Feathers. Lies. Glitter. Secrets. Lust.
Meet Genie Divine, the wise-cracking London show-girl on a hell-bent mission to save her beloved family theatre.
Now meet Abel Kingdom, the australian gym mogul determined to buy it out from underneath her.
On paper they have nothing in common, and when they meet, they have even less.
The only thing they DO have is chemistry.
Undeniable, rip-my-clothes-off-and-do-me-now-against-the-wall chemistry.
He wants her theatre. She wants him dead.
The stage is set for an explosive summer…
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Review by Carol
Book – Genie
Author – Kitty French
Publication Date – February 26, 2015
Genre – Romance
Type – Stand Alone
Cliffhanger - No
Rating – 4.25 out of 5 Stars
Complimentary Copy generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
My Thoughts - Story
My first thoughts while reading this story is how much I hate Abel…I think that feeling encompassed the whole adventure and found it diverting my enjoyment of Genie a bit. The hated poured out of me toward Abel which you can witness in my status updates. Especially him being an ass ;-)
Now, to the story – yes, the plot did redeem itself at the end and I was able to melt the ice around my heart for Abel. I found Genie a strong, independent woman, whose loyalty shone through her personality.
I enjoyed how Ms French developed these characters – yes, I am giving her kudos even for Abel. As my mother once told me, ‘If you can seriously hate a character and have it affect you that dramatically, that shows the writer is doing their job.’ And that, my dear, Ms. French, is 100% true when it comes to you. You made these characters’ personalities so transparent and believable that at times, I found myself believing they were real.
Re-Cap
Genie is a burlesque performer….Abel HATES strippers.
Genie believes what she does is a form of art….Abel believes she is a whore.
But…they can’t help the desire and lust they feel for each other.
Abel wants to buy the run down theater….Genie wants to save it.
What happens when these two collide?
Reason for Reading – Author request
Story Rating – 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Steam Rating – 4.5 out of 5 Stars
Angst Rating – 4 out of 5 Stars
Writing Rating – 4 out of 5 Stars
Content Flow Rating – 4 out of 5 Stars
Told In – Dual POV
Heroine/Personality – Genie is headstrong, loyal, independent, strong morals
Heroine/Personality – Abel is an ignorant ass (nuff said)
HEA (Spoiler) – (view spoiler)
Would Read More from Author? DEFINITELY
Recommend To – Readers who love to read about animosity between two characters who try to fight the desire they feel for each other.
A Review by Wendy
4 Want To Love You Stars
* * * *
Kitty French will always have a very special place in my reading heart. She hit me hard with her character Lucien in Knight&Play. He was the first character I actually thought about as if he could be real...a man like that out in the world...someone I would give anything to know. He still pops into my head periodically... and I smile every time.
But it wasn't just the man Ms. French created... it was the detailed story and romance of it all. This is a huge talent of hers and here in Genie...those talents are used with abundance.
We are taken to a apart of London which houses the theater district from long ago... the part not so pristine...a little shoddy. The Divine Theater has been there for decades... and the owner and his niece have run it together. There is a little drag with the headline and draw being burlesque... and Genie Divine is the star.
We meet Genie as she is performing and captivating against his will, Abel Kingdom, the Australian gym mogul. He is planning to purchase the rundown theater and turn it into one of his gyms. The uncle insisted he see the show...led him to a box seat and placed cheap champagne to impress.
But nothing was going to trick Abel in this surroundings... he knew all the angles...he couldn't be manipulated or lulled by what was to happen on stage...he had made a vow to never have anything to do with strippers or showgirls...he had no need for them. As he sat there accessing the theater and what he could do with it when it was his...the lights dimmed and the emergence of Genie... on an Aladdin's Lamp came up from the stage. The vision was otherworldly.....he moved closer to the railing of the box...this woman glowed... her skin, and red hair falling down her back...it was something... a body wrapped in a corset and hiding behind a huge ostrich fan. She was taunting him....beckoning him without saying a word...he wanted her to turn and look at him...to turn around and let him see her face...and those curves...He couldn't breath... he couldn't turn away...he was controlled by her body, movements and then....
