Saturday 8 December 2012

Review of Blue Angel, Fallen Angel & Naked Angel by Logan Belle



Title: Blue Angel, Fallen Angel & Naked Angel
Author: Logan Belle
Publisher: Canvas
Published: November & December 2012 in UK
ISBNs: 9781472106148, 9781472106155, 9781472106162
Rating of series overall: 3.5/5

Blue Angel
Mallory Dale gets a surprise for her birthday when her boyfriend Alec takes her to a burlesque show.  Mallory is drawn to one of the dancers, and is surprised again when she is taken on stage and becomes part of the act; which in turn unleashes an unexplored side in Mallory.

As soon as Mallory moves in with Alec she begins to question if she’s made the right choice, especially after the burlesque show.  It becomes apparent that Alec is fairly self-centred and only wants something if he has chosen it, and he wants to hold Mallory back once he’s opened the equivalent of Pandoras box.  He wants Mallory to have a threesome throughout the book; so when his attitude does a completely 360 change because Mallory eventually agrees I found it irritating at the cop out after he made so much of a fuss about it.  He has a lot of double standards in this.

I’m glad the author told me in advance via our conversations what Pasties are – having no prior knowledge of burlesque costumes, I thought they were of the pastry kind until it was explained they were decorated fabric to cover the nipples, probably with tassles on – used mainly in burlesque shows were nudity is not allowed.

As Mallory explores and experiences burlesque, I was as mesmerised as she was.  All the luxurious costumes (which again, I didn’t realise the performers generally made their own costumes). 

When Poppy, a newbie to the burlesque scene wishes Bette would take her under her wing, she gets more than she bargained for.  I was surprised by the amount of f/f relationships within the book, as there’s no hint of that – however it did give this an interesting angle.

Bette, the lead performer at Blue Angel comes across as a manipulative and self serving dancer.  I don’t like the way he uses Poppy, crushing her, possibly without realising she’s doing it as Poppy is in love with her.

Fallen Angel
Mallory works as a paralegal by day, and by night she is a burlesque dancer.  Things have progressed since the last book – Mallory and Alec are now comfortable having threesomes with unknown females and Alec is occasionally working at the Blue Angel.

From the start I didn’t like Violet.  She came across as very uncaring and out for whatever she could get.  When she tries her hand at blackmail I wasn’t sure what her angle was.  The way she treats Poppy is crud as well, I’m surprised by just how much Poppy is submissive and doesn’t stand up for herself.

This instalment has m/m scenes in as well as sub/dom, f/f and m/f scenes, so a different mix of sexual scenes this time.

Naked Angel
I enjoyed this instalment of the trilogy the most, not least because it has a burlesque steampunk outfit in ;p Did I mention I love steampunk?!!

Again, I don’t like Violet in this one – but at least someone gets one over on her this time, which was very satisfying!  Gemma doesn’t seem very personable at first, so I slowly warmed to her.  Justin’s story with Martha isn’t one I predicted.  Justin looks to be a heartthrob, and is married to a very dowdy older lady; which surprises Mallory.  They do have a unique marriage, but the extent of the marriage isn’t realised until later in the book when Martha confesses to Mallory.

If you’re looking for some quick reads (in comparison with Shades of Grey anyway!), this trilogy is a sensuous exploration into sexuality, celebrities and burlesque, with a mini celebrity element that is adventurous with its bisexual, gay, lesbian and erotic themes.

Source – Many thanks to the author’s publicist, copies were received in return for an honest review.  To read more about the trilogy please see the web chats with Logan Belle.

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