Sheltered [Kindle Edition]

Charlotte Stein (Author)

Book Description

Evie has lived her entire life under her abusive father’s thumb. He controls everything. Where she goes to college, who she sees, what she does. But when she meets Van—a punk who shows her how different life could be—she realizes how much she’s been missing.Van offers her excitement, protection, love…and most of all, sex—even if he’s at first reluctant to give her all the things she’s been craving. She wants to explore this new world of arousal and desire, but Van is only too aware of how fragile she is, how innocent…And how much is at stake, when their love is forbidden.

Product Details

• File Size: 309 KB
• Print Length: 162 pages
• Publisher: Ellora's Cave (March 9, 2012)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B007ITF0LA
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,274 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I adore this story! March 13, 2012

By Marie

Format:Kindle Edition

I absolutely adored this story! Evie has lived a very sheltered life because of an abusive father and bad family life in general despite the fact that her parents are well off and appear 'normal' on the outside. She's stuck under her parent's roof not because she's afraid to leave for herself, but for another reason I don't want to give away because it might be considered a spoiler. As the story starts she sees this guy Van whom she calls a `punk' talking with her neighbor. He catches her `spying' on him and attempts to start a conversation with her. She's nervous because she's been so sheltered and he's covered in tattoos, piercings and is about 6'5". She tries to go back into her house and ends up tripping on something in her yard and knocking herself out. The next thing she knows she's waking up on her mother's couch with him crouched on the end trying to stay far away from her (so he won't scare her). He stayed because he wanted to make sure she was okay. From there this story is about the two of them forming this amazing friendship. It starts off very tentatively and there are some miscommunications and adorable flirting along the way.

Evie's inner dialogue is hilarious. She's so self deprecating and humorous and the type of person you want to be friends with. Some of the stuff she said had me laughing out loud. Despite the underlying comedy of Evie, there are some real life issues within this story and they weren't glossed over. But, those things weren't so intense that they took away from the balance of the blossoming and amazing romance between Evie and Van. The story is told completely from Evie's point of view and normally I like a balance between the male and female but in this case I never felt like I didn't know what Van was thinking. She might have had a few moments where she didn't realize what his intentions were because of her sheltered life, but as a reader I equally connected with Van and was never lost wondering what his intentions were toward her. This was an all around entertaining and very sexy read. Ms. Stein has a new fan!

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An instant keeper March 24, 2012

By Fae Sutherland

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Just finished, need a little while to process. In a word - Beautiful. I'll be back with more words. :)

Okay had some time to process and here's my thoughts.

I love this book. It's smart and funny and poignant and clever. There are a few things that I think could have improved it, but those things don't take away from the book as it is. For instance, I would have liked very much to get Van's point of view. Even just a little. However, how he thinks and feels is never in question, even though we don't get to see anything from his POV. Evie is a fabulous narrator and gives us all the insight we need. I'm just greedy and wanted more.

There were spots where Evie's internal dialogue did not match her purported innocence and lack of worldly experience. She uses the C-word (sorry Amazon won't let me type out the actual word, ugh) to refer to her girly bits, for instance, and I found it very startling and out of character. It really contrasted in a jarring way with how Evie thinks of other sexual things in a very realistically innocent way.

Overall, though, none of the nitpicks can affect how much I adored this book. As an abuse survivor, Evie's situation could have been terribly triggering, but Charlotte handled it with such deft cleverness that while we knew what was going on, it didn't overshadow the story we were being told. This wasn't a story of a girl in an abusive home, this is the story of a girl meeting her soulmate. I truly believe that Evie and Van are going to be together forever. The ending was so beautiful, I cried.

I'd rate it 4.5 stars but rounded up to 5 for Goodreads' system. It's definitely going to be a keeper for me and a reread.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Sheltered April 5, 2012

By Reed French

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Honestly, I hate buying indie books that have few reviews. I never know if those are honest reviews, friends or family of the author, or what. So, needless to say, I was skeptical about purchasing Sheltered.
But I'm SOO(ooooo) glad I did.

What I loved: a) Stein writes very well. I come across WAY too many indie books that have 5-star ratings across the board and could be pretty decent, but the writing is just so lackluster, the dialogue is usually forced or completely ridiculous, and the flow of the stories are usually all over the place. Charlotte Stein is clearly a gifted writer. Writing - well done. Dialogue - realistic, made sense, cute, sweet, and serious all at appropriate times. Flow - easy and realistic. b) The sex scenes are awesome. They aren't hard core "call me Sir" and let me gag you. They're intense, hot, sensual, and so freakin' sexy (plus the dirty talk is majorly hot). c) Evie and Van are very cute.

What I didn't like (and kept me from giving 5 stars): a) Too short. That's the main problem I had with this story. This fact kept me from getting to know Evie and Van better. I wish we got to see them spend more time together, other than just fooling around or having sex. But I get it. Sheltered is about Evie's sexual exploration and freedom, getting to know her body. Made sense. But I really wanted to know HER better. Van, too.

This is the first book I've read by Charlotte Stein, but I will definitely be reading more.

More About the Author

Charlotte Stein has written over thirty short stories, novellas and novels, including entries in The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance and Best New Erotica 10. Her collection of short stories was named one of the best erotic romances of 2009 by Michelle Buonfiglio, and her first novel, Control, was recently called "...a non-stop crazy hot sex book". When not writing non-stop crazy hot sex books, she can be found eating jelly turtles, watching terrible sitcoms and occasionally lusting after hunks. She lives in West Yorkshire with her husband and their imaginary dog, and can be found here: www.themightycharlottestein.blogspot.com