WINDY CITY SERIES, BOOK 1 (Full Length)
Jessica Stanley is comfortable in her orderly life as a paralegal at a high end law firm. Having dated her fair share of liars and manipulators, Jessica views men through a pair of thick, cynical lenses. Men are good for one thing in her eyes, and one thing only.
Her predictable life is thrown into a whirlwind of new experiences when she meets a … meets a dominating man at a casual dinner with friends.
Royce Bradford is a man of intent and is used to getting his way. Until he meets Jessica. She is wound tight, and he finds himself yearning to unravel her secrets and her passions.
Jessica declares their relationship casual. She’s tempted by his seductive tone and unusually powerful demeanor to give him that much. But for Royce, it’s not enough. He wants more.
Except Jessica has built a secret tomb around her heart, and it will take a lot more than sensual play times and verbal commands for him to be allowed entrance. Royce never backs down from his desires. He takes up the challenge to seek out her Hidden Heart.
This book contains adult material such as graphic sexual scenes and BDSM elements such as spanking, domestic discipline, and anal play.
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This is an erotic & beautifully written story about two characters, Royce & Jessica, & how they take a journey into D/s together.
Royce is an experienced Dominant, is calm, controlled, focused, knows what he wants, how he wants it & more importantly, how to get it. And the 1st time he meets Jessica, Royce wants HER.
Jessica is vanilla, is confident in her professional life but burned by her romantic history, she knows she doesn’t want to risk her heart & emotions again but Royce is sexy, attractive & thrillingly dominant in a way that calls to, & surprises, her.
Royce is intent on being with Jessica as her Dominant while Jessica doesn’t even know what that entails. And eventually (after a lot of internet research) Jessica negotiates an ‘agreement’ with Royce, in a way & method he’s never before encountered. And their D/s ‘arrangement’ begins. Royce is patient, gentle but firm, stern when needed, provides a guiding hand as well as a punishing one for his newbie sub.
But Jessica made it clear: love was not to be involved . . . .
I loved this one. Royce appealed to me in so many ways: quiet, calm, controlled, gentle, supportive, loving, but always stretching Jessica’s abilities both intimately & in her professional capacity. And Jessica, intelligent, determined, but needing just a little help to become what she truly desires, even if she doesn’t know it’s what she wants AND needs. As well as healing for her bruised heart.
Again, I found this to be a beautifully written story that brings the reader into Royce & Jessica’s journey, causes us to care about these 2 people & makes us root for them to reach a HEA together. The steam is wonderful & adds intensity as well as delicious heat to this one.
‘Hidden Heart’ made me concerned for Royce & Jessica’s potential future, made me bite my lip during their erotic scenes, but most importantly warmed my heart & made me smile. An excellent book I loved.
A great book of trust, love, happiness. Finding love even when not looking. Trusting men again. Learning what BDSM is all about.
Sometimes it only takes a couple of minutes to know if something is going to be wonderful. A glance, a touch, a smile, a paragraph… I knew almost immediately that I was going to love this series as much as Jessica and Royce end up loving each other.
I have a fondness for great groups of friends who are close but tend to keep some secrets, even from each other. I love the banter that flows between them and the fun filled nights around good food. Since that is how this book starts I knew I was going to be sucked in. Then you throw in a few new people to the group, in this case Royce, change the dynamic a little bit, and let the sparks fly, and we are off and running.
This story offers great characters, an exciting and believable love story, steamy passion, laughs, dramatic tension, and a HEA that will leave you desperate to find out if the rest of the gang is going to be as lucky. It’s wonderful from beginning to end.
Jessica didn’t believe in true love, and gave up on looking, even though some of her friends had found it. Out with her friends they mentioned someone bringing a friend, maybe her true love, but she didn’t believe in the fairy tale anymore.
Out with friends she meets Royce, he was polite, but she knew not to get her hopes up all men leave. When he asks her to dinner, she convinces herself it’s that he’s new in town and doing him a favour, but she knows she has to keep her distance, he seems to read her inner thoughts.
Although Royce’s break up was more serious than he let Jessica know, it hadn’t been who he wanted to spend the rest of his life with either. Something drew him to Jessica, he saw how she tried to be indifferent, how she was awkward even with close male friends, yet when she saw the couple in front of her apartment, thinking it an odd thing the woman call her lover, he knew she would sound beautiful, when she call him Sir for the first time.
Something about Royce has Jessica agreeing to try with him, but can she explore the type of relationship he wants, without it getting personal. Can he get her to trust him and break down her carefully constructed walls, when Royce’s secret shows up can they survive
Bridges
Royce and Jessica….sigh\uD83D\uDE0A. What a wonderfully sexy, caring, sensual and emotional journey. It was so captivating watching Royce show Jessica everything they could have together and open her emotions back up. Great D/s story.
This is Book 1 in the “Windy City” series and the great character and plot development hooked me right from the start! However, the interaction and chemistry between Jessica and Royce kept me glued to my kindle until the turn of the very last page!
When you read about a couple that steals your heart, you fall in love with the author. This book is one of those books. The way these characters are portrayed and described absolutely blew me away. It was a book that hit me deep.
The things these characters went through. The way they broke through to each other. It was all amazing and emotional.
Jessica and Royce are amazing together. It takes them a while to see that and break through the walls they’ve built up. But once they do, it becomes a love story that ensures it touches every heart string. A must read!!
