Review Uncommon Pleasure by Anne Calhoun
In “Over the Edge,” after a tragic incident during Ty Hendricks’ last tour of duty, he cut off all connection with anyone he cares about—until a night with Lauren Kincaid draws him reluctantly back into the world. Lauren sees a wounded man in danger of losing everything to his inner demons, but the sensual, no-holds-barred fight for Ty’s soul could cost Lauren her heart.
In “All on the Line,” Abby Simmons fell hard for Lieutenant Sean Winthrop, but he sacrificed their relationship when he deployed to Afghanistan. Now he’s home, full of regrets and intent on winning back the woman he never forgot. Abby gives Sean her body but holds her heart aloof, until one night of pleasure forces her to choose either her U.S. Marine…or life without him, forever.
Supremely cute stories about marines and military men on the way back from deployment coming back to find the women they are destined to be with. With one major difference, Uncommon pleasure has some pretty hawt menage scenes that are unconventional but not unheard of. Its happening more and more, the inclusion of menages as plot devices to move the connection of characters along and while i don’t necessarily hate it, because lord they can be hot and steamy, i think its not intelligent to use 3 way love scenes as ways to maneuver a story forward. Or at least not to make a practice of it.
So what did I really think of the stories as a whole? Entertaining. But easy. Sam and Abby’s story was probably the simplest of the two but honestly it was just a tale of a man who used sex to win back the heart, or the pussy of the woman he loved. It was an exciting novella but not necessarily a ground breaking one.
The second story, the one of Ty and Lauren was just as entertaining and also not groundbreaking. This one, the story oaf a woman who is well trying to get through to a man who doesn’t want anything to do with her because of his own insecurities and history. I feel like if this has been longer another 100 pages of conflict and tension it would have been wonderful, juicy, compelling, full of tension and triumph and conflict. It was just entirely too short.
Overall Rating: C+
