Wow, so steamy, hot ☆☆☆☆☆ of pleasure. Highly recommended this book.

Loved the opening scene in this book: Mia falls asleep in the department lounge only to waken when she realizes she missed her entire lecture. When she finds her TA about to enter the lounge, she hides not wanting to explain to him the reason she missed her class. But to her utter dismay, the TA isn't alone. She observes (and records) an incredibly hot scene between Tristan and Julian. But of course it doesn't end there; they catch her and decide to blackmail her to prevent her from releasing the footage of them. Not having material to blackmail her with doesn't stop them, as they persuade her to develop the material with them.

What started as a way to blackmail Mia to keep their secret safe, turns into something more between Julian and Mia. However, Tristan is always there...sometimes a thorn in Mia's side but always the love of Julian's life (despite that no one can know this).

My only complaint is that the book ends on a cliffhanger. The book wasn't very long to begin with so to end where it did seemed very purposeful by the author.

Many erotic menage stories follow a similar pattern, and this was smart and different. Anna is reluctantly pulled into a powerful relationship with two men, with only one that she really likes. Anna's indecision is as page turning as the evocative romantic scenes. There is plenty of chemistry and emotion on these pages. A very strong start to a new series.

Good book! Very hot and spicy! Def a must read! I look forward to more hotness from this author!!

Where are all my MMF relationship book lovers at? I have a hot recommendation for you, and one that isn’t all smut but a hot book that has a really good story-line and very likable characters. I didn’t think I was going to be hooked within the first couple pages and I didn’t think I was going to be as invested with Blackmail when I first began reading. But I was and I am and I can’t wait for book two and see what’s to come for each of the main characters.

I went into this book expecting, well…. idk what I was expecting to be honest, maybe just a lot of sex between three characters. Yes, there’s sex, veryyyyyy hot sex, but I also got to read about some interesting characters and how a situation that starts with blackmail turns into something they each didn’t expect. There’s Mia Winters, the nerdy Junior that works for her University’s newspaper and the girl who isn’t afraid to speak her mind. There’s Julian, the intelligent, witty, student teacher’s assistant, who was easy to fall for. Then we have Tristan Masters, the gorgeous, loathsome asshat and the guy that Mia deeply dislikes, or so she thinks. ;D He was so hot and cold, so frustrating, yet I couldn’t help but love him.

The book starts with Mia hiding in a closet and getting to witness both Julian and Tristan in a very compromising position, which leads to her getting caught and blackmailed. Which then leads to one hell of a sexy story.

Blackmail is told in 3 POV’s, which I think is perfect. You get to be inside the mind of Mia as well as Julian and Tristan. It makes it easy to slowly fall in love with each of them.

I think that’s all I’m going to say about this book, other than I think the last sex scene was a bit too long. Don’t get me wrong, it was perfect and given what all goes down before it, you get to see a lot of the trust and love between each character. I just found it to drag on a bit for me. But again it does say in the book’s description… “sexual encounters are descriptively explicit and extensive.” I knew what I was getting before jumping in. Nonetheless, I can’t wait for book two.

Please keep in mind that this book is a part of a series. Book 1 ends in a bit of a cliffhanger and I believe there will be three books in the Skeleton Key Series.

Mia finds herself in a really complicated situation when she sneaks in a closet and accidentally discovers a secret. Julian is her TA and Tristan is one of her classmates in Yale university, but they never seemed to get along well. They may share the same floor in their dorms, but they never thought that they would share more things together.

Meanwhile, everything's on stake for Tristan because he wants to join a secret society and he doesn't need any complications happening in his way. The question is if he will be able to resist those complications and if they will improve his life or destroy everything on their way.

God I want to f*ck them. Either of them. Both of them.


Wow, this book was hot! I suppose it had been a long time since I had read MMF and this probably came at the perfect time. I really liked the writing, the characters were well written and I definitely have a clear image of their personalities, their thoughts and actions. Although, at first I couldn't understand the whole "blackmail" situation, but moving forward on the book, you see that the author had already predicted that.

I think that it's a very intriguing story and of course a very steamy one. I definitely liked the relationship between Julian and Tristan, Mia and Julian, Mia and Tristan and of course all three of them together. I can't wait to see how the story will unravel, especially after that ending that indeed surprised me.

I liked it, but didn't love it and wish I had known in advance that it would end in a cliffhanger of sorts and was part of a series.

