Monthly Archives: April 2014

Review: Having Her by Jackie Ashenden

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Having Her (Lies We Tell, #2)Having Her by Jackie Ashenden

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

After experiencing one of my biggest book hangovers ever with Jackie Ashenden’s first book in the Lies We Tell series, TAKING HIM, I knew I would be in for it with HAVING HER, and boy howdy, was I ever right. In this second book, we get to see what happened after Kara, Ellie’s best friend, suddenly excused herself from the bar at the comic convention they were both attending in a scene from the previous book. We already know how things went down with Ellie and Hunter — now it’s Kara’s turn with Ellie’s super hot but totally disapproving brother, Vin. And as wonderful as TAKING HIM was, HAVING HER manages to be even better.

Kara may put up an aggressive front against the world at large, but it’s all just to protect herself from more heartbreak after her trust in love and family was shattered at the hands of her alcoholic mother. Since then, it’s been easier for Kara to put others off than to let them close enough to reject her first. But that’s made it difficult for her to accomplish her new self-imposed task of finally losing her virginity, despite her multiple attempts to pick up a strange man for just that purpose. Picking up guys was easy; it’s what to do with one once she had him that still had Kara stumped. At least she knew that Ellie’s brother Vin would always be there to rescue her, even when she didn’t want him to. Especially then. But when Vin insists on picking Kara up at the door of yet another random guy who’d expected more than she was prepared to offer, she realizes that the answer to her problem is right in front of her. Vin.

When Vin and Ellie’s mother became seriously mentally ill and their father did his disappearing act, it was up to Vin to keep his baby sister safe. Now, years later, protection mode is all that Vin seems to know how to do well. He’s also convinced himself that he’s just like his rotten father, that he could never truly love another person. Despite all this, Vin still finds himself drawn to Kara, even as everything she does grates on him. The crazy clothes, the ever-changing hair colors, the insistence on constantly placing herself in what he considers dangerous situations…it’s enough to make a man insane. So when Kara sets her sights on him as the man to relieve her of her virginity, he refuses outright, only agreeing after she goads him beyond his otherwise iron control. Vin makes it clear that this will be on his terms only, and love should not be expected or given. But Kara needs someone to take charge, and Vin is just the guy to do it. Things between them seem to be progressing nicely, until the day when an unexpected event changes the nature of their relationship forever. That’s when Vin and Kara must each face what damaged them in the past if they want to embrace the happiness they both deserve in the future.

When I say this HAVING HER was an emotional read for me, I mean it was all cheering, laughing, yelling, swooning, and crying in large amounts. Jackie Ashenden knows how to make you feel for her characters in a way that pulls at your heart without piling on the drama in outrageous ways or unbelievable amounts. Yes, Kara and Vin both had traumatic childhoods, and yes, it’s messed them up in ways that kept them both from being able to reach out to anyone else until now. But the emotional moments in HAVING HER come from the intimate scenes where their hearts and souls are exposed to each other, not from wallowing in overwhelming grief at what’s already past. This book is a true erotic romance, in that the intimate scenes between its hero and heroine are essential to the plot and character development in every way. It’s only through kinky sex that Kara and Vin can even begin to learn to communicate with each other, and it’s the result of their sexual relationship that forces them into deciding whether to commit to each other fully, or to walk away from their first, and possibly last, chance at true love. I was so drained by the time they reached their happy ending that all I could do was grab a box of tissues and cry it all out. In a good way, mind you. In a very good way. I don’t know if Jackie Ashenden has other books planned for this series, but I know I’ll be the first in line to read one. I may have recovered from this book by then.

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Review: Desperate Match by Lynne Silver

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Desperate Match (Coded for Love 5)Desperate Match by Lynne Silver

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

This review contains spoilers for previous books in the Coded For Love series. You can read DESPERATE MATCH as a stand-alone, but I think you’ll enjoy it more if you have read the entire series.

DESPERATE MATCH is Lynne Silver’s fifth Coded For Love book, and the first to be self-published (all previous books were released by Ellora’s Cave). Although I have enjoyed the entire series, I have to say that this story is the best one so far. Perhaps it’s because the ever-present threat of the evil Dr. Paulson was finally eliminated in the previous book, or perhaps it’s because Lynne Silver is just getting better as she delves more deeply into this world of The Program. Whatever the reason, it’s great to see yet another erotic romance series that I discovered at Ellora’s Cave continue with an well-written self-published entry.

