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About I Take You
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial (December 31, 2013)
From internationally bestselling author Nikki Gemmell comes a tantalizing story of love within marriage—and alongside it.
Under her Chanel suit and designer lingerie, Connie Carven is no longer the typical banker’s wife. When Cliff’s horrible skiing accident shifts the balance of their relationship, Connie becomes a willing submissive to her husband’s every desire.
Cliff is eager to explore new, and troubling, avenues of passion. Connie, ever the dutiful wife, follows wherever he leads. While at first she enjoys a perverse sense of freedom within the ever-tightening bonds of her marriage, Cliff’s dark desires soon consume her entirely. She finds herself surrendering to an act that will forever remind her that she belongs to her husband alone—to be unlocked only by him, whenever he pleases.
But it is also this act that awakens Connie from the numbness that has taken over her life. And when she encounters someone new in the communal garden of her Notting Hill home, she discovers the thrill of true intimacy . . . and the price of risking everything for it.
The author of the bestselling phenomenon The Bride Stripped Bare and the exquisite With My Body, Nikki Gemmell brings erotic writing into the twenty-first century. In I Take You she looks to the classic Lady Chatterley’s Lover for inspiration, reimagining D. H. Lawrence’s celebrated tale as a brutally honest and deeply sensual modern love story.
Review
Connie Carven lives the high life, enviable by those who don't know the dark secrets of her relationship with her damaged husband. A tragic turn of events forever changes their lives. Determined to save her marriage, Connie gives into her husband's new needs. One fateful night those desires go way too far.
But a horrible act ultimately leads Connie to finding herself, and possibly love, again. Can she make the necessary sacrifice to finally embrace love? Or is she too damaged and her life too predetermined?
Nikki Gemmell, similar to her other books, does an excellent job building characters and scenarios to challenge them to their core. Too often, I find erotica tries so hard to be cutting edge that it misses out on character and story--it simply becomes a sexual tale for shock value. Gemmell never seems to fall into that trap. There is a horribly disturbing act in this book, but it's not played for shock value. Instead, it's meant to showcase just how far people can go to have control over their loved ones.
My only complaint, which shows how much I came to care about Connie, was how quickly her story was wrapped up. When you've been through a character's suffering and there's a hint of salvation or moments of happiness, you hate to see it rushed. Still, I recommend this book to readers who like a character they can sink their teeth into--a character with plenty of flaws, but something still makes you care about her and root for her to come out on the other side.
Rating: 4 stars
Please click the following links to read my reviews of two additional Nikki Gemmell books: The Bride Stripped Bare and With My Body.
About Nikki Gemmell
Nikki Gemmell is the internationally bestselling author of The Bride Stripped Bare and With My Body, as well as Shiver, Alice Springs, and The Book of Rapture. She lives in Sydney, Australia with her family.
Find out more about Nikki at her website and connect with her on Facebook.
Thanks to TLC for my review copy.
Note: I received a complimentary copy for review purposes. A positive review was not requested or guaranteed; the opinions expressed are my own.
Please visit other stops on I Take You blog tour page.
About With My Body
Paperback: 480 pages
Publisher: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (June 19, 2012)
A wife, a mother of three, she has everything a woman should want—and yet she has gone numb inside. Locked in a never-ending cycle of chores, errands, and mealtimes, she cannot find a way to live her life with the honesty and passion that once drove her. Even her husband, whom she loves, has never truly touched the core of her being. Only one person has ever come close. In desperation, she returns to the memory of an old love affair—a transformative relationship with consequences she has never fully resolved. Revisiting her past, she will begin an exhilarating journey into her sexuality while finally confronting the hidden truths of her heart.
Exquisitely lyrical, bold, and seductive, With My Body is a thought-provoking exploration of family, sex, marriage, and love—the love we give, withhold, and surrender to.
