Scan barcode
mawmom's review
3.0
Fetish box is a serialized novel in 3 parts, they must be read in order and all must be red to complete the story.
One of the opening lines in Fetish Box is "A virgin shouldn't own a sex shop" what a great premise to start a book with. Mary inherits The Fetish Box or The Box as the locals call it when the mother she had never met dies and leave it to her, along with a collection of unusual friends that are more like a family and a start to a new life.
Mary leads a journey of self discovery as well as a sexual awakening and finds love in the process, all the while dealing with a mystery attacker who has hurt her and her friends.
I loved the idea of this book, I liked the characters and felt they were pretty well developed if not fully explored in this format and length of book, I found the mystery/suspenseful element to be a bit predictable and it seemed almost an add in to create one more point of interest instead of being integral to the story. Some of the sex was well done and other parts felt a bit awkward and forced. Overall I liked the book, I liked the story it had great promise it just pans out as average however.
One of the opening lines in Fetish Box is "A virgin shouldn't own a sex shop" what a great premise to start a book with. Mary inherits The Fetish Box or The Box as the locals call it when the mother she had never met dies and leave it to her, along with a collection of unusual friends that are more like a family and a start to a new life.
Mary leads a journey of self discovery as well as a sexual awakening and finds love in the process, all the while dealing with a mystery attacker who has hurt her and her friends.
I loved the idea of this book, I liked the characters and felt they were pretty well developed if not fully explored in this format and length of book, I found the mystery/suspenseful element to be a bit predictable and it seemed almost an add in to create one more point of interest instead of being integral to the story. Some of the sex was well done and other parts felt a bit awkward and forced. Overall I liked the book, I liked the story it had great promise it just pans out as average however.
shai3d's review
2.0
I found THE FETISH BOX: OPEN ALL NIGHT to be a very hot quick read. I loved how Mary, who is a painter, would see everything as an artist would. I was rather surprised that she didn't carry around a sketchbook with her. The characters of Max and John are both very hot but I would preferred to have a bit more insight into them.
Okay let's get this out of the way. I very much enjoy erotica when it is done right which includes having a plot. THE FETISH BOX: OPEN ALL NIGHT is a shorter story being as it is only 79 pages long but that is more then long enough to have a good storyline as well as some character development. In this case however it is all about the sexual tension and the sex. Very disappointing.
Another thing that I found disappointing was the ending. There is no conclusion, that is unless you purchase the next in this serial. And no guarantees on that either. I would have really appreciated a warning that THE FETISH BOX is not a complete book but instead a part of a serial saga almost like a soap opera.
Try as I might I really can't rate this book higher then a 2. And I do want to warn you that this story is for adults only and it does have references to BDSM.
*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own
Okay let's get this out of the way. I very much enjoy erotica when it is done right which includes having a plot. THE FETISH BOX: OPEN ALL NIGHT is a shorter story being as it is only 79 pages long but that is more then long enough to have a good storyline as well as some character development. In this case however it is all about the sexual tension and the sex. Very disappointing.
Another thing that I found disappointing was the ending. There is no conclusion, that is unless you purchase the next in this serial. And no guarantees on that either. I would have really appreciated a warning that THE FETISH BOX is not a complete book but instead a part of a serial saga almost like a soap opera.
Try as I might I really can't rate this book higher then a 2. And I do want to warn you that this story is for adults only and it does have references to BDSM.
*** I received this book at no charge from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. All opinions expressed within are my own
anacarter's review
4.0
**ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review**
The Fetish Box: Open All Night is a short read. It's about a young girl, Mary, who was raised by her grandmother. She did not know her mother, and her father wasn't around that much. After finding out her mother had passed, she was left multiple things in her Will, including The Fetish Box....a sex store.
The intro was great, I loved being inside Mary's mind and hearing about her past. I loved the description of her mums house and her plans. Then it all started going a little different, when she meets John and Max.
