Customer Reviews

Asking for Trouble (Black Lace)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The book starts when Beth (the heroine), moves into her new flat in the grungy working class, avant-garde, seaside neighborhood town of Brighton, England. While putting up curtains, she notices a strange man (Ilya, the hero of the story) in the flats across the street staring at her from his window mocking her every move. When the annoyed Beth decides to flash the stranger, she's surprised by his response. Scared and a bit shaken by his actions she decides it wasn't the best move for a woman living alone. Then the phone rings... Guess who?... Right from the start I knew I was going to like Beth and I was going to like this very realistic psychotically dark & dangerous, sexual thriller.

30 year old Beth, not looking for a serious relationship at the moment (she's busy managing a trendy, fashionable bar & enjoying a normal single life) finds her self attracted to the handsome, but mysterious Ilya. After their first intimate (and slightly scary) encounter Beth reveals her deepest darkest fantasies to Ilya. They both agree it might be fun to meet on occasions to fulfill Beth's fantasies with no strings attached. Beth's fantasies roughly have to do with being made to do sexually degrading things and treated like a sleazy slut - nasty, hot, hard sex that involves multiple male partners, being sexually dominated and sometimes rape. However, Beth makes it clear from the start that the rape fantasy wouldn't be part of the game as it should stay a fantasy... Will Ilya play fair? Beth and Ilya agree if they should find the game, at any point, boring or going too far, they are to say the safe word and the game ends immediately and the relationship stops. Beth believes she's the one in control in the beginning (remember, she can stop it any time with one word) but Beth becomes dangerously addicted to these games and especially addicted to Ilya. Beth knows Ilya also has the option to stop the madness and she finds her self less and less willing or unable to extricate her self. She keeps Ilya and their dirty little sex games a secret. Even her best friends and her work mates know nothing about either. Soon the games get more and more hazardous and degrading as Ilya's shadowy past catches up with him and he's determined to use Beth. There is one scene where Beth is called to Ilya's rundown bed & breakfast hotel - it was frightening and I wasn't sure I would be able to read it through...*panting* That was only one of many intense scene in this deliciously brilliant nervy novel. At times I wanted to reach into the book and take Beth by the shoulders and scream, stop it now before it's too late. But, how do you stop yourself when a gorgeous, complicated, mysterious man takes your most depraved sexual secret fantasies and makes them real, exciting and dangerous.

Kristina Lloyd had me believing these characters and their situations were REAL. I mean sometimes I wonder if it isn't based on someone's true experience. It certainly had that element of truth, and the characters could easily be people you meet everyday at work, on the street or in a pub. Beth's reactions were honest and true to most of the scenarios in the book. It's the reactions and emotions I'd expect from a real live woman to have - not like most Black Lace heroines. Ilya is more complicated, but that is what is so wonderful about his persona. He was the perfect bloke to carry out these bold acts. Lloyd had this reader (me) and Beth asking the question - who is Ilya. Is sexy, handsome, macho, working class Ilya involved in illegal activities? Is he running from something or someone? How dangerous is he, and why won't he tell Beth anything about his work, friends or life in general. The secrets, the fantasies, the lies, the danger and the often explosive sex scenes make this one great piece of exciting erotic literature - in fact I thought this book would work even in the mainstream, not just erotica. Yes, the sex scenes were explosive and HOT, but it's not just the sex that keeps this wonderful story going... It's the element of danger too. So far after reading, many, many Black Lace novels, "Asking For Trouble" is the one that stood out from the rest and in my opinion one of the best. It's not like the other Black Lace books... It's more intense, personal and believable. Kristina, give us more, pleeease...

I'm not really sure how to rate this. One one hand the author has amazing talent, the pacing is great, the characters feel real, and the plot moves fast. On the other hand the particular bent of the characters is difficult to grasp for me.

To be clear Beth's fantasies center entirely around her humiliation. From reading other reviews I assumed it was more dominance, but it's actually straight humiliation.

