seriously romantic: intense pleasure by lora leigh

intense pleasure is the fifteenth installment in lora leigh's erotic romance series, bound hearts. i've read a couple of the previous installments and this follows a similar pattern to those. if you are familiar with the series, you know that these books are unconventional romances in that there is generally a threesome of the m/f/m variety. i don't mind the threesome idea at all, and actually i prefer the storyline in intense pleasure where both guys and the woman are fully committed to one another, and of being in this relationship than the ones where it's only a temporary thing.

summer, falcon, and raeg have known each other for years. they've wanted each other for years--note that falcon and raeg actually have no interest in each other sexually, they are half-brothers, whose parents have their own unconventional relationship. a lot of the baggage the guys carry is due to their parents, their father in particular. but there are some key plot points that would be spoiled if i talked about this any further, so all i'll say is that these issues need to be resolved before the three of them can move forward in their relationship.

the ease with which everyone kind of accepts the odd relationship is a bit unbelievable. but it works in the bound hearts world, because every novel in the series expands the world further, and treats the unconventional coupling as something normal. i mean, yeah okay, occasionally someone says something, but it's shut down so quickly that you just kind of accept the situation for what it is. the brothers thing also weirds me out, but no one else seems to have a problem with it in the book, so eventually i just rolled with it.

this is a sexy, emotional read, the leads are all likable, though i have to admit i preferred falcon more than raeg. also, i'm still not clear on how raeg's name is supposed to be pronounced, is it "rag" or "rayg" or "reeg" or "rage"? i ended up going with "rayg" in my head, but now that i'm thinking this through it maybe was supposed to be "rage"? oh well. i don't think knowing how to say his name would have made me like him more. also summer does this thing at the end of the novel where she is too proud to point something really obvious out because the guys should just know it, and that whole thing felt so stupid to me. like why would you cut your nose to spite your face stupid. she was willing to walk away and let them walk away because she refused to point out something they were missing. why? the author kept trying to have her explain this, but because it is nonsensical the explanations never made any sense.

i did enjoy reading this. i just also think i've reached a point where i don't need any more books in this series. it doesn't feel like we are covering new ground. and after fifteen books, is that really that surprising?

**intense pleasure will publish on january 3, 2017. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/st. martin's press in exchange for my honest review.