John: He is an ex-military soldier. After and IED accident in Afghanistan he is left with a few burn scars on his face....but that does not make him any-less attractive, more interesting though. He lives above The Fetish Box Store.
Max: He's straight forward, knows what he wants and goes for it. He is from Ireland and has a sexy accent. He owns the other half of the bar in which Mary inherited.
Just as the story starts to get good, you're left hanging... :(
The overall story line is good, I did like the characters, you can feel yourself in the scene which is hard to achieve so that's why I gave it a little higher rating. It is just a bit all over the place, but I will definitely read the next novel, just to see what happens next!
Happy Reading!!
-Ana @SoManyBooksSoLittleTime
Review is also posted at So Many Books, So Little Timet
The Fetish Box: Open All Night is a short read. It's about a young girl, Mary, who was raised by her grandmother. She did not know her mother, and her father wasn't around that much. After finding out her mother had passed, she was left multiple things in her Will, including The Fetish Box....a sex store.
The intro was great, I loved being inside Mary's mind and hearing about her past. I loved the description of her mums house and her plans. Then it all started going a little different, when she meets John and Max.
John: He is an ex-military soldier. After and IED accident in Afghanistan he is left with a few burn scars on his face....but that does not make him any-less attractive, more interesting though. He lives above The Fetish Box Store.
Max: He's straight forward, knows what he wants and goes for it. He is from Ireland and has a sexy accent. He owns the other half of the bar in which Mary inherited.
Just as the story starts to get good, you're left hanging... :(
The overall story line is good, I did like the characters, you can feel yourself in the scene which is hard to achieve so that's why I gave it a little higher rating. It is just a bit all over the place, but I will definitely read the next novel, just to see what happens next!
Happy Reading!!
-Ana @SoManyBooksSoLittleTime
Review is also posted at So Many Books, So Little Timet
chrissymcbooknerd's review
1.0
...the part of me that dreamed of wild sex and madness thought that inheriting a dirty-sex shop in Hollywood, Florida was the catalyst that would finally set my life in motion...
If you don't mind, let's start out with you playing a game of make believe with me. Just pretend, for a second, that you are a 24 year old virgin. You have just inherited a business and a house from your mother and you are going there to visit it for the first time. When you arrive, a stranger covered in tattoos is roaming around inside your house. When you meet him, he puts his smoke scented tongue in your mouth and stuffs his hands up under your shirt. He tells you that for a tiny thing, ye sure do have nice tits. I don't suppose ye'd let me suck on them a little?.
In this situation, would you: (choose all that apply)
A) Kick him where it hurts. HARD!
B) Scream BLOODY MURDER!
C) Call the police. IMMEDIATELY!
D) Tell him it sounds like a great idea and let him suck on them.
Well, of course it's D, right? DUH!
So, this is the situation that our virgin-turned-whore Mary encounters on her first day after inheriting her mother's kinky sex store. She meets two different men within minutes of arriving -- Max, the tattooed one, and John, the handsome one.
Although she has been saving herself for 24 years, waiting until it felt right, she decided within about 2 seconds that she would be allowing both Max and John to ravish her. Maybe even at the same time.
No, I'm not kidding. This really just happened.
Now, if this wasn't all bad enough, Mary learns that her mother was a dirty old dominatrix, and she finds mommy's old sex toys all nicely arranged in her mom's sex room, which was conveniently decorated with porn all over the walls. She decides to borrow one of the toys and play with it while she imagined the two sexual predators that she just encountered.
So, of the two, John is the polite one, I suppose, because he offered to teach Mary how to have kinky sex by setting up private lessons for her. Max, on the other hand, went to the bar to publicly ravish some random waitress first, because he is apparently the womanizer of the bunch.
'You're not my father' she told him.
'I'd still like to spank you.'
I'm just stunned. I have no words. How? Why? WHAT?
