Sharing Secrets

MMF Ménage Romance

By: Natalie Hothorne

Narrated by: Ava Alexandra

Length: 2 hrs and 13 mins

Publisher's summary

Why do people insist on keeping secrets, when sharing is so much more fun?

I have not figured out what my boyfriend, Josh, is hiding from me, but it could not be as bad as my own secrets.

My parents lead what you would call an...unconventional lifestyle. Three years ago, I spent time at their home in Key West. It is how I met a local named Brock. He is sexy as hell and bisexual.

When things didn't work out between us, I moved back to Indianapolis and met Josh. He may not be as good-looking as Brock, but he is much more open with his emotions.

Together, they would be the perfect man.

When we are forced to make a trip to visit my parents, I hope to avoid Brock and keep Josh from learning about my past.

But it is a small town and secrets won't be the only thing shared.

This m/m/f bisexual erotic romance contains explicit, sexual adventures, including, MF, and MMF encounters. 18+

©2022 Natalie Hothorne (P)2023 Natalie Hothorne

Good Story, Unlikable FMC

Wow. I want to LOVE this story, and in some ways, I do, but Savannah is a toxic person. For someone with her own non-conventional desires, she's incredibly judgmental and negative about other people's choices (particularly her parents). She's also kind of whiny and unreasonable—how could her parents have "abandoned" her when she's a grown woman with a career and not a child they "left behind" when they moved to Florida? Yet, she avoids them and mistreats them, and takes advantage of them when she needs them, but then flees as fast as she can when the opportunity presents itself, all while never having had a healthy conversation with her boyfriend about her feelings, or her fears. She's clear, repeatedly, that she doesn't want to be anywhere near her parents long term (meaning she doesn't want to live in Florida), and she makes every effort to find a way out, but then she's surprised that her boyfriend doesn't read her mind and know she wants him to ask her to stay? She doesn't talk to anyone, about anything apparently, and yet it's always the other person who is the problem for her.... I LOVED her parents; loved Josh, loved Brock, but I couldn't figure out why any of them loved her so much. Her parents, obviously, because they're her parents, but otherwise, she's really negative and judgmental and I didn't get it. I was hoping Josh and Brock would end up in a happily ever after relationship and Savannah would run back to cold Indiana all alone, but that's not what happened, and I guess once she FINALLY had conversations with people and was honest with HERSELF about things, instead of being little miss judgy-pants that it was nice to see how everyone healed and came back together, but 90% of the story with her having that personality made this not a warm fuzzy for me, despite how much of a fan I am of the story itself, and the other characters, so 4 stars just because she's so unlikable, but I really did love the story.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Secrets

What a wicked web happens with sexual attraction but not being completely honest about who you are, and what you want. Natalie, Brock, and Josh end up navigating their way through their attractions and desires. I liked the resort Natalie’s parents ran, that was an interesting add to the story. The story had some warm sex scenes, not steamy. It had a decent story line. The narration was a single female reader. She did a fair job of it, but would have been better with male voices for the guys. The recording has a couple of audio skips, like a record stuck in a groove. Short lived, but distracting. I received a free copy of this audiobook and am voluntarily leaving my review.

Cute MMF

This is a really cute second chance romance. Personally I get easily annoyed by relationship drama. But the story is really well written, and had so super adorable/sexy moments.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Fell flat for me

Savanna came across as a spoiled child. She’s harboring a years-long grudge against her parents for their non-monogamous lifestyle—even though she never really talked to them about it, and she is now an adult and not directly affected by it. And yet a five minute conversation with a man she’s crushing on has her seeing everything more clearly? Feels like a stretch.

The characters of Brock and Josh are both fleshed out pretty well with their bisexuality being a key point. Brock being open about it and Josh still holding it in.

Falling love with both men and forming a throuple teaches Savanna a lesson about love and non-monogamy and helps heal the rift with her parents, but it felt like the long way to get there when she could have just had an honest conversation with them.

I liked the MMF theme of the book, and the writing wasn’t bad (though not as good as other Hothorne books I’ve read), but, overall, it fell flat in the execution compounded by the lackluster narration.

Narration felt deadpan… maybe a bit moody. It did fit Savanna’s attitude, but it also made me like her less.

A significant number of repeated sentences that should have been caught in editing.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Brock, Josh, and Natalie

Story: Natalie, caught between her past flame Brock and her present love Josh, navigates a rollercoaster of emotions as secrets resurface during a Christmas trip while visiting her parents in Key West. She's torn between her love for Josh and her continued attraction for Brock, as well as being conflicted about her feelings for her parents. But Josh has a secret of his own which has been standing in the way of his relationship with Natalie. And Brock has never been honest with Natalie about the depth of his feelings for her, and now that he's met Josh, Brock doesn't want to hurt Natalie by acting on his own attraction to Josh. A real journey through tangled relationships and hidden pasts told through multiple perspectives, makes for a complex group of characters. The hot and steamy MF moments to adventurous MMF situations, add a layer of intimacy and spiciness. As Natalie, Josh, Brock, and Natalie’s parents confront their pasts, desires, and worries the importance of communication shines through. Writing wise there were a few tiny moments where the dialogues felt a little stilted and formal - using contractions in some places would have helped with this - but nothing too egregious.

Audio: The narrator, Ava Alexandra, did a good job with this story, given that she was the sole narrator. The audiobook uses a single female narrator to voice all characters - I prefer audio versions that use both a male and female narrator to voice male and female voices respectively, especially in multiple partner romances. There just wasn't enough differentiation in the narrator's voice for me to distinguish who was speaking when, so I opened the ebook to follow along at the same time.

AarC review

I thought the fact that this was a MMF menage was really hot! I liked the MM scenes as well as the MF. This was a really steamy read with a good storyline.

The narration was alright, not my favorite but not bad.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.