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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
An OK story with some kink, August 21, 2008
This review is from: Dangerous Pleasures (Pleasures Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
Ms. Small's latest installment in her "Pleasures" series introduces us to Annie, a widowed mother of five kids, aging from college to preschool. It is simular to the first book, Private Pleasures (Signet Eclipse) in that the protaganist is a mom on her own and fighting to keep things together for her kids. This book also brings back the Nora from book one. She acts as Annie's mentor through the changes in her life.
I was dissappointed by the lack of sexual tension in the book. While there were plenty of sex scenes there was none of the erotic pull one would expect from an erotica novel. In fact, some scenes were as short as one paragraph.
The language in the book was also off-putting for me. "Squealing," in deilight or for any other reason, brings to mind piglets, not excitement. Many passages read like bodice-rippers from 40 years ago.
I was also bothered by Annie's frequesnt reminders that she was doing everything for her children when, in fact, the book shows her pulling away from her kids. By the end of the book her most frequent contact with the children is over the phone or through updates from the nanny. Maybe that just bothers me because I'm a mom who's close to my kids, but I did find it troubling.
One thing I like about Dangerous Pleasures is that the heroine isn't the perfect 20-something with the right look, right body, right everything. She's a woman in her 40s with all the stresses that come with motherhood. Its nice to see a more realistic character in the starring role.
Overall, I don't think this book is worth the price. The story feels very superficial with no real emotional depth, The sex doesn't garner the erotic draw one would expect from erotica, and the plot is almost non-existant, with very little conflict to keep it interesting. Above all it reads like a little old lady's idea of a dirty book... granted, it's an adventurous old lady.
I'd recommend skipping it.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
This book is simultaneously intriguing and disappointing, September 4, 2008
This review is from: Dangerous Pleasures (Pleasures Series) (Mass Market Paperback)
Since first reading Betrice Small's "Skye O'Malley" 20 years ago, I've greatly enjoyed diving into her novels. However, her latest offerings involving The Channel show such promise in the beginning, but halfway through just leave me cold.
First, the good:
1) Most women will relate to the heroine, Annie, and her struggles involving money and family. After all, who hasn't worried about how to pay for their children's college, missing work because of a vomiting child or dealing with their own aging parents?
2) I found it refreshing that Annie was in her mid-40s and a size 16 (although she later slims down to a size 12). Congrats to Ms. Small for incorporating such a realistic character. No matter our size or age, we can still be desirable and sexy.
3) The Channel. Until some brilliant woman actually invents a way to allow us to star in and control our very own porn movie, I enjoy the experience vicariously through Small's characters.
The bad:
1) All too familiar sex scenes. She's seriously running out of ideas.
2) Mr. Nicholas. Small's loyal readers already know it's going to end badly when he's involved. I sincerely hope she incorporates The Channel in upcoming novels, but please leave the devilish Mr. Nicholas out it.
3) Annie has sexual relationships with her male assistant and 2 other underlings, both at work and elsewhere. This is professional suicide and I speak as a woman/mother/wife who works full time. Simply cringeworthy.
4) The whole "I'm doing it for my kids" mantra. At the beginning, Annie is a stay-at-home mom to her 5 kids, 4 of whom still live at home. Within a year of Annie starting work, her children have a full-time nannie who is virtually raising them while their mother often spends the night at her work apartment having 3-ways. How exactly is playing with and casually discarding her boy-toys helping her kids?
Started promising, but I didn't even care what happened to Annie because she was virtually unrecognizable by the middle of the book.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting as well as erotic, January 14, 2010
This is the fourth book in the "Pleasures" series. In some ways it's the best. The main character faces decisions that appear simple and straightforward in the beginning. Just as in real life, her choices lead to more complications and difficult decisions. The story is a bit less "pat" than the others, with some genuine soul searching on the part of the heroine. Small's characters tend to go forward and not think a lot. This woman is a bit different in that she begins to learn from her choices and think more carefully about consequences of her next decisions.
The book contains explicit sexual scenes that form part of the plot. If you don't like that, don't read this book.
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