Straight, gay or in between, turning thirty is never easy. Craig, Jack and Wren are about to find that love doesn't always come in a nice neat box. Together they'll have a lot more than tea for three. Publisher's Note: This book contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: m/m sex practices, m/m/f menage.
Anne started writing smutty stories in 2006 on the advice of her girlfriends who declared, “You’ve read so much of that stuff you should be able to write it in your sleep!” Turns out it wasn’t such a bad idea.
Not one to be shy, she jumped into the publishing pool with both feet and is now multi-published, as well as award nominated.
She’s a transplant, like most of the rest of Florida, although she came to the Sunshine Peninsular via Auckland, New Zealand. No, she doesn’t know why she moved from such a lovely country (although her husband might have had something to do with it); no, she doesn’t know any hobbits, nor any orcs; and yes, her accent is kinda sexy.
She has an Eppie Finalist certificate hanging on her office wall, as well as top ten nominations in the Preditors and Editors yearly polls.
I would have liked this so much more if it wasn't for the super high price tag for only a 120 page book.
That being said I really loved the story of wren. She had gone through so much in her life, it was wonderful to see her struggles laying off in the end.
In case you don't want to read through the massive spoilers, I'll start off saying I adored this book. I'd recommend it for anyone who wants a romance with a heroine who is less model perfect and more everyday woman, without sacrificing the perfect hero(es) and the perfect romance.
***(Note: I'll remind you again before I hit real spoilers, so read on, if I captured your interest.)***
There are three types of romances (from a female reader's perspective).
1. Those where you slip into the heroine's shoes and become someone completely different than yourself. The hero, the heroine, and the story are all fantasy.
2. Those where you don't put yourself in anyone's shoes, you watch from the fly on the wall perspective. This is obviously how most heterosexual women enjoy m/m romances.
3. Then there is the rare romance where the heroine doesn't feel that much different that you. Where it feels like you are slipping into the story. This book was that third category for me.
In this type of story, the hero (or heroes, in this case) are just as perfect. The romance is just as perfect. But the heroine feels enough like you in your own skin that you connect in a totally different way. She's not perfect, and somehow that's okay.
*** (Warning, I feel the need to do an excessively detailed summary. You will be spoiled as much as you can be, knowing this is a romance, with the requisite HEA.) ***
Wren doesn't have a model perfect figure. Add to that, she was in a serious car accident that left her with scars, and physical limitations. (Her hip is weak, and she walks with a cane.) This all happened when she was a teen, and she missed most of her high school years in the hospital recovering. She's never really dated, never been in love, never felt like the type of person men would be attracted to. She is confident in her career and with her personality, but she has only found romance in the pages of novels.
Then there is Craig and Jack. Both men are bi-sexual, but they're in a long term committed relationship with each other. As Craig's 30th birthday approaches, he contemplates the road not taken. A wife, children, the white picket fence. He loves Jack, but there is this niggling desire for more.
***(Okay, spoiled you on the characters, here comes the detailed plot spoilers.)***
Craig meets Wren in a bar. She's been dragged along by her friends and he's entertaining out of town business associates. Her friends and his associates are all knotted up on the dance floor leaving each of them alone. Craig sits down, buys Wren a drink, and they talk. Wren is unsure if he's flirting or just entertaining himself, but she's enjoying their talking, their connection.
In pops Jack, who leans between them kissing Craig. Oh, that's it, Wren thinks. All the good ones are gay or married. She slips away before Craig can push Jack away and introduce them properly. Craig is strangely bereft by the fact that Wren got away.
***
Jack is waiting for an analyst come to help him expand his nursery (plants, not children) business. He's shocked to find out it's the woman his lover pursued several months ago. He recognizes her, but she doesn't recognize him, having only seen the back of his head.
Their business relationship is ideal. She is just what he needed for the business, and as they work together Jack senses the same spark that attracted Craig.
About three weeks into their collaboration, Jack confesses who his analyst is, and they invite Wren to a BBQ. Wren is flustered, at first, to find Craig answering Jack's door, but she easily slips into a deep friendship with the handsome couple she thinks is strictly gay. Craig and Jack, on the other hand, have to excuse themselves to "work on dinner", instead seeking mutual relief in the kitchen. *g*
The attraction is mutual, but Wren is lusting after Craig and Jack as unattainable lovers, her own m/m romance being played out in front of her. But she is happy to have their friendship. They get together weekly - all three of them, or in pairs.
During separate "dates" with Wren, each man sneaks an unexpected kiss. When the men confess their stolen kisses, and their mutual interest, they decide to invite Wren to join them for the night. They make their offer, then walk away to give her time to digest everything. (She had no idea they were bisexual, let alone interested in her.) Before they make it home, she calls and leaves a message telling them she's a virgin, but she's interested if they still are. They are.
