Sweet Temptation (2010)

Author: Maya Banks

Genre: Contemp Erotica

Series: 4th in the Sweet Series (ongoing)

Pages: 358

Sensuality: XXX

Reason for Reading: Maya Banks is my crack

FTClosure: I was given an ARC.

Plot: Angelina has been in love with Micah, her brother’s best friend, for ever. However, things are complicated because Micah was in a three-way marriage with the brother and another woman. He still mourns their deaths 3 yrs later. Angelina has been keeping tabs on Micah and thinking that the time is finally right, she goes to him in Houston with a stalker (natch!) on her trail.

Ramblings: I’m gonna get to the smex later because there sure is a lot of it.

Micah was introduced in the very first book of this series and I know that his story has been greatly anticipated. I personally didn’t have any high expectations because that almost always leads to disappointment and this kept me in good stead because I did like this book.  Readers of this blog know that I do wubs me some good smut.

However, I can easily see other readers complaining that the development of the actual romance is weak and they would be right. Micah DOES have a tragic past but he is basically another Rome from Linda Howard’s Sarah’s Child. If you haven’t read this infamous book (HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK?), it’s basically the story of one of those alpha males who can never, ever risk themselves emotionally because they are such delicate little flowers. And they tell this to the heroine over and over again (well, maybe not in those exact words). After a while, I usually starts barking “Suck it up, Princess!”at the hero.  To be fair, Micah isn’t nearly as whiny as Linda Howard’s Rome because Micah & Angelina don’t talk much until the Big Talk at the end. Instead, every time a conversation starts, Little Micah usually takes over and its wham-bam-thank-you-maam. But without the thank-you.

Maya Banks (MB) has mentioned in her tweets that this story is the “kinkiest” of the series and I would say that it’s true. The level of BDSM in this series has not been consistent. It was lighter in books 1 and 3, heavier in book 2 – Sweet Persuasion (with its controversial public whipping and humiliation.) In ST, there was more emphasis on the SM part of the BDSM. Angelina got off on pain and Micah liked doling it. Altho, I don’t care for BDSM in my romantica, I can bear reading it as long as long as none of the following is shown: pissing/marking, lots of bloodletting, branding, or impaling any body part to wood. There is no urine or cruxifcation in the book but I definitely think MB glossed over the description of the bloodletting since Angelina is whipped so often. Another Ewwww moment glossed over – but one that came to my mind anyway – is all that funky tasting going on with so many different semen squirting & mixing during a five-some sex episode.

Oh, did I forget to mention the five-some sex? Micah is a sharer and he gets off on sharing Angelina with other men. One of the men is Cole, who will probably get his own story in this series one of these days, and I gotta say that he is a lot kinkier than I was led to believe from his gentleman act in book 3: Sweet Seduction.  I know that I should be more agog than I was by this five-some but I already went thru it all in Qwillia Rain’s Meeting a Neighbor’s Needs. BTW, I recommend the Qwillia ebook if you like sharing stories and can’t find your copy of Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree at the moment.

Grade: B-

Content warning: well, let’s see . . .

• lots, and I mean, LOTS of flogging/whipping/paddling
• lots, and I mean, LOTS of rough forceful fellatio
• lots, and I mean, LOTS of rough sex with NO foreplay
• lots, and I mean, LOTS of semen spraying
• Candle wax burning
• Anal Sex
• Double Penetration
• Fur-lined stocks and other BDSM furniture
• Menage sex
• Foursome sexual encounter – M/F/M/M + Dildo
• M/F/M/M/M sex – this episode was 36 pages long!