In the previous books of this series, we saw Tessa Donovan and Jamie Donovan both struggling with their family image: Tessa trapped as the good girl, Jamie as the bad boy. As it turns out, their older brother Eric is also struggling with how he thinks his siblings see him: despite having been their mainstay since the death of their parents, he doesn’t feel like a real member of the family, and the recent changes in both Tessa and Jamie have left him feeling far less needed or useful.

Meanwhile Beth, the adult toy store manager Eric had a one-night stand with in the novella “Just One Taste,” continues to be uncomfortable with her image as an uninhibited sex expert. And she can’t forget Eric, the only man who's ever gotten her out of her own head during sex.

When events bring them back together, they find it impossible to stick to the one night they’d originally agreed upon. But can they get past the false ideas they have about themselves and each other, and find the real people underneath?

It took me a little while to get into this; the narrative voice seemed surprisingly rushed and unsubtle in places, and I hadn’t liked the short story much. What first won me over was Eric -- not only is it really interesting to find out what was behind his harshness in the previous books, but buttoned-down Eric is unexpectedly smokin’ hot. In fact, I’d say this is the hottest book of the series, mainly because there’s something very slow, serious and deliberate about Eric that’s really enticing:

"He still didn't kiss her. She felt his whole hand curve around her waist, the edge of his hand restng on the curve of her hip, his thumb fanning slowly across her ribs. She opened her eyes to see him still watching his hand.

'You left too quickly last time.'

'I know,' she whispered.

'I wanted more.'"

Damn, so do I!

With additional background into her life, Beth also became much more understandable than she had been, and most of the elements that bugged me in the novella began to work. (The one thing that still nagged: the secondary characters with alternative lifestyles. They’re portrayed positively, but the way Eric and Beth think about them makes me think they see them as a circus act.)

The intricacy of the themes in this series is notable, and this was no exception. Eric’s issues interweave with Beth’s in a compelling way, particularly the fact that neither feels “real”:

“He though she was nothing more than a walking, talking sexual adventure. The irony of it was like a dull knife in her heart. She’d been real with him. For once, she’d been a real person in bed.”

I also love that the titles in this series are all actually meaningful, and that all three books meld into one ongoing story about a family. Definitely read the whole series, in order, to get the full effect.

(reviewed from e-arc provided by netGalley)