Review - The Lovers by Eden Bradley

This review has some spoilers about the plot so I caution the readers before they continue with this particular review.

Imagine my surprise when I go searching for more books by Eve Berlin and discover that Eden Bradley is a pseudonym of the same author.

*cue angelic music*

This was fantastic.  I went back to the beginning of The Lovers and reread the story through the lense of Pleasure's Edge.  What I found is that beyond the two male characters both having tattoos and the heroines being writers the similarities of the stories diverged there. 

The Lovers introduces us to Bettina, Audrey and Jack.  And with them come instances of bicurious sex (for Bettina), menage a trois, and a relationship between man and woman (Bettina and Jack).  Because of the complexity of the relationships flying fast and furious in this story, at first, I expected more introspection between most of the characters, but as the story is written in first person (a marked difference between this and the Eve Berlin title), I knew that wouldn't be the case.  Eden Bradley made this very much a story for Bettina and how she learned to cope and deal with her issues. 

For such a short tale (only 250 pages in ebook), we see growth of the heroine over time that includes bouts of hot sex.  I loved seeing this in the story.  For me its verification that the heat of the moment doesn't fizzle out as Bettina begins to pick apart both herself and the relationships she is in.   Also, it allows the growth of the character to seem more realistic.  As a borderline agoraphobic it would be quite unbelievable to have the heroine suddenly be cured of all her ails because of freely given pussy and cock.  Instead Bettina comes to the conclusions about who she is and what she wants as her relationship with Jack and Audrey progresses.

To sum it up, The Lovers is an erotically rich novel that has well developed characters, a believable storyline, and sex so hot you'll scorch your fingers on the pages.