Review: Beyond Shame (Beyond #1) by Kit Rocha

All Noelle Cunningham has ever wanted is a life beyond–beyond the walls of Eden, where only the righteous are allowed to remain, and beyond her stiflingly restrictive existence as a councilman’s daughter. But only ruins lie outside the City, remnants of a society destroyed by solar storms decades earlier.

The sectors surrounding Eden house the corrupt, the criminal–men like Jasper McCray, bootlegger and cage fighter. Jas clawed his way up from nothing to stand at the right hand of Sector Four’s ruthless leader, and he’ll defend the O’Kane gang with his life. But no fight ever prepared him for the exiled City girl who falls at his feet.

Her innocence is undeniable, but so is their intense sexual attraction, and soon they’re crossing every boundary Noelle barely knew she had. But if she wants to belong to Jas, first she’ll have to open herself to the gang, to a dangerous world of sex, lust and violence. A world where passion is power, and freedom is found in submission.

My Review:

The world has completely changed in Beyond Shame, the first installment of the Beyond Series from Kit Rocha (dynamic writing team otherwise known as Moira Rogers). There are two prominent classes – the wealthy and upper class inhabitants of Eden vs. the lower class citizens living in the sectors surrounding the city.

Eden’s citizens are upright, model citizens – or at least are expected to be. So when Noelle Cunningham (daughter of a prominent politician in Eden) starts hanging out with the wrong crowd, drinking and engaging in sexual situations, her father kicks her out of Eden and literally drops her outside the city gates and onto Jasper (Jas’) lap.

Jas has lived all his life outside the protective walls of Eden and is instantly drawn to Noelle’s beauty, innocence, and willingness to try everything once. But with a gang war looming over their heads, will he be able to give into Noelle’s alluring ways, or will he forego his feelings and remain the tough, lone guy everyone knows him as?

Note: I’m not a patient person, so if you like a long, drawn out romance as well as a love for tattoos, Beyond Shame is the perfect book for you. :)

 

What I didn’t like about Beyond Shame:

1. Begging. Noelle was downright begging Jas to take her on as a sub and show her everything she had been missing. It got annoying fast how Jas kept delaying things, stating he didn’t think she was ready. However, Jas was so riled up with Noelle he relieved his stress with someone else, yet he left Noelle high and dry. I was out after that. *sad julie*

2. Bring it. Noelle had lived such a repressed life in Eden, it was clear by the choices she was making she wanted something ‘more’ than what life had to offer. When she was basically thrown away by her father, I wanted to see her come into her own, go wild and crazy at the orgies, and live out every sordid fantasy she had imagined. It was such a let down she latched onto the one guy who kept holding her back from what she wanted to experience. It wasn’t until 93% of the book when Jas FINALLY makes a decision. It was too drawn out.

3. Politics. There was a short mention of Noelle’s dad – who came looking for her in the sectors, ready to take her back home. It was a bit distracting since it was evident early on Noelle was done with that part of her life.

4. Structure. It was tough getting into the story as everyone kept telling Noelle that women held the power in the sectors as they decided who they slept with and who claimed them as mates. But after enduring all the begging and pleading Noelle did throughout the story, I never saw the power she supposedly had.

 

What I liked about Beyond Shame:

1. Ace. Jas’ friend and tattoo artist extraordinaire, Ace, stole the show for me. I really wanted Noelle to end up with him as he was ready and willing to give her everything she was craving. :)

2. Sex and orgies. I loved all the sexxy talk and happenings going on in Beyond Shame, I just wish they would have happened TO Noelle instead of them happening AROUND her. I wanted more for Noelle and I wanted her in control. 

 

 

The reminder of helplessness sharpened her need, and she whimpered and rubbed shamelessly against Jasper. "Please, Jas. Please make him touch me. I want to come—I need to."

Ace settled his hands on her knees and pressed them wide before tracing back to her sex. "Now, Jasper?"

"Now."

Noelle tensed, dizzy with anticipation, but Ace moved just his thumbs, stroking her folds before parting them. She was held open in every sense of the word, her arms flung wide, her knees forced apart, her most intimate places utterly on display.

It should have been humiliating. In the one second she had to think, she hated that it wasn't, hated herself for her deviance.

