Monthly Archives: January 2014

Review: Bind And Keep Me by Cari Silverwood

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Bind and Keep Me (Pierced Hearts, #2)Bind and Keep Me by Cari Silverwood

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own enjoyment. The complete review is available at Night Owl Reviews.

This book took me to a place I’ve never gone before with Cari Silverwood, and kept me off balance all the way to the ending I could not have predicted. We see how Jodie and Klaus have found the relationship that works for them, although its nature must be kept secret from all but their closest friends. But when Klaus is forced to pick the least worst choice in an effort to save both Jodie and himself from what could send them both to prison, he vaults past any notion of dubious consent well into what no one could deny is non-consensual activity. This is not a capture fantasy. This is real life with real consequences. Can the undeniable love between Jodie and Klaus survive what they have both become?

Make no mistake: Bind And Keep Me is not for everyone, not by a long shot. But if you like reading beautifully written dark erotica with romantic elements, then this book might be for you. I loved it as much as the first one, and couldn’t put it down until I was done. And the ending went off into such a perfect alternative to my guess that I’m just as mad to read the next book as I was to read this after completing the first one. You can’t ask for more than that.

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Review: Make Me Yours Evermore by Cari Silverwood

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Make Me Yours Evermore (Pierced Hearts, #3)Make Me Yours Evermore by Cari Silverwood

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own enjoyment. The complete version of this review appears at Night Owl Reviews.

I had a lot more difficulty reading Make Me Yours Evermore than I did with the previous two books in the Pierced Hearts series. I think part of it was not having Klaus there as the reliable center for what took place, even as it went far beyond anything what he had done. Chris is Klaus’s friend and acolyte in all things BDSM, but that didn’t mean I trusted him to do the right thing as I had with Klaus. And Andreas may have fancied himself as Kat’s savior, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t right there with Chris in taking away all of her options that didn’t fit in with the plan. Yet even as I kept putting the book down and picking it up again, I also kept telling myself that Cari Silverwood knew what she was doing and that everything would work out as best as it could under the provided circumstances. My trust in her was rewarded with an ending that convinced me Kat’s future with Chris and Andreas would be a good one, as well as a palpable sense of relief that it hadn’t all gone horribly wrong.

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Review: Blood Mate by Kitty Thomas

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Blood MateBlood Mate by Kitty Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own enjoyment

Kitty Thomas is one of the few authors who can release a new book and I will immediately buy it without a second thought. This trust has been rewarded by her time and again, but never more thoroughly than now with Blood Mate. It made me question what is real and what is delusion, and what love can mean in the face of eternal suffering.

If I sound like I’m wallowing in purple prose, it’s because this book has done such a thorough job of f*cking with my head in the best way possible. Only Kitty Thomas could take a 600 year old vampire looking for the one woman able to resist him so he could make her his own by choice and put a Beauty and the Beast spin on it that compelled me to love and curse him simultaneously. I don’t want to say more about what happens, because you need to read it for yourself. All I can say is that if you love Kitty Thomas, you will love this story. It’s everything you expect and everything you don’t.

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Release Week Blog Tour: Unraveled by Jen Frederick

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Unraveled (Woodlands #3)

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Twenty-five-year-old Sgt. Gray Phillips is at a crossroads in his life: stay in the Marine Corps or get out and learn to be a civilian? He’s got forty-five days of leave to make up his mind but the people in his life aren’t making the decision any easier.  His dad wants him to get out; his grandfather wants him to stay in. And his growing feelings for Sam Anderson are wreaking havoc with his heart…and his mind.  He believes relationships get ruined when a Marine goes on deployment.  So now he’s got an even harder decision to make: take a chance on Sam or leave love behind and give his all to the Marines.

Twenty-two year old Samantha Anderson lost her husband to an IED in Afghanistan just two months after their vows. Two years later, Sam is full of regrets—that she didn’t move with her husband to Alaska; that she allowed her friends to drift away; that she hasn’t taken many chances in life. Now, she’s met Gray and taking a risk on this Marine could be her one opportunity to feel alive and in love again. But how can she risk her heart on another military man who could share the same tragic fate as her husband?

