Off the Clock

by Roni Loren

January 5, 2016 · Berkley

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When I first heard about Off the Clock, I was pretty excited. I’m all for erotic romances with smart people and it’s nice to see non-billionaires. So I went into the book amped for some nerdy people getting down and dirty, but was pleasantly surprised that it was so much more than that – it was emotional and showed an interesting portrayal of individuals dealing with all manner of trauma and mental illness.

Cracking open the book, you meet the title characters while they’re still in college. Heroine Marin Rush is a sophomore, while the hero, Donovan West, is a grad student. So there is a bit of an age gap between the two characters, around eight years. I thought I had misread something because I wasn’t looking to read a new adult title, but this is more of a “before” to the rest of the book’s “after.”

Both characters work in the psychology department and Marin wins up helping Donovan on his dissertation, which has to do with the effect of “dirty talk” or audio stimulation. He records himself saying certain things or illustrating certain scenarios and gauges a subject’s reactions. Marin winds up volunteering to help, they get briefly involved, have sex in the psych department during which Donovan realizes it’s Marin’s first time, and then never see each other again until ten years later.

Long story short, Marin’s mom has severe mental health issues, including bipolar disorder. She commits suicide, leaving Marin to care for her younger brother and take some time away from college. Granted, using bipolar disorder as such a dramatic plot device was a bit jarring, but as someone whose mother suffers from the disease, it’s not too far out of the realm of possibility for me to believe that someone would engage in something so drastic on impulse and for attention.

Cut to ten years later and Marin’s brother, Nathan, has been accepted to an expensive art college in another state. She wants to support him, but the university is cutting funding and they can’t afford to give her a raise or keep paying for her to continue her research. Her mentor offers to give her a recommendation to The Grove, a rehab facility that handles a little bit of everything for the rich and famous (there’s a teen ward, addiction unit, etc.). They’re looking for someone to help out in the X-Wing, which is the clinic that focuses on sex. Little does she know that this part of The Grove is run by Donovan West, her old broody paramour.

I’d say this definitely falls into the workplace romance trope and I love seeing how Marin and Donovan work together, trying to put the past behind them and just be colleagues. Like that’s ever going to work.

There’s also a bit of kink going on, though I think some BDSM action is being set up for future books. Donovan mentions being a part of a club, where he actually met a fellow coworker. But in this first book, there isn’t much of that happening. Just some very sexual things with a wine bottle, voyeurism, and some adult hide-and-seek action.

My favorite part of Off the Clock was definitely the setting. I loved getting to know both the employees and patients at The Grove. My copy also featured a very cute bonus story, which is a romance that happens between two patients you meet during the course of Off the Clock. I’d also say that it’s a rather diverse book. There are women of color, who I’m hoping get their own books, and Marin’s brother is exploring his sexuality as a young gay man.

It also touches on the notion that sometimes, people just aren’t ready for a relationship. Yes, there is an HEA, so don’t worry too much about that. But there’s a lot of talk on the hero’s end. He’s still dealing with the traumatic loss of his parents and trying to find who he is as a person when he doesn’t have this grief in his heart anymore.

Because:

There were a couple things though that kept this from being a perfect book. It does use the trope of the scorned other woman. Donovan had a casual sex arrangement with another doctor at the facility before Marin shows up, but then cuts it off. Said woman blames Marin, even though it was very clear that their sex was only out of convenience. I’m not really a fan of the “jealous ex-lover” scenario because seeing two women fight over a dude makes me feel squicky.

That being said, apologies are traded later on and I believe the doctor will be the heroine of a future (or possibly next) book.

The other thing is that even though Marin works in the field of sex psychology, she’s only had sex once. And that was with Donovan her sophomore year. Homegirl hasn’t had sex in those eight years. I briefly talked about this on my podcast with Sarah on Tinder, Sex, Romance, & Relationships where I’ve seen a lot of heroines who work a job related to sex and relationships, but they’re always rather inexperienced. They have a profession that makes them seem knowledgeable about men and sex, but really they’re virgins or inexperienced and feel like impostors.

Now there’s nothing wrong with being a virgin at any age, but I’d like to see the opposite reflected. A woman is a sex therapist and knows her stuff in her personal bedroom activities.

But the book was still damn good. If you like your romances smart, your erotica between just regular guys and gals, and your settings interesting and full of awesome side characters, I’d definitely recommend giving Off the Clock a shot. It’s the first book in the Pleasure Principle series and I’m expecting good things from books to come (heh)!