Sweet Seduction [Paperback]

Salon owner Julie Stanford is tired of waiting for Nathan Tucker to finally realize that she is interested in him. So when after months Nathan still hasn't asked her out on a date or shown his interest she decides that it's time to move on. After one hot massage that leaves Nathan lusting for more she tells him that he had his chance and that now she is not longer interested in him. And what could be better to forget him than a anonymous threesome in Damons (from "Sweet Persuasion) club. But when Nathan finds out about her fantasy he knows that he has to be one of the men pleasuring Julie. He wants her for himself but now has to play after Julies rules. To win her back he has to get over being flustered around Julie and show her that he is just the perfect man for her.

Maya Banks is one of my favourite authors when it comes to erotic romances and "Sweet Seduction" is another great book by her. The book is funny, sexy as hell (if you don't get hot during some scenes something has to be wrong with you) and very entertaining.
I really enjoy heroines like Julie. She is a bit loud and very outspoken but also a great, loyal friend. Like Faith and Serena before she is a bit afraid of her relationship with Nathan because she fears to loose his love some day.
Nathan is all man but around Julie he couldn't be sweeter and more caring. I love the contrasts in him and even if he was a bit slow about going after Julie when he finally does it's so sexy and good.
What I also love about "Sweet Seduction" is that not only are Nathan and Julie a great and very sexy pair but that the reader learns more about the relationships of Gray and Faith (from "Sweet Surrender") and Damon and Serena (from "Sweet Persuasion"). It's wonderful to see how the two pairs are getting even closer and move on to the next step of their relationships. I also enjoyed all the new info about Micah and Connor. Both guys are very interesting and I can't wait to read their stories (Micahs story is next, "Sweet Temptation" is coming April 2010).

Read the whole of this series didn't want it to end and couldn't put it down! Brilliant totally recommend it, if you read fifty shades triology you will enjoy this!

I know just what I'm letting myself in for when I read a Maya Banks tale, and I've read the others in this particular series, so I know in advance that there are going to be menage scenes that don't end in a permanent menage relationship and that the female leads are feisty. I'm fine with all of that - if it fits into the context of the tale OR if, like Lora Leigh's books, the tale needs it. This series seems to have fleeting menages that are not truly integral to the tale.

Yes, the sex is very very hot and very descriptive, but what gets me is that all of the characters are friends and it seems to almost be a game of 'share-and-share-alike' as at some point, most of the guys in the group have shared the girls (with permission from their permanent guys) and it does kind of seem a touch like a meat market rather than something erotic and arousing. In this one, Julie, the female lead comments that the guys she is having a menage with made her feel cared for, not like a piece of meat, but reading the book, this is just what she was to the guy that she did not end up with permanently. I know already from reviews of the next book (out this month, Sweet Temptation) that their relationship has moved on, but having gone back and read some of the other tales, it is too much a case of the female leads having to prove to their guys that they love them by being willing to submit to their desires for them to have sex with others.

Me, I like a HEA for all involved and menage is great as long as it's permanent, but when fleeting and without any real need or explanation for it other than A) to fulfil the male lead's desire for his female to 'submit and be controlled to prove her love and trust for him' or B) to fulfil the female lead's fantasy a couple of times, then it's a touch boring and emotionless. Yes, Lora Leigh has many such scenes, but she sets the tales so well, with angsty, tortured Alpha males and females who want to help their lovers, females who want to explore their sexuality, that those tales work. This for me, didn't. It reminded me a touch of Opal Carew's SIX, which IMO was utterly loveless and degrading, but extremely erotic - if you can take unemotional, detached sex.

I think that in future I will pick more carefully with MB books - at least with this one, I only had to pay to reserve it at my library; had I bought it, I'd have been pretty unhappy.

Maya Banks used to be SO good with the emotional side of things, but now she's churning books out purely out of money-making greed IMO, not out of love of writing - which shows in her books.