All the wealth in the world can't buy surrender (#MFRWHooks #BDSM #Historical)

Happy Wednesday! It’s time for another Book Hooks blog hop. My snippet today comes from my historical romance novella Challenge to Him. Hope you enjoy it! After you’re done, do use the links below to visit some of the other authors sharing their work today!

Blurb

All the wealth in the world can’t buy willing surrender.

Andrew MacIntyre, heir to a vast empire of railroads, mines and mills, is the second or third richest man in America, and by far the most eligible bachelor among the society folk summering in Newport, Rhode Island. His mother has filled their opulent mansion with marriageable daughters of bankers and industrialists, but Andrew knows none of these callow young women can satisfy his perverse sexual needs. No respectable girl would ever consent to being bound and beaten, to serving and obeying him the way he craves. His money gives him the freedom to purchase anything except his heart’s desire—a submissive partner to share his life.

Independent, progressive and well-educated, labour activist Olivia Alcott has dedicated herself to improving the lot of the workers who toil in the factories that have made Andrew and his class so wealthy. The strike she organises triggers a confrontation between her and the handsome billionaire. Although their disparate backgrounds and values make them natural foes, something stronger draws them to one another—an intuitive recognition of complementary fantasies. Andrew offers Olivia a bargain—better working conditions for the mill staff, in return for a weekend of her unquestioning obedience. Olivia will help him deflect the attentions of the potential mates assembled by his mother, as well as providing more intimate services. Given Olivia’s origins, a more enduring relationship appears impossible—but Andrew is not the sort to give up something he wants.

The Hook

“Mademoiselle Olivia!” A skinny girl raced up the street that led to the riverside mill, stirring clouds of dust. “Il vient! He is coming!”

The sputtering racket of an internal combustion engine drowned out the girl’s excited voice. The crowd parted like the Red Sea for a boxy vehicle of shiny black, with silvery headlamps like extruded eyes. The noisy Studebaker rolled to a stop in front of the strikers, who stopped in their tracks like everyone else to stare at it.

The door creaked open. A tall man unfolded himself from the somewhat cramped interior, snatched off his hat and goggles and tossed them into the vehicle. He strode towards the massed strikers, his fists clenched at his sides.

“Where is she? Where’s your damned leader?”

The newspapers generally described Andrew MacIntyre as handsome. The epithet did not do him justice. As he stormed towards her, Olivia was struck with a sense of physical power and keen intelligence. He had wavy red-gold hair, a high forehead, a square chin, a determined mouth. His eyes were hazel, deep set under brows darker than his hair. Those eyes drilled into her, fierce and compelling. The women around her shrank backwards in alarm. Olivia steeled herself, holding her ground and fighting the urge to grovel at his feet. Instead of retreating, she took a step forward, holding out her hand.

“Mr Andrew MacIntyre, I presume?” She marveled at the steadiness of her voice, the cool neutral tone.

“Damned right. And you are…?”

“Olivia Alcott.” She pulled herself up to her full height and forced herself to meet his gaze. She saw anger simmering there, but behind his irritation there was something else, something that intrigued and thrilled her. Something that she might be able to use to further her goals. Olivia Alcott recognised lust when she saw it.

He towered over her by at least a head. Though his body was hidden by his loose touring coat, his decisive, economical movements suggested he was lean and athletic. For a moment he hesitated, staring at her proffered hand. When he finally accepted it, his firm grip confirmed her impression of strength. His palm felt warm and dry against hers. She suddenly wished that she were not so sticky and disheveled. When he released her, a momentary lightness swept through her, as though she might float away.

“And can I assume that you are the instigator and cause of this illegal strike, Miss Alcott?” He seemed flustered, less confident than she would have expected. Her spirits rose.

“Instigator? Perhaps. But not the cause.”

Buy Links

Totally Bound:

https://www.totallybound.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=2298

Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Challenge-Him-Lisabet-Sarai-ebook/dp/B00F633SEQ

BN:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/challenge-to-him-lisabet-sarai/1116872228?ean=9781781844458

Add on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18365569-challenge-to-him

Visit the other authors doing MFRW Book Hooks this week!

Review Tuesday: Golden Shana by A P von K'Ory (#bdsm #billionaire #romance)

Golden Shana: The Chase by A P von K’Ory

AuthorMeProfessionals Press, 2015

With his impeccable style, muscular physique, chiseled features and hypnotic blue eyes, Roman Alastair Northcott Broughton Castell is drop-dead gorgeous. He’s also the billionaire CEO of a worldwide logistics company, built from the ground up through his intelligence and hard work. With charm, guile, expensive gifts and judiciously bestowed carnal pleasure, Roman believes he can conquer any woman, but he’s determined not to commit to anyone. When a female takes his fancy, he pursues her relentlessly. Once she’s fallen into his net, he requires her to sign a contract acknowledging the no-strings nature of their relationship. According to his standard agreement, either one can terminate the connection at any time. Somehow it’s always Roman who grows bored and seeks out a new diversion.