Jessica’s been hurt badly, so much so that she refuses to even think of having love in her life again. So when she meets Royce, a Dom, she’s really, really wary of the man who seems to want past her walls and into her heart. Can she allow her innate submissive nature to come out? Will Royce be able to get past her defenses?
I’m of 2 minds about this story. On one hand, the story itself is entertaining, if a little flat. Not a whole heck of a lot happens in it, and neither character is particularly well-drawn or fleshed out, especially Royce. Royce was probably my least favorite part of this story. For a Dom, he was seriously lacking in, well, Dom-ish qualities. I kinda didn’t even really feel he was a true Dom. I did like that he seemed to a good guy, but he was almost cardboard because he just wasn’t developed enough for me to feel any kind of connection with him.
All in all, while kind of entertaining, this story fell a bit short for my tastes, probably because of its short length.
Hidden Heart by Measha Stone is Book One in the Windy City Series. This is the story of Royce and Jessica. Jessica has been hurt in the past which has made her very cautious going forward with relationship and trying to keep them emotion free. Which is what she is trying to do with Royce. Royce usually gets what he wants and he wants all of Jessica but he is holding a secret that might prove her right that she always gets hurt when her heart is involved.
Steamy Read. I hope to read more books by Ms. Stone.
Hidden Heart is the first book in the Windy City series. Jessica doesn’t believe in true love, but can’t deny what Royce makes her feel. As their relationship develops, will Jessica allow her heart to fully open up to Royce and a possible future with him?
Oh my goodness, I just devoured this book! I should have been doing all sorts of things, but once I started this book, I just could NOT put it down! Jessica and Royce completely stole my heart in the process of claiming each other’s. Jessica has been hurt so much in her past and hides all of her emotions behind her internal walls, but I loved her curiosity, her willingness to try, and her vulnerabilities. Royce is amazing and may be my newest book boyfriend, as I absolutely loved that he could see Jessica so clearly and refused to let her hide. He slowly chipped at all of her walls while balancing giving her the space she needed, and I just loved him. Together, their passion reigned supreme, but I loved their softer times, too, and all the drama that they needed to work through. I was completely fascinated by this romance, the power dynamics, the background stories of both characters, and I just absolutely loved reading this book! I can’t wait to read what will come next from this series!
This is a review for the revised, rewritten, extended and all round improved version of Hidden Heart. Reviews prior to September 2019 are for a ‘lesser’ version of the book.
This first and foremost is a love story of two people who chose to include a power exchange dynamic in their relationship. The BDSM element is fairly tame but still incredibly hot and very well written. In fact it was perfect for the story, their play was private and didn’t involve dungeons, clubs and other people – it was abut what was right for them. Which nicely leads me into how very real and honest the play felt, there was some negotiation but this wasn’t a Dom collaring his submissive, it was a guy who liked to be the dominant partner in a relationship but didn’t want a 24/7 thing.
I found Jessica to be an incredibly likeable character and very easy to both connect and sympathise with. She didn’t regard herself as a submissive and had never had any leanings towards a D/s relationship but found something in Royce that enabled her to explore things and give it a try. Now that leads me onto where I had one struggle with the story. Jessica and Royce had only just met when he ‘pulled’ some Dom moves on her. Nothing too extreme and all above board and consensual, so there was no issue there. However I really couldn’t understand Jessica’s actions and response at that point. I wasn’t totally convinced of her following his instructions as she did, it seemed to opposed to her frame of mind immediately before that. Later in the book we hear her musing on how she is ‘choosing’ to follow his instructions and see where things take them, to try new things. I guess I needed more of that in the first scene where her behaviour was totally out of character.
At times through the story I felt like Royce teetered on the edge of being overbearing. BUT at the end, when I reflected back, I could see how his actions could equally be interpreted as demonstrating his care of and concern for Jessica. He totally put her happiness and wellbeing before all else. Hindsight turned some of his ‘bombastic’ actions into nurturing and caring ones – clearly he wanted more control than I could have given up to him, lol! Jessica is also one closed off, stubborn woman who needed his less than gentle pushing, because that pushing was done with respect and love.
There is so much I want to say about the ‘hiccup’ and ending, but that would include spoilers. So what I will say is that their ‘reconnection’ (and that word is important) was perfect and since neither of them had behaved perfectly anything else would have felt unfair and left a bitter taste. Instead it was everything I could want and hope for
So things move fast in this book.. After one night Royce knows he wants to claim Jessica but he has to tread slowly. She’s been hurt and trust is a big issue with her. Due to being burned by an ex, she doesn’t believe in love and just wants casual. Royce and Jess definitely have chemistry and he pushes her to enjoy things she never she would. Yes she’s hesitant at first but soon finds herself loving every slap and hit she gets. Yes there’s a crazy ex who can’t take a hint and causes issues with them. The bedroom scenes are sensual and sexy all at the same time. Yes it’s a Dom/Sub relationship but its more to it then that. Its how they feel for each other and the trust they build together. I liked this book along with the characters in it.
I loved the original, and it only gets better with the reworkng. Royce and Jessica embark on a relationship that will have you melting at the heat and romance. This author has the knack of taking a great storyline and interweaving a tantalizing D/s relationship with such realism that you can imagine having the characters in your circle of friends. You want their relationship to work and I found myself unable to put the book down as if my continued reading would somehow keep them together. Great read with a great cast of characters.