Novella Review – House of Immortal Pleasures by Katie Salidas (3/5 stars)

I got this book as a digital copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.  Overall this was a pretty good book.  It is a quick read at 50 some pages, takes a little over an hour to read.  It is a romance/erotica novel with light paranormal elements.  Definitely intended for an adult audience.

Daphne is kidnapped by her friends and brought to the House of Immortal Pleasures (a vampire brothel).  Her friends are trying to help her get over an ex-boyfriend who was a jerk to her.   Meanwhile Connor has been sentenced to work at the House of Immortal Pleasure as punishment and this is his last night there.  Will Daphne succumb to peer pressure and decide to sample the wears at the House of Immortal Pleasure?  Will Connor be released from his punishment there?

Okay so if the above sounds a bit corny as a plot…well it is.  Daphne’s friends are colossal jerks and I hope I never have a friend like any of hers.  The whole purpose of the story is to get to the parts where Daphne and Connor have hot steamy sex.  Oops…did I give away part of the story?  Not really, did you really have any doubt the the brooding punished alpha male and the suppressed and hurt beautiful woman would get it on?

Salidas’s writing style is very readable and engaging; I actually like the style of her writing quite a bit.  She puts in all the necessary elements for your typical paranormal erotica romance novel.  You have the alpha male, the hurt female, hot steamy scenes, and the inevitable falling in love of the two.  Salidas does it well enough, but it is something you have read before.

The characters are very stereotypical and the story goes exactly like all the other stories in this niche do.  So no surprises really.  Salidas treats vampires the same way most paranormal authors treat them; there wasn’t anything really all that creative or groundbreaking about her representation of them.

The sex scenes are kind of standard.  Nothing too creative or interesting.  From the cover it looks like there is bondage involved, but the sex is your standard run of the mill stuff.  Which is fine, but from the description and the menu the girls go through in the restaurant I was expected something less….normal.  Daphne and Connor do have some chemistry together; so they are engaging just not outstanding.

Overall if you want a quick hot steamy read about vampires then this is the book for you.  It is written well and easy to read.  Just don’t expect anything out of the ordinary; the characters are stereotypical, the plot predictable, and the sex pretty uncreative.  It would be a great quick summer read and if you are fan of vampire erotica you might want to check it out.  Overall an okay book.  It does make me want to check out her urban fantasy Immortalis Carpe Noctem since I liked the writing style and am more of an urban fantasy fan anyway.