ARC Review: SCOUNDRELS & SCOTCH by Alta Hensley

I’ll stop at nothing to own her.

I’m a collector of dolls.
All kinds of dolls.

So beautiful and sexy, they become my art.
So perfect and flawless, my art galleries are flooded by the wealthy to gaze upon my possessions with envy.
So fragile and delicate, I keep them tucked away for safety.
The dark and torrid tales of Drayton’s Dolls run rampant through the rich and famous, and all but a few are true.
Normally I share my dolls for others to play with or watch on display.

But not my special doll.
No, not her.
Ivy is the most precious doll of all.
She’s mine. All mine.

*Scoundrels & Scotch is a dark billionaire romance. If you don’t like a splash of shock, a dash of taboo, and a heavy dose of sex, then don’t take a sip of this TOP SHELF cocktail.

ADD to Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37035185-scoundrels-scotch

REVIEW

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ll admit, going into this I expected something dark, twisted and taboo. I think it was all the hype surrounding Drayton’s Dolls in the previous books. Who knows? The idea of them as art was fascinating to me and I was intrigued enough to want to dive into the mind of Victor Drayton and figure out what his inspiration was. While I really didn’t get to delve that deep, and while this wasn’t necessarily a dark and depraved read, I quite enjoyed the journey the author led me on.

This story was more about training Ivy to be a submissive than anything else. Training her to become one of Drayton’s dolls. It wasn’t wholly romantic, even though we did get a chance to discover a connection between her and Victor. It wasn’t as dark or as kinky as I thought it would be but it was more emotional than the previous books in the series. At least on Ivy’s part. I didn’t even realize that Victor had any feelings for her until close to the end. I think that had a lot to do with the fact that most of the story was centered around Ivy’s training and Victor trying to mold her into his vision for his art. So a part of me didn’t jump on board the love train because it wasn’t quite believable. I think that part of the story needed to be explored more.

With the way things ended (or didn’t quite end), I think pieces of this story will appear in future books. At least I hope so because the suspenseful part of the plot wasn’t completely resolved. I’m really enjoying getting to know all of the owners of Spiked Roses and I’m looking forward to the next one ;)

Expected Release Date: January 16, 2018

Genre: Dark Erotica - light BDSM

POV: Dual - 1st person

Heat: 4.5 out of 5

Series/Standalone: Standalone - Book #3 of the Top Shelf series with character crossover