Customer Reviews

The Pearl at the Gate

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

 

 

I read this a while back and really enjoyed it. This is firmly in the erotic romance category, so people who are not looking for a very explicit tale will not enjoy this story.

"Pearl" is about a recently married couple. The husband has spent a lot of time at sea and a lot of time exploring his desires. He wants his wife very much, but he presumes she is too much of a lady to enjoy bondage or anything other than the most routine bedroom activities. His wife, having witnessed the games of others, would very much like to branch out, but is unable to communicate this to her husband. Then, there's a business trip, the discovery of a secret room, and the discovery of the discovery of the secret room. Also, the discovery of naughty sketches and the discovery of the discovery -- well, you get it.

If you're looking for a short tale with a focus on the erotic between a married couple and containing loving dominance, this would most likely be a worthwhile selection. An excellent choice for when you're not looking for a complicated plot or are overloaded on a lot of serious non-fiction.

I like a plot with my smut, thank you very much.

This novella - it's too short for a book and too long for a short story - centers on the marriage between a nouveau riche member of English society who would normally be shunned if he hadn't married a prim and proper English lady (with a secret lust for bondage and spanking). The husband, Roake, is riddled with insecurities (except when wielding a whip, of course) while the wife feels deep shame over her secret longings for her husband to master her.

The writing, the story, the sex? Just dull.

Very little plot moves the sex along between two people who are about as interesting as mud. They just don't click for me nor am I all that interested in finding out whether they stay together after they discover that they enjoy the same sex games. I can't tell if this novella was part of a collection or a stand-alone. As a stand alone, it was worth exactly it's price: free. The story lacked purpose, the characters lacked depth, and the sex was not all that interesting.

Roarke and Jenesta Barbenoir are a married couple hiding a secret from each other that they feel they can't share with their spouse. They both like kinky sex, not the vanilla sex that is more socially accepted in Victorian England. I loved the tension between the two when after indulging in the kind of sex they like, they both feel ashamed and that the other person will no longer love them.

It's a good short story that ended too soon.

Wow! This was a very short hot book! It was free for my E-reader and I'm so glad I picked it up. First it was very well written with a lot of emoitonal depth that you don't normally fine in 1. short books and 2. erotica books.

This author has launched herself onto my must read list.

Warning: This book is very graphic with BDSM.

Thank goodness this read was free on my Kindle. I would have been disappointed if I had paid for it. Essentially, this is erotic reading, but very short. You can pretty much finish it in less than a day. I Liked the characters and the situation that as a married couple they face. I love Janesta discovering hidden secrets about her husband and then finding out her own desires are very similar to his desires. Anyone into sexual dominances will enjoy this read, but even for someone who likes the genre, it was a tease. Everything was wrapped up in 100 pgs or less. Hence, there was lack of proper character development. Shame really ... it could have been a contender. :)

I bought this at the Samhain website (had a coupon from the RWA conference) and was extremely impressed. This was my first reading of this author and I thought she did a fantastic job for a short story. In fact I was just up here on Amazon looking for something else of hers to read and saw that this book has only a 3 star rating... shocked me into writing my own review!

The other reviews have done a good job of recounting the plot here, so I'll just say that I think the story was very well written, dark and steamy with a nicely executed HEA. It stumbled a little bit at the black moment, but not enough to throw me off.

If the story sounds intriguing to you, give it a shot. She's a wonderful writer.

I actually really liked this one. I've way overspent my book buying budget since getting a kindle so had to focus on free down loads recently and frankly, even for free most are too expensive - they are a waste of time! So I was really pleased with this. There is erotic tension and angst between Jenesta and her husband, Roarke. She's not quite clear why he married her, but she loves him, and he's gorgeous but so gentle in bed. He has dreams and desires he dares not bring to her... until she stumbles into his secret chamber, and all is revealed.

Actually the entire piece is basically a set up to the chamber scene, the chamber scene, which is entirely sexual and not hard core bdsm, more light spanking and bondage, and then ramifications of the chamber scene. For a freebee it's excellent. I see now that it's back to being $2. For $2 it's not bad... more an extended magazine piece than a novella, it really is very short, 1201 location points (so hard for me to really understand them, but I'm starting... 2 - 3 000 is a longer novella, 4 - 5000 is a full length book) so this very short, more a nibble than a bite. But it's tasty and well written, and I'll probably even reread it some time... so worth the time, and you have to decide for yourself if that's worth the money.

The writing itself was very good. The character development, sort of bad, which is why I'm giving this a two.

They start at the breakfast table thinking of the more forbidden pleasures they want to share with each other, but how they can't because their marriage was for convenience, even though they both really wanted each other the first time they saw each other, and at the end of that same day, they both fulfill those secret, dark desires with each other. But then the husband gets cold feet and makes to run off, with his lady wife being all, "What the heck? I enjoy those types of things too, dummy!" to which his reply is, "Oh snap, I didn't realize. I guess I'll stay and give you all the forbidden love pleasures you desire!" and she's like, "Damn right you will, and you'll start now!"

So A+ with the characters, but definitely an F- on character development and plot. Would make a better short story fleshed out more with their lives rather than what's in their pants.

An erotic little tale...not really a story b/c doesnt have no real plot. A tale of a piratic husband with dangerous desires for his innocent pearl of a wife....

This book is essentially a porn-for-women short story. There is no real plot. Just a set up for the spanking. Save your time (and pent up sexual energy) for a book that goes to the trouble of couching the sex in a story, not just throwing it down onto a couch and tying it up.