ARC Review: Bloom (Black Rose, #2) by Helen Hardt. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bloom by Helen Hardt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Under his touch, your every desire will… Bloom

Today is the day Francesca Thomas was supposed to get married. All she wants is a stiff drink and a whole lot of distraction…which is exactly when she meets him. Tall, dark, and deliciously disguised, the man known only as Phantom awakens her every sense. All Frankie really knows about him is the raw, untamed chemistry that makes her want to relinquish herself―body and soul―to his touch…

Phantom has rules, all designed to protect his identity. No names. No personal information. But Frankie is a too-tempting ingenue who threatens all of his cautious, careful control. At the ultra-exclusive Black Rose Underground Club, he can explore each of her deepest, uncharted desires…so long as he keeps his public life―and his secrets―hidden.

Frankie’s ready to explore what lies between them. The intensity, the darkness, and the unyielding pleasure of it all. But while the mystery of Phantom is thrilling, secrets are one game she won’t play. And if she’s going to explore the forbidden, she’ll begin with finding out exactly who’s under the mask…
Bloom

New to the scene!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙💚💜🖤
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📘📙
World building: 🌎🌍🌏🌎🌍
Character development: 😠🙃😍😘🥰

The heroine: Francesca (a.k.a. Frankie) – she is a junior editor at a women’s magazine and is twenty seven years old. A month ago she broke up with her fiancee Penn when she found out he was cheating on her. Today, on the day that should have been her wedding, her sister announces her engagement. Frankie takes off and stops at the nearest bar to have a drink.

The Hero: Phantom – he is a businessman by day, and has an alter ego at night. He goes to a BDSM club called the Black Rose Underground to enact scenes in which he indulges his darkest and innermost fantasies. Many of the women he is with want to know him more, but the name Phantom is all he gives them and he wears a mask similar to the phantom of the opera. He doesn’t do relationships anymore, he only does scenes.

“This is separate from my other life—the life where I make a living, do my work.
Here, I dive into the deepest and darkest parts of my desires with willing partners.
And I never tell them my name.
Nor do I ask theirs.”

The Story: Frankie meets Phantom at the nice bar where she ended up for a drink and they get to talking. He shares his favorite drink, then they share a meal together, each of them promising to find out the others secrets. They meet again and he asks her to meet him a third time and go to a place where all her fantasies can come true.

“I want to find out who I truly am,” I say. “Because the person everyone knows? The person I know? I don’t think that’s really me.”

Meanwhile, Frankie’s magazine was looking for story ideas and Frankie said she would start investigating the BDSM scene in New York. It is hard to find information since everyone has to sign non-disclosure agreements at clubs like that. They can’t tell anyone where the club is, who they see there or what they see. Phantom is used to the club and has never gotten personal with any of the women he meets there or brings to the club. Though he finds himself wanting to be real with Frankie, though he can’t.

Of course this book is super steamy, though it doesn’t happen too quick, which I like, they get to know each other a bit, as much as they can anyway without knowing names. I like that Phantom introduces Frankie to the lifestyle slowly. I like that Phantom feels different about Frankie from the start than any of the other women he plays with. I think that is why I like the playboy Heroes so much. As a woman, you always want to be the one that changes them, the one that stands out from the crowd. So I like to read those types of stories.

There were some side storylines that got quite good as the book went on, with things happening in their lives. I liked the part about the story Frankie was working on and was glad that it all happened in a different way than what I expected at the beginning.

I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

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