Her Face....she turned to the audience and smiled...
She teased and played, taking bits off here and there...asking if she should... then thinking and waiting... maybe she won't... this went on until he thought he might leap over the box and take her away from all the other eyes staring and wanting her... men, women... it didn't matter... he wanted her and needed to have her...She then looked as if she was to bare it all and the lights went out and she was gone.
What... what... he gathered himself together and all the anger and bitterness came flooding back...so disappointed in himself...his lack of control during the show and lust for the girl. More determined then ever... he will buy this place and put his stamp on it.
All of these business decisions are happening behind Genie's back. She has no idea the financial situation her uncle is in... and he is tired, too. He has his life partner and they may move to California. They have lived through much and it just may be time to move on and let the theater go... But Genie doesn't feel that way.
Genie is thankful and grateful for her uncle. He has raised her from a pup...abandon, left to him by her mother, she has grown up in this theater doing everything from sweeping, to managing, marketing and performing. It is the performing where she blooms...she is this empowered creature... out there in her mask of makeup,glitter and feathers... dancing and feeling the music...and interacting with the audience... showing them the beauty which is woman...not disgracing it... playing and teasing, flirting and having alluring fun. It is a lost art form and it is worth saving.
Genie confronts her uncle about the stranger in the box for she learned of him through her best friend. She was making the video of the performance as the Lamp was new. While shooting she panned to the box and saw this commanding, handsome man...She continued to shoot the performance but in the middle she returned to see the man...and what was captured was fascination, lust and want. What shocked Genie while viewing the video was her reaction to him was just as intense...she saw there was something there... more than just the animal...something lost and hurt.
What happens next is the confrontation...with a twist...because when Genie comes into the office to find out what the hell is going on... she is herself... meaning clean fresh skin, cut off shorts, flip flops and t-shirt...unassuming with her hair pulled back in a sloppy ponytail. Light years away from the vision she is on stage. Abel takes her for the cleaner as the uncle rushes her out of the office. Genie figures out a way to walk Abel out of the theater without revealing who she is...
Abel is forward... saying pick up lines for a tart...and she is unusually attracted to him despite his crass behavior...Because the chemicals are sparking and the draw is irresistible; so dinner plans happen. She will get answers as to why he is meeting with her uncle one way or another... because she thinks she has the upper hand...
Neither one of them had the upper hand in this game...Both think they are playing each other...but the only one who knows how this is going to go down is Mother Nature...the attraction is fatal...they both cannot resist...and the battleground chosen....He will have her theater; she will fight to keep it.
This story had a lot going for it... the beauty of Genie's beliefs in the good... to take what was given to you and make the most of it... to let go of the ugly and to love freely.
It had some of the sexiest quotes coming from Abel's mouth... he would say things and do things which in an instant get you thinking... did he actually say that????
There was a deeply sad part of the storyline...and when things finally come to a head...it is the understanding we have to love ourselves and no one can take away that ability... we have to be strong enough, brave enough to find the love within.
What didn't work for me was Abel...I understood everything about him... I figured out his issues early on and his behavior with Genie was difficult for me. People suffer from all sorts of emotional trauma yet at some point when interacting with another who clearly is not anyway similar to the past experience... then maybe it might help to step back and really listen to what the other person is conveying to you. He did have a broken heart and he had very sweet moments. The overall out come was good and resolved his other moments. He was redeemed.
The secondary characters were delicious... other performers with their special ways...her best friend and more...I can see other books sprouting from this.
Kitty French's words delight...entrance and give you moments... to think about and enjoy. She did with this book, too.
A gifted copy was provided by author for an honest review.
‘I’ve left my keys downstairs,’ she said. ‘There’s a spare in your
set.’
He frowned, fishing his keys out of his jeans. ‘I havea key to
your door?’
‘You did, until now,’ she corrected. ‘I’ll have it back, please.’
‘Do you have one for my door?’
Genie sighed. ‘Yes.’
‘Then you can have yours back when I have mine.’
