Friday, August 29, 2014

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!


ClaudineSeries: Standalone
Genre: Erotic Suspense
Publisher: Berkley Trade
Publication Date: 9/2/14
Format: ARC
Pages: 304
Source: Publisher
Rating: 4 stars

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."







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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19 comments:

  1. LOL you did a great job Andrea! Always fun trying a different review style :) I've got this one and you and Braine from Talk Supe might have me convinced to finally give it a read despite the cover which has so put me off. But dang yall make it sound worth it :)

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  2. I think you did great!! I love doing these short reviews once in awhile, but it can be a challenge. You definitely have me intrigued about this book!

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  3. Definitely Yes, I love suspenseful books. Every genre can and lots of times have suspense throughout it.

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  4. love 'em :) thanks for the great review! Definitely caught my attention!

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  5. I do like suspense books! And I like you short & tweet review, Andrea. You did a great job on your first try! :) I'm very intrigued. :)

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  6. I definitely appreciate an element of suspense when I read. Thanks for the giveaway! :-)

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  7. Clearly you do NOT suck at that. Yeah, I really liked this too.

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  8. I love suspenseful books. I like being on the edge of my seat racing for the finish.

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  9. Sounds good. I like that short and tweet idea :)

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  10. I love suspenseful books, they are one of my all time favorites. This book sounds amazing. Thanks for having the giveaway.

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  11. Love suspenseful books... But only if there's romance involved :)

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  12. I haven't read a erotic suspense, not both together, even when there have been suspense with romantic elements. This short, tweet style reviews it could be a challenge for me 'cause I always larges my reviews, but maybe I could try them. Although, I think a great job doing it!

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  13. I like the edge of your seat read.

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  14. Why is it that every character who was abused sexually as a child becomes this closeted sexual deviant? Thanks for the trigger warning.

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  15. What a cool idea! One of the reasons I don't really use twitter is because 140 characters is never enough for me. I always start my message, try to figure out how to shorten it, then say fuck it and talk on hangouts instead. Clearly I would suck at this but it would be fun to try :)

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