DESPERATE MATCH starts with a look at the woman whose current living situation is the source of the desperation noted in the title. Jill Thompson is only 24 years old, but the last five years of her life with her abusive husband have aged her in a way no person should ever have to bear. Jack’s need to control every aspect of her life seemed charming back when they dated in high school, as she mistook his behavior for some starry-eyed notion of true love. It was only when they were both out of school and married in a home of their own that the true Jack appeared, leaving Jill with few options for rescue. But now Jill has found hope in a news story about The Program, the decades-long classified military project for creating enhanced soldiers, and their search for female volunteers to breed the next generation. Their heavily guarded military compound in Beltsville, Maryland is only a few hours away from where Jill lives in rural Virginia, so if she can get herself approved as a volunteer DNA match for a soldier there, then she can finally be safe from Jack and his fists.

Back at the Beltsville campus, Rowan Blacker has volunteered to be matched for breeding if a woman can be found for him. Rowan’s birth defect has always made him feel like less than a complete member of The Program, even though he’s otherwise enhanced as much as everyone else. When the woman who is supposed to be his perfect DNA match appears on foot at the front gates, emaciated and bedraggled, Rowan wonders what he’s gotten himself into. Meanwhile, Jill’s first thought is how can a man missing one arm possibly protect her from Jack when he comes looking for her? Needless to say, this first encounter between Rowan and Jill does not bode well for their future together. And yet the attraction, however muted, is there. When Rowan discovers what propelled Jill to put herself in the hands of The Program, he vows to help protect and free her from Jack, no matter the cost. As Jill begins her slow and painful recovery from years of abuse, she and Rowan carefully begin to trust each other, even as her presence soon becomes a major liability for her protectors. For Jack isn’t going to let Jill go without a fight, thanks to the help he gets from a secretive group intent on attacking those who believe in the mission of The Program.

I’m a big fan of this series, but I was relieved to see that this new book was going to be more about the hero and heroine finding their way to happiness with each other and less about the external threats to The Program and its members. Being accepted by The Program for their breeding program was Jill’s last best hope to escape her abusive marriage, and I cheered her on as she planned her successful route to freedom. Although it was painful to see her initial negative reaction to Rowan and his missing arm, it would have been unrealistic for her to accept him with no questions asked, especially given her condition when she arrived on base. And certainly Rowan wasn’t expecting his DNA match to be a woman so literally beaten down on arrival that she barely had the energy to flinch whenever he tried to approach her. It would take lots of time and tender loving care for Jill to return to the woman she had once been, and for Rowan to see more than just the shell she had become while living under Jack’s oppression.

The best part of DESPERATE MATCH began when Jill was finally back to her old self and better able to appreciate just how much Rowan really was the best partner for her, even as she continued to work toward a semblance of independence from him and The Program. Rowan had his own growing to do if he was ever going to accept Jill as his equal partner in love and life under the auspices of The Program. By the time they reach their HEA, both Rowan and Jill have transformed from the two people who met under strained circumstances at the start of the book to a loving couple who are ready to support each other in every possible way. It’s a beautiful end to an compelling journey, and a wonderful continuation to one of my favorite erotic romance series.

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Review: Requested Surrender by Riley Murphy

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Requested Surrender (Trust in Me, #4)Requested Surrender by Riley Murphy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

REQUESTED SURRENDER is the fourth book in Riley Murphy’s TRUST IN ME series, and while you don’t need to have read the first three books in the series, you should read A DATE WITH A DOM (Trust in Me #3.5) before you read this book. A DATE WITH A DOM is available at Amazon for 99 cents (free read with Prime), but portions of it can also be read for free at Author Riley Murphy. You could be lost at the beginning of REQUESTED SURRENDER if you do not read this short prequel.

I’ve been enjoying Riley Murphy’s Trust in Me series at Ellora’s Cave for a few years now, but hadn’t seen a new book since early 2013, so I was pleased to learn that she would be self-publishing the next book in the series this year. I’m pleased to say that REQUESTED SURRENDER is just as good as the books which preceded it, and happy that self-publishing has rescued a series I’ve always loved.

David Hollan is one of several Doms who co-own The Carlyn, an exclusive resort with a BDSM flair. We’ve seen in the past two books how he’s been trying to get closer to Lacy Pembrook, a woman he finds equally attractive and frustrating. It seems to David that Lacy is always playing a version of herself, one who never takes anything seriously even to the detriment of her own happiness, and he wants to know why. Because David suspects the real Lacy is the woman who can be the submissive he needs, even as she clearly needs him to keep her safe and happy and loved.

