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| Tempted | 
 enlarge | Author: Megan Hart
Publisher: Spice
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $8.07
You Save: $5.88 (42%)
New (23) Used (11) from $7.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 4684
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 4.9 x 1.3
ISBN: 0373605196
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780373605194
ASIN: 0373605196
Publication Date: January 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Another Spellbinding Offering from Hart December 29, 2007
11 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is the third of Megan's Spice books and like Dirty and Broken, it's a disturbing, engaging, intense and emotional read. It could just be me but I don't really think that blurb does the book justice. The book isn't about James and Alex so much although they're both integral to the plot. It's about Anne.
Anne is a compelling character because she's so real. She's a wife, she's got to deal with her in-laws, her household, her job, her life, her husband. She loves her life and then something gets tossed into the mix and it turns her universe upside down. The strength of the book is Anne's journey. Who she is, what happens to her. How the addition of Alex into her universe upsets the balance.
Tempted is about unintended consequences. It's about love and connection and in many ways, it's about what happens when you take a fantasy and make it real. It's never what you expect and quite often you realize it changes you in ways you can't take back, you can't forget.
It's a beautiful book in many ways. Smart, sexy. Megan is an amazing writer (and yes, she's my friend but I'm certainly not the only one who thinks so and even if I did, it's still my opinion). Tempted takes risks. It's not a typical romance novel at all. In fact, I'd say it's more a novel with strong romantic elements because the HEA is more Anne's than anyone else's.
Anyway, I quite honestly can't think of too many authors right now with the kind of talent Megan has. It's pretty awe inspiring sometimes to read something so intensely beautiful and to know from my perspective as a crit partner, just how she constructs her books.
Tempted isn't lighthearted. It's intense so it's not an afternoon of lazy happy reading. It's not a downer either, it's just, well intense. It needs some time and attention. But you won't be sorry.
WOW January 11, 2008
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
This was an excellent read. Her book was a large departure from my typical romance reads. To be honest, I rarely divert from my favorite authors, but the cover was so tantalizing - that on impulse I purchased it. I had expected a hot read, but what was delivered was far more complex and compelling. The story was undeniably sexy and pushed the bounds, but the complexities of the dynamic relationships portrayed were just as engaging.
I will certainly be heading back to find her previous books. I am grateful for the impulse to buy this book. The cover did a fantastic job of grabbing my attention.
Two + One = Wheeeeeee! May 9, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Early in Tempted, while making love with her husband, the heroine, Anne, marvels how he touches her in just the right way. Of course, he has it easy. "...I usually wanted what he wanted me to want," she explains.
The degree to which this is true - how much Anne is willing to buy into her husband's choices for her - forms the main conflict in this involving and steamy romantic novel.
Anne's capacity to accept her husband's desires, as well as her own, are tested when he introduces her to his long-missing boyhood friend, Alex. From the first time she hears her husband, James, on the phone with Alex, Anne is suspicious of their relationship. There's an intimacy there, an undercurrent of shared secrets, a flirtatiousness, maybe a submissiveness....she can't put her finger on it, but something isn't right.
When Anne finally meets the mysterious Alex, her curiosity and concern are quickly intermingled with attraction and desire. Alex is one fine man: charming, handsome and, as the Aussies say, dead-sexy. .
Soon, it becomes clear that James wants Alex involved with their marriage in a manner that would surely get them on the Jerry Springer Show, should they decide to take their arrangement public. But why? What happened between Alex and James all those years ago?
Moreover, what does Anne want now? A chance to be serviced by two eager lovers? Alex all to herself? Her life with James back to the way it was? Or something else?
(And don't the two names - Alex and Anne - sound as if they belong together? Or is the assonance merely reflective of James's desire to replace Alex with the next-best thing? Hmmmmm....)
As a gay man, I was concerned about Tempted. The set-up - happy marriage is threatened and perhaps destroyed by scheming homo homewrecker - sounded as if it could quickly turn ugly. But other reviews here on Amazon convinced me to take a chance.
I'm glad I did. Hart is too smart to make the gay guy the bad guy. In fact, he's not even gay - Alex appears to be the most easy-going and matter-of-fact bisexual you'll ever meet in print (if you don't count Madonna's picture book "Sex," that is). For Alex, playing both sides of the fence is natural and great fun. You go, Alex.
James, on the other hand...well, you'll have to read the book to find out what his motivations are.
But, mostly, this is Anne's story, and Hart does a lovely job of showing us her conflicting desires. Hart also maintains the suspense...there's a lot you don't know about everyone's backgrounds and motivations until late in the book. Up until the end, you're not even sure who will up wind up with whom. Oh you may guess, and you may be right, but you won't be sure.
There are also some interesting subplots involving Anne's family, and there are heroes and villains who get what they deserve.
Throughout this book, I was reminded of a line from Stephen Sondheim's great musical reworking of classic fairy tales, "Into the Woods." At one point, Cinderella, who is (ahem) tempted by the dashing Prince, is asked if she wants the life of a princess or not. "But how," Cinderella sings , "can you know what you want/Till you get what you want/And you see if you like it?"
By the end of the book, Anne gets what she wants. But will she like it? Would you?
One last thing I want to point out is how effectively Hart uses humor to dial down what otherwise might have been the overblown drama of Anne's dilemmas.
Especially funny are Anne's frustrations with her three challenging sisters, siblings who know how to push each other's buttons, and who often delight in doing so. Their comic, slangy conversations are great fun to read, and they serve as a reminder that Anne's life (like ours!) is defined by more than just her relationships with men.
This is a book for grown-ups. The reader who doesn't mind - or who loves - explicit scenes will be well rewarded by this examination of where an unconventional relationship can take us. Hart deserves much credit for sharing her characters' journeys without judging them.
Scott Sherman, First You Fall: A Kevin Connor Mystery
Not your usual romantica January 7, 2008
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Megan Hart's Tempted is not your typical romantica, erotica or even romance novel. The story is deep, intense, and thought provoking. There are strong family dynamics and dysfunctions both from Anne and her husband James own relationship plus that of their respective families. And then when James' best friend Alex becomes part of the mix the angst rises on so many fronts. There is not the typical "happily ever after" I have come to expect from this type of book -- and the book rather defies any category you might want to put it into. I think that this would be an amazing discussion book for a book club (if you could get your average readers over the menage aspects of the book).
Erotica, But More April 27, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
*****
I didn't expect a whole lot from this novel, and started it with some trepidation, as it was the first erotic novel I've ever read. I was pleasantly surprised at its complexity and depth and power to make me think, perhaps even more than its obvious entertainment value.
This is the story told in the voice of Anne, a wife and daughter, someone ostensibly very happy with her life. To her surprise, life's circumstances lead her into changing complicated sexual relationships with her husband and her husband's best friend.
It's the sort of story that answers the question "how could someone ever be involved in something like THAT"---a "threesome"? After reading "Tempted" you can understand, you can see and even empathize (or at least I did) with how such an unusual sexual and even more so---emotional---relationship could happen.
There are many strong subplots, including family issues such as how we regard our parents as adults, how we learn to stand up for ourselves and ask for what we want, and probably most central---how we decide when to leave a relationship and when we stay. These subplots are played out not just in Anne's life, but in the lives of her sisters, her parents, and her in-laws.
"Tempted" has mystery, plot twists, great anticipation, and vivid descriptions. I gave it five stars because I think that the author did everything she could with the medium---writing a high-quality, provocative, thrilling erotic novel that appeals on many different levels.
Highly recommended, if you are looking for an erotic novel. Note that the language describing sexual activity is very explicit.
*****
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