Night Owl

May 19, 2014
Pierce’s erotic romance trilogy opener introduces characters who are rich in flaws. Hannah Catalano is the anonymous writing partner of the mysterious Matt Sky, until they track each other down in Denver. Ignoring his own “assholery” for cheating on his traveling girlfriend, Matt acts on his attraction to Hannah and they begin an intense, kinky, sexual relationship. As the reasons behind Matt’s contradictory behavior are revealed, Hannah takes a step back, trying to decide whether she can commit to such a tumultuous relationship. Readers who aren’t put off by Matt’s derogatory dirty talk (e.g., “you’re such a slut”) will appreciate the slow, strong build of plot and romance.

June 15, 2014
A secretive author meets a young woman online, leading to an affair that turns destructive. Matt Sky-who has a secret life as the best-selling but pseudonymous author M. Pierce-inexplicably begins exchanging manuscript pages with Hannah, a fledgling writer he met online and finds attractive. He pursues her in person, and the two begin a highly erotic affair. Matt has a girlfriend who's traveling internationally, so after a couple of weeks of hot sex with Hannah, and an increasingly tender-or possibly co-dependent-attachment, he calls the girlfriend and breaks up with her via cellphone. Girlfriend gets really mad and outs Matt as M. Pierce, which creates a shock wave across the world. Hannah can't believe Matt didn't tell her and won't talk to him. Ever. Again. Except once he goes into a downward spiral, she realizes she is the cause. So of course she must help him through it. M. Pierce (yes, that's the name of the actual author as well as the main character) has penned a well-written if melodramatic erotic novel. While the storyline seems compelling on the surface, a few questions come to mind: Why is a best-selling author exchanging pages with a young, unknown writer? Why, after a few weeks of a relationship, would a woman feel entitled to know her lover's deeply hidden secret identity? Why would that woman-who felt like he was the most amazing thing that ever happened to her-feel so outraged by his "betrayal" that she'd cut him off completely? Especially when she knows he's a recovering alcoholic and then, reading his biography after he's been outed, learns he survived a suicide attempt? The first third of the book is promising, but once M. Pierce is outed, what is presented as drama is more like seventh-grade immaturity. Erotically charged, but the characters are immature and annoying.

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