Book Review: Pick Your Pleasure by Jayne Rylon

Title: Pick Your Pleasure
Series: Pick Your Pleasure, Book 1
Author: Jayne Rylon
Genre: Erotic Romance
Sensuality Rating: Erotic
Source: bought
Published: December 2012 (self-published)

Ever read a book and wish the heroine hadn’t done that, gone there, or slept with that guy? Well, now you’re in charge. The reader decides what happens here.

Tailor your perfect short story or be adventurous and read through all the different paths to see where life can take you…if you choose.
Go ahead, pick your pleasure.

…

Linley Lane, CEO of Lane Technologies, has had enough of blah dates. When she decides to shake things up with a visit to an underground sex club she’s heard rumors about, she realizes she’s way out of her league. This is no usual hookup spot.
Presented with two potential guides for the night—men who turn her on more in a matter of minutes than a year of lame dating in her high-class circles did—she’s got some tough decisions to make about how she wants to spend the rest of her evening and just how dirty she intends to get.

Will she choose to be romanced by a sexy gentleman? Or will she indulge the rare anonymity Underground affords to revel in wild excess with a like-minded rebel? And where will they go from there?

Everything is up to you.

Why I Read this Book: I posted an open letter to authors and publishers about my wanting an interactive romance line and Pick Your Pleasure was recommended to me. Having never read an *adult* interactive novel before, I bought it immediately and read it the same day.

What I Liked: This book, depending on the reader’s choices, will deliver different levels of BDSM erotica. This showcases how well the author can cover different aspects of BDSM, though after reading all the options, it didn’t get too extreme. There was a ménage, toys, a mechanical bull type apparatus, and some bondage but it was in my comfort zone as a reader.

The best thing about Pick Your Pleasure (which, by the way, is so suitably titled) is that each time you read this book and choose a different option, it’s like you’re getting another trip to Underground (the name of the BDSM club). There were no negative consequences for any of the choices made. Every option lead to a positive experience between Linley and her male companion. And if you’re like me, and your curiosity gets the best of you, you’ll find yourself going back and trying out all of the other options. You dirty vixen, you.

For Pick Your Pleasure being a self-published novel, the author did pretty good. I only caught one period missing and one end quote missing. Other than that, it was clean and well formatted. I don’t know what kind of ‘magic’ goes into linking different sections for each choice the reader makes, but each of my reading experiences transitioned flawlessly.

I was intrigued by Henry’s character. He’s the head of security for Linley and though he doesn’t play too big of a role in the story, I was left with an unanswered question pertaining to his character. Luckily, it looks like the next book in this series, Pick Your Pleasure 2, will feature Henry so I hope to find my answer there.

Neutral Territory: There were a couple of options that the reader, through Linley, could explore with both of the male leads separately. When I went back to check out the other options, I noticed that there was some recycled material. Mostly this was Linley’s first initial reaction to the choice that was just made and some scene description but each hero’s reaction and actions were his own.

What I Didn’t Like: Pick Your Pleasure was heavy on the sex and too short of a story to allow me to get any sense of a connection/chemistry between the heroine and either of the heroes. It was more of the reader being told that there was chemistry between the characters, whereas I like to be shown.

The cover depicts the two main possible choices for Linley but there are two different girls on the cover. Yes, little things like that stand out and make a difference to me. (Though this has no impact on my rating for the book.)

Memorable Moment:

But it was when he unzipped the denim and revealed his bare hard-on that she nearly had a heart attack.

“Close your mouth or I’ll give you something to suck on.”

Overall Impression: Pick Your Pleasure was a fun and sexy interactive read, though I wish I had felt more chemistry between Linley and her gentlemen callers. I am definitely going to check out the next two Pick Your Pleasure books, once they come out.

Brianna’s Rating: