Party of Three by Lacey Alexander (H.O.T. Cops #2)
Erotic M/F/M
April 3, 2012
NAL Trade

Reviewed by Mandi

Why did I choose to read Party of Three? Well, I’m always on the lookout for erotic ménage books, and while M/M/F is my favorite, I was interested in this M/F/M because there are cops and ex-boyfriends and I have been wanting to try this author.

Mira Adams and Ethan West are in a loving, stable relationship. Ethan has left the law enforcement agency, H.O.T (which stands for “Hostage Ops Team” – but let’s face it – “HOT” – might deserve a little giggle snort) and has gone to law school and is now a lawyer. He is busy, and the quality time spent with Mira is suffering. With Mira’s birthday coming up , they both want to get their relationship and sex life back on track. Ethan takes her to a secluded cabin but has a big surprise for her. He has invited her ex-boyfriend  Rogan Wolfe (who also works for H.O.T) to come join them. Recently, Mira had told Adam one of her fantasies was to have another man join them in the bedroom. Mira never thought Ethan would act on that fantasy, and is shocked and nervously excited when Rogan shows up.

First let me say, Lacey Alexander writes really good sex scenes. They are explicit, dirty, and if you are looking for a book where you just want the hot sex and don’t care about the relationship stuff, you would probably enjoy this book. I never got tired of the sex, it didn’t feel repetitive. While there is sex on the beach, sex on a boat, sex pretty much everywhere in the cabin, my favorite sex scene is in the kitchen with Mira’s birthday cake (which is cheesecake). I think we might need an excerpt from this scene:

And then – oh God, yes, yes, yes – there was Ethan, using his fingers to smudge still more of her birthday cake onto his erection, struggling a little to make it stay, but then holding the shaft down level and turning back toward her. By which time she’d never felt more ravenous in her life.

“Open wide,” he said.

And she couldn’t help thinking everything about him looked utterly delicious in that moment – not just his cheesecake-covered cock, but his entire body from head to toe.

I’m not sure if Ethan should win a medal for balancing cheesecake on his cock or using it as a spork. Either way, I’m impressed Ethan.

So the sex is fun in this book. But there is a lot that I didn’t like as well. The core of this story is that Ethan and Mira think their relationship needs work. Needs some kind of spark to make it better. So maybe bringing Rogan in and opening Mira up sexually, might help the situation. A lot of time in this book is focused on Rogan and Mira’s old feelings. They broke up, but having sex together for a weekend brings up those feelings. Rogan feels like he can’t let her go again. Mira feels very conflicted and starts to feel real things towards him. Even at one point, Ethan feels extremely jealous. All things I liked seeing and agree with.

But then the book ends so abruptly. I felt like Ethan and Mira’s issues are not addressed at all. We actually don’t even get that much POV from Ethan. Being the hero of the story, this disturbed me. I needed to feel like Ethan and Mira were back on track to a steady relationship, and I did  not feel like that at the end. We get so much time invested in Rogan, for nothing to come of it. I was really let down by the conclusion of this book. For all the sex there are still three people who started having intermingling feelings and I was definitely invested in how it would all turn out. And unfortunately, in my eyes, nothing was resolved.

Rating: C-

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