Common Ground

Tales of the Darkworld #5

by Lex Valentine

Werewolf Sair McCallan escapes the confines of her brother’s pack with the help of a mated werewolf couple who believe in open sexuality and relationships. With Weylyn and Keir Randall, Sair experiences freedom in all things for the first time in her life. When she meets her mate, she’s shocked to find he’s a boring, broody vampire. Uptight Marius Granville has his staid and orderly life completely shattered by the arrival of his bloodmate, a beautiful werewolf who steals his heart and expects him to join in her kinky play with the Randalls. Marius is forced out of his hum drum existence and opens himself to new sexual experiences to please Sair. As her new mate strives to give her everything she needs, Sair battles internal demons that threaten their fragile new relationship.

This book includes sex on a washing machine, a make out session ala From Here to Eternity, sex between best friends (F/F), double penetration of a female (oh, baby!), and the best blowjob in the world (M/M) all within the confines of the hottest ménage a quatre the Darkworld has ever seen.

Genres: Paranormal, Shapeshifters, Erotic Romance, Paranormal Romance, M F Romance, Erotica, M M Romance

174 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Award-winning author Lex Valentine writes across genres from contemporary to urban fantasy but mostly M/M these days. A native of California, Lex lives in Orange County, with her husband Rott and a bunch of cats she collectively calls “babies.” She's a 17 year employee of a 100+ year old cemetery, builds her own computers and is generally considered the IT geek at work and to her family and friends.

A member of the Romance Writers of America, Lex is active in her local Orange County chapter and is a past treasurer for PASIC. Her publishers include Loose Id, Ellora's Cave, and MLR Press. She's the author of the self-published ARe and Amazon best selling series Souls in Bondage.

Lex loves to hear from her readers. Her door is always open at lex@lexvalentine.com or on her personal or author Facebook pages.

Website: http://lexvalentine.com
Facebook: http://facebook.com/lexvalentineauthor
Facebook: http://facebook.com/cemeterywinter
Twitter: http://twitter.com/lexvalentine

Reviews

[Jackie Uhrmacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more difficult aspects of reviewing is the need to remove your own biases and let the story stand on its own. For this reason, I want to discuss a few issues with Common Ground. I’m giving it four tombstones because the story is solid, the characters are vivid and easy to visualize, and the sex is steamy yet sweet.

With that said, I have a huge problem with characters who cheat. Marcus, the injured party, didn’t consider it cheating so it didn’t affect the score, but I did, so it affected my enjoyment of the story. There is a scene where Marcus finds Sair, his bloodmate, pleasuring another woman. He finds it attractive and a foursome including the other woman’s mate ensues. Everyone is happy but me. I’m sorry, but there is a huge difference in asking your mate, “Hey, I kind of want a foursome. You in?” and in performing a sexual act with another person while your mate thinks you are in bed with him. It comes off as underhanded and selfish and it turned me off to Sair as a character. All she seemed to care about was sex. Not Marcus, not the bond, just sex.

This was the first book in the Tales of the Darkworld I didn’t thoroughly enjoy. The other books were heavy on the sex, but they focused on the relationship more than anything. Common Ground wasn’t like that. I didn’t feel Marcus and Sair’s love for each other. All I felt was their need for sex. By themselves, with others, and in a graveyard (I actually loved the graveyard part). I won’t stop reading the series because of one book, but I also wouldn’t necessarily recommend Common Ground to new readers. It will skew your view on the series if you begin here.

[Moria McCain · Rating 5 out of 5]

As usual, Lex Valentine has out done herself. This book brings back Weylen with his mate Keir and they help couple Sair and Marius. While not normally a fan of multiple partner sex scenes, Les outdid herself with this book. What's more, she made me understand why it was necessary for this couple to experience it. Both had issues that needed to be dealt with and it was dealt with in a sensitive manner although the sex was unbelievably hot! I wasn't sure at first if I was going to like Sair or not. But as I came to know her through the book, I found myself growing very fond of her until I found myself rooting for her every step of the way. Marius was a doll and while he was described as being boring at first, I saw him as a complicated man who just needed that right person to help him have fun and Sair fit that bill perfectly.

I must confess however that Weylen was the one who really impressed me. His seemingly wanton lifestyle and easy going manner fool you into believing that he is shallow. Nothing could be further from the truth and you see that in this book. I'd like to see him back in further books but I'm looking forward to Lex's next story with Seth and Corey.

A definite keeper!