I started this book and was very excited for it. However, after months of attempting to read it, I am not going to force myself through it anymore. DNFed at 40%

Complex Dimensions is part of a series, but can be read as a standalone. I must go back and read the others in this series. The characters are well developed and interesting. The storyline is entertaining.

“Millie lifted her head and kissed Veronica. ‘I think you’ve ruined me.’”

Yup, that’s exactly how I felt about the whole book. Just the right amount of sweet and sex spice added to a genuinely endearing and thoughtful story of two women scarred by the ones they loved.

Veronica is newly released from prison, starting her next chapter in faraway Scotland, managing a horse barn in an unorthodox setting, a high end house strictly devoted to taking care of female clients and their pleasure needs. She meets Millie, the house’s chauffeur/all around care taker for the business, and industrial sized fireworks Happen with a capital H. Both women are accustomed to taking charge and though there’s full torpedos ahead kind of intimacy, it’s also very moving because of how emotionally damaged the mc’s are at the onset but who are also willing to let love in. I have only read this book in the series but felt it complete. Wonderful, I had forgotten how much I love this author’s storytelling.

“Millie fixed her gaze on her.
Veronica struggled with her sense of being exposed. Another layer peeled back. This is how it goes. Learning about each other. The joy of being known.”

Brenda Murphy’s Complex Dimensions is the fourth book in her Rowan House series. I haven’t read the other three books (yet) but I had no trouble following the plot here.

A very romantic tale about second chances, putting aside prejudice, and following your heart. The women in this tale are working to overcome some serious obstacles, and surrounding themselves with a loving chosen family.gives them the support they need to embrace a life they enjoy.

The story is well crafted, with the drama unfolding gradually and a lovely slow burn romance. This is an erotic romance and the BDSM elements are nicely incorporated to work with the dynamics between the main characters. There are some darker aspects but they are all off page and enhance the tone of the story.

There are many things going for this book, but the most important one is that it's well written. The writing flows smoothly and there are no jarring bits in the narrative. What's also noteworthy is that it has two butch protagonists, a rarity in lesfic. It's also interesting to read a story about sex workers where the sex workers and clients are all women; there are no male character at all. The only drawback is that the story is told in snippets and many times it's difficult to figure out how much time has passed.

In my mission to read more diverse romance novels, this one certainly fits the bill. Scottish island pleasure resort for lesbians, with bdsm and kinks galore. The MC has gotten out of prison and is recruited to work with the horses but soon ends up in a relationship with one of the women living on the island.

My regret is that I didn't know it was a book in a series and was confused as to these other characters and how they got there. I know many romance series people recommend starting anywhere but in this case I was missing too many pieces to understand it completely.

Not going to lie, I asked to review this book based solely on the cover which gave me instant heart eyes. When I finally picked up my jaw from the floor and got round to reading the blurb I was a little apprehensive, BDSM romance has never been my thing but I have read a few I liked well enough to give this a shot. Great decision, well done past me 😍

Veronica is warm, kind and practical all virtues I love to see championed in a heroine. Plus she works with horses and that's just cool. As is the setting of a secluded and exclusive Scottish sex villa for international lesbians of taste.

While the plot wings along at a decent clip be prepared to get to the 50% mark before the romance actually takes off. It took so long I started to wonder if Millie was actually supposed to be Veronica's love interest or not. Slowmance aside when they finally start getting it on it's a genuinely lovely, and hot, romance. Even the BDSM play in their sex scenes is of a more gentle variety which I thought was lovely. It's nice to know it doesn't have to be all whips and pain cranked up to 11, there's a spectrum of tastes.

I was surprised by how much I liked this book and thoroughly recommend anyone in need of a sweet romance between two women who have successfully gotten over the shitty things done to them in the past. There are some weak drama beats in the plot but I appreciated the characters got over them quickly by using their brains and communicating, not always as common as I would like in romance.

Solid four stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the review copy.

This story seems to be a lot more about romance and the relationship than the other stories set in the Rowan House, exclusive women’s club, were and I really liked it. Veronica Fletcher has been released from prison but there is so much animosity from some of her family and her ex that she takes the opportunity to manage the stable for Rowan House when it’s offered. She meets Millie Reid on her arrival in Skye but they don’t get off to a fabulous start when Veronica manages to put her foot in it with her first words.

There are numerous things that I really enjoyed in reading this. Ethnic diversity is always a plus for me but I also really enjoyed that both women were butch. It’s not often that I read that type of pairing so it was a nice change. Even though the story is from Veronica’s point of view, Millie still has a lot of depth to her. Veronica’s inner thoughts are intermittent and not too distracting. There is also a good backstory in the form of Veronica’s and Millie’s pasts.

