Sunday, August 26, 2012

Book Review: The Principal’s Office by Jasmine Haynes

Book Description:

Rachel Delaney, divorced mother with two boys, isn't complaining. Her life is fine. Really. There is one thing that could make it better, though: a strong, warm, male body to help her make it through the occasional lonely night. No strings, and no relationship, thanks. Just a little fun with a perfect stranger. And there's no more perfect a stranger than Rand.

He's tall, blond, unattached, smokin' hot, and looking for the same thing Rachel is: wild, abandoned sex with no limits, no last names, and no complications-until Rachel's eldest son gets in trouble in class.

Only then does Rachel discover that her down-and-dirty, dangerously sexy mystery lover is also the new school principal. They're not exactly the ideal role models for a troubled student acting out his own frustrations. With Rachel's life turned upside down, Rand's the only one who can make it right-by maybe taking their hot-bodied hook-ups into a warm-hearted new direction... (from amazon.com)


Book Review:

This was a delightful surprise! I found this gem listed as a suggestion when I bought another book and decided to try it. I expected it to have a decent amount of sex, and it did, but was completely floored by the amount of character building included. The book described a wide variety of sexual experiences ranging from flirting to fantasies, role-playing to voyeurism.

I loved watching Rachel grow from a tired, beaten-down divorcee (though not a mouse) to a woman confident in her sexuality. I found it very easy to relate to the characters. The author did a great job with the characterizations of Rachel and Rand as well as the ex, the kids and Rachel’s co-workers. I’ll be re-reading this one and also reading the other 2 books in the series that deal with Bree and her guy and Erin and Dominic.

The hero and heroine are a little bit older than many written about today. At 39 and 40, they each have some life experience yet quite a lot of life left in them, no inexperienced miss fresh from the schoolroom making her first appearance to the ton here. It was quite refreshing to read about characters my own age with a similar past. I loved reading the role-playing scenes Rand and Rachel acted out. “Playful” doesn’t even begin to describe them. This is a grown-up erotic romance, steamy and real. If you are looking for something with extremely simple sentences that reads like Penthouse or Playboy letters, you’ll need to look elsewhere because this is excellently written, classy and has real depth to it. There’s joy, laughter, tension, anger, frustration and much satisfaction.

My only complaint about the book is Rachel was a little wishy-washy while she grows as a character as a result of facing some really tough decisions. That said, she reacts believably and in-character, it was just a little  bit frustrating to read it. The author did a great job alternating between Rand’s and Rachel’s PoV, but I would have liked to read just a bit more from Rand’s viewpoint.  Rachel’s discovery of Rand’s school position occurs a little later in the book than I really expected. That’s not a bad thing, just another example of how surprising this book was.

If you are looking for an erotic romance with real characters, that is fresh and playful, this is a great place to start. I highly recommend it.

Sensuality: many descriptive sex scenes

Rating: 5 stars

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