Twelve Wicked Nights by Nadia Aidan
Contemporary Romance, Light BDSM
November 2, 2010
Trade Paperback, 288 Pages
NAL

Reviewed by Mandi

Favorite Quote:  “You’re sexy like that. All pent-up and angry.”

Isabella and Justin have been lifelong friends, but the romantic chemistry has never made an appearance between them – until now. Isabella is on her way back to her hometown, to help her mother out with their family owned bakery when she gets stuck in a blizzard. Having just been dumped by her fiancé, she is not in the best place in life. Coming home in her fancy car from her fancy high-powered law career, Isabella is not cut out to trudge through the snow to find help. Luckily, Navy SEAL Justin gets wind that Isabella is in trouble and comes to help her out – again. He finds himself doing this a lot when it comes to Isabella.

Back at his house, an odd spark of attraction comes between them. Feeling a bit crazy, Isabella challenges Justin to a game of strip Scrabble. Justin is already on edge and confused with this sudden physical interest in Isabella and is hesitant to play this game – but Isabella is stubborn and bored. And Justin isn’t one to back away from a challenge. Soon – unclothed body parts appear, and one thing leads to another…

Justin has twelve nights before he has to go back to South America with the SEALs. During these next twelve days and nights, Isabella and Justin explore their relationship and test out the romance that is blooming between them.

I really enjoyed the first half of Twelve Wicked Nights. I like a friends to lovers trope, although Isabella and Justin have more of a brother/sister rivalry than truly friends. Their attraction to each other becomes undeniable and in the beginning, their sexy times are very steamy and intense. I mean – you can’t go wrong with strip scrabble. But then as a reader I started to become sexually frustrated. Isabella soon learns Justin is into BDSM and likes to be dominant. Much is made of whether Isabella is willing to submit, but when the actual sex scenes come and the BDSM comes into play, it kind of fizzles. Justin really doesn’t come across as a strong dominant and likewise, the issue of whether Isabella is going to submit doesn’t come into play. Overall, the BDSM is very light in this book. While I liked the actual story, at times I wanted the sex scenes to be more evolved. If you are going to have Isabella get into a bondage swing, than devote more than 1 1/2 pages to the scene! I want to read about the dirty stuff!

Towards the end, it becomes a bit silly as well. Justin becomes jealous of Isabella’s ex-fiancé and acts immature. His behavior just didn’t do it for me. Isabella’s best friend Celeste and the town sheriff have a nice side story, and although Celeste annoyed me at first, I came to like her and the sheriff at the end.

Twelve Wicked Nights was just okay for me. Could have been better, but I still enjoyed the time I spent reading it.

Rating: C

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