Eve Berlin, the pseudonym of author Eden Bradley, writes incendiary, dark, tormented BDSM erotic romance. What is so terrific about her books is that no matter how far she may take her characters, she creates such wonderful psychological underpinning that you never doubt their motivations, their emotional reasons, for seeking out what and who they do. I'm one of those readers who loves tortured characters - it makes the happy endings that much more pleasurable to have witnessed charactes coming so far. I do hate to find I'm reading a book in a series without having read the others because I love getting to "know" the characters, but this book, with the wonderfully artistic (and unusually very tattooed) heroine whose childhood and formative years were filled with men who left, and an equally dark childhood for the hero, stands alone beautifully. (I will, of course, read the other "Edge" titles because I can't get enough Eve Berlin. Mischa fights her desires for (hunky, Irish) Connor, just as he fights his for her. Because he knows how dnagerous his anger can be. It may be a tried and true trope - bad childhood leads to inability to commit - but Berlin pulls it off with finesse, and heart-wrenching humanity. Along with incrediby sexy love scenes and power dynamic. I know it's being said all over the place, BUT if you loved 50 Shades, please do yourself the great favor and seek out Eve Berlin (and Eden Bradley). You will definitely not regret it. Satisfaction guaranteed (Oh, and by the way, yep, this earns my "One Day Read" gold star.) With Dylan and Alec’s wedding fast approaching, Mischa knows she has plenty to do to fulfil her Maid of Honour duties. In fact, she has so much to do she has to relocate to Dylan’s old apartment to be closer to the action. It is whilst doing one of these duties that she comes across the green eyed, Irish charmer Connor Galloway. A Dom at the club where Dante frequents, Connor offers Mischa a chance to dabble in some of her more kinky desires whilst she is organising the wedding. With both of them single and definitely interested in each other, the chance at a quick fling seems like a no-brainer.Both of them think they go into this encounter with their eyes open, but neither predict which way it goes. Connor is a fairly sadistic Dom and he relishes the challenge of making such a feisty woman submit to him. Her complete willingness to try anything, along with her acceptance of her kinks, make her unlike anyone he has ever dominated before. He is enthralled by her attitude and it isn’t long before she’s under his skin. Mischa is both thrilled and terrified at the way Connor can control her and get her off. He certainly leaves her previous Dom’s in the dust, but she realizes that the intense feelings he illicits from her are dangerous to her heart.With both of these two suffering from some severe emotional baggage courtesy of their parents, neither of them are willing to put themselves in a situation where they could be hurt. But pushing each other away hurts and they need to ask themselves whether it will hurt even more not to give what they have a chanceThis isn’t the first book in the series, but I do think it could be read a stand-alone. I don’t recommend that you do it that way because I think this series deserves to be read in its entirety. I particularly enjoyed this edition, although there were aspects that I found difficult to relate to.On the surface, Connor is a bit of dream boat. He’s hot, Irish, solvent and a top-drawer Dom. He allows her to tattoo him, works through her business problems with her and seem to adore her in all her bossy ways. Dig a little deeper and you’ll realise Connor is a bit of dumbass. I have no problem with this, the majority of hero’s we read about in Romance land are dumbasses, but he does some really shitty things in a misguided attempt to protect his heart. Connor’s father was a man who talked with his fists. Because of this Connor thinks he is irreparably damaged. He married a woman who he didn’t love inorder to try to have a sense of “normal”. Shockingly, it fell apart because he seemed to have missed the point of marriage. Because of these events, he has decided to let no woman near his heart for fear of hurting her because he can’t possibly love her back properly. He’s fine with his sense of reality. Well, that is until Mischa comes along.So what are these shitty things I hear you ask? Well, I’m not telling you but they do border on irresponsible Dom territory. It almost made me lose a little respect for him (OK, I did for a while) but I do love to see a dumbass of a man fall. I forgave him by the end because his positives far out-weighed the negative; his attitude towards her personality won me over.Mischa is what made this story different. I have seen feisty subs before but none quite like Mischa. She is a bit of a pain slut, which fits well with Connor, and she is literally willing to try anything. There is a safe word, it is all consensual but she doesn’t really put down any hard limits at first. She actively badgers Connor to take her to the BDSM club because she wants to play in public, freely admitting to a man she recently met what her kinks are. It’s refreshing because I would expect to see these types of conversation happen in club play scenes, but I was astounded to see it just in everyday conversation. She was an easy heroine to like for me, but I have always liked brashy heroines. She doesn’t even try to deny her feelings for Connor; yes they scare her and she tries to run from them, but they are still there! I admired her ability to accept everything about herself, no matter how controversial. The sex scenes in this book were indescribable. Sex scenes with sadists and masochists have to be written really well to make me hot because I’m at the other end of the spectrum. These scenes were written very very well and had me fanning myself at regular intervals; Connor CERTAINLY knows how to give a girl what she needs. Another thing I loved about this book was Eve’s exploration into “Bottoming out”. I hadn’t ever read much about it before, but it was very intriguing to read about. Mischa hit subspace really quickly with Connor every time and, because of this, she bottomed out. This mean’t that she became incredibly emotional and pretty much inconsolable every time they had sex. I’ve never read any book with these themes before... It certainly brought a new angle to the aftercare side.Overall, this is an excellent addition to the series. If you love hard-playing Dom’s falling hard, read this book. If you love feisty heroines with the balls to ask for what they need, read this book. If you love your BDSM hard, gritty and emotional then read this book. If you like all of the above, there is a high probability you will love this book. I know I did.
What do You think about Temptation's Edge (2012)?
3.5 StarsLook for review on Night Owl Reviews
—traybent
I thought it was very good for this genre.
—melisha
