Hot in the City - French Quarter (Ellora's Cave Presents, Hot in the City) [Paperback]

Lacey Alexander (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 25, 2008 | Series: Ellora's Cave Presents, Hot in the City

When Liz Marsh hires P.I. Jack Wade to find out if her fiancé is cheating on her, she has no idea she's about to embark upon a sexual odyssey through New Orleans' steamy French Quarter. Raised to be a prim, conservative woman, it takes Jack's sizzling sexuality to make Liz shed her old self and release the secret woman inside her, a woman who seeks every sensual adventure she can find. With Jack on her arm and the decadence of Bourbon Street beckoning, Liz's sexual daring knows no bounds.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"... A wonderful, explosive, erotic story from the first page to the last ... an amazing debut novel." -- Enya Adrian, Romance Reviews Today

"... Handled masterfully, with beautiful writing ... a perfectly crafted tale both extreme in its topics yet personal in its telling." -- MeriBeth McCombs, The Road to Romance

"... one of those rare series where the reader is immediately ravenous for the next installment. (A) deliciously decadent story." -- Susan Mitchell, Romantic Times Bookclub, 4 STARS

"...an unbelievably erotic tale ... one of the hottest and sexiest stories I have ever read." -- Jennifer, Romance Junkies, 5 BLUE RIBBONS

"Raw, hot, sexy, and gives a thrill of the forbidden ... done with real feeling and an amazing style ... extremely satisfying." -- Tara Black, The Romance Studio, 4 STARS

Book Description

When Liz Marsh hires P.I. Jack Wade to find out if her fiancé is cheating on her, she has no idea she's about to embark upon a sexual odyssey through New Orleans' steamy French Quarter. Raised to be a prim, conservative woman, it takes Jack's sizzling sexuality to make Liz shed her old self and release the secret woman inside her, a woman who seeks every sensual adventure she can find. With Jack on her arm and the decadence of Bourbon Street beckoning, Liz's sexual daring knows no bounds.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing (July 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1419950118
• ISBN-13: 978-1419950117
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #982,224 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One word: WOW!, December 12, 2004

By 

CoffeeGurl - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Hot in the City - French Quarter (Ellora's Cave Presents, Hot in the City) (Paperback)

I had a hard time looking for a good book to read when I stumbled upon this one. I am glad I gave this book a whirl. French Quarter will take you into an exquisite ride of hot, uninhibited sex with a tender, sensual love story to boot. And New Orleans is the perfect backdrop for this sexy, no-holds-barred story of a conforming, unadventurous woman shattering her innermost sexual inhibitions. Liz Marsh hires a P.I. to find out if her fiancé is cheating on her. The P.I. is gorgeous Jack Wade -- a man who makes her want to change from shy to wanton the minute she meets him. Once her fiance's illicit behavior is confirmed, she goes into a sexual odyssey she hadn't envisaged. The yummy Jack Wade and the dark, steamy streets of the French Quarter district awaken a sexual awareness she hadn't known she had. But is Jack Wade interested in her in a romantic way, or is he just interested in going to bed (and other places) with her? And will her ex-fiancé take rejection lightly? There are various twists throughout the novel.

This novel is delectable beyond words. The sex scenes are so hot and palpable that I wish my boyfriend were here with me. The scenes centered on Liz's experimentations at strip clubs and sex shows were incredible. I also loved the man-woman-man menage a trois (my ultimate fantasy). The shower scene, balcony scene, and the lovemaking with the Mardi Gras masks on... sheet burners to the max! The other books I'd found just as scorching as this one were The Ninety Days of Genevieve and The Captivation. Lacey Alexander did an excellent job writing about both male and female fantasies and desires. And the love story is wonderful. The romance mixes well with the erotica. One does not take away from the other, and that is how a good romantica should be. I visited the author's website and this is how she described her work: "Lacey's romantic erotica combines hardcore erotica and romance. The sex scenes are very graphic, detailed, and plentiful, including graphic language and extreme sexual situations, but entwined is a romantic, loving relationship that will reach a level of monogamous commitment by the end of the book. Perfect for the reader who enjoys extremely hot, graphic sex and fantasy-type situations, but who also finds satisfaction in traditional romance and wants to see characters fall in love." That, in a nutshell, is precisely what I want in my romance. This novel enthralled me from beginning to end and it gave me some ideas. Better than any sex guidebook I've ever read! This is another incredible Ellora's Cave offering. The aforementioned imprint has not let me down. French Quarter is the first part of Alexander's Hot in the City series. I will definitely give this author's other books a whirl. In the meantime, I recommend this gem most highly!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SUPER HOT NEW ORLEANS LOVIN', September 15, 2011

