** This review does contain spoilers**
Marie Force is an amazing writer whose characters are always appealing, and who writes such complex, emotion-driven stories. I’m happy to see her branch out into erotic romance. However, I was a bit disappointed in this trilogy. Although, there is plenty of hot, dirty sex, I expected more in a series billed as BDSM, and wish that she had really gone for it. ~ JavaGirl, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
He’s a sexual dominant. She’s sworn off sex. There’s no way they can make a relationship work—or can they?
After surviving a traumatic event at age fifteen and the ensuing estrangement from her family, Natalie Bryant has worked for years to reinvent herself into the woman she is today—a happy teacher fresh out of college and enjoying her first winter in New York City with her faithful dog, Fluff, by her side. Natalie isn’t expecting her life to change completely during a routine stroll through Greenwich Village on a blustery January day. But when Fluff breaks loose and charges into a park, Natalie gives chase and crashes into her destiny. Only after Fluff bites and draws blood from the man who accidentally knocked Natalie down does she realize Fluff has bitten the biggest movie star in the world.
He has no business being enthralled by the gorgeous, young, innocent teacher…
Natalie captivates Flynn Godfrey from the first moment their eyes meet while she is lying on the ground and he’s fighting off her ferocious little beast of a dog. The only thing Flynn knows for certain is if he lets Natalie get away, he’ll regret it for the rest of his life. After only a short time in her presence, Flynn is prepared to change who he is to be what she needs. He knows he’s in big trouble when she says she won’t sleep with him and he doesn’t care if it means he gets to keep her in his life. But can he turn his back on the lifestyle that has defined him? Can he deny the desires that drive him to give Natalie the introduction to love and romance she so deserves? And most of all, can he keep his truth hidden from her long enough to have forever with her?
Join Flynn and Natalie as their story unfolds in three full-length books released three weeks in a row: VIRTUOUS, VALOROUS and VICTORIOUS. From New York to Los Angeles, from Hollywood to Las Vegas, Flynn and Natalie’s whirlwind love affair has it all—romance, passion, steamy hot sex, relentless paparazzi and a murder that could be their undoing.
If you hate dirty-talking heroes who put it all on the line for the women they love, who leave no desire unfulfilled, who will do anything it takes to protect what’s theirs…If elements of BDSM make you queasy, if smoking hot sex isn’t your thing, if cliffhangers make you rage, if you hate first-person points of view from the heroine AND the hero… this trilogy is NOT for you! You’ve been warned…
** This review does contain spoilers**
Review copy of Valorous provided for an honest review
** This review does contain spoilers**
My original plan was to review each of the first three books in M.S. Force’s Quantum series individually, but after reading Valorous (#2), I found I didn’t have much to say about it that I hadn’t already said in my review of Virtuous (#1).
This series takes place over a short period of time, approximately 6-8 weeks. Flynn and Natalie’s relationship moves so fast, yet I found the books themselves to move rather slowly. Other than a couple of big events—the details of Natalie’s past, and Natalie’s discovery of Flynn’s BDSM lifestyle—nothing really happens. Natalie and Flynn fly back and forth across the country a couple of times, they attend awards shows, drive expensive cars, spend time in beach houses and other luxurious homes, go to Las Vegas, Cabo San Lucas, are pampered, Flynn makes countless romantic, generous gestures and is unfailingly patient with Natalie, but there isn’t much substance to the plot. Any conflicts are easily and quickly resolved, with lots of tears but minimal depth. Flynn is one of the most romantic characters I’ve ever read. I could go on and on about the romance in this trilogy. There is a lot of it, and I loved it. I truly loved Flynn and Natalie, as well as all the great secondary characters, but I was expecting more. When Marie Force announced she was venturing into erotic romance, writing as M.S. Force and that her first book would be a BDSM trilogy, complete with cliffhanger endings, but released only a week apart, I was intrigued. The complex characters, depth of emotion, and amazing writing style that I’ve come to expect from Marie Force, are all here, and the sex scenes are plentiful and dirty, but the BDSM element is lacking. I felt like I was reading a beautifully written, very detailed account of a whirlwind romance, in a very glamorous setting. Where was the BDSM? Other than a couple of scenes in visits to the clubs Flynn co-founded, and a couple of wet dreams/fantasies, there is very little BDSM here. While the elements of the lifestyle that are included appear to be well-researched, authentic, and handled in a very responsible, respectful manner, it barely skims the surface of the lifestyle. Flynn and Natalie do enter into a D/s relationship, and I understand Natalie’s past is one factor in Flynn slowly introducing her to the lifestyle, but I was disappointed in the lack of BDSM scenes in what is billed as a BDSM series. The focus in most of the sex scenes is on anal play, with lots of toys. Again, the process of Flynn preparing Natalie for anal sex is drawn out over a long period of time, to the point, where I began to lose interest.
I think Flynn and Natalie’s story could have been told in one book. There was a lot of filler in this trilogy, including an FBI investigation that came out of nowhere and then ended quite anticlimactically.
Natalie, Flynn, their friends and family are all wonderful, charming, interesting characters. The series is sexy, funny, emotional, and very romantic. The sex scenes are hot and plentiful (especially the multiple anal scenes). Marie Force is an amazing writer whose characters are always appealing, and who writes such complex, emotion-driven stories. I’m happy to see her branch out into erotic romance. However, I was a bit disappointed in this trilogy. I expected more BDSM, and wish that she had really gone for it. In spite of my disappointment, I did enjoy the books and I look forward to reading the next book in the Quantum series.
3.75 Stars
Thanks Java Girl
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