Maggie Casper

Friends with Benefits has now taken over the top spot for my all-time favorite erotic romance. Forget content warnings. This book should have come with a health warning.;-) While reading it, I found myself literally short of breath and light-headed more than once. It had me feeling like I might spontaneously combust while simultaneously melting into a puddle of goo. This friends-to-lovers story had a surprising amount of emotional depth and a pretty decent plot for an erotic novel. I've show more discovered that erotic authors often have a tendency to put in just a few too many sex scenes, leaving my interest waning by the end, but that definitely wasn't the case here. I was fully engaged from beginning to end, because all the intense, scorching hot love scenes were interspersed with a good balance of great outside-the-bedroom scenes between the hero and heroine, as well as their interactions with the secondary characters. In fact, the one and only thing that wasn't quite my cup of tea was the group sex scene. Aside from that, everything made for a superb read that left me hot and bothered, emotionally enthralled, and wishing the story were longer, so that I wouldn't have to say farewell to Sebastian and Bailey.

Sebastian was almost sheer perfection in a romantic hero for me. I know it might sound strange, but occasionally, I can tire of all the gorgeous men in romance novels. Sometimes I just long for a hero who seems a bit more attainable, and Sebastian fit that bill perfectly. He is without a doubt attractive, but in a more subdued way. Bailey describes him as cute rather than all that Hollywood hotness, he wears glasses, and he's more average in height. I absolutely loved this dichotomy. By day, he's a relatively mild-mannered attorney and Bailey's safe, always dependable best friend (next to Cat). But when this tiger is turned loose, he becomes a jealous, protective dom with a kinky spanking fetish. Sebastian exudes an air of confidence that's close to bordering on cocky, but not quite. I simply found him too endearing for that. The authors also gave him a wicked sense of humor and a touch of vulnerability in the way that Bailey touches his emotions so deeply that he sometimes looses his carefully planned control. He was even the first to say, “I love you” even though she didn't hear him. I adored his protectiveness and need to take care of her in a kind of old-fashioned, “I'm the man you're the woman” sort of way even before they were intimately involved, and he does take care of her quite well in more ways than one. I also loved that his dominating behavior was never intimidating to me, and the spankings were never, ever intended to hurt or humiliate. Even when he was “punishing” Bailey, his love and deep desire for her still emanated from the pages. All in all, Sebastian was just too scrumptious for words, and has definitely earned a spot on my favorite heroes list.

Bailey is a strong, stubborn lady with commitment issues. Normally, a romance heroine who has slept around quite a bit and is forward enough to proposition her best friend when she can no longer bear her sexual drought would irritate me, but Bailey never did. I think the authors did a wonderful job of conveying Bailey's fear and confusion over the feelings that Sebastian stirs up within her, and with giving her a good reason for her reluctance to commit. Every time Bailey got riled up at Sebastian for some small thing, I thought she might cross that annoyance line for me, but then, the authors would show some of her deeply buried vulnerabilities and I would realize that she was simply scared out of her mind by what he was making her feel. Sebastian's patience finally won the day, chipping away at her defenses to expose some of her soft spots and then soothing them with his love. I also liked that in the beginning, when Sebastian begins revealing his kinks to her, she is confused and wary, but also spunky enough to be fascinated by it all and revel in the sexual freedom she feels with him. Overall, Bailey was a very relatable heroine who I really enjoyed.

I think one of the things that made Friends with Benefits such a wonderful story was all the great relationship dynamics. I liked that the authors took the time to address the race issue, and show just a small taste of the difficulties Sebastian and Bailey might face as an interracial couple. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite romance themes, and here the friendship was a very palpable thing. I loved the way this couple teased and bantered with one another. The hero and heroine of a romance butting heads and exchanging barbs is another thing I usually find grating, but here I loved it and found it to be utterly endearing. I also thoroughly enjoyed how they could talk and laugh and simply share things. It was definitely a true friendship in the deepest sense of the word that made them falling in love very believable. I also liked Bailey's friendship with Cat and her closeness with her mom. The dialog she shared with both of them was breezy fun. We don't get to see as much of Sebastian's guy relationships, but his other best friend, Mason, played a strong role in the story too.

Friends with Benefits is the second, and I had originally thought, last book in The Boulevard series with the first being Maverick's Black Cat which had featured Mason and Cat as the hero and heroine. However, after reading it, I can say that the ending definitely left open the possibility of another story. Sebastian's law partner, Phil, and Natalie, the owner of The Boulevard fetish club and one of Sebastian's clients were certainly admiring each other from afar and obviously wanting more. Even though Phil was a bit too smooth for my taste, Natalie caught my attention, so I wouldn't mind reading their story if the authors ever decide to write it. I was also hoping to see more of Sebastian and Bailey in their book, much like I did, Mason and Cat in this book, but sadly, I don't know if that will ever happen. It has been close to five years since Friends with Benefits was first released, and neither Ms. Matthews nor Ms. Casper have any announcements of another book in the works on their websites. Even if this does turn out to be the end for The Boulevard, it was a fabulous way to go out. Friends with Benefits will always have a well-earned spot on my keeper shelf, and I'll look forward to checking out the authors' other works.

