Review: “Beyond Ecstasy,” Kit Rocha

Pros: Things reach the boiling point!
Cons: …
Rating: 5 out of 5

In this volume of Kit Rocha’s post-apocalyptic erotic romance Beyond series, Beyond Ecstasy (Beyond, Book 8), Hawk and Jeni finally get together. He’s been obsessing over her, but he doesn’t want her O’Kane-style, with easy sex and no jealousy involved. He wants a more traditional relationship with “forever” as the goal. Jeni’s been trying to haul him into bed for months, and had absolutely no idea he had all of this in mind. The sectors have been dark for a month when they finally realize they might have something special together, and war could break out at any time. There’s even a possibility that there are spies within Sector Four, and everyone’s worried that the first casualty of war would be Sector Six, where Hawk’s family lives on farmland.

Jeni and Hawk’s relationship is perhaps the most conventional of those depicted in this series (so far). Hawk is extremely intense and focused, and Jeni’s just usually down for a good time. The inevitable war puts additional stress on them and their feelings for each other. The closest they have to an O’Kane moment is one lone night where Gia, Jeni, and Hawk share a bed for a while. The sex is as always explicit, frequent, and front-and-center. It involves d/s and s/m sex, with Hawk slowly feeling out how to participate in that sort of sex–which he longs for–without going too far.

We also get to spend some time with Hawk’s huge extended family in Sector Six, where he takes Jeni to meet his family. Hawk has many stepmothers and half-siblings since his biological father had quite a few wives when he was alive. Thankfully his mother is now free to do things her own way, and she’s a particularly strong woman. I enjoyed meeting so many of the people from the farm. There are just so many interesting characters in this extensive series, and I only occasionally get them confused because they have so much personality to them.

The war finally breaks out in this installment of the series, and I may have shed a few tears at one point. Our heroes definitely don’t have an easy time of things. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next!