I was very wary of this book coming into it. Kinda dragged my feet a little before starting it, but I ended up really enjoying it. I think Pearce did a good job making a tough story very readable.

Series Note:
Fifth book in the "House of Pleasure" series. You should at least read the previous book before this one (since it sets up the hero of this one), but then if you do that I think there are others you should read before that one. So might want to read this series in order.

Summary:
Blaize Minshom has turned into a pariah in London...a laughingstock after his association with Anthony Sokorvsky ended. Every knew that his sexual sub and whipping boy had left him for a woman. Even Blaize's wife. Who decides to return to London to win back her husband and get their life back to where it was seven years ago when tragedy chased him away.

In those seven years, though, Blaize has hardened, locked himself in a shell of sexual domination over males who crave pain and punishment. But with Jane back in the picture, challenging him at every turn, Blaize will be forced to confront all the things that made him who he is today.

note: the back cover summary (which is here on GR) is a bit misleading about how the story actually goes

Review:
What an anomaly this book is. I was so wary of this book. I was not sure the story the author had planned would work at all. I've loved this series up to this point, but I wondered if maybe Pearce would lose me on this story.

Why? Simple: the hero. Or rather, he really should be called an anti-hero because that's exactly what he is. Blaize Minshom is definitely not your traditional romance hero. He really, truly is an anti-hero.

For anyone who read the previous book, Simply Wicked, you'll remember Blaize as the Dom who had Anthony Sokorvsky under his thumb and who refused to let him go when Anthony decided to make some changes in his life. Blaize is essentially a villain in that story. I personally didn't like him. So when I read the excerpt for "Simply Insatiable" at the end of "Simply Wicked" I couldn't believe that Blaize was going to be the hero. I wondered how in the world author Kate Pearce was going to pull that one off.

But somehow, she manages to make it work. I was fascinated by Blaize as I read this book. As you read the story, you come to see that he's an extremely vulnerable, mentally scarred man who covers it all up by being an unemotional sexual dominant. Did I like Blaize by the time I finished the book? I'm not sure. He does a lot of things that makes it hard to truly like him, but there was something just really fascinating by him. I just wanted to keep reading to see what would happen next.

Then there's Jane. What an odd duck she was to have put up with everything Blaize did. But they have a great battle of wits in this book. I really did enjoy reading about them and every chess move in their relationship. Jane seemed to be the perfect match for Blaize. And yeah, there's some scorching sex thrown in to ;)

Is the story perfect? No. The historical accuracy is a bit off language wise, and I suspect the ton would have never been so casual about Blaize's antics. But did a mind that? No. It works for this kind of story.

Will this book work for everyone? Big NO to that. This book, and series, is for those with open minds about alternative relationships and for those who like more than a little kink in their sex. It's also for those who don't mind reading about an anti-hero because that's exactly what Blaize is.

I wasn't sure the story would work for me on that last one, but it did. I just really enjoyed this book and am glad I gave it a chance. This is a great series overall though and I look forward to the next book!

WARNING, this book contains: okay, let's see there's: very explicit sex and language (of course) and...oy, this is where things get messy...m/f sex, m/f oral and anal sex, m/m oral and anal sex, m/m/f oral and anal sex, BDSM (whipping, restraints, dominance, submission, etc), exhibitionism, voyeurism, body piercings, clamps, coercion, rough sex...I think that's about it, but I could be wrong.