The book takes place at Yale University, where Mia is a philosophy major sees a sexual tryst between her T.A. (Julian) and her nemesis (Tristan). Turns out, they've been involved with each other for years and Tristan doesn't want the word getting around that he's bi. She makes the mistake of recording this and they accuse of her trying to blackmail them - well, really it's just Tristan who makes that assumption since he's a jerk. So what do they do? Well, they ask her to have sex with them so that they can record her and get blackmail on her. Totally makes sense to her, right? Umm, no, not at all lol. Regardless, it was incredibly hot, so if you like a smutty read, then you'll get lots of hot scenes in this book, that's for sure.

After the whole blackmail thing, they try to ignore each other, but somehow end up back together again when Tristan isn't happy that he was in the first blackmail video. Then they go back to ignoring what happened. Seems like a pattern, right?

On top of their on-again-off-again hook ups, Tristan is trying to get into some ultra-secret high class society and that's why he doesn't want anyone knowing he's bi. He says some hurtful things about Mia to protect himself when he's caught with her and it just really makes him even more of a jerk. It was really hard to like him and it wasn't until he broke down that I just felt sorry for the kid.

So what didn't I like that caused me to rate this as a 3 instead of 4/5 star read?

Well, these are college kids we're talking about and they seemed way more immature than what I'm use to. Even Julian, who is 26 seemed a bit immature to go along with Tristan's outrageous ideas (but at least he had a heart and had a sweet side). Mia went along with the blackmail plan way too easily for my taste, so that didn't help my opinion of her. And protection was never discussed or used it seems in any of their scenes - that's completely irresponsible.

When we got to the philosophy group meeting, I became utterly bored. I graduated from a top university and am well-educated, but the pages on end of philosophical banter was quite mundane. I found myself skipping ahead since it didn't really add much to the book except to prove that they were all of course highly intelligent. If you're not into philosophy, then you may find yourself in the same position.

One other minor thing that just made me laugh and wonder if the author had recently visited the U.K. was her use of the word 'knickers' when Tristan told Mia to 'remove her knickers' - who still uses that term???

After all this, will I read the next one? Probably - only because I hate not getting to the HEA. I really hope things work out for them though, but that ending totally threw me for a loop there and was not at all what I expected Mia to do. I also hope they manage to grow up a lot before the next book.

I am always greedy when it comes to m/m/f books; it's just a fabulous fantasy, to have two men feast on you and each other! Phew! Too hot! This book certainly hits the spot; even though the main character, Mia, appears to hate one of the men, Tristan, it's still super sexy.

Mia is a classmate of Tristan's and Julian is their teaching assistant, complicated!
The two men are already in a relationship, albeit a secret relationship. Mia accidentally catching Tristan and Julian in a sexual encounter starts this odd kind of blackmail/romance. The book is set in Yale and there are a lot of very intelligent musings and conversations between all of the super clever characters, but I managed to keep up with the plot and all of the reasoning behind the secrecy.

The story is filled with hot, delectable, sexy scenes and the ever present threat of being discovered. There is more to come after the jaw-dropper of an ending, so I'm eager to read more. The book is very well written and the story keeps you turning the page and holding your breath as you realise, being caught, will have so many consequences. This is my first book by Anna James Watson, but I'd be tempted to find others by her to read.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review. The book has a very erotic guideline. The story itself mainly revolved around the three of them having sex. The underlying story is not much to brag about. Part of it are well written but it tends to drag placed.

Yale student misses class because she was asleep in a common room. She hears her TA coming and hides in the closet. Then she watches him having sex with a guy she can’t stand. Assuming it’s rape, she records it, gets caught, and is forced to participate and also be taped so everyone can have blackmail material on each other.
I thought I’d become used to having multiple points of view, but in this case it was a bit confusing. Perhaps it’s due to Julian and Tristan’s names being too similar. As for the writing, there’s a really long philosophical discussion that made me want to tear my eyes out, while also making me glad I didn’t actually major in philosophy despite getting easy A’s in the two electives. I’d rather read about Mia playing the piano again.
On to the characters. I wish Tristan hadn’t been pushed so far into jerkass territory than I found him unredeemable. Mostly he’s, to use Mia’s words, “spoiled and self-important because his parents are ridiculously wealthy; used to getting his way because, although I am loath to admit it, he is unnaturally gorgeous; and predisposed to treating people like a means to an end.” Julian seems to be weak-willed and will go along with whatever they tell him, which is unusual as he’s the oldest. He was meh at best. Mia seemed cool at times—liked her but didn’t love her—at least when sex isn’t getting the best of her. I certainly didn’t like her basically giving Julian a free pass for all the crap he put her through. She had the potential to be a smart character, but too often her mind failed her; annoying.
The ending just seemed weird to me, both what happened with his illness and the keys; might have been more dramatic in the sequels had she declined and Julian was forced to ostracize her in public while still wanting her. Even the sex scenes left something to be desired.