Ace's mouth closed over her clit, and he sucked so roughly she screamed at the shock of it with the last air she had before orgasm crashed into her, tearing everything else apart. She screamed and she shook, her entire body tensing and releasing with each wave, and distantly she heard Ace's groan of approval, felt his fingers twisting and stroking, landing on her clit in stinging little slaps that dragged her from the hollow of one wave to the peak of the next.

She must have begged for mercy. She must have, because the pleasure faded and she found herself limp and trembling, Ace grinning up at her—no, not her. He was grinning at Jasper. "Shit, man. I barely got started."

"Go easy." Jas dragged the backs of his fingers down the inside of her thigh. "Soft."

Ace chuckled and pushed her knees even wider, like he was holding her open for Jasper. "Your girl likes hard just fine, brother. Maybe too much."

"Not for long. She'll be finished." Jasper's hand trailed lower, fingertips brushing the drenched inner lips of her pussy. "She has to keep up for a while yet if you're doing her cuffs today."

Noelle shuddered and met Jasper's eyes. "Cuffs," she whispered, turning the words into a challenge. A reminder that he'd promised her freedom, for all that she was bound and helpless. "I want them today. Now. While you touch me."

"Today," he agreed, moving his fingers slowly. He stroked her, slicked through her wetness, and teased her with the promise of how much better it would feel when he pushed those fingers inside.

She was so fixated on Jasper's touch that she didn't realize Ace had moved until a drawer rattled behind her. "I bet she'd like these."

Jasper reached out, and Ace dropped two metal circles into his hand. No, not circles—rings with jeweled crossbars through them. Only when Jas pulled the bars apart and let them fly together with a metallic clack did she realize they must be magnetized.

As to their purpose... Her mind stumbled over the likeliest possibility. Memory supplied an image of the woman at Dallas's party, the one whose shamelessly bare breasts had been adorned by sparkling jewelry.

Imagining the sensitive tip of her nipple pinched between cool metal set Noelle to squirming again. "Is that...?"

Jas answered by bending his head and tonguing her nipple, drawing a gasp from her as her flesh puckered. "They go like this," he murmured, situating the first ring around her nipple.

The bars snapped tight, and she hissed as pain bloomed for a moment. Only a moment; the pinch wasn't strong enough to do more than ache in a way that made her heart pound. She forced her gaze to his and wet her lips. "The other, too? Please?"

"Told you," Ace muttered. "Such a bad girl."

"Maybe." Jasper pinched her other nipple before putting the ring in place, then slipped his fingers down to brush her clit. "What else do you want, sweetheart?"

She wanted him. She wanted to come. She wanted to belong in this life, where the shame burned away and nothing but giddy pleasure remained. "I want my cuffs."

"You'll get them." He pushed one finger inside her and curled it, stroking over that sensitive spot that sparked a feeling too intense to be called pleasure. Pressure, maybe, and a desperate hunger for more that had her voice breaking on a plea.

Ace's voice rumbled close to her ear. "Maybe I'll give you your cuffs while you're riding Jasper's hand. Would you like that, princess? Do you want him to feel your pussy clench around his fingers? He'll know how hot the needles get you. He knows how hot this is getting you right now. I bet you're squeezing him so tight he's imagining you all hot and wet around his dick."

"She wouldn't be still," Jasper whispered. "She's fighting the restraints right now." He pulled his finger free only to return along with a second, thrusting deep.

Noelle let her head fall back as the stretch drove a moan from her. What a picture she must make—bound, spread wide, her clothing sliced away and her body writhing under the intoxicating mixture of pleasure and pain. Anyone could walk in and watch her work her hips up and down, and that pushed her tension to a dizzying peak.

It wasn't bad enough that she wanted to be defiled. She wanted people to watch. "I'm so bad," she whispered, voice slipping into a moan as she teetered on the edge of release. "I'm dirty."

Jasper shook his head, his jaw tight. "If it were shameful, you think I'd do this to you?" He moved his hand faster, his fingers fucking in and out of her with firm strokes.

No. Ace would. Dallas might. But Jasper was so careful with her. So controlled, so deliberate, coaxing her forward one step at a time as he stripped away her defenses. She could trust that it wasn't disgraceful.

Rating: 2 Kisses

 

*book was provided to Read Our Lips! for review by publisher via Net Galley*