Lacy does appear to be a scatterbrained happy-go-lucky type of woman who runs away when things get difficult. She starts all kinds of plans, but never fully follows through. She’s a gifted artist, but never really did anything with her obvious talent, instead choosing to attend veterinary school to please her father. Yet even with her successfully completed degree, she still hasn’t managed to open her own practice. And even though she and David have been dating seriously for a while, Lacy still hasn’t let him know that the “Jo” she still spends time with in her house is actually “Joe” the hunky contractor with whom Lacy had briefly toyed before David came into her life. Now the revelation about Joe has finally pushed David into confronting Lacy with a plan to show her how she needs him in her life to provide structure and guidance, and help her embrace her true submissive self.

Although I was happy to return to the Trust In Me series, I’ll admit I was as all over the place as much as Lacy was, at least at first. REQUESTED SURRENDER began right as David’s discovered Lacy’s major lie of omission and moved forward immediately into what David did to keep Lacy from running away when he confronted her about it. Even as David and Lacy grew closer in their new D/s relationship, it became clear that neither one of them was quite ready to commit to another person, thanks to their individual past experiences with people who had betrayed them. David’s issue with trust stemmed from the only other woman he’d ever loved, and how her addictions had ultimately forced him to kick her out. Her ability to constantly mislead led him to be overzealous in his protectiveness of Lacy, which has then goaded Lacy into deliberately defying him at every turn. Lacy’s problems were more deeply hidden, and even I had no idea what could be causing her to throw her happiness away with both hands even as she acknowledged how important David was to her.

It wasn’t until all of Lacy’s past history was revealed in the face of David’s confrontation with those who hurt her that REQUESTED SURRENDER finally came together for me. Only then did I truly understand what made Lacy tick and how David’s patience was the key to happiness for both of them. Their romance was a long time coming in this series, and its satisfying ending bodes well for book 5, REPUTED SURRENDER. Its hero, Michael Kavanaugh, has been waiting for his own true love since the very first book in the series, when he attempted to come between a married couple trying to find their way back to each other. I can’t wait to read his story next.

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Review: Perfect Catch by Sierra Dean

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Perfect Catch (Boys of Summer, #2)Perfect Catch by Sierra Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

Sometimes you read a sports romance where the romance is great but the sport isn’t represented accurately. Sometimes you read one where the sport is spot-on but the romance is lacking. And then sometimes, if you’re very, very lucky, you read a sports romance where everything is done perfectly. It can’t be a coincidence that during this first week of the new baseball season, I got lucky with PERFECT CATCH, the second book in Sierra Dean’s Boys of Summer series. (I also enjoyed the first book, PITCH PERFECT, but you don’t have to read that book for this one to make sense.)

PERFECT CATCH is the story of a woman who’s had to be everyone else’s rock and how she finally finds the one guy who will be that person for her in return. Alice Darling may have made a huge mistake years before in trusting a professional ballplayer with her heart and her body, but her beloved daughter Liv is worth every sacrifice, even if it means working two jobs and swearing off all baseball players for good. And as a part-time umpire for spring training and minor league games, the last thing Alice needs is to be accused of using her feminine wiles on the players to get ahead. What she never planned on was the likes of Alex Ross crossing her path. It’s easy for Alice to ignore all the guys when she’s hiding behind her umpire’s mask and gear. But it’s harder to pass up a good-looking guy in a broken-down Porsche, especially when you’re the only one who can help him change a flat tire.

Alex Ross thought this would be just another pre-season, just the usual six weeks in Florida needed to make sure his game was up to snuff before Opening Day. When his rental car got a flat, he didn’t expect a beautiful woman with dangerous curves to be his rescuer. But Alex knows he’d like to get to know her better, whatever it might take. Despite how close they quickly become, Alice is sure Alex will be out of her life for good when spring training ends. But he can’t get her out of his head or heart, and when that distraction leads him back to the minors to get back his pre-season form, nothing and nobody will be able to keep Alex from being the guy Alice really needs.

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that Sierra Dean and I follow each other on Twitter. She’s a diehard Detroit Tigers fan and I’m a lifelong Kansas City Royals fan, but we would never hold that against each other. Thanks to her tweets, I know she would no more confuse the infield fly rule for a ground rule double than she’d assume that any reader new to baseball would be expected to know either one. And that’s what has made me a confident reader for her baseball-themed romance novels. Whether or not the romance ends up working for me, I’m always assured that every moment spent in or around the ballpark will ring true, without the added distraction of easily avoidable errors.

