The Ground Rules by Roya Carmen (The Ground Rules Trilogy #1)
Contemporary Romance
Released: June 2, 2015
Omnific Publishing

Reviewed by Helyce

1. Don’t sleep around.
2. Don’t kiss and tell.
3. Be nice.
4. Don’t text or call.
5. Don’t fall in love.

The rules are simple…until they aren’t.

Gabe and Mirella are married and have two beautiful daughters.  They are happy, healthy, enjoy their jobs and have a very satisfying sex life.  One night, they decide to do something a little more special for date night. They get all dressed up and head to the city for dinner and a show.  But when they get to the restaurant, the hostess cannot find their reservation. While the hostess is trying to remedy the situation, another couple arrives.  The woman is gorgeous enough to be a model, and the man is handsome and sexy.  The hostess falls all over herself to seat this couple who she knows by name.

Bridget and Weston are a power couple.  She’s an attorney and he’s an architect of sorts specializing in sustainable buildings.  When they overhear the hostess tell Gabe and Mirella that they do not have a reservation and cannot be seated at all that evening, Bridget and Weston invite them to join them at their table since they learned upon arrival that their friends would not be joining them.  Without other options, Game and Mirella accept and have a great evening.

I was very intrigued by the blurb for this book.  While it doesn’t spell it out, if you read between the lines a bit, you’ll infer that there is going to be some sort of sharing or swapping or swinging going on.  What pulled me in, though, were the rules. I knew this type of story might take me out of my comfort zone a bit as we slide along the cheating fence. I also knew that one or more of our characters would mostly likely break one or all of these rules at some point and I knew that to make it especially interesting, someone would have to break rule number 5.

I loved the first part of this book. Gabe and Mirella have a strong relationship.  They love each other, enjoy spending time with their kids, their friends and each other.  They still can’t get enough of each other sexually-no problems there.  After they meet Bridget and Weston, Gabe enjoys teasing Mirella about Weston.  Getting her to admit she found him sexy and handsome; it even spices up their already satisfying sex life.  Mirella doesn’t believe Weston even noticed her until Gabe tells her…

“[..].A man knows when a another man wants to fuck his wife…”

When Weston contacts Mirella and asks for a meeting to discuss something, Mirella and Gabe are curious.  Gabe makes jokes and teases Mirella, but it’s all in fun. This is where things change for our couple though.  The excitement of their evening, the playing, teasing and fantasy of being with someone not their spouse wasn’t real; just in their heads–a tool to spice up the normal, find that excitement again.  But when Mirella, takes the meeting, and hears what Weston has to say, it’s all out there and a very important choice has to be made.  We wouldn’t have a story if they walked away, however, which takes us to the second half of this book.

After our couples meet and agree to the terms set out by Bridget and Weston, the focus moves to Weston and Mirella’s “dates”.  While there is definitely a spark between them and their time spent together feels much more than just sex, I missed the interaction with Mirella’s husband Gabe.  We get nothing from his perspective, other than a few harsh conversations between Mirella and Gabe and no insight to how Gabe and Bridget are faring. I didn’t like getting only half of the story. I wanted to experience it from Gabe’s point of view also and I wanted to have more insight into how Gabe and Mirella’s relationship changed after making this life altering decision.  It is inferred that they are not being intimate with each once they begin the “exchange” and I feel this should have been addressed. As we are privy to only Weston and Mirella’s interaction, you could almost forget for a time that this was not just a romance about them.  I feel that the story lost something by not including Gabe and Bridget’s journey.

As you can guess, Mirella and Weston break many of the rules along the way, leading them into territory that they never thought they’d have to deal with.  How the author deals with this is was not a surprise, in fact it’s very much in line with what was discussed by the couples before they’d began the exchange. This story does end with a cliffhanger.  And since the author treats us with a bit of a teaser for the next book, which I read twice by the way, because I was like, “Huh?” I will be reading book #2.

Even though I feel like there was a lot missing by not including Gabe and Bridget’s journey, I am glad that I read this.  It wasn’t an uncomfortable read for me and I didn’t have a problem with the choices of these two couples. I think it’s the rare couple that can honestly say they have never wondered or imagined being with someone other than their spouse. This type of situation, where there are rules and an agreement might be approached as “all business” but in actuality, can you really approach it so coldly and imagine that you won’t build any sort of feelings or attachments with this sort of intimacy?  It brings to mind questions.  Is it cheating if everyone agrees? When it ends, how do you go back to what you were?  Can you? And if you do, will you worry that your partner or spouse is thinking of the other person when they are with you? I was intrigued by the premise of this story for the obvious reasons, but at the end of the day, I can only see the problems that would arise from such an undertaking.

I hope this will be addressed in book two.  Because that teaser still has me scratching my head…

Rating: C+

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