The Pleasure Trap

Mistress #4

by Niobia Bryant

Introduced in Niobia Bryant's bestselling Mistress series, he's the ultimate irresistible temptation. And he's always in control. Until now. . .Pleasure is his name, one that women whisper--and scream--with desire. As a popular exotic dancer and top escort, he strokes his clients' deepest longings and fulfills their every sexy fantasy. His climb has taken him from the streets' most lethal ride-or-die ladies to the even more dangerous world of wealthy, powerful women. All along, he believed leveraging his chiseled body for a life of luxury would help him outrun his tormented childhood and bitter distrust. . .But now a mysterious woman he doesn't recognize has him at her mercy, determined to punish him for reasons he doesn't understand. Saving his own life means Pleasure must figure out which of the women from his past has a deadly obsession brought on by either the insatiable passions he ignited or the pain he caused. And when a long-buried secret arises, will he be able to survive? Or will facing it completely destroy him?...  Praise for Niobia Bryant's Mistress series"Enthralls to the last twist." --RT Book Reviews on Mistress, Inc."I love how Niobia takes these characters through hell and back, while entertaining us from beginning to the very end." --Cydney Rax on Mistress No More

Genres: African American

289 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 28, 2014

About the author

Niobia Bryant is the award-winning and national bestselling author of more than fifty works of romance and commercial mainstream fiction. Twice she has won RT Magazine's Best African-American/Multicultural Romance Award, "Kiss the Ring"--written under the pseudonym Meesha Mink--was listed as one of the Library Journal's Best Books, and her books have appeared in Ebony, Essence, The New York Post, The Star-Ledger, The Dallas Morning News and many other national publications. One of her bestselling books has been adapted to film.

Reviews

[Tru Essync · Rating 4 out of 5]

Never judge a book by its cover, although cliche, very true. Pleasure finds himself in a very compromising position and wrecks his brain to figure out his captor. All of the obvious suspects have motive but the least suspected rocks him to the core. You'll definitely need to read between the lines to appreciate the outcome. The spin put into this novel leaves me wanting more but I must admit that I am a greedy reader.

[Debby *BabyDee* · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read other Niobia Bryant boks and was not pleased with this one. "The Pleasure Trap" definitely fell short for me and the plot predictable. This was audio read for me and I just the narration did not do it for me as the story wasn't much convincing.

Just okay but could have been better.

3-Stars

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Graham Walker was known to many women as Pleasure. Graham went from being a exotic dancer to being a well paid escort. While being an escort he meets many different women but only one could make him change is ways. Graham is faced with someone from his past who wants to do him harm but he has no clue who it is. After facing this he will have to come to terms with things from his past. I thought this was a good read and I was surprised by who the person from his past was.

[Bridgette Hennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hot very hot... another book I enjoyed with Audible. This book was kinky with a Twist. It does a lot of jumping back and forth between present day and the past but it was well put together and it makes sense.

[Byron Washington · Rating 5 out of 5]

OoooWeee!!!

This book is CRAZY!!! The plot, so salacious and enticing, is so well conceptualized and written. Just a beautiful piece of storytelling. And the twist at the end...BOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

Buy it, read it, and enjoy!!👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥👍🏾🔥

[Sheryl Boyce]

Realized I already read this book. It was ok to read again

[Shea · Rating 1 out of 5]

I won this book off the Goodreads giveaways page (it was free) and I wish I hadn't entered to win. I didn't finish reading it because the main character is a huge jerk. I mean at the beginning I cut him some slack because he had stuff happen to him but after a while you're just like, "Really, really did you have to do that?" Then the way the book is set up kind of gives you a hint to the character of Graham "Pleasure". It's set up where the chapter titles are the women he has wronged. So if you can't stand horrible main characters don't read.

[Nicole Hughes · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little disappointed with "The Pleasure Trap". Definitely not one of my favorite Niobia Bryant books. I think this book had so much potential however it fell a little flat with the story line. I would not say this book was predictable but I knew Lionel would pop back in Pleasure's life at some point in the book. I also knew the woman whom he did not sleep with would be the woman with major psychological issues. The ending really had me confused and unhappy. Lastly I hated that so many women in this book came across as shallow, self absorbed and just palin silly.