As usual, the sex scenes were well-written with some power exchange but they’re more BDSM-light with lots of emotional connection. I loved their attraction for each other and that their lovemaking was just that, rather than orchestrated BDSM scenes. Veronica and Millie had a genuine relationship building throughout. I’m looking forward to Elaine’s story.

Book received from Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

Oh I didn’t expect to like this one as much as I did! So yay me 😃
So this is my first book by this author and apparently this was a series but yet I can assure you all that this can be read as a stand alone because I didn’t feel that I missed out on anything.
So I’m assuming that this is meant to be an erotic romance book which I believe it was and it scored a 3.5 rating on that front. However what made me rate this as a solid 4 was that I ended up enjoying the stories of the 2 MCs. There’s so much more beyond the erotic romance there that made it quite entertaining (both were convicted, one for a fair reason and the other unfairly). The struggle they faced and how it affected their personalities and actions added a lot to the storyline. The interesting part is that the blurb didn’t reflect that at all and I believe this wasn’t very smart from the author.

I did however find that the author was brilliant in portraying the inner thoughts of Veronica the main MC. I also loved the family dynamics and the mad love and support they had/gave to their daughter! I had a small crush on Veronica I have to admit :)
I highly recommend this book if you’re in the mood for a butch/butch black/white mix which I find to be very underrepresented in lesbian fiction. There’s also a bit of BDSM which was quite hot :)

There are two things I need to get out of the way first. In this book, there’s sex (a lot, and it’s hot), there’s power play (a lot, and it’s hot too), there’s angst (a lot, not so hot) and drama. If that’s not what you’re looking for, look elsewhere. The second thing is that it’s the fourth book in the Rowan House series but it can be read as a standalone. Though if you’re like me, it will make you want to read the previous ones.

Fresh out of prison for a crime she didn’t commit, Veronica is offered a job in Scotland (yay!) as a stable manager. Before she was convicted, she was working on her maths thesis and she feels her time in jail has stolen everything from her, whether it’s her career or her girlfriend. Her parents and sister always stood by her, but her extended family, especially an awful aunt, hasn’t been so kind. Eager to earn enough money to reimburse her parents for everything they paid for her lawyer and also to get away, she takes the job at Rowan House, some kind of resort for women looking to fulfill their BDSM fantasies. At the airport, she’s met by Millie, one of her few coworkers who is neither a sex worker nor a submissive pledged to the house. Millie’s older, very butch and very charming. While she’s never been attracted to another butch woman and has never dated a white woman, Veronica finds herself falling for her.

Though the environment is rather unusual (I haven’t read many lesfic novels set in brothels), the romance itself is more traditional. Veronica and Millie struggle with trust and communication, they’ve both been through very difficult stuff and need to find themselves and who they are / want to be in a new relationship. I liked the chemistry between them a lot, the sex scenes are good (though I agree with Lex’s suggestion that the vocabulary of the submissive character could stand to be expanded), but Millie’s difficulties with trust were a little repetitive and Veronica’s inner thoughts were sometimes distracting.

What I liked best: two gender non-conforming MCs falling for each other, one of them Black (the cover is perfect, btw); the reminders about the importance of consent; the glimpse we get into Veronica’s passion for mathematics; the whole cast of characters, from the women at Rowan House to Veronica’s family.

The story and characters kept me very interested. This is the first book I've read with a love interest between two butch women. Which is awesome!
Now that I know this is part of a series I want to read all the previous books so I can get to know some of my favorite characters a little more.

This is the fourth book in the Rowan House series. Rowan House is an exclusive resort for women who enjoy sexual pleasure of any variety. This book, as are all of the books in the series, is a standalone novel. What I like best about these books are the repeated characters who appear in each book because they are so well developed by Murphy that I just feel like their friends and I want to see what they’re up to now. Great character development is the joy of reading books in the series.
Prior to reading the books in the Rowan House series I had a very distorted understanding of what BDSM and polygamy really were all about. I began to realize the pleasure that can be had in an BDSM situation and also how individuals who are in a polyamory relationship are actually in a very loving and caring relationship. Most all of the women in her stories develop very deep and beautiful relationships with each other. They always feel protected and loved.
In this story the two women Millie and Veronica could not be more different from each other. Veronica manages the stable of horses at Rowan House and wants no part of the activities or the women in the house, while Millie is a chauffeur that takes women to and from The exclusive island where Rowan house is. Veronica is fleeing her life in America once she was released from prison for a crime she did not commit because everyone except her immediate family made her life miserable. At Rowan House the past lives of the women are not what is important so women have the chance to start over. The same is true of Millie who also was running from her past. Overtime Millie and Veronica develop a relationship that is beautiful and meaningful. However there are factors in both of their lives that make that relationship impossible. Is it ever a reality to work through issues of your past in a healthy way that enables one to want to move forward or are the characters stuck forever in the limbo of repeated mistakes?

