Lucy V. Morgan

Leila is a full time lawyer and part time whore. She needs the money to keep a roof over her parents head, but she has come to enjoy life as her alter ego Charlotte. Hired by an exclusive prostitute service, she has a plethora of clients who want her to do scenes ranging from role-play to lesbianism. She only has a few rules, the most important of which is that she doesn’t do lawyers. Imagine her surprise when she walks into her latest job’s hotel room and there sits her desk-mate Matt show more and her boss Joseph. Nervous for her job, but more than a little turned on, she sees one of her dirtiest fantasies come to life when she engages in a very smutty threesome with the two very different men. Once Matt leaves the room, Joseph tells her in no uncertain terms that she cannot sell her body anymore if she wants to keep her job. Instead he offers her an alternative job; become his personal whore for the three remaining jobs she needs to do to pay off the mortgage on her parents’ house.

Having no alternative but to accept his offer, Leila finds herself becoming the personal sex slave to the Chairman of the Whored. When Matt starts to try to date her, she finds herself between two men and some very twisted games. Can she come to terms with the Leila she wants to be and the Charlotte who wants to escape?

This book confused me. I have never felt so much animosity towards characters in a book I have enjoyed; I honestly felt a bit dirty. This is the way I explained it to a friend. The characters didn’t annoy me; I simply didn’t like them. I can’t read a book where I want to kill the characters because they irritate me, but I didn’t feel this way about these lot. I will do my disclaimers now. For those who care, this book deals with infidelity, edge play, lesbianism, voyeurism, ménage, anal sex, anal play, prostitution, knife play and a whole host of smutty smutty sex. I class this book as erotica and therefore the plot revolves around sex. Still with me? Good, because this book is definitely worth a read.

Someone once told me I had a low expectation of character development in erotica. Well, I got to know the three characters in this one. They were so unbelievably flawed that I was entranced by them. I wanted to find out more about them, work out what made them tick. It was a little disconcerting to know that this twisted side of me exists. Leila was a heroine that didn’t know which way was up. She was a very dirty girl, but she made herself feel better about the choices she made by putting her actions down to Charlotte, her alter-ego. I could understand her, hell I could even slightly relate to her. She enjoyed the down-right dirty things she did in her part-time job, and rarely had to fake an orgasm or arousal, but she thought she was twisted for doing it, so hid behind a mask. I’m not sure I believe that she would have ever given up Charlotte, but that became a null point when the pair of prats stepped foot into her world. I honestly felt sorry for her and I think that the strong author voice that came through the entire novel helped me relate to Leila; we all have secret sides to ourselves that we feel the need to hide from everyone else….hell, I don’t even admit to fondness for smut to my off-line friends but It’s OK on the internet.

These two men were the men you don’t read about in cosmo, that your mamma warns you against. Both of them love her whorish side. One doesn’t want to meet anything other than that side and the other wants to suppress it and change her (unless he wants sex or course). I honestly don’t know which one I disliked more and to be honest, I wanted her to kick both of them to the curb and run away with her sex-scene partner (he is fab!) Joseph has the morals of a snake. He likes to use prostitutes (even whilst attached) and is the one to hatch the plot to hire her to share with Matt. I have absolutely no doubts he went in with the plan to blackmail her into becoming his personal servicer; he just didn’t need to because turns out she likes her second job. I hated the slimy toad but the sex scenes which he initiates were some of the most erotic in the book. I felt dirty for hating him yet finding him so damn arousing in the book; I think I know where Leila was coming from! The thing that annoyed me the most about him was that he only wanted to have the sexual side of her but he was willing to mess with every other aspect of her life for absolutely no reason what so ever. He was a cock.

Matt wasn’t much better. He tried to court her with his eyes open, yet still tried to judge her for her choices and change her. I don’t care if Leila had a foot fetish and liked to have sex whilst dressed as a chicken, no one should be made to feel bad about their preferences. He made my blood boil. There were several parts of the plot I wanted to slap the judgemental little worm, but I could understand her need to feel “normal” and have a “normal” boyfriend. I just hoped to God it wasn’t with him. He hated what she did, yet loved the tricks she picked up along the way. He was contradicting himself constantly throughout their relationships…I guess you could say he hit a nerve.

I hated the two male characters, yet I was so engaged by the female lead I had to keep reading. The sex was off the charts erotic and the plot was so twisty I couldn’t guess what would happen next. show less

Ever since she got involved with Joseph Merchant, Leila’s life has dramatically altered. She has become his personal prostitute after his discovery of her side job as Charlotte the prostitute and has spent months enjoying debauched sex with the Chairman of the Whored himself. Since her break-up with Matt, Joseph has been less discrete about their affair, showing her off to his oldest friends and work-colleges with a devil-may-care attitude that is at odds with the reality of the situation. show more No one must know what Leila is, what she does when she lets Charlotte out to play, but Joseph seems to be treating her as more of a lover than a whore, drawing unwelcome attention to their relationship.

There are two jobs left on her contract as Josephs personal sex slave, the first being her exclusive service during their trip to New York. But as the week progresses, their darker sides come out to play, fusing them together in a way they never imagined. In the midst of all the blood and bondage, they realise that they may have found something they didn’t realise they ever wanted; the other half of their twisted souls.

