Tag Archives: Ellora’s Cave

This is what “chilling” means. This is what “chilling” does.

Late last night, I received a long and heartfelt email from a reader who had left a comment months ago on a review of a book that I’d posted earlier this year. I hadn’t liked the book much for very specific reasons, and this reader had agreed in a comment.

But now the reader was asking me to remove that comment entirely because of a fear of being sued, thanks to the recent lawsuit by Ellora’s Cave against the Dear Author blog.

Never mind that the EC suit is ostensibly about DA reporting on possible financial issues at EC. Never mind that this wasn’t even an EC book. Thanks to the chilling environment EC is attempting to foster with their actions, some innocent reader of my tiny blog is worried enough to ask me to remove a comment just in case. And I did.

And now I’m going to go donate more money to the Dear Author defense fund. Because this nonsense has got to stop.

Review: False Match by Lynne Silver

False Match (Coded for Love, #3)False Match by Lynne Silver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This review contains spoilers for Heated Match, the first book in the Coded For Love series. You could try to read False Match as a stand-alone book, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

Now that Dr. Samara Jones has been rescued from the evil Dr. Paulson, she is safe and yet still has no freedom in what she chooses to do next. She is blackmailed into contributing her considerable skills as a geneticist to the Program in return for not being prosecuted as Paulson’s co-conspirator, but no one there truly trusts her. It’s only when Chase Stanton is assigned as her tour guide / babysitter that there’s someone willing to offer friendship, and perhaps even more.

When the Program discovered the traitor in their midst back in Heated Match, they also discovered that he had falsified his studies to force Chase and Loren’s father to leave Loren’s mother for Chase’s, convincing her that the latter woman was his true genetic match. But the likelihood of a person having two perfect matches is highly unlikely, and Chase worries that perhaps he’s not genetically enhanced at all. Samara is the one person who can help him discover the truth without anyone else finding out, and their