Good entertainment even tough some things were a bit far fetched (if only the Swiss banking world was as plain as it was portrayed...).

The characters were interesting.

This is a light BDSM modern day romance. It presents the relationship between the two main characters in a sweet and straightforward way. This is very much a wish fulfillment type of fantasy, but works well and is a quick and smooth read.

I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion. Luca and Claire have a beautiful story. Claire a widow and Luca a man destined not to be marriage material, collide and their world changes.
Loss of friends, the steamy connection and love of family draw these two together. A great summer read!

Luca’s Lessons is a sexy tale of exploration and growth. Luca is a superb training Dom by has no room for love in his life. Claire is a widow and a high powered Swiss banker. When Claire asks Luca to train her his only hard limit is love. But as they train they find themselves growing closer. Can Claire breach his hard limit and can Luca teach her that it is okay to love again? This is a well paced sexy BDSM romance that didn’t push any hard limits for me.

I loved the overall plot of this story and how it all played out. I was expecting a little more BDSM (especially from the cover) and was surprised that it was actually a little light in that area (think more erotica than BDSM). The love story and how it builds to the ending was what kept me reading. I would definitely read other books by these authors.

While I appreciate receiving an advance reader copy of this book from Netgalley sadly this book did not work for me. I couldn’t even finish it. I found the writing stilted and a little too formal as were the 2 main characters. I found Luca’s fastidious manner off putting and it made no sense that he would kneel before a Domme and clean up blood.
I gave it a 2 rather than a 1 because I thought the plot line promising.

Slow to build but great ending.
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From the cover you get a distinct impression of what this book will entail. However, this book is a bit different from the hardcore BDSM stories that are out there. This book is more of a story about mutual respect and a developing love affair.

The authors focus more on developing the characters and their connection rather than the sexual aspect of the lifestyle. It takes a while to get to the climax of the story, so to speak, and yet you realize that they are becoming more and more attached in both heart and mind.

While the sexy times are great, that part pales in the actual love story portion. The hard NO's on both parts take a hit and they both eventually realize what they have together.

I would classify this book as more erotica than bdsm, however, much of the story revolves around a club and the scenes are light.

Overall a satisfying love story with a great ending.

Claire must decide between exploring the love she’s found or locking away her heart with the ghosts of her past.When I started reading I couldn't put it down.Deana Birch & Amelia Foster are magnifysent and amazing writers.I cannot wait to read more of there books.Keep up the great work.You should definitely read this book.Can't wait for the next book.

If I were looking for a book in this set that is in the Fifty Shades of Gray mold, it would be Luca’s Lessons. I honestly found this one really tedious, as the writing was heavy handed and there was little plot progression at all. I couldn’t get very far, because the characters were so empty. This was also true with Play a Game With Me, which also dealt with a rich male being irresistible to the female protagonist and her token gay best friend. These tropes were getting pretty tiring.

Review will appear at provided link by 5/30/19.

DNF @ 65% 2/5- For a BDSM erotic romance there is very little description...

I love almost the full spectrum of BDSM romance. I’ve read a lot and have specific expectations. That being said what I want and what an author chooses to share in their work may differ.

I can appreciate Luca and Claire separately. I can appreciate Claire as a strong independent woman still grieving her husband. I cannot get on board with Luca as a Dom. He is not alpha enough. No Dom, especially one that owns and runs an elite top dollar club/dungeon would knee before another Domme/Dom and clean up their mess. That was a massive strike in book.

The story is compelling, the execution needs work? The story gets boring and tedious to read around the 40% mark. The sex/sexual scenes are so vague. No detail, nothing explicit. They are in a BDSM club and there’s no BDSM going on really. Ok, Claire is bound for five minutes while Luca has slow soft sex with her. NO! I want alpha males doing alpha things. If Luca had been described as a Daddy Dom from the beginning I could maybe understand why he’s TRAINING a sub with kid hands. But he’s not described as a Daddy, or sadistic, or Master — he’s the owner of the club.

