Review: Off the Clock by Roni Loren (Pleasure Principle #1)


Note: This ARC was provided by Berkley Publishing Group via Author's Pal in exchange for an honest review.

Her gaze sparked at his grip, sexy challenge there.That's when he knew there was no going back. This was going to happen. Marin wanted him in her bed--to teach, to explore, to show here things she'd only fantasized about. She wanted raw, gritty sex. And she wanted to do it with him. Holy fucking gift from above.


Bestselling author Roni Loren's Pleasure Principle series starter, Off the Clock, brings forth a unique premise--that of a sex therapist who has only had a single, although unforgettable, sexual experience and she finds herself having to work under his mentorship nine years after their one night time together. Dr. Marin Rush needs more practical experience in order to have a better understanding of what her would-be patients are going through, and the man she wants for the job is Dr. Donovan West. They can't risk getting caught because that could mean losing her chance at becoming a permanent member of The Grove and it could end up with him being fired. But no one could control what they did after hours, because when they were off the clock, all the simmering sexual tension led to pleasure beyond either one's wildest fantasies.

This was my very first Roni Loren read and now I find myself antsy about when I can get my hands on the second book in the series, because it's already shaping up to be one that isn't simply about sex. Yes, there's sex, and lots of it, but they're not the gratuitous kind, so it doesn't feel as if you're going through porn via words. Both Marin and Donovan have experienced traumatizing events in their lives, but while Marin made do with her circumstances--not that she had much of a choice with a younger brother to take care of and a roof to keep over their heads--Donovan has never been able to fully cope with what happened to his parents. Between the two of them, it's Donovan who is far more jaded when it comes to the idea of love and "The One", but there's a reason for him being that way, and his story, once revealed, is heartbreaking.

The book makes you think about how sex is never really a purely physical act without any emotions involved. It may not always be that way with both parties, but at least one has some amount of emotion invested in what's going on. It's that intimacy--the sometimes inexplicable but always palpable bond shared by two people--that makes it go beyond the physical. The fact that more than one doctor at The Grove has issues with intimacy is rather ironic, what with them making sure their patients' own issues are dealt with properly and successfully. Marin and Donovan--especially Donovan--evolve throughout the story because even as they try not to let any form of intimacy seep into their arrangement, the connection they have is an undeniable one, and it's been there from the time they met nine years ago while at college.

I really liked Marin and Donovan, but this story also had a supporting cast of characters that made its mark. Maybe some will get their stories, while others may remain memorable supporting characters forever, but the impact was there, especially Nathan Rush, Marin's younger brother, and Lane Cannon, Donovan's friend. Based on the epilogue, it's looking like Lane and Dr. Elle McCray, a fellow doctor at The Grove and Donovan's former angry sex buddy, could be an interesting pair up. But whoever is next in the series, I'm certainly going to be up for because Roni Loren's writing is exemplary and I wouldn't mind getting more of it sooner rather than later. Off the Clock also includes one heck of a hot short story, and it's this bonus read that led to the rating going from five out of five stars to bumping up to five-plus stars. ♥

Date Read: 14 January 2016

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