Line:Taboo Series: None Book Length: Short Novel Book Type: eBook Publisher: Ellora's Cave Publishing ISBN: 9781419933851 MSRP/List Price: $6.50 Our Cover Price: $5.20 Available in Print: No

Phoenix and Dragon By: Suz deMello (Read Excerpt) E-mail this product to a friend Tough, clever and beautiful, biracial detective Liza Bowman struggles with a San Francisco kidnapping case until she finds the victim’s secret sex diary, which reveals that the young female vic went to a bar dressed in scanty red leather and read The Story of O. She hasn’t been seen since.   Liza recklessly imitates the vic’s last known activities and falls into the hands of James Li, the most notorious whoremaster in the city. Wealthy and handsome, James has already crossed paths with Liza—when she dared to arrest him.   In James’ view, reading a famous bondage novel in public is a blatant come-on, and he’s eager and ready to give his nemesis what she wants.   Publisher’s Note: This story was previously published elsewhere under the title A Walk on the Wild Side. Quantity:

Product Rating: (4.00)   # of Ratings: 1   (Only registered customers can rate) (Only registered customers can rate) 5 - Must Read! 4 - Recommended reading 3 - Enjoyable 2 - Could be better 1 - Not recommended 0% 50% 100% Sort: New to Old RE-SORT COMMENTS: Helpful to Less Helpful Less Helpful to Helpful New to Old Old to New High to Low Rating Low to High Rating Showing comments 1-1 of 1 1. Night Owl Erotica www.NightOwlErotica.com on 12/24/2011, said: A NIGHT OWL REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW 3.5 / 5 - Reviewed by: Aiobhan Belen I need to start this review by stating that this concept had me intrigued from the moment that I read the synopsis. A young tough female detective solving the case of a missing woman and falling in love in the process. Liza is by turns, soft and hard. She is a feminine woman who loves her job in the very male dominated police force. She needs to solve this case as soon as possible without ruffling too many feathers. But when she gets the chance to solve her case and take down her arch rival she will do anything to make that dream a reality- even if it means she will need to sleep with him to do it. Liza is an interesting character that I grew to like instantly: strong, brave and loves her job and not apologetic about it. The story started off just fine, but suddenly starts to lose steam; the characters motivation begins to peter out to non-existent proportions. Other than having sex and “trying” to solve her missing person case James is also playing the role of therapist to Liza. I found that scene to be a little over the top and condescending on James’ part. It may seem like I did not like this book¬ and part of me does not; but the other part really liked the story and characters. It is just I wished she had spent more time developing the story and fleshing out the characters more. It does get better towards the end of the book but the story gets back on track with the mystery and solves it just in time. As I stated before one of my main drawbacks with this story is its lack of development of the main characters- most especially James. I am all for sexy mysterious men but I felt that he came off a little too creepy for my taste. There were several instances throughout the story that made me a little unsettled. His going into her home without her permission is just one instance that was very irksome. The author’s need to make James’ profession as ambiguous as possible in order to make Liza and James’ relationship work is a little too much subterfuge- he is either a pimp or he isn’t. Not only is the character’s past written in a gray area but so is his whole characterization. He is the suave, arrogant business man and then the next he is talking about the awesomeness of Harry Potter. Any other time I would have loved this odd mix found in a character but something just rang false. (I just don’t know what one it is and why I do not like it.) Ms. deMello even mentioned that everything he was doing was an act just to get her to notice him; he was not really into bondage but did everything for Liza. What annoys me more than having that issue hang over their heads is the fact that the strong willed woman from the beginning would allow herself to be out into that situation. I don’t mean reading the Story of O and loving sex like a fat kid loves cake but more that it is the classic good girl saves supposed bad boy from himself. Through a clever twist of words and logic he goes from being sinner to saint and back to human again. There were certain things that were not fleshed out and the story sorely lacked that missing element. While saying all of that I still liked the story, but feel that it has the potential to be so much better. Was this comment helpful? yes no   (0 people found this comment helpful, 0 did not) Showing comments 1-1 of 1