Mix Business With Pleasures Of The Erotic Sort With "At His Service"

Title:  At His Service
(Playboys of Boston  #1) 
Author:  Suzanne Rock
Format:  ARC
Length:  368 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Rating:  4 Stars

Leo Perconti's life is spinning out of control. As head of his family's hotel conglomerate, it's his job to save his family from bankruptcy. At the center of his turmoil is Karin Norell, a quiet, alluring housekeeping manager who compliments his dominating personality and lets him feel in control once more.

As Karin explores her passion, her feelings for Leo deepen. Unfortunately, Karin and Leo come from different worlds, and when the two worlds collide, the cost can be devastating. As the service staff at The Palazzo rise up against the Perconti family, both Leo and Karin are faced with losing what each of them holds most dear. Together they must learn that true power comes from vulnerability and trust that can only happen when you let your insecurities go.   - Goodreads


 My Thoughts

Having first been privy to this book as a serial novella, I must admit, this is a story best left whole.

The Cinderella-esque take on the whole billionaire vs. ingenue trope is one designed to keep one reading. The added factors of threat of discovery by both the media co-workers, and other members of the Perconti family; the juxtaposition their their employee to employer statuses against those of their burgeoning personal entanglements, and the powder keg of employee unrest among the lower staff, are all factors which are a serious draw for readers of erotica.

Leading man, Leo Perconti's intense and often times obsessive nature can be a little over the top. Thus requiring a bit of an adjustment period for the reader.
Luckily, Karin proves that she is not one to be bullied, blackmailed, or cornered by either his temperamental outbursts or his stoney silence.

The erotic interplay between Leo and Karin achieves just the right balance between truly erotic, and too much too soon for the middle class masses to which it is marketed.
The fact that the emotional bond between the two lovers is allowed to escalate, just as the eroticism does, is a sure fire win/win in the drama department.
This is a very necessary aid for a relatively flat performance story-wide, on the part of other parties. 

As stated earlier, the down-sides of this read lie in the moments which do not concern themselves with Karin and Leo. Those moments having instead to do with some other Perconti or a friend or acquaintance of Karin perhaps.
Instead of the sharp-edged technicolor view that we are given the privilege of in terms of all things Leo and Karin. We find ourselves lost in a sea of impressionistic water colors, which only hint at a picture that we are never fully allowed to see.

At His Service is a captivating exploration of love, sex, desire, and power, sure to make even the most hardened cynic believe in billionaire princes and passion filled 'happily ever afters'.

About Suzanne 

 A lifetime New Englander, Suzanne married her college sweetheart and has been with him for over twenty years. Every summer she drags her husband and two daughters to Maine on a quest for the perfect lobster dinner. Every fall she can be found down in Foxboro, Massachusetts cheering on her favorite football team. In between those trips, she’s a chauffeur, a maid, a chef, an event planner, a hairdresser, a wardrobe stylist, a tutor and a sometimes masseuse. To keep her sanity, she often drinks copious amounts of coffee and stares at the blank screen of her laptop, dreaming of great adventures. Sometimes she even writes them down for others to enjoy. Suzanne is represented by Deidre Knight of The Knight Agency and writes mainstream romances under the pen name Ava Conway.

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