The Business of Pleasure – Justine Elyot

Being a big fan of Justine’s previous book, On Demand (review here), I was very excited to get my hands on her latest release, The Business of Pleasure. This, like the author’s previous book, isn’t a novel. It’s a collection of short stories written to a theme. The stories all fit together like the pieces in a jigsaw, and one of the story lines is continuous. That is, it’s about the same person and the stories are in chronological order. They’re simply interspersed by tales of other people that inhabit the same world and social circles. I’ve actually made it sound more complicated than it actually is; rest assured, everything will make sense when you start reading.

The main protagonist in the book is Charlotte. Looking for some spice in her life, she signs up to have her deepest, dirtiest fantasy fulfilled by some shadowy agency which specialises in such things. She gets what she wants, and a whole lot more. Turns out the bosses running the company have an interest in her, over and above taking her money. And this is where the real fun begins. Charlotte winds up working for the guys, helping to make other people’s fantasies come true.

However, Charlotte is considered to be so much more than an employee and things quickly become deeper and darker than she ever imagined possible. Is Charlotte in over her head, or can she handle the business of pleasure?

Well, what a fab book! I don’t want to give too much away, but I definitely think it works as a collection of stories. I’ll be honest, I didn’t enjoy The Business of Pleasure quite as much as On Demand, but that’s purely because some of the themes included in the book aren’t to my tastes. But that’s  not to say they’re not to yours. There’s lots of sex (naturally), spanking, bondage, swinging and much more.

The writing is superb; it flows wonderfully, the characters are very alive and the dialogue is sparky. I whizzed through the book in a matter of days, it was that interesting and easy to read.

If BDSM and darker themes are your bag, then you should definitely grab yourself a copy of this book. Immediately.

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