Review of ‘Arrested Pleasures’ by Nanisi Barrett D’Arnuk

I was really on the fence about reading this lesbian BDSM book. My interest was totally piqued but I knew there were going to be some issues that might bother me. I was leaning towards skipping this one but the good reviews and the fact I wanted to read this author, had me changing my mind a few days ago. In the end, there were some issues that troubled me, but I do think this was a slightly above average, erotic-romance.

This book starts out with any traveler’s worse nightmare, having drugs planted on them in a foreign country. At least it’s one of my travel nightmares ever since I saw that Claire Danes’ and Kate Beckinsale movie that scared the crap out of me. This story takes a turn when Katherine (the main character) gets to stay with her lawyer at the ‘Palace of Kink and Pain’ while waiting for trial.

I guess I’ll go into a few of my issues first. For one, I did not like how the main character was literally thrown into a heavy kink scene. There was no communication at all about limits or anything important. While a safe word was set, the main was told she would be punished if she used it. That is like the exact opposite of what a safe word should be about.

While I was fine with all the poly aspects of the book, and actually liked the idea of basically a lesbian harem, I did not like seeing the main character Katherine having to do a scene with a woman that she did not like. Katherine only did it to please another woman that was there and not because she wanted too. It was a little too dubious consent-ish for my tastes.

There were a few other issues I had with the kink but I don’t want to over complain here. I do want to mention a story issue since I thought that the ending slowed way down. It was weird since the pace of the book before then was really nice so I was flying through the pages. Unfortunately, the ending became repetitive and was about mundane things that should have been discussed in a few paragraphs and not a whole chapter.

While I had plenty of issues, I did enjoy parts of this book. Besides the slowed-down ending, I liked the feel of how D’Arnuk writes. She is a new author to me and I would read her again. I’m not sure if her BDSM fits my tastes but I’m already thinking about reading her mystery series. I also liked that the book was more of a happy for now than happily ever after. If D’Arnuk would have wrapped everything in a big bow and completely changed how some of the characters were, it would have been really unbelievable. The ending was more satisfactory this way.

This type of BDSM is a little more on the scale of pain kink. This won’t be everyone’s tastes so just be aware of going into it. I don’t think this book was a personal fit for me, but there are some very positive reviews from others who really enjoyed this. I’m glad I got to read a book by D’Arnuk and I’m hoping the next book will be a better match for me. 3.25 Stars.

A copy was given to me for an honest review.