But make no mistake, the romance is just as spot on here as every little baseball-related detail. Alice has been let down by every person in her life except her young daughter: the brother who treats his depression with pills and booze, the mother who only sees someone who refused to diet down to nothing and trusted the wrong men, and that particular wrong man who left them behind on his way to the major leagues. Why shouldn’t Alex be the same? And yet, Alex is as different to the rest as day is to night. He refuses to let Alice paint him with the same brush as everyone else, but he also realizes that he has to go slowly if she’s going to be able to trust in him. Of course, they both make mistakes, but none are too terrible or insurmountable between two adults who love and want to be loved in return. And when Alex and Alice finally find their happy ending together with Liv, everything that happened before just makes it all the more satisfying. Not a moment is wasted in PERFECT CATCH; every scene is essential. And all through the story, Alex and Alice’s shared love of the game adds that special flavor that you can only get with a well-written sports romance. I can’t wait to read the next one in this series.

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Blog Tour: Last Breath by Jessica Clare and Jen Frederick

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9780991426720 – ebook ISBN
9780991426737 – print ISBN

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For the first month of release, Last Breath will be sale-priced at $3.99 to reward early purchasers. The price will revert back to its original retail listing of $4.99.

Regan

I never really knew what misery was until the day I was kidnapped and sold for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Two months later, I’m at a brothel in Rio when I meet Daniel Hays. He says he’s here to save me, but can I trust him? All I know of him is his sarcastic retorts and his tendency to solve every dispute with his gun. He’s also the only safe thing in my world, and I know it’s wrong to fall in love with him, but I can’t seem to help myself. He says he’ll protect me until his last breath but I don’t know if I should believe him or even if I can.

Daniel

For the last eighteen months, I’ve had one goal that has dictated every action I’ve taken. I’ve left the Army, turned paid hit man, and have befriended criminals all across the globe to find my kidnapped sister. In every brothel I raid or every human trafficking truck I stop, I hope the next face I find is my sister’s. In a hidden brothel in Rio, I find Regan Porter, bruised by not broken and still sane despite her weeks in captivity. I should leave her behind or send her home because the last thing either of us needs right now is to get involved. But with every passing minute, I find I can’t let her go.

Please note: this contains some scenes that sensitive readers may find upsetting or triggering.

TEASER

She’s a biter. That’s the warning given when I point to the blonde with the glazed green eyes in Senhor Gomes’ book of whores. He shakes his head and says that he has access to dozens of others that are better and all willing to engage in whatever perverse activity I want. He brags that there isn’t a sick sex act I can think of that Gomes can’t fulfill. I like home cooking, I tell him. A Texan in Rio sees a lot of beautiful Brazilian women, but sometimes you want a little star-spangled banner in the rotation.

He nods as if this makes sense to him, but I think it’s the money that I’m flashing that he understands. We walk up to the second floor and down a narrow hall toward the back, a windowless part of this brick and metal building. I can’t call it a home or even a brothel. It’s a dingy place where men with deep perversions but shallow wallets can get their rocks off.
I don’t want to have sex here, I’ve explained to Gomes. I have a thing against hellholes and having sex in them. I wave around a lot of cash, and Gomes nodded and asks no more questions.
We’re a strange parade—Gomes, me, and some house mom trailing behind. He stops at the second to last door and removes a key.

I’ve seen pictures of Regan Porter before, and not in Gomes’ look book, but nothing prepares me for her full-fledged, magazine-quality beauty. She hasn’t been eating well; her delicate bones are beginning to look sharp in places—at her shoulders, ribs, and hips. But there’s no denying her breathtaking looks. Her blonde hair is damp and small strands stick to her perfect skull. Her oval face, with its pink cheekbones and lush lips and eyebrows that look like wings, stands out like a piece of fine china at a flea market. Though she’s thin, there’s a delicious curviness in the slope of her side as it dips into the waist and flares back out to form a cuppable roundness at the hip. And those endlessly long legs.

