Stevie‘s review of Private Research by Sabrina Darby
Contemporary Erotic Romance published by Avon Red Impulse 29 Oct 13
When I was offered this book for review, it had a much more interesting (to my mind) blurb than the one currently on Amazon, and one that also more accurately reflected what the book’s about, in my opinion. Billed in its extended title as ‘an erotic novella,’ this feels closer to a short novel, and, while there’s lots of sex, most of the scenes aren’t quite as in depth as I was expecting. Having said all that, the twin non-romance plot-lines did grab my attention and managed to hold onto it for the majority of the story.
Mina is in London undertaking archival research for her English PhD and has only two weeks left out of her five-month stay in which to prove that a contemporary of the Brontës wrote not just the seventeen works currently attributed to her, but also another three under a very different name. All Mina needs is to find one document in the archives or in the authors’ descendants’ records that will prove the two shared more than a writing style and a publisher. Grabbing a quick coffee break, Mina runs into Sebastian, the maths PhD turned financier with whom she had a brief flirtation two years earlier before catching him exiting her roommate’s bedroom.
At that time, Sebastian was far more sexually adventurous than Mina, suggesting she join the two of them in a threesome. Mina refused, but that suggestion sent her into what she terms her ‘dark age’: a series of one-night stands ultimately jeopardising Mina’s academic career. So they have history, and Mina is about to go back to the US; what’s the harm in them going out for dinner and seeing where things lead this time?
Of course, dinner leads to more, and then Sebastian drops his proposition into Mina’s lap. He has inherited a large collection of journals written by his grandfather, Viscount Stanton, and is particularly intrigued by the references to a secretive club, Harridan House, which had existed for at least 150 years before being destroyed during the Blitz (a sort of cross between the Hellfire Club and the Café de Paris, in terms of its history at any rate). Sebastian’s grandfather inherited the title and then married during the war, at which point he gave up his former dissolute ways, but Sebastian wants to know whether the club continued into later decades at a new location.
Mina is the only person outside the family who Sebastian can trust with this secret, as well as the only person he knows who might be able to ferret out the truth for him. He sweetens the deal by offering to pay her a good hourly rate for her research skills and to put her up at his flat once her current lease in shared accommodation runs out. No other strings attached, of course. After some wavering, Mina takes Sebastian up on the offer and proceeds to split her time between the two research projects and lots of sex and dinners out with Sebastian (he’s supposed to be a quant, but comes home on time a remarkable proportion of the time compared to most London financial types I’ve met).
The pair encounter various members of Sebastian’s family in pursuit of his goal, along with more people connected with Mina’s PhD project, but just as she seems about to make a breakthrough on the latter, they are summoned to a clandestine meeting which proves that the club really does exist, although in a slightly different form and with an altered membership demographic from its pre-War days. The pair is offered membership, mainly as a way of ensuring their silence, and begin a series of voyages of self-discovery and ever-wilder sexual exploration (still described in tamer details than in some other books I’ve reviewed lately).
Of course, they eventually push each other that little too far and have to face up to whether what they have is just a fling or something that might turn into a lasting relationship. And are they both really as wild as they’re trying to be?
I enjoyed the research parts of this story more than I did the sex scenes and would have preferred a slightly longer story in which the two research sub-plots were tied up more neatly, and we see a little more of how the relationship between the two worked out rather than having an epilogue that still leaves some loose ends hanging. I’m not a total convert to the author’s contemporaries, but I’d definitely give another of them a try at some point.
Grade: C
Summary:
The last person PhD candidate Mina Cavallari expects to meet on her research trip to London is the sexy financier whose rejection devastated her. But Sebastian Graham is even more irresistible than he was two years ago, and she’s no longer the innocent girl shocked at his indulgent pursuit of physical pleasure. Now she’s ready to embark on a love affair on her terms—and is using every possible moment to live out her fantasies.
Sebastian is more than happy to help Mina make her passionate dreams a reality. But he wants more, luring her into a search for a mysterious, underworld club where they can explore all of their sexual desires. He needs Mina completely at his mercy, and, unlike two years ago, this time he may not let her go.
Read an excerpt.