Note: Although these books are part of a series, they do not need to be read in order

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Sexy Excerpt

His tongue and mouth left mine to leave a hot, wet path from my mouth, across my jaw line, and down to my neck. My leg lifted of its own accord and he took it as a sign to hitch me up higher until both my legs either dangled off the floor or wrapped around him. I chose to wrap my legs around him and was rewarded with a thick hard column pressing into my sex. We both groaned at the contact and I could feel his sound against my neck. The reverberations sent minor shocks throughout my nervous system. Holding me up against the wall, he began thrusting against me rhythmically, every impact of his hips making me hotter and wetter than I remembered I could get.

I gripped him tighter with my legs and dug my hands into his hair, using every bit of his body as leverage. He held me up with ease, as if I were a feather. One hand was under my right butt cheek and the other was exploring my left side, pulling out my T-shirt, only to find the tank underneath. Needing his mouth back, I tugged on his hair and he took the hint immediately. He fastened his lips over mine and we devoured each other, still rubbing our lower bodies against each other as the bass from the dance floor pounded the floor boards.

Whimpering, I begged in moans and small cries for more. A familiar but almost forgotten tension was winding its way from between my legs outward. All thoughts of storage rooms and hallways and strangers were lost in a swirl of bright lights that were bursting behind my eyelids.

“I got you, baby,” he growled against my mouth. “Just let go.” And so I did. I closed my eyes and let those long dormant feelings wash over me, spreading from the inside of my legs to the nerve endings in my toes and fingertips and the very top of my head. All the while, he kept grinding and grinding and grinding against me, whispering in my ear how I was the hottest thing he’d ever held, how he couldn’t wait to taste, how he’d die if he couldn’t be inside me tonight.

Fun Excerpt

“You do this before?” I asked Bo as we surveyed our work. The mattresses had been laid end-to-end and covered much, but not all, of the drive. The pressure of one end of the mattress on the other was to keep them in place, like a stacked set of blocks. The tarps, which would ordinarily go beneath the tent, were stretched across the top of the mattresses tautly. Bo, Finn, Noah and I had worked in pairs to drive in the stakes to hold down the tarps while Adam and Mal, the other two roommates, made sure that the bouncy house was set up securely down at the base of the hill. “Nope.”

Bo flipped the hammer in his hand. “Haul up the hoses.” We’d also had to buy to extra hoses to make sure that we could hoist one to the top of the drive. The bill for all the supplies was astronomical but Adam paid without a blink. Bo told me in the car ride back that Adam’s dad would think this was the best use of his money ever. I shrugged. Not my dime and it did look fun as hell. We’d also bought a couple of gallons of baby oil. Bo threw one at me. “Time to lube up. I’m sure you’re familiar with this.”

“Oh I am,” I replied. “I always apply lube. It’s the only way any chick can take my monster cock.”

“Is that the pick-up line you’re using now? Because it seems like you’d end up disappointing them when you get home.”

“No girl has ever left my bed unsatisfied. That’s probably something you don’t know a lot about.”

“If you have to use lube, then I’m worried you don’t know what you’re doing in bed.”

“Don’t worry about me. I’m using lube because I’m going places no man has gone before.

“You’re fucking their earhole?”

“Bo, I thought for sure we’d taught you a few things when you were in the service, but now it seems like you don’t know your earhole from your asshole.”

“That’s not what AnnMarie was saying last night,” he said smugly.

“Actually, AnnMarie told me that she didn’t realize dicks were longer than her hand and wondered if mine was bigger than average.” I squirted more baby oil on the tarps. “I told her no, that you were just really small. Poor girl. Good thing she isn’t required to do a lot of math.”

Sam and Gray together

“I’ve been watching you all night.” His mouth was right above the tip of my ear and I felt something crack inside me, a fissure was forming in the mask I’d donned earlier today or perhaps his breath, his touch, his words were simply hastening the demise of the barriers I’d held between myself and everyone else for two years. Because inside my body, it felt like there was an awakening and every fiber of my being reached toward him, upward and outward as if I was a flower on the first day of a spring rain. I lifted my head to gaze up, wide-eyed and anxious with anticipation.

Some part of my brain was telling me that the storage closet was just two steps to my right at the end of the hallway and the exit door was just beyond that. My Rover was outside and all three were safer than standing here almost in his embrace but I couldn’t hear the warning over the pounding of my heartbeat. He bent toward me, his face serious and even in the low light of the corner I could see the gold flecks feathering out from the center of his eyes.

“I’m going to kiss you now.” His voice was deep, rough and matched the rest of his thoroughly masculine body.

