Sandy M’s review of Looking Inside by Beth Kery
Contemporary Erotic Romance published by Berkley 1 Nov 16
Silly me, it’s been a while since I’ve read Beth Kery. Not for lack of want, just life, timing, the huge stack of books across the room staring me in the face, among other things. But I’m very happy that my drought has been ended with Looking Inside, the idea of which really intrigued me when I read the blurb. Trey and Eleanor are both looking for something that’s missing in their lives, and when Eleanor boldly takes fate into her own hands, they have no idea they’re about to find exactly what they want and need.
Eleanor recently lost her sister, and she’s now ready to act on the last words her sibling said to her. Having always been less interesting than her sister, she’s still single with no prospects on the horizon. Eleanor’s been crushing on the man who lives across the long expanse to the next high-rise, ever since she spied him in several sexual situations a year ago when visiting Caddy. The guest room window looks directly into that sexy guy’s bedroom, and the shows Eleanor’s seen have left her wanting. Putting her plan in motion is the most adventurous, fearless, and courageous she’s ever been in her life.
Taking a break from women, dating, and, yes, sex, Trey is taking part in a self-improvement reading event at a local coffee shop, with the hopes he’ll come to understand women better to help him find that someone who will make life and all that goes with it better, to help fill in that something that seems to be off kilter lately. What he never expected is the sexy woman who takes a chair nearby and begins reading the current erotic romance everyone is getting worked up about. With his appetite whetted, despite telling himself to slow down, she surprises him even further when, upon leaving, hands him a note inviting him to look out his bedroom window at midnight. What the hell?
Trey is in for the show of his life when the time comes. Eleanor’s transformation as she dances for him is just the beginning of the emotional and sensual relationship between these two. Working in a museum’s storerooms to create historical events for patrons is Eleanor’s bailiwick, but once she’s got Trey in her life and her bed, it’s like she’s a different person. Most of the time. She still has doubts and vulnerabilities at times, but that’s what Trey and the reader love about her. As confident and successful as Trey is, I really enjoyed how Eleanor keeps him off balance at least 95% of the time. She says and does things that constantly surprise him.
Eleanor is up for anything Trey brings to bedroom, including those BDSM tidbits he engaged in as she watched him with those other women. Those scenes are vintage Beth Kery, but this time there’s a deeper emotional aspect in her writing in this book, something that totally overtook me as I read these characters’ sexual interactions – but that emotion also extends into Trey’s and Eleanor’s everyday lives as they navigate their new, confusing, and exciting relationship. This book, and these scenes, are very well written, constant and blossoming throughout the story.
What I also really like is the unexpected twist near the end. I was thrown for a loop, as both Trey and Eleanor are, when their unforeseen connection is revealed. Out of the blue, everything Eleanor has ever wanted is suddenly seemingly taboo. Though she runs as fast as possible back to her dusty and boring museum storerooms where life is safe, it’s Trey who never gives up on the love neither of them ever saw coming. I love Trey. He’s sexy, yes. But he’s a man who knows how to love, despite his reservations; he’s fair, adventurous, hard when necessary (no pun intended! Well, maybe.), and though Eleanor began with fantasies about him, he ends up being her dream of a lifetime.
If you’re looking for that next emotional, fun, and erotic read, pick up Looking Inside. The view is 360 degrees of wonderful.
Grade: A
Summary:
Are you going to just stand there and watch?
Eleanor Briggs just can’t help herself. The sight of the man in the high-rise across the street is driving her wild. She longs to feel his touch up close and personal. To win him over, she’ll need to shake off her wallflower sensibilities and become the seductress she never imagined she could be. The only trouble will be finding the perfect way to meet him…
Or are you going to join in?
Sex is easy for millionaire entrepreneur Trey Riordan. Finding something of substance, however, seems impossible. What begins as a simple night of reading for self-improvement at a local coffee shop takes a turn for something far steamier when a beautiful brunette comes by and leaves him a note to look out his bedroom window at midnight. But when the time comes, neither of them will be truly ready for what follows…
Read an excerpt.
