I really enjoyed the authors' erotic romance, "Bee Among the Clover," so I was excited for this sequel. After reading it, I felt that the first novel had a better story, but this sequel had a better romance. Aron was forced to become a thrall to his thane, Wulfgar, after his father failed to pay his tithe. Thereafter, Aron meets Roman, who has been the bed slave of the thane for 4 years. The two are the central figures of that romance. Here, Wulfgar and his new slave Kintaro are the focus.

The reason I thought the romance was better this time around is it had less painful angst. Roman was a noble; captured, enslaved, raped, even forced to relinquish his given name. He in turn falls in love with Aron who, despite his hatred of being forced to serve the thane in bed, would be free again after a year. How the two eventually found happiness made for a very good plot, with some mild paranormal elements, but their pain overshadowed the romance somewhat. In contrast, Kintaro was born and bred as a pleasure slave, and takes pride in his service. The challenge for him and Wulfgar is to see past a simple, albeit satisfying, sexual relationship. The resulting romance was more fun, and had a lot more explicit sex than the first book (which has good points & bad), but the plot was weak. It is not until the last third of the book that the mystical Cate, who helped Marcus and Aron achieve happiness, returns to wreak havoc on Kintaro and Wulfgar. I was happy for this character's return, and hope that the hints dropped about her an Brandr mean another book!

Kintaro is one of those characters that most readers will probably love, or hate, on sight. I liked him. It is not necessary to read "Bee" first, as this stands on its own very well, but readers will miss out on some inside information. Overall, I found this to be a very enjoyable sequel, with steamy hot sex and a fun romance. Highly recommended to erotic romance fans. ( )