5 Star, 4.5 Star and 4 Star Reviews for A Touch of Temptation by Julie Blair #FF #Erotica

Title: A Touch of Temptation
Author Name & Publisher: Julie Blair (Bold Strokes Books)
Publication Date & Length: May 17, 2016 – 240 pgs

Stanford law graduate Kate Dawson is focused on the future laid out for her—partnership in her family’s law firm and marriage. When she moves to a cabin in the Santa Cruz Mountains to study for the bar exam, crossing paths with her intriguing neighbor leads to a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery that wasn’t part of the plan.

Landscaper and handsome butch top Chris Brent has a well-deserved reputation as a considerate lover. Avoiding relationships with all their emotional messiness, she indulges in her favorite pastime at sex parties and with casual lovers. She enthusiastically agrees to initiate her cute neighbor to ways of sexual pleasure.

Sex was the deal. Falling in love ruins everything. Or does it?

Kate misses her bar exams after becoming ill and her gran suggests she go away to her cabin for a couple of months to recuperate and study for the next round of exams.  Her mother expects her to become a hot-shot lawyer, marry a suitable man and take her place in society.  Kate begins to question these expectations, especially when she meets Chris, her lesbian next door neighbour who wakens in her a craving she never knew she had.

This was an amazing story with two very likeable main characters, who were both fighting against strict rules they had set up for themselves.  Kate was going to go along with her mother’s wishes and end up miserable for the rest of her life and Chris had vowed never to fall in love.  When Chris initiates Kate in the ways of lesbian love in the sexiest of ways she sees that there is no turning back.  The problem is she wants a relationship and not just sex, whereas Chris has spent her whole adult life avoiding love and enjoying a very varied sex life, with parties, many partners and a bit of risk.  Would either of them be able to change enough to be happy together?  Finding out the answer was very hot, delicious and truly fascinating.  Julie Blair has a wonderful imagination and put it to good use in the steamy scenes between Kate and Chris.  I was constantly surprised.

The other characters in the story were well written too.  Kate’s Gran, Katherine,  was a gem and without her things could have been very different.  She was the catalyst in the tale and I loved her.  Kate’s mother was an awful woman – manipulative, single-minded and immensely annoying.  But we always need a baddie! In this book we had two as Nicole, Kate’s college friend was an evil, calculating bitch and a thorn in Chris’s side.  The lovers had to fight against their own expectations of themselves as well as that of other people in their circles.  Homophobia just under the surface was bad enough, but they were also fighting the bi-phobia of some friends.

This was a beautiful love story between two people that just had to be together.  Their journey together was full of tension and worry as well as some very sexy moments.  A well deserved 5 Stars.

Kitty Kat

I must admit I found this novel to be a bit of a dichotomy,  I couldn’t decide if it was a passionate romance or an erotic affair.

In the end, for me, the loving relationship between the two women won through. Ms Blair’s clever interpretation and articulate writing of the growing relationship between two very different women was a pleasure to read.

The ending finally tipped the scales on the romantic front. An emotional and at times steamy novel well worth reading.

Chris

This was a really nice story. Kate has her life planned out, not ever really realizing that the plans aren’t actually her own. Everything is going according to her mother’s plans, and she goes along with things because that’s how she’s been trained to think. Until a life-threatening illness forces her out of her planned life. To get herself back on track, she takes her grandmother’s advice to recuperate and study at her Gran’s cabin outside the city. While there, she meets Chris, a butch landscaper who knows who she is and what she wants. She doesn’t want a messy relationship, so she focuses on casual sex with many different partners. This way feelings aren’t involved. The two strike up an unexpected friendship based on small home improvement projects and a love of old movies. Kate decides to enlist this Lesbian Casanova to help her explore and learn about her own sexuality. In the ensuing ‘lessons’, both women find that emotions aren’t easy to keep from having. Now they have to fight for their relationship because Kate comes from money, and affluence, and this is not acceptable in her social circles. When Kate’s mother learns of their relationship, things come to a screeching halt, and it looks like it might be over. Kate has to find the courage to stand against the pressure of the ‘perfect’ life, and Chris has to accept that she’s worthy of someone she thinks is out of her league. I love the story line, and like that Blair has included some exploration of BDSM and power dynamics, but accurately explaining how it works and how to make it safe without too much fuss. I really enjoyed the book.

AmyP

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Julie Blair has always believed that reading fiction is one of life’s great pleasures. From the time she was old enough to hold a book, escaping into worlds where anything is possible and endings are usually happy has been a favorite pastime. Growing up a tomboy before it was fashionable, Julie attached herself to sports, especially softball, which culminated in her pitching in the Women’s College World Series. Finally forced to grow up and get a job, she landed in restaurant management for a decade before entering chiropractic school. She has been a chiropractor for over twenty-five years.
Julie has travelled to Peru to see Machu Picchu and Uganda to see mountain gorillas, but her favorite place is curled up on her couch, reading or writing. A California native, she lives in the quiet of the redwoods in Boulder Creek with her partner, Pamela, and their two Labradors. She enjoys gardening, hiking, red wine, strong coffee, smooth jazz, and warm fall afternoons.
Never Too Late, Julie’s debut romance, won a Golden Crown Literary Society Award for Best Debut Author and Rainbow Award Runner-up in two categories. Her second romance, Making a Comeback, won a Rainbow Award for Best Lesbian Romance, was a Rainbow Award Runner-up for Best Lesbian Book of 2015, and a Lambda Literary Award finalist. She’s hard at work trying to give voices to other characters with stories to tell—their struggles, their triumphs, their love affairs—mostly in self defense, hoping they’ll stop waking her up in the middle of the night with snippets of dialogue or ideas for scenes and settings.

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