The Affair: Week 4 - Forbidden Fruit

The Affair #4

by Beth Kery

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF WHEN I'M WITH YOU AND BECAUSE YOU ARE MINE

New York Times bestselling author Beth Kery's The Affair continues as Emma and Montand experiment with an intimacy that is as irresistible as it is frightening...

The Affair Week Four

Five weeks total. That was the limit Emma placed on the affair. No more, no less. And right now it was opening her up to decadent pleasures she never imagined possible. The effect on Montand was equally liberating. Emma was bringing him back into the world of the living, and her buoyant spirit, freshness and lust for life made him ravenously hungry for more.

His darkness was being drawn to her light, and for both of them, the experience was electrifying. But for Emma it was something even more. Lost in the world of Montand's exquisitely sensual challenges Emma's beginning to feel something dangerously close to love. And now she fears that five weeks with Montand could leave her deliriously vulnerable, and in far too deep to ever survive.

Includes a bonus excerpt of Beth Kery's Because We Belong

More to come. Don't miss The Affair: Week 5 

Praise for Beth Kery, Recipient of the All About Romance Reader Poll for Best Erotica

"Wicked good storytelling."--Jaci Burton

"Addictive and delicious."--USA Today 

Beth Kery is the New York Times bestselling author of Because You Are Mine, When I'm with You and Exposed to You. 

Genres: Romance, Erotic Romance, Contemporary Romance, Erotica, Short Stories, Contemporary, BDSM

77 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Beth Kery is the New York Times and USA Today best selling author of over thirty novels, novellas and serials. She writes contemporary romances as well as erotic contemporary romances, her hallmarks being emotional intensity, leap-off-the-page realistic characters and steamy sexual tension.

Reviews

[Jacqueline's Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Fierce Passion Stars

The relationship between Vanni and Emma continues. I kind of like the five week time limit because it adds a little something to the story. I also like that Emma guards her heart, but something tells me she will crumble into a million pieces later on (again just a hunch).

The best way to describe this one is that everything is heightened. I feel like my senses are on overdrive. This week focuses more on the chemistry between the two and how Vanni pushes Emma’s boundaries in the bedroom and Emma tries to open up in all things sexual.

Amanda, Emma’s sister continues to make appearances and I feel like even though Emma wants to work it out with her, the relationship is still strained. I am not sure how I feel about Amanda. I will have to continue reading to find out.

An ARC was provided

Week 1 REVIEW | AMAZON $1.99
Week 2 REVIEW | AMAZON
Week 3 REVIEW | AMAZON
Week 4 AMAZON

[Aly is so frigging bored · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a mostly ok read, the sex scenes had some BDSM lite aspects, the characters were good. It was all going well and then bam! poor word choices run us over again:
*who says "he sawed his finger in her" is he fucking cutting a tree?
*outside a sex scene "he palmed her jaw", it sounds so bad, how about a better synonym, please?
*"frothing boiling of lust" OMG kill me now!
*"Her flesh turned to warm, sweet syrup" what the hell?

If that shit didn't happen so often I would have given it a 3.5 even a 4* rating. But I repeat: what the hell?! I'll continue it since I'm curious and I'm also a glutton for punishment, I'm really hating those parts of me though. I need another break till I read part 5.

In conclusion:

[Monique Pearson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this part in a story.

When the bad boy shows his heart and the innocent girl embraces her inner temptress; it's like watching the face of someone who's just found the puzzle piece they'd been searching for.

[Lucinda Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Affair is the latest serial e-book by author Beth Kery. Beth is hands down one of my absolute favorite e-rom authors. She was one of the first authors I read after FSOG, and I have been a loyal follower of all of her serials – not to mention her full length novels – ever since. I was so excited to hear she had written another serial e-rom, and I was absolutely ecstatic when I was offered an ARC of the novel in advance.

So, let me just say, I finished reading The Affair last night, and I have been on a serious book hangover all day. So much so, that I haven’t been able to bring myself to start a new book – I’m going in for a re-read immediately.

Vanni and Emma are two of the most original and refreshing characters I’ve read in this genre in a very long time. The story line is creative and compelling. Not cliché or overly predictable. Even when I thought I knew where the story was headed, the author surprised me, not once, but many times over.

Ladies, we have a new book boyfriend to add to the list. Meet Vanni Montand, the brilliant and uber sexy CEO of Montand Motorworks. Vanni’s good looks aren’t the only thing sexy about him, either. His confidence, sexual prowess, self-awareness, and dedication to his family make him completely irresistible. He’s also one of the saddest heroes I’ve read recently. Oh, there were times when his arrogance frustrated me, but just about the time I was ready to shake my head, the author would cleverly weave in some more of Vanni’s back story, and my heart would squeeze for him right along with Emma’s.

