SEXY SATURDAYS: NATURAL LAW and NAUGHTY BITS by JOEY W. HILL

 

 

Sexy Saturdays with Andrea and Autumn is a weekly feature created to spread the word about spicy reads. 

Participating blogs:

The Autumn Review

The Bookish Babe

 

 

Series: Nature of Desires #2

Genre: Erotic Romance

Publisher: Ellora's Cave

Publication Date: 3/10/04

Format: Kindle

Pages: 318

Source: Purchase

Rating: 4 stars

Mackenzie "Mac" Nighthorse is a highly respected homicide detective and a career cop. There isn't a dangerous situation that can back him down.

However, the personal becomes uncomfortably entangled in the professional when he goes undercover in a high class BDSM club as a male submissive in order to find a Dominatrix who is winning the trust and then murdering her chosen partners.

When his path crosses Violet Siemanski's, he realizes he's found a Mistress willing to be his ally in finding the murderess. But Violet is also going to shatter Mac's shields and make him question who he is and what he wants, a challenge more disturbing than any case he's ever worked.

 

 

I just need to take a moment to respect that cover, because, wow.

Part crime drama, part erotic romance, Natural Law is a book I've been meaning to get to for a while now. Joey W. Hill is a highly respected erotic romantic author, and I did enjoy her book Unrestrained a lot. 

Mackenzie Nighthorse is a well-respected veteran Detective. When  two male submissives are murdered in his city, a pattern begins to emerge, a pattern Mac is determined to solve and end. While he is a take-charge, dominating man in almost every respect, Mac is a sexual submissive. He obviously takes the case personally, discloses his lifestyle to his boss and goes undercover. His first night in, Mac meets Violet, a newly trained Mistress. The connection between them is immediate and intense. Mac and Violet tentatively begin a D/s relationship, feeling each other out to see if the connection is true and something that can be built upon.

Mac is a power sub, meaning he doesn't immediately obey commands, he's defiant and pushes buttons. I've never read a story with a true power sub before, and I have to say that I found the dynamic to be very interesting. I assumed that the need to be controlled and obedient to be inherent to a sub, but Mac wants to be broken. Has never before found the woman to push him beyond his limits and truly own him. Which works out perfectly because Violet doesn't want any easy, docile sub. She wants the biggest, most defiant sub out there and she wants to break him. Violet's newness and size is misleading. She knows exactly what she's doing. Violet has Mac figured out, knows what's holding him back when he's not truly aware of it himself.  Despite his need to submit, he withholds from his Mistresses. He wants to big physically painful punishments; they're easier to withstand. Violet wants to break him open, uses the punishments that make him more emotionally vulnerable, those will expose the true him. Violet often compares Mac's submission to taming a horse.

So I really, really loved the relationship between Mac and Violet. I was worried his secret would come between them, was happy when I realized not only would that not happen, but that she also has some herself. The first part of the book largely deals with the establishment of their relationship, and Violet breaking Mac in order to truly become his Mistress. Now, the scene in which this happens...it's not going to be for everyone. A year or so ago I would have been shocked. This wasn't my first go round with reading about this, so I wasn't shocked or weirded out. I will say it was very intense, a truly powerful and overwhelming scene.

The second half of Natural Law still focuses on the relationship, but also Mac's case. I don't read crime drama, but this held my attention. I wasn't sure who the killer was, didn't even try to figure it out, but was still engrossed in how it would all shake out. The guilty party was a but surprising, their reasoning even more so. The big showdown was very intense, and I couldn't put the story down until the end.

I've noted several readers who've stated Natural Law is among the very best of erotic romance. I have to say, I can definitely see that point-of-view. Hill does a remarkable job of conveying the desires and reasoning of those who practice BDSM. It's clear she's not out to simply shock or titillate,  but to tell a good story about exceptionally dynamic characters.

 Favorite Quote

   He was powerful, a predator, but what made him absolutely irresistible to her, overriding her common sense, was that he was a sexual submissive. An alpha wolf who chose the role of beta in the bedroom, but only for the right woman.


  There was a wall. I'm not sure I even knew it was there,though you tried to tell me it was there from the first. Every time a Mistress tried to push on it,I felt like I had to keep her away, but at the same time I wanted her to try and shove past it,fight me for it.I didn't understand it,still don't maybe.I just know you did it,and I feel like you're inside me now, in a place where I've always wanted...a woman to be.

