Tag Archives: Book in Series

Review: Letting Go by Maya Banks

Letting Go (Surrender Trilogy, #1)Letting Go by Maya Banks

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

LETTING GO is the story of a woman who already found and lost her perfect love, but has decided after three years of lonely mourning that it’s time to go after the one thing that was missing in her otherwise perfect marriage. Josslyn will never forget Carson and the once in a lifetime love they shared. But both Carson and his sister Kylie suffered unspeakable abuse from their alcoholic father and could never have understood the need Josslyn had for a man to take charge in the bedroom and bring her both pleasure and pain. Three years is a long time to mourn. It’s time for Josslyn to find someone who will dominate her sexually in the way her late husband never would.

After Carson’s tragic death, Dash was the solid stable core at the center of Josslyn’s upside-down life. As her husband’s business partner and best friend, he has worked hard to ensure that she was taken care of in all ways, except the one he most desired. For unknown to anyone except Josslyn’s late husband, Dash has been head over heels in love with her since the moment they met. It was his misfortune to fall in love with his best friend’s girl, but to his credit, he never acted on those feelings or even gave her a hint he felt that way about her. Now that Josslyn is finally ready to put her marriage in the past, Dash will stop at nothing to make sure that she becomes his. He was prepared to take his time and move slowly toward his goal, even if it meant ignoring the Dominant side of his personality, That all changed when Dash saw Josslyn walk into a private BDSM club on the arm of another man. Could Dash have her as both his love and his submissive? Or would Carson’s memory always be an obstacle between them?

One of my favorite erotic romance series last year was the Breathless trilogy by Maya Banks, so I was happy to learn that she had another one planned for this year. Just like with that series, the Surrender trilogy features a group of interconnected characters with overlapping storylines but each book can still be read as a stand-alone story. This first book does a good job of setting up all the relationships between this group of friends and provides clues to how the other two books will progress without turning into a data dump. A special bonus for readers of Maya Banks’s Sweet series is the appearance of Damon Roche and “The House”, his members only BDSM club in Houston. This trilogy takes place in that world so I’m looking forward to more glimpses of those beloved characters in the next two books.

For me, the best part of LETTING GO was how Maya Banks portrayed the perfect tension between Josslyn’s needs and Dash’s insecurities. Just because they want to make things work doesn’t mean that their new life together is without problems. The problems they face are exacerbated by their inability to fully share what they are feeling, and the initial disapproval from their friends and loved ones only makes things worse. Josslyn’s struggle to embrace her new life with Dash feeds into his irrational sense of competing for her love with the ghost of her dead husband. Their individual fears and doubts inevitably lead to a terrible misunderstanding, and it takes a near tragedy to finally force them to communicate more fully so they can have the happy ending they both deserve.

LETTING GO is a beautifully written depiction of how a widow and her late husband’s best friend learn how to move forward as a couple while honoring the memory of the man they both loved. It features Maya Banks at her best, with the heart-rending emotions and scorching sex scenes her readers have come to expect. Kylie’s story is next in GIVING IN, and I can’t wait to read it.

Ratings:

Overall: 5 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (intense private BDSM scenes between the hero and heroine, one semi-public BDSM scene involving a second man)

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Review: Melting the Ice by Jaci Burton

Melting The Ice (Play by Play, #7)Melting The Ice by Jaci Burton

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

MELTING THE ICE is the latest entry in Jaci Burton’s long-running sports romance series and although I have only read the first Play By Play book, I had no problem picking up this one as a stand-alone. The setup for the hero and heroine combines two of my favorite tropes – best friend’s little sister and second chance at love – so I was confident going in that it would be a good read.

Carolina had always had eyes for Drew back in college, but his Big Man on Campus status combined with her shyness and inexperience kept her from making the first move. When she successfully propositions him at an off-campus graduation party after having a few too many, she experiences the first and best sex of her life. But when Drew tosses her aside the next morning without apology, Carolina chalks it up to a bad life decision and swears never to give him another chance to hurt her. Years later, her life is completely devoted to the launch of her new fashion line, and she barely has any spare time to sleep or eat, let alone moon over the guy who got away.

Drew has never forgotten his one night of bliss with Carolina and realizes his behavior afterward will make it hard for her to ever trust him again. Back then, he was young and dumb, afraid of committing to one woman when he was working toward a professional hockey career. Carolina has done her best to avoid Drew ever since then, but when her brother Gray suggests him as the perfect model for her new menswear line, she’s in no position to object. Older and wiser, Drew realizes this is his best opportunity to go after what he stupidly tossed away before, and make Carolina his for good.

What I always appreciate about Jaci Burton’s romances is how she provides just the right amount of back-story for her hero and heroine. She’s adept at showing exactly what brought them to this moment and helping readers empathize with them through all their setbacks on the way to their happy ending. Both Carolina and Drew have so many things going on in their lives that could easily derail their romance in addition to the giant obstacle of their drunken college hookup. But as they first realize that their attraction hasn’t faded, then decide to take advantage of it for as long as it might work out, we also see that there is genuine love there, and that ultimately nothing can get in the way of their happiness if it’s what they both want.

The best part of MELTING THE ICE for me was what wasn’t there. There wasn’t an evil ex-girlfriend trying to break them apart, or someone trying to steal Carolina’s designs before her big show, or a tabloid trying to use their public moments together to embarrass her father before an election. There was just the growing love between Carolina and Drew as they learned to trust each other and themselves, while the world went on around them. It wasn’t boring – the moment when Gray discovers that his best friend and baby sister are together is especially fun – but it wasn’t overwrought with angst and drama, either. That’s what made Melting the Ice another great Jaci Burton story, and reminded me that I need to go back and read the other books in the Play by Play series!