I’m not convinced with this pairing. If she’s supposed to run away (again) and try and find herself in the midst of grief and for him to “break his rule” I don’t see it. I see him taking to her and she’s a student. But again, everything is so vague. World building is a thing.

This story had potential but the heat and steam and descriptions need to be ramped wayyyyy up.

This was a really enjoyable book. I had to stop and start the book a couple times because of my hectic schedule, but this book was very easy to get back into and reconnect with the characters. I found the characters to be very well written and overall this was a good read.

Plot
This is a story about Claire and Luca, both two damaged characters who are trying to navigate through their lives, both having been cut by loss, despair and hoplessness. Claire is a powerful banker having nurtured and created Zurich’s most elite banking establishment all amidst the love of her life dying from terminal cancer. A year on from her husbands death, Claire meets Luca, a charismatic, domineering Italian who she already has been affected by. Luca puts forward a business proposal, one in which her company can’t really afford to pass up. Claire is ever so dilligent and asks multiple questions to assertain the credentials of the proposal. The end result being, Luca asking her to come observe before making her final decision. The business proposal is an adult sex club that Luca is interested in buying and once claire steps foot into the building it awakens feelings and thoughts she would never have deemed possible.

Characters
The narrative within the story allows us time to build a connection with both the protagonists. Both Claire and Luca are equally as damaged as the other. The story was focussed around the fact that Claire had lost herself during the grieving process of losing her husband. The persona that she emitted to the world through her professional persona was indeed very different to her private life. She is a strong, confident and doesn’t accept any bullshit where her career is concerned, but, the loss of her husband has left her not knowing what direction she is taking her life and generally feels that love has no place within her heart anymore. Luca on the otherhand, although being a strong and capable Dom doesn’t let anyone into his heart either. His mother died at an early age and it has obviously had a strong and profound effect on him to this day. He has had many submissives but mainly in a training capacity. No sub has ever seen inside his bedroom or apartment and his one hard limit is “no falling in love”. Both as broken and closed off as the other.

That I can make my own happiness. That death is the reason to live.

The Writing
Both the authors, in my opinion, has done a stellar job at both researching and immersing the reader into the D/s world. It is refreshing to read a piece of fiction within the D/s world and it be accurate and not make it seem weird or judgy. The characters were complex but completely believable and I did find myself actually caring about the outcome of their story. This is the first book that I have read from these authors but I look forward to reading some more. The story flowed beautifully.

I was provided with an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
This is a well developed BDSM erotic novel. While there are lots of steamy scenes, the story is also well developed and I absolutely fell in love with the characters.
Claire is a recently widowed, powerful banker. She had a rather rough childhood which, along with the death of her husband, have left emotional scars. Luca is a sexy, Italian business man as well as a respected Dom at his club. He was only supposed to train her to be a sub and introduce her to the lifestyle. Neither imagined it could become so much more.
Great read overall.

I was given this arc by netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Decent book. Luca is the perfect sexy Italian from every womans dreams. Claire and Luca's dom/sub to future married couple is a cute and heat warming tale of a hardened man opening his heart and a woman who lost her husband learns how to love and live again

This wasn’t my first BDSM novel, and I haven’t read that many yet, but definitely the one that I enjoyed the most. Luca and Claire are both strong, mature, professional people. Claire is still struggling to come to terms with her husband’s passing, and Luca was just what she needed to feel alive again. Luca introduces Claire slowly, and with plenty of warnings, into his secret world. Claire fits in really quickly and eagerly learns the secrets from Luca. Along the way they fall in love, in violation of Luca’s one and only limit.

The build-up to their first intimate encounter was done really well, I felt all the tension along with both of them. I enjoyed the writing style, I didn’t feel like anything was rushed or missed in the telling of the story. Each chapter tells the story from either Claire’s or Luca’s viewpoint, which means you only experience their story from one side at a time, and have to wait until the next chapter to see how the other character views things. This was frustrating at times, but also interesting.

I think the authors were pretty successful in describing the blurring of the lines between the dom/sub relationship and Claire and Luca’s relationship outside of it.

