Blackwood by Celia Aaron
This was an interesting and different read for me. I went in blind into this book before reading any reviews. The blurb caught my interest since it had something to do with archaeology and mystery and that's always something I love read to read about. After finishing this book, the first thought that came to my mind was that it's a PERFECT example of a erotic thriller. The premise, the storyline and descriptions are very engrossing and it's a hard book to put down given its pacing. Though a relatively short read, it's more like a motion picture which makes us to flip pages faster. The characters are also very interesting and the sort we don't come across often in a romantic novel. Though there are explicit sex scenes in this book, more emphasis is given on the mystery part rather than on the bidding romance between Elise and Garrett. and that's ok considering its an erotic thriller. Loved the kind of fetish that Garrett has. It's quite unique and intriguing nevertheless. I think it's something like pretend non-consenual sex and I definitely want to try that out. It's very primal, raw, dirty and SUPER HOT. Loved the sex scenes that are so nicely balanced out throughout the book. Though the characters are good, their is no growth as such to them since again it's more of a story driven and not a character driven book. I liked Elise too. She was stubborn, determined and smart. For this story she acted as a perfect protagonist. But what this a four story book for me is that the mystery wasn't too hard to figure out and given the limited characters, it was pretty easy and climax too wasn't much shocking. Though the mystery element and been stressed on since the beginning, somehow it didn't make chill run along my spines and it wasn't scary the way it was supposed to be and it all unraveled pretty easily. I also felt some characters like Garrett's brother were wasted and were added just to add more scenes in the book That being said, I did enjoy reading it and it was beautifully written in a very picturesque way where in I was able to actually envision the surroundings the author wanted to create.
4 Stars for this sexy-hot read