I can't say how much I adore Craig and Jack. They made it so that Wren was comfortable with them, and they were all friends before anything sexual was brought up. And when it came to the night, they did everything to make her feel special. Relaxing her body and mind (with a massage) before moving into the bedroom. Then they pulled out special pillows designed to ease the pressure on her weak hip. Thoughtful beyond anything Wren could have hoped for. Their night together was beautiful. (And the sex was hot. *g*)
After the fantasy night, they all go back to their friendship. Wren is sure that it was a one time thing, and is happy to have lost her virginity in such a beautiful way.
An end of the season BBQ, a few weeks later, ends with the drunken threesome falling into bed again. Only this time Craig and Jack don't just take turns with Wren, they have sex with each other, as well. (During the first encounter, she sees them kiss, but not much more than that.) Wren approves. *g*
Again, they pull back to their friendship with the men trying to decide what Wren is to them. Is she a friend with benefits, or something more? They both want something more. They want a lover, a wife, and a future mother to their children. So again they approach Wren offering her the moon.
There is some serious soul searching on Wren's part, but she eventually accepts that they both want her and love her. The last barrier being a difference in understand about whether the men will want closed door privacy alone sometimes. They don't. Sometimes they will pair off, any of them, but the door will always be open.
The HEA that Wren never believed she could ever have.
****
Just a perfect story for me. The self-insertion fanfic of my dreams come to life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Jack and Craig are in love. They have been for a long time, and are completely secure in how they feel about each other and in the strength of their relationship. But since Craig's turned 30, he's begun to think a lot about "wanting it all". He seems to be yearning for something more, specifically a family. One night, while at a bar, he meets an intriguing woman who is drinking along while her girlfriends dance and flirt on the dance floor. Craig has a brief conversation with her, and is definitely attracted, but their conversation is interrupted by Jack, and the woman slips away without Craig getting more than her first name, Wren.
Three months later, Jack has just hired an expert to come in and help him devise strategies to grow his very successful gardening business. That expert is Wren Browne. Wren is a lovely, full sized woman, who uses a cane to walk after a horrible accident leaves her scarred. Wren and Jack hit it off immediately, and soon he tells Craig that he's become reacquainted with "his Wren". Soon Wren and the boys are going to movies and having dinner and becoming close. Wren wishes that she could find just one man who loved and supported her as much as these guys do each other.
So imagine her surprise when she's out one night with just Craig and he kisses her. Granted, he'd had a bit too much to drink, so she blows it off as drunken experimentation. But soon after, Jack kisses her too, and she can't help but wonder what the heck is going on. Craig and Jack begin to talk, and realize that neither has told Wren that they are, in fact, bisexual, not homosexual. And although both kissed her, neither have said anything more to her about their relationship. After some soul searching, Craig and Jack decide to approach Wren to see whether she might be interested in initiating a sexual relationship between the three of them. Wren is shocked, and delighted, and terrified all at once. She agrees, but feels she has to be honest with the boys that she is a virgin, and see whether they are still interested in a relationship. Will the these three good friends be able to create a lasting relationship that fulfills all three?
I read this book after receiving a recommendation on Twitter. Man, am I glad I did! I'd read two novellas by Ms Douglas in the past, and while there was a scene in one that completely squicked me out, I'd thought at the time that she had a terrific voice and that I should give her another chance. I'm really glad I had an opportunity to do so.
Tea for Three maintains its focus squarely on the trio. There are no silly subplots. And what I really liked is that Craig and Jack's relationship is completely solid. And it remains so throughout the book. They don't waffle, they don't get jealous, they just communicate throughout the book. They talk about how they feel, they maintain their focus on being in love with one another, and slowly come to the realization that Wren enhances their feelings for each other.
If I had any quibbles about the book, it was that Wren springs her impending move in to be lovers with two men on her family very suddenly, and they pretty much accept it immediately. If there was any potential to make for some interesting tension, it would have been there. That really is a minor quibble though. Overall, this book reads really well for a menage story. The book is full of emotion, a believable relationship evolution, and lots of spicy scenes.
Tea for Three is a quick, entertaining and satisfying erotic romance. One fans of menage stories, with an emphasis on the m/m relationship will readily enjoy.