[Teresa Mcmillian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this via audiobook. This story details Pleasure's life and the struggles he went through to become the man that he is. Someone has drugged Pleasure and is holding him captive. The book starts with Pleasure trying to figure out who it is and there are flashbacks from the past throughout while he goes through his memory of his past relationships. I was definitely surprised to learn who that person is!

[P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading about how Pleasure became Pleasure. Wow, with a dad like that how could he not turn out the way he was a hoe. And because of his actions and how he treated women couldn't figure out who is his tormenter was. I knew from how she suddenly disappear from the scene who the woman was but was not expecting whom it really turned out to be. Good read, took a little longer to get to the point than other books in the Mistress series. But I kept reading so definitely worth the read.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read some good books that were not Ashley and Jaquavis or K’wan(my favorite authors). This has become another good read! I did not expect the out come. I feel bad for Graham because he was dealing with some serious issues from his past. I am going to read the others book from this author to get history on Jamie.

[Demetri Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

OOOOOHHHHHHH!!!! what a great read. A page turner that's hard to put down. UMPH, UMPH, UMPH. Wasn't at all what I expected. I NEVER read the back or inside covers of a book; takes away all the fun. So this was well worth the wait!

[Limecello]

So it's now 7-26-21 ... :X but ... I definitely remember PARTS of this book ....

... this is not a romance and it's my bad that I thought it was - I should've looked more closely >.<

the O_o the twists.

Parts of it are definitely sexy. Parts are super skeevy.

I mean it's well written in that you're engaged because WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING - and ...
O_o I just ...

ALTHOUGH.

Like - I didn't check until way too late that it wasn't a romance cuz ... that's kinda what colored how I felt about it. As straight fiction ... there's some pretty damn problematic stuff - but it's like ... almost "whatever - fine - I can deal" for fiction - but if it was a romance it'd be HELL NO.
Like ... dude loses his virginity to a woman who is something like 15+ years older than him? Even more though - she's the woman currently hooking up with HIS DAD but she's mad the dad is fucking other women too so she decides to go after the son ...
I just ...

AND THEN - when he gets hooked on cocaine and his girlfriend " " [or then girlfriend turned pimp ... pimps him out to pay for her/their cocaine] ...

It's just ... I ... dude.
[And his dad is awful.]
And his mom is SO CLUELESS.

And .... it's ... T_T he was raped as a kid by someone/an older boy at his church ... who ... is/was a hermaphrodite? But then ...

OK SERIOUSLY THIS IS A MAJOR FUCKING SPOILER -- DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE WHOLE BOOK TOLD - and this is why I kept reading even as I was like "WTAF" cuz I had to know who/what the fuck was going on and ... dude. Dude.

decides to go with the female sexual organs? And lives as a woman and they meet later again and ... - y'all.

Y'all.

Anyway so ... I just ... an interesting take on a gigolo and lots of women in his life and O_o

Yo.

I ...
yo.
I... I think there's like low key a HEA ish? :X I was .... or a HFN?

I'm ish super mad at his parents for just not having ANY clue - like hello the MAJOR behavioral changes? And also *eyeroll* when they're like "smoking pot is the worst thing ever" - and they have no clue their kid is ADDICTED TO COCAINE.
Like.
Y'all.

[Maybe I'm being too harsh? I mean - I'm not a parent. But like also I'm ... I work with at risk kids. And/ones who have like - histories like his. In part. Some ... way too close. So.] :X

I ... I'm too entrenched in thinking of each book in romance terms so I don't think I can really rate this book .... but say take out the "this is what I expect from romance"

.... c range? Cuz I definitely stayed up like till 4 AM or 5 AM at least once trying to finish it JUST TO SEE WHAT THE HELL WAS HAPPENING/WHAT THE BIG REVEAL WAS.

[ROSA MICKENS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well this book was refreshing. I really enjoyed this book more so than the previous ones. I like that it is written from the man's point of view while he is being terrorized by a wild and crazy person. He is forced while in this situation to reflect back on his choices in his life up to this point where he is being threatened , yelled at and slapped all the while he is tied to a chair. He has no idea who this person is, but this person is scary as hell and he frightened to the core. The crazy person, he thinks is a female that he once harmed in some way in his past life. He doesn't know who she is, he is guessing and guessing, but still does not come up with an answer.
In any event the ending of this book was a fantastic crazy twist.
I liked it and thought it was absolutely awesome.

