It's always gratifying to see a prolific and accomplished writer get recognition and consequently advance in her career. Cheyenne McCray, who also writes YA novels, had branched into print with St. Martin's Press and will shortly be writing for Ellora's Cave as Rowan McAllister.

One reason her flair for writing Romantica is so appealing is her steadfast sense of romance and her publicly admitted dedication to the HEA. Therefore, while I had been anticipating reading this novella, I must admit the beginning premise threw me. The heroine, Andi, a corporate boardroom dynamo, is going into a BDSM weekend with the very deliberate intention of having fantasy sex without the responsibility of a relationship.

As a rule, women's heads just aren't wired that way, and women heroines of erotica for women--well, let's just say that most female minds are going to have trouble empathizing with a character with that agenda. This seemed to indicate a departure from that sense of HEA-bound romance that lifts erotica above pornography. I should have trusted McCray. Setting up this situation where her heroine will be planning a BDSM fantasy without a relationship is just Andi's entrée point into the forbidden world.

In the exclusive Bondage club who should come along to be her ultimate Dom but the man who sits across from her in board meetings in her day to day life--the very man who excites her beyond belief--and the selfsame one who immediately takes control of the situation and makes her his sub: Derrick Macintyre, her co-vice president, otherwise known (at least to Andi) as Master Derrick. You will find Erotic Weekend is a hot page-turner, especially if D/s is your forte. Expect to see Andi and Derrick, as well as his friend Josh, and Josh's two subs who happen to be twins. But the others are simply footnotes, just emancipating catalysts that enhance the developing aphrodisiacal chemistry between Dom and sub. A very sexual story for the adventurous reader.

Reviewed By Maitresse
© March 2005