Homicide detective Alex's secret life as an erotica author makes her the target of a serial killer. She and her partner Cole, must find him or she'll pay for her Dangerous Cravings with her life.
Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations some readers may find objectionable: Strong BDSM theme and content, violence.
Evangeline Anderson is a registered MRI tech who would rather be writing. And yes, she is nerdy enough to have a bumper sticker that says “I’d rather be writing.” Honk if you see her! She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.
This book OMG it's so good, this was a second re-read through for me, which in my opinion is a sign of an excellent read. To recap we have Detective Cole Berkley & Detective Alex Reed They are partners and also best buds. and they both work for Tampa's homicide division. There is a serial killer on the loose and they are targeting individuals from the BDSM community. This is where our story gets interesting, unbeknown to Cole, Alex is an erotic writer who has desires that she has been repressing for years.She has chased off her last serious relationship by being honest, so now the last thing Alex wants is her partner of five years discovering her secret life, But with a killer on the loose, well secrets are going to emerge out into the open. What I loved about Dangerous Cravings is that we have two individuals both complete novices to the scene. Cole struggles with coming to terms with what Alex wants, being totally vanilla in his relationships previously, while Alex is ashamed of her desires trying to hide them thinking herself weird and perverted. While all this is going on Alex and Cole are both trying to trap a killer. This has got to be one of my most favourite books in terms of BDSM, two individuals both struggling, but for totally different reasons. There is no hardcore antics in this book just a journey of discovery and a lovely love story that I enjoyed as much the second time around as I did the first. Dangerous Cravings is a must read that tugs on your heart strings and where you actually believe in the characters whole hearteningly.
I read a small little novella, Masks, by this author which had been on my Kindle for ages. I was impressed by it enough (see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) that I decided to give one of the author’s full length books a try. Since Paranormal Romance and I are on a break these days (don't ask - I am looking at you Ms. Singh and Ms. Briggs).
Knock me down with a feather - this was good. The story revolves around two homicide detectives trying to stop a serial killer. The twist - if it can be called that since it’s in the blurb - is that he is killing erotica author and our heroine is one herself. Cue dramatic music (and my wish that the blurb had kept some of this out of the synopsis. Even though the book makes the connection clear I didn’t like learning about it from the back of the book. Since that has nothing to do with the author I am giving this a pass).
The story has light BDSM elements, mostly around accepting your desires and not shaming yourself and others. This was probably the healthiest representation I’ve read in romance. I am also cognizant that this came out before Fifty Shades of Grey which made BDSM such a prevalent trope. It was interesting to see some topics explained which have now become pop culture staples (doms/subs etc.). This does date the book a little but again, the concept of a couple, exploring was refreshing. The heroine called the hero out on kink-shaming which I cheered for.
I’ve noticed in recently written romance novels where an experienced hero initiates a naïve heroine into the BDSM scene and she takes to it like a duck to water. This is basically a variant of the rake-virgin stereotype which annoys me. Thankfully, this book avoids this; there is an actual teacher here - imagine that. Who would have thought that magic-romance-dom-mental telepathy powers (because that would be the only thing that would explain how the heroes know their lady loves are into the hard core BDSM which starts on page 2) are not needed.
So the romance worked for me but the real surprise was that the mystery worked as well. It’s a simple enough mystery that it doesn't overwhelm the romance or frankly make all the canoodling inappropriate (there is no “let’s stop for a quick while people are dying” scene here - I’m looking at you Sarah J. Maas). The activities actually spend a decent time in the book working. I’d recently read another ostensible romantic suspense novel, I Thee Wed, where this wasn’t done half as convincingly (see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) that I couldn't help but be impressed.
In the end, I am giving this 5 stars for the treatment of BDSM adding to the romance and the balancing of the mystery. The writing was tight and kept me reading (to the detriment of work). I now wonder if I should give Paranormal Romance another try - hmmm.
This has to be one of my favorite BDSM related reads to date. This book isn't hard core which is good- just right for the tone a book involving newbies. It has a believable plot in how the two become entangled in BDSM and how they work through their feelings about it. So many books throw people who don't know each other into instant love who become mega kink maniacs knowing exactly what the other person wants and needs. Not here - these two get to be normal human beings - refreshing.
I was pretty sure I figured out who done it early on but at one point I was worried there was going to be a heart wrenching twist. Phew. Liked the bit of worry but glad it didn't go that way.
Loved the side story about the divorce and the daughter.
A very satisfying read about two people learning to be okay with who they are while stopping a killer who isn't okay with it.
One of my first erotic romance reads. I enjoyed this very much because it had suspense in it. I prefer it this way otherwise the sex just bores me. A friend didn't like it because she didn't think there was enough sex in it but I found it just right. I was probably reading it as a romantic rather than as an erotic suspense in mind so it depends on what you're looking for.
