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Naked Heart
by Jennifer Fulton
| List Price: |
$15.95 |
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$13.56 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. |
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$2.39 (14%) |
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Paperback
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
ISBN13: 9781602820111
Condition: NEW
Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Can two women who trust no one take a risk and trust each other?
Ex-CIA agent Penn Harte normally makes a living selling her unusual skills to the highest bidder, but lately she's been doing a favor for her best friend Lila and overseeing Lila's businesses-running an upscale fetish club and making erotic movies. Penn has the dirty job of looking after Lila's new stars, identical twin Dommes, Chloe and Colette. They're such a distraction, she almost declines her next real job but the guy writing the checks makes an offer she can't refuse. It's money for nothing. All she has to do is get some serious dirt on the CEO of a biotech. research company, so she can be blackmailed. Unity Vaughan is a cautious, lonely lesbian, the perfect subject for seduction and entrapment. Penn figures she'll have her on film in a compromising position within days.
Born on the wrong side of the tracks, raised by a single mother, Unity Vaughan has fought for everything she's ever achieved. Now, having just made a breakthrough discovery that has frightening ramifications for biological warfare, she knows she is a target and is determined to get ahead of the game. She needs an expert to watch her back and spy on her enemies, which is how she finds herself in a bizarre nightclub trying to hire a person who comes highly recommended. But Penn Harte is not the washed-up spy Unity was expecting. She's 5'9" of lethally attractive woman with a flogger in one hand, a camera in the other, and a pair of corseted twins fondling her body.
Power, passion, sex, and danger drive a high-stakes plot in this compelling erotic romance.
| Customer Reviews: |
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| Missing one or two heartbeats |
| Customer Rating: 3 out of 5 |
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Disclaimer: Icky opinionated male! (But I loved the two Meghan O'Brien books I read, and liked Lynn Galli's a lot too!) For some reason this review is writing itself in bullet points. Sorry.
~The plot is -reasonably- well laid out in other reviews and the synopsis, so I won't bore you with that. The writing itself is top-notch, and very pleasing to read. There's a tiny smattering of techobable that would have left me behind if it was used more, and one or two moments of political soapboxing that I didn't care about one way or the other, but it didn't hurt the book any.
~I will agree that the BDSM is very incidental (too incidental, in my pervy `lil opinion), and is used only as a back-drop. (Although the scene where dangerous twins attempt to seduce one of the main characters into letting them "play" with her was very hawt!)
~The `Spy' aspects of the book are less "Jane Bond" action and adventure, and more icky/sleazy corporate digging and morals-compromising work, that I felt sadly sympathetic for the character `Penn' for having to stoop to.
~The "HLS" is nice, and certainly tastefully written, but I feel it a bit hurried. I'm not looking for badly written "Letters to Penthouse" stuff here, but there seemed to me to be a certain lack of foreplay. There's -lots- of teasing and waiting impatiently (which is -good-), but that leads to being too hurried when the bedroom door closes.
~As Elena (from Spain) points out there are four interesting secondary characters introduced, Nariko, Lila, and the dangerous twins Chloe and Colette, who I also feel were promising, but in the end I feel they were underused.
Now, my main reason for 3-stars: There is a moment where the book breaks down for me. The anger and reconciliation is -way- too hurried, and lacks a great deal of detail. I'm greedy. I want my soap opera. I was happily wallowing in all the emotions -right- there with both characters, and then the anger is over too quick, and the efforts and struggle to make amends and repair the damaged relationship are almost non existent!
The author works her magic for 200+ pages to lead up to the moment of truth, and could have (should have) gone another 100+ pages to deliver our "happy ending". It felt as if someone at her publisher's said "ok, you have 25 pages left to wrap it up!" It just felt... rushed. I just felt the characters deserved a chance to work things out properly. (That's what I get for getting emotionally invested in the story!)
A good book, but about 75 pages light at the end.
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| Racy |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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Firstly, I freely admit to being a big fan of Jennifer Fulton's writing. This book is certainly no exception. Starting with the character names of Penn and Unity, Fulton pulled out all the toys in her toy box to deliver a winner.