Shit. I close my eyes and swallow. No decent man would be standing here thinking about those legs wrapped around his waist. But then again, I’m not decent. I’m no longer army sniper, Special Forces Daniel Hays who may have once been lauded as a hero for killing insurgents in Afghanistan. Now I’m Daniel Hays, mercenary who kills people for money and spends all his spare time in brothels and flesh dens like this one. Decency is a word I don’t even know the meaning to anymore.
It’s been too long since I’ve had a woman. That’s my only excuse. That and I’m becoming the monster that I’m hunting. I focus on the bruises on her knees that are scraped red and raw from time on the floor and the manacle around her ankle. Any feelings of arousal are jettisoned by the obvious signs of abuse.

Glancing sharply at Gomes, I wonder how he’s come to possess a beauty like Regan Porter. Gomes is a small-time flesh peddler, stuck up here in the slums, with a house full of females—half of which are missing their teeth or are too old or too broken.

He usually gets what the market calls second-hand goods, the girls that no other house wants. But Regan Porter is gorgeous, and while she looks a little rundown, she’s still model beautiful with big pink lips and wide green eyes.

“Nice tits,” I smirk for Gomes’ sake and her shudder of disgust only feeds into my growing belief that I’m as dirty as the flesh trader beside me. The dark edges of the world that I now inhabit are seeping into my skin like an oil slick covering an ocean. I shouldn’t want to touch her. And if I have to fuck her in front of Gomes to get her out of here—I don’t even let myself finish that thought.

There’s still life in her eyes. If she’s biting and spitting out acerbic insults, there’s spirit left in her, and I don’t want to be the one to snuff out that last flame. Her eyes convey her hate, and if she had a knife, I’d be sliced from my throat to my belly. I stare back, not because she’s fucking beautiful, but because she’s still standing. I’m not sure I would’ve been as strong. I don’t know if she sees my admiration or whether she can only interpret varying degrees of lust and degradation, but she sees something. An invisible string spools out between us and her eyes widen when it hits her like an electrical shock.

For months I’ve swum in a pool of blood and death and ugly deeds, and to hold onto my sanity and maybe my soul, I’ve told myself that saving these doves balances the scale. For every life I take, if I save one then it’s all a wash in the end. Don’t think it’s tallied that way at St. Peter’s Gate, but that’s the lie I tell myself so I can sleep at night and look at myself in the mirror the next day. Regan Porter will either be part of my attempt at salvation or the bloody stone that etches out the words He Failed on my headstone.

About the Authors

jessica clare bio
Author Jessica Clare
This is a pen name for Jill Myles.
Jill Myles has been an incurable romantic since childhood. She reads all the ‘naughty parts’ of books first, looks for a dirty joke in just about everything, and thinks to this day that the Little House on the Prairie books should have been steamier.

After devouring hundreds of paperback romances, mythology books, and archaeological tomes, she decided to write a few books of her own – stories with a wild adventure, sharp banter, and lots of super-sexy situations. She prefers her heroes alpha and half-dressed, her heroines witty, and she loves nothing more than watching them overcome adversity to fall into bed together.

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jen frederick bio
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 jensfrederick@gmail.com.

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Review: Teach Me A Lesson by Jasmine Haynes

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Teach Me a LessonTeach Me a Lesson by Jasmine Haynes

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

I really loved Jasmine Haynes’s THE NAUGHTY CORNER, and the way she introduced us to Gray and Lola as they discovered a mutual kinky love after being inadvertently brought together by Lola’s bratty nephews. So I was happy to see that TEACH ME A LESSON follows directly from that story, although it could still easily be read as a stand-alone book. I enjoy seeing couples from an earlier book in the context of a new one, especially when they play a key role in the new couple’s romance. And with TEACH ME A LESSON, we also get another great erotic romance set in the deliciously naughty background of an ordinary suburban high school, where consenting adults secretly meet to privately engage in oh-so-inappropriate behavior.

While THE NAUGHTY CORNER featured a successful CEO moonlighting as a part-time high school football coach, our hero in TEACH ME A LESSON is the principal himself. Married and divorced twice, Lance Hutton has become resigned to the fact that he isn’t likely to find a permanent relationship with any woman. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t taken notice of the delectable Miss Moore. She’s only part-time at his school, which limits the moments he has to ogle her from afar. One fateful afternoon, Principal Hutton decides to stop by Miss Moore’s office just as she’s crawling on the floor for a misplaced apple. And that’s when everything changes.

