Rules of Desire [Desire, Oklahoma 4] (Siren Publishing Menage Amour) [Kindle Edition]

I really, liked this book. Leah Brooke, has a knack of writing believable and heartfelt stories. The main character Erin, really was a heroine in this book for me, she showed her weakness, and her faults that every modern day woman could relate to. I believed that the men in the story really cared for her, and wanted to be protective but keep her personality intact. What modern day woman wouldn't love that!? I felt the story was romantic and very sexy. Reader beware, there is lots' of anal play, and spanking that might be a turn off for some. I would have liked to have read about more individual interplay between each individual character. But, for a menage story this was fulfilling. I would recommend the reader begin at book one of this series.

It seemed I waited forever for this to come out in PB and then was really disappointed! After all Leah's other really terrific and HOT "Desire" books I was especially let down with this one. The plot had so much potential.

Erin, a very strong, independent, woman and ex-CEO's Assistant of a major company, moves to Desire, OK to be with her pregnant sister Rachel and tries to be understanding of her sisters', and the town's unusual menage and D/s practices. When in Rome... etc. But she has many doubts, insecurities, and defensive walls erected because of her past, and her doubts and questions about this strange place her sister has adopted. The three strapping Preston brothers- who build furniture in a workshop behind their house- decide they want Erin, and go after her despite her feelings of wanting to stay distant from the residents of Desire and their unusual ways. When someone drugs her at a party they take advantage of her vulnerability and whisk her off to their house to "protect" her. During this time they continually break down her walls- using sex, and making her submissive to them. This is kind of the point of Leah's books- teaching the women that they can love and trust in their men and and it's okay to let them take some of the burden the women are usually caring around, off their shoulders. It was a good suspense and really HOT up to this point.

Where I get upset is at the end when they've finally broken down all Erin's defenses, and she proves to everyone how strong she really is after engaging with the villain. Afterward, the brothers decide that she needs to verbally confess she was wrong to have put herself in a dangerous position, and that she will always obey them in the future! Normally, I would've been okay with this- the town was founded on the belief of 'any man of Desire being responsible in protecting his woman, and any unclaimed single woman of their town from danger, at all times'. Being the strong independent woman that Erin is and was, she is totally against either confession of having recklessly put herself in danger, or needing to obey anyone! She felt empowered by taking on the villain, she had been responsible for Rachel and herself for years, and no-way was she going to obey anyone, or need someone to take care of her! They use sex and their physical strength, to coerce her into saying things she didn't believe in. The men even admit later that they knew she wouldn't obey them, and was looking forward to the challenge of punishing her in the future. So what was the point? If they had asked it in a respectful and loving way I would've been okay, but in this case- I totally did not feel their love and respect. It felt more like three chauvinistic, Neanderthal men trying to break a beautiful, strong, intelligent, and independent women just to prove to the other men of the town that they were in charge of their "little woman". I was so hoping she'd threaten to move back out to show them she wasn't going to "obey" them without their equal love and respect but alas, it didn't happen. Definitely not one of Leah's better books.

I enjoy this series very much, but this won't isn't the best. It felt more formated than the first few of the series. It was fun to see the characters from the other books in the series.