Asking For It by Lilah Pace Blog Tour ~ #giveaway #bookreview #excerpt @BerkleyRomance @SignetEclipse

ASKING FOR IT by Lilah Pace

Blog Tour Information

Book blurb:

“This is who I am. This is what I want. Now I need a man dangerous enough to give it to me.” 

Graduate student Vivienne Charles is afraid of her own desires—ashamed to admit that she fantasizes about being taken by force, by a man who will claim her completely and without mercy. When the magnetic, mysterious Jonah Marks learns her secret, he makes an offer that stuns her: they will remain near-strangers to each other, and meet in secret so that he can fulfill her fantasy.

Their arrangement is twisted. The sex is incredible. And—despite their attempts to stay apart—soon their emotions are bound together as tightly as the rope around Vivienne’s wrists. But the secrets in their pasts threaten to turn their affair even darker...

Reader Advisory: Asking for It deals explicitly with fantasies of non-consensual sex. Readers sensitive to portrayals of non-consensual sex should be advised. 

"Enough about me," I say as the weekend-night bustle flows around us – college kids heading to bars, stores open late to take advantage of the foot traffic, guitar music and drumbeats audible from the door of every club. "What about you? What made you decide to study earthquakes?"

"And volcanoes," he adds.

"Can't leave out the volcanoes," I say, and am rewarded with a small smile.

"Well, when I was about ten years old, my mother and stepfather took the whole family to Hawaii."

Stepfather, I note. Jonah could have no memory of his real father, and Carter Hale's been married to Jonah's mother for almost three decades. Most kids in that situation would wind up calling their stepfathers Dad. Not Jonah.

He continues, "Like most tourists in Hawaii, we went out to see the volcanoes. I hadn't imagined you could get that close to the lava flow. When I saw it – glowing orange with heat, pure liquid stone –" To my surprise, he grins. "I was ten, so I thought it was totally cool."

I laugh out loud. "So that's how you picked your scientific specialty? Because it was cool?"

"Any scientist who tells you something different is lying. If you're going to spend your entire life studying something, it needs to thrill you. Volcanoes and earthquakes thrilled me when I was a kid, and they still do. Even after all the studies and the dissertation and months of looking at nothing but seismograph readings. I get a charge out of it every time."

"Hey, they always say that if you do what you love, it doesn't feel like work," I say.

"Which is a crock." When I raise an eyebrow at Jonah, his smile regains some of the fierceness I know so well. "If you spend twelve hours in a row doing something – anything – it feels like work."

Laughing, I admit, "Okay, yes. The studio's my favorite place to be, but there are times when I feel like if I go in there one more time, I'll tear my hair out. Still, I'd rather go crazy making art than do anything else."

Jonah nods. "That's it exactly."

"So you get to spend your whole life chasing lava."

"And you'll spend yours making art."

"Yes and no," I say. "After graduation I'm hoping to go into museum work. Preserving old etchings, curating important pieces, even using original plates from centuries ago to make new prints."

He gives me a look. "You should do your own work. Not worry about taking care of someone else's."

"It's not either/or. I'll never stop creating my own work. But even if I set the entire art world on fire, it'll be years before I can support myself through my etchings alone – if ever. So there's going to be a day job for a while, probably a long while. Should I do something boring that sucks my soul away one day at a time? Or should I surround myself with some of the greatest etchings of all time, and help other people understand how amazing they are?"

After a moment, Jonah nods. "When you put it that way, okay. I see it."

Then his hand brushes against mine. At first I think he's drawing me aside as we go past a group of college kids drunkenly weaving along the sidewalk. After they pass, though, he adjusts his grip, twining our fingers together.

Jonah Marks has screwed me hotter and dirtier than any other man ever has – and yet my heart flutters like a girl's as he holds my hand for the first time.

About the author:

Lilah Pace is a pseudonym for a New York Times bestselling YA author. This is her first adult novel.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Buy links:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

BAM

iBooks

Kobo

Source: eARC for Honest Review Courtesy from Berkley | Penguin Group via NetGalley
Genre: Dark Erotic Romance
Part 1 in a new series.


My Asking For It Review ...


 If you liked Willing Victim by Cara McKenna then you will like this book.  This book was really good but it took me awhile to get completely engaged with it.  I don't know if I wasn't originally in the mood or what.  With darker themes you have to be in the right head space to truly enjoy the experience.  It take a bit for me but eventually I was hooked and fell in love with Jonah and Vivienne.

Since a teenager Vivienne has craved a dark sexual need but hasn't found anyone willing to fulfill it for her.  This need-it drives her, it torments her, it haunts her.  After being publicly out for her darkest desires she finds comfort in a dark stranger.  A stranger that wakes up things she didn't know even existed.  A stranger who also shares just as dark as a need. 

~ The harm is when the lines between reality and fantasy get blurred.  Like they did last night. ~

Jonah has his own issues but finds a match in Vivienne.  Quickly but safely these two embark on a journey to give each other what they need.

"It's your fantasy, and mine. Chances like this don't come along often-two people twisted in the exact same way."

Even though Vivienne is filled with tons of shame for her wants, she knows something about this feels also right.  

~ That ought to scare the shit out of me, except-he's right.  I do want to play rough.  I want the dirtiest, filthiest brutality, and I want it badly.  Wanted it for so long.~ 

With these desires also causes vulnerability.  There's a very slippery slope where these two are concerned.  They both know what they need but they don't know each others whys. 

"I just want to ask why."  "In my experience, the answers to questions like that usually fail to satisfy."

This whole fantasy/reality line is a journey for Vivienne.  But a healing journey.  Finally she has found her equal.  Her match.  Someone who believes her.  

~These days I don't hate myself for having been raped. I hate myself for wanting to act it out all over again. ~ 

Just because they need each other also doesn't make it right. 

"No.  But don't you see?  I don't just fuck you, Jonah.  I bare my soul to you. . . "

The more they play the more the line gets crossed.  The more the inner torment seeps in. 

The best move is not to answer him, now or ever.
I click reply. 

Because of their needs it makes this relationship to so much more than it was originally supposed to be. 

"Really you only know one important thing about me. But the one thing you know is the simple most intimate, private thing I've ever shared with anyone.  That's why I said I bared my soul to you, every time.  That's why this relationship feels like - "

Now trying to decide to have their desires met as well as being honest with their emotions is tough on both of them.  This is not an easy relationship to begin with and they're both walking on a live volcano of emotions and feelings. 

"Exactly.  The fantasy isn't your problem; it's the extremity of your fixation on it.  Who is it who won't let you find sexual satisfaction any other way?"

The truth of the past comes out.  It's not a pretty past.  It's dark and sad.  But it's also the bond that holds these two together.  Can they find their way to a lighter future together?  Or are they going to be chained by their dark pasts?  Only time will tell and now we have to wait till September to see if these two can make a real relationship between them. 

4 Dark but yet healing Thumbs up!



Lauren