MISCONDUCT by PENELOPE DOUGLAS

“What are you doing?” I gasped. His forehead pressed against mine, and his hands moved urgently, holding my face.
“Dark spaces, quiet places,” he whispered over my mouth. “That’s all we need, Easton.”

Misconduct captured our attention from the very first page, with expectant butterflies taking flight in our stomachs, hearts pounding, breathing suspended as the need to hand ourselves over to the passion, eroticism, romance and intrigue of this powerfully addictive story took hold. Easton and Tyler grabbed us from the get go as we devoured their steamy, intriguing and riveting tale!

Misconduct was our introduction to this authors work leaving us desperate to read more! We love finding an author who not only possesses the talent to bring their story to life in words, but to present it in such a way that has us experiencing every sight, sound, taste and touch of the surroundings. It’s the difference between us reading a story and participating in one and we’d much prefer the latter.  Penelope Douglas so vividly and beautifully made us feel as though we had just spent a few hours in New Orleans, revelling in its beauty as well as its ugly, hearing the raindrops on the roof, smelling the scent of Magnolia’s in the air as much as living every moment of Easton and Tyler’s forbidden and passionate romance.

“You don’t belong anywhere I’m not.”

We’re gluttons for the whole forbidden romance theme but find some books lack that ‘forbidden feel’ we relish. For us it’s all about experiencing our hearts in our mouths, the knot in our stomachs whilst preparing for the build-up and anticipation of their forbidden moments being discovered. Well the heart stopping and erotic moments between the teacher, Easton and the student’s father, Tyler delivered these feelings with beauty and excitement.

‘Life was scarier – and harder – when you had things you were afraid to lose.’

We sensed the pull and desire from Easton and Tyler’s very first heated meeting and experienced the explosive chemistry Easton and Tyler were unable to deny.  We savoured the second they gave themselves over to their passion, gasped as they lost themselves to the moment, anguished as they tossed caution to the wind and lost ourselves as we experienced that delicious anticipation we so desire and practically combusting in the process!

“I’m not a jealous man, but for you I might make an exception.”

We fell in love with the alluring, intense, arrogant, dirty talking millionaire who could be a right cock and so singular in his actions; this virile and magnetic man could make us swoon one minute and gasp the next. He could wet knickers at ten paces and don’t get us started on Tyler in a three piece suit!!!

We admired the intelligent, outspoken and strong willed Easton -who, despite suffering painful and traumatic events in her past was no shrinking violet. On the contrary, Easton was prideful, stubborn and independent, qualities Tyler admired and saw mirrored in himself.

Easton and Tyler exuded a raw sensual and almost animalistic passion with an energy that had our hearts beating like crazy! The lust, the teasing and the seductiveness between them was a sensual foreplay to some very erotic moments. The sex wasn’t just for sex sake but instead spoke of the closeness, the need, the healing and the want Easton and Tyler desired in one another, theirs was a romance, a deep seated and intense love that leapt from the pages into our hearts.

‘If there was no gamble, there was no reward..’

So why not a 5 star? Well, because were a couple of things that bothered us and it’s hard to be specific without giving away spoilers. Personally we didn’t enjoy the twist as we felt it negatively impacted on an aspect we were very much in favour of and something we especially loved about the story. We felt the focus on the twist stole precious moments we would have preferred to spend being present in the developing relationship between Christian and Tyler and Easton and Tyler. However in saying that, we couldn’t put this book down for a minute!

As I spoke, I held her cheek with my hand, turning her lips to meet mine.
“Say you miss me,” I whispered against her mouth. “And that you won’t forget me. Ask me if I think about you and miss you every day.”
“Oh, Tyler. I don’t ask question I don’t want the answers to.”