La Crimson Femme

This is not my type of book. It was very difficult for me to get through this book. I couldn't connect with the characters at all. Not only could I not connect with Zane, Vanessa and Beau, I didn't like them. I liked Beau and felt he got the shaft from his friend Zane. It never felt resolved.

This book could have been cut down to about 1/3 of the size for me. The majority of it dragged with trying to find Jake the asshole. There were threads that fizzled out regarding Gage. I get that Gage's story will probably go hand in hand with Travis's story. I just couldn't get the energy to even think about it.

Vapid Vanessa drained me. I can't really tell what Zane likes about her. She has no redeeming qualities. She is weak and indecisive. She is stuck on being older than Zane yet she's not nearly as mature.

What I really couldn't understand was the business decisions Travis made. Seriously, he's going to open this luxurious resort and let Vanessa run a spa while Travis runs a club. WTF? They have absolutely no credentials or experience to make them remotely qualified. I'm not being a snob because Vanessa doesn't have formal education. I'm questioning how the hell a cleaning lady can run a spa. Does she know how to run a business? NO. If she was the one running the cleaning business, at least she'd have some business experience. Has she ever worked in a spa? No. So how does she know how to hire the right people? What about the pricing? The same goes for Zane. He's a mechanic and now he wants to run an exclusive BDSM club? He doesn't even know much about the BDSM lifestyle. WTF?

Yes, these are "dressing" on the story but for me a major plot hole and caused me to be distracted and wondering what fantasy land this book is written. I get that this is fiction. But it's contemporary romance. This book is an example of nepotism at it's finest.

The only thing preventing the book from going to a 1 star is the sex. Ms. Edwards can write sex so good! Her menage is hawt. Her sex scenes are arousing.

My recommendation is to focus on the character development better. Create believable jobs and actions for the characters. Also, the story pace needs to be looked at. There are times where the story drags because there is no motion forward. The characters are spinning their wheels beating on their chest to declare they are alpha men. Or the women are having some kind of meltdown that just drags on. This makes the story overall a bit of a sloppy read. I could skip chapters and not miss anything important.