By Private Invitation (Salon Games)

by Stephanie Julian

[Cocktails and Books]

Annabelle Elder may deal with antiques, but she has passion for erotic art that can be directly linked the her dead parents, she doesn't have a love life that matches. When she decides to attend a New Year's Eve party at the famous Haven Hotel, she's soon finds herself in a world of pleasure she never expected with hotel owner, Jared Golden.

Jared has always made it known that he doesn't want a relationship with the women he entertains, but there is something about Annabelle that peaks his curiosity and his sexual appetites. But what Jared keeps saying is lust turns into something that only Annabelle can ease.

I don't know what I expected from this book, but I feel let down. Jared's hotel has a private salon where, by invitation only, members come to entertain their sexual desires. I guess I imagined, given the title of the book and the series name, we were going to be spending a lot of time at the Salon. Annabelle was so open to what she and Jared did that first night, I figured he'd introduce her to all sorts of pleasure within his little club. But outside of NYE and Jared sulking in it for a brief scene, we don't visit the Salon at all.

There was something about Jared and Annabelle that I couldn't connect with. It was almost like they were being standoffish with me as a reader while connecting with each other. There were times when I didn't like either of them, either because of the way they refused to truly open up to the other or the fact they used sex as a way to communicate instead of just using words. It's great when you have smoking hot sex, but sometimes there is a need to actually talk to each other about feelings and emotions.

I'm not giving up hope for the series. I'm intrigued by Jared's brother, Tyler and Annabelle's best friend, Kate, who will be in the next book in the series. I think these two will smoke by Annabelle and Jared on the heat scale.