Hanging curtains she begins a strip-off with a man across the street who essentially begins stalking her. Confused and crazed with lust she exhanges phone fantasies with Ilya who makes it clear he doesn't care about last names, personal histories, or family.

Beth begins to make asignations with Ilya where she's used as a table, [...] on, videotaped without her knowledge, and driven to have sex with strangers. Admitedly the [...] scenes were so disinteresting I didn't read the last two where Beth is passed aroundd a group of thugs as payment for trouble Ilya is in and then she performs a sex act on stage at her club for some of those thugs.

Many people are disturbed by the "rape" scene (read attempted rape scene) but it's easy to see coming. Ilya is a man who truly doesn't respect Beth in the least, doesn't even like her, and he does ominously tell her earlier "One day I'm going to rape you."

So for the sex I'd say pass unless humilation is your thing, but for the plot and writing it was good. Just what Ilya does for a living is a good mystery, and you find yourself rooting for Beth to find some self-respect. However if you pay attention to Ilya and Beth's characters you'll know what the outcome will be.

Unless you're into humilaition I'd say skip this, but if that's your bent do not miss this book.

When Beth Bradshaw moves into a new flat she soon becomes aware she's being watched by a guy who lives across the street. Most people would call the police, but Beth gets involved with the guy - who turns out to be weirder and scarier than she could have imagined. This book is a breath of fresh air in the sometimes predictable world of erotic fiction. It's set in my town - an English seaside resort - and for me Kristina Lloyd has really captured the feel of the place: shabby and sleazy with a frisson of danger and excitement. It's a stylish, contemporary page-turner that kept me guessing till the end.

This is by far one of the best Black Lace books that I have ever read. It is true that I found myself wincing at some parts for Beth as she took on the unspeakable. And yes, every working woman in the dawn of the millenium may find it offensive and if not, horrifying. But, let your feminist guard down a little just for the book and explore. With every chapter, you look for more. I admire the character for her bravery. The little wild child in us all. This book basically allows us readers to experience what we all deep down inside fantasize about. Those dark fantasies that you never tell our mother about. Thank you, Kristina Lloyd for this journey.

My copy of this book has pages marked, the spine is well creased, and looks at least five years old. But it's not. in fact, i bought it two months ago. Kristina did a good job of weaving some of our raunchier fantasies, the ones you don't share with a soul, into steamy, passionate couplings between Beth (the main character) and Ilya, the dark handsome stranger. Yes, it si degrading, and yes it took my run of the mill darker fantasies, much further than I would even think about, but those scenes left you feeling connected to Beth, made you feel like you endured the humiliation, degradation. Not for the faint hearted, but definietly for the open minded. An excellent read that I just can't get enough of.

This is one of my favorite Black Lace books. (Emma Holly is my other preferred Black Lace Author) The events are not always believable, but they are exciting and tantilizing. The main character is a bit of a deviant, but looks square compared to her lover. A fun read.

Thirty years old bar manager Beth Bradshaw moves to Brighton, England where she looks out her window while hanging up her curtains to observe a stranger mimic her motions. Irate, she flashes him with her boobs, feeling like an amazon until she calms down and thinks she is just Beth not a warrior woman ready to battle a pervert. Ilya calls her to welcome her to the neighborhood asking her if she came earlier when the mime was there.

Unable to stop herself, Beth tells her darkest fantasies to Ilya, which excites him too. They agree to fulfill her fantasies with him sexually humiliating her forcing her to act like a slut. The only stipulations are that this is a sex only tryst with no other binds except ties to a bedpost and no rape; although she claims that is her deepest desire as she wants to be the victim of the roughest sex short of physical injury. Finally they agree that if things get out of hand, a safe word will end the encounter and relationship. However Beth can't just say no, as she has become addicted to these abusive sexual encounters until Ilya decides he needs to use his submissive to help him with his past that has arrived to bother him.

