Official Review: The Art of Pleasure by Julia Steed

[elisathelvarik]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Art of Pleasure" by Julia Steed.]

---

3 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

The Art of Pleasure by Julia Steed is a romance novel that follows Ashley, a college student who moves to California to get her degree in art history. On her first day, she meets the hot, charming art history professor Peter Billings who turns her entire world upside down. Illicit romance and sexual shenanigans ensue. Will Ashley and Peter get caught and pay the price of being in a teacher-student relationship? Will they survive in this forbidden romance? Read this compelling book to find out!

The Art of Pleasure is a novel about love, friendship, self-confidence, and passion. This book hooked me from the description. I am a huge fan of romance novels, and I love clichés. This book is a spectacular, risqué guilty pleasure read.

I liked a lot of elements of this novel. My favorite component of the book was the characters. Each character is genuinely fascinating and real. My favorite character is Ashley because she is an incredibly fun, independent, and ambitious woman. She's a surprisingly strong female character, which I did not anticipate. I thought this novel would feature a weak female lead and a dominant male counterpart, but I was amazed to find that this was not the case. Ashley is the more assertive one in the relationship, which is quite refreshing for a stereotypical forbidden romance novel. I also loved her best friend, Madeline. Madeline is an immensely charismatic female character who I would love to see in a sequel or book series in the future. She is consistently supportive and encouraging not only through advice but by being a self-sufficient and inspiring individual. I also liked the amount of drama throughout the book. Even though this book is short, it is bursting with all the romance and drama you need. The author does an incredible job of characterization and creating riveting scenes.

There are couple of things I disliked about this novel. One integral part I disliked was the pacing. Their relationship moves quite fast throughout the story. It felt like Peter and Ashley were together too quickly and did not have enough time to build a connection first. Since this novel is short, it is understandable why the author chose to do this. I do, however, think this could have been remedied by adding more scenes of Peter and Ashley learning about each other and forming a genuine bond. A small issue I had was the fact that the book contains a tremendous number of sex scenes. I expected there to be erotica, but the sex scenes occasionally interfere with the plot. Regardless, they were incredibly well-written, so they were not much of a problem for me. The last minor issue is that there are designated sections in this novel. This book is in four separate parts, which I found odd because the book is only 113 pages long. It is unnecessary to split up such a small story. Nonetheless, the separation of sections did not detract from the story.

I only found two typographical errors, and it was remarkably hard to find them. This book is exceptionally well-edited, which is a pleasant surprise. Many romance novels disregard typographical errors and correct grammar for drama and eroticism. It is refreshing to see a well-edited book like this one. The author also used a variety of words, keeping the text easy to read, but still exciting.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The general pacing of the story and lack of connection between the two main characters knocked this book down to a 3. If the story had more opportunities for Peter and Ashley's relationship to progress naturally, this book would have been a 4. I love this novel and recommend it to erotic romance lovers who want a short and exhilarating read. Since this book contains explicit content, I would recommend this book to readers over the age of eighteen.

******
The Art of Pleasure
View: on Bookshelves

[K-A-Y]

As a college student myself, I absolutely love college novels and forbidden romances so coming across this review seems like fate
Thank you for this well detailed review, if anything I'm now interested in giving this a look-see. I understand the fast-paced complaint too, sometimes you just want to see the process, watch them fall for each other and understand their bond. But then in the end, romance can also be aa whirlwind too

[Goodness C N]

Lately, I have found interest in reading romance novels. Your review on the other hand is interesting and gives an insight into what a reader should expect. Bravo

[Kaitlyn Canedy]

Reminds me of the song Don't Stand So Close To Me by The Police. I am glad that there is a book out there that is cliche but engaging. Too bad that the characters did not form a good friendship before the romance side kicked in. Great review!

[Praise GodWord]

The title and the book cover makes not desire this book. Could it be Ashley on the cover page?

[Jennifer Aldo]

The forbidden is always alluring. Your review makes me want to read the book. Great job.