Title: Heat
Author: Jamie K Schmidt
Publisher/Year: Random House 6/3/14
Length: 230
Series: Club Inferno #1
Overview
On the run from her abusive fiancé, ER doctor Mallory Bryant arrives at her sister’s Connecticut resort desperate for a place to restore balance to her life. But Club Inferno is more than a haven for the rich and fashionable. Beneath its elegant facade is an erotic playground where dominants and submissives play out their fantasies. At first, Mallory is wary of Max Spencer, the martial arts trainer acting as her bodyguard—until he introduces her to passion so intense she wants nothing more than to surrender to his touch.
As one of Club Inferno’s most skilled doms, Max enjoys taking Mallory to the limits of pleasure. It’s a dangerous proposition, and as their sensual games draw them into a relationship beyond the boundaries of pupil and master, Max starts spiraling out of control. But when Mallory’s violent past catches up with her, Max knows what he must do: draw her closer than ever before, even if it means risking a surrender of his own.
My Thoughts
I’ve never heard of this author before and this series really hadn’t been on my radar before, but i’m glad that i came across it. What we have here may have been teased to be like FSOG but i don’t know that i’d really put it in the same genre – not really. We have a story about a budding romance, one that has elements of BDSM but really not too much into the lifestyle for these 2, but a lot of other side bits that are quite interesting.
As we know, Mallory is on the run from her ex-fiance – a lawyer who’s been a bit abusive and who’s addicted to drugs and tried to get her into them. That’s a dealbreaker for her, so she’s left him and has been hiding out for a month or so, trying to sort out next steps. This lands her at her sister Colleen’s resort in CT, one that touts itself as a fashion retreat to the public, but also has a darker more erotic side to members who pass snuff. It’s on that other side that Mallory meets Max, one of the instructors – and someone who brings her back to life.
Throughout this story we get a ‘coming of age’ in a sense for Mallory – she begins to heal from the mess that was her relationship and find out that there’s more to her own sexuality that Max is able to draw out and make her feel good. Of course – it’s never that easy since Colleen has warned them off one another, and it’s hard to stay away from what you want.
If that weren’t enough, there’s the fear that Mallory’s ex is going to turn up – and that when David does, things are going to get bad. It’s when David’s sister happens across the fashion side of the retreat and sees Mallory that we find out how bad it can get. We learn that David’s been spinning lies, and at that point, Mallory has to return to her life as a doctor, and there’s the continued fear that it’s going to continue to get complicated. which it does.
Death, Guns, more drugs and the fear of who’s going to end up ok takes us through the latter 3rd of the book. While i’m not surprised about how things turn out – i’m surprised that the build up was so much for what we actually get. The one thing that i wish that we had more of was scening. There are hints at what they can all do – and what they do do – but we don’t see too much of it. When a place is touted as ‘Club Inferno’ and that there are experiences doms present, personally i’ve come to expect some great BDSM action – more lessons and the sort. Instead we do get instruction, but it seems more mainstream. Regardless, it’s still a nice bit that takes us through the story.
So….we know that this was the first intro to the series and i’m looking forward to see what comes next. There are so many folks that we’ve met in this first one that i know that we’ll have plenty of characters to learn more about – and i hope that we get to see colleen happy. Enjoy!