Catch Hold Of Virtue Devised By Allison Bassen Compiled As Text

not really sure why I signed up for this blog tour, I swear Im a visual person and Im sooo not a fan of this cover, Regardless of the cover I chose to read it, No wait I didnt read it I DEVOURED it! I really wasnt sure what to expect with the book, I honestly didnt have high expectations, And now I feel like the worlds biggest jackasses, Virtue tells the story of Susan, A southern belle. Doing what is expected of her, Virtue also tells Candices story, Candice is a high priced call girl, I love Candices chapters. They were really entertaining.
Susan meets Jeff during a blind date in college they hit it off and eventually marry, They are living the American dream, Only life isnt what its supposed to be and not by a long shot, Jeff has become a very powerful man, as well as a violent drunk, And given the way Susan was raised she is fiercely loyal to him, Until she cant be anymore,
Candice tells us little stories about the men she sleeps with, I really felt like I was being told real secrets! Which leads me to believe if a actual call girl wrote a book id by that right up!
The story was far more interesting that I expected it to be.
I found I loved both point of views, The sexy steamy scenes were well done, And the not so steamy sexy scenes seemed REAL, Maybe its just me but sometimes I read these books and im like really thats a machine not a man your talking about if you get what im saying.
Virtue is an extremely, entertaining read, I loved every minute if reading it, Im soo glad i put my cover snob aside and read this book!
So we were given some interview questions and I chose to post one with the answer.
I got quite the chuckle out of it and ill explain in a sec,
Q If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in any of your books
A I would probably change the cover of Virtue.
It gives the impression of “erotica,” which is not the case, So I would make the cover less sexy,
Personally if i would make it sexier, black and white woman in a black leather corset lingerie thing, OR go the way of a clean and simple single object, And yes i realize Im somewhat of a jerk, I received this book from the author for an honest review,
This is not a romance in the true sense of the word, you know woman meets man, fall madly in love, and they live happily ever after.
Though it starts out that way, This is a women's fiction with drama and suspense filling the pages, Its about the power of a woman standing up in the midst of her struggles to overcome the odds, Yes, the path she takes is not the standard road, and many will chastise her for her decision, but you can not judge a person if you have not walked in his/her shoes.
That is the bottom line,
We meet two women Susan and Candice, worlds apart from each other, The one graduated from charm school in the South of USA, being the good, obedient girl, The other a highclass prostitute, Each woman had her own difficulties to overcome,
Susan did as her mother told her and married Jeff, and yes, they did love each other in the beginning, He was a true gentleman, worshiped the ground she walked on, Gave her everything her heart desired, but at the end it was all a farce to hide his own skeletons in the closet, At the end, she had to run away in fear of her safety and to protect her parents,
From love to betrayal it changed in heartbeat and she was bewildered and alone, It became survival at all cost,
She met Paul, private detective with his own pains, protecting her all the way, His nononsense attitude and skill at her door helping her to create a new identity for herself,
Candice was in her own right a powerful woman, with men knocking at her door to buy what she sold, With compassion, living out their fantasies, and a penthouse in one of the best hotels in New York, with all the money to spend on lingerie and clothes her heart desired.
Who would not love that
And did I mention the different hats she wears From sex therapist, to Harlem slave, to horse worshiper, and everything in between.
All to help the wealthy men cope in their daily lives, Their wives too busy, selfish or just too boring to attend to their needs,
Well written, the characters became alive on the pages, and you get lost in the pages as you learn more about them, Learning startling secrets to add to the building suspense until you see how the power of a woman comes to play, surviving and still be a lady at the end.

A story I enjoyed from page one to the end, So, I am unsure why I chose to review and ARC of a book called Virtue with a cover like this one!! I NEVER choose to read a book that appears like this when it is not recommended to me first! With that said I was shocked at just how much I enjoyed it! I am still not completely thrilled with the topic it entails, but I should have read about it or assumed before hand so that is my own fault! With that said, I am giving this book an honest review based off of the writing style, creativity, and over all likability and not based off of my own beliefs or personal opinions on the subject matter.
If I chose to review a book with prostitution in it, then I cannot complain that the book had too much "sex" and put that against it can I

Susan is every bit the debutante she was raised to be.
From saving herself until marriage to submitting to a husband and his needs and not questioning other's decisions, she is quite the wife for anyone of higher class.
Susan starts to feel like something is wrong in her marriage and the man she is married to is not who she thought he was, After uncovering lies and deceit that could put her life in jeopardy, Susan takes off and starts a new life and discovers a person that she never thought she had inside of her.


