ILLICIT

Lindsay is invited to experience a weekend of sexual fantasy.

Weeks after Lindsay tells her best friend about the three sexy men she saw and fantasized about—in spine-tingling, toe-curling detail—in an elevator, she receives an invitation to experience a weekend of pure, sensual pleasure, including directions and a keycard. Convinced it’s a joke Jill is playing on her to lure her to a girls’ weekend, Lindsay shows up at the appointed time and place and is shocked to discover the three men from the elevator, who are interested in satisfying her every whim for 48 hours. At first uncertain, Lindsay is convinced by Erik—the most compelling of the three—to try, and she experiences pleasure like she’s never known. But Lindsay’s feelings for all three men—Erik, Connor and Travis, who share an apartment, strong, committed relationships and bisexual tendencies—grow remarkably strong in so short a time, and she’s devastated when Erik tells her one weekend is all there is. Connor and Travis know Erik likes Lindsay, but all three men are wary of throwing their unorthodox relationship off balance. Not for the faint of heart, this book has numerous graphic sexual scenes, and with three men and one woman, you would guess correctly that not all of the scenes are heterosexual. Carew is known for adding a compelling emotional dimension to erotica, and while there are hints of such factors in the story—a subtle psychic aspect to the plot, for instance, as well as the complicated relationship among the three men—they are never fleshed out fully or developed in a gripping way that truly enhances the plot.  And Lindsay, who believes an invitation to sexual fantasy is a joke set up by her best friend but never confirms the theory before she shows up, leaves us suspicious of her intelligence and common sense from the get-go.

Lots of hot, sexually edgy content and the promise of a romantic happily-ever-after may satisfy some readers in the intended erotic-romance audience.