Short and Tweet Review + Giveaway: Claudine by Barbara Palmer

Two of my favorite blogers, Karen at For What It's Worth and Mary at The Book Swarm occasionally post twitter-style reviews. Karen calls hers Short and Tweet. Mary also pointed the direction to The Daring Librarian's "Twitter Style Book Review Lesson" Basically, the idea is a review that's tweet length, only 140 characters. I annoy myself by my wordiness, in real life and in blogging, so I've been wanting to give this a try.

It's fun to write such a short, super concise review, but it's also really hard! You need to get the essential details in there so readers have enough to go on. I may not get every review down to tweet length, sometimes it might be twitlonger. But we'll see how this goes!

Series: Standalone

Genre: Erotic Suspense

Publisher: Berkley Trade

Publication Date: 9/2/14

Format: ARC

Pages: 304

Source: Publisher

Rating: 4 stars

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Maria Lantos has a secret. She’s a post-grad student researching early erotic literature at Yale who puts her studies to work after hours as a courtesan named Claudine specializing in erotic role play. Her allure and stock of sexual tricks command top dollar from international clients. When Maria receives anonymous text messages filled with chilling threats, she knows her secret is out, and someone is hunting her—someone who knows a lot about her past and who’s intent on playing a starring role in her present.

As Claudine, she loves the brief anonymous liaisons that allow her to explore the darker side of power and desire. But now it’s Maria’s turn. Two men—charismatic Yale professor Reid Whitman and her business manager, Andrei Barinov—will test the limits of her sexuality and safety, forcing her to discover the depth of the dark places within her. 

Claudine combines the pace of a thriller, the deep emotional connection of a romance, and the heat of a beautiful woman’s sexual discovery.

My Short and Tweet, Twitlonger-Style

Erotic Suspense with a unique, interesting premise. Modern day courtesan with a stalker, murder mystery, and her carefully calculated world comes tumbling down. Sexy. Suspenseful. Dark. Intriguing, and oddly, romantic in the end. A book that read like a psychological thriller. Claudine was very satisfying.

Clearly, I suck at Short and Tweet reviews. Ugh. But I'm trying, so there's that. I also want to add a trigger alert, for those who avoid sexual assault/trauma. Maria was sexually assaulted as a child. The details are only alluded to, with everything coming to a head at the end. We do get a brief but very intense scene at the end. I'm not trying to spoil the story or dissuade anyone from reading. I thought the scene fit well with the story. But I do know what it's like to feel ill over reading something that triggers strong emotions.

Favorite Quotes:

  For once, she didn't have to pretend. Her desire was fierce; she wanted to give herself to him without holding anyone back. She didn't want to be a professional tonight, didn't want to dip into her bag of tricks. Tonight she was just a regular girl making love to the man she trusted most in the world.

  But when she looked up at him, she knew she couldn't deny the decision her body had already made. "I could ask you to go away and I'd be fine, but you'd take half of me with you."

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Barbara Palmer is the pseudonym of a bestselling Canadian novelist. Her pen name was inspired by the famous seventeenth-century English courtesan and royal mistress.

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