I can't wrap my mind around how I, as a reader, am supposed to identity with Mary or care about her or see her as anything but a desperate little tramp. WHAT in the world happened to make this VIRGIN allow a strange man to practically rape her within seconds of their first meeting? I mean, the bizarre sex acts start almost IMMEDIATELY without the reader ever getting to know Mary, Max, OR John. It's literally like, Hi! Nice to meet you! Now let me ravish your breasts! Thanks!
WTF?
This was seriously the strangest little book I've read in a while. Rather than being sexy and fun, it was just disturbing and scary. After the whole creepy scene at the beginning, Mary borrows her mother's sex toy and announces that I would have liked to go on my knees in front of Max... or John, for that matter... or in front of Max with John behind me...
HUH? WHAT?
I just don't know. I don't get it. And why did this novel just STOP? I mean, don't get me wrong -- I'm glad it stopped. If Mary lets strangers get THIS far in the first ten pages, I'm scared to see what she does when she gets to know them, like an hour or two in, right? But, to just stop in the middle of a sentence and tell readers to go purchase another book entirely? It's just dumb. Who wants to do that?
I admire any author who puts her thoughts out there and manages to create a work of fiction and go through the steps to get it published. I hate to completely diss anyone's creation, because I know that writing is fiercely personal and intimate for an author, for sure.
But this? I just don't understand. I have no plans to continue this train wreck, and I apologize to the publisher who provided me a free copy of this novel for the purposes of a review, because I really just thought it was THAT awful.
If you don't mind, let's start out with you playing a game of make believe with me. Just pretend, for a second, that you are a 24 year old virgin. You have just inherited a business and a house from your mother and you are going there to visit it for the first time. When you arrive, a stranger covered in tattoos is roaming around inside your house. When you meet him, he puts his smoke scented tongue in your mouth and stuffs his hands up under your shirt. He tells you that for a tiny thing, ye sure do have nice tits. I don't suppose ye'd let me suck on them a little?.
In this situation, would you: (choose all that apply)
A) Kick him where it hurts. HARD!
B) Scream BLOODY MURDER!
C) Call the police. IMMEDIATELY!
D) Tell him it sounds like a great idea and let him suck on them.
Well, of course it's D, right? DUH!
So, this is the situation that our virgin-turned-whore Mary encounters on her first day after inheriting her mother's kinky sex store. She meets two different men within minutes of arriving -- Max, the tattooed one, and John, the handsome one.
Although she has been saving herself for 24 years, waiting until it felt right, she decided within about 2 seconds that she would be allowing both Max and John to ravish her. Maybe even at the same time.
No, I'm not kidding. This really just happened.
Now, if this wasn't all bad enough, Mary learns that her mother was a dirty old dominatrix, and she finds mommy's old sex toys all nicely arranged in her mom's sex room, which was conveniently decorated with porn all over the walls. She decides to borrow one of the toys and play with it while she imagined the two sexual predators that she just encountered.
So, of the two, John is the polite one, I suppose, because he offered to teach Mary how to have kinky sex by setting up private lessons for her. Max, on the other hand, went to the bar to publicly ravish some random waitress first, because he is apparently the womanizer of the bunch.
'You're not my father' she told him.
'I'd still like to spank you.'
I'm just stunned. I have no words. How? Why? WHAT?
I can't wrap my mind around how I, as a reader, am supposed to identity with Mary or care about her or see her as anything but a desperate little tramp. WHAT in the world happened to make this VIRGIN allow a strange man to practically rape her within seconds of their first meeting? I mean, the bizarre sex acts start almost IMMEDIATELY without the reader ever getting to know Mary, Max, OR John. It's literally like, Hi! Nice to meet you! Now let me ravish your breasts! Thanks!
WTF?
This was seriously the strangest little book I've read in a while. Rather than being sexy and fun, it was just disturbing and scary. After the whole creepy scene at the beginning, Mary borrows her mother's sex toy and announces that I would have liked to go on my knees in front of Max... or John, for that matter... or in front of Max with John behind me...
