ARC Review: The Pleasure Principle by Jane O'Reilly - Under the Covers Book Blog

“I found the writing in THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE a little off. Whether it’s a change in style or simply Verity’s character, it just didn’t click.~ Under the Covers

I read O’Reilly’s Indecent series and enjoyed it so when I saw this book, I figured that a little more smut wouldn’t harm me. O’Reilly’s writing in the Indecent series reminded me a little of Charlotte Stein, merging intimacy with passion effortlessly. However, I found the writing in THE PLEASURE PRINCIPLE a little off. Whether it’s a change in style or simply Verity’s character, it just didn’t click.

Verity has just realized that her asshole ex was posting details of their sex life on the internet, giving her a whopping rating of 2. While everyone giggled about it behind her back, Verity has lost a lot of her confidence. She doesn’t believe herself to be sexy and as a result, becomes fearful of sex.

Cal, on the other hand, doesn’t have any inhibitions at all. He enjoys sex, LOVES it and knows that Verity’s inability to orgasm during sex is because of her choice of lovers, NOT her. So he sets out to prove that to her.

The sex is awkward, stunted by Verity’s massive insecurities. She’s snappy and very resistant to Cal’s advances even though he doesn’t push her too much. The sex scenes just didn’t come across as sexy to me, but more strained. Having Cal’s POV would have helped more since the less inhibited of the two and he seemed absolutely smitten by Verity anyways. It would have strengthened the romance a little bit more.

*ARC provided by publisher