Wednesday, May 28, 2008

The Brass Bed by Jennifer Stevenson


The Brass Bed
Book 1
Jennifer Stevenson
Ballantine Books
April 29, 2008
ISBN# 978-0-345-48668-4

Jewel Heiss works for the Chicago Department of Consumer Services where she investigates fraud and tries to keep a lid on the magical things that go on around town. Her boss thinks his wife, Nina, is cheating on him and wants Jewel to find the proof. Not the kind of case she wants to be involved in, but in the process she’ll investigate the sex therapist Nina’s seeing because Jewel is sure he’s a con.

Giving in to her friend’s demands, Jewel agrees to a session with Clay, the therapist. What she gets out of the experience is Randy, a demon lover who attaches himself to her as her sex slave.

When his mistress used her magic and cursed him for being a lousy lover, Randy found himself trapped in a brass bed. He’s been stuck there since 1811. The deal is that he has to satisfy 100 women to gain his freedom and it’s taken him nearly 200 hundred years to get there. He was lucky that someone like Clay finally came along and made good use of the bed or he may have been stuck forever. Still, something hasn’t gone as planned and Randy has little choice but to rely on Jewel to help him work things out.

This is the first book in a new fantasy series with Jewel Heiss and while the over-all plot was enjoyable there were a few points that were difficult to get past. The biggest were Jewel’s boss who cheats on his wife, and the wife who accepts the cheating as a relatively tolerable part of life. While they were secondary characters their presence was strong enough that it cast a dark shadow over what is otherwise a lighthearted and humorous read. Ms. Stevenson has created an interesting world for her characters and the storyline for The Brass Bed is basically a fun one. Jewel, Clay and Randy are an entertaining trio that share chemistry, lust and crazy capers. I’m looking forward to their next adventure in The Velvet Chair.

Kimberly Swan, Darque Reviews

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I read a review for this author somewhere else...maybe it should be on my wishlist...

Kimberly Swan said...

The only issue I had was the cheating and that was secondary characters, otherwise I think it's a fun series. It's also a steamy read. :)