Candace Tapers’ life finally takes an upward swing when Nathan Dumont, shipping heir and notorious playboy, sweeps her away to a lifestyle of wealth and privilege. But that life comes with strings, and she is soon pulled in directions she never expected, discovering secrets and ulterior motives in the man who shares her bed.
*The Dumont Diaries was originally released, and is still available as a four-part miniseries. This book combines the four pieces of the miniseries into one, full-length novel.
I originally read The Dumont Diaries as a four part novella series, To Have, To Hold, Till Death, and Do Us Part…and I re-read it as The Dumont Diaries. Both times I was blown away.
Want a glimpse into the mind of Nathan Dumont? Trust me…you do!
The car slowed, pulling off the highway onto gravel, the kick of rock against the car’s exterior causing Nathan to look up from his phone. His eyes took in the parking lot, a cluster of cars parked against a chain-link fence. A neon sign blinking over the lot, casting alternating blood-red shadows across the flat roof of an ugly building. “This is it?”
“Yep. Address matches. And there’s nothing else around.”
He looked out the window at the red doors. No valet or security. Nothing to raise the status or give him any measure of comfort. “I don’t like it. Let’s just move on.”
“We’ve driven two hours. Just walk in and talk to her.”
“We should have flown.” Flying would have meant a half hour trip. Something that wouldn’t obligate him to step inside. “I don’t care about the time. A girl in there isn’t going to work.”
“You liked her file.” Drew spoke quietly, but with confidence. “She has the look we want.”
“She’s a stripper. She won’t fit in.”
“Just go in and talk to her. If you don’t like her after that, I’ll dig more on the girl in Jacksonville.”
He looked back at the building, then opened the door with a sigh. “Fifteen minutes. I’ll chat her up, then we leave.”
He avoided the building’s door handle, letting Mark open it and walked into a room much like he had envisioned in the parking lot. Dim lighting, a damp interior. Carpet that seemed to squish beneath his feet. Varying degrees of unattractive men scattered throughout the room, platinum blondes perched on laps, swinging around poles, whispering into dirty ears. A man in a cheap suit approached them, greedy eagerness on his face. Mark spoke to him briefly, the man nodded enthusiastically, and then they moved, a group of four, down a thin hallway until they entered a new area of filth, one the manager referred to as the VIP room. Nathan tilted his head to an overweight man in the corner, straddled by a wigged redhead. “Clear the room.”
The manager hesitated, prompting Drew to withdraw his wallet. Two minutes later, the room was clear, the manager leaving to get the girl.
The girl. Candace Tapers. Goes by Candy – a fitting name for an establishment such as this. An educated woman with a fairly impressive drivers license photo. In their favor was a sick father and a mounting stack of debt. Add to that a despicable work environment and she should be easy to snag. Assuming that they wanted her. That was the purpose of this visit. Meet her. Qualify her. If acceptable, woo her. Propose a life away from this place. Drive her to the house, have her sign a contract. Done. A cold marriage in exchange for financial independence.
He sat on a center couch and lit a cigar, rolling it and drawing slowly on the end. Then the curtains moved, and she walked in.
He narrowed his eyes, blowing out a breath of smoke and watched her walk towards him. This was wrong. The girl on the driver’s license had smiled sunnily into the camera, the epitome of carefree light. This woman… was woman. Her shoulders back, head up, every casual movement she made caused his cock to thicken, his balls to tighten. She smiled, a knowing, confident smile, one that emphasized her beauty and he returned the gesture, leaning back on black leather and letting his eyes travel over her skin.
Fuck. He had needed a wife for one reason, and it wasn’t sex. That wasn’t what the relationship would be about. But looking at her he suddenly wanted more.
He glanced away from her, to the pole. “Dance.”
She nodded without hesitation, stepping fluidly up to the stage and gripping the pole, beginning a slow swing around it as music began to pipe through the room. He felt a presence to his left as Drew stepped closer and spoke in a low tone. “What are you doing?”
“I want to see her dance.”
“I thought your relationship with this… I thought the marriage was going to be strictly platonic.”
He dismissed the man with a short jerk of his hand, and felt him step back into place. Nathan shifted, moving a hand down and adjusting himself, watching the girl slowly undo her top, every movement sexual and teasing in nature. Every curve and bend of her body screwed with his mind, turning his good intentions dark, and throwing all reason and logic out the window. His eyes darkened as lace was pulled away from her skin and her breasts were bared to his eyes.