Review
As a mother, it's easy to get caught up in the minutia of life--to forget about yourself as a woman. In With My Body, this woman loves her husband but has given up on truly giving herself over to him. She opened up once, and it left a hole in her heart.
Can a revisit to her past provide the jumpstart her life needs?
It's interesting. This book is written in second person (you). We never know the main character's name, yet her thoughts are exquisitely relayed. When we are introduced to her, she is a woman who is blessed with a husband she loves and three adorable sons. She's content to let passion be a thing in her past, at least at first. Then, we are transported back to a time when she was sexually raw and open, although a very young girl (late teens) learning from a quite older man.
Too often, erotica features a sexually repressed woman who seeks out passion through affairs and random sex sessions. Here, the woman revisits a time (through memories and later via a visit) when passion consumed her and learns from it.
And it's well-written, emotional, and compelling. Actually the best of the erotica I've read to date, although I'm fairly new to the genre. First and foremost, I want a story that pulls me in and touches me in some way. This one did that. Now, if I could just read some erotica where the husband takes an active role in his wife's passionate needs. I have no problem with a woman finding her strength, as the woman does in this, but not at the expense of a weak man. At least in my humble opinion.
I look forward to more from this author. Which is good, because I'm scheduled to review her latest early in 2014. If you want some hot scenes coupled with compelling and character-driven story, this is an excellent choice.
Rating: 4 stars
And good news... the eBook of With My Body is only $1.99 from today (12/17/13) until January 6. More information here.
About Nikki Gemmell
Nikki Gemmell is the internationally bestselling author of The Bride Stripped Bare and With My Body, as well as Shiver, Alice Springs, and The Book of Rapture. She lives in Sydney, Australia with her family.
Find out more about Nikki at her website and connect with her on Facebook.
Thanks to TLC for my review copy.
Note: I received a complimentary copy for review purposes. A positive review was not requested or guaranteed; the opinions expressed are my own.
Please visit other stops on With My Body blog tour page.
About The Bride Stripped Bare
Publisher: Harper Perennial
(February 1, 2005)
Language: English
A woman disappears, leaving behind an incendiary diary chronicling a journey of sexual awakening. To all who knew her, she was the good wife: happy, devoted, content. But the diary reveals a secret self, one who’s discovered that her new marriage contains mysteries of its own. She has discovered a forgotten Elizabethan manuscript that dares to speak of what women truly desire, and inspired by its revelations, she tastes for the first time the intoxicating power of knowing what she wants and how to get it.
The question is: How long can she sustain a perilous double life?
Review
Normally I would summarize the book and then move onto my feelings. But this book stirred up so many feelings--it's quite the emotional roller coaster--that I have to skip right ahead. I cared about the main character and her struggles to feel loved and satisfied, but then she would always take it just a bit too far and I was frustrated. She became her own worst enemy, striving for some kind of impossible ideal.
But I was eagerly flipping the pages, wanting to know what happened--dying to know if she was going to figure it out. That, perhaps, is where I became the most frustrated because the ending came too quickly and without much resolution. Of course, the reader knows the unsatisfying ending from page one. Still, I hoped for something against the odds.
I read this book as part of a bigger blog tour where I will read two more books by this author. Although I was often torn about this book, the writing was engaging and compelling. I was emotionally invested in this character, even when I wanted to smack her. And sometimes life simply doesn't have an answer for someone's pain and dissatisfaction. I just wish it did.
Rating: 3 stars
About Nikki Gemmell
Nikki Gemmell is the internationally bestselling author of The Bride Stripped Bare and With My Body, as well as Shiver, Alice Springs, and The Book of Rapture. She lives in Sydney, Australia with her family.
Find out more about Nikki at her website and connect with her on Facebook.
Thanks to TLC for my review copy.
Note: I received a complimentary copy for review purposes. A positive review was not requested or guaranteed; the opinions expressed are my own.
Please visit other stops on The Bride Stripped Bare blog tour page.
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