Off the Clock (Pleasure Principle) – book review

Off the Clock
by Roni Loren
Release Date: January 5, 2016
Book #1 in the Pleasure Principle series
Number of Pages: 358
Erotic Romance
Ages 17 and up
CW: suicidal, mental illness, grief, abuse
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Overtime has never felt so good…
Marin Rush loves studying sex. Doing it? That’s another story. In the research lab, Marin’s lack of practical knowledge didn’t matter, but now that she’s landed a job at The Grove, a high-end, experimental sex therapy institute, she can’t ignore the fact that the person most in need of sexual healing may be her. 

Dr. Donovan West, her new hotshot colleague, couldn’t agree more. Donovan knows that Marin’s clients are going to eat her alive unless she gets some hands-on experience. And if she fails at the job, he can say goodbye to a promotion, so he assigns her a list of R-rated tasks to prepare her for the wild clientele of The Grove’s X-wing.

But some of those tasks are built for two, and when he finds Marin searching for a candidate to help her check off her list, Donovan decides there’s only one man for the job—him. As long as they keep their erotic, off-the-clock activities strictly confidential and without strings, no one will get fired—or worse, get attached…

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Let me tell you, this book gets right to it. It dove right into the dirty talk and it was HOT! But it wasn’t just dirty talk and yearning, the author did a great job of introducing the characters and I was quickly invested. Just as quickly, they are yanked away from one another…only to meet up again years later.

Marin has been through so much in the years between meetings. In fact, Marin didn’t have such an easy life before she had that initial run-in with Donovan. But back then she kept a lot about herself a secret so he had no idea who she really was or what she was going through. When they meet again, he is essentially going to be her supervisor and learns those secrets bit by bit. Plus, they both realize they cannot resist their attraction to each other.

I was not prepared for how touching and poignant this story would get at times. There is so much both Donovan and Marin have to deal with from their pasts. Things they’ve attempted to ignore by working without stopping and throwing themselves fully into every new opportunity they’ve received. Once they start allowing those feelings to seep in, this story turned truly beautiful.

That’s not to discount how steamy this story was. I know I said it at the beginning, but this book is HOT! Such a wonderful mix of character growth and discovery along with a panty-melting connection between Marin and Donovan. Plus, many wonderful side characters promise to have stories that are just as sexy and emotional.

4 stars