Living up to its title, readers know from the first confrontation that Beth is ASKING FOR TROUBLE when she confides in the enigmatic Ilya. She is a fascinating protagonist as her needs affirm how much the mind plays in sexual encounters. Ilya is much more complex as the audience will continually wonder what he truly wants from Beth besides a permanent hard-on. Fans of erotic romance will appreciate this fine tale while pondering is it worth the risk?

Harriet Klausner

"Asking For Trouble" is one of my favorites of the Black Lace titles I've read so far. Beth gets involved with her new neighbor, Ilya, only to get entangled in an intense and dirty game of sexual one-upsmanship that sucks her farther and farther into a dark place she's not sure she wants to go. But soon she finds that she can't extract herself from it and she can't say no to Ilya, no matter what he asks of her. If you're turned on by power and humiliation, you can't go wrong with this book. One of Beth's biggest turn-ons is being cheapened and degraded, and Ilya does that to her again and again, making her feel incredibly dirty and cheap, and loving every minute of it. If you are turned on by humilation and degradation and the kind of relationship wherein the woman feels so compelled by the man that she'll do anything she's told, you'll LOVE this book.

This is one of the worst Black Lace books I have ever read. Ilya, the main partner of the heroine, Beth, is a jerk. I pitied Beth more than I wanted to be in her place. Most of the sex scenes are degrading--not arousing. I was surprised at the overall dismalness of this novel considering that I found Ms. Lloyd's other Black Lace novel, Darker Than Love, quite enjoyable. Don't waste your money. Buy an Emma Holly or Natasha Rostova title or the aforementioned Darker Than Love instead.

As a writer of erotica, there are many things I've tried to learn from this book. How to make condoms sexy. How to coarsen my vocabulary. When to let my heroine wear knickers with a gusset. And many other tricks of the trade.

But there's one thing that, for my money, Kristina does better than any other writer of erotica, and that's to use her sophisticated mastery of language to describe quite complex physical sensations. She does it very simply and accurately and the effect is very powerful.

I should say that the language in this book is unashamedly English and very authentically so. It is what you will hear in the clubs and bars of Brighton, where the novel is set.

Don't be fooled by the simplicity of the language, though. What the author is doing is very difficult. For she doesn't just focus on the physical. She manages to dig out and express the emotional roots of desire.

I recommend this book to every writer. Kristina can be lyrical at times but she is never self-indulgent. And when she needs to be crude she is definitively crude. Above all, she strives to be accurate. Her touchstone is undoubtedly herself, her own body, her own desires, her own responses. For this reason alone the book is very daring. Many writers of erotica fall back on well-worn phrases. They do not make best use of the raw material available to them - themselves.

As an example, here is a description of Beth walking along the beach in Brighton.

"The wind buffeted me and, every now and again, my steps went crooked and drunken because it was so ferociously strong. It was warm and arid too: my eyes didn't stream the way they would do in a chill wind. That rushing air had the opposite effect; it made my eyeballs feel strangely dry."

There are some emotions lying beneath the surface of those stark sentences but even if you are not aware of them, because I have lifted the words out of their context, you get a sense of how clinically accurate Kristina can be.

Stephen King once wrote in one of his introductions to Salem's Lot (June 15, 2005):

"So turn off the television ... and we'll talk about vampires here in the dim. I think I can make you believe in them, because while I was working on this book, I believed in them myself."

Whenever I pick up Kristina's book and re-read her sentences about Ilya and Beth, her vivid descriptions of Brighton, her sharp and swanky dialogue, I believe that what I am reading is real. Because while Kristina was writing this book, it was real.

Not everyone can handle this kind of authenticity. This book isn't for everyone. Beth degrades herself in ways that are sick and disgusting. She does things that no woman should ever do. But I believe in her. I understand her. I care about her. And for that Kristina earns my everlasting respect.