This book begins with Mia, waking up at school and realizing she missed a study group. She is about to leave when she hears footsteps and two men stumble in. Her TA Julian and her nemesis Julian. Mia hides in a closet and after a few minutes realizes she is witnessing something she was not at all expecting.

When her phone rings and she is discovered, she is drawn into a crazy relationship with two men that she never expected and the more time they spend together, the more the lines get blurred.

My review:

After the way this one started, I was sure this was just going to be lots of hot sex and not much else but it ended up being a really good story as well.

All three characters are well developed and well written and the story moved very quickly.

This is a MMF story with some MM so if that is not your thing this one is not for you but if you are into it, get ready for some steamy sex scenes.

My thoughts:

<b>POV</b> switches up between the three characters throughout
<b>Quick hook or slow starter?</b> 5 (I was hooked from the first chapter)
<b>Character development:</b> 4
<b>Level of Romance between characters:</b> 3.5
<b>Passion/Heat level:</b> 4.5 (there is a lot of sex in this story and it is all hot and steamy)
<b>Angst/Heartbreak:</b> 3 (this is not really an angsty read but there are a couple of parts that add some drama)
<b>Cliffhanger?: </b> Yes, this story is far from over!

Overall, I thought this was really good and can't wait to see what the author has in store for these three next.

<i>I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Hold on to your panties, or maybe better: take them off. This story just starts directly with a very hot scene between Julian and Tristan, while Mia is accidentally watching. Yowsers.

So for the hot and steamy part, this is definitely a book to get you tingly all over. For the story-part: not so much. We have Mia, the proverbial grey mouse dash bookworm. And we have Julian, the nerdy TA and Tristan the hot and smoking, but very arrogant and used to having his way rich guy.

We see a relationship evolve from the blackmail part: Tristan and Julian persuade Mia to have sex with them and videotape it in order to have their little bi-sexual secret safe from her ratting them out. But one thing leads to another and to more hot and steamy scenes. And then the story ends with a rather open ending, leaving you hot and frustrated, and waiting for part two.

So if you want to have a panty-melting-day: dive into this one. If you want to read a nice story with a very great storyline, well... I would go for another book. So three out of five stars from me and a thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

Anna James Watson has just catapulted herself into the ranks of one of my all time favorite authors with the book "Blackmail" It's wonderful. It's thoughtful, intriguing, extremely well written, and dare I say one of the hottest stories you're ever likely to read. I can't wait for the second book, "Initiation" to come out!

The characters are terrific. We have Mia who is brilliant and somewhat distrustful. We have Julian who is sweet and loving and who understands and cares. And we have Tristan who is full of bravado that masks his brilliant mind and hides his fear. Underneath it all he is a loving guy who can't show it. The secondary characters are also well drawn out- Leanne the roommate who is ambitious and shallow and Theo who is a total tool. I have to thank the author for NOT making these Ivy Leaguers all cardboard cutouts who are entitled and snobbish as is the norm is SO many books. Thank you for making them real people!!

My only small beef with the book is the referencing walking around town at night. The area surrounding Yale isn't all that safe. Thank goodness Uber comes to play when it's needed! So this is a small, small concern.

The hotness can not be overstated. For readers who are put off by MMF relationships, this won't be your place to go, but for everyone else, get an icy drink and a fan for your face when you sit down to read! The scenes are explicit, but they are also delightful. But there is also SO much more to the book.

Congratulations, Anna James Watson, on a job well done. I hope you develop a loyal and large readership for years to come!

I want the next book like I want my next breath!
This is a new author to me, but definitely one I will keep tabs on.
Secrets, secrets, secrets!! Big money, being bi, and a threesome are not things that will keep you in the good graces of your family. Once I cracked this book open, I didn't want to put it down. It's full of just enough passion, confusion, and mystery to keep you hanging on until the last sentence - then leave you craving more. The next installment can't get here soon enough!!

The story had me hooked from beginning to end, the characters are amazing. I am looking forward to reading the next book. Be advised this does end on a cliffhanger. The story has great drama and plenty of steam. I loved it!

I am surprised about How much I really liked this book. I wasn't sure where it was going at first but then I was sad when it was over! I can't wait to read more of their story!

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