This one contains a little bondage, a little drama, a lot of sexual tension, and Fulton's unparalleled imagination. I won't rehash the plot because it is well explained by the back cover text. The characters are likable and well-developed. The settings of each scene are described so well, the reader almost feels like the proverbial `fly on the wall' as the story plays out.
Bottom Line - This one stuck with me for several days after I finished the last page. I passed it on to my partner immediately for her enjoyment. One of Fulton's raciest books yet, this one will be enjoyed by many of my friends and will remain a permanent part of my personal library.
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| Better than hot |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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OK, so I bought this book for two reasons. 1. Reading about it is the next best thing. 2. It's by Jennifer Fulton and it's the first book she's written that's described as an 'erotic romance'. Hot damn! This author writes VERY good sex scenes, so I was all set for a super-size serving!
Being a fan of Ms. Fulton's, I should have realized that I wasn't going to get a book with nothing but hot and heavy action on every page. Make no mistake, the sex is definitely mouth-watering, but I can't think of any other erotic romance that also includes an espionage plot as good as this one, not to mention an intense, emotional roller coaster ride for the characters. Penn and Unity transcend, by far, the paper thin characters that make more than a few lesbian romances feel like the same book.
I didn't expect to like Naked Heart as much as some of the softer romances written by Ms. Fulton. I was a bit put off by the idea of BDSM, but there is no explicit BDSM content, it's more of a tease, such as in a voyeurism scene late in the book that had me about ready to pass out. Here's an author that understands anticipation is a big part of sexual excitement and she makes sure to take her readers on that dance. Maybe not everyone will agree, but one thing I love about this book, and what I found to be very erotic, was knowing that Ms. Fulton CAN write down and dirty sex but she only goes all the way when she chooses. There are plenty of times when you're hanging out for it while you're reading (well, I was) but she makes you wait! Gotta love that.
Naked Heart has a great plot, fascinating characters, sizzling sex scenes, beautiful language and passionate 'love at first sight' that is actually believable. Ms Fulton makes all of this look so easy, it's tempting to think that writing a romance must be a piece of cake. Well, I've been trying and I can honestly say, I have a new respect for the authors who are true mistresses of this genre and have proven it time after time - Jennifer Fulton is one of them.
I hope she decides to write another erotic romance. She sure nailed it with this one.
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| Surprising depth within a thriller |
| Customer Rating: 5 out of 5 |
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There are a couple of reasons for my rating this book 5: One is the way it sucked me right in, there aren't too many books that have me up and reading to reach the end until all hours of the night, and this one managed just fine. The story is James Bond-esche in quite an implausible way, but at the same time it has a chilling ring of truth to it. It is dynamic, and incredibly well paced, it doesn't rush but it never stops moving.
The second reason is the fabulous, and completely surprising, inner depth of both main characters, Unity and Penn. The way they look within themselves and to each other and they way they analyze their feelings and their reasons, creates characters full of life, complex and rich, and very plausible even though the whole setting is, in Unity's own words, like an espionage novel. I simply wasn't expecting such well-defined characters in this type of erotically charged, action packed book..
In my opinion, there are a couple of "lose ends" (for lack of a better word): Nariko's and Penn's complicated relationship, which seems to be left somewhat open and forgotten, and the fact that I'm not altogether certain of the plot value of Chloe and Colette. Generally, that would make me rate the book a 4, but I can't bring myself to save starts with this one, I was totally blown away by these two fantastically drafted characters.
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| Another great read from this author |
| Customer Rating: 4 out of 5 |
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I have always enjoyed the Fulton books, and this one is no exception. The author brings together an intriguing plot of corporate back-ally dealings, secrecy, personal revenge, and two solid characters that get through it all. As the reviewer before mine noted there is a back-drop of BDSM but I disagree with shying away from this book because of that, there is no big graphic descriptions of actual BDSM activity, more of a 'tease' type description and only on a very few pages (believe me I have read more descriptive ones in other 'tame' books and the love scenes describe between the two characters outside of the BDSM club are actually more graphic then what goes on in the club...in a good way) but the back-drop does give a good contrast between the lives of the two main characters and their interaction with sub-characters - I kind of wished the author had drawn out Unity's mother more, she seemed like a hoot. I would recommend this if you enjoy other Fulton books, it has a nice pace to the plot build up and wraps up nicely in the end....can't wait for her next one!
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