Seduction of my Proper Wife #review

This is from the beginning of the year but I just saw it now from Confessions From Romahollics

The erotic encounter between Aria and Lillian is very well narrated, and the ménage-a-trois with Philip makes for a very, very hot story. This love-ménage story is beautiful and sexy played out in an exotic Middle Eastern enclave in the heart of Paris, the city of love. Kristable Reed, the author, has a very good style and she has a good narrative rhythm.

Blurb:
 Philip Thornton adored his new bride but found she was frigid in their marriage bed.

Lillian did not know how to ease her fear of the bed until she was freed from her past.

Aria was paid to educate and entice, but what she found was more than she ever dreamed possible.

The Parisian Exposition of 1889...the world is changing and the three of them are caught in its whirl. Philip and Lillian went to Paris to save their marriage and to help Lillian overcome her fears. Aria danced and seduced Lillian, but before Lillian left, Aria found herself seduced, in turn, by the beautiful Englishwoman.

When Philip and Lillian break all the rules and escort Aria around Paris for a week, will it be the beginning of their future? Or will this seductive interlude be nothing more than a dream?

 Where to buy:
All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

Opening of the Parisian Fair 1889

Today in  1889 (also a Monday) the Parisian Exposition of 1889 opened to wide audiences and critical failure of what is now one of the world's most recognized sights, The Eiffel Tower.

 This world's fair was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the fall of the Bastille and the start of the French Revolution (July 14, 1789). That celebration was a little iffy given the vast majority of countries invited (you had to be invited!) were monarchies.

From the Wikipedia article:
The Eiffel Tower had been a subject of some controversy, attracting criticism both from those who did not believe that it was feasible and also from those who objected on artistic grounds. Their objections were an expression of a longstanding debate about relationship between architecture and engineering.

"We, writers, painters, sculptors, architects and passionate devotees of the hitherto untouched beauty of Paris, protest with all our strength, with all our indignation in the name of slighted French taste, against the erection…of this useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower … To bring our arguments home, imagine for a moment a giddy, ridiculous tower dominating Paris like a gigantic black smokestack, crushing under its barbaric bulk Notre Dame, the Tour Saint-Jacques, the Louvre, the Dome of les Invalides, the Arc de Triomphe, all of our humiliated monuments will disappear in this ghastly dream. And for twenty years … we shall see stretching like a blot of ink the hateful shadow of the hateful column of bolted sheet metal"

Stats:

• Expenses: 41,500,000 Francs ($8,397,982.52 today)
• Receipts: 49,500,000 Francs ($10,016,870.71 today)
• Visitors: 32,250,297
• Exhibitors: over 61,722, of which 55% were French

Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition

Paris did nothing small and their latest exposition was no exception. Talk had been rampant for so many months of the grandeur of this fair that Philip half expected to be disappointed once they’d walked through the impressive entrance arch the tower made. However, seeing it now upon simply entering, Phillip knew there had been no exaggeration.

With his first glimpse, he caught the sight of a myriad of different worlds. There were countries here he’d barely heard of much less had had a chance to experience. It was all exotic and erotic at once.
 
As Lillian moved forward with the crowd, Philip hoped this trip would be worth it.

He’d brought his new wife to the World’s Fair in hopes Paris in the springtime would entice and intoxicate her. He’d hoped this trip would see Lillian warm to him in ways she’d previously withheld.

In the nearly two weeks they’d been married, he’d yet to enjoy her body in their marriage bed.

Not understanding it, and certainly not anticipating it from the vibrant nature of his wife previous to their marriage, Philip had hastily booked passage from Yorkshire to Paris three days ago. Outside the bedroom Lillian was the exuberant woman he’d first fallen in love with.

Inside, she refused to even change before him, calling upon her maid to undress her, a task Philip would have been more than happy to oblige.
Another excerpt
Where to buy: 

All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Barnes and Noble
Kobo 

Victorian Paris: The Seine

My Victorian Menage stories are set in 1889 Paris during the Parisian World's Fair. The fair bordered the Seine River, an historic and still important waterway in Paris. In a scene from Seduction of My Proper Wife, the trio take a boat ride down the Seine.

Paris and the Seine, perfect together.

• Joan of Arc's ashes were scattered in the Seine.
• Napoleon wanted his ashes to be scattered over the water as well.
• The 1900 Summer Olympic games rowing, swimming, and water polo were held in the Seine
• The Seine was an original objective of Operation Overlord in 1944
• In 1991 UNESCO added the banks of the Seine in Paris to its list of World Heritage Sites in Europe

Seduction of My Proper Wife:

His hands itched to grab her and pull her to him, but he settled for offering a wicked smile instead. “We have plenty of time to be naughty, my love. And I want to feel you clench around me as Aria screams your name.”

Lillian’s breath caught but before she could do more than whimper her acquiescence of that, Aria returned. Dressed much as Lillian was in a crisp walking gown, she looked just as striking in Western clothing as she did in the sheer skirts when she danced.

Paying Madame Dupré the deposit she required, Philip whisked them both out of the small shop and onto the Parisian street.

They ate at a small outdoor bistro, the three of them enjoying conversation as well as the succulent food. They walked along the Seine before deciding to hire a boat to enjoy the crisp, clear day.

The boat master seemed to ignore the three of them as they chatted at one end. Lillian ran her hand over his cock, teasing him. Already hard, uncomfortably so, Philip caught her hand and brought the gloved back of it to his lips. But her eyes were heavy with her own arousal and her tongue peeked from between her moist lips to tease him further.

Unable to stop the impulse, Philip kissed her, a hard quick kiss that did nothing to alleviate this need for her and everything to arouse him further. Breaking the kiss, he looked to Aria. Her breath came short, and her fingertips rubbed her full lower lip.

Philip didn’t care if they were in public; he didn’t care who could see them or what danger that involved. He wanted to watch his women kiss each other and know anyone could see them.

He hadn’t taken himself for a voyeur, but then he supposed he wasn’t the one engaging in public sex. Pulling Lillian closer, never taking his eyes from Aria, he whispered his desire to his wife.

“Oh, yes,” she breathed, eyes shooting from Philip’s to Aria’s.

Where to buy:
All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

Monday #goals and #excerpt

I've been editing my new contemporary menage romance, Forbidden Road: A Havenbrook Menage and plotting out book 2. Actually I've been editing a whole lot, I also have a new Victorian Menage finished and the first in my trilogy of paranormal erotic stories.

No allergy or sinus medicine isn't helping but that test is Tuesday (tomorrow). Here's hoping I survive until then!

This week's goals are the same as last week:
Edit Forbidden Road
Put together a contest for Wicked Seduction release
Plot Forbidden Love: A Havenbrook Menage
Do the allergy test (ugh)

Anyone ever have an allergy test? Anyone know any practical advice on immunotherapy for allergies? I'm suffering here! I need my sinus/allergy meds!

Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition:

Aria waited for the English beauty to take her hand. Lillian hesitated, it was clear in her face, that vulnerability that drew Aria.

From the first moment she saw the tall, pale woman, Aria wanted her. She didn’t have the English words to describe her, but she found Lillian to not only be striking externally but within as well. Even before she broke down and shared her past, Aria could see her pain and fear sharply defined in Lillian’s vivid blue eyes.

It only made her want the other woman more.

Her breasts ached to feel Lillian’s mouth on them, to feel her teeth close over her hard nipples. She was slick with need, and Aria wanted desperately to alleviate that yearning. To feel her fingers within her, to feel Lillian’s touch, her mouth.

More, Aria wanted to taste Lillian, to breathe in the scent of her passion, to show her all the ways of love.

In her life she’d enjoyed both men and women, many of the women here enjoyed each other in ways their male companions could never understand. She enjoyed sex, enjoyed the difference between making love with a man and doing so with her fellow dancers.

She had, on occasion, slept with European women who wanted the anonymity and exoticness of sex with a foreigner. She found them demanding, dominant. While Aria didn’t necessarily mind the dominance, they weren’t as conscious of the entirety of pleasure as her other women lovers were.

Should Lillian stay as planned, Aria intended to teach her all the ways of love, not simply momentary pleasure.

Where to buy:
All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

Review: 4 stars from LASR: I really enjoyed the relationship between the two, and then when Phillip came into the picture the dynamic changed yet remained the same. I think the author did a really good job of that. When the three were engaged with each other, you could feel the heat come off the page! Wow!

@ReadingRomances #HEGiveaway Day 2 Black moments and Sweet endings

Everyone craves Happily Ever Afters. But what makes that happy ending even sweeter is when  you emerge from some of the blackest moments. Some of those black moments have been so successful that they've become cliche.

And yet, many times we'll find ourselves at the edge of our seat wondering--will the emergency paddles work with the person who's been dead on the floor? Will the hero rescue the heroine before the Amtrak train barrels down on her?

We've all seen these cliches but still wonder, hope, and are riveted by the question. Until that sweet release happens and Happily Ever After is achieved.

Yes, yes, in every romance novel these cliches exist. But there are still writers who twist those cliches, or who use them in a way that makes you forget they are cliched. Once in a while you can find a gem of a black moment that isn't yet overdone. And you think--damn. That works!

Some of my personal favorite black moments are character choices. Will the character's issues prevent them from seeking out the companionship and love of the hero or heroine? I often find myself engrossed in a particular situation, and the one that often grabs my attention are those combining character development and character driven stories with a workable and significant suspense moment.

Menage romances are the same--all characters have to find peace and happiness. That's not to say it has to be in the same chapter and everything is wrapped up with a neat bow-presto! No, it means that their growth up to and including the black moment has to be about three people, not just two. It's not harder (all black moments are hard!), it simply needs a different mindset.

For instance, in a menage, the characters need to understand and accept all the ramifications from being involved with not one lover but two. The looks, the whispers, the never fully coming clean about who's involved with whom. (I'm talking historicals and even contemporaries, not futuristic or other worlds.)

What do you all think? What's your favorite black moment? Do you always engage in cliche? Are you more apt to be deeply satisfied with character issues?

#HEGIVEAWAY

Tell your happy ending story!

The Happy Endings Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!

What you can win here: $10 electronic gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble and a copy of Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition

Number of winners: 5

Open to (INT, US or US/CAN): If you can receive an e-gift card then you can enter!

How to enter: Leave a comment on why YOU think darker, more believable black moments make us love the Happy Ever After. If you decide to follow this blog or me on Twitter, you get extra entries in the gift card pot.

#HEGIVEAWAY Day 1: Why Happily Ever After?

Happily Ever After. It's talked about all the time. Romance books are all about the happy ending. What makes us want that? I write romance and therefore love me a good happy ending, and I'm certainly not alone. Even non-romance readers want a satisfying and 'happy' ending. (Except those literary type people.)

Menage romance is no different. All participants must fall in love, and that's even more fun because how do you get 3 (or more!) people to fall in love with each other? In Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition, Philip and Lillian already loved each other--there were other problems, and Aria was never supposed to be part of their marriage. And yet.

So let's talk about Happy Endings...

A quick internet search of "Happily Ever After" reveals everything from a no-kill animal shelter to a tattoo parlor to several dating sites. Even USA Today has a page called that dedicated to romance books.

Is it because we want to see a couple that has worked so hard to be together actually together? The fact that love can conquer all, it's just a matter of finding it and holding onto it?

In April of 2009 BBC News had this to say in their article Why the obsession with happy endings? I copied the pertinent parts here, but the entire article is a quick and very interesting read. Read some of the comments, too--they're worth it.

In troubled times there are plenty of people who want happy endings - an matter perhaps recognised by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, last week, when he cautioned God will not intervene in climate change to supply a happy ending.

Go back to the 1930s, particularly to films of that era, and you see the process of "happyendingification" in full flow during a time of grinding poverty and uncertainty about the future.

Of course, the theory can be undermined by examples of happyendingification from every decade, whether times were grim or not.

You can even take it back to classical times. We may think of Greek drama in terms of the unrelenting tragedy of Oedipus Rex or Medea. But even the Greeks expected a happy ending, says Alan Sommerstein, professor of Greek at Nottingham University.

But there are always some who regard the process of happyendingification as fundamentally crass, a sign of the excessive commercialisation of the concept of story, of pandering to our weaker side.

Aristotle wasn't happy when, a couple of generations after the passing of the classic tragedy playwrights, he sensed that the plays were getting a bit more unthinkingly jolly.

What about you? Do you only read romances to ensure a happy ending? Do you like movies with happy endings better than ones that don't have a happy resolution. I'm not even talking romance, but say The Avengers. If they'd all died and Loki won that certainly doesn't make for a happy ending. So what is it that drives us to the happily ever after?

#HEGIVEAWAY

Tell your happy ending story!

The Happy Endings Giveaway Hop was organized by Reading Romances!

What you can win here: $10 electronic gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble and a copy of Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition

Number of winners: 5

Open to (INT, US or US/CAN): If you can receive an e-gift card then you can enter!

How to enter: Leave a comment on why YOU think we love our happy endings. If you decide to follow this blog or me on Twitter, you get extra entries in the gift card pot.

#Reviews for Seduction of my Proper Wife

This week I've received 3 lovely reviews for Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition. I'd like to thank the reviewers for taking the time to both read and review my story and for their kind words.

4 stars from Long and Short Reviews: But overall, it was a very sexy read and I would suggestion a fan and ice water on hand when it’s read. The next in the series should be a fun, hot read, just as this was.

4 books from Reviews by Molly: I loved the emotion behind Lillian’s character. She was completely captivating. I felt her turmoil over not being what she should have been in the bedroom with her new husband. I can’t imagine what that would have been like, especially in a Victorian age, but the inner struggles she dealt with became mine.

Recommended Read by Harlie's Books: Ms. Reed blends sensuality, real emotions and the social classes with Aria and Lillian that supersedes anything that I’ve ever read.  Their relationship was beautifully written, heartfelt and emotional.

Bad Barb's Place: This is a story of three people who fall in love with each other and how to deal with the ramifications in England at the turn of the nineteen century.  This is a menage and yes the love scenes are very hot and erotic but you also fall in love with Philip, Lillian and Aria.

Where to buy:
All Romance
Amazon
Amazon UK
Barnes and Noble

Today I'm at Sugarbeat's Books!

Today I'm at Sugarbeat's Books talking a little more about Seduction of my Proper Wife. Stop on by and comment to win either an Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card.

Today's stop is...

Today I'm over at My Reading Obsession talking about all sorts of stuff. Stop on by and be entered to win either an Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card.

Stop on by!

For a list of all the stops on this tour, go to Goddess Fish Promotions. Comment on every stop to multiply your chances of winning!

Meditation, #Goals, and Seduction of my Proper Wife

To start off this week, today I'll be at The Menagerie Authors today talking about Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Menage at the Parisian Exposition. Stop on by and join the discussion!

December, the time of Christmas, end of year stuff, slight panic, and a time to meditate. Yes, I really did say meditate. Why? Because of all the months to start taking time for yourself, don't you think this is the month to do so? Face it, even if you don't celebrate Christmas it's the rush of all things ending. Not that January 1 feels all that different from December 31 but it's the mental attitude of it all.

So this month I want you to find a spot where no one will talk to you for at least 90 seconds in a row. (I can wait, I know 90 seconds is a lot during the day!) Sit straight, feel flat on the floor, hands on your thighs, close your eyes, and breathe.

It may not seem like much but that time for yourself, when you breathe in and hold it then breathe out, breathe in and out slowly. Each and every breath you filling your lungs, and that is really good for you. Meditation apparently keeps Goldie Hawn young (and face it, she looks fantastic!) Meditation keeps you focused and centered and if that minute and a half is all you take for yourself in a single day, at least you have that time and your body will thank you!

Now that you've relaxed for nearly two solid minutes, what do you plan to do with your month? Make new year's goals and resolutions? Shop? Wrap? Get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season? Take another minute (30 seconds if you have to) and relax.

