Desire by Marina Anderson

The Basics:
Desire by Marina Anderson
Forever (Grand Central Publishing)
Part One of the Dining Club
Erotica

I received this ebook via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Grace and David have been involved for six months. She's falling in love, he's not quite there yet. But he is prepared to induct her into his secret sexual world - the Dining Club! Can she face down rival Amber, overcome the four trials, and maybe even earn David's love along the way?

Desire is the first three chapters of this story, released in a serial form.

What worked for me:

Not a lot, unfortunately. I think if I read more, I could like Grace quite a bit. She handled David's revelations pretty well - she wasn't shocked by the prospect of kinky sex. I liked that she wasn't naive or too sheltered to understand the implications of the Dining Club.

I *am* curious about the trials, and about whether or not the story gets hotter once Grace is properly introduced into the Dining Club.

What didn't work for me:

My biggest problem was plot/character related: David being involved in the Dining Club actively and secretly while in a sexual relationship with Grace. That's a deal breaker for me.

I like serialization. It reminds me of nineteenth century literature, published in a serial format in newspapers. This kind of literature relies heavily on  cliffhangers to draw you back for the next installment. It seems a little counter-intuitive to me to write erotica in this format because you don't want to leave the reader unsatisfied - or wanting more, as it were. Erotica is about satisfaction, is it not?  On the plus side, the plot at the core here - the trials - lends itself to ever increasing heights of titillation, so there's certainly room for improvement. The way in which pain alongside pleasure was used thematically in this installment didn't really do it for me, but as David points out in the third chapter, paraphrasing, different strokes for different folks.

Bottom Line:

For something this short (three chapters), it covered a lot of ground. I think I'd prefer to read The Dining Club as a complete novel rather than in installments, but at the same time, David's not doing it for me.

2 stars

For anyone who likes their kinky sex with a little pain, for anyone wanting to get their toes wet in erotica without a big commitment