Samhain Publishing, $5.50, ISBN 978-1-60928-237-0
Contemporary Erotica, 2010
Enticement is a ménage à trois story, with one woman and two men of course, with the men also providing some hot guy on guy loving for everyone’s entertainment. Be careful if such a story is not your cup of tea.
Evie Latham and Ross have a wonderful and erotically charged relationship. They live together in a nice house in Yorkshire and they have such amazing sex that you just have to despise them. Then, one day, Ross allows Kit to crash in the spare room while Kit sees to the repair of his place down the road. Kit just came back from Japan, you see, and he needs a place to stay. But Kit is the quintessential bad boy who also projects a hint of vulnerability that lures a woman into believing that she can change his ways. Evie finds herself attracted to him, oh dear.
This is the rare three’s-a-party story out there that isn’t focused on erotic shenanigans. Oh, there are many sex scenes here, make no mistake, but there is just as much focus on the emotional aspects of the relationship as well. The star of the story is definitely Kit – he’s not someone who can be easily pigeonholed into labels as he is both devastatingly charming and screwed-up at the same time. Poor Ross pales next to this fellow, but Evie manages to hold her own pretty well against Kit as Ms Ellis provides Evie with a strong personality in her own right. All three characters are not immediately likable – or detestable, heh – but they do feel pretty real and I appreciate that even as I enjoy discovering more of their thoughts and motivations as the story progresses.
I’m not as keen on the external conflict revolving around Kit’s past that takes prominence in the later parts of the story though. Honestly, I find the plot tad confusing at places and it takes attention away from the relationship between Kit, Ross, and Evie. Sure, it will be nice to have Kit realize that he didn’t screw up as much as he thought he did in the past, but I’d prefer the story to have focused on the more interesting dynamics of the ménage à trois.
Enticement is an interesting glimpse into the heads of three well-drawn characters, which is something I don’t find done well every day when it comes to romances of this sort. It’s worth a look if you are looking for ménage à trois story with a solid emotional component.
