Foreplay on Words by E.L. Koslo

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I recently found some steamy fanart on twitter that was from Foreplay on Words by E.L. Koslo. I loved the artwork and wanted to try out the books based on that print as well as the blurb. This is the first book in her Words series. This worked perfect to cover the prompts Over 300 Pages for Fall in Love and Violet (new-to-you author) for Color Me Romantic.

Evan, a popular mystery and thriller writer is working on finishing his latest novel. His main female character is a prostitute, so when his editor starts reviewing his manuscript there's issues with the sex scenes. He gets books from his publisher's romance authors and is told to choose one to help redo those scenes. He reads Chase's books and they get paired up to fix his novel. Chase is a popular romance author and isn't quite sure what to think when she meets the mysterious author, but there is an instant spark. As they work on his novel their synergy really balances and they decide to write a book as a duo. They plan to make it set around a dominatrix heroine, so of course they need to do some research. As their budding relationship grows, they also expand their sexual intimacy with both the research they are doing but also the undeniable chemistry.

Oh, I was really excited for this book. After seeing the pretty fanart and then looking at the blurb I got really excited for this book. It started out great, but things quickly took a turn I wasn't expecting. Now, there is quite a bit of BDSM talk in this book (about 35~40%). I feel like it was written pretty well, but that is not something that I enjoy. My summary above mentions it, but it is not in the normal blurb for this book. It just isn't a dynamic that titilates me. Now, I do want to say that the BDSM that Chase and Evan engage in is fairly beginner and basic. However, during their research they end up going to a showcase. While they don't participate, there is some high level kink (they watch a dominatrix do a scene with a man that is humiliation and pet play based). So I just want to put that warning out there. It did help that we were in Evan's POV and he was just as uncomfortable as I was "watching" it play out. Maybe I was more uncomfortable because it was two-fold, but if you are sensitive to that kind of thing or just don't enjoy it like myself, I don't recommend this book. It went on a lot longer than I was hoping.

Outside of the BDSM aspects, this book was pretty high heat and it didn't take too long for Chase and Evan to act on their chemistry. I also loved how they were able to intrinsically connect and understand each other when it came to the demands of an author and how supportive they were of each other; especially Evan of Chase. Him binge reading all of her books was so cute. However, I did feel like it was getting too long. While the steam was good and there's a lot, I have to be honest that about the 70% I started just skimming the rest of it. It just was too much overall. I also was expecting this book to end closer towards the conflict that happens during their book tour, but things were really dragged out and I found myself constantly checking my percentage once I got to the 75% mark. I just was like how much is left. Things were really dragged out that last little bit, especially with us being with them on every single stop on their book tour. Most of the cities they visited outside of their hometowns and the final were just unnecessary.

Overall, the blurb really let me down with this book. Had there been some sort of mention that BDSM came into play a lot with Evan and Chase, I might've enjoyed it more (if I even decided to pick it up). I am interested in reading more from EL Koslo, but I definitely will want to look at some in depth reviews first. I will be cautious with her since I feel like my trust in her blurbs is a little broken. Other than also feeling like the last half of the book was reallly drawn out, I feel like it was written well. It's just a "Me problem." If you enjoy BDSM or are okay with light/beginner BDSM dynamics, you might really enjoy this. If you do read it, you'll have to let me know what you thought.

Have you read Foreplay on Words?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Foreplay on Words, E.L. Koslo, 3-stars, 0 days, eBook, 420 pages, published in 2021, small publisher