This month I plan to finish Wicked Seduction, the second in my Victorian Menage series, and work more on the Edwardian menage. You can read more about that one on Wednesday when I'll talk about it for the Next Big Thing Blog Hop!

Want to join in? Just email me and I'll send you the questions!

1/2 off Cyber Monday only! November 26, 2012

On Monday November 26 from 12:00 am EST  thru 11:59 pm my Hellfire Club Erotique books will be 50% off at All Romance eBooks.

The Escape:

Gabrielle Bertrand believed the men she loved had been beheaded during the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Now promised in marriage to a general of the revolution, she still fears for her life and has resigned herself to the union.

And then fate intervenes and she sees Eric LeClaire and André St. Germaine again. Eric and André have spent the last two years searching for Gabrielle, terrified she’d been killed during one of the revolution’s roundups. Now that they’ve found her again, neither will let her go.

But with National Police after them, and years spent apart, will Gabrielle return to her lovers? Or will all three of them face the wrath of Madame Guillotine?

The Masque:

Olivia Reynard must leave Paris tonight. It's the height of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror and as a nobleman's daughter, she knows it's a matter of time before she's sent to the guillotine. Fleeing to the notorious Hellfire Club, she soon finds a world of sexual pleasure she's never imagined.

Comte Sebastian de Courville has promised to help Olivia get out of Paris, but he didn't expect such instant attraction to the beautiful maiden. He wants to show her every pleasure known, but time is short and their lives are in ever increasing danger. And then there's his lover...

Julien Laruent has survived the treacherous streets of a Paris in turmoil. Now permanently ensconced in the Hellfire Club, he hasn't look back on that time. A dangerous man to have in one's bed, he took one look at Olivia and vowed to keep her safe.

But when old enemies exact vengeance and Madame Guillotine an ever present threat, will the three of them survive long enough to find love?

Aycliff's Vow:

He’s not a man to easily give up and he’ll use that relentless drive to find her.

And Miss Elizabeth Darton knows that. The shadows hide her well and she uses them to stay one step ahead of those who want to see her dead. Uses them to hide even from the only man she’s ever loved. She knows she no longer belongs in his life, but cannot bring herself to sever all connection and disappear forever.

Callum, the Earl of Aycliff, will track down those responsible for the disappearance of his fiancé no matter what it takes, even if it means enlisting the help of the infamous Hellfire Club to find her. The Club offers a variety of decadent pleasures, but his only interest is to acquire any and all information to aid in his quest to find his Elizabeth.

He’s vowed never to give up on finding her, and it’s the one vow he’ll never break.

Devil's Pawn:

Half-Turkish merchant, Malik Trent, has joined the Hellfire Club to foster trading contacts. The fact that the Hellfire Club is London’s most notorious sex club has its own allure. However, when he spots Graham Rawley he doesn’t bargain for the appeal of the other man.

Graham has his own problems, but has fatalistically accepted them. He’s going to enjoy his last days on Earth, and is using the Hellfire Club to do it. But when Trent learns what devil is after Graham, he refuses to let his lover accept his fate.

As they follow the trail of death and deceit surrounding Graham, they learn all the secrets certain members of the Hellfire Club have fought—and killed—to keep hidden. Trent won’t allow Graham to be the next to die, but will he be the target instead?

And as a special special, 20% off Seduction of my Proper Wife: A Victorian Ménage at the Parisian Exposition.

Philip Thornton only wanted to help his frigid wife enjoy their marriage bed.

Lillian agreed, but once freed from her past, hadn't expected such a fierce transformation.

Aria was paid to educate and entice, but what she found was more than she ever dreamed possible.

The Parisian Exposition of 1889...the world is changing and the three of them are caught in its whirl. Philip and Lillian went to Paris to save their marriage and to help Lillian overcome her fears. Aria danced and seduced Lillian, but before Lillian left, Aria found herself seduced, in turn, by the beautiful Englishwoman.

When Philip and Lillian break all the rules and escort Aria around Paris for a week, will it be the beginning of their future? Or will this seductive interlude be nothing more than a dream?