[Terra Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my first read by this author, and while I don't having any previous work to compare it to, it was definitely different from anything I've ever read. That being said, it took me a whole week to listen to the complete story. And that's normally a sign that the story didn't draw me in enough to hold my attention for a good length of time. It had it's moments, but it dragged in other places and the end felt anticlimatic after that long build up. There was an interesting twist revealed, but a week is just too long to be invested in an audio book.

[Teaguem2005 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read. Graham aka Pleasure spent his youth through adulthood chasing away a memory all the while imitating his dad. He does everything he can with them, teases, teaches, strips, pleasures them. The plethora of women he engaged leave him at a loss as to whom his captor could possibly be.

The book walks us back through his life so that we get an understanding of who he is and why he makes the decisions he does.

I love a twist so if you're anything like me trying to figure out whodunnit I don't think you'll be disappointed.

[Sheryl Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't Judge

I really enjoyed the story of Pleasure. His journey explains the title of the book. Being trapped by pleasure is indeed an easy way to mask hurts and ignore things which need to be healed.
The sex scenes was pretty graphic and would make a great aphrodisiac to enjoy with your Spouse 😄
I really appreciate the depth of characters in this Mistress Inc series. I'm looking forward to see how the journey all ends for the Characters. I sure hope Pleasure gets a happy ending to his love journey!

[Mrs Tee Booktique · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok I was not ready! This is definitely a dark erotica…not a romance story. Graham was a LOT and his story was so troubled. He taught me something about emotional struggles and how it affects decisions. I do not want to give anything away. But if you are interested in following a man as he journeys through his life running from his past this is a awesome read. It is full of HOT scenes so if that is not your thing, move on. If it is, ENJOY! The plot twist at the end shook me. I did not see that coming!

[Jasmine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this semi spin-off from the Mistress Series. It really shows Bryant's growth as an author. His different experiences with women as Graham grew into adulthood was well written. I love when old characters are mentioned and re-introduced. The familiarity of it and making connections was fun. And that twist at the end?! My goodness! If you've read anything from the Mistress Series, you'd be caught up and fully enjoy this book.

[A. Williams · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is hot trash. Unlikeable protagonist. Unlikeable side characters. Rampant homophobia/anti gay stereotyping. These characters are somehow stereotypical cookie cutout characters and also Mary Sues. I'm supposed to be okay with the cliches? Because of the erotica, which was so boring that a stale cracker could get me off better? I wanted to give the benefits of the doubt but alas, I was led astray.

[Alicia Washington · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was my 1st time reading this author. The voice narrating the book made it hard to get into the book. The main character is an exotic dancer and escort but it eventually
catches up to him when he tries to settle down and isn’t sure who wants to harm him. I never would’ve guessed who it was at the end which was a good plot twist. However I would have never gotten through the book if I had to read it.

[Bari E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good reading

Interesting twist on a love story- sometimes seems too real. We all have baggage and it affects so much of our lives. Graham and his lady are no different. I like a happy ending, but know that isn’t always the way, Graham needs time to heal from his childhood trauma so that he can have healthy relationships as an adult- promising but unfinished in the book.

[Cherida Franklin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This right here!!! STRAIGHT UP THE BOMB!!!

I couldn't put it down!!! The crazy just kept calling me!!! I was up till 6am tryna find out who the crazy was!!! READ THIS ONE!!! The sex is off the chain too!!!

[Sandi Hemming · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting...at times.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

”Pleasure what's my name Pleasure and what I give Pleasure”. This book was very Hot and juicy. The twist and turns I couldn't put it down. I didn't want it to end. It's worth the read.

[salena rolle · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW!

She did it again!!!!! Made me hang on to every word, then boom she ends the story. This book can't be over, there has to be book two.....😩😩😩😩😩😩😩

[Meek Meek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good read

[Deidre · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow i truly wasn't expecting this ending. I am left speechless and i can't wait to see what else could happen, poor pleasure has it rough and to have it end how it did was sad!

[Dyzi Adaeze · Rating 5 out of 5]

Steamy

[Be Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting to learn Pleasure's back story!!!! This book was on par with the other books in this series/involving these characters.