Strong language, explicit sexual situations, M/F. F/F. 18+
If anyone had asked ten years ago, I never would have imagined I’d be a thirty-five-year-old widow today.
I could tell you I married Hartman Wick out of love, but it’s complicated. We were friends. He was dying. And he needed me. He also made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. Of course, I agreed with the very best of intentions. But we all … intentions. But we all know what the road to hell is paved with.
All I ever dreamed of was owning my own gallery. A place where my best friend and I could introduce the masses to inspiring and new artists. Hartman promised me the deed to the gallery, wealth, and security for the rest of my life.
Instead, I find myself in a war with his estranged son Kieran—my stepson and one of the most prolific painters, known for his erotic shock art. He’s been plotting revenge against his father for years, and now that Daddy’s dead, he’s seized the opportunity.
Between the constant battles, heated exchanges, and threats of blackmail, I find myself inexplicitly drawn to this twenty-four-year old. He’s beautiful, seductive, arrogant, and evil. Not only is he a gifted artist, but he’s certainly inherited some of his father’s more unsavory traits. He truly is a Wick.
But then he takes things too far and pushes me to my breaking point. I’ve had enough. In retaliation, I make a plan.
And I almost feel sorry for him—almost. I’m sure, even as a child, he was never read a single fairy tale. Poor bastard.
He has no idea how truly wicked a stepmother can be.
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Steamy, sexy, sensual and salaciously wicked. 5 steamy stars for Wicked Steps.
Cory Cyr is, for me, an automatic must-read, and I have loved every one of her books. She is the best with older woman/younger man genre, and in Wicked Steps, she takes it a step further into step-relationship territory. Ellery and Kieran are not blood related and both way over the age of consent, so, for me not problem.
Ellery and her best friend Coco own Salacity, an art gallery that was a gift from her recently departed husband as a part of their five year marriage. What isn’t known to Coco is the exact nature of Ellery’s marriage to Hartman Wick, and while she suspects all wasn’t as it seemed, sometimes the truth can be much worse. They now have their future in Gallery Salacity to look forward too, starting with a unique evening where they are showing the work of European artists whose particular work had never been shown in the States especially by the unseen artist only known as Wicked.
She also has to deal with Kieran Wick, her husband’s previously undisclosed son who is hell-bent on taking revenge on the terrible cost Hartman exacted on him and his mother. His father is dead, so now, his step-mother must pay the price. What he doesn’t count on is the creative ability of an older woman to become the Wicked Stepmother when he pushes her too far.
Wicked Steps does not have the light-hearted moments that are a signature in her previous books, but it is such an intense fast moving story that I never realised those moments were missing until writing this review. While Kieran is portrayed as a spoilt and unlikeable @rse, Ellery is strong and sincere, and even with the treatment she suffered at the hands of Hartman, still tries to see the man that he presented himself to be in the very early days of their marriage. In this sincerity, could be Kieran’s redemption, and Cory doesn’t make things easy for either of these two damaged souls. I also love the secondary characters. Not quite at Weezy status (Bite And Release), but certainly are there for Ellery when she needs them – Wicked plans and all!
OMG ….. this book is so friggin hot ….. I couldn’t put it down
A Truly Wicked Story!!
Ellery St. Claire is such an amazing character. She goes through hell to make her dreams come true. She survived a brutal marriage to Hartman Wick. All she wants is what she was promised from Hartman. But he has lied to her from the beginning.
Wicked aka Kieran Wick is a talented painter that specializes in erotic paintings. Everyone only knows him as Wicked. He has never revealed his true identity to anyone, until now. He has come home to claim his right to his inheritance, and get a little retribution on the woman who married his father. He is ready to destroy her.
Ellery and Kieran’s story has everything you want in a great read. It has lust, laughter, revenge, angst, loss, and the attraction is explosive.
Nobody writes a story like Cory Cyr. She is the only author that actually makes me laugh out loud. The character development is simply amazing. She makes you feel like you really know these people in real life. And you can always feel her heart in her written words. I’ve read every book she has penned and I have loved them all.
Put this on your TBR list now!! You definitely won’t regret it!!