Title: The Initiation of Ms. Holly
Author: KD Grace
Publisher/Year: Sourcebooks Inc  2/4/14
Length:  256 pages

Overview

She had no idea membership would be this exclusive.

Will she succeed in her lengthy and lusty initiation? Sex with a mysterious stranger aboard a train leads Rita Holly to an initiation into the exclusive and secretive Mount club. Sophisticated and erotic rituals await Rita, as do the endless intrigues and power struggles within the organization. Rita learns that club membership is not for the sexually repressed. During her initiation, sex with her lover from the train, Edward, is forbidden, but Alex and Leo are happy to step in. With more and more titillating punishments in store and the club’s leader intent on her failing, will Rita pass her lengthy and lusty initiation?

My Thoughts

Wow – what a creative story we have here.  I mean, this isn’t the first story that i’ve read about ‘initiation’ so to speak into a secret sex club, but this one really took things to another level.  There’s was a lot of diversity in what Ms Holly’s tests were and that was nice.

So let’s back up a second, we meet Rita Holly when she’s on a train back to London that has just lost power.  There she meets a man in the dark who helps her relax from her fears of claustrophobia since she can’t see anything, and relax her he does….in a sexual sense.  It’s something that she never would have done with a stranger before, but didn’t really have any qualms against doing in the dark.  Before leaving, he gives her his number and this is where their journey begins.

Edward, the man in the dark is part of The Mount, this secret society of sorts, and makes it his quest to get her to join and initiate her because his feelings of pure sexual want have begun to develop into more.  He hides himself behind a mask for reasons unknown throughout the book, and helps guide Rita through her different tests.

What makes this more challenging as well is that Rita is a journalist and at a point in the tests begins to question motives, and decides that she can write an expose since no one has ever been inside The Mount, and then things would be looking up for her career.

What’s so nice about this is that what were once thought to be secondary characters in the council at the Mount each take their moments in the spotlight as leads.  Alex, Leo, Lorelei, Morgan, Vivienne, and Aurora all have their chances to test Rita to see what she’s willing to do and how much pleasure it will bring her.  I don’t know where our lovely author KD Grace comes up with some of these scenarios, but clearly they were all researched well and well written.

The nice thing about this story is that there’s a big twist in the end.  While throughout you’re hoping that Rita will second guess her need to write an article, there are folks that come into the picture that have ulterior motives and take choices out of some people’s hands.  There are those that are setting Rita up for failure, those that have their own wants and needs at the forefront, and even a really big surprise character that we haven’t fully met until the last few chapters.

All in all, there was a nice balance of reality and passion/imagination that kept this story flowing nicely.  You knew were things would go, but not how you would get there, and that was the nice thing.  I hope that you guys get a chance to pick this book up – it’s a nice twist on a story that’s not necessarily original, but had a very original spin on it.  Enjoy!