Ratings:

Overall: 4 stars
Sensuality level: 3.5

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Review: Bared (Club Sin #2) by Stacey Kennedy

Bared (Club Sin, #2)Bared by Stacey Kennedy

My rating: 4 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.

Cora and Aiden meet every weekend at Club Sin, the exclusive membership-only BDSM dungeon, so that they can both leave behind their troubles and lose themselves in a mutually beneficial Dominant/submissive relationship. The play between them is deep and satisfying, but it can never be more than play, or so Cora firmly believes. After all, Aiden had once loved and lost Lily, the only woman he could ever love, and no other submissive would ever be able to take her place. But the past two years of suppressing her true desire for more with Aiden has finally taken its toll on Cora, and when her love for him can no longer be denied, the fallout could either bring them closer in the way she’s always hoped for, or tear them apart for good.

When I started reading Bared, I was genuinely skeptical that it could be a satisfying read when the entire plot revolved around the heroine’s unrequited love for the apparently oblivious hero. But as I discovered more about both her past and his, and how their D/s interplay reflected their growing emotional bond, it became not only plausible, but inevitable that what Cora felt for Aiden would eventually become too much for her to bear alone. Her fears about his ability to commit to her are well-founded, and the way he behaves as her secret misery becomes all too apparent is heartbreaking. It ultimately takes the intervention of their Club Sin friends and loved ones to help Cora and Aiden get to the happy ending they can only find in each other, and it is just as perfect as they both deserve after so many years of denial. I loved every moment of Bared and can’t wait until my next visit to Club Sin.

Favorite Quote:

She wished he’d marked her because she belonged only to him. That he declared to the members that he was her Dom. That she was his woman. The world seemed to slow down when she looked into his cold gaze.

She wanted forever. He wanted tonight.

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Review: The Delicious Torment by Alison Tyler

Title: The Delicious Torment
Author: Alison Tyler
Series: A Story of Submission #2
Genre: erotica
Publisher: Cleis Press
Format: ebook and print
Release Date: January 14, 2014

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

Publisher Summary:

The second in a series of novels by bondage connoisseur Alison Tyler features heroine Samantha progressing with her predilections and exploring the deepest recesses of her master’s dungeon and her heart. The Delicious Torment is a Story of O meets 9 1/2 Weeks coming-of-age tale fueled by lust, longing, and based on the author’s personal diaries. The Delicious Torment takes readers to Sunset Strip, way up in the sky in a penthouse apartment overlooking Los Angeles with a love affair ensconced in an S&M relationship filled with corsets, crops, and plenty of kink. In the introduction Tyler notes, “This is a novel with me at the center. That is, my heroine is based on me. I’ve sketched her with broad strokes, but at our core we are the same. She’s gotten herself entwined with an older man — nothing new there. But now she has to learn how to maneuver a 24/7 relationship.”

My Review:

Before I tell you how much I enjoyed reading The Delicious Torment I need to insist that you must first read Dark Secret Love, the previous book in this series. You could try to read The Delicious Torment as a stand-alone, but your experience would not be half as rewarding.

In Dark Secret Love, Alison Tyler introduced us to Samantha, a fictional character who is more like her than not. We saw Sam grow from a teenager exploring her power over men (and vice versa) to an adult woman discovering her sexual persona through a series of increasingly meaningful relationships. But after the man she nearly married had all but broken her with his withholding behavior and emotional abuse, Samantha was able to begin healing through her submission to Jack, a man more dominant and dangerous than she’d ever known before.

When we return to Sam’s world at the start of The Delicious Torment, she’s moved into Jack’s penthouse apartment and committed herself to him in a 24/7 power exchange. Jack continues to push her limits further out, and she responds to his demands with her complete and unwavering submission. Well, mostly. When it’s Jack who commands her, Sam can’t help but comply. But it’s another matter when Jack uses his assistant Alex as his “designated Dom” during the times when he can’t be there himself. Her brain knows that Alex is only doing what Jack has directed, yet she senses that the two men have a connection far more complicated than what they’ve presented to to the world. As Jack leads her deeper into submission, Samantha wonders if what they have can transcend Master and slave as long as Alex remains in the picture.

As much as I adored Dark Secret Love, The Delicious Torment was an even better read for me. I was so pleased to be back in the thick of Sam’s life as she continued her path of self-discovery as the slave of the first man strong enough to earn her complete submission. Jack is easily one of the most terrifying and desirable Dominants I’ve ever read, and The Delicious Torment ultimately becomes his story as much as it is Samantha’s. If it seems like he’s continuing to test her capacity for submission, it’s because his need for her exceeds hers for him, even if that’s not always what he wants to reveal. And now with his long-time assistant Alex in the mix, Jack is forced to face his deepest secret, leaving us to wonder how it will all work out in the end.

What makes both of these books so compelling is how authentic they feel as the events in Samantha’s life play out. The characters and their actions may be fabricated, but there is a thread of realism that makes me feel like I’m reading Alison Tyler’s secret diary instead of a work of fiction. There’s no fairytale romance here – just fascinating portrayals of people who could be anyone you might meet in real life, if only you could ever be that fortunate.

The Delicious Torment provides the essential next step in Samantha’s journey and is just as riveting as the book which preceded it. I can’t wait to read the next book. 5 stars

Review: Bind And Keep Me by Cari Silverwood

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

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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Release Week Blog Tour: Unraveled by Jen Frederick

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

********

 

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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Review: Unraveled by Jen Frederick

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: I Take You by Nikki Gemmell

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: How to Run with a Naked Werewolf by Molly Harper

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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