“I know,” I whispered back. And I wanted that kiss from Gray who ordinarily wouldn’t be my type at all. I wanted it more than I wanted to breath. When his mouth molded against mine, it felt like bliss as if my whole cold body had been submerged into a warm bath. If I thought I was engulfed before it was nothing like I felt at that moment. My entire world—my thoughts, my feelings, my senses—were full of him. I tasted the mint and hops on his tongue. I inhaled the cinnamon, bergamot, ocean of his faint cologne into my airways. I felt the calloused palm on my waist and then lower against the exposed skin of my thigh. His dense muscles were drawn tight under his skin and the fabric of his t-shirt and he felt as strong as a citadel. The moan that had been building since he first backed me into the wall escaped. It had been so long since I’d had the touch of a man’s hand on any part of me and I nearly wept at the pleasure of it.

Undeclared (Woodlands #1)

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For four years, Grace Sullivan wrote to a Marine she never met, and fell in love. But when his deployment ended, so did the letters. Ever since that day, Grace has been coasting, academically and emotionally. The one thing she’s decided? No way is Noah Jackson — or any man — ever going to break her heart again.

Noah has always known exactly what he wants out of life. Success. Stability. Control. That’s why he joined the Marines and that’s why he’s fighting his way — literally — through college. Now that he’s got the rest of his life on track, he has one last conquest: Grace Sullivan. But since he was the one who stopped writing, he knows that winning her back will be his biggest battle yet.

Unspoken (Woodlands #2)

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Whore. Slut. Typhoid Mary.

I’ve been called all these at Central College. One drunken night, one act of irresponsible behavior, and my reputation was ruined. Guys labeled me as easy and girls shied away. To cope, I stayed away from Central social life and away from Central men, so why is it that my new biology lab partner is so irresistible to me?

He’s everything I shouldn’t want. A former Marine involved in illegal fighting with a quick trigger temper and an easy smile for all the women. His fists aren’t the danger to me, though, it’s his charm. He’s sliding his way into my heart and I’m afraid that he’s going to be the one to break me.

Impulsive. Unthinking. Hot tempered.

I allow instinct to rule my behavior. If it feels good, do it, has been my motto because if I spend too much time thinking, I’ll begin to remember exactly where I came from. At Central College, I’ve got fighting and I’ve got women and I thought I was satisfied until I met her.

She’s everything I didn’t realize I wanted and the more time I spend with her, the more I want her. But she’s been hurt too much in the past and I don’t want to be the one to break her. I know I should walk away, but I just can’t.

Bonus Content: Upon reaching the USA Today Bestselling milestone, I wrote a 10,000 word epilogue as a thank you to the readers who loved and supported Unspoken.  I posted it for free on my blog but at the urging of readers, I have added it to the original version.

Note: This is a New Adult Contemporary Romance with mature content and sexually explicit scenes. 91,000+ words. Standalone novel.

Website: https://JenFrederick.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJenFrederick
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jensfred
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/jenfred

Jen Frederick lives with her husband, child, and one rambunctious dog.  She’s been reading stories all her life but never imagined writing one of her own. Jen loves to hear from readers so drop her a line at jen@jenfrederick.com.

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$200 GC to retailer of your choice
Full set of Woodlands print books (5) with dog tags.

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Review: Unraveled by Jen Frederick

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Title: Unraveled
Author: Jen Frederick
Series: Woodlands #3
Genre: contemporary New Adult romance
Publisher: self-published
Format: ebook
Release Date: January 20, 2014

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

Publisher Summary:

Twenty-five-year-old Sgt. Gray Phillips is at a crossroads in his life: stay in the Marine Corps or get out and learn to be a civilian? He’s got forty-five days of leave to make up his mind but the people in his life aren’t making the decision any easier. His dad wants him to get out; his grandfather wants him to stay in. And his growing feelings for Sam Anderson are wreaking havoc with his heart…and his mind. He believes relationships get ruined when a Marine goes on deployment. So now he’s got an even harder decision to make: take a chance on Sam or leave love behind and give his all to the Marines.

Twenty-two year old Samantha Anderson lost her husband to an IED in Afghanistan just two months after their vows. Two years later, Sam is full of regrets—that she didn’t move with her husband to Alaska; that she allowed her friends to drift away; that she hasn’t taken many chances in life. Now, she’s met Gray and taking a risk on this Marine could be her one opportunity to feel alive and in love again. But how can she risk her heart on another military man who could share the same tragic fate as her husband?