Then one night at the La Scala opera house in Milan, everything changes. As Roman escorts his lovely, curvaceous current lady Marie to a performance of “Turandot”, he catches sight of a honey-haired goddess of a woman who strikes him dumb with desire and need. His charm deserts him; he’s hopelessly befuddled by the stranger’s elegant poise. As she drives away in her limo with her friends, however, he vows he will win her, no matter what the price.

You probably think you know this story, yet another installment in the endless series of billionaire romances that litter the pages of Amazon. If that’s what’s going through your mind, though, you’re wrong. Aside from its classic, overwhelmingly alpha hero, Golden Shana: The Chase is refreshingly original. The relationships are far more tangled than in the typical romance, and the story much less predictable.

Shana, the mysterious stranger, might well be more alpha than Roman. Raped by her boyfriend when she was a teen, she has no interest in sexual relations with men, though she acts the dominant role in her lesbian love affair with close childhood friend Alyssa. She puts Roman in his place, making it clear that she will not necessarily surrender to him just because that is what he demands.

Discarded by Roman as he sets off to pursue Shana, Marie serenely believes that her love for him, plus his baby which she’s carrying, will ultimately bring him back to her.

Meanwhile, the rapist, despite being tortured and left for dead by Shana’s family, has somehow survived. Having constructed a new identity, the Phoenix (as he calls himself) is obsessed with reclaiming His Girl.

The book is set in Europe – Hamburg, Geneva, Montreux, Milan – and the author obviously knows these places well. All the characters are wealthy, so they spend their time in elegant restaurants, exclusive spas, glittering shops and upscale malls, in galleries and at the opera. Nevertheless, this glamorous world struck me as far more believable than the settings in most books in the billionaire genre. For one thing, the rich characters actually work for a living, to maintain and enhance their status. For another, there are gradations of wealth. Roman’s security major domo Robert is rich in his own right, though far less well off than Roman. Meanwhile the resources of Shana’s extended family dwarf Roman’s own, and he feels correspondingly chastened.

As alpha as he is, Roman is no cardboard cutout Dom. He’s self-centered, but generous and mostly honest. He doesn’t promise what he can’t or won’t give. He deeply loves his mother, detests his half-siblings, respects the competent minions with whom he has surrounded himself. He can be cruel, but that’s not his fundamental nature. He is, despite his usual self-confidence, only twenty nine, and sometimes he acts his age.

Unlike most romance, this book really focuses on the male protagonist, not the female. The book might, somewhat facetiously, be titled “The Dom’s Come-uppance”. The author convincingly portrays Roman’s confusion and attempts to adapt when the sudden cataclysm of love at first sight shatters his world and calls all his assumptions into question.

From one chapter to the next, the novel adopts the point of view of various characters, but only Roman’s chapters are presented in the first person. As he struggles to understand and accept his love for Shana, and plots what to do about it, one almost feels sympathy.

Almost. I know every author loves her own characters, but I couldn’t bring myself to really like Roman. He’s just too arrogant and selfish for me. In particular, I fumed at the way he treats Marie after she reveals that she’s pregnant. If I were she, I would have thrown his contracts in his face and gotten a restraining order. I couldn’t believe she’d accede to his demeaning demands.

Likewise, I found Alyssa’s infatuation with the billionaire inexplicable, given the way he manipulates and uses her.

But that’s not a criticism of the novel itself. Despite my frustration with Roman, I continued to read, eager to discover what would happen next. The book has a hopeful ending (from Roman’s perspective) but is by no means HEA. Meanwhile, threats lie in wait (particularly in the person of the Phoenix), threats that Roman will clearly have to confront.

Golden Shana: The Chase is competently written, but it bears the hallmarks of a relatively inexperienced author – an excess of passion, with occasional lapses of craft. It seems that unlike me, A P von K’Ory really does love Roman.

The structure is uneven, with characters disappearing for many chapters, then suddenly popping up again. The first half of the book includes some intensely arousing sex scenes. I realized to my surprise that the second half of the book contains almost no sex at all. I say surprised because I didn’t miss it. I was too involved in the story.

Given my fascination with BDSM relationships, that’s a compliment.

In fact, I’m tempted to get a copy of the second half of the story (Golden Shana: The Capture), just to see how things play out.