Double Dare by Saskia Walker

[jmc_bks]

I received a bunch of recommendations when I blogged last week (or the week before?) about The Power of Three. Saskia Walker's name was one of them, so I picked up a copy of her book, Double Dare. I have to admit that I had passed the book up a couple of times before because of the cover.



A woman's back, wearing a corset. It's a nice enough photo, but corsetted women are a dime a dozen among romance novel cover art. They mean either paranormal (yay! another vampire hunter running around in her underwear) or erotic romance, or sometimes both.

A woman uninhibited.

Beautiful investment advisor Abby Douglas has played with a lot of men, and that's just the way she wants it. No commitments. No regrets. And no games -- until she meets a dangerously sexy stranger in the elevator of her office building. Suddenly she's taking on a new identity, pretending to be a receptionist, and finally giving herself up to the kind of raw fantasies no upright businesswoman should ever consider -- unless of course, she found a man strong enough to make her.

A secret unzipped.

Club owner Zac Bordino is stunned to find that the hot number who gave him such a sweet reception isn't who she says. In fact, she's actually the brains behind his company's investments, and she's not even aware of it. Now Zac isnt sure what to tell Abby first -- his growing feelings for her or their secret connection. Either way, from steamy nights in London to sizzling rendezvous in Paris, from plush offices to pulse-pounding nightclubs, Zac may have found an insatiably perfect match -- in business and in pleasure...

That backblurb makes it sound like Abby has some seriously kinky fantasies, perhaps verging on fetishes? Um, no. The edgiest thing that happened in the book was Abby dressing up in a corset and going to a club at which she gave Zac a blowjob in public. Not so very out there or kinky, IMO. But maybe I've read too much erotic romance. :shrug:

Sorry, back to the regularly scheduled opinion. Abby is a high powered investment advisor in what I believe would be called a City Firm. Heading back to the office with lunch, she meets Zac, hot messenger dude...or so she thinks. She tells him she's a receptionist because apparently it freaks men out to know that she's smart with money. Whatever. Anyway, Zac gives her a card to a club, The Hub. Which, it turns out, he owns. He's equally struck by her, and hopes to see her at the club. Before they meet again, though, he learns that she's the newly assigned investment manager for the Ashford Foundation, his mother's company/trust. They hook up, repeatedly, but he's a little suspicious and looks into her, to discover why she's lying about who she is. As they spend more time together and develop feelings for each other, they are both worried about what will happen when they each 'fess up. Will they be able to forgive each other their deceptions? Or will the truth destroy their growing relationship?

I liked Abby. She's smart and self-aware and utterly confident about who and what she is and what she wants. The only thing about her that I found irritating was the lame excuse about pretending to be a receptionist. I'm of the "don't be fake to make people like you" school. And I liked Zac. He's an astute businessman who loves his family, especially his mother, and is totally focused on Abby (always a good thing in a hero). Their chemistry is great. The plot is a little worn, but well enough done, IMO; each character's suspicions and concerns are worked through and they actually talk to each other -- communication! it is so often lacking in Romancelandia!

The major draw back to this book for me is that the dialogue and the language feel clunky and underwritten...if that's a word. I mean that I thought as I read that it needed more polish, maybe another draft in a couple of places. As to the clunky language, that is a little more problematic. A couple of times during sex scenes, Walker wrote about Zac "crushing" his cock into Abby. Uh, that brings to mind mangled flesh. Really not sexy to me. And "his teeth reached for a plump mussel"? As if they were independent, like fingers or hands. And "he crept between her breasts"? Has he suddenly shrunk down to doll-size that he can climb her like a mountain? There are more examples of awkard, odd language, but I'll stop there.

There's one scene that I'm on the fence about, and I'm trying to figure out why it bothered me so much. At one point, when Zac is away and Abby is missing him, she hangs out with Marcy, her bisexual friend. A scene early in the book makes it clear that Marcy's coming out to Abby has been recent, but that there is nothing sexual between them. While Abby talks about Zac, Marcy masturbates her and then goes down. F/F doesn't squick me out generally, but that scene did. I don't think it is because it's F/F or because it's "cheating" (Abby had sex with someone else after meeting Zac and they hadn't said exclusive at that point). I guess my discomfort is two-fold: first, what was the point of this scene? To show that Abby missed Zac? To show that Abby was adventurous? A little late for that: nothing in the book was that edgy or outre, IMO. Second, friends with privileges or even fuck buddies are fine, but that's not how their relationship is drawn originally, so the jump into bed (so to speak, since there is no actual bed in the scene) seemed out of place and forced.

Despite my reservations, this was an entertaining book. I'd be willing to check out more by Ms. Walker. B-/C+ from me.

Comments

[sarahf.livejournal.com]

Did you read it because it was a menage book or b/c it was by Walker? Confused here. And yeah, that scene seems a little odd to me as well.

[jmc-bks.livejournal.com]

Walker's name was mentioned by someone, either in a comment or an email. But no, this particular title wasn't mentioned as a book including a menage. It just happened to be the book in stock, so I picked it over any of her other stuff.