My Review:

One of the best things about reading and reviewing is when I find a new series that gets even better as it goes on. Jen Frederick’s Woodlands series is a very recent discovery for me, but if what I’ve read so far is any indication, it’s one I’ll be enjoying for quite some time to come. Both UNDECLARED and UNSPOKEN are great reads, but the latest book, UNRAVELED, is easily the best of the three. It tells the story of how a woman still mourning her dead husband two years after his death is brought back to the land of the living by a man who finds her love is worth taking every chance in the world.

Samantha was never a particularly adventurous person before Will died. But his death only made her hide even more, existing more than living, and the way everyone still treated her like his grieving widow just made everything worse. It’s only when a perfect stranger instantly awakens her comatose desire that Samantha realizes what she really wants, and decides to go after it…and him.

Gray can’t decide if he wants to stay in the Marine Corps now that his contract is nearly up. He’s a natural leader and the Corps has been loyal to him in a way he never had with Carrie, the woman he’d once planned to marry. But when Samantha comes into his life, Gray thinks he has to choose between her and reenlistment because he’s convinced no relationship could ever survive any length of time apart. In UNRAVELED, both Gray and Samantha learn just how much they are capable of doing for each other when love is on the line.

We get to see the whole Woodlands group from the other books in UNRAVELED and it’s great to see how their relationships have progressed. But what I loved the most about this particular book was how both its hero and heroine had their own emotional baggage to deal with, but neither one ever lost sight of how much they cared for the other person. Samantha had to learn to love another person who could die and leave her like Will did. Gray had to learn to love another person who might cheat on him like Carrie did. But they both knew they had these issues and kept trying not to let it affect what they had together now. There were setbacks, of course, including one gigantic screw-up that nearly ruined everything. But Gray and Samantha never truly gave up on each other despite all the obstacles in their path, and that made their HEA all the sweeter. 5 stars

Review: An Indecent Proposition by Stephanie Julian

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An Indecent PropositionAn Indecent Proposition by Stephanie Julian

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Seductive Musings.

AN INDECENT PROPOSITION starts out as the story of how a young woman at the end of her financial rope agrees to sex with a stranger for an outrageous amount of money. Julianne’s father left both her and her mother in a deep financial hole on his permanent way out of town after her mother’s bout with breast cancer. Five hundred thousand dollars is too much for Julianne to turn down, even if it means a night of sex with a stranger. What she didn’t count on was losing her heart to not just one, but two men who were worth so much more to her than the cash she desperately needed.

Keegan and Erik have been inseparable since they met in college and soon after formed their own wildly profitable bio-metrics company, but not in the way most people thought. They prefer to share a woman sexually, and had done so successfully until Erik was nearly killed in a lab explosion. The years of reconstructive surgeries and painful rehabilitation have done little to restore Erik’s confidence in his appearance, and his withdrawal from the world weighs heavily on Keegan. But when Erik spots Julianne working as a catering server at their company event, he knew he had to have her. And Keegan will do everything he can to make sure that happens, even if it means walking away from both of them for good.

AN INDECENT PROPOSITION was originally published as a five part e-serial, and that was how I originally read it, waiting impatiently for weeks between releases. The passionate romance and scorching sex scenes kept me reading, even as the individual cliffhangers made me crazy wanting to know what happened next. But I wondered if the read would be just as satisfying when glued together as one complete story.

The good news is that yes, AN INDECENT PROPOSITION does work well without the forced reading delay between each of its five segments. Some serials have a real issue with maintaining continuity, one that isn’t obvious until repackaged as a full length book, but this never happened here. The sections flow naturally into each other, even though the originally defined separations are still used (i.e. five sections labeled as “Chapter One”), and the transitions hold up with the closer proximity.

Best of all, the relationship between Erik, Julianne and Keegan still packs the emotional punch that kept me reading for months. It never veers into overkill, even with the compressed timeline and often problematic “insta-lust” trope transforming a bizarre business transaction into a 3 way affair that may or may not become a lasting 3 way relationship. I’m glad I had the opportunity to read AN INDECENT PROPOSITION in both incarnations, and I’m looking forward to a follow-up book featuring Erik’s sister Katrina.

Ratings:
Overall: 4 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (MFM menage, light BDSM, voyeur play, semi-public sex)

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Review: I Take You by Nikki Gemmell

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I Take YouI Take You by Nikki Gemmell

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Seductive Musings.

