Book Review: The Stranger (Just One Night, Part 1) by Kyra Davis

Add to Goodreads

The Stranger
Just One Night, Part 1
By:  Kyra Davis
January 21, 2013
Publisher:  Gallery Books
Source:  Publisher
Mature Content:  18 & Up

GR's Summary:

In this New York Times bestselling erotic enovella trilogy, a buttoned-up businesswoman takes her friend’s advice and has a fling with a stranger on a trip to Vegas—only to find herself under his mysterious, sexy power both in the boardroom and the bedroom. 

Kasie Fitzgerald knows who she’s supposed to be. She’s a rising-star-workaholic at a global consulting firm. She’s the fiancée of a well-connected man who’s won the approval of her parents. People know that she’s reliable, serious, proper, cautious, pragmatic, and yes, a little predictable. She’s who Dave and her family want her to be.

But as her thirtieth birthday looms, buried feelings begin to resurrect. Her friend takes her to Vegas for one last wild and crazy night. In a dress much shorter and sexier than anything she has ever dared to wear before, she hits the blackjack tables. And meets him. Under the tailored clothes it’s clear that this is a man who is intense, powerful, and maybe even a little dangerous. With a touch of trepidation she accepts his invitation to get a drink, and before long, she’s in his hotel room.

She never gets his full name. Perhaps his anonymity is one of the reasons she’s able to give herself over to him and to the moment so completely.Perhaps it’s why she’s just had the most exquisite and passionate sex of her life. Shaken by her own behavior, Kasie tries to chalk it up to one crazy night. But when the mysterious gentleman she’s just had a fling with shows up in her office—as the CEO of a firm her company does a billion dollars of business with a year, demanding that she handle his account, and so much more—things will never be the same again. And there’s no telling where this will go…

My Take on this Journey:

Just One Night, by Kyra Davis, is a conglomeration of three novels in one bound book; #1 Stranger, #2 Exposed, and #3 Binding Agreement.  These three Novella's are about Kasie Fitzgerald.  Kasie has been in a relationship with her long time boyfriend, the ever straight laced, rigid, sensible, comfortable, Dave.  The Novella begins with Kasie and her friend, Simone, in Las Vegas, and Simone is taking her out to the casino.  Simone is trying to get Kasie out of her boring, predictable, life.  Her everyday suits she wears are not going to do for a night out in the casino's looking for a stranger, so Simone convinces her to wear one of her sexy, skimpy, short, body molding dresses, that Kasie has to keep pulling down on, because it keeps creeping up her body.  Kasie has lived a pretty cautious, and predictable life, and is always aware of the choices she makes and how they will affect her family.  Kasie has a drug addicted sister that has let her family down, so she is determined to always do the right thing when it comes to her family, and never let them down.

Kasie is drop dead gorgeous!  When she and Simone go out for the night, she catches the eye of a stranger, Robert Dade, at the black jack table.  Robert and Kasie hit it off in more ways than one.  What starts out as a drink together, ends up being a romp in his hotel room impusively, at her girlfriends suggestion.  This leads to a night of lust and passion, that leaves Kasie with mixed feelings, because she has never had unbridled sex, a attraction to a dangerous looking man, or the sexually sated fulfillment she feels with this stranger, in her life.  She begins fantasizing over and over again.  She returns to her life back home, and to Dave, with guilt, but not enough to stop the fantasies.  Low and behold, who walks into a meeting, but Robert Dade.  The CEO Conglomerate that is hiring their firm for PR services.  Now, something that started out as a nameless, one night stand, turns in to a torrid affair.  The guilt eats Kasie up alive, but not enough to stop what she feels she has no control over.  The reader is made to feel sorry for Dave, because his longtime girlfriend, Kasie, is cheating on him, but don't get too drawn in.  Things are not always as they seem.  The reader is left with a cliffhanger, leading into the second Novella, in which the reader see's a turn the the characters, and realizes they all aren't what they seem.  

Dave learns of her affair, and black mails her into ending it, by threatening her with her career, and humiliation when her family and others find out about what she's done.  Her life has become anything, but predictable, now with Robert in it and he is more than willing to keep her wanting more and getting anything she desires.  This is all at a price, that she has yet to realize.  Both men are controlling, but in different ways, and both are ruthless.  Ms. Davis will reel in her readers, into this smoldering, torrid, love afair that becomes multi faceted.  This trilogy brought about many aspects to the table;  manipulation, blackmail, humiliation, submission, control, power struggles, coersion, entitlement, egotism, self serving promotion, intensity, angst, mental illness, desire, bottomless-sating-sex, and unbridled fear.

Kasie's fantasy's are many, with smouldering, diabolical sex.  It is even earth shattering at times, especially when it is really happening. Kasie realizes in the third novella that something has got to change, when Robert is getting rid of people all around her for the wrong reasons.  He becomes scary and the situation becomes completely unnerving.  Kasie is a strong, independent woman, but has a ton of issues, and Robert has just as many secrets.  Kasie is very career minded and has made a lot of bad decisions where Dave and Robert are concerned to make it up the corporate ladder, at the expense of others.  Dave pulled out all the stops in order to control her, her career, and her overall ambition, and gets the best of her.  Then, Robert takes over where Dave left off, and we have a screwed up love triangle, full of angst, fear, power struggles, and lies.

Kasie learns quickly that things aren't always as they seem, and that the difference between Dave and Robert is that she believes that he loves her, and he is intoxicatingly gorgeous, though they are both unrelenting and ruthless, it is in different ways.  Kasie begins to see things more clearly with the help of Tom, her friend, who gets axed, and Kasie takes over his job.  This is quite a web of distruction.  Kasie finally has to make choices, stand up for herself and what she feels is right, rid herself of her guilt, and make definite boundries with Robert if he wants to keep her in his life.  This trilogy is left open ended. 

Overall, this trilogy was interesting, smouldering, complicated, risky, and showed what a person's one way ticket up the corporate ladder can get you.  There were lulls in the  storyline at times, but overall, it still kept my interest.  I think Ms. Davis did a good job with this multi-faceted, complicated story that she created.

I give, Just One Night Trilogy, by Kyra Davis, 3 Erotic, Tantalizing, Fantasizing, Show Stopping Encounter filled Stars!!!

Purchase At:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo

About Kyra Davis:

I'm the internationally published author of the Sophie Katz mystery series, and So Much For My Happy Ending. My first Erotic Fiction Trilogy will be released in January 2013.

Aside from that, I'm a single mom; I'm addicted to coffee and True Blood (the show, not the drink). I'm happy with who I am yet I’m always striving to be better; I have more bad hair days than good ones, I love a challenge but I am not fearless, I’m….well…just me.

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter