Review – Hidden Heat by Amy Valenti

Description:
When your body betrays you and your government might kill you for it, can you really trust a sexy man is all he seems?

In an Orwellian future world, highly skilled professionals must be sexually suppressed, to focus them better on their work. They get one week per year to procreate-a ‘heat phase’ allocated to them by computer.

Holly had been ready to give up everything for her career as a doctor-including her sexual urges. Her body rejected the treatment, denying her access to higher medical training, but Holly used her aunt’s connections to the clinic to cheat the system. Now she’s an unsuppressed woman struggling to hide in plain sight, and to control her desires without being discovered.

If the government finds out she’s faking it, they’ll likely kill her. So when a sexy medical student named Scott turns on the charm while flashing the wrist tattoos that mark them both as suppressed, Holly is terrified of letting down her guard with him. Could there really be a secret resistance faction whose aim is to abolish the suppression laws? And if she gives in to Scott’s advances, will there be terrible consequences?

Imagine yourself in a world where sex would only be allowed one week out of the year if you were in a professional career. Choosing to work in a profession as a physician or lawyer meant voluntary sexual suppression and permanent identification as one of the “Focused”. Choosing not to follow the Focused meant living life as a Menial: able to have sex anytime but limited to lower level career choices. For Holly Trent, this was a serious issue. She wanted to be a doctor and was considered one of the Focused but was the exact opposite of her label due to her inability to keep her hormones suppressed. After two failed attempts to suppress her hormones she managed to trick the system and gain her status as a Focused medical student, but the procedures have had some lasting effects that she can’t control. It is bad enough that she has to hide her self induced orgasms from her room mates, but when her frustration is discovered by one of her classmates, she fears that the worst has happened. If one of the Focused is determined to have faked their status, they can be put to death for trying to trick the system.

Scott Thorne knows Holly Trent is not what she seems. She has the same tattoos that every Focused is gifted with upon suppression but he can see she is thinking about him in ways that no Focused should. Determined to help her to see that she is not alone, he decides to take her under his wing and maybe even relieve some of her tension. What he isn’t prepared for, is the voracious sexual appetite that Holly is hiding under her Focused exterior. When he finally gets her to relax and let go, Scott realizes that Holly needs more than a quick fix. She can’t seem to get enough and the slightest tough sends her on a downward spiral of sexual need. When Holly explains how she got around the system, Scott fears that she could jeopardize the entire underground operation. He has to figure something out and figure it out fast before it is too late to save any of them.

What a ride! I had no clue what to expect when I started this story but was quickly sucked in to the plot. I have never seen a story with this type of futuristic take on sex and found myself wondering what people would do if it came down to suppressing professionals so that they could focus on their work. The idea that people would be put to death because they are sexually active professionals is a new twist on the idea of getting a thrill from doing the forbidden. Scott and Holly are electric when they are together and their chemistry is addicting. What I love even more, is that Scott is open minded and is more than happy to share that with his male roommate as well as Holly. Their sexual antics are on fire and yet Scott is able to show he cares for Holly when he realizes some of her urges are beyond her control. I am sad that I can’t add much more but this book is on the shorter side and I don’t want to give too much away. What I will see is, it will leave you hanging on a sharp cliff and I am now frustrated because I have to wait for the next one. Such is the life of a reader, hanging on each page until the next installment. Hidden Heat is a hot read with a new twist that will leave you wanting!