Joseph’s lack of discretion starts tongues wagging and before long someone discovers all of Leila’s secrets. To protect the things she holds dear, they want her to give up everything that she cares about. But, will she be able to give up the Chairman of the Whored?
A couple of things to mention before I properly start this review. Don’t bother reading it if you haven’t read the first, it won’t make sense. Do read them both though as they are pretty excellent
This book contains knife play and sex with foreign objects so be warned
The female lead is a masochist; there is a lot of sex with pain.

You have been warned…….

Anyhow, in some ways I enjoyed this book far more than the first; I actually liked Joseph in this one which was bloody surprising. He didn’t mellow at all; in some ways he was an even bigger prick, but by God was he a presence. They were like two twisted peas in a pod and it was disturbing to read but is certainly engaging. In the review of the first one, I wrote I’d never read a book where I hated every character in it, but still enjoyed it. This one has a totally different feel and I actually liked all the major players. The first book is a tale of sexual games, and could only be classed as erotica, but I think this one has a twisted romance running throughout its core. The writing is very smooth but my only complaint is that at a couple of points in the book, I couldn’t work out what was going on. The writing is brimming with different descriptive techniques but sometimes they detracted from the happenings of the story; there was a scene where I think they were having anal sex but I honestly still can’t tell you if that was what was definitely going on!

Leila is more conflicted in this one. At some points, it was a little odd because there were constant references to the fact that Charlotte was a complete separate entity to Leila. It felt like a cop-out at certain points, an easy excuse to explain away some of her more dubious character traits. Then Joseph states something that made me blink and consider what was actually going on; Charlotte is created by Leila to explain away all the things that she desires that she feels she shouldn’t. It is Charlotte who likes being fucked with a shoe, it is Charlotte who likes the fact her lover has carved his name across her stomach with a bread-knife and it is Charlotte who likes to be watched during sex. The one thing I really liked about this book is the message that no matter how twisted your desires, as long as you don’t hurt or abuse others, there really is nothing wrong with them.

Joseph is an arse, but I can honestly say that he is an arse that grows on you. He seems to know what she needs, seems to know that no matter how twisted his desires, Leila matches them. Yes, the fact that he has forced her into this arrangement, and is effectively paying her, is inescapable, but I don’t know how either of them mistook what was going on between them as a simple business transaction. He marked her as his, he couldn’t bear her relationship with Matt and he tried to protect her. He has his revenge on someone in this book and the method he uses is twisted and absolutely fucking perfect; I adored it.

My favourite character in the first book was the Aiden and he remains so for the second one. His protectiveness of Leila is lovely and his general attitude was highly entertaining….I want him to find a HEA with a nice boy/girl! There were a host of new characters in this one and the majority of them were fun to read about!

This isn’t an easy read; it’s kinky, twisted and slightly shocking in places. It thrilled me, aroused me and kept me entertained. All the characters are flawed, and they make dubious decisions, but that’s one of the things I liked the most. show less

After Bailey gets dumped by her long-term ex, her male friends decide to cheer her up the guy way. After getting her stinking drunk on Jaegermeister, they decide it’s about time to dish the dirt on the ex. After pointing out her lack of enthusiasm in her previous sexual experiences, they are all astounded to hear that she has never experienced an orgasm. Now feeling even crappier about her love life, she then has to contend with the sappy in love couples that frequent her wedding cake show more shop. Her friends are hell-bent on protecting her dignity by getting revenge on Craig (the ex) but one of them seems like he has more than a friendly reason for hoping she gets over her breakup quickly. Will she be able to get over the fact that he has always been her friend and chase that elusive orgasm?

This book blindsided me. It is uber short, but please don’t let that be a factor in deciding to read it. Also, a massive bonus that I didn’t realise is that it’s free on All Romance at the moment (I got the review copy from the author) Honestly, I’d have paid money for the giggle fit this novella gave me. Bailey is a bit of a whiny character at the start, but the last time I got dumped, I cried for a week, ate the entire counties weight in ice-cream and referred to all men as gits for a good 6 months….as break-up’s goes, I think she was fairly chipper! She lives with Tom and Ollie, with a permanent visitor in the shape of the lovely Linc. I loved the banter between them all and it was during them conversations that most of my laughing occurred. A particularly memorable moment was when Olly was referred to as a “Cunt Whisperer” because he knew exactly how to please a woman in bed (this particular quote got mixed reviews on twitter! ) They were a motley bunch of men but it was clear that all of their actions in this tale are done to protect her and cheer her up. As the book is written in first person, what we learn from the other characters is simply from Bailey’s POV, but the affection that she feels for them all comes across quite clearly. I could see the romance coming a mile off. From the way that Linc behaved towards her when she broke up with Craig, it was clear he didn’t quite see her as a friend. I won’t say more on this because I think you should go read it!

This was a hilarious novella with a very strong author voice. I’ll admit, my humour tends to border a little on the silly (and I happen to enjoy swearing) and I think this is one of the reasons that I enjoyed it so much. There were a lot of very British insults thrown around (tosspot for one) and I understand that this could be difficult for American audiences but I implore you to give it a go. I’ll be looking for more from this lady cos I loved this! show less

4 stars

I liked many things about this story and others not as much. At times the story seemed disjointed and the writing style was hard to get into. However, the premise was good and unusual. The last 10% of the book really changed though and sucked me in.

There is a second part that I will have to check out.