Search - Sweet Temptation

Okay, so I didn't like Sweet Temptation. I'm fussy about my BDSM novels. I can't lay too much blame at the author's feet on why I didn't like it. It's very difficult to portray extreme elements of BDSM well if you don't have first hand knowledge of the lifestyle.

The hero in this book treats the heroine more like a piece of property than someone he wants a relationship with and then decides later that he wants something more traditional. I get what the author was attempting to do, and objectification is a very real aspect of certain Master/slave relationships, but there was no relationship to speak of here. It was just a man using a woman and letting his friends use her. The trust building it takes to gain that kind devotion from a slave wasn't present in this book. The heroine threw herself at the hero and he took full advantage of the fact that she would do anything for him. He came across rather like a domineering asshole who had a liking for kinky sex rather than a Master Dominant.

The stalker plot line felt like an afterthought and there wasn't any romance, but there was PLENTY of sex -- pages and pages and pages of it. It felt kind like a vanilla person's version of BDSM porn. I'm talking multiple whippings, which didn't hurt as much as the candle wax by the way, paddling, bondage, nipple clamps with teeth, double penetration, lots of semen spraying, deep throating to the point of gagging, oh and the anal virgin who can take it from four guys in one night and not really be sore the next day.

There was just too much about this book that felt forced and contrived. We did get glimpses of the secondary characters that I liked and I won't spoil it for anyone, but at least there was that.

review: ** spoiler alert ** I thought that Micah's book would be brutal and I was right. It was clear that Micah likes to inflict pain and that Angel loves having pain inflicted on her. I get this I just don't understand it.
Micah shares Angel with three friends and the sex is brutal. If this was not fiction she would not have been able to walk for days. The whippings were just as bad.

I am going to mark you, Angelina. Not just red welts here and there. It will hurt. It will be beautiful.

The first lash caught her unaware. It was like a blowtorch across her back.

Now this goes on until she sucks off three guys. Afterward she is sore. Sore??? I imagine her skin coming off. The aftercare is a warm bath.
The next day Micah uses the whip on Angelina. No rest or healing for the poor girl.

The day after that she gets whipped again.

Micah stood and walked around the desk. She glanced up and saw him removing his belt.

Now she get beaten with a belt until she sucks off his friend.
I get that she is into pain but there is no way she can move around like nothing happend. She would be more then sore. So again it's good that this is only fiction.

I just did not feel any love or affection from Micah for Angel until the end.

I love Maya Banks books. But this one I didn't. I didn't like the characters. Micah was just mean and Angelina was a wet blanket. They had no chemistry that I could feel. Lots of sex but even that was painful to read at times. Very disappointing. I won't give up on her though. I have loved all the other books.

There are those who really dislike too much sex in what they read and this book certainly would make them cringe. That is understandable for them. Fortunately, I have no such problem.

Regarding the reviewers who do not have a problem with the extreme sex, I think that those who wrote about the story being off in its depiction of BDSM relationships and, also, those who complained about Micah's treatment of Angel until the end are forgetting that it is a fictional story. The majority of readers have no knowledge whatsoever of the true life ways of those who experience such relationships and I don't think there is a need for them to have such an accurate depiction in order to enjoy the book.

Regarding Micah's and Angel's relationship, it is a fictional romance novel, not a biography. Almost every romance novel I've ever read is based on the stupidity of the hero. This one just happened to be more extreme due to the graphic sex involved.

I, for one, was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, not because of the explicit sex (as I said, I have no problem with it), but because, quite often, books that have a lot of graphic sex don't have much of a story. I not only enjoyed the story, but I actually felt for both characters, especially the closer I got to the end.

If you have no problem with the sex involved, I say go for it. I will be glad to read more by Maya Banks when I can get my hands on it.

Four stars for the menage and group sex alone. But Micah's determination to keep Angelina at arms length became tedious and for that the relationship build up wasn't believable to me. The intrigue storyline in the second half picked up the pace and brought a little bit of life to it, but it ended too quickly. Love the whole concept of The House, though. Hot damn!

I've read the other "Sweet" books by Maya Banks, and I usually like how she develops the characters. I love them. However, in this book, I think too much time was spent on the dominant/submissive aspects of the relationship between Angelina and Micah. So much of the torment was because of Angelina being David's little sister, but come on. I wanted to shake Micah and say, "Get over it already!"

I knew it would be brutal and it was - the sex scenes became repetitive after a while. I don't usually resort to skimming pages in Maya Banks' books, but in this one I did. The ending seemed rushed and unbelievable.

When do we get Connor's story?