Exposed Affections by Rene Folsom

Staring at the hands of two men greedily clutching her legs, Julia is frozen in place—unsure of how she should react to their dual-intimacy. It’s one thing to have her photography professor show an interest in her, but to also have his identical twin making advances puts Julia’s mind into a total state of chaotic confusion. Is she able to handle the pressure of choosing between two men who both manage to take her breath away?

In the last week, Julia Peterson’s life has become an emotional roller coaster with breathtaking twists that include breaking all the rules with a certain professor, to gut-wrenching horror as a stalker from her past lurks behind the scenes and threatens her new happiness.

Despite her attempts to conceal her secrets and keep her friends in the dark, she must learn to cope with the idea that not all secrets are meant to stay hidden. When her haunting past comes at her with a vengeance and life is determined to beat her down, Julia must discover true strength within herself before she is able to open her heart, find who she really is, and learn to love.

Exposed Affections is the second novel in the Cornerstone series, contains mature content, and is meant for adult readers ages 18 and up.

I couldn’t wait to start reading this book after the way the first one, Shuttered Affections, had left me hanging! So when I was finally able to start reading it, I completely ignored everyone, and everything, so that I could read it in complete peace.  And I’m really glad that I had done that because this story was just amazing!

I’ll go ahead and get the bad over with before I start going on and on about the story!  The main thing that I didn’t like about the book was that there was no hint from Julia at all that she was/is interested in being in a ménage relationship. I suppose I was hoping for a bit of confusion on her part when it was first introduced that Aiden wanted to bring Coda into their relationship. There wasn’t any real hesitation from Julia in the beginning -- she just basically was completely ok with Coda being brought in.  To me personally, I felt like that was too “story book” because normally a person would really think about that before just jumping in head first.  There were also times during the sex scenes where it didn’t really feel that “real” to me because they would carry on almost complete conversations while in the act. But besides those points, I still really did enjoy the story.

I think that Ms. Folsom did a great job with the story overall. The action and suspense that was happening during the course of the first book was continued on into this book. It really kept me at the edge of my seat with just how amazingly well written it was done. I do have to give Ms. Folsom mad props because the graphic violent scenes where not overdone. She did not take them to an insane level, she just gave you enough information that you could picture it in your head without giving you too many details.

I will say that I was very pleased about the fact that the suspense wasn’t solved right away in this story. It did continue on throughout it all, and I loved that because it didn’t feel as though Ms. Folsom was rushing anything.

With identical twins, I was worried that I would end up confused when it came to Aiden and Coda, especially if their name wasn’t given first. But once again I give Ms. Folsom credit because she was able to give each character their own personality. I was able to follow along with who was who just by the way they spoke and their actions.

I was so disappointed when this book ended because I wanted more from the characters! I really do hope that Ms. Folsom will give us an update on them at some point in the future!