Lunch - Softcover

Karen Moline

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0330337955 ISBN 13: 9780330337953

Publisher: Pan Books, 1994

Synopsis

For readers of The New York Times bestselling Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy and Bared to You comes this intoxicating novel of passion and ultimate surrender . . .

As a mega-superstar, Nick Muncie is accustomed to having any woman he wants. But lately, he's become disenchanted—until he notices a stunning woman in the trendy London restaurant where he is having lunch. Much to his surprise, Nick's charms, which have never failed him before, fall flat with artist Olivia Morgan. Instead of feeling defeated, he becomes consumed with making her desire him. He commissions a portrait, and during the sexually charged sessions, the seduction begins as Nick engages Olivia in a twisted, erotic game of control.

Extremely talented and confident, Olivia believes she's immune to Nick's attentions. But it isn't long before she finds herself fantasizing about him and succumbing to his power to give pleasure yet cruelly deny it. As their lunchtime trysts quickly escalate, another player soon topples the rules and tests how far Olivia and Nick will go in their destructive cycle of submission and obsession.

About this title

About the Author:

Karen Molineis the author of two novels, Lunch and Belladonna, and is the co-author of the humor bookSh*tty Mom: The Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us(Hodder & Stoughton UK, Abrams US), published in September 2012. She has also ghostwritten/co-authored over two dozen nonfiction books; written hundreds of articles on pop culture, entertainment, and beauty for publications in the United States, UK, and Australia; and worked as a freelance correspondent for BBC World Service Radio.She lives with her son in New York City.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A first novel about the strange, violent sexual games played by a Hollywood star, and about an artist who refuses to be his victim. Narrator M works for Nick Muncie, America's biggest action movie star. M's facial scars are a hideous reminder of Nick's secret past in abusive foster homes and brutal gangs of runaways. Today M is Nick's right arm and his procurer. He also likes to watch while Nick has perverse, often sadistic sex with various women, and Nick likes an audience. In London to film a movie about Faust, Nick is surveying restaurant patrons like ``a raptor seeking its prey'' when Olivia Morgan rushes in and sits at the next table. A portraitist who depicts people as they truly are, Olivia refuses to paint Nick. But her fianc‚, a concert pianist on tour in the Orient, encourages her to seize the opportunity, and she finally agrees. During their sittings--she paints Nick as the Minotaur, standing in a maze--Olivia is drawn to the star's passion and hunger; she agrees to see him after the portrait is finished. M has set up a London hideaway, complete with video equipment behind two-way mirrors. Their lunchtime sexual encounters infuse Nick's acting and Olivia's painting with new life, and their trysts become more dangerous. Unlike Nick's other conquests, Olivia plays his game on her own terms, and he becomes increasingly addicted to the woman who has declared herself unhaveable. Ultimately, what happens between Nick and Olivia has nothing to do with the love she feels for her fianc‚, and when the film is finished so is their affair. Nick and M choreograph one last savage farewell that almost destroys them all. Sometimes a mesmerizing read, but M is a frustratingly undefined narrator. The sexual obsession of Nick and Olivia also remains elusive and, finally, implausible. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pan Books
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0330337955
• ISBN 13: 9780330337953
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384