her fiancé, Theo Steen, one year before. With her old friend Leonardo, she unlocks her inner sexuality, reaching a level of passion she’d never thought possible. Yet as she settles into her new life, a shock from the past threatens to ruin everything. Valentina must make a choice: but will she follow her heart?

Berlin, 1984. Tina Rosselli, the famous fashion photographer is permitted to cross the border into East Berlin for a single day. There, she meets a charismatic young cellist who arouses her as she hasn’t been in years. A passionate affair follows; one which will affect Tina for the rest of her life.

As the stories of the two women finally converge, both must embrace their inner desires and follow the path to true love

THE MISTRESS

TITLE: THE MISTRESS

AUTHOR: TIFFANY REISZ

Pages: 464

Date: 22/07/2013

Grade: 6

Details: no. 4 Original Sinners,

            The Red Years

            Received from Harlequin

           Through NetGalley

Own/Kindle

 

The blurb, from the author’s website:

There's punishment-and then there's vengeance. 

Nora Sutherlin is being held, bound and naked. Under different circumstances, she would enjoy the situation immensely, but her captor isn't interested in play. Or pity. 

As the reality of her impending peril unfolds, Nora becomes Scheherazade, buying each hour of her life with stories-sensual tales of Søren, Kingsley and Wesley, each of whom has tempted and tested and tortured her in his own way. This, Nora realizes, is her life: nothing so simple, so vanilla, as a mere love triangle for her. It's a knot in a silken cord, a tangled mass of longings of the body and the heart and the mind. And it may unravel at any moment. 

But in Nora's world, no one is ever truly powerless-a cadre of her friends, protectors and lovers stands ready to do anything to save her, even when the only certainty seems to be sacrifice and heartbreak....

I found myself strangely reluctant to read this book. As much as I was desperate to find out how everything was going to unfold, as much as I couldn’t imagine how a happy ending could be designed for all of these characters, as much as I needed to have these questions answered, my reluctance to have the story end was greater.  

So, I made – forced – myself to read this book as slowly as possible. I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss a single thing. Not that I am under the illusion that I succeeded in achieving that. I know that I almost certainly will have missed tons of references, nuances, jokes… But I also know that I got enough – for now. Because I know that I will re-read this book and that when I do I will discover more in it than I did this time, just as I did on my re-reads of “The Siren”, “The Angel” and “The Prince”.

And now that I have finished “The Mistress” I find myself facing a huge dilemma. I want to rave about this book; share the story and my thoughts and feelings about it with the whole world, and I can’t. Oh, I can tell you that I loved this book, that the story took my breath away, that I laughed and cried while reading it, that my heart stopped beating on several occasions only for it to accelerate a few paragraphs later. But I can’t tell you why. Or at least, I can’t tell you anything about the story beyond what it says in the official blurb. Revealing anything else wouldn’t be fair on anybody who hasn’t read this book yet. Everybody who has grown to love the Original Sinners books the way I have, every reader who has been counting the days until this book will be available deserves the pleasure of making all the discoveries that are contained in this book completely unspoiled by me or any other reviewer.

So, what can I say? To start with I could repeat something I said in earlier reviews; Tiffany Reisz is pure writing-genius. Her characters are larger than life, live in a world I can’t completely get my head around and yet are among the most relatable characters I’ve ever come across. I want to know these people, talk to them and spend a little bit of time in their world. And, while we’re on the characters, it was wonderful to re-acquaint myself with those I encountered before and spend a little (at times too little) bit of time in their presence. And the new characters, those whom we didn’t encounter before and those who we’d seen very little of so far, they were as inspired as the old familiars were. 

And we learn so much more about all these characters. The stories Nora is forced to tell show us new details about the past and thus explain the characters to yet a greater extent. And the interactions between the other characters, both old and new, show us more of who these people are. The reader may have thought that after three books they had a pretty good idea about who exactly these characters were, and what motivated them, but they will discover that there is more to know, deeper to dig, greater wonders to experience. If you still had issues or question marks about one or more of the characters in this book I can almost promise you that they will have gone by the time you finish “The Mistress”. I’d be surprised if that wasn’t the case.

