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| Arouse (Spiral of Bliss #1) by Nina Lane January 2, 2013 406 pages Snow Queen Publishing Source: e-ARC for honest review Genre: Contemporary Romance with a very sexy married couple |
Book Blurb:
"One day I'm going to touch you in a thousand different ways and show you how to touch me," he said.Review (Revised on 1/15/14):
And he did.
Struggling with a tormented past, undergraduate Olivia Winter once led a practical but isolated life. Then she met Professor Dean West, a brilliant scholar of medieval history who melted Liv's inhibitions and taught her the meaning of both love and erotic pleasure. But after three years of a blissful, lusty marriage, Liv and Dean now face a crisis that threatens everything they believe about each other...and sex might not be enough to save them.
What appealed to me initially about this book was that it involved a married couple. I didn't know the direction the author would take this book, but a storyline with an already established couple really intrigued me. Fortunately, we not only get to look at the current state and progressing state of their relationship, but additionally follow along into their backstory and how their couplehood came about. Maybe I'm dense, but it took me a few chapters to get that when the chapters are headed with a date, this time period is both for the present and the past. Once I figured that out, I really liked this style and the cohesion of the time periods. And yes, both in present and past, they are a very sexy couple.
I admit that I struggled with the first 40% of the book and almost gave up. I just wasn't sure how I was feeling about everything, especially the wife, Liv. The author does a good job, maybe too good of a job, making some of the couple's actions mysterious and questionable. I found some things Liv did odd and, honestly, there were a couple scenes with her that I didn't appreciate (ex, porn), though it was a small instance. But that's a personal thing that perhaps other readers do not have an issue with.
The second half of the book, however, was my favorite. I felt that's where more clarity came to me and I could understand Liv and Dean's actions, and empathize with their struggles. I've been married for 16 years, and though my circumstances are not theirs, I can still empathize with the myriad of emotions and struggles that go along with marriage. Even in ideal circumstances, there are still challenges and times of testing. For Liv and Dean, their challenges really hit during their marriage, not their courtship, and I appreciated all the thought and honesty that the author put into making their marriage feel real. I came to really appreciate Liv and Dean. They truly love each other. But now they have to take it to the next level, and this is the same for everyone. There are stages to every marriage and relationship, and those stages bring out new depths and heights for those willing to take each of those steps together. I look forward to continuing on the journey with Liv and Dean.
A couple of issues: I will say that the time period and even scene transitions were not always clear to me or smooth. I've also never read about people taking so many showers. The word "shower" is used 44 times according to my kindle. Yes, I get that these people like to be clean, but I just found it odd that they had to take a shower practically every time they walked in the front door.
Updated to 4 STARS
Giveaway:
About the Author:
Nina Lane is a multi-published author of elegant, romantic and often raunchy erotica.
Her recent release AROUSE is the first book in the Spiral of Bliss series, and her novel
THE EROTIC DARK is a #1 Amazon erotica bestseller.
Nina used to write novels under the name Natasha Rostova and has published stories
in anthologies such as “Best Women’s Erotica” and “Erotic Travel Tales.” Her work has
been translated into both German and Japanese. In addition to writing, she's an avid
reader who loves popcorn and has recently joined a workout boot-camp that is kicking
her rear end.
Connect with Nina Lane:
FACEBOOK | WEBSITE| GOODREADS| TWITTER
Book Links:
Purchase on Amazon
Purchase on Barnes & Noble
Add To-Read on Goodreads
Jenny, thanks so much for participating in the AROUSE blog tour and taking the time to read and write a review! Your comment about the shower has me running to check that I didn't do the same thing in ALLURE -- I am so neurotic when it comes to repetition and completely did not see that (obviously!). Thanks for pointing that out. Checking Allure right now... :-D
ReplyDeleteNina, it was my pleasure to read your book! Thanks so much for stopping by and for taking my comment to heart. I sincerely appreciate it. I admire your work as an author and look forward to ALLURE and Dean and Liv's continued journey :D
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