*Review* The Auction by Maggie Cole

 

Genre: Dark Romance

Published: February 1, 2023

Pages: 420

Dominant and twisted Riggs Maddon has one thing on his mind. Revenge. When his partner's daughter steps into the line of fire, he’ll stop at nothing to obliterate her father and turn her into the pet she’s craving to become.

Destroying my partner became sweeter when his daughter stepped on stage at a charity auction.

But I don’t want her for a month.

I’m upping my bid to make her sign for a year.

Her strong will, independence, and defiant attitude toward her family indulges my carnal desires and need for revenge.

I’ll break her, train her, and turn her into the compliant woman she didn't know existed within her.

Every second, she’ll be my pawn in the secret game of retaliation I’m going to win.

Then I’ll present my pet to all of L.A., including her father.

After our year is up, the damage will be done.

She’ll be free to go, and I’ll move forward with my life without her father, or anyone associated with him in it—including her.

The Auction is the first romance book of the Club Indulgence Duet. It’s a forbidden love, age-gap, dark billionaire romance with forced proximity and a potential unwanted marriage.

This was the pick for one of my book clubs and I basically read it in one day, out of necessity, because the meeting was moved up a week on short notice to take place the day after another book club meeting, completely messing up my reading schedule. This is my honest review. 

It's been a while since I read an erotic romance, which probably helped me read this one quickly, because it's different from what I've been reading lately. I say that because I had some issues with this story. While I appreciated that he was ready to call it all off when he found out that Blakely didn't know what she'd gotten herself into, he should have explained things to her. Instead he says "read the contract." In a lot of bad ways, he reminded me of Christian Gray. His attitude toward his former sub about bringing her current man into the lifestyle because she can't leave it was also a big ick for me. Like dude, it's BDSM not the mob. 

This did feel like a healthier overall representation of BDSM than 50 Shades and it was an easy read. The ending was fairly predictable although I was hoping it wouldn't be that. Overall I give The Auction 3.1273 out of 5 stars and will probably pick up the second book in the series at some point. - Katie 

Amazon

Maggie Cole is committed to bringing her readers alphalicious book boyfriends and fiercely strong heroines.

She’s been called the literary master of steamy romance. Her books are full of raw emotion, suspense, and will always keep you wanting more. She’s a masterful storyteller of contemporary romance and loves writing about broken people who rise above the ashes. Her books can often be found hanging out in the top 100, even years after publication.

Maggie lives in Florida with her son. She loves tennis, yoga, paddleboarding, boating, other water activities, and everything naughty.