HUH? WHAT?
I just don't know. I don't get it. And why did this novel just STOP? I mean, don't get me wrong -- I'm glad it stopped. If Mary lets strangers get THIS far in the first ten pages, I'm scared to see what she does when she gets to know them, like an hour or two in, right? But, to just stop in the middle of a sentence and tell readers to go purchase another book entirely? It's just dumb. Who wants to do that?
I admire any author who puts her thoughts out there and manages to create a work of fiction and go through the steps to get it published. I hate to completely diss anyone's creation, because I know that writing is fiercely personal and intimate for an author, for sure.
But this? I just don't understand. I have no plans to continue this train wreck, and I apologize to the publisher who provided me a free copy of this novel for the purposes of a review, because I really just thought it was THAT awful.
rosepetals1984's review
2.0
I probably had much higher expectations for this novella than I should've going in, but I'll be honest. I feel terrible about not liking "Open All Night" - the first part in a serial story called "The Fetish Box" by Nicole Camden. Not only did the cover seem very pretty (the half melted candle was a nice touch alongside the font), I was interested in seeing what directions a woman owning a sex shop would promote. Seemed like it would offer a combination of an atmospheric and character driven read from the premise, but unfortunately, all I came out of it with was something that felt like it ended too soon, and played into many cliches currently in the genre.
The story revolves around a woman who inherits her own sex shop and falls into sorts with two guys vying for her affections. Pretty much this novella has the "instalove machine" thing going. ("And I won't work for nobody but yooou..." Sorry, tangent.) It toggles between Mary's perspective and the guys John and Max. Max is the so-called "ladies man", John's more of the grounded guy with a bit of a love streak himself.
I wasn't taken with the fact that the story jumped right into a sex scene that Mary clearly stated she wasn't ready for. I'm thinking who would do that with someone they just met, and had no sexual experiences really to speak of? She's noted as a virgin, but the guy in question doesn't even kiss her or have much of an introductory conversation with her, just starts going for the sexy times (an explicit gesture at that). This kind of instaloving always turns me off because I like to see the characters connect in other ways first and build their relationships. Or, if they are in sexy times to start, there's already a well-established relationship between them (in this case, there wasn't.)
I'm trying to think of things to say about the characters themselves, but none of them really stood out to me, reflecting back on it. The development is very much surface, and there's not a true, deep POV to speak of here, even for a novella. John's reflections in some places looked like they were the closest to going for a deep POV, but they were mostly in and out between the sensual scenes. Maybe the in and out of the three POVs here were what turned me off - it felt like it was trying to go for too many things in such a short span of time, and maybe that was a product of the serialization - trying to cram all of it into one go in order to prep for the next transition (which made for a really awkward ending point). I think it would've turned out better if it just took its time and been a little fuller in composition, as well as been more realistic with respect to the interactions of the characters. I understand trying to start with the sensual elements considering the genre, but here - it felt forced and awkward in transition. There were a few parts in the writing that I did like in terms of development, but they didn't go as far as I think they could've gone - again for the brevity issue.
I'm going to give the second story a try to see if it improves, but I'm not very confident, unfortunately.
Overall score: 1.5/5
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Pocket Star.
The story revolves around a woman who inherits her own sex shop and falls into sorts with two guys vying for her affections. Pretty much this novella has the "instalove machine" thing going. ("And I won't work for nobody but yooou..." Sorry, tangent.) It toggles between Mary's perspective and the guys John and Max. Max is the so-called "ladies man", John's more of the grounded guy with a bit of a love streak himself.
I wasn't taken with the fact that the story jumped right into a sex scene that Mary clearly stated she wasn't ready for. I'm thinking who would do that with someone they just met, and had no sexual experiences really to speak of? She's noted as a virgin, but the guy in question doesn't even kiss her or have much of an introductory conversation with her, just starts going for the sexy times (an explicit gesture at that). This kind of instaloving always turns me off because I like to see the characters connect in other ways first and build their relationships. Or, if they are in sexy times to start, there's already a well-established relationship between them (in this case, there wasn't.)