Emma is an utterly refreshing heroine. She is the perfect submissive sexual partner, and exactly what Vanni needs. Her sexy innocence is unlike anything Vanni has ever experienced, but her eagerness to learn and to please, coupled with a bit of a bold streak, leaves Vanni fixated to the point of distraction. Outside the bedroom, Emma is anything but submissive. She’s intelligent, strong willed, knows her own mind, and possesses a deep existential understanding of life and death that is exactly what Vanni needs. Vanni and Emma are indisputably one of my favorite couples of 2014.

In addition to creating extraordinary characters, Beth Kery tells an extraordinary story as well. Her voice is fresh and intelligent, her challenging (at times) vocabulary, and her ability to paint a scene are brilliant. She has an incredible gift for putting the reader right in the scene along with the characters – color, texture, taste, smell and sound – she hits all the senses remarkably.

Week 4 just released today (October 7). If you haven’t been following this extraordinary love story, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!

Five (I need to read this again) stars!

[AH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, my. *fans self* Fruit will never be the same...

Part 4 of The Affair includes Chapters 17-21 and an excerpt from Because We Belong.

Nice character development, hot and steamy sexy scenes, and it made me want more.

What more can I say?

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Berkeley NAL for a review copy of this book.

[Hollie · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is just addictive. or maybe vanni is.

[Sandy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was gifted the series as a set. This is a review for the entire 8 part serial- 3.75 stars

Innocent yet unconventional hospice nurse Emma Shore has secured a new position at The Breakers, the sprawling mansion of enigmatic and dangerously handsome racecar billionaire Michael Montand. Hired as caretaker for Montand's stepmother, Emma expects few complications. But one night, lost in the mansion's maze of corridors, she comes upon a woman and a man she can't identify engaged in a raw, naked interlude of sexual subjugation. Silently, from the shadows, Emma watches - shocked, appalled, and unnervingly aroused.