Charlotte Moore doesn’t want to submit to any man ever again, not after the awful one who had her doubting every thought and decision. The only independent decision she was able to make in that relationship was finally choosing to leave it. Since then, Charlotte has focused solely on casual affairs with much younger men, ones that let her take charge so she never has to worry about losing her identity again. So she’s puzzled by her apparent attraction to someone like Principal Lance Hutton. Not only is he at least 10 years older than her, but he’s also clearly someone who likes to be in charge. Of *everything*. But when Principal Hutton’s surprise visit prompts Charlotte to slyly express interest in a certain naughty activity, they seize the moment without realizing just how life-changing that decision will be for them both.

I love Jasmine Haynes books because they are always the perfect blend of kinky sex, adult relationships, and true romance. TEACH ME A LESSON is yet another example of this winning formula. We have a hero and heroine who are older but wiser, never hesitating to express what they want and do not want, and willing to expand their sexual horizons for something that makes any previous couplings pale by comparison. More importantly, Jasmine Haynes also gives us a story that displays the true qualities of both characters, as they prove their innate worthiness through the actions they take to help the vulnerable teenagers in their care. We get to laugh and cry and cheer for the bad guys to lose and the good guys to win, and then discover that maybe the bad guys weren’t really all that bad after all. And throughout it all, there’s that magnetic attraction between Lance and Charlotte, and their mutual discovery of kinky sex that ties it all together so well.

As I’ve found with so many other Jasmine Haynes books, reading TEACH ME A LESSON was like coming home. It may not be everyone’s idea of home, to be sure, but it’s one that I’ll want to return to (and I’m hoping for many more visits in the future).

Ratings:

Overall: 5 stars
Sensuality level: 3.5 (BDSM-lite scenes including spanking and outdoor sex, discussions of cuckold fetish)

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Review: Dangerously Bound by Eden Bradley

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Dangerously Bound (A Dangerous Romance)Dangerously Bound by Eden Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

Eden Bradley was one of the first authors I read when I was just starting out with BDSM-related erotic romances, and she’s still one of the few I can always count on to provide a story in that specific sub-genre that’s as accurate as it is enjoyable. DANGEROUSLY BOUND is the first entry in her new Dangerous series, and much like all her previous books, it’s one that left me thoroughly entertained and ready for more to come.

In this new series, we are introduced to a related group of characters in New Orleans and the BDSM club where some of them meet to play and fall in love. This first book is the story of a hero and heroine with a long history that they’ve both tried to move past in their separate lives, before coming back together to give it one more try. When Mick’s newly discovered inner Dom emerged during the one night of passion he shared with Allie, her tears made him think he’d damaged her, ruining their chance at true love. His abrupt departure the next morning was followed by her own, resulting in a separation that lasted nearly a decade. But after years of training overseas as a pastry chef by day and experienced submissive by night, Allie is back in New Orleans for good. Mick may not be ready for what she has planned for him, but she is determined to confront him in any way necessary to force him to see her as she is now, not as she was then.

One of the things I love about Eden Bradley’s books is how she so easily sets up a new series without spending excessive time on things that are best revealed as the story unfolds. We know right off that Allie and Mick have a history that has kept them apart despite their obvious love for one another. We also know that there are other traumatic events in Mick’s past that are keeping him from fully committing to Allie, ones that she can’t help him get past if he won’t forgive himself. But all of these details inform our understanding of their push-me-pull-you relationship without intruding on what’s important, namely their rekindled romance here and now.

The best parts of DANGEROUSLY BOUND for me were the numerous and lengthy intimate scenes between Mick and Allie, especially when they were in a BDSM scene featuring rope bondage and Mick’s apparent fondness for biting. His struggle to keep a Dom’s control over his emotions as he plays with Allie tests him more than he can bear, and he runs away from her more than once, which did become a bit frustrating for me. But Allie wouldn’t give up on him or their relationship, not until she realized that she had to let him go so he could realize that he needed to return for good. Their hard-won happy ending made me eager for more tales of BDSM romance when Eden Bradley’s new Dangerous series continues with DANGEROUSLY BROKEN.

Ratings:

Overall: 4 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (several intense scenes between H/h with biting and rope bondage, brief descriptions of BDSM club play)

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Review: Lost in You by Sommer Marsden

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Lost In YouLost In You by Sommer Marsden
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

Before I started reading LOST IN YOU, I already knew that Sommer Marsden could write great erotic romances. What this new book showed me was that she can do all that within the structure of a somewhat conventional “a couple from different worlds meet cute and fall in love” and make it even better.