Candice is every man's fantasy come to life when they enter her New York City Penthouse in a classy hotel, She has some of the wealthiest clients come to her to fulfill their needs

sexually and at times emotionally, This is by no means a dream of Candice's, but for now it pays the bills and gives her a safe place to escape the demons of her past.
But will Candice ever stop looking over her shoulder

I was quite shocked that I enjoyed this book as much as I had! Candice and Susan are two completely different people and yet the same person.
I love seeing Susan turn into an independent, strong, sexy woman and do what she has to do to survive, I cannot say I agree with what Candice chose to do in her life, but I have also never been in the situation she was in either.
I must say I have never looked at prostitution as so luxurious or enjoyable as Candice made it seem! Overall I give "Virtue" astar rating! Based off of creativity alone and the jaw dropping moments of "did that just happen" and it was an enjoyable read.
Not the usual book I would read, but good none the less and I would read another book by Allison Bassen if given the opportunity!

I received an ARC in exchange of an honest review! A sweet southern belle turns tricks to make ends meet in the urban jungle.
Its a true coming of age story, Well, its a little more complicated than that, There is her Southern gentlemen husband, a regular good ole boy on the outside at least, a sweet sassy grandmother and enough mention of food that will have you reaching for the take out menus.

Virtue is set in thes and while I love a I ltthes marathon as much as the next person, it seems out of place to mention it in the opening paragraph, especially since the era doesnt play a role in the story.
Even though it is set in thes the story seems very dated, I dont know if the author just has an appreciation for simpler times, but it felt like it was set in thes, Virtue is meant to be a sultry suspense and while it picks up the intrigue towards the end in a standard “gotcha” moment it is not that sultry, which is surprising since the worlds oldest profession is a central theme.
There are more than a few points in the story that seem odd, they make an appearance and but then are never heard from again i.
e. the best friend, the parents, the journalism career, the suspicious activity, Also a few grammatical and spelling errors are sprinkled throughout how can one “make” a glass of water And substituting Ethyl for Ethel, contemptuous for contentious.
This is a debut novel for the author so the dialogue is a little stilted and the characters are a little one dimensional and clichéd.
I could have done without the dual povs as well as the irrelevant details I like food too but this isnt a cookbook, However, there is a campy, over the top feel that is entertaining if you are willing to overlook some of the plot holes,

Where should I begin Overall I enjoyed the main plot of this story, It was interesting. At first I had a hard time getting into the story, This is the typical story of a "good" girl gone bad, At times, it's predictable with the main character, Candice and Susan, Her life name is Susan while her working name is Candice, Several parts of the story seemed like it was an information dump all at one time, As an example, there are several areas where the environment was well detailed and leaves nothing to the imagination,

Susan find out a horrible secret of her husbands and has no choice but to leave him, She takes off to the big city, New York, She dabbles a small bit in trying to land a job in journalism, and it doesn't take off, She meets a girl, Mia who is an "escort" and quickly takes over the job, This to me seemed a bit quick, I would think a woman with Susan's upbringing would take a bit more time fighting for her dreams and would take more of an internal battle when it came to debating on the new job.


I did notice some spots where another edit could be done, However, I did like the steamy scenes, Most of them were well written and entertaining, As the ending came, it was easy for me to guess what was going to happen,

Overall I give Virtue,/ . . but for technicality I will say it's a four star, Great quick read! Virtue is an excellent, ingenious book! A real pageturner! The authoress is a real genius at human psychology and emotion! She is very creative amp imaginative!
I most definitely recommend this book to read!!!.

Virtue was a good read,  The main character Susan about half way into the book pissed me off, I felt she gave up a bit to quickly, Susan a southern girl, who marries the perfect man or so she believes, The marriage was a cover for Jeff's double life, Susan starts to wonder about the stability of her marriage and wants to discovers why Jeff has started being distant, Susan hires Paul to get to the bottom of if, Susan presents the evidence to Jeff, but he is still one step ahead, Susan has feels like there's no way to win and leaves to reinvents herself,  But things do not go as she plans and starts to turn tricks to make ends meet, I feel she should had grown a back bone and destroyed Jeff, Susan should have not worried about any one else but her, She should not have walked away the way she did, I also felt Paul was more of the mastermind in getting the win at the end,
. Happy Reading!.