Note: This book contains explicit language and sexual situations, including mild domination/submission, spanking, use of a sex toy, and anal sex, which some readers may find offensive. show less

Maverick's Black Cat was a seriously hot and steamy erotic romance with some very appealing elements. Even if I weren't married, I can't say that I would be too keen on having cyber-sex with a presumed stranger, but the authors certainly did a good job of avoiding the “ick” factor and making that part of the story a very attractive and sensual fantasy. It was also a great way to build some fabulous sexual tension. Once the hero and heroine realize they know each other and get together in show more real-life, they heat things up all over the place with some pretty creative love scenes that have lots of variety. I liked that the authors took a little time out in between all the steamy sex to tell a little bit of story about Catarena writing her book, dealing with her smarmy supervisor at work, and the couple tackling Mason's control issues, as well as showing their relationships with their respective best friends. It's not a lot, but it was just enough to keep me from getting from getting bored with all the sex.;-) After reading Maverick's Black Cat and another similar novel (Hannah Murray's Jane and the Sneaky Dom), I'm beginning to think that some of the best erotic romances are the ones that do focus more on the sexual relationship and don't try to be something else (eg. suspense, paranormal, etc.), because thus far in my experience, those parts of the story usually tend to suffer in the process.

Since Maverick's Black Cat was a relatively short book that is jam-packed with red-hot lovin', there isn't a great deal of backstory given on Mason and Catarena, but I felt that the authors developed their characters fairly well in the here and now. Mason is the millionaire owner of a Fortune 500 company and a dom who feels the need to be in control in everything. When he chances to meet Catarena in a BDSM chat room where she is trying to do research for an erotic novel, Mason is instantly attracted to her sharp tongue and the challenge she presents. I can enjoy a dominant hero from time to time, but there came a point where Mason started to scare me a little with his caveman act. The minute he realized who Catarena was, Mason dragged her into his office and took her over his desk for the very first time with a rather angry attitude and no preamble or foreplay whatsoever. Even though Catarena didn't protest much and seemed to like it, this felt a little too close to forced seduction for my taste. At that point, if I had been Catarena, I probably would have run the other way screaming.;-) Of course, she stuck around, but I have to say that I greatly admired her feistiness and how she let Mason know right from the start that she wasn't going to put up with him being a control freak or let him push her around outside the bedroom. Eventually, she did do a very respectable job of taming the “wild beast.” Mason apologized for some things he'd done and sufficiently “made it up to her” for me to like him in the end. I felt like he was really putting forth effort to change, and all their love scenes, other than the one that bothered me a bit, were quite scrumptious.

Overall, Maverick's Black Cat was a fun erotic romp that I mostly enjoyed. Being the realist that I am, I liked that the authors kept Mason and Catarena's online play “safe” by not giving out real names or addresses. I also thought it was helpful that they had a prior relationship of sorts even though they didn't know each other well. This along with the authors progressing the narrative over a few months time made them falling in love more believable. On the downside, there were a number of editing errors (typos, incorrect word choices, poor grammer, etc.), but otherwise, I thought it was pretty well written. I've also come to the conclusion that this is kind of par for the course with many Ellora's Cave books and try to overlook it as much a possible. If it hadn't been for Mason scaring me a couple of times, I probably would have given the full 5-stars to this novel, and even as it was I would still call it a keeper. Maverick's Black Cat is the first book in Maggie Casper and Lena Matthew's The Boulevard series. The next book, Friends with Benefits, features Mason and Catarena's best friends, Sebastian and Bailey, as the hero and heroine. What I saw of these two characters in this book, I really liked, and if Maverick's Black Cat is any indication of things to come, I'll definitely be looking forward to reading Friends with Benefits as soon as I can get a copy.

Note: This book contains explicit language and a number of very explicit sexual situations which some readers may find offensive including exploration of D/s relationships, a visit to a BDSM club, mild voyeurism and exhibitionism, spanking, toys, and anal play with a toy. show less

It read more like a sketch for a story than a story itself. The hero and heroine meet, have sex and a few days later declare their love. The end. There's no real tension. There's minimal world-building. There's the occasional reference to them having actual conversations off screen, but since none of those details are shared with me, the reader, I don't get to know the characters really at all and therefore don't care that they get their HEA.

Also, sometimes the wording is awkward and almost show more contradictory, so not only was I kind of bored, I was also a little confused at times. For example: the heroine's style of movement is described as both fluid and efficient--I'm not saying that that's not possible, but they conjure up somewhat different images to me. And since the topic is dropped after that sentence, I never get a chance to resolve that discrepancy in my mind. This is just one of many, many instances of this kind of thing.

If this had been a promotional story, I might have been interested in reading more by this author. As something I had to pay for? Not worth it. show less

I read this last night. I can't even remember the sex scenes so they must not have been that great. What I do remember however is how little the plot made sense. He hated her and wanted revenge. He fell back in love with her. He forced her to marry him to save her ranch but made her live next door with him and his mother. I know I'd think living with my MIL would be pretty hot. He took the ranch from her but let her work her fingers to the bone there everyday. Then he was all sorry about how show more he forced her. But I didn't see him being forceful at all. Just a sorry mishmash of half baked motivations and half fulfilled actions. And it seemed like it had such potential. Hmm... show less