Before our hero ever makes his appearance, LOST IN YOU provides a brief but illuminating sequence of events showing us exactly what our heroine, Clover Brite, is all about. She might have a name evocative of some cute Saturday-morning cartoon character, but this woman is all business when it comes to her job. Clover had to claw and scratch her way up from an impoverished life with her single mother, and she’s not taking one bit of her success for granted. Our heroine has high expectations for herself and others, and isn’t afraid to yell at anyone, even if it’s the oh-so-snooty glasswork expert she needs to check out the condition of the glass dome in her beloved Rotunda. Oh sure, it’s not really *her* Rotunda, but Clover has fond childhood memories of time spent in that building, and with the childhood she had, good memories are few and far between. So when the expert refuses to show up even after she’s gone and dismissed the whole construction crew just so he can work unobserved, it doesn’t occur to Clover that the guy has a very good reason to turn her down. Her single-mindedness over the job at hand has blinded her to the fact that there is an honest-to-God superstorm on the way and nobody would go outside in this weather voluntarily, let alone climb out on the roof of the Baltimore Rotunda.

The impending storm might have taken away the man who was supposed to handle this major task for Clover, but it also puts in her path the one man who will change her life forever: Dorian Martin, our hero. Dorian’s life up to this point has been pretty much the complete opposite of Clover’s. He grew up never wanting for anything money could buy, by people who didn’t seem to care much about him, while she had been rich in love instead of material things. As a wealthy and handsome single man, Dorian could have his pick of any beautiful woman in the world, but when he hears Clover yelling on her phone before she throws it across the room, he’s hooked. He may be her boss by virtue of owning the Rotunda building, but it soon becomes obvious to Clover that he wants to be more. The isolation of being stranded together will soon enable this unlikely pairing. But can what they’ve found in each other survive past the end of the storm?

What I loved the most about LOST IN YOU was its hero and heroine. They were completely adorable, and I mean that in the best possible sense. Clover was so good at her job and working with her crew, but in a realistic way – never as a Mary Sue. When she first laid eyes on Dorian, it knocked her so completely off balance that it almost felt like I was experiencing it myself. It’s not immediately apparent if this sudden attraction is mutual until the storm finally hits, and Dorian gets a full view of Clover’s soaked white blouse after their unsuccessful attempt to leave the building. But even then, is it really Dorian reacting that way, or is it just Clover projecting her own desires on an unaware man? In that moment, Clover’s self-doubt became mine, adding layers of enjoyment to my eventual discovery that Dorian was just as smitten. As they succumbed fully to their shared insta-lust, then struggled to maintain their connection after the storm ended, I got to experience all their doubts and fears and mistaken reactions until at long last, they fumbled their way to a beautiful HEA.

I will admit to being frustrated by Clover’s negative self-esteem which always seemed to rear its head at the worst possible moments, especially when she allowed Dorian’s evil not-really-his-girlfriend to take advantage of that self-doubt. But in retrospect, it did make sense for Clover to be second-guessing every moment of happiness at that point in the story. It also helped that Clover’s most unfortunate moment of doubt was later redeemed by one of the finest moments of a heroine groveling that I’ve had the privilege to read in quite some time. (I do so love a good grovel!)

It’s true that Dorian had his own moments of low self-esteem, manifested in the way he’d internalized all the disappointments he’d received at the hands of those who should have loved and supported him. But his love for Clover was as real as she kept trying to keep herself from believing, and the fact that he never truly gave up on her (even when it seemed that he’d given up on himself yet again) made his last-ditch efforts to get her back all the more touching and sweet.

The only real issue I had with LOST IN YOU was related to one of my personal pet peeves becoming a real distraction for me, thanks to Clover’s previous history. As you might imagine, Clover and Dorian have sex repeatedly and often, and each scene is incredibly erotic and emotional. But at no time do either of them ever use, or even mention, any sort of birth control. I understand that writers are not obliged to include such things, and normally, I would just sigh and move on. But because Clover’s own mother had been abandoned by a wealthy lover while still pregnant with Clover, all those scenes of unprotected sex between Clover and Dorian had me half-expecting a repeat of this type of pregnancy drama, and that was the last thing I wanted to interfere with this delightful and heartfelt romance.

Yet that’s just one tiny quibble in an otherwise charming story and it shouldn’t put anyone off reading LOST IN YOU. I quite enjoyed Clover and Dorian, and recommend their story for anyone who appreciates an erotic romance that’s hot and sweet and yes, adorable.

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