I TAKE YOU is the story of a woman whose life and happiness are in stasis, frozen from the time that her husband became paralyzed from the waist down after a terrible accident not long after they were married. Connie had married Cliff because she felt expected to marry exactly this sort of man (handsome, charming and incredibly rich) to order be successful in her own life. But Cliff cares more about making more money and manipulating Connie’s sexual submission than in actually making her feel loved or appreciated. Desperate for any sort of emotional connection in her marriage, Connie agrees to letting Cliff exploit her in ways that become increasingly destructive to her own sense of self. It’s only at the lowest point in her existence that Connie is able to find love in the arms of another man, and in the process, rediscover herself.

Although I haven’t read the previous two books in Nikki Gemmell’s Bride trilogy, none of the books are directly connected to each other so that didn’t affect my ability to enjoy reading I TAKE YOU. What did affect my enjoyment was the fact that this book is so very obviously the author’s version of D.H. Lawrence’s LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER, a book that may be a famous love story but is not necessarily known as a true romance with a happy ending.

Unlike Mellors the gamekeeper in LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER, Mel the gardener in I TAKE YOU is not encumbered with a wife whom he does not love, though as a divorced man, he still carries the bitterness of the failed relationship with him as he and Connie embark on their dangerous affair. But Lawrence’s Sir Clifford has suffered a complete character assassination here, as Gemmell twists him into the most evil of husbands, one who refuses to accept Connie in his life as anything other than yet another of his acquired possessions, and will stop at nothing to force his sexual will on her to satisfy his desires, while crushing any she might have had of her own. With Cliff as the unredeemable villain, we can’t help but cheer Connie on as she clings to Mel as her only salvation from a life she’s lived for everyone but herself, and any possible shades of gray in her actions are completely wiped out in the face of such a horrible alternative.

I TAKE YOU’S opening scenes at the country mansion are first-rate erotica and easily the best part of the entire book. It was also good to see Connie and Mel get the happy ending that D.H. Lawrence had previously denied them. But D.H. Lawrence’s ghostly presence combined with Gemmell’s use of the third person present tense (‘The car is driven… Connie sits upright…The driver fumbles…’) made this a very difficult read for me overall. Still, it did prompt me to reread LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER, a book I would recommend more than this one.

Ratings:

Overall: 3 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (public exhibition including forced genital piercing, cuckold play, adultery)
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Review: Deceptive Innocence Part 1 by Kyra Davis

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Deceptive Innocence: Part 1 (Pure Sin, #1)Deceptive Innocence: Part 1 by Kyra Davis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance.

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2014 was to read fewer serials. With only a few notable exceptions, most of the ones I read last year had so many installments and ended up costing so much money that I was frustrated and annoyed by the time I reached the end. But when I found out Kyra Davis had a new three part serial available for review, I knew no resolution could keep me away. Her Just One Night serial was one of the best stories I read last year, and if this new one was half as good, it would be worth the wait to find out what happened next.

In Deceptive Innocence, we only know our heroine by the name she has given herself as a symbol of her quest for revenge. Bellona was the Roman goddess of war, and our heroine takes her cue from this woman who was “inspired with mad rage.” The rage is focused on righting the wrong done to our heroine’s mother, who had made many poor decisions in her life regarding men, ultimately paying with first her freedom, and then her life, after being framed for the murder of her last lover. After spending too much time choosing to believe that her mother had been capable of such an act, it’s only when her mother dies in prison that our Bellona finds her own reason to live, even if it’s only for the amount of time needed to make the family who framed her mother pay.

Lander Gable is on Bellona’s list of people who must pay, and her plan to become a part of his life works all too well. She knew he was handsome and charming, at least on the surface, but she hadn’t anticipated just how well they would fit together, especially in bed. Bellona’s confusion over her feelings for Lander could derail her goal to destroy him and his whole family. But what if he discovers who she really is before she has a chance to change her mind?

This first installment of Deceptive Innocence was just as delicious as I had anticipated, as good as anything I’ve ever read by Kyra Davis. She set up the motivation for our heroine without giving out more than the bare minimum required to generate interest, then slowly fed out just enough information to keep me hooked all the way to a perfect cliffhanger ending. Staying away from books with cliffhangers was another of my New Year’s resolutions, but they’re unavoidable in serials, and the one featured here in Part 1 restored my belief that good cliffhangers do still exist.

