Addicted to You by Bethany Kane
Erotic Contemporary
June 7, 2011
Trade Paperback
Berkley

Reviewed by Mandi

Favorite Quote: His already translucent moral conscience vanished into a puff of vapor. She looked like something that ought to be illegal.

His cock agreed wholeheartedly.

Movie writer and director Rill Pierce and Katie Hughes have been friends for a long time. Katie’s brother Everett is actually an actor and has worked with and been best friends with Rill since childhood as well. But when Rill’s wife dies in a car accident, he becomes a broken man. He moves to Vulture’s Canyon, Illinois – a very small, rural coal mining town to get away from everyone. He falls into drinking, has given up work and has become a total recluse.

Katie has not only been friends with Rill for a long time, but she has developed romantic feelings for him, though not acting on them when he was married. She cares deeply for him and can’t stand the thought of him ruining his life. So she quits her job as a tax attorney to the rich and famous in Beverly Hills and takes a road trip out to Vulture’s Canyon. When she gets there, Rill is so drunk, he doesn’t even know who she is. Very slowly, Katie starts to break Rill of his downward spiral, all the while discovering herself in this odd, quirky little town.

Addicted to You by Bethany Kane is the first book in her new One Night of Pleasure series. Bethany Kane is actually the pen name for Beth Kery – who I think I’ve only read a few short stories from anthologies prior to this. I’m really impressed with this book. First of all, it is erotic. Maybe I should say EROTIC. The sex scenes are numerous and very explicit.  Rill (who is Irish with an accent – swoon) is in a bad place when Katie finds him. We are told throughout the book that previous to his wife dying, he was a carefree, funny, charming man. He is none of that here. He is not only struggling with a dead wife, and a few secrets from his marriage, but his mother was a prostitute, dragging Rill to a new man’s house every night growing up. This fear of becoming her, or becoming one of his degenerate uncles, won’t leave him. He is terrified of losing control, so at first he makes her bound her hands, so have some semblance of control:

She held her hands together and raised them above her head. He glanced away, the evidence of her sadness and the arousing image of her putting her hands up to be bound making him feel like he straddled a razor’s edge.

It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay, he told himself repeatedly as he bound Katie’s hands to the wrought-iron posts of the headboard. It’ll be just like last night, and you kept it under control then. He hadn’t yet fallen into the degenerate pit where his relatives lived, where carnal desires and selfishness ruled his very existence.

So although he is attracted to Katie, to him sex is not always a fun, joyous occasion. So the sex in this book has a very dark, intense tone. It is written very, very well.

I will say the very first chapter made me say WTF a few times. I was confused and honestly a bit put off by what happens. But carry forth – because it all comes to an understanding as you read the book.

While Rill takes on a life changing transformation, Katie finds some insight as well. Never super happy in her former high-powered tax days, she embraces this rural town much more than Rill does. The locals are quite the characters and provide a nice backdrop to this story.

I really loved the journey Rill and Katie go on. It is not an easy one. Rill has to overcome many demons. It really packs an emotional punch along with some very erotic scenes.

Rating: B+

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