I really enjoy Brenda Murphy’s ability to write a story that is both engaging and informative. She has a beautiful writing style especially in the way she can develop characters who may appear to be unlovable turn into someone you like and care about. I highly recommend this book even though the genre may not be your cup of tea I guarantee the writing in the book might shed a different light on the subject matter.

I really enjoyed this book. The love scenes were so HOT!!! Veronica was a really likable protagonist. I received this book from NetGalley and NineStarPress.

Veronica is an ex-con wrongly convicted looking for redemption. She chooses to go to Skye and work for Rowan House which is a place where women go to live out their fantasies. There she meets Millie who is a convicted juvenile and has a terrible past to contend with. Both characters had their flaws and both were not ready for love. They were both butch and for whatever reason that was a small issue in the book. I like the general premise of the book, I did not feel like anything was forced on us as the readers, it was just a really sweet romance with a lot of BDSM involved.

I liked this book and I would recommend that you read it. There are other books in the series, but you do not have to read them in order to read this book. The overall story was built around Veronica needing to get away from a life that wasn't going the way she planned. I felt she and Millie met at the perfect time and from the beginning they were meant for each other. This was a really good book.

This is the second Rowan house book that I have read and I think before I read anymore I need to go back and read the other two. I did like Complex Dimensions. The story line is solid and I really liked that the two main characters are butch. You don’t normally see that in lesbian romance/erotica stories.

Veronica has excepted a job as stable manager at Rowan house because she is looking to start fresh and also to pay her parents back for the lawyer they paid for before her conviction. She spent several years in jail for a crime she did not commit. In comes Millie. Millie works at Rowan house as the house manager (for a lack of a better description). She picks up Veronica from the ferry and there is an attraction between them even though their outward appearances are both masculine.

So what did I like. Again, I really enjoyed that the two MCs were butch. Murphy does a really good job playing out the erotica and how sex between these two characters can be balanced and you still have a dominant person. I also liked that both MCs have a troubled past and how that affects the communication between them. Murphy also does a good job with creating potential issues with other members of the house.

I do wish that Veronica could have really been able to set the record straight about her conviction and that she would have been able to tell her snooty aunt off better that she did.

I will rate this one 4 stars

3.50 Stars. I didn’t love this but I thought it was a solid story. I have to be honest I grabbed this book because the cover caught my eye. NineStar Press has some of the best covers around so it’s no surprise. But I picked this book with my eyes and didn’t even read the blurb. For one thing I didn’t realize this was part of a series. Luckily, because this book focuses on a new character, you can’t even tell this is not the first in the series. And for people that read my reviews you know how anal I am about series reading order, so for me to say you can start with this book, you can really start here if you want.

Besides not knowing this was part of a series, I didn’t realize this was an erotic-romance book either. It had light BDSM elements which was mostly dom and sub play. Part of my issue was I really wasn’t in the mood for this kind of book today. I spent all week helping my father, who is getting up in age, do some physical labor and I’m just exhausted. This was the first book I have read in days because I have been so tired and on top of that I somehow got a bad case of poison ivy to drive me nuts. The reason I’m getting a little too TMI here is because I wasn’t in the mood for some of these erotic sex scenes. I have a feeling that if I was in a different frame of mind I would have gotten into them instead of almost wanting to skim. However, I would make one request to Murphy about her sex scenes. I would consider expanding the vocab of the more submissive character from just “please this” and “please let me…” it was way to repetitive for my tastes.

A few weeks ago I was just commenting on how I have never read a book about multiple lesbian/bisexual sex workers before. Surprise but this is the second book now to go on that list. This series is about the Rowan House, an estate where there are sex workers that perform BDSM. This book specifically is about a woman hired to run the horse barn, not as a sex worker, so this book doesn’t really delve into the sex worker part of the estate. If you are more interested in that aspect, one of the other books in the series looks like it might fit that better.

If you are in the mood for an erotic–romance with some steamy sex scenes but a sweet romance, this book might be perfect for you. I wish I could say I loved this but even though I can’t it was still entertaining and a solid read. I might even try to read this again when I’m in a different head-space to see if it works better for me.