It would be too easy to assume that Lander is simply a misunderstood pawn in his evil family’s machinations simply because he’s the hero and this is a romance. But Just One Night showed me that Kyra Davis knows how to write characters who can’t be easily categorized as good or bad, so I’ll just hang on and enjoy the ride. I can’t wait to see how our heroine can reconcile her only reason for living with her growing need for Lander in Deceptive Innocence Part 2.

Favorite Quote:
I actually highlighted over 20 different passages in my Kindle, but here’s the one that best represents what I loved about Deceptive Innocence Part 1:

In this moment there is no plan. There is no revenge. There’s just Lander. And as he thrusts again, his eyes penetrating me with an equivalent force, I realize that in this moment that’s all I want.

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Review: Control by Charlotte Stein

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ControlControl by Charlotte Stein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Seductive Musings.

I originally read CONTROL a few years ago back when I was first starting to venture into erotic romance and I’m still convinced it’s one of the best examples of the genre. In it, Charlotte Stein shows that a person’s sexual desires can’t be contained in neat and tidy boxes and that losing control is sometimes the only way to regain it for good.

Madison needs someone to help out at her bookstore, but she can’t hire just anyone. It has to be someone who is not only comfortable being around erotic books all day long, but is also good at taking direction. Certainly Andy isn’t the best choice, as he would prefer to tell Madison what to do, even as she feels like she ought to be able to say no. It’s only when Madison interviews the quiet and unassuming Gabriel that she finds the ideal assistant and the perfect subject for her own need to take control. The more Madison pries her way into Gabriel’s closed-off world, the more she realizes that her superficial life isn’t any better than his. But with Andy as the wild card, it’s not certain whether any of them will figure out what they want, or who they want to be with in the end.

It’s hard for me to describe why I love this book so unreservedly. Perhaps it’s the way that Charlotte Stein can so perfectly get into someone’s psyche and describe the confusion caused by unconventional sexual desire. Her writing is so understated at times that the sex almost sounds more clinical than conventionally romantic, yet all the emotions are fully present and accounted for. We see how Gabriel has locked himself down as a reaction to a chaotic childhood spent with hoarder parents, and how this has been reflected in his sexuality. It’s his control that Madison both envies and wants to break, not even knowing why until she realizes her love for him. Even Andy, who acts as the bull in this particular china shop, knows that what Madison and Gabriel share is something special. It’s that knowledge Madison needs when Gabriel reaches his breaking point, and she has to take responsibility for putting him back together again.

CONTROL is both a wildly erotic and heart-breaking love story, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It’s also why I’ll always read everything Charlotte Stein writes.

Ratings:
Overall: 5
Sensuality level: 4 (menage, humiliation play, light BDSM)

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Review: How to Run with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper

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How to Run with a Naked Werewolf (Naked Werewolf, #3)How to Run with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at SMI Book Club.

Molly Harper and her Naked Werewolf series were new to me as a reader, but I was able to dive right in and enjoy the mostly light-hearted tale of how Dr. Anna Moder saved a stranger who was bleeding and prone in the middle of the road and in the process, reclaimed her identity and found true love.

Thanks to her previous association with the Crescent Valley werewolves, Anna recognized what Caleb was almost immediately, but as the oddball loner who’d stayed away from the pack for years, he wasn’t exactly what Anna would consider a good bet for a safe future. Her previous taste in men was what had gotten her in this mess in the first place, so she couldn’t let her growing desire for him cloud her judgment on his character, could she?

As for Caleb, we only see him through Anna’s eyes, but what we see is nothing but good. He makes no apologies for his line of work, but sticks to what others might call a skewed version of honor in his business arrangements. And Anna could never quibble with how well he protects her, even when she makes it extra difficult by refusing to stay put when she should. Together they make an interesting pair and it was fun to see them get closer as they spent weeks together on the road.

Although I hadn’t read the previous books, there was just enough exposition included in How To Run With A Naked Werewolf that I was able to follow along without feeling too overwhelmed by back-story. Both Anna and Caleb, the person she saved in a moment of reckless altruism, believe they are keeping major secrets from each other, not realizing that what they believe to be hidden is actually already known by the other. Caleb had very good reasons for staying aloof from his pack and I loved how he was able to break out of his emotional isolation as his feelings for Anna grew stronger. Although humor is a major component of this story, the threat that keeps Anna on the run is scary and real, and I appreciated how that kept things from getting too deliberately wacky. Ultimately, it was watching Caleb and Anna fall in love and find a more settled life together that made How To Run With A Naked Werewolf a thoroughly enjoyable read.

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