Collette Banks is a French Teacher seeking much more than what life has given her. She is lonely and wants to embark on a new experience. She finds Fernweh, an exclusive club where the members live out their own desires. Fernweh and its owner, Jude Duval, is nothing like Collette has ever experienced.

Collette’s back story is intriguing. She is basically orphaned after her father kills her mother when she’s young. She struggles with her past and her role in the world. She doesn’t really know where she fits in and as the story goes along, you get a sense of who Collette really is.

From the start, Jude wants Collette for his own pleasure. He normally never takes on a protégé or the likes but Collette speaks to him in way. He asks Collette to spend thirty days with him at his place on the Fernweh compound to teach her everything she needs to know before he pairs her up with a partner.

I’ve read other books by Lydia Michaels (Surrender Trilogy) and enjoyed them. However, this book falls short. I’m not sure if it is meant to be purely erotica or an erotic romance (which it ends as such) but the whole book lacked romance. Jude and Collette’s entire relationship through the book was strictly sexual and a tutorial on alternative lifestyles. I just couldn’t connect with either character and didn’t buy their relationship at all.

The scenes are hot but there are some that included multiple partners, which I didn’t necessarily enjoy. It is to be expected in a book about a sex-club but it didn’t help me buy into Jude or Collette’s relationship.

~ Samantha