Book Stats

Stars: 3 Stars

Start Date : 01/01/2020 Ending Date: 01/25/2020

Genre: Erotic Romantic Fiction Form: Digital E-Galley( Arc)

Page Count: 384 Publishing Date: 2019

Point of View: 3rd Person Setting: Modern Day UK

Review

Spoilers! You can also read it on my blog!!

I don't know if that was better or worse than The Red...

Plot: So The Rose is the sequel to the Red which takes place 21 years after the ending of the Red. Lia, our main character,is the daughter of Mona , the main character of the Red. On her graduation party from college, her dad gifts her the Rose Kylix , an ancient greek cup which is said to have magical properties . During her party she mets August Bowman, a mysterious gentleman that wants the cup for himself which Lia's dad bought it from an auction from him. Come to found out that the cup is a cup by Eros and which grants the drinker of it any sexual fantasy they want to play out. ( So it's ancient sex toy by the gods) In order to get out the trouble, Lia finds herself making a deal to sell the cup to August for a Million pounds ( 1.3 million US Dollars) to pay off her blackmailing " ex" David who found out she have her own escort service. Along with the deal, August agrees to having sex with her for the week to see how the cup works. In the Red, Mona had sexaual fantasies in painting but in this one Lia have sexual fantasies using Greek Mythology( Andromeda/Perseus, Briseis/ Achilles, Eros/ Psyche to name a few) which this all takes place in week where chaos ensues.

For the most part, it was ok but one part of the plot nagged at me for some reason (which I'm going to get in detail later . Lia and August interactions was cute and witty for the most part. August was pretty much had a body of a greek good but was funny as hell The sex in this was wat=y tamer than in The Red by a long shot. **** The Red had an Orgy,Beastilty, Lactation, A threeseome and BDSM in it. This barely had a threesome or oral sex in it. The scenes where each greek sexual myth plays out where too long to get to the actual errotic scence. I'm all for set up not the whole scene is 29 pages long where the last 5 pages is where the actual sex happens. Honestly the sex scenes that was not in the mythology scenes was hotter.

Lia for the most part was kind of a prude even tho she's a madam which makes sense with her family's rep of being scandalous. It's in her family's blood to be sexual which if you read the Red you understand big time. I mean her great grandfather had a painting **** collection and went the brothels every single day. Her dad and mom pretty much got together because her mom had the painting of her great grandfather which her dad pretty much said he was going to marry her and turn her into a ***** to get that painting. It was confirmed that Lia was conceived on their wedding night so right after the events of the Red. So I was kind of shocked that knowing her family's history that she never told her parents about her being a madam which leads in to my main problem with this story.

How Lia being a madam weighs more than certain things that a certain character did.

The villain of this story is named David Bell who pretty much trying to blackmail Lia by telling her he will go to the her a parents, the police and press about her being a madam. Four years prior to the events of The Rose, David was a 37 year old artist from New York who was painting a mural for her parents house that 17 year old Lia which had a huge crush on. She confessed her love from him which one night she lost her virginity to him. ( I'm about to get to that in a min) Which later on that night, she found out that he also had sex with her mom since her parents have an open marriage. Her being heartbroken, she told him to leave or she'll tell her parents what happen. He leaves and lose a lot of commissions but comes back to blackmail her.

Here's the thing.

How the hell can you blackmail Lia when you was a 37 year old MAN having sex with a 17 year old MINOR? Yes She's over the age of consent in the UK but she was still a minor. You blackmailing her cause you lost a couple commissions but if she actually told her parents what you did your ass could have end up in jail?? Yes Having a escort service is illegal but how that trumps having sex with a minor?

Her parents had enough money that they could have hushed the press and pay the cops off. Nobody would have know if she actually told them instead of wanting to pay his ass to keep quiet.

Then that don't even pan out since he got arrested for not paying his taxes. ( Which is funny that even tho she's running a escort service she's putting down her making tapestries as her income so nobody would get suspicious. ) So the whole David plot was just there for AUgust and Lai to get closer together and have sex thats all. No really big play off expect she finally tells her parents about what he did four years ago.

Then he parents do found out about it her being a Madam her damn dad grounds her like she's 10. She's 21 for damn sakes.

I just didn't like the fact this book made having a escort service ( where Lia made sure all the girls who was her friends who would all legal age safe since the client list was pretty friends of her parents) a bigger crime than..

Having sex with a 17 year old girl while your age is 37. ( An damn adult having sex with a minor.

The great-grandfather spent most of his time in a brothel and having a painting **** collection.

The dad saying that he was going to turn Mona into a ***** to get his great grandfather's painting.

It doesn't make any sense to me at all especially how the the book was supposed to be about Lia embracing the intimate passion of sex and falling in love with August by exploring her fantasies. Just like in The Red was about Mona embracing her inner ***** and finding out what turns her on. For a book to be about women gaining sexual freedom and being comfortable in their sexual prowess you got the male characters ( with the expectation of August of course) being hard on her and trying to punish her for doing something that guys are also know for doing as well.

That's why I couldn't rate it higher than a three because of this. The book would have been probably better if they tone down the emphasis of being a madam, the sexual greek fantasies scenes was a little shorter and had more sexual interaction than just the last few pages.

So 2020 is already staring off on a "Meh" note.

The Rose - Likewise Book Reviews

4 Reviews