As a teenager, Marci Anderson and her friends were obsessed with the band Blue Silver. Personally, Marci favored Brad Nix, the bass guitar player. She even practiced kissing him on his poster. If he said anything about the kind of women who caught his eye, Marci did her best to adopt this feature. It's because of him that she is a redhead. Another love of Marci's was acting, a good thing as this helped her land a scholarship. A need for cash, however, saw her becoming a phone sex operator. It was lucrative, but messed up her college schedule and she flunked out. Ever since, she has been living a lie. Only her best friend knows her true career. Being a phone sex operator and owning her own server, has made her rich. She has always been good at pretending and her career takes full advantage of this talent. Now, years later, an old friend contacts her. The plan is for the Silverettes, as they called themselves, to get together and attend the upcoming Blue Silver concert, which they missed out on as teenagers thanks to a broken-down limo. Yet whilst Brad Nix is the man her fantasies are made of, there is absolutely no chance for them to get together, is there? Well, for anything more than a single fun (and sex) filled night at the most, right?

Marci is an intriguing character. A phone sex operator by trade, she is bold yet secretive. Her whole life is one of pretence. She is rather refreshing – as long as you are not easily shocked. Marci, as a character, is very well developed, as are the secondary characters. I liked that we learnt about the secondary characters from Marci's viewpoint, so while reading this tale, you only hear about the other characters as far as Marci knows them. This means that when you read the other tales in this series, of which the female secondary characters play the main part, you will be coming to know them for the first time (and from their own perspective). In No More Pretend, Marci was the focal character, with the whole tale being told from her perspective. We were very much in the dark about the thoughts and feelings of Brad – and I believe it is this that made the story so good, for at no point will you even begin to guess what is going to happen; whether they will get together at all, for a short term fling or long term relationship. Another thing that makes this tale truly enjoyable is the sex. Sex scenes are described in detail and are quite adventurous. There is quite a variety – including group sex. Yes, there is a M/F/F/M scene, which I didn't expect but rather enjoyed. Overall, No More Pretend is an unusual and well-written tale that has ensured that not only will I be reading the rest of the Blue Silver series, but I will also be reading more from Jacki King.


Reviewed by: Elizabeth