Evangeline Anderson knows how to mix her BDSM with crime very well. If you are new to the scene, don't worry, she's not a hardcore BDSM writer so don't run away scared. The story centers around a Tampa detective who we discover has recently suffered a personal loss and is struggling with the grief. We meet her partner and best-friend who is very protective of her and is also going through his own personal marital problems. There is also a crazy serial killer running around murdering women in the BDSM community and as the the story goes on Alex and Cole are forced to go undercover in the BDSM community as Dom and Sub to try and catch the serial killer. Where Alex's submissive tendencies and secrets will finally come to light but will Cole be so accepting is what you as a reader will need to go buy the book and find out for yourselves as i did LOL!!
Homicide detective Alex Reed is fierce, intelligent and tougher than any of the men in her department, but by night she explores her darker side writing highly erotic BDSM novels under the pen name Victoria Tarlatan. Homicide Detective Cole Berkley is Alex's longtime partner and best friend - he also has no idea about her craving to be mastered nor about her writing. A serial killer is transforming what he views as wicked women into works of erotic art. His hapless victims are found tied to the bed in classic bondage poses, strangled and tortured in unspeakable ways. In order to crack the case, Alex and Cole are going to have to go undercover within the BDSM community as a master and his slave. The question is can Alex keep her secret desires hidden and can Cole handle the change in a partner that he perceives as tough and hard into a woman with deeply erotic needs? Any friction this all causes between them will become the least of their worries as the killer has a list of intended victims and Victoria Tarlatan is next on that list. Can Alex survive or will she pay with her life?
I liked this story which was a mixture between a murder mystery story, a story of the relationship between Alex and Cole, with a fairly healthy sized dose about the BDSM lifestyle. I really enjoyed the story which was really good at describing their relationship and how it was developing as well as how it changed as they got further into the murder mystery that they were investigating. Well written and easy to read I found it a good story to read. Contains explicit sexual descriptions as well as intimate details of the BDSM lifestyle. Definitely a book only for those who are older than 18 years old.
Dangerous Cravings combined two of my favorite genres - murder/mystery and BDSM. Throw into the mix a homicide detective who is also an erotic writer and we have the makings of a darn good story. Alex and her partner Cole are hunting a serial killer who is targeting people in the BSM community. What better job could someone like Alex get handed. But what she and Cole are faced with will try even the closest of friendships and this story is a must read. I love Evangeline's way of thinking. Her stories are really good and I highly recommend her books.
The storyline, if you remove all the angst etc is fantastic! The whole serial murder of erotica authors is interesting and throw in the detective with 'needs' and the whole becomes very good indeed! Alex and Cole make a good team/couple and the action flows well with the different aspects being given. On the whole, I loved it!
This book has aged very, very badly, if it ever read well in the first place. It's a grim, humorless story full of unwittingly toxic ideas, particularly about women and gay people. The BDSM elements, aside from Mistress Samantha, are completely wrongheaded: most of the vanilla people see it as akin to mental illness, while the kinky people seem determined to compel their vanilla partners to meet their needs instead of seeking likeminded individuals in the kink community. The whole thing just reads very weirdly and very uncomfortably.
Natural Law by Joey Hill is based on a similar premise but the execution is better by miles. I recommend you read that instead of this dumpster fire.
I'm not totally sure I should shelf this on the 'good first BDSM' book shelf. The protagonist is an author of erotica, but she hasn't ever done anything herself. As she and her police partner Cole start investigating a seriel killer, they find all the victims were exploring the BDSM world. They end up having to play the part of newbies to the lifestyle, and Cole discovers Alex is turned on by the dominance and submission.
There isn't a ton of sex in this book. It is mostly a mystery, and after that in a close second is a discovery of what BDSM is. They listen, learn, watch, interview people and learn more. So in that discovery regard it is a good first BDSM book. It isn't too over the top with Bondage or spanking. Nothing like anal or humiliation are in the book.
By no means did I find this story sweet. Alex is struggling. She hates this part of herself. The idea that anyone else would know she is interested much less turned on terrifies and nauseates her. There are sweet moments. The end is very sweet. But there's far more inner torment.
There were a couple of times, especially with the Mistress, that I didn't think things played out in a realistic manner. It just wasn't logical that people would do that... ie.. Alex plays Dominant, Cole pretends to be submissive. The mistress quickly calls them on being wrong. Then Alex/Cole continue and talk of their relationship as if Cole hadbeen dominating Alex in the bedroom.. well, if you were a Mistress interviewing potential trainees, wouldn't you call them on it? Would you continue? I'd toss them out for lying,wondering why they were pretending in the first place. That was just odd.
Dangerous Cravings would have been way better if the serial killer aspect would have been deemphazised. Besides that, there was a lot of emotional turmoil with a heroine that's not able to accept her need to submit and the hero's shock at discovering that a woman he thought he knew had a whole different side to her. I think this is the first time where I've read about both of main characters having to learn and accept their kinky side and it was very well done. But the serial killer aspect just took the story down.
Alex is a female police officer, in Cole's word, "one of the guys" and as tough as they come. But it turns out that Alex has a submissive side in the bedroom that she only let's out when she writes BDSM ebooks. Cole, her partner, has known her for 5 years and they are not only partners but best friends. When the case they are working on lets him discover Alex submissive side, he's shocked. He can't understand why pain would get her off, specially when she's such a tough woman otherwise and he doesn't know if he'll able to give her what she needs.
