Laura’s Review of Arouse (Spiral of Bliss, #1) By Nina Lane

Synopsis

"One day I'm going to touch you in a thousand different ways and show you how to touch me," he said. And he did.

Struggling with a tormented past, undergraduate Olivia Winter once led a practical but isolated life. Then she met Professor Dean West, a brilliant scholar of medieval history who melted Liv's inhibitions and taught her the meaning of both love and erotic pleasure. But after three years of a blissful, lusty marriage, Liv and Dean now face a crisis that threatens everything they believe about each other. And when dark secrets and temptations rise to the surface, the fallout might break them apart forever. 

What I Loved

           Wow, what a journey I have been on with Dean and Olivia and this is only the first book! This was a totally new and fresh way to write a romance and I absolutely loved it.  Instead of a story circling around two individuals falling in love and starting a relationship and all that drama.  Arouse centered around an already married couple very much in love but have hit a few rough patches in their relationship and are struggling to get back to something to happy.

          I loved how the story navigated from past to present so you not only learn about Olivia and Dean presently but you see how they met and how they fell in at the same time.  I was immediately drawn into the plot and the character of Olivia because she was so easy to relate to.  Nina Lane wrote her in such a beautiful way that you instantly fall in love with her and as she struggles to find her footing with Dean and her new feelings it was easy to understand where she was coming from and what she was experiencing.  My heart broke for her so many times and soared for her other times and because of that I couldn’t put this book down. 

Not So Much

          Overall I really have no huge complaints about the story.  It was so great and so detailed which is my usual complaint about stories so that was a huge plus for me.  The only hang up was that Olivia is really the main character in this story because most of the book is from her point of view but the main descriptions are of Dean. 

I always have big issues when the female is the lead but there are constant physical descriptions of the male and how beautiful and irresistible he is.  That’s wonderful that the man is so hot but when the same attention is not paid to the female in the story it gets a little bit on my nerves and I did feel at times the same attention to detail was not paid to Olivia and how beautiful she was.

To Sum It All Up!

         This was such an amazing story overall filled with lots ups and downs and I was truly left breathless at the end.  I wasn’t sure how I would feel reading about a married couple going through a hard time.  I was a little hesitant at first because that just seemed too depressing and dramatic for me and I didn’t think I would enjoy it at all.  But I absolutely loved this book and it was like a breath of fresh air reading a romance about a married couple, rather than two people just starting out.   

            I liked that the book was split into parts because it kind of marked the progression of the plot and turning points in Dean and Olivia’s relationship as well.  I also loved that the book towards the end switched to Dean’s point of view.  I didn’t expect it so it was a nice surprise and it was awesome to see what was going through his head during all this turmoil.  I truly loved this entire story and of course there was big cliff hanger at the end that I kind of saw coming but still had my eyes bugging out of my head.  Cannot freaking wait to start Allure! 

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