Purchase Links

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Series: Naughty Bits #1
Genre: Erotic Romance
Publisher: Penguin Group
Publication Date: 4/15/14
Format: eARC
Pages: 110
Source: Publisher
Rating: 2 stars

Madison is a control freak with one wish—to lose control. Her hidden submissive cravings have led to a string of disastrous relationships. So when she inherits her sister’s North Carolina lingerie shop, Naughty Bits, she jumps at the opportunity to dump her boring finance career and bad history and try her luck down South.

But before Madison can settle in, she catches the attention of the owner of the neighboring hardware store. Sexually dominant Logan Scott can see the hunger for command in Madison’s eyes and is anxious to help unleash her submissive desires. He presents her with three very tempting gifts—handcuffs, erotic cards, and an open invitation to join him at a submissive’s training session.

Faced with the realization that she can’t sell fantasies to her lingerie customers without embracing her own, Madison accepts Logan’s offer. Now, she’s about to discover just how far her desire can take her…

 

Naughty Bits Part One was hard for me to get into. Madison has secretly longed to be a submissive, to belong to someone, for years. After her sister's death she inherits her lingerie/sex shop, where she gets to know Troy and Logan who work next door. The two men are both in the BDSM life, and offer to show Madison more.

Like I said, this was hard to really get into and absorb. The story would transition between the present and Madison's detailed fantasies. The transition cues between the scenes, though, were absent. I was confused, thinking must have skipped pages or zoned out. So sort of indication, like italics, would have helped, and maybe that will be in the finished copy.

Another reason this didn't work for me was that with all of Troy and Logan's explanations, the story read like a tutorial. Just not something I was interested in. I'll give the next installment a try, and hope things pick up.



Series: Naughty Bits #2
Genre: Erotic Romance
Publisher: Penguin Group
Publication Date: 5/20/14
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Rating: 2.5 stars

Fear is no match for lust in Joey W. Hill’s sexy new novella about a woman who sheds her shame to embrace her pleasure…

Madison may have ditched her well-ordered Boston life to run Naughty Bits, her sister’s North Carolina lingerie shop, but she didn’t expect to throw herself into such chaos—or to become intimate with the sexiest man she’s ever had the pleasure of meeting. After spending a night observing a submissive’s training session, Madison is ready for Logan to teach her how to feed her own deep fantasies—and get rid of all her lingering fears…

Madison’s aching desire to submit is unlike anything Logan’s ever experienced before, and he’s determined to be the man to make her relinquish control. Still, Logan’s unsure if Madison is ready to take that first step to becoming his—until she shows up at his door ready to be commanded. Luckily for them both, Logan’s got more than a few surprises up his sleeve that he knows she’ll enjoy…

Don’t miss the next Naughty Bits novella, Bound to Please.

 

 

I'll be brief. I had a difficult time getting into this series. My reasons were stated in my review for Part One, and while those same issues didn't hold true to this installment, I still didn't connect.

 

I think the reason was: too little, too late. I didn't notice the rough transitions this time around, nor the tutorial feeling in regards to the BDSM. It was a lot sexier, with more forward momentum, but I still didn't connect with Madison, Troy, or Logan. At this point, I'm going to call it quits on Naughty Bits.

 

Purchase Links

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About the author

I’ve been given more blessings in my life than any one person has a right to have. Despite that, I’m a Type A, borderline obsessive-compulsive paranoiac who worries I will never live up to expectations. I’ve got more phobias than anyone (including myself) has patience to read about. I can’t stand talking on the phone, I dread social commitments, and the idea of living in monastic solitude with my husband and animals, books and writing is as close an idea to paradise as I can imagine. I love chocolate, but with that deeply ingrained, irrational female belief that weight equals worth, I manage to keep it down to a minor addiction. I adore good movies. I’m told I work too much. Every day is spent trying to get through the never ending “to do” list to snatch a few minutes to write.

Despite all these mediocre and typical qualities, for some miraculous reason, these wonderful characters well up out of my soul with stories to tell. When I manage to find enough time to write, sufficient enough that the precious “stillness” required rises up and calms all the competing voices in my head, I can step into their lives, hear what they are saying, what they’re feeling, and put it down on paper. It’s a magic beyond description, akin to truly believing my husband loves me, winning the trust of an animal who has known only fear or apathy, making a true connection with someone, or knowing for certain I’ve given a reader a moment of magic through those written words. It’s a magic that reassures me there is Someone, far wiser than myself, who knows the permanent path to that garden of stillness, where there is only love, acceptance and a pen waiting for hours and hours of uninterrupted, blissful use.

If only I could finish that darned “to do” list. (from GoodReads)

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