If only the stupid serial killer plot hadn't gotten in the way! In some respects, Alex & Cole were good police officers and in others, they wouldn't verify alibis and would take things at face value. The showdown with the serial killer had the heroine acting like a dope. I mean, really. You know a bad guy is going around killing woman in a specific way and you fall for it? C'mon!
Really good BDSM plot, bogged down by the suspense part of the story.
This book is kind of a toss up, there were part's that worked for me and then there were part's that just fell short. This book spends a lot of time going over the two lead characters feelings and reactions to BDSM, parts of this was ok but it got old after a while. The characters in this book were divided into two groups, one for 'those people are FREAKS', and another for 'this is a perfectly normal way to live'. Your faced with two extreme's and then low and behold the main characters settle for in between. The parts that did work for me however included the plot. The twists and turns in trying to figure out who the killer is, how all the victims were connected in three different ways. The first being the Plastic Surgeon, the second by visiting the same BDSM club, and then finally each of them having published various erotic works under pen names. I enjoyed the going back and forth between suspects and trying to figure out which one it might have been, they kept on clearing names only to have them come back up. And even though I though I knew who it was, you don't really 'know' until right at the end when the author tells you. If nothing else that will keep you interest. 3 stars.
It's a really good suspense book. If you're just looking for erotica, it's a very small part of this book, it's more directed to the suspense part. Which was kind of refreshing.
I got REALLY frustrated with the characters in the beginning and they didn't seem competent at all. But in the middle that started to change in my opinion. And sometimes the author seem to get a bit of the bdsm stuff wrong. I'm not in the lifestyle, so I'm not sure about that. There might be people who doesn't need a "warm-up".
I read this as an audiobook, and the narrators were Anne Johnston Brown and William Martin. They were adequate, but didn't seem to work together. It seemed like the second one who read the book didn't listen to how the other one read it.
SPECTACULAR OF COURSE... WHEN A COP WHO WRITES EROTIC BOOKS IS TARGETED BY A SERIAL KILLER SHE REFUSED TO GIVE UP THE INFO THAT SHE TOO IS A AUTHOR... IT COULD GET HER KILLED.....
Her partner has always had a innocent thing for her now divorced they must play the part of dom/sub to find this killer and find out a few things about each other that can cause them to loose the long friend ship they have had forever..
I loved this book it was hot and very scary.. a really well written book with a great plot.. once again Evangeline HIT THE MARK. She is a pro..
GOOD READ , SEXY, SCARY, AND YOU WILL WANT MORE.....
Interesting book, different from what I expected from Evangeline Anderson. The actual BDSM was light and the murder mystery interesting and well done. The book was released in ebook in 2006 and I might have had a more favorable review if I'd read it back them. Most of the book is taken up with Alex and Cole discussing her need to submit and how wrong Cole and others think that need is. In the current world were 50 Shades of Ridiculousness is a best seller, I can't relate how weird everyone seemed to think BDSM was and it became grating and annoying after awhile to hear about it. But there was much in this to keep me engaged despite the over 400 words of story.
This novel was written in first person, however it switches which person is narrating from chapter to chapter. Which I really liked. I got to see how both of the characters were thinking and feeling.
The book is very light on BDSM play, it mostly talks about Alex and Cole's emotions surrounding their latent emotions towards domination and submission.
The book wasn't what I thought it would be, and I almost stopped half way through. I am glad that I didn't. It was a great story and I really loved the epilogue!
A cop who secretly writes BDSM fiction and a killer on the loose killing off BDSM fiction writers. But there is more to the story than just this. And Tampa Detective Alex reeds dark secrets are about to come crawling out of her dark closet and out into the light as her and her long-time partner and best-friend go undercover as Dominant and submissive couple to try and catch a serial killer turning women into his own freaky forms of art.
Not sure about this one. I'm generally a fan of Anderson's work (mostly her Scifi and paranormal romances), but this one fell a bit short. I was sad at how weak Alex was compared to some of Anderson's other leading ladies. This might just be a misunderstanding on what BDSM really is or a hiccup in trying to portray it, but...
This one was just meh. Read it or don't. It was a short one, with some okay spanking sex scenes.
Great suspense that really kept me turning the pages. At first the constant shift in POV disturbed my reading but then it was overturned by the exiting plot and I didn't notice it anymore. The BDSM part of the story is Light and sweet and is really more about accepting yourself than the sex. A great read.
I thought this was a really good book. The story was solid and moved at a very good pace. No added filler just the meat and potatoes of the story. I will be checking out her other work. I was very impressed.
This was one of the first BDSM books I read and I still revisit it from time to time because the interaction between Cole and Alex is just so potent. A very good read and introduction into the BDSM world.
I have to admit I really didn't figure out who the culprit was until the very end which was good. I hate predictable books. Nice story line about accepting yourself as you are, and finding a partner who does the same. Good read.