I devoured Kinked although I never liked Aryal in the previous books, and I wasn’t sure what kind of hero could tame such a, well, harpy. Enter Quentin…

Review Breakdown

Aryal: 5/5 She’s Aryal through and through. If you’ve read previous books and hoped that she’ll somehow turn into a pushover, she doesn’t. Her character develops emotionally as she gets to meet her mate, but she’s still dominant, unyielding … a total badass! Got to hand it to her. She’s original Alpha female.

Quentin: 5/5 – You can easily fall for Quentin. He’s simply perfect. Although he starts out by showing a Dom side, being with Aryal forces him to play it down and even try out a little role reversal. Still, he has inherent class, and knows how to say the right thing in the right moment. He’s equally sexy as a bar owner and setting up camp in the wilderness, he’s got a feline’s graceful move and he purrrs! My only problem: I couldn’t picture him as a blond guy. A blond black-panther Shifter?! Not so much.

Plot: 4/5 – For the most part, it felt in the way of Aryal and Quentin’s relationship. It gets better toward the end and helps Aryal show more facets of her character.

Prose: 5/5 – I love how Thea Harrison writes. It’s never tiring, with interesting turns of phrase, a healthy sense of humor and strong dialogues.

Heat: 4/5 – The sexual tension is scorching and the H/h’s brief role reversal in the beginning makes the reader wildly anticipating when they’ll carry out their bargain properly, but the plot gets in the way and we never see that. With all the Dom talk that goes on in the first part of the book, maybe I expected more intense get-togethers (and that being not me, says a lot).

Best quote:

He told her telepathically, I want to put a collar on you.

Her answer was a telepathic snarl. Dream on, mother*****.

FINALLY! I’ve dreamed of such a comeback ever since I read 50 Shades…