Home | Fairest Reviews Editing Services: Content and Copy Editing and Proofreading | Archives
August 7, 2014 5:30 am
 |
Distant Desires Part 1 |
|
Distant Desires Part 2 |
|
Distant Desires Part 3 |
Going into Distant Desires, I didn’t really know what to expect. I love paranormal books, but I haven’t read many with an alien storyline. The synopsis of part one sounded interesting, though, and I love anything Cambria Hebert writes, so I dove in ready for whatever she was going to throw at me, and boy did she give me a lot to digest!
In part one, readers are introduced to our heroine, Sophie Perez. She’s a typical college student working in a bar and living a pretty ordinary life until she becomes a test subject for a series of pleasurable experiments conducted by a nameless and faceless alien. Sophie believes she’s having an out of body experience, but when she’s sent back home and remembers her close encounter with the robed stranger, everything gets a bit more complicated. Those complications further increase when the results of her interactions with Tarek, a Sapien, sends her life down a much different path – one that requires Sophie to teach an emotionless alien what it means to give yourself fully to another person. But feelings are not the only thing going against Sophie and Tarek’s relationship, and when powers beyond their control try to destroy what they have and take away the one thing Sophie desperately wants, they’re going to have to fight to keep their new relationship and new life intact, which is not going to be easy when the Sapiens will do anything to get what they want in order for their planet to survive.
I read the three parts in a combined edition, so I didn’t have to wait to find out how everything played out. When I began reading, it took me a bit to get into part one because a lot of the details about Tarek and the experiments are not uncovered until further into the story, which looking back, makes sense because the author wants to build up the storyline’s content and reveal pieces of it as it continues, but I guess I was just an impatient reader because I wanted immediate gratification – I wanted to understand what it all meant for Sophie and how Tarek fit into it all. Once Tarek’s name and backstory are provided and Sophie’s involvement is explained, I was hooked. The action and the drama intensify as Sophie and Tarek’s relationship grows from a purely physical relationship to one filled with deeper emotions, and as Tarek becomes more comfortable in his life on Earth with Sophie and starts to understand that belonging to someone is actually something he desperately wants to experience, the Sapiens control of Tarek weakens, and they devise a plan to ensure that they get what they want while taking care of Sophie and Tarek in the process.
Tarek is an interesting hero; he’s definitely an alpha male who commands those around him. But because there’s so much unknown about him at the beginning of the story and the fact that he’s lived for so long without any emotions, his alpha presence slowly develops, but when it finally surfaces, he’s quite the dominant in and outside of the bedroom.
Sophie, as a teacher of emotions, is another interesting dynamic of the storyline. From the start of her physical relationship with Tarek, she wants emotion to factor in, but once she learns about Tarek’s planet and understands how he’s led his life, she makes it her goal to make him feel every single emotion possible, and she’s definitely rewarded for her efforts.
Sci-fi erotica – it’s definitely an interesting genre. Distant Desires is an intriguing read because it pushes through human boundaries and exposes readers to a world beyond your typical romance. The way the storyline is presented and how it evolves throughout the three parts allows us to get to know the main characters and watch them develop their relationship and then figure out that what they have is definitely worth fighting for. It’s a definite must read for paranormal lovers.
A complimentary copy was provided in exchange for an honest review.
4.5 poison apples
Distant Desires Excerpt #1
The heat from his fingers seared through the back of my shirt. I wondered if his handprint would permanently scar my skin. He used his body almost like a shield, guiding me back down onto the couch, this time sitting much closer to me.“I know this is a lot, but try not to overreact.”
I laughed.
His hand lay between us. I could feel his fingers against my thigh. Without thought, I reached forward, linking our fingers together and drawing his hand into my lap. “Don’t you think I should at least be allowed to see your face?”
I sensed his hesitation. But instead of trying to convince him, I waited for a reply.
“I don’t look like you.”
“No one else looks like me either,” I said.
“That’s true,” Tarek agreed, but it didn’t sound like he was speaking to me. Then he spoke out, “I mean the people of your planet. I don’t look like your version of humans.”
“Then what do you look like?” I asked.
“Like a Sapien.” He shrugged his shoulders as he said the words.
“Show me,” I said.
Tarek untangled our fingers and withdrew his hand. Slowly, he reached up and grasped the edges of the hood. Then he paused.
I groaned out loud.
This guy was going to kill me!
“I’m afraid I won’t please you,” he said softly.
The words pierced my heart. He thought I was going to think he was ugly. He didn’t realize how those words made him so very similar to me and every human I knew.
He was vulnerable and self-conscious, just like the rest of us.
The fact he even cared at all what I thought of him took away some of my shock and panic.
“Try me,” I said equally as soft.
You could have heard a pin drop through the silence that encompassed the room.
The silver silky hood fell back, lying against his neck, the folds of the fabric bunched in a way that created a loose frame for everything above his neck.
He was right. He looked nothing like the human’s here on Earth.
Tarek was better.
Distant Desires Excerpt #2My fingers spider-climbed up the front of his robe, slowly, as if I were moving unintentionally. He didn’t act like he noticed so I kept moving, creeping upward toward that damned hood that shielded his face.
He stood utterly still, almost as if he wasn’t even breathing, as my fingers curled around the edge of the hood. The fabric was silky and cool against my fingers as I bunched it in my grip. I hesitated one second before going forward, ready to pull it back and reveal his face.
He jerked away, turning his head and pulling the material from my fingertips just out of reach, denying me the sight I so desperately wanted to see.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt me,” I whispered. He hadn’t kept that promise and he knew it. It seemed the very least he could do was let me look at him.
Slowly, he turned his head toward me once more, tipping his chin down so he still was completely in the shadows of his clothing. Without hesitation, I grasped the fabric again and tugged it back, anxious.
The entire hood didn’t slide away as I hoped, but I kept peeling it back anyway. My breath caught when the sight of the smoothest, palest skin I’d ever seen caught my eye. It was absolutely flawless. It appeared as if he didn’t have any pores at all. I kept tugging, desperate now to see more.
My fingers dipped farther beneath the fabric and came into contact with his cheekbone, brushing against it and making me gasp out loud. Both of us stilled. He felt like the smoothest stone that sat for days in the summer sun. The heat that radiated from him and into me was unlike anything I’d felt before.
There were just no words to describe it. I could say it was like getting a hot stone massage, but from the inside out. I could say I imagined this was the feeling cats got when they lay in the rays of the sun in front of a window.
But I wouldn’t say that.
Because this felt better.
One touch (especially an accidental one) just wasn’t enough.
Posted by Rebecca
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags:
Mobile Site | Full Site
Get a free blog at WordPress.com Theme: WordPress Mobile Edition by Alex King.