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ARC Review: The Fetish Queen (Part 3): Cursed by Nicole Camden

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Title: The Fetish Queen Part 3:  Cursed
Author:  Nicole Camden
Publisher/Year:  Pocket Star 5/5/14
Length: 107 Pages
Series: The Fetish Queen #3

Overview

In the final chapter in the daring, sexy Fetish Queen series, Lille finds the place she belongs for the first time in her life, but she can’t escape the fear that her dark past will ruin everything…

Unnerved by the sheer force of her desire for Max, Lille retreats into managing the Fetish Box, making sure that it’s a success. The online documentary she stars in becomes more and more popular, bringing business to the store and danger to Lille. When she’s nearly killed at Jobman’s pub, Lille begins to believe that she might truly be cursed, bringing danger to all she loves.

Does she run away again, giving up her new life in order to stay safe, or does she take a chance, possibly endangering them all? She doesn’t want to leave. She’s learning what it means to be a Fetish Queen, and it is love, not fear, that gives her strength. But what Max and her friends don’t realize is that Lille is willing to do anything…anything…to save them all.

My Thoughts

Well, we knew things were going to come to a head in this final installment, given the sexual tension, chemistry and anxiety that Lillie and everyone was living under.  When we left off in book 2, Lillie had contacted the man in Vegas an learned that he was working for her father, and things with Max were growing to be more than either were expecting or wanted and all that led to a lot of complications.  On top of that, Lillie was really worried that her father was going to come and do harm, and that she was going to have to run.

So what we get in this final installment is the culmination of a lot of things.  We get to see where the relationship goes with Lillie and what’s nice is that we see her make the choice to walk away.  The question is of the two (Lillie or Max), who is going to be the one to push more to stay?  At least while they try to sort that all out, we get some heated steamy scening.  All necessary in this genre.

There’s also something that was somewhat a surprise that i really appreciated.  We get a surprise visitor in this book that i for one was not expecting.  This person leads to a chapter of tension and you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen.  Someone gets hurt – that’s for sure.

We continue to see the video series gain popularity, making Lillie even more famous which is a good and bad thing – and makes it harder for her to make the clear choice to run away when things get complicated.   I have to admit though, things were resolved in a nice and tidy bow, and that’s maybe not what this story needed.

Similar to what i found with book 2, there seems to be one big flaw here.  We learn a bit more about Lillie’s father in this book, and some things that he says should be foreshadowing for the future of the story, yet given that this was supposedly the final installment, it was left out there with nothing more to come.   I feel like there’s a lot of unfinished business that’s really significant and it was just dropped.

Anyhow – all in all, not a bad ending to the story – just nothing earth moving to it either.  I think that the passion was there, the chemistry even more so, and the heat keeps you interested enough – at least it did it for me.  Enjoy!

ARC Review: The Fetish Queen (Part 2): Infamous by Nicole Camden

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Title: The Fetish Queen Part 2:  Infamous
Author:  Nicole Camden
Publisher/Year:  Pocket Star 4/28/14
Length: 100 Pages
Series: The Fetish Queen #2

Overview

In this scintillating second part of the Fetish Queen series, Lille and Max go wild for each other as conflicts arise and dark secrets of Lille’s past are revealed.

Lillehammer Marceau has a secret past—one that has haunted her, one that not even her best friend, Mary, knows about, one that includes a Russian gangster for a father. It’s left her with commitment issues and a fear of trusting anyone too much.

Lille has always been dominant and daring, hiding her fear behind a mask of confidence and bravado, even when the web series she creates about life in the Fetish Box becomes an Internet sensation and she gains more attention than she ever wanted. She believes she can keep her façade intact and still enjoy the pleasures of being with Max, but some men, it seems, won’t be controlled for long…

My Thoughts

Well, we’re finally getting into the meat of things.  The past that was teased in the snippet of book one that never quite came to fruition really begins to come out in this 2nd installment.  As we begin to learn more about Lillie and see what she’s doing with The Box – we see that part of it is an act – in a way at least, since she’s trying to protect herself from all that she’s gone through growing up.

What’s really nice is that there’s still the clear chemistry between her and Max and that everyone around them realizes it, and we get to reap the benefits of that as well – I couldn’t be happier.

This 2nd book takes us further into the journey, where Lillie decides to place a call to that mysterious number from Vegas to see what it’s about and finds out that it’s someone connected to her father.  She doesn’t quite know the motives, but her intuition makes her weary. The other interesting bit is that there’s other stuff going on that makes her nervous as well.  Carl, Max’s step brother ends up waking up one morning with both his phone and keys stolen….those keys being the ones that open both the store and the house that Lillie is staying in.  Lillie’s worried that there’s a connection there and well, you know that in these types of stories there has to be one.

There’s that parallel story as well as getting to know some of the supporting cast a bit more.  We spend a bit of time learning about Kim – the girl who’s filming the documentary, as well as about Jordan ,the boy who works in the store and has a thing for Kim.  It’s cute, but i don’t know if it’s fully necessary to the story – we don’t need it really to keep things moving. I really enjoy what Carl brings though, and the grounding that Mary and John have as well.