But Emma wonders... if this mysterious stranger is not Montand, then who is it? And what other surprises are in store for her? Night after sleepless night, she's considering the possibilities. And for the first time in her life, she's not going to run away from them.

~~~~


3.75 stars--THE AFFAIR is the latest contemporary, erotic romance serial by Beth Kery. Released as an eight part serial THE AFFAIR focuses on hospice nurse Emma Shore and billionaire/racecar owner /developer Michael Montand.

Told from close third person point of view, the eight part storyline follows the building relationship between Emma and Michael. Emma’s position within the Montand household has an expiry date-hired to care for Michael’s dying step mother, Emma ‘accidentally’ witnesses Michael and another woman in a BDSM scene. Both turned off and turned on, Emma will come face to face with the man who would eventually bring Emma into his world. When Emma walks in on her boyfriend of two years having sex with another woman, Emma is free to explore what it is she truly wants.

The relationship between Emma and Michael begins as employer and employee but soon develops into something more. When Michael tells Emma he doesn’t do relationships and the only thing he can offer is sex, Emma offers Michael five weeks of sex and adventure then she will walk away. Michael will soon realize that five weeks with Emma is not enough-he wants a lifetime. The sex scenes are numerous, intimate and provocative.

THE AFFAIR is also a story of family, betrayal and letting go. There are moments of heartbreaking sorrow for a man who has lost everyone that he has loved and in return was rejected by the one person who should have been there from the start. Michael’s family is the epitome of dysfunctional and in this he is a man who will not commit to something more.

The world building brings the reader onto the racecar circuit and Grand Prix tours of Europe. The secondary characters include both Emma and Michael’s extended family members, friends and frenemies. Everyone has an agenda or a connection to the past.

The writing style is simple. There is no over the top angst or anxiety as the outcome is predictable. The BDSM premise is secondary to the storyline but it does command a good portion of the story. Michael’s persona did not scream Dominant but more of a need to control the world around him. The billionaire Dom and inexperienced sub is a familiar scenario. There are no hardcore BDSM scenes, no safe words, no anxious moments or questions of consent.

THE AFFAIR is an erotic romance storyline with a happily ever after. Fans of Beth Kery will recognize her signature BDSM storyline trope and you can’t help but fall in love with her leading characters.

copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

www.thereadingcafe.com

[Ilana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Title: The Affair: The Forbidden Fruit
Author: Beth Kery
Publisher/Year: Penguin Group 10/7/14
Length: 73
Series: The Affair #4
Overview

Five weeks total. That was the limit Emma placed on the affair. No more, no less. And right now it was opening her up to decadent pleasures she never imagined possible. The effect on Montand was equally liberating. Emma was bringing him back into the world of the living, and her buoyant spirit, freshness and lust for life made him ravenously hungry for more.

His darkness was being drawn to her light, and for both of them, the experience was electrifying. But for Emma it was something even more. Lost in the world of Montand’s exquisitely sensual challenges Emma’s beginning to feel something dangerously close to love. And now she fears that five weeks with Montand could leave her deliriously vulnerable, and in far too deep to ever survive.

My Thoughts

Just as an FYI - i'm not sure that the synopsis above is accurate for what we read here in this 4th installment, but i'll try to be fair about it. where we left off in the last installment is that Emma had given Vanni a time limit to their relationship in the hopes of keeping herself from getting her heart broken and for Vanni not to get bored. So that's where we are again. We get to see how these 2 are going to make a go at things with all the stuff that's in the middle.

We get a lot of great passion with these two, now that Emma's letting him in, and they've even gotten to the point where it's almost impossible to lie to the other. Meaning of course that Vanni will learn the truth about Emma's breakup with Colin, and it's quite entertaining to see what comes of it when that happens.

To be honest, there's not much 'substance' to these chapters since we're not at a point in the story where anything is uber pivotal, however, it's sweet and helps to continue the story. (if you're able to read it with either week 3 or i'm guessing week 5, then maybe hold off). Anyhow, the biggest thing that happens is that Vanni asks Emma to trust that he's going to be monogamous while he's in France for his race, and at the same time asks her to trust that they can take the barriers from between them.

Where we're left is really a 'secure' place in things - there's nothing really complicated right now - we know that they are going to enjoy their time together - but what i was saying before about how the synopsis was a bit misleading, i don't know that it's overt that she's falling for him that hard, so don't get your hopes up at least in these chapters that you'll get proclamations or anything like that. The good thing though is that i know that our lovely author Ms. Kery won't let us down, so next week should surely bring us not just another dose of passion and heat, but also of complications that we may not yet be expecting. Enjoy!

[Aseel · Rating 4 out of 5]

* like piercing heaven . . . or a particularly salacious part of hell
* Her eyes would be the death of him.
* “Fuck, you’re a trial,”
* But Emma, that innocent, unlikely fey creature that stood at the gateway between life and death, had tempted him.
* Five weeks? Would it be enough?
* He despised porn-star theatrics in bed
* it wasn’t an admirable position to be in, to have a man pass over you for your gorgeous sister, no matter that you didn’t want the man.
* . Warmth swept through her when she felt him nuzzle her neck and then press his lips to her still-leaping pulse
* He was starting to think he’d feel her eyes on him even in his sleep.
* missionary position VS Kama Sutra
* the one thing that did matter, the one thing I could control, was my word. I couldn’t control anything else but that. It became my anchor. If I said a thing was going to happen, it happened. Too much else in the world didn’t make a bit of sense, but that, I could control. I’ve fought to make that my reality ever since then.”
* I know I’ve told you I’m selfish, but I’m also honest.”
* and all she could do was pray she’d survive relatively unscarred after he’d gone.
* He lost all ability to think. Instinct took over
* She was just a woman, like so many before. He knew this.
So why did it all feel so different?*
* He became uncomfortably aware that he was panting, and that she could probably hear him. Still, he couldn’t slow. Not with heaven within his reach
* She was a glossy, vivid pink that acted on his brain like the stimulant of the red flag to the bull.
* don’t like to be made to wait,”
* he liked this feeling of another human being controlling him.
* . “Why are you so quiet?”
“Because you were right,” he said after a short pause. “And I was considering telling you that you weren’t.”
She laughed softly. “You’re not as selfish as you make yourself out to be.”
* She was going to end up a pile of ashes if he kept playing with her.
* “No. After watching the way you just lit up, I think you might miss because you want to be spanked again,”
