Jade Lee

Burning Tigress by Jade Lee

• Publisher: Leisure Books
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN: 0843956887
• Amazon

Back Cover: Charlotte Wicks wanted more. Running her parents' Shanghai household and caring for her sick brother was necessary drudgery, but a true 19th-century woman deserved something deeper; her body cried out for it! Through the Taoist method, her friend Joanna Crane had reached Heaven on Earth, become a Tigress, found true bliss. Why should Charlotte be denied the same? She'd seen the scrolls. All she needed was guidance.

Her mother would call her wanton. Wicked. She would label Charlotte's curiosity evil, and invoke divine judgment. Certainly the teacher Charlotte desired was fearsome. Glimpses of his body inspired awe: flutters in the stomach and tingling in her core. And with the dark command she saw in his eyes, if she opened this door it might never be closed. The man had a reputation among the females of the city as a ruthless seducer…but also as a bringer of great pleasure. There was only one choice to make.

Reviews

Living in Shanghai has proved one thing to Englishwoman Charlotte Hicks: she wants more from life than an Englishwoman normally receives. When she finds a set of erotic scrolls left behind by her friend, she decides to begin with learning what those scrolls depict. Serving as First Boy in an English household has also proved to Ken Jin that he needs more from life, but when he learns the Miss Charlotte had found sacred Tigress scrolls, his first mission is to wrest them from her possession and return them to their rightful place. Stubborn as ever, Miss Charlotte refuses, unless he agrees to teach her what the scrolls truly mean. The latest in Lee's Tigress series, following Hungry Tigress and Desperate Tigress (both 2005), offers a more humorous tone, but have no fear: Lee's deft eroticism hasn't lost any of its power. With her latest variant on the Tigress practice, Lee's star continues to burn bright.

Nina C. Davis
From Booklist

Shanghai, China — September, 1898

Charlotte Wicks and her family currently live in China where her father runs his business. Well, father mostly drinks and visits whores, Charlotte's mother spends most of her time in church praying and going to services, and Charlotte's younger brother William needs special care. William is easily aggravated, given to tantrums, and any little disturbance against his wishes means hours and days of crying and yelling. Sometimes William can only bear a mattress on the floor of his bedroom to give him the peace and harmony he needs. Charlotte devotes herself to keeping William happy, and dreaming of maybe some day meeting a man.

Ken Jin works for Charlotte's father; well, he really runs the business while the master drinks or satisfies his animal lust. Then one day, William runs into Ken's room, and when Charlotte follows she finds Ken half clothed with his large organ exposed and needles embedded in the flesh around it. Not a very proper way to be seen by your master's daughter. Ken Jin has spent years trying to use a woman's yin combined with his yang, to get the qi, or internal power, that will help him get into the antechamber of heaven, and maybe even into heaven itself. Could Charlotte be the woman who can give him the qi he needs?

When Charlotte learns that Ken Jin is a teacher of an unusual sect that can help her harness her yin, he takes her to the antechamber of heaven. There she meets her brother William as he was meant to be, a normal and healthy man. Ken Jin tells Charlotte that if she learns to control her yin, it could be used to try to bring the heavenly William and the earthly William together into a normal boy. Ken Jin has spent over eight years perfecting his yang, keeping it in his body, waiting for the day he, too, can reach the antechamber of heaven or heaven itself. He has gone through years of training, yet how can this white woman reach the antechamber before him? Ken Jin must go to heaven, and Charlotte is the only way he can reach such sacred heights.

BURNING TIGRESS is written mainly from Charlotte's point of view, and we are introduced to the world of the Dragon/Tigress sect. I recommend reading at least one of the previous three books in the series to get the flavor of their belief system. Although, even after reading two books myself, it still seems very foreign and, well, weird to me. A father with no morals, a religious zealot mother, and a brother with special needs make up Charlotte's broken family. Ken made a mistake when he was young, and his family sent him away from home, and now they are only interested in the money he sends them. Bringing Charlotte's Western world and Ken's Eastern world together as they try to communicate with each other is the hardest thing either of them will ever do. Other secondary characters are Ken Jin's family, known to us mostly by their letters. And the main palpable character is the Dragon/Tigress sect of pre-Revolutionary China.

BURNING TIGRESS is an exotic story of China and the people who believe combining yin and yang in special ways between certain people leads to their visiting Heaven during their oneness, or climax. The Tigress series, in order, includes WHITE TIGRESS, HUNGRY TIGRESS, and DESPERATE TIGRESS. Enjoy a story unlike any you've ever read before in BURNING TIGRESS.

Carolyn Crisher
Romance Reviews Today