Jack and Craig have been lovers for a long time. They love each other, and are perfect together. However, Craig sometimes miss being with a woman. They are both bisexual. One night, Craig met Wren a woman he's instantly attracted to. But she leaves when Jacks shows up. Only 3 months later, Wren enters her life again, by being a consultant to Jack's business. From this point on, they become colleagues, friends and best friends with her. Until they feel like they could take their relationship further, throwing hot sex in the mix. They are both attracted to Wren, and she is equally attracted to them. They put their friendship in risk by getting in bed, but they can't ignore their feelings.
I liked this book a lot. It was fun and sexy. Wren is a scarred woman, because of an accident when she was a teen, but she isn't bitter about it. The men love her the way she is, and it was really nice to read their story.
I loved this book! The emotions between the 3 main characters kept me engrossed in the storyline. I loved the subtle twists that Anne used to make the story fresh. Her treatment of the varieties of sex was incredible and really worked for me - I hate it when anal sex or similar is treated as pain or only done for domination.
I seem to be on a m��nage kick here lately���reading about them, not having them. Craig and Jack are a couple who are deeply in love, but now that Craig has turned thirty, he realizes that there is something missing from their relationship. That something turns out to be Wren. She enters their lives as a friend and becomes very comfortable around them. Wren has some physical issues that are explained in the story���I don���t want to give too much away. Anyway, she doesn���t realize that the two men are bisexual and are looking at her as more than just a friend. When they finally approach her, she has to decide whether or not she can risk their friendship for what she thinks will just be one encounter.
I love Jack and Craig. They were so thoughtful. Douglas also paid some attention to detail that I found nice. As I mentioned earlier, Wren has some physical issues that the author made sure she addressed well in the love scenes. This is the first time I���ve seen the Liberator used in an erotic story. I also loved Wren because she wasn���t physically perfect. I get tired of reading about unrealistic Barbie doll heroines.
There was, however, one ���ouch��� moment in this story. I���ve never really gotten the lure of double vaginal penetration.
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't. I loved that the heroine was not your typical sexy, perfectly portioned woman - it was refreshing to read about a real woman with a physical disability to boot. However, nothing else held my interest. There was zero chemistry between the characters. The book opens with a sex scene between Craig and Jack and it just fell flat. The relationship between Wren and the guys seemed forced and rushed. The menage scenes weren't even able to redeem this book - they were boring and bland.
Although the book was written fairly well, there was just no passion, no fire. These elements are what makes good erotica and are desperately needed for a menage book to work. This was sorely lacking anything even remotely sexy. So, 2 stars for the heroine, and that's being generous because nothing else worked.
Why I read it: This book was recommended to my by one of my Twitter friends when we were having a discussion about m/m/f menage stories, so I went and bought it.
What worked for me (and what didn't): If there are two men and one woman in a romance, my personal preference is that it is an m/m/f rather than an m/f/m story. I have enjoyed m/f/m stories but I think they work better where there is a sexual connection between all three parties - it has something to do with my sense of equality I think. When GrowlyCub said that she thought this book was one of the better examples of the genre, I couldn't resist. I didn't end up liking it as much as she did, but I did enjoy it.
This should have been a full novel. The need to have enough sex included in the emotional development of the characters simply make the developments too fast. Both men only come alive in fragments, which makes appreciating their evolution into love for Wren rather difficult. I wanted to see more of Wren's usual life and her father. Other than that, enjoyable, and I appreciated that the heroine was disabled and with a curvy figure.
Ménage books are hard to pull off, imo, because there's a feeling of imbalance of power in the relationships. In a short word count, Ms. Douglas managed to create a loving adult relationship between the 3 protagonists. Even though the reader doesn't get to see the details, the story encompasses a longer period of time. And there is lots of open communication amongst all characters! I will be seeking more books by this author.
Two stars just for the LOLZ. Insta-lust, awkward sex scenes (maybe it was the translation I read, though, but trying to portray them in my head was like trying to play tetris. I'm awful at tetris and I hate it), little to no chemistry between characters, unbelievable reactions, insta-love, cheesiness that was /so/ over the top, writing that was mneh... This book has it all. Luckily, it was short so I could finish it fast.
I'm a sucker for H/h who have disabilities they have to overcome and I loved Wren. Craig and Jack had an existing longstanding relationship but were restless for more and they both met Wren and felt a connection.
Nobody ever looked past her scars and disabilities and it didn't matter to them, they saw her. Hot smexin'
I truly loved the characters. The fact that Wren was not the perfect tall, thin super-model type really made this a better read for me. It was closer to real than most other novels like this. The chemistry was good and the sex was hot. I only wished it was longer.
I liked this book well enough. The characters were enjoyable- flawed but lovable. I would have enjoyed a little more on the possible MMF scenarios...but that's just my erotic curiosity. Overall, a good read for someone with an open mind.