But, to be fully honest, given that this is an ARC, there’s a little flaw that i’m seeing that keeps throwing me off.  There are bits and pieces that are referenced that don’t follow the path of the story.  Specifically being that Lillie calls the man in Vegas, yet there continue to be references of ‘the call to Lillie from her father’ or connected to her father.  She made the move there – the man just left a card.

In any event, i think things will get more complicated now that Lillie’s face is out there on the internet – the videos going viral and now there’s no hiding.  the question becomes will Lillie have to run again to get away from her father, will he come and wreak havoc to Hollywood FL, or is everything just being blown out of proportion.

The other bit too which i’ll continue to enjoy is will the heat and passion between Max and Lillie stay pent up a while more and really keep things steamy like i want them, or will they do a little dance around each other and ‘go soft’ (sorry about the bad pun there).  I’m going to pick up book 3 now and let you know tomorrow 🙂

ARC Review: The Fetish Queen (Part 1): Reborn by Nicole Camden

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Title: The Fetish Queen Part 1:  Reborn
Author:  Nicole Camden
Publisher/Year:  Pocket Star 4/22/14
Length: 181 Pages
Series: The Fetish Queen #1

Overview

Newly single and loving every minute, Lille—a.k.a. the Fetish Queen—is unleashed and ready to dominate in the first chapter of the sexy, enticing Fetish Queen series.

Blond, buxom, and bold, pin-up girl Lillehammer Marceaux can get any man she wants, but she leaves her fiancé to move to Florida and run a sex shop called The Fetish Box, owned by her best friend. She immediately clashes with Max Jobman, the rough-hewn tattooed Irishman who owns the local pub. Not a very trusting man, Max is convinced she’s a spoiled beauty who’ll stay just long enough to find a rich husband. He quickly learns that Lille isn’t interested in a husband; she’s focused on making the business a success—but that doesn’t stop her from thinking about what an excellent lover Max will make…

What neither Max nor Lille realizes is that her efforts to become the Fetish Queen, which include making a type of reality show, have caught the attention of a dangerous figure from Lille’s past. Will her troubled past come back and drag her down, or will the Fetish Queen get her way?

My Thoughts

What i have to say about the overview above and what you get in the book are slightly different.  It makes it seem like more happens that really does, and it makes it seem like it’s certain things that are the cause of this attention, and we don’t get that from the book.  so…if you’re relying solely on the description, you may be let down.

What we have here is a nice novella style short first installment and introduction to this story.  We meet Lillie, who isn’t Lille at first.  she’s a young girl who’s living with her mother under less than savory conditions.  Her mother is a dancer (i.e. stripper) and her father is in jail for reasons unknown.  Because of the area that they live in, Lillie either stays with a neighbor while her mom ‘works’ or after a certain point, she goes with her mom to the club that she dances at just to be safe.  It’s what happens one night that changes Lillie’s life.  Her mom has always said that if her father gets out of jail ‘to run’ and this is what happens one night.  Her mom is at work and doesn’t make it on stage for a dance, instead, she disappears and leaves Lillie with a note that says ‘he’s out – run’ so that’s what she does.  They’ve made precautions in case this happens – a new ID, social security card, money and ’emergency pack’ so that Lillie can flee. this is where he life changes and her identity becomes Lillie. 

Fast forward a few years now from her rough past to a new life and ‘rebirth’ so to speak when Lillie is moving to Florida to help a friend with her business that was inherited.  It’s a sex shop which actually seems right up Lillie’s alley. 

Upon arrival in Florida, Lillie meets Max, Mary (her freind’s) neighbor and business partner, and John, Mary’s boyfriend.  It’s Max that turns things upside down as well since he’s got the look that draws Lillie in, while he’s not as malleable as she typically goes after.  See, Lillie is a dominant, and Max of course doesn’t seem like he can be tamed.

They both have darker pasts and this is why things would work yet we dont’ really get into that in this first installment.  what we do pick up on a lot is the constant fear that Lillie has from her past, and one night while she’s helping Max and Mary out bartending, she gets a card with a Vegas address and a phone number but no name.  Given that she used to live in Vegas with her mom and that’s where she fled from, that makes her nervous.  She is constantly looking over her shoulder and i guess that’s foreshadowing of what’s to come.

The other piece is that in coming to Florida, she’s going to help mary improve the business.  In doing this, she has an idea of creating videos to put online to help promote the store, and the last snippet that we get in this book is that because of Lillie’s beauty, she’s become the star of the video – becoming the ‘Fetish Queen’.  This of course makes her nervous because it means putting her face out there when shes trying to fly under the radar – and i guess that’s where her trouble will pick up.  

Since this is just about a 100 pages or so, it’ll be a quick read if your’e interested.  The good thign about this is that it’s a short story that packs a lot in.  It’s steamy in the sense that we get to see a female dom get in on the game which i haven’t seen a lot in the genre so far.  Lillie knows what she wants and knows how to direct Max how to give it to her, and that makes for a few steamy and heated pages in this book.  Enjoy and happy friday!