I'm trying to think of things to say about the characters themselves, but none of them really stood out to me, reflecting back on it. The development is very much surface, and there's not a true, deep POV to speak of here, even for a novella. John's reflections in some places looked like they were the closest to going for a deep POV, but they were mostly in and out between the sensual scenes. Maybe the in and out of the three POVs here were what turned me off - it felt like it was trying to go for too many things in such a short span of time, and maybe that was a product of the serialization - trying to cram all of it into one go in order to prep for the next transition (which made for a really awkward ending point). I think it would've turned out better if it just took its time and been a little fuller in composition, as well as been more realistic with respect to the interactions of the characters. I understand trying to start with the sensual elements considering the genre, but here - it felt forced and awkward in transition. There were a few parts in the writing that I did like in terms of development, but they didn't go as far as I think they could've gone - again for the brevity issue.
I'm going to give the second story a try to see if it improves, but I'm not very confident, unfortunately.
Overall score: 1.5/5
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Pocket Star.
novelgoddess's review
2.0
GoodReads Synopsis: An enchanting eBook debut about a world where your fantasies come true and nothing is quite what it seems. Come on in to realize your heart’s darkest desire...Virginal twenty-two-year-old Mary has just inherited a sex shop in Florida from her mother. After a long drive from California, she arrives at her deceased mother’s house only to be confronted immediately with two equally sexy strangers: the strong, silent John and the irreverent, taunting Max. She’s innocent, almost completely untouched, but feels a completely uncharacteristic pull to each man. Shocking even herself, she realizes it’s not an unwelcome desire.
**THIS TITLE INTENDED TO A MATURE, 18+, AUDIENCE**
My Thoughts: I would have liked this more and rated it better if it wasn't so short and quit just when we were getting to the good part. Apparently out in the publishing world it is becoming common place to serialize books and spit out small chunks at a time...personally this is something I hate! That's what seemed to be going on with this book. Now I got this first part as a galley with no guarantee that I will receive subsequent sections...nor was it clear going into this title that any of this was the case. Hence the 2 star score. I would really have like to read the WHOLE thing at once!
**THIS TITLE INTENDED TO A MATURE, 18+, AUDIENCE**
My Thoughts: I would have liked this more and rated it better if it wasn't so short and quit just when we were getting to the good part. Apparently out in the publishing world it is becoming common place to serialize books and spit out small chunks at a time...personally this is something I hate! That's what seemed to be going on with this book. Now I got this first part as a galley with no guarantee that I will receive subsequent sections...nor was it clear going into this title that any of this was the case. Hence the 2 star score. I would really have like to read the WHOLE thing at once!
librarianryan's review
4.0
4 Stars
Mary has never met her mother and now she will never get the chance. Mary, through her mother’s estate becomes the owner of The Fetish Box, a well known Florida sex shop. The ironic thing is, Mary’s a virgin. Mary also inherits two business partners Max and Jon. Max is a confident man who will take his pleasure anywhere he can find it. Jon is more stoic and quiet, but still gets possessive.
The Fetish Box is a serialized novel and each piece is quite short. Worst part of all is part one ends just when you get to the good stuff and leaves you anxious for part two.
Mary has never met her mother and now she will never get the chance. Mary, through her mother’s estate becomes the owner of The Fetish Box, a well known Florida sex shop. The ironic thing is, Mary’s a virgin. Mary also inherits two business partners Max and Jon. Max is a confident man who will take his pleasure anywhere he can find it. Jon is more stoic and quiet, but still gets possessive.
The Fetish Box is a serialized novel and each piece is quite short. Worst part of all is part one ends just when you get to the good stuff and leaves you anxious for part two.
More...