Fuck. She was perfect, her body causing his own to ache, her face more beautiful than any of them could have hoped. But she was too much so. Too tempting. He would have to adjust the plan. Adjust the paperwork. Make this marriage more than just photo ops and confidentiality. Sex would have to be involved. There was no way he could keep his hands off of her.
The Dumont Diaries by Alessandra Torre
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
*ARC Given to Blog for Honest Review*
4.5 “Blue Eyes” “Candy” “heartbreakingly lovable” “I was lost to him the moment I saw him…” Kisses
Wow…yeah, how do I talk about this book? I read it when it was four separate novellas (To Have, To Hold, Till Death, Do Us Part) and then I re-read it as The Dumont Diaries to get the full effect…because after each novella, I had to stop to write my reviews so I wouldn’t get confused. As a whole, all the emotions that I initially experienced in the four novella’s, I felt the same – times ten because there was no pause, no break – just a straight hit to my emotions. The plot, the characters, the writing – it’s all a mind fuck and I was 100% hooked.
Candace Deanna Tapers is living a shitty life. She graduated college with high hopes only to come to the realization that while you may have the best plans and intentions those don’t always work out. Candy is 26 years old and stuck working as a stripper, renting a disgusting room from an even more disgusting guy, barely living and struggling to make ends meet. But it’s thru those circumstances that leads her to her new life…because Candy no longer exists…in her place is Jennifer Kinsey…or Jennifer Ann Kinsey-Dumont. In the span of a few weeks her entire life has changed. While financially she doesn’t have a care in the world…emotionally that’s not so true. She knew what she was signing up for but I guess you never know what the real price will cost you. Candy…the more I read her, the more I like her. She’s got spunk and she’s throughout the book she got gutsier…I was definitely impressed. She grew and changed…in positive ways, in my opinion. Towards the end of the book she held my heart! Usually (and for obvious reasons) it is the guy that I’m 100% hung up on, but I was fist pumping every word she said, every decision she made – if there ever is a head cheerleader for the ‘I love Candy’ team – it’s me! This girl is aaaaamazing! Blew my socks off completely.
‘My view of love is an unfair one, created by Nicholas Sparks novels, Lifetime movies, and Michael Buble love songs. I recognize it for what it is – a fairytale fantasy, at least for a girl like me. Maybe I will be Julia Roberts, and a dashing, dignified Richard Gere will fall madly in love with me and whisk me away to a lifetime of diamonds, caviar, and True Love. But it is a long shot, and the last few years have proven that I carry poor odds.’
Nathan Bane Dumont…Mr. Blue Eyes. He’s an enigma. A man of very few words but the words he uses…Mmmm…he knows what he wants and he usually gets what he wants. And turns out…he wants Candy! He’s strong, silent, hot, demanding, alpha, brooding, mysterious and I want him badly. I don’t know what it is about him, maybe the fact that I had so many unanswered questions throughout the book and not knowing drove me insane! And every time I got answers to some, I would then have more! Why he is so closed off, why he needed Candy/Jennifer so badly, why all the walls…he’s a tough nut to crack. That’s part of the intrigue know…not knowing makes me crave it that much more. By the second half of the book he became more human, which scared me…a lot! I started to like him more…a lot more. More than I thought I would. I understand him more, which is tough…because I was enjoying thinking that he was just an ass hole! Lol He’s a very loveable ass hole…and I mean that as a compliment. And then, by the end…oh boy…I loved him, I wanted him, in my brain I molested him – but he liked it, so it’s okay, right? Then the last few chapters…I wanted to choke him…throttle him…cause him bodily harm for being a dumb ass…but I didn’t. Because I had faith he would pull his head out of his ass…and he did. Thankfully…he did have me worried for a little bit there.
‘I love his eyes. They are the only way I can read him. His body gives so little away; he controls his emotions so well. But his eyes are traitorous to his carefully maintained control. They blaze when he is angry, they soften when he is yielding, they grow heavy with need when he is aroused.’
I will mention Drew because…he piqued my interest from the beginning. He is one of Nathan’s bodyguards and basically watches over Candy since she arrives at Nathan’s house. Well…there were a lot of things about Drew that made me wonder…made me raise my eyebrow…I predicted early on there was more to Drew…that he was very important to whatever might be going on, and I was right. I call him the unforeseen complication, if you will. I can’t disclose more or else it will spoil things but he is a huge part of the story. If Nathan is closed off and surly, Drew is kind and open and patient. I really liked Drew…Nathan just gets me all fired up and Drew is this calming spirit. Hard to explain really, but I just get ‘good guy’ vibes from him. And honestly, at the end, I felt bad for him! And once again I don’t even know him that well but I guess it’s the whole ‘good guy’ thing…by default he’s got a soft spot in my heart. I do love his relationship with Candy though…I know I shouldn’t and it makes me feel all conflicted inside, but I can’t help it.
‘His whispered voice is so thick, so full of emotion and need. It matches the need in my heart. I need this so bad. I need to be held, to be protected, to be embraced. He nuzzles the skin on my neck, placing a soft kiss there before continuing. “I just…I couldn’t go to sleep without touching you.”’
This is a quintessential Alessandra Torre book for me. Gorgeous writing…captivating and alluring characters and a plot that keeps me on my toes the entire time. Another thing I have come to expect from Alessandra is completely delicious, eyes rolling in the back of your head fabulous, need to change your panties, hot sex. Super hot. Like…damn…I wish I wasn’t reading this book in public hot. I mean…yes this is an erotica but this book is more than just sex, it has substance and plot…works for me! And speaking of the plot, there is no way to explain this plot without spoiling it…but it’s an on the edge of your seat, white knuckling your kindle, never know what’s going to hit you next story line. There were so many huge twists that I did not expect, didn’t see coming or really how I felt about it! I’m was torn and my emotions were on high alert because every time I thought I knew how I felt about something…something else would happen and then I really didn’t know how I felt. It might sound very confusing…but I loved it! I remember thinking when I was reading each book separately how well each one built off the other…and it was the same here, if anything it might have been a little more powerful, because like I said with the four novella’s, I broke off between each book rather than reading straight through.
‘Even if he doesn’t fall in love, being with him, feeling his hands on my body, his eyes on my soul, his laugh on my lips…that will be enough.’
The characters and original story line of where the book was taken is what completely held my interest…it’s rare for a book to catch me so off guard but this one did it and did it very well. If there was anything that left me wanting more it would be two things, and it’s more a ‘resolution’ factor if you will…Drew and Cecile. I feel like the way things were left with Drew were very open ended – there was no final ‘talk’ and I think there should have been, just for closure. Now Cecile – I have soooooo many questions…I get the relationship, I understand the dynamics and all that but there are a lot of unanswered questions – the who, what, when, where and more importantly the why!!!! I am sad that I will never know that…would ease my poor little battered and bruised heart.
‘A woman’s desperation is most clearly spoken in a kiss. And I’m afraid, in this moment, that I bare my soul to him. Everything that I have contained, held back, lied to myself about, comes to the surface, all of my emotions revealed at once, both to me and to him.’
Still even with those two factors I completely loved this series. Alessandra has a knack for beautiful writing…it’s effortless and catches me off guard with how she can bring out such emotion and power with her words. I can’t explain it but she just has a way of taking something that would seem very mundane and making it amazing. I loved Candy and Nathan’s story…I will always hope for more and maybe someday we will get that – she did throw me for a loop at one point and gave me a tid bit from Nathan’s journal – would LOVE some more of Mr. Blue Eyes POV. A Drew spin off would be awesome too because he is another nut that needs to be cracked. The Dumont Diaries is a heart gripping, panty melting, and hands down fabulous series – an absolute must read!
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Alessandra Torre is a new author who focuses on contemporary erotica. Her first book, Blindfolded Innocence, was published in July 2012, and was an Erotica #1 Bestseller for two weeks. Alessandra has since published an erotic thriller (The Girl in 6E) and an erotic miniseries (The Dumont Diaries). The sequel to Blindfolded, Masked Innocence, will be released in early 2014.
Alessandra lives in a Florida beach town and is married, with one young child. She enjoys reading, spending time with her family, and playing with her dogs. Her favorite authors include Lisa Gardner, Gillian Flynn, and Jennifer Crusie.
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