Ask and You Shall Receive

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Synopsis

The past has taught Beth a cruel lesson - that she usually won't get whatever she asks for especially in bed. She now has difficulty asking for anything - even something as simple as a soda. Her best friend, Chase, sees right through her excuses. He understands her issues and wants to help her overcome them by fulfilling her every sexual fantasy with his only condition being that she asks for everything she wants. The mere idea of verbalizing what has up to now only been in her head is frightening to Beth, but with a little gentle prodding from Chase, she just might discover that whatever she asks for, she can receive.

Review

Ask and You Shall Receive is a short, little contemporary romance novella that is both sweet and steamy. Being a rather passive person myself, I could really relate to the heroine, Beth, having difficulty asking for what she wants, particularly in the bedroom. Chase was a really nice guy who was more than willing to fulfill all of Beth's sexual fantasies with only one condition: that she asks for everything she wants. I liked the way he gently challenged her to step out of her comfort zone and allow herself to be the person she really was inside. It made for a very fun, sexy romp.

My main complaint would be that I wish it could have been longer. There was so much more I wanted to know. The reader is given just a taste of the sympathetic reasons Beth has confidence issues, and I would have liked to know more about her background, as well as Chase's. He really had no backstory at all. I also would have enjoyed learning more about how they met both online and in person and how their friendship had progressed. However, such is often the case with short novellas like this. They sometimes leave me not quite fully satisfied. The only other thing that I thought could have been better was that the story was very dialog heavy, but rather lacking in facial expressions and gestures. I think adding a few little details like this could have really improved the element of intimacy. The love scene was also a little more chatty that I typically like, but it at least made sense in the context of what the author was trying to accomplish with the heroine. Ask and You Shall Receive was my first read by Karenna Colcroft, and in spite of a few minor criticisms, I did enjoy her writing style overall, and look forward to trying some of her other works.

Note: The sexual content of this story is very much on par with steamy mainstream romances, but it does contain a fair bit of explicit language which is typically reserved for the erotic sub-genre.

Ask and You Shall Receive was only released in digital format. I purchased it from an e-book retailer a few months back, but it appears to no longer be available. It has been removed both from the author's and publisher's websites. I did find a comment from the author which I believe pertained to this story in which she stated that the publisher had reverted the rights back to her, and I can only assume that she has either not sought to have it republished or has not been able to find a new publisher for it yet. If it becomes available again, I will be sure to post the link.

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Karenna Colcroft

Themes

Friends Before Lovers