I’ve said it before, but I’m not ashamed to say it again, Tiffany Reisz’ writing is beyond compare. I love the way her dialogue sparkles and the profound statements she makes in such an, apparently off the cuff, manner. I’ve got a list of quotes as long as my arm to support this statement but will share only a few (the risk of spoilers is rearing its ugly head once again):

“Calling this man handsome would be like saying Einstein was fairly decent at his sums.”

“You were in love, not stupid. They’re two very different diseases with identical symptoms.”

“This was love, what they did together. Two people saving each other from a night spent alone and lonely. They brought their pain to each other and each accepted the gift. This was love, keeping watch together until dawn. This was love, not letting the people who hurt them win. This was love, taking a risk for someone else.”

“There is nothing I wouldn’t trust you to do to me. I don’t care if that’s the wrong answer. It is the truth. And it’s the only answer I have.”

“Love versus love, King, you’re comparing infinities. There is no ‘more’. That’s not how love works. If it’s love, it’s infinite. You can’t count it.”

And no, I’m not going to expand on these quotes, or tell you whose mouth they sprang from. You’ll find out when you read the book and trust me when I say you don’t want me to tell you; the pleasure is in discovering the origins of these, and many other, treasures yourself.

This book brings the Red Years of the Original Sinners series to an end. For months now Tiffany Reisz has been telling everybody who follows her on Twitter that they would love the way the story concludes and approve of the solutions she’d come up with for all the relationship entanglements. I have to say I didn’t quite believe her. While I could see a positive ending for some characters I just didn’t see how she would pull it off for all of them. Oh me of little faith…

Let me tell you; reassure you, that she has indeed managed to deliver the impossible. This book ends on a perfect note for everybody concerned and yet is filled with surprises. And, it wouldn’t be a book by Tiffany Reisz if it didn’t end on one final shocker. I won’t say anything else about that except that I love the name Fionn; well, I would since I’m living in Ireland, wouldn’t I? 

If, after all my raving you still have doubts about how much I loved this book just look at how I rated it; I don’t give 6 out of 5 stars very often, in fact this may well be the second time ever. 

Finally, for everybody reading this review who hasn’t read the three prequels; do yourself a huge favour and read “The Siren”, “The Angel” and “The Prince” first. This is one of those series you MUST read in order. Anything else would be a total waste of a superb story. As for me, now that I’ve learned all there is to learn about the “Red Years”, I guess it’s time to test my virtuousness again. The release date for “The Priest”, the first book in the “White Years”, hasn’t even been announced yet, so my patience is to be tried once again. I guess that is what makes it a virtue.

THE PRINCE - A RE-READ

US edition

TITLE: THE PRINCE A RE-READ

AUTHOR: TIFFANY REISZ

Pages: 407

Date: 12/07/2013

Grade: 5

Details: no. 3 Original Sinners

            The Red Years

Own Kindle/Paperback

The blurb from Tiffany Reisz’ website:

Two worlds of wealth and passion call to Nora Sutherlin and, whichever one she chooses, it will be the hardest decision she will ever have to make. Unless someone makes it for her…

Wes Railey is the object of Nora's tamest yet most maddening fantasies, and the one man she can't forget. He's young. He's wonderful. He's also thoroughbred royalty and, reuniting with him in Kentucky, she's in his world now. But this infamous New York dominatrix is no simpering Southern belle, and Nora's dream of fitting into Wesley's world is perpetually at odds with the relentlessly seductive pull of Søren—her owner, her lover, the forever she cannot have. At least, not completely.

Meanwhile Nora's associate Kingsley Edge is only too happy to take her place at Søren's feet during her hiatus. Søren is the only man Kingsley has ever loved, and their dark, shared history has forged a bond that neither the years—nor Søren's love for Nora—can break. But a new threat from an old adversary is forcing Kingsley to confront the past, reminding him that he must keep his friends close, and his enemies closer.

“In all things involving Nora Sutherlin, proceed with caution.”

And so I come to the end of re-reading the first three Original Sinners books and find myself almost ready to, at last, start on “The Mistress”. And I have to say that the whole process of reading these books again has been an immense pleasure. I honestly think I enjoyed “The Siren”, “The Angel” and “The Prince” more on this second read than I did the first time. When I encountered these books first I got too caught up in the excitement of the stories, was in too much of a rush to get to the end, too desperate to find out what would happen to these characters to pay a lot of attention to the actual writing and any hidden hints or clues.

If I’m honest, I still had trouble slowing myself down while reading. Knowing the story, being well prepared for what was about to transpire didn’t make my need to witness it all again any less. But, I do think I got more out of this book this time around. Not only because I had read this book before but also because I was now more familiar with all the characters in the story which meant that references which had been meaningless on the first read suddenly took on a deeper meaning.

This review, like my reviews of the re-reads I did of “The Siren” and “The Angel”, will be loosely based around quotes from the book.  And to be perfectly honest, this is a rather random collection of quotes. I could have copied twice this amount of fragments with ease and they would have been just as powerful, beautiful and/or inspiring. But, since this is supposed to be a review and not an exercise in copying most of the book, I tried to restrain myself.

This is very clearly the penultimate book in this series. You can feel things coming to a head while the story progresses. The tension is definitely building, the sense of danger getting stronger and the clues as to who is threatening our Sinners easier to decipher. At the same time, this book gives us an insight in to Kingsley and his relationship with Søren as well as a close look at Wesley’s background.

Nora has once again left Søren for Wesley and has travelled to Kentucky with the young man she knows is probably wrong for her but can’t resist:

“Life with Søren seemed like a beautiful prison most days, a prison she would never leave. Only Wesley’s absence had made it feel like a punishment, not a palace...”

And while she misses Søren and the kinks only he can provide her with, Nora is delighted to be reunited with her former intern:

“God damn, she had missed this kid – so fucking much that being back with him hurt almost as much as letting him go had.”

For Wesley things are more straightforward. He loves Nora, he wants Nora and he desperately needs to keep Nora away from Søren and the pain the priest inflicts upon the woman Wesley adores.

“Damn. No other word for Nora Sutherlin. Just damn” (Wesley)

And, at long last, Nora and Wesley have their moment of intimacy; a first for both of them. Wesley loses his virginity and discovers a world of pleasure he never imagined existed:

“He worshipped at the altar of her body and for a moment he felt the power of their union as a communion” 

But it’s a first for Nora as well. As experienced as she may be in everything kinky, it isn’t until she gets together with Wesley that she experiences “vanilla” sex.

While Nora and Wesley are getting to know each other far more intimately, Kingsley and Søren are trying to figure out who is threatening their secrets and way of life. This journey will take them back to the school where they first met, the place where young Kingsley submitted to and fell deeply in love with Søren.

 “There is nothing you could do to me now that I wouldn’t want” 

And their coming together is a brutal one, without restraint or mercy and at times shocking but also powerful and heartbreaking.

“He’d run because he’d wanted to get caught. He’d let himself be stripped and violated. And when he surrendered himself to Søren, that had been the moment he became himself.” 

Yes, the scenes describing Søren and Kingsley’s affair where at times, for me, difficult to read. In fact, when I read the following quote I couldn’t help thinking that trying not to watch would probably be a wise decision on God’s part, although I couldn’t have looked away (or skimmed the pages) if somebody had paid me to do so.

“It did have the scent of destiny on it – you and I. God did bring us together. Only when we were together...like that, I think He tried not to watch” (Kingsley to Søren)

UK edition

Because the way they share their love for each other may be way beyond my comfort zone, I can’t deny that it is also beautiful and intriguing. And I love the stark contrast between Kingsley and Søren’s relationship and the one between Nora and Wesley. 

And so I have once again the reached cliff-hanger that ends The Prince only this time I won’t have to wait ages before I find out how it will all end. I have my copy of “The Mistress” waiting for me and will be starting it in just a few days. I can’t wait to find out how Tiffany Reisz is going to pull all the story-lines together and how she will manage to give happy endings to most, if not all, of these characters.

Just because I can't resist and did enjoy linking a song to my review of "The Angel" I decided to include another one here. The links to the story in "The Prince" are tentative at best, but since the song includes the line "I think it's time to run" I figure I might get away with it. I hope you'll enjoy "Fever Dream - Fight or Flight" by Tara Kennedy.

And then there is one quote that I had to share just because I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment:

“A library should be a palace” (Søren)