The plot twist regarding the business wasn’t something I was all that invested in, but it did provide another link on another level between Claire and Luca and was ultimately the instrument that brought them together in the end.

I received an advanced copy of the book from Netgalley to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I wish I could give LUCA’S LESSONS more than five stars! Readers… If you are looking for a sexy story centered around a responsibly-written BDSM setting, that has emotionally-developed and hot AF characters but also manages to be a heartfelt, sweet read, pick up a copy of LUCA’S LESSONS by Deana Birch and Amelia Foster.

Luca Bernardi is a yummy, ridiculously handsome Italian Dom with a love of wine, his family, sex, and his club, a safe place where patrons can live out their BDSM desires. When he enlists Claire Favre, a beautiful, smart, driven banker for help with his business and she shows an interest in his lifestyle, he agrees to train her to become a sub—for someone else.

Luca and Claire do all the sexy things in the name of training, but really, it’s the emotion driving these characters as they move from sex to love that kept me invested in the book. They both have baggage they are dealing with, especially Claire, and Ms. Birch and Ms. Foster perfectly portray the subtle changes in them as the story progresses. I loved witnessing Luca and Claire as they delicately broke down their walls and learned to trust each other with not only their bodies, but their hearts and souls.

The secondary characters are a joy: Julien, Claire’s assistant and best friend, steals the show during some of their scenes and adds a bit of levity to the story, and Bruno, the fatherly influence on Luca, is genuine and sympathetic. Luca’s family is wonderful, in their own busy-body way, and reminds me of my own family.

LUCA’S LESSONS was just… wow. I wasn’t sure going in if it would be something I’d love, as I don’t usually read books about Dom/sub lifestyles and know nothing about what would make a good BDSM story (although I’ll admit to reading that very popular series-which-shall-not-be-named that has a number in the titles but that I’m told is a poor example…). As a fan of both Deana Birch (FASTER, SLOWER) and Amelia Foster (MEANT TO BE KEPT, LOVE DONE WRITE), I knew I had to try Luca. I’m so glad I did.

Now, I know that LUCA’S LESSONS was everything that those books were not. It’s a classy, polished, responsibly written and entertaining tale of love, trust, and fulfillment, letting go and of holding on, friendship, family, and of course, a happily ever after. Highly recommended for steamy romance fans. (Also, while I’m here I’ll put in my official request for Julien’s book, please and thank you!)

Luca’s Lessons is a tantalising romp into the world of contemporary BDSM and weaves a tale that keeps the reader engrossed and captivated throughout. The sexual chemistry is a slow burn that turns into a raging inferno and consumes an unsuspecting Luca along the way. All the best laid plans go up in smoke as this reserved and totally in control Dom finds himself bewitched by the smart and confident Claire. I found the author’s writing easy to follow and will definitely be watching for what comes next.

ARC received for review

3.5 stars

A slow moving BDSM with lots of instruction for a newbie Claire to this world. Her heart broke when her husband died, but Luca isn't interested in love just her. There's a lot of angst and a little drama mixed into the world of BDSM. Luca was yummy and perfect for her and helped her grow and move forward. Love, of course, does happen along with a secret from Claire. Her BFF and assistant was hilarious, just loved him. I just wished it moved a little faster.

I wish there had been a glossary to translate all the Italian, so I wouldn't have to stop and go type in it figure out what he said.

I kind of knew what to expect and this was an enjoyable read.

Would be a great holiday read.

The journey between the Claire and Luca is interesting and the 'behind the mask' narration was something I found very enjoyable. It was good to see the narration from both Luca and Claire and it gives the book an extra dimension I wasn't expecting.

Would very much like to read more from the authors

This is a story about loss, trust, hope and a renewal of love. Claire is dealing with the death of her husband when she meets Luca. Luca approached Claire with a business proposal. He gives Claire the opportunity to come observe in order to decide if she wants to take part in this transaction. This business proposal involves an adult club which Luca owns. Luca helps Claire to realize and accept feelings that she was not aware of. But Claire is not the only one that discovers some hidden feelings.