Title: Slow Seduction
Author: Cecilia Tan
Publisher/Year: Grand Central Publishing 1/28/14
Length:  272 pages
Series:  Struck by Lightning #2

Overview

Unforgettable passion . . .

Two months have passed since Karina’s painful departure from James, the mysterious lover who awakened her darkest desires, and she’ll do anything-anything-to locate him and win him back. Her search takes her to London, where she finds herself immersed in the world of fine art and forbidden pleasures. And soon, Karina meets another enigmatic man who promises to help her find James . . . for a price.

Unexpected pleasure . . .

Damon George is rich, gorgeous, and a member of a secret society that caters to the sensual thrills of the wealthy and powerful. Though Karina insists her heart will always belong to James, Damon is determined to have her, body and soul. By the time she finds James, Karina has been “trained” to please another. Will James reject her again . . . or find her more irresistible than ever?

My Thoughts

I had to re-read Slow Surrender so that I could refresh myself on this exciting and erotic game that James was playing with Karina, and boy was I happy that i did.  Where we left off with this couple is upon James flight from Karina after the first ‘society’ party that they had attended together, where they not only ‘consummated’ their relationship but Karina ‘forced’ James to reveal his full name and therefore his identity that he has been working SO hard to hide all this time.  Once that’s done, he up and leaves her at the party and she doesn’t hear from him again.

Where Slow Seduction picks up is a few months in the future where Karina has just taken a summer job at the Tate Britain through the connection that she made via James with Martindale who is the curator there.  Karina has the opportunity to be a guide through the pre-Raphaelite exhibit so that’s something to do until she finds out if she’ll be allowed to graduate (once the nonsense with Renault settles hopefully).  The other reason that she’s taken this job too is that she’s heard through the grapevine that James is in England and she’s trying to locate him and see what went wrong.

The path that this 2nd installment takes us is the journey of Karina searching for her love since she won’t give up hope that they can be together, and the people that cross her path in that journey are quite interesting.

Through her roommate Becky, she meets Paulina and Michel who put her up in their home in exchange for help in renovating and opening their own gallery.  There are interesting connections of this couple to others in the story as we learn throughout.

We also meet Damon George who in his own way is very much like James and is even a member of the London branch of the same society that James is, and Karina some how hopes that through the club she can find him, so she builds that relationship with Damon as a means to find him.  Of course though, we know that things aren’t quite that simple, and Damon has plans of his own, and intentions of his own, and plans to make Karina his if he can manage it.

So, we’re taking on a search and rescue excursion here that’s a great plot line, and peppered in with steamy sceneing between Karina and Damon and he works to train her.  It’s yet another introduction into the world of BDSM for her, which we saw in book 1, but certainly in more depth in this 2nd book.

I’m really pleased with this bridge in the series.  I think that we get everything that we were expecting and a little bit more with the way that it ended up.  There were a few unexpecteds that showed up towards the end, and that’s the lead in to what i hope will be an even better 3rd and final installment.  Now if only i didn’t have to wait so long for it!  I hope you guys enjoy!