Tell Me When by Mia West

Tell Me When
by Mia West
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

I pretty much stopped reading for the month of November. I feel like I didn't get through any books. But...that's not quite true. I spent two or three evenings in November reading Tell Me When by Mia West. And let me tell you, it was totally worth it.

This was a big one for me. It was a little different than a typical romance novel. It was set up as a collection of seven different adventures for Bryn. Each one can somewhat stand on its own, but they're all one connected story. Each story is very sexual and I would say they all include some kind of taboo or uncommon bit of sexuality. Bryn has sex with multiple partners and that could possibly be a turn off for some people, but the story is a time-travel adventure that lives outside “normal” life for me. There was no judgement in any of the scenarios and only a small amount of jealousy from the main characters' relationship. All of the sex scenes were very hot and steamy and pushed limits in a consensual way.

So this is a romance that develops slowly over the course of all the adventures. In general, a large chunk of the sex is not connected to a relationship but the author carefully explores the idea of objectification and shows (in this fantasy world) how sex can be caring and individual even if it doesn't lead to a permanent relationship.

As for the world-building, I still had a lot of questions when I got to the end of the series. I didn't find a lot of answers to the hows and whys behind the story. A couple details were shared, but I wasn't completely satisfied with the way the world was setup.

But the romance, the sexuality, the acceptance, the interestingness of the adventure? Pulled me in and I had trouble putting the book down. It was raw and gritty, some parts of pain and gruesomeness, but very sexy with lots of positive feelings for me. I will definitely look for more by this author.

Note: The first story in this combined series is Initiation which I also blogged about here. It's a great introduction to see if you'd like the whole story.

*This review is archived on my blog: The Theory of Lieto Fine