Book Review: Three Guilty Pleasures

Title: Three Guilty Pleasures
Author: Nikki Sloane
Genre: Romance, Fiction

What It’s About: Grant is surprised by the address of the blindfold club, as it looks like a warehouse in the middle of nowhere in Chicago, but he goes in anyway. He has made a cover for himself in order to learn more about this club for a story for his network. He meets Julius, who interviews him, and Grant tells him that he is interested in blondes, so Julius sends him to a particular room. There, he sees a blonde girl blindfolded and bound, with a red-haired assistant who haggles with him over the price. The girl on the table accepts it though it’s low and the red-head leaves them. He uses the ice cubes to play with the Blonde, and she comments that it has been a while since she’s had sensory play. Before it can get much further than that, Grant is pulled out of the room, and the door is shut behind him. Out in the hall, the red-head and Julius tell him that they’ve figured out who he is and to get the fuck out of this place, and never come back.

Tara sits in the room in silence wondering what had happened to her client and why he was pulled out of the room so abruptly. At some point, Reagan comes in and releases her, letting her go home, so Tara heads home and writes down in her notebook the Date, how much it would have been and what happened. In this notebook, she has kept notes of all of the men and women that she’s been with and who she thinks they are because everyone is given a nickname. She wants to audition for a dance reality TV show, so she decides to get to it. She works another night at the Blindfold club with Mr. Gold, who is one of her regulars and who is a bit vicious with her. She tells him that he needs to find himself someone else as she no longer is willing to do this with him. When she puts out a distress signal as Mr. Gold is not willing to leave, Julius comes in to save her, along with the bouncer, which results in her getting some time off from her job.

She is part of a show put on by her friend’s Dance studio for the Art event in Chicago, and they practice their routine one weekend. It goes awry when Tara goes flying out into the Orchestra only to be saved by a guy. Someone calls out to him, and Grant notices that his cello is broken. Tara offers to fix it after the show, and since she is so adamant about it, Grant takes her up on the offer even though he has insurance. Afterwards, they go to the Instrument shop, and he reveals that he does hav insurance. Since he is loaning a cello, he tries it out to ensure that it is what he wants and Tara sits transfixed listening to him play his music. Since he is playing the song that she wanted to use for her piece in the audition, she asks him to work with her. Grant tentatively agrees.

Over time–the next several weeks–Tara reveals to him that she is in a “relationship,” an open one with a couple, and only after confirming with Reagan and Silas, who set rules up for Tara and Grant’s relationship. She is about to tell Grant about the blindfold club, when he cuts her off and changes topics, because he does not want her to tell him about it as he recognized her from her tattoo.

Even though they cannot have sex, they find creative ways to make each other come and have orgasms. They both realize that they like this relationship. At one point, while at her apartment, Grant finds her notebook though he does not read through it because it would be a breach of trust. Tara goes to his rugby match and meets Ruby, who has brought Macaroons.

Grant leans a new song on the cell for Tara’s audition, and they practice together. Then, the day of the audition happens–Grant had stayed over Tara’s apartment, and while she is in the shower, he picks up her notebook and reads about her perspective of their night at the blindfold club. He drops the notebook in his bag in order to not get caught with it when Tara comes out of the shower, and realizes that he will have to find an opportunity to return it when she’s not paying attention. They go to the audition and wait in line. Tara goes through the process and keeps going until she gets to her own audition. While she is in the interview portion, he tells his rugby coach that he won’t be coming to the game. Tara is so nervous that she has a panic attack, but he gets her to relax by making her come during their break. At first, they are denied entry with him playing the cello, but ultimately they get the approval to go through with their performance. Tara ends up getting high marks from the judges–she is going to NYC.

They nap and then they go to meet Tara’s couple. At first, only Silas is there, and Grant takes note of a picture a little too late, seeing the red-headed lady from the club. He tries to get out of it, but Reagan arrives before they leave. Between Reagan, Silas, and Grant, it comes out that Grant is a reporter who has known about Tara’s connection to the club because he has seen her tattoo, but only got to know her after the club incident when they met. Silas slips up and reveals that Reagan has more than one boos, because they would bury the story anyway, even if Grant were to make it–which is when Grant realizes that Reagan is an agent and she is forced to come clean. Tara is so betrayed by everyone that she walks out on all of them, and tells Grant to leave her alone. He goes home, reads her journal completely and then admits to having it when Tara messages him about it. He agrees to return it and Tara goes up to the gay couple upstairs, asking them if they could be with her when her ex returns something of hers. The three of them become fast friends and the men don’t even let Grant in to talk to her, but ask him to give them the item and leave. Grant talks to Kyle, who puts him in touch with Joseph, who in turn gets an idea on how to fix it, but Grant will have to trust him.

Tara returns to the club and has Nina as her sales assistant, who tells her that she has a special client. Turns out that it is Joseph, and he talks to Tara, asking her if she would trust him enough to put on a collar. He gives her time to reconsider and when she has the collar on, meant to remind her who is in charge, he has everyone else file in–Reagan, Silas, and Grant. Because Grant cannot help himself, Joseph has him tied up, and one by one, he has them apologize to Tara for breaking her trust, starting with Reagan. They also engage in sex throughout this. Silas also has to apologize to Tara, but while he is inside her, Grant is told to come to her and he also gets inside her, with both men causing her to feel pretty full. Tara forgives them all in the end. Having resolved the issues, Joseph gives Grant the permission to take off Tara’s collar, and everyone but the couple leave the room.

Tara goes off to New York to dance for the show, while Grant quits his job and works on a book about the Blindfold club–something he started for Tara after reading her journal, but before they fixed things, and had sent it to her. They also gave Jospeh and Julius an opportunity to hide identities and read it, but Tara asks Julius to tell the truth to the others about how it’s being run, and give them a choice on whether or not they want to stay.

My Thoughts: I did enjoy Tara and Grant’s relationship, though it only started out briefly inside the blindfold club. But still it was pretty steamy, and I’m glad that the author made them wait to meet with Reagan, and then reveal who they all are to Tara. This gave them a chance to clean the slate–though it’s a bit annoying that Joseph keeps coming to all of these stories as the problem solver who uses the Dominant/submissive relationship power play to resolve these things. I wish that he would kind of fade away instead of appearing in every book in the series–though he is the founder of the original blindfold club before he sold it to Julius.