He really was a world class wind-up, and her temper
flared. ‘Stop being a dick and give me my key, Abel.’
He flicked through the keys and identified the one for Genie’s
door, then stepped forward and slid it into the lock.
‘Don’t call me names when I’m helping you out,’ he admonished her silkily.
She half laughed at the absurdity of his statement. ‘You’re not helping me. You’re trying to take everything I have. Believe me, I’ve called you far, far worse in my head. Be glad you only heard dick and liar.
’‘I haven’t lied to you, Beauty,’ he said, after a heartbeat, his hand still on the keys in the door. ‘Not once.’
‘You’re lying to yourself too if you believe that, Abel,’ she said,
her words softened by his term of endearment. ‘I sawyou the first
time you came here. You were turned on watching me onstage.
And again, watching me tonight.’
‘You’re dead wrong,’ he muttered, his eyes nailed to her door.He was close to her, and she could almost feel the anger contained in his taut body.
She wasn’t wrong and she knew it, and she sensed that
this went to the core of him. Reaching out, she placed a hand on his chest and saw him close his eyes in silent resistance.
‘Is it so bad to be turned on by me like this, Abel?’ she said,
feeling his heart beating hard against her palm.
‘Don’t fuck with me, Genie,’ he ground out, pushing her door
open. ‘I mean it.’
It was one of those moments when sense goes out the window
and instinct takes over. Genie tugged at the belt of her robe and
shrugged it off, letting it fall to the floor in one fluid motion,
revealing her body in nothing but the nipple tassels and tiny crystal
g-string she’d left the stage wearing.
‘Is it so bad to want me when I look like this, Abel?’
He turned towards her and dropped his eyes, his palms scrubbing over his jaw as if he didn’t trust his hands if they weren’t occupied.
‘I told you not to fuck with me, Beauty,’ he breathed, almost
agonised, and she saw the exact, dangerous moment that his resolve snapped.
He shoved the keys into his pocket and then his hands were on her waist, lifting her up onto the hallway table, sending the lamp flying as he parted her thighs with his hip to let him in between them. Genie gasped when he tipped her chin back with his hand and dipped his head to her throat, the erotic drag of his hot and open mouth down her skin. The clean, aromatic scent of his hair surrounded her, dark silk falling over his brow as a
low, animalistic growl rattled through his chest.
Genie put her hands on either side of his stubbled jaw and lifted
his head to hers, desperate for his kiss yet still shocked by the
intensity of it when he finally gave it to her. Hard enough to bruise,
designed to punish, profoundly sexy. She gulped down air and
dragged his head down again when he lifted it, his crotch hard in
hers as he clamped her against him with his hand splayed on her
back, his other hand cupping the back of her neck. He held her as a
man holds a woman he adores, and he kissed her as a man kisses a
woman he needs to fuck more than he needs to breathe.
Her hands moved under the bottom of his tee shirt, and he
broke off for the briefest of seconds to drag it over his head before
pulling her into him again, skin to skin. The sensation blindsided
her; the heat and the beauty of him. Tanned deep bronze in the
way that only a man who spends his life out in the sunshine can be,
with a fine trail of dark hair traced on his midriff that she wanted to
follow all the way down into his jeans. His hands move to cover and
cup her breasts, making her moan into his mouth.
‘I warned you not to fuck with me...’ he muttered again, still
angry even as his mouth gentled over her jaw, grazing the skin
beneath her ear, drifted over her collarbones to the swell
of her breasts in his hands, somehow lewder for the scant cover provided by the crystal tassels than if she’d been naked.
‘You’re covered in fucking glitter,’ he spoke against her skin as
he dragged her hips forward to the edge of the table and trailed his
tongue over the top curves of her breasts. ‘You too,’ she whispered,
smoothing her fingers over the gold dust that had transferred itself
onto his shoulders, his cheekbones, his abs.
She drew in a shuddering breath when Abel lowered his head
and licked around the edges of the sequinned tassels. No man had
ever touched her in costume like this before. Having his mouth slide
around the tassels was just about the sexiest thing she’d ever seen
or felt, and her body screamed for his tongue over her nipples.
