Something Naughty
Grade : D-

The back blurb of Something Naughty intrigued me. I expected a fun and erotic romp, but unfortunately, the author did not deliver what the back cover promised. Plus I am not sure I have ever encountered a heroine whom I disliked as much as I did Tanika Davis.

Damon Becker, whose grandmother is grooming him to take her place as CEO of Becker Fine Tailoring, is shocked to discover his grandmother has merged the family business with Naughty Devil. Since Becker makes fine tailored business suits and Naughty Devil makes sexy items like velvet handcuffs and sex toys, Damon is not thrilled with the merger.

Damon’s grandmother asks him to think outside the box and make the new products work with their existing line of clothing. Damon meets with Tanika Davis, Naughty Devil’s CEO. She embodies the Naughty Devil spirit of sexiness, which is at times subtle, and at others, not so subtle. Damon thinks she is gorgeous and finds himself with an immense hard on, and he remains in a state of seeming priapism throughout the remainder of the story. This immediate lack of control doesn’t gibe with the presentation of him as a studly but staid...a completely straight-laced guy.

Tanika is immediately attracted to Damon, who is a gorgeous hunk, albeit one with the "personality of a butler." Tanika finds Damon too stuffy for her - which amazed me because my impression of her was that she rarely met a man with whom she didn't want to get it on. Tanika sees sex as a sport, and that's basically as deep as her characterization went, which made it difficult to see her as a corporate officer. After all, she seems too busy with her sex life to devote much time to business..

Damon and Tanika immediately begin an all-out affair, which also struck me as unrealistic given that Damon's persona is as a stuffed-shirted guy with old-fashioned values. Once he's with Tanika, though - and literally - overnight, he's using sex toys and doing the deed constantly (guess he's gotta do something with that constant hard-on). The rest of the book consists of one sex romp after another with Damon falling in love while Tanika tells him it is a short term affair with no feelings involved. Well, that and a few plot points thrown in here and there.

But the biggest problem with the book was Tanika. To me she was the female equivalent of those alpha ass heroes by authors like Diana Palmer, where the guy, once burned by a woman he loved, would never love again. Tanika's internal monologues were exactly like those women-haters...but in reverse. What's worse is that while Palmer eventually has these guys grovel, Tanika is never redeemed similarly.

An associated issue relates to the sex: in this age of STD's it's hard to fathom a man with brains having unprotected sex with a woman whom he knows considers sex a sport. That he immediately fell in love with her seemed entirely lust-driven and nothing to do with the head up top, if you know what I mean.

The only thing that saved this book from being an F was the rather witty dialogue that I did find enjoyable, plus the sex scenes were imaginative and very hot. I just wish that I could have believed that love would actually bloom between Damon and Tanika.

Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Grade : D-
Book Type: Erotic Romance

Sensuality: Burning

Review Date : February 28, 2007

Publication Date: 2007

Review Tags: AoC PoC

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Linda Hurst

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