Customer Reviews

Bliss

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REVIEWER'S OPINION:

It felt like most of the book consisted of sex scenes, but the actual page count puts them at about 34%. Kara was ok in the beginning, but by the end of the book, I didn't like her. She was like a selfish kid in a candy store. She meets JM and has amazing sex with him. Then she says can we do it with two men? Then she wants to do it with more than two men. Then she wants men kidnapping her, tying her up, and having their way with her. She keeps asking for more. JM is happy to create and fulfill all of her fantasies. He's doing it out of love. She's not. She is insensitive to JM at one point by going off with another man, hoping JM won't know, but he does. I did not like her when she did that. It felt contrived for the purpose of conflict. Sure she has some issues from her past (fear of abandonment and hurt by someone she loves), but her actions make her unsympathetic. I didn't see any reason for JM to fall in love with her. But since JM had been visualizing someone coming into his life, the mystical connection is supposed to provide the validity for his "love at first sight." I reluctantly accepted that.

I like sex scenes that are emotionally charged, but there wasn't enough emotional development. As a result I was kind of bored with the sex. I liked the sex in the beginning, but without the emotional element, it became repetitive. There wasn't much story, so read this for the sex, not the story. Tantra ideas are part of this including the idea of whole body orgasm which was interesting, but I wanted more details. There is group sex (multiple men with one woman), rear door activity, and light bondage.

STORY BRIEF:

JM is a (sex) tantra master and author of a book. He will be a speaker at a week long sex conference. Kara writes a sex column for a woman's magazine. She is attending the conference for the purpose of spicing up her column. They first meet on an airplane sitting next to each other. The trip is delayed due to weather, and they spend the night together in a hotel. Kara is doing "sex with a stranger for one night" and thinks she'll never see him again. She is shocked to see him at the conference. JM has been visualizing a perfect woman coming into his life. When he sees Kara he feels she is the one and falls in love at first sight. He hopes to convince her of the same thing after a week together at the conference.

DATA:

Story length: 238 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 17. Approximate number of sex scene pages: 81. Setting: current day Cleveland, Ohio, and Indianapolis, Indiana. Copyright: 2010. Genre: erotic contemporary romance.

Sex columnist Kara Spencer believes that making love is a normal physical activity just like going to the bathroom. She is flying to Indianapolis via a stop in Cleveland, but her flight is delayed. Also waiting for the same flights is Tantra master J.M. whose triangular relationship with Hannah and Grey just ended as he went from teacher to third wheel (see Blush). Hannah's sister Grace is to join him at the Indianapolis sex conference where he is to speak, but she will not be able to fly out until tomorrow. However, when J.M. and Kara notice one another, she feels a deep need for him and he knows she is perfect for him. They share what she assumes will be a one-night stand.

The next day, Kara is stunned to find out her last night's lover is a keynote speaker at the conference and the person her editor wanted her to interview re Tantra sex. J.M. teaches her Tantra sexuality while hoping she will realize they are a prime pairing of bodies and souls even as he expands her horizon to a much wider range of sexual encounters.

Bliss is a heated erotic romance that returns the Tantra master who trained Hannah and Grey with his prime woman whom he mentors with the full palate of physical and energy orgasms derived from role playing fantasy, triangular encounters and bondage. The story line more than just sex, sex, and more sex (though that seems like 75%) as Kara does not believe love exists ever since her dad left when she was young. Opal Carew has written an enjoyable erotica with just enough of a plot outside of the sexual encounters of the first kind to grip the reader's libido and more.

Harriet Klausner

Although the hero, J.M., believes in love at first sight, the real story here is about Kara's reluctant passage from simply being "in lust" to being in love with J.M. Along the way, the hero arranges for her to experience consensual anonymous sex with a stranger, a M/F/M threesome, light bondage and even four male partners (the latter sort of a mini-gang-bang). The Tantric sex is discussed more than actually practiced in the novel.

With so many taboos violated, I found it puzzling that the two lovers did not also engage in a F/M/F or F/F/M threesome. It certainly would have been a natural development given the plot. After all, the book is as much about indulging in hot, recreational sex for sheer physical pleasure as it is about Kara inadvertently finding her HEA.

The author writes very strong, highly titillating sex scenes, and she uses some good plotting techniques to carry most of it off. I found Kara's initial one-night-stand with a stranger she met just a few hours before(J.M., the hero-to-be of the novel) somewhat believable, but the consensual anonymous sex with another stranger she's never even laid eyes on, not very believable.