Monday, January 11, 2016

Review: Off the Clock by Roni Loren


Publication Date: January 5th 2016 by Berkley

About the book:

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE LOVING ON THE EDGE NOVELS, THE FIRST IN A SENSUAL NEW SERIES

Overtime has never felt so good…

Marin Rush loves studying sex. Doing it? That’s another story. In the research lab, Marin’s lack of practical knowledge didn’t matter, but now that she’s landed a job at The Grove, a high-end, experimental sex therapy institute, she can’t ignore the fact that the person most in need of sexual healing may be her.

Dr. Donovan West, her new hotshot colleague, couldn’t agree more. Donovan knows that Marin’s clients are going to eat her alive unless she gets some hands-on experience. And if she fails at the job, he can say goodbye to a promotion, so he assigns her a list of R-rated tasks to prepare her for the wild clientele of The Grove’s X-wing.

But some of those tasks are built for two, and when he finds Marin searching for a candidate to help her check off her list, Donovan decides there’s only one man for the job—him. As long as they keep their erotic, off-the-clock activities strictly confidential and without strings, no one will get fired—or worse, get attached…

Exclusive to this edition only—a bonus short story

My Thoughts:
Marin and Donovan first meet when they both are working late at college, each in their own research study.  One thing leads to another and they share an explosive night. The lead-up alone was fiery! Marin never expects to see Donovan again after a tragedy forced her to drop out of school and put the broken pieces of her family back together.  Years later, their paths collide again when Marin takes a job as a sex therapist at The Grove, an elite sex therapy institute that caters to the rich and famous, and Donovan is to be her trainer.  Getting back to school and supporting her brother had been the focus of her life, so while Marin’s really good at studying and researching all things sexual, she has almost zero personal experience.  This becomes glaringly obvious as she begins working, but Donovan oh-so-generously offers to help rectify that problem.  Let the fun begin!

In Off the Clock things between Marin and Donovan get heated very quickly, but they have an abrupt and sad end.  Even after the years apart, sparks fly when they meet again. Both Marin and Donovan have past baggage, and Donovan’s seemed to struggle more with his past than Marin did, but I enjoyed delving deep into what made these two tick.  Whatever issues they had, there was no denying the powerful attraction each stirred in the other. Marin and Donovan definitely “imprinted” on each other all those years earlier. Their dates were intense and out of control, in the best possible way.  Even when they weren’t tearing their clothes off they genuinely got along, and I adored the playful side they brought out in each other.  I laughed several times at their exchanges:

Marin: Need me to bring anything?
Donovan: Spiked heels, head-to-toe vinyl, and a vat of Crisco.
She blinked, and her phone buzzed again.
Donovan: For me, of course. I look great in vinyl and my shoe size is 13.

Roni Loren has come to be my favorite erotic romance writer.  For a romance to be truly hot, the writer must seduce your mind first, and I find Ms. Loren never disappoints.  She always builds a solid and sizzling foundation between her complex characters, and her novels have been some of the steamiest, kinkiest stories I’ve ever read!  I can’t wait for the next in the Pleasure Principle series!  I just read on her blog that it will feature Lane, one of The Grove’s sexual surrogates.  That should be very interesting!

As with many of Roni Loren’s books, there’s a bonus novella/short story at the end, One Night Only.  Getting a romance for Bianca, one of the patients at The Grove, was an immense treat!  

4 Suns





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