Shannon C.’s review of Take a Stranger No More by Beth Kery
Historical erotic romance eBook published by Samhain 29 Apr 08

My fellow duckie, Sandy M., has raved about Beth Kery, so when her latest came up for review, I used my mad ninja powers of sneakiness to request it before she could. The premise looked interesting in a this-could-only-happen-in-erotic-romance kind of way, and even though it’s short, I figured it would be a nice change. Unfortunately, I can’t review this book without spoiling a couple of things, so if you really want to read this book and don’t want to be spoiled, go read something else.

The premise is that the St. Claire men, who are rich and powerful businessmen, have this long tradition where they are indentured to other, distant branches of the family and made to act as servants and fulfill the sexual needs of their masters. Kit Chevaliers has been in love with Max St. Claire since she was a child. He’s been her guardian for the past ten years after the tragic death of her parents, and now she’s grown into a beautiful, sensual woman. A Woman who will stop at nothing to get Max. But Max doesn’t think she’s ready for the lusty pleasures that come with being a St. Claire, nor does he have any idea what sort of a man would be appropriate for her… except himself. With the help of his St. Claire servant, Kit must try to convince Max she is the woman for him.

I still think that this premise is interesting, though it’s the sort of thing that would only occur in an erotic romance. But the execution didn’t entirely work for me. For one thing, the relationship between Max and his St. Clare servant, Audie, was hard to swallow. It felt a bit exploitive to me, and since it’s said that Max is fairly heterosexual I don’t know why he absolutely *had* to use Audie in that way. Max also refers to Audie several times as “the boy”, which made me think of stuff I’ve heard regarding NAMBLA. (And no, I am not saying Kery advocates underage sex, it’s just that I didn’t like the power dynamics at all in that case.) Also, at the end of the book, it’s clear that Audie isn’t going to be a part of the HEA for Max and Kit and I hate when authors do that. Why have the menage at all if you’re just going to have the real H/H turn to the other guy and figuratively go, “Hey, it’s been rockin’, but we have to go be together now.”

As for Max and Kit, they were OK. Kit’s a bit feisty, sexually curious and kind of a voyeur. Max is a brooding alpha male. I liked them well enough, even though I’ve read these character types before.

This book isn’t really as bad as I’m making it out to be. The writing is tight, and for once I didn’t feel like I needed more space and time to know the characters. I think that fans of the author, or of this particular type of story, might like it more than I did, but this is a series I won’t be continuing because the fantasies here weren’t any of mine, particularly.

Grade: C-

     Summary:

     Once a servant…now the master.

     The Adventures of the St. Claire Servants: Book 1

     Kit Chevalier has a serious problem. She’s loved Max St. Clair, her sinfully handsome guardian, since she was a child of six and he a young man of nineteen. But now he stubbornly refuses to notice that she’s grown into a woman. Armed with a few shocking secrets from Max’s servant, Kit sets out to persuade him she is no longer a child.

     Long ago, Max was a servant himself, indentured like all St. Clair princelings to a noble family in order to teach them humility…and how to best pleasure their masters in bed. Once indentured to Kit’s parents, he is now pledged to protect Kit-and her virtue-until he can honorably hand her off to a suitable husband.

     And hand her off he will. Quickly, before he loses his weakening resolve to keep his own hands off her. The last thing he wants to do is expose the fragile beauty to the carnal appetites of his ancient line.

     But Max underestimates Kit’s resolve-and the passionate fire that burns within her-which is every bit a match for his own.

     Warning, this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, ménage à trois, m/m sex scenes.

     You can read an excerpt here.