* she’d never been the type of person to lose at a game on purpose
* irritated that he’d made her put it into words
*

[Barmybelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review of all 8 books in this series

The first book sets the scene and we get to know Emma. She's a caring and responsible hospice nurse who will do what is in the best interest of her patient even if it means breaking her new clients rules. Her new client is a mystery, she deals with the manager of the house mostly, a snobby and rude woman who loves to flaunt her power. Emma's patient is a bit of a mystery too, through gossip in the house rather than fact, Emma finds out the client, Michael Montand, dislikes her patient but if that's the case why is he supporting her through her dying days? Breaking the rules applied by Montand, Emma is an accidental voyeur in a scene involving a woman and a man she doesn't recognise.
Events in Emma's personal life leave her shaken. She has been the rock supporting her sister throughout her education, always putting others first. She takes Montand up on an offer she would never normally consider and starts on an exciting affair.
Both Emma and Montand evolve through the 8 books, one realising they can't do temporary and no strings attached and the other fighting their determination to stay unattached. Even though the both parties change and they get closer, falling in love, they still felt a little detached to me. It didn't feel like the all encompassing love it was trying to be.
I did enjoy the story, the background on the two characters explained their current frames of mind well, there was a good twist with the housekeeper too.
A pleasant story spread over 8 bitesized chunks.

[Reading In Pajamas · Rating 5 out of 5]

✦Spotlight & Review: The Affair by Beth Kery http://wp.me/p3d0RZ-1Jq
Publication Date: November 4, 2014
Reviewed by: Reading in Pajamas/ Cori
Rated: 5 Stars

REVIEW:
Seriously hot romance! I love erotic romances with stong alpha males and Montand is one of the ultimate alphas. He's a powerful billionaire use to getting anything he wants and Emma is a nurse that draws his interest and fascinates him. This story was fast paced and kept me up all night reading it. I couldn't put it down. This was a well written romance filled with mystery, suspense and scorching hot romance. Beth Kery described the characters and delivered their story in such a way that made me feel their emotions and experience their story along with them. The Affair is an eight part serial that I read all at once. I recommend getting them all and reading them back to back as one story. This book is on my favorites romances of 2014 list and I really hope Beth Kery will be writing about another character in this book. I think Montand's cousin deserves his own story.

*Review copy provided by Berkley/NAL in exchange for an honest review.

[Kirsty & Erin Muir · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 4th instalment in Beth Kery’s The Affair series. If you’ve been checking out the blog the last couple of days you’ll have seen the reviews of the other weeks in this series but just incase you haven’t I’ll leave a link at the end of the post. Thank you to Headline for approving me for a copy of this title via NetGalley.

I just want to start off by saying I really love the covers of the episodes in this series! I love the tie in with the novel which you only fully realise after reading!

So Emma and Vanni are in full affair mode. Vanni has treated her to a taste of what she can expect from his sexual preferences and it made for some pretty intense and hot reading. I’m starting to really enjoy Vanni’s character especially the affect that Emma has on him, making him more playful and younger seeming. I felt almost a Grey/Steele vibe going on, partly down to the relationship I guess but Emma is a much more developed character in comparison even in the little we have seen so far.

I’m really enjoying this series so far.

[Blanca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am hooked on this series. Did not wish to be but looks like I am going to finish the whole series. Love the characters, Vanni and Emma.

Lust, sex, sensual and erotic. No need to say more. In less than 60 pages we read two of the sexiest scenes I have ever read so now I will be reading all of this authors books and will expect her best.

This series is like a roller coaster, some books hook you some just lag and it is enough to get you to read the next book and there it is the high. Hope this ends on a high.

[Ranny Herdiningtyas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the main idea, how heroine and the hero met, and how they interact with each other.
I also like the heroine ad the hero's characters. It is interesting, especially the heroine's.
But I find that the development of their relationship is flowing not too smoothly... There's some part where it's too slow and another part is too fast. There's also some part that isn't match with the other.

But, overall, I quite enjoy reading this series.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another book down. I feel like I'm way more interested in Vanni and Emma just getting their relationship going, and the side story about Vanni's family, rather than the constant sex they're having. I think because each 'book' is so short, I'm finding it more annoying - feeling like I've read so much, but yet, still know so little.

[☘ Anuhea ☘ · Rating 4 out of 5]

well the romance is on!

on her terms...they decided on a certain time to be together and then part ways...he seems to be smitten and she's getting way in over her head...


amanda and colin are annoying.....

[Cecily Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this installment of the series, it was so sexy and hot. The whole idea of the blind taste test and sexy punishment if you get the items wrong makes me want so badly to do this with my husband haha. oh the ideas I get from Beth Kery.

[Hailey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like what Beth Kery produces

[AngelinaT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the way Beth Kery writes and this story just keeps getting better and better. We are learning more about what makes Vanni tick in this installment and I can't wait for more!

[Marilyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

:) already on the next one :)

[☕️Kimberly (Caffeinated Reviewer) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Phillylady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This section was worth the wait! Super sexy and tender in all the right ways!!

[Mia (Mia's Book Blog) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Still love it so much my beautiful babies..

[Coldcase hertz · Rating 4 out of 5]

yes conflicted lol four weeks though i would say six months lol

[Sandy Kent · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved the series

[Darvina · Rating 4 out of 5]

that was hot, and who in their right mind would refuse Vanni... way to hot scene with the dessert, love it.

[Lauren at Live Read and Breathe Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Source: eARC for Honest Review Courtesy of Penguin

Full Review will be under book 8

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so in love with Vanni and Emma! I never thought I could love these characters as much as I love Ian and Francesca but I am getting there.

[GHBC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full Review in book 8

[beverly harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hotter and sweeter

Just when you think the romance couldn't possibly get any hotter you find yourself looking a and waiting for the next sexy thrill. Delicious.