Winter Pleasures

Rating:
Summary: 4 stars from Timeless Tales
Review: by TT reviewer Nicole La Folle
Sienne has known she would be a sex slave since she was five years old and Cyrus' soldiers killed her family and took her to live with her foster parents.

For three years, since she turned eighteen, she has been trained to please men, but has taken no pleasure in it.

Now she has new orders from Cyrus. He will give her to Lord Marken of Nordan and for three months she will pleasure him and learn the military and political secrets of the northern country from him. She will then supply the information to Cyrus or he will kill her and her foster family.

When Marken is presented with the beautiful sex slave he accepts her, but has only one thought - to set her free. He is offended by the very thought of keeping a woman as a slave. Women are to be cherished as life givers and shared among all the men to ensure fertility,not beaten and hurt, kept only for a man's pleasure.

After Cyrus leaves, Marken attempts to give her money and a horse to flee to a neighboring country, but Sienne cries and pleads to be allowed to remain with him. He can't turn her out into the bitter Nordan winter so he tells Sienne that while he will take no unwilling woman to his bed, even though she pleasures him more than any other woman ever has, if she is adamant about remaining with him he will allow it. When she insists on staying and serving him in the bedchamber he vows to teach her to take pleasure in a man's touch before the winter is over.

Winter Pleasures is a fun and sensual journey. It shows the clash of two cultures, the god worshipping south and the goddess worshipping north, and demonstrates how such simple differences can lead to extremely different cultures. Sienne must struggle to adapt to her new environment, one which celebrates womanhood and love play, when she has been trained from a young age to expect only pain and discomfort from men
and that sex is not just her purpose in life, but something dirty and kept behind closed doors. Overall this is a very interesting story that is sure to keep you entertained and the good news is, it has a sequel due out in a few months.

Rating:
Summary: 4 stars from Timeless Tales
Review: by TT reviewer Nicole La Folle
Sienne has known she would be a sex slave since she was five years old and Cyrus' soldiers killed her family and took her to live with her foster parents.

For three years, since she turned eighteen, she has been trained to please men, but has taken no pleasure in it.

Now she has new orders from Cyrus. He will give her to Lord Marken of Nordan and for three months she will pleasure him and learn the military and political secrets of the northern country from him. She will then supply the information to Cyrus or he will kill her and her foster family.

When Marken is presented with the beautiful sex slave he accepts her, but has only one thought - to set her free. He is offended by the very thought of keeping a woman as a slave. Women are to be cherished as life givers and shared among all the men to ensure fertility,not beaten and hurt, kept only for a man's pleasure.

After Cyrus leaves, Marken attempts to give her money and a horse to flee to a neighboring country, but Sienne cries and pleads to be allowed to remain with him. He can't turn her out into the bitter Nordan winter so he tells Sienne that while he will take no unwilling woman to his bed, even though she pleasures him more than any other woman ever has, if she is adamant about remaining with him he will allow it. When she insists on staying and serving him in the bedchamber he vows to teach her to take pleasure in a man's touch before the winter is over.

Winter Pleasures is a fun and sensual journey. It shows the clash of two cultures, the god worshipping south and the goddess worshipping north, and demonstrates how such simple differences can lead to extremely different cultures. Sienne must struggle to adapt to her new environment, one which celebrates womanhood and love play, when she has been trained from a young age to expect only pain and discomfort from men
and that sex is not just her purpose in life, but something dirty and kept behind closed doors. Overall this is a very interesting story that is sure to keep you entertained and the good news is, it has a sequel due out in a few months.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book - not to be missed
Review: Do NOT miss this book. It manages to be both hot and sweet at the same time.

Exceptional erotic romance.

Rating:
Summary: Only complaint - wished it were longer!
Review: I guess books like this often are not very long - but this one was so good I could have read so much more of it! A real emotional tale on so many levels!! Very intense, very sexy and certainly erotic - could not put it down!!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book - not to be missed
Review: Sienne has been trained as a sex slave all of her life. She has given many men great pleasure, but has never known her own. When she is given to Nordan leader, Lord Marken as a gift from her owner, Cyrus, her life changes forever.

Sienne has never known a man like Marken before, he treats her with kindness and protectiveness. When he promises that he will train her in the art of pleasure and also promises that he will buy her freedom from Cyrus when he returns for her in the spring, Sienne already begins to lose her heart. Sienne feels guilt for taking Marken’s kindness when she must betray him. She is under Cyrus’ orders to find out as much information as she can about how the Nordan army is run and report what she finds out back to him.

But as the winter months pass, Sienne and Marken spend their days and nights together, falling in love, losing themselves in each other.

Can Sienne betray the man that she loves, who has taught her so much about pleasure and herself? Will she ever truly be free of Cyrus?

WINTER PLEASURES: THE TRAINING is sensual, passionate, intriguing and in no way cold as the title might indicate! Outside may be cold, but these characters heat up the castle with passion, lust and suspense.

Anya Bast writes an intriguing and titillating tale of a different culture that is comfortable and free with their bodies and their pleasure. I was held captive by Sienne. She is an intelligent and strong heroine who was raised cruelly and unjust, yet she still has the grit and determination to save herself. The passion that she and Marken incite together is intoxicating and scorching hot, their love pulsates and readers can feel their connection. Marken is a delicious male, Lord of his castle, stubborn, intelligent and very protective of Sienne which endears him to readers. He is a man that sets women’s hearts beating at a rapid pace.

Ms. Bast writes her first romantica, WINTER PLEASURES: THE TRAINING with a sure-hand, a captivating story and fantastic characters...primary and secondary ones. In this story we hear Marken say “emotion knows no rank, no class”....I agree. And this reader says that “Anya Bast ranks very high with her first romantica and it is a PLEASURE to put her in the same class with all of my favorite authors.”

Reviewed by Tracey West for The Road to Romance

Rating:
Summary: A true pleasure to read!
Review: The main character, Sienne, has been a sex slave since she was 18 and has never known pleasure in the bedroom. She is given to a lord in the neighboring country of Nordan as a gift by the man who owns her, Cyrus. She is meant to stay with Lord Marken until the end of winter. Cyrus has told her to gather intelligence from Marken over the season. If she doesn't, he will kill her family.

In Nordan they worship a Goddess and don't believe in keeping women as sex slaves. Marken accepts Cyrus's gift only so he can free Sienne, but she refuses to leave. Little does he know she can't because of the threat hanging over her head. He agrees that she can stay, but on one condition. He wants to "train" her to enjoy lovemaking over the winter.

And boy does he!!! He also falls in love with her.

This is one HOT read. The romance is tender and well-written, and the sex scenes are scorching. I can't wait to read the sequel! Recommended to anyone who likes hot romance and fantasy.