Review: By Private Invitation – Stephanie Julian

Some invitations don’t need to be sent…only accepted.
Antiques dealer Annabelle Elder’s life is nowhere near as passionate as the erotic art she collects. A cheating ex-boyfriend and her business have seen to that. So when she attends a New Year’s Eve party at Haven Hotel, she sees a chance to blow off some steam. But she never expected to meet anyone like Jared—or to experience such passion in his arms…

Handsome, rich, and charming as hell, Jared Golden brought his Midas touch to Haven Hotel—and created an anything-goes pleasure palace on one floor to cater to his special friends and their very special desires. After falling in lust with Annabelle at first sight, seducing her was easier than he expected. What he didn’t expect was to be seduced in turn…

But unrestrained passion in the bedroom is not the only spark between Annabelle and Jared. Their mutual attraction is confounded by their separate pasts. Caught in an ever-growing web of painful secrets and sensual fantasy, will they be able to face the truth about themselves and trust in true love?

Series:  Salon Games #1
Release Date:  December 31, 2012
Publisher:  Berkley Heat
Source:  Provided by Publisher
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Reviewer’s Thoughts:

Annabelle Elder may deal with antiques, but she has passion for erotic art that can be directly linked the her dead parents, she doesn’t have a love life that matches.  When she decides to attend a New Year’s Eve party at the famous Haven Hotel, she’s soon finds herself in a world of pleasure she never expected with hotel owner, Jared Golden.

Jared has always made it known that he doesn’t want a relationship with the women he entertains, but there is something about Annabelle that peaks his curiosity and his sexual appetites.  But what Jared keeps saying is lust turns into something that only Annabelle can ease.

I don’t know what I expected from this book, but I feel let down.  Jared’s hotel has a private salon where, by invitation only, members come to entertain their sexual desires.  I guess I imagined, given the title of the book and the series name, we were going to be spending a lot of time at the Salon.  Annabelle was so open to what she and Jared did that first night, I figured he’d introduce her to all sorts of pleasure within his little club.  But outside of NYE and Jared sulking in it for a brief scene, we don’t visit the Salon at all.

There was something about Jared and Annabelle that I couldn’t connect with.  It was almost like they were being standoffish with me as a reader while connecting with each other.  There were times when I didn’t like either of them, either because of the way they refused to truly open up to the other or the fact they used sex as a way to communicate instead of just using words.  It’s great when you have smoking hot sex, but sometimes there is a need to actually talk to each other about feelings and emotions.

I’m not giving up hope for the series.  I’m intrigued by Jared’s brother, Tyler and Annabelle’s best friend, Kate, who will be in the next book in the series.  I think these two will smoke by Annabelle and Jared on the heat scale.