‘Take these off,’ he said, tugging lightly on the tasselled ends,
his restless mouth roaming the curves her breasts. ‘Ineed to taste
all of you.’
Genie groaned with frustration, wanting him to see her too.
‘They don’t come off easily.’
Abel grumbled low in his chest, like an animal denied
his dinner. Genie understood; she wanted him to feast on her just
as much.
‘And this?’ he said, bending to kiss his way down her
stomach and lick along the top edge of the crystal g-string. ‘Is this welded on too?’
She shook her head, although he hadn’t waited for her
reply in any case. He’d already dropped to his haunches, his
fingers splayed on her inner thighs, holding her open. His hands wer
e firm and tanned against the smooth ivory of her skin. He move
d the barely- there barrier of her g-string aside with one finger and studied her, intent and intense, his lips parted just enough for Genie to be able
to feel the warmth of his breath between her legs.
Genie’s heart stopped beating for a few seconds. She’d thought
that she’d wanted him to touch her in the lift, but nowhere near as
much as she wanted him to put his mouth on her now. And then he
did, slow, warm and sure, the sweep of his eyelashes dark on his
cheek, his earlier restlessness replaced by unhurried sensuousness;
pure gold. Watching him, she smoothed her fingers over his hair, saw each stroke of his tongue a second before the sensation hit her
flesh.
The first orgasm Abel had given her had been urgent and extreme, driven by the need for speed. Tonight he took his sweet time, paying attention to her reactions, licking her slowly, circling his tongue harder when it made her fingers grab into his hair to rock herself onto his mouth for more. She lost focus when he laughed, low and sexy, then eased his fingers inside
her, drawing her clitoris into his mouth. He had her and he knew it, holding her in his mouth as her muscles jerked and she dug her fingernails into the smooth bulk of his warm, sports-star shoulders.
His breathing was almost as shallow as hers for a few seconds,
and he turned his face to drift barely there kisses a long her inner
thigh before rising to his feet. His cock strained hard against his
jeans, but he caught hold of her hand when she reached down to
release him.
‘Go to bed, Beauty.’
‘Come with me?’ she asked, quiet, wanting him, wanti
ng to give to him as he’d given to her.
Abel shook his head, and Genie could feel him retreating
even though he was as standing as close as he could possibly be.
‘That’s not how this is gonna go.’
Confusion clouded her mind. She couldn’t get the measu
re of him. He wanted sex with her really, really badly. He might not have
said it with words, but his cock couldn’t lie.
‘How is it going to go then, Abel? You get to help yourself to my
body but I don’t get yours?’
‘Don’t pretend you didn’t like it,’ he said. ‘You were the one who
took your clothes off, lady. I took it that you needed servicing.’
‘Needed servicing?’ she said, repeating his dumb insult because
it took her by surprise so much.
‘You heard me right.’ He scooped her forwards off the
table with his warm hands on her ass and set her down on her feet. ‘And now you’ve been serviced, so we can both go and get some sleep.’
Genie hated that the sound that left her lungs sounded like a
strangled cat, but it was all she could manage, to articulate the rage
and frustration and loathing that formed in her chest as Abel
touched his fingers to his brow in mock salute and disappeared into
his apartment without glancing back.
Inside his front door, Abel kicked the nearest chair so hard it flew across the room and made for the shower. Again.
Inside her front door, Genie heard the smash. Half of her wanted to
go and force him to take what he so obviously needed. The other
half of her wanted to smash something herself, preferably
something heavy over Abel Kingdom’s stupid, beautiful head.
USA Today Bestselling author Kitty French is a total romance
junkie; she loves to read it, watch it, and most of all to write it.
Her sizzling Lucien Knight trilogy topped the amazon erotic charts
on both sides of the Atlantic ~ everyone went crazy for Lucien
Knight, the wise cracking Viking sex god who can melt underwear from ten paces away.
Kitty lives in England with her husband and two young sons, and
she is mildly addicted to fairy lights, wine and stationery.
She also writes romantic comedy for HarperCollins under the
pseudonym Kat French.
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