Beyond the Rules by Anna Del Mar

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Beyond the Rules by Anna Del Mar. This book was an enjoyable deviation from my regular preference of urban fantasy or paranormal romance. I would recommend Beyond the Rules to readers who enjoy modern erotic romance. The following is my summary and honest opinion of the book.

Nina is discovered when trying to expose Dimayev is working with a cyber-terrorist. She is desperate to get to the hacker Ulysses who can help her uncover his crimes. Nina's escape is almost thwarted when her small passenger plane is shot down by Dimayev's men.

Ex-SEAL members Tanner, Aiden and Zar rescue Nina from the plane wreckage. The men take her to their secure home in the secluded mountains of Montana to recuperate. Nina soon realizes these men are the key to her survival in more ways than one.

Tanner, Aiden, and Zar have strongly bonded through past experiences. The men have decided that to be romantically successful they need one woman to share. Tanner is educated in personality profiling. He quickly comes to the conclusion Nina is the girl who could fulfill all of their desires.

The good: Where this story succeeds for me is in the execution. Nina is not just an intimidated, naïve virgin. She is intelligent and could feasibly make a go at protecting herself from Dimayev. Nina makes sound decisions and is comfortable and open about her sexuality. She comes to conclusions about her relationships with the men from a place based in reality. Their actions are not driven only by the fantasy of the ménage a quatre scenario.

There is a plot present beyond the romantic couplings. The characters may struggle but they seem stronger together mentally as well as physically. Throughout the story Tanner, Aiden, and Zar hunt to bring Dimayev down. When Nina is cleared to help them gather evidence she effectively contributes to the case. These things were important for me to relate to the characters in the story.

Random tidbits: I appreciated that the first couple that got together did not profess to love each other the day after they met. They recognized the chemistry between them and just let things happen. I appreciated although the men claimed jealousy would not be an issue, it eventually was. Realistically it would come up. They dealt with it as a group in a way I believed would suit them. The sexual encounters lived up to the genre of erotic romance. The explicit scenes were steamy and most of them felt organic.

The bad: The surface plot is pretty basic. There is the girl who needs to be rescued from the bad guy. Said girl happens upon her saviors that take her in and immediately try to make her theirs. She quickly falls for the level-headed alpha male, followed by the sweet but troubled alpha male and then slowly connects with the abrasive alpha male to round out the trio. And of course one of the men is a sexual dominant. I have read this story before. I did not like this story very much.

This author has caught my attention. I will look to Anna Del Mar for my next modern erotic romance.

All my opinions are my own and may not match that of others. I encourage all readers to come to their own conclusions. I voluntarily received an ARC copy of this book through Netgalley.