Uncommon Pleasure is a single-author anthology offering two connected novellas. Essentially, the plot of the second story, All on the Line, overlaps the first, Over the Edge. Anne Calhoun was very clever in plotting her stories because we are given the point of view from both heroes, so we know what they are thinking and feeling as their lives intersect and relationships evolve.
Over the Edge
Veteran marine Ty Hendricks returns from his final tour in Afghanistan emotionally wounded and overwhelmed by guilt secondary to a senseless tragedy. If you like a tortured hero (I know I do), you will love Ty, who is in a self-destructive spiral, intent on alienating everyone who cares about him. While working as a roughneck on an oil rig, he meets geologist Lauren Kincaid, an intelligent, well-grounded, sexually adventurous woman who is attracted to Ty by the way he walks with “utter confidence in his long-legged, loose stride.” Lauren recognizes Ty’s bad-boy façade, but that’s OK because she wants him, whatever the terms of engagement may be.
Ty Hendricks was no sweetheart. He’d been offshore for thirty days, and pent-up need simmered in his industrial-strength body. Lauren hadn’t felt a man’s body, hard and demanding and maybe even brutal, against hers in a very long time. Illicit desire, long-suppressed and therefore all the more potent and volatile, zinged through all the right places.
When two people enjoy an intense, explosive intimate experience, it’s tough not to want more of the good stuff. So, despite the fact that Ty’s only objective was to “hook up” to have one-time sex with Lauren, he later finds himself at her door. She lives in a lovely little neighborhood with white picket fences and warmhearted people; Lauren is rooted in the community having nurtured and established relationships with her neighbors. And she has Gretchen, her sweet dachshund that she rescued from the pound. I love it when authors write a pooch into a story and Gretchen is awarded an important pivotal role.
Lauren recognizes that Ty has built a wall of insensitivity and indifference around himself as a means to avoid dealing with whatever is eating him alive. However, when they are sexually intimate she is able to peek behind that wall and she sees a decent, honorable man.
Calhoun writes scalding eroticism and you will find the stories in Uncommon Pleasure are no exception. Over the Edge offers one particularly incendiary scene where Lauren, Ty and his friend and fellow Marine Sean Winthrop (the hero from All on the Line) become totally absorbed in one another while “dirty dancing” in a nightclub. I was reaching for ice water. What follows when the three leave the bar together is sensual and carnal, but their tryst results in significant relationship consequences for the couples from both stories.
Over the Edge hooked me from page one. I love a hero who needs redeeming and trust me, Ty sinks into a very deep nasty place. Lauren is awesome; she shows class, strength and poise as she deals with Ty at his worst.
All on the Line
Sean Winthrop is a Marine Corps officer with a brilliant analytical mind. He is a Rhodes Scholar and a natural leader who returns to his hometown while on a 30-day leave after serving in Afghanistan. Sean is at a crossroads of sorts. He has to make career decisions and has another very personal objective in mind: winning back his ex-lover, Abby Simmons.
Sean has his work cut out for him. He hurt Abby deeply when he broke up with her using a very impersonal means of communication and suggested she was too young to settle down. Abby took his words to heart. She is determined to better herself, working nights, going to school and taking care of her ailing, curmudgeonly father. She is a changed woman and thoroughly exhausted, but the sexual attraction zings between Abby and Sean, so she agrees to a no-strings-attached sexual relationship. Sean institutes a step-by-step plan to convince her that they are meant to be together.
When Abby learns that Sean enjoyed a ménage with Lauren and Ty, she wants the same experience. Abby’s go-to guy for scratching an itch after Sean rejected her is Ben, a cop. She requests that he be their third partner. Calhoun develops awesome alpha heroes who stand out in secondary roles. I loved Ben. He’s pragmatic when it comes to Abby and her conflicted feelings regarding Sean. As well, Ben is protective, which leads to a couple of humorous exchanges with Sean.
Calhoun writes vivid descriptions, enhanced by intelligent, sensual prose, that draw a reader in. These stories are relationship-driven, and the conflict and intense emotion often brought a tear to my eye. That’s not to say there isn’t humor. There are certainly lighter moments and a number of chuckles to be had, particularly when the guys get into some fun, smart verbal sparring.
I love Anne Calhoun’s voice. She has become one of my favorite erotic authors. I’ll read anything she writes … including her grocery list. If you enjoy a sensitive, well-written erotic contemporary romance, you may like to give Uncommon Pleasure a try. : )
Lea Franczak cannot remember a time when she didn’t have a book in her hand. She’s read and enjoyed multiple genres but is especially partial to contemporary and erotic romance (with or without D/s themes), dark gritty romantic suspense and paranormal romance. Lea also writes reviews at Book Lovers Inc.[1] and is active on Goodreads[2].
MORE ON HEA: Check out Lea’s interview with Anne[3]
References
- ^ http://www.bookloversinc.com/category/the-danger-lover/ (www.bookloversinc.com)
- ^ http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1860279-lea (www.goodreads.com)
- ^ http://www.usatoday.com/story/happyeverafter/2013/03/05/anne-calhoun-interview-uncommon-pleasure/1963647/ (www.usatoday.com)