By 

DiDi "Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews" ... - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: French Quarter: Hot in the City, Book 1 (Kindle Edition)

HOTTER that Louisiana Hot Sauce!!!! GAR-ON-TEE you will need a fan, a bottle of water and batteries with this one ;-)

Liz went on a journey to free her inner wild woman, and boy did she find the perfect man to guide her into the wild side and what better place than the French Quarter. This book is loaded with sex, and knowing the French Quarter and Bourbon Street like I do, it is believable. There are feelings described by one of the characters during the M/F/M menage, that I think would be realistic in a menage. All I can say without spoiling it, is it is my belief that if you are really caught up in passion there are no filters, you are ruled by sensation and do what feels good and Ms. Alexander actually describes a character having these feelings.

Fair warning - This story does some HEAVY F/F make out scenes in it.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Promising, but ultimately disappointing, September 12, 2006

By 

M. Ottati "Rosario's Reading Journal (http://... (Liverpool, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hot in the City - French Quarter (Ellora's Cave Presents, Hot in the City) (Paperback)

I wish I'd liked this one better, because it had certain things I appreciated very much, but ultimately, it bored me.

The book starts with what I thought was a silly twit alert. Liz Marsh's fiancé has been acting weird lately, coming home very late from work, and so on, and Liz suspects he might be cheating on her. Before she confronts him, Liz wants to confirm her suspicions, so she decides to hire a PI to follow him around. Through a friend's recommendation, Liz decides to hire Jack Wade. So far so good.

And here came what made me groan: she gets it into her head that she cannot bear to let this PI (who she hasn't even met, remember, and who she suspects will probably be a paunchy, burnt-out old guy) think that she's a loser because she suspects her fiancé could be cheating on her. Therefore, she will dress up sexy (see-through blouse, that kind of thing) so that the guy will think her fiancé is crazy for cheating on such a bombshell of a woman.

Fortunately, the book doesn't continue in the same idiotic vein. Jack, the PI in question, who happens to be young and hot, is so impressed by this sexy lady that he takes the case, even though he's stopped doing adultery cases years ago. He follows the fiancé, sees that he's spending his evenings in a strip club, even going into the private rooms with some of the women, and takes some photos. But since the photos come out a bit too dark and don't convince Liz 100% that the man with the bare-breasted woman in his lap is actually her fiancé, she insists in going to the strip club and seeing for herself.

And here starts Liz's change from shy and proper "good girl" to adventurous sex kitten. She and Jack embark on a journey of sexual exploration, which includes from girl-girl action in the strip-club to a threesome with Jack's best friend, in which Liz is an enthusiastic participant and Jack an extremely supportive and appreciative companion.

I liked that unlike in some other erotica I've read that centers on the heroine stepping out of her comfort zone, I never got the feeling that the hero was somehow pressuring the heroine to do things she didn't feel comfortable with. Not at all: in this case, Liz was the one who took the lead, with Jack enjoying everything very much, yes, but mostly concerned about what Liz would like.

So why 3 stars (I actually gave it a C+ in letter grades)? Well, it's simple. I loved the idea of the heroine exploring her sexuality, but the actual explorations involved didn't work for me at all. Unlike the similar scenes in Emma Holly's All U Can Eat, for instance, I didn't find these scenes particularly erotic or engaging. In fact, except for some very specific scenes (LOL, no, I'm not going to share exactly which!), I ended up pretty bored by most of them. Many, especially those between Jack and Liz, which should have been developing their relationship, I felt very tempted to skim.

As this might indicate, the romance didn't work for me very well. At the end of the book, I didn't buy that Jack and Liz were in love. In lust, sure, but not in love. And the suspense element with Liz's fiancé who refused to let her go was very weak and didn't add much to the story.

Eh, well, at least it was a quick read!