Pearl's World of Romance - Reviews with a Passion: Erotic Research

March 25, 2009

Erotic Research - Mari Carr

12:26 PM |

Back Cover copy:
It was just a little innocent research…
Romance writer Julia Martin is fine with her life, just the way it is. Her simple apartment, successful career and Thursday-night pizza dates with her too-hot-for-words editor Ross are more than enough for her. At least, that’s what she thinks until her cat dies.

Ross Philips has spent years lusting after his shy best friend, but fears his rather strong sexual desires will be too much for Julia. When she falls into a depression over the death of her cat and stops writing, Ross decides she needs a change.
His suggestion? Try a new genre—erotica. And, of course, being such a good friend and editor, he even plans to help her do a little research.

Warning: this title contains the following: explicit sex, spanking, anal sex, bondage, toys, graphic language and all sorts of fun stuff.

Historical romance novelist Julia Martin is in a bit of a rut. Personally because it seems like everyone she loves, dies or leaves her, most recently her beloved cat. Professionally she's experiencing a bit of writers' block. Her editor and best friend Ross Philips suggests a change of genre from historical to erotic to get her creativity back and offers to help her with the research. But soon the research takes on a serious character unveiling simmering feelings between Julia and Ross.

Ross is the ideal hero, planning Julia's seduction and demanding not only her sexual abandon but also emotional commitment from her. Since he knows her so well, he knows exactly how to get both. He's been in love with Julia for a very long time but has never acted on it, afraid that she won't accept his darker sexual needs.

Julia's fiery personality lies just below the surface waiting to be ignited by the right man, in her case Ross. Though she wants to protect her heart, she knows her surrender to him both sexually and emotionally is inevitable.

Ms. Carr's debut is a delightful, intense and solid erotic romance. With all the elements I require from an erotic romance she touched dark sensual desires and combined these with deep emotional dilemmas. The characters that have enough of a background and are very likeable complement the hot erotic love scenes. Even with the limited page-count (only 114 pages), she managed to write a fully and well-rounded story that contained more than just steamy erotic scenes. However, with such a small page-count little room is left for true depth in the characters or their backgrounds. Still I thought Ms. Carr did a good job in giving Julia and Ross a background that went beyond the story at hand.

I liked both the premise and the execution of the story. There are no secondary characters because it's just about Julia and Ross and the exploration of their (sexual) relationship. Right before the end the book dropped a bit in pace and intensity but she more than made up for that with the ending. It was heart breaking and beautifully done which earned this e-book an extra half star.

This was a purely character-driven book that had enough body to it to keep me interested from the first to the last page and in the vast amount of erotically charged romances Mari Carr has definitely captured my attention with a story that I found myself fascinated with to no end and I'm glad I have more of her books in my possession.

Quote:
Ross to Julia: “Oh, Jules, I can assure you nothing I plan to do to you tonight is going to be professional. It’s going to be hot and raw, rough and passionate—and extremely unprofessional.”

Labels: eBooks, Erotic Romance, Mari Carr, Samhain Publishing

1 comments:

Mari Carr said...: Oh Pearl--thanks so much for the lovely comments. I'm ashamed to say I've just found this review! My last few months at work have been a bit hectic. I must say you've made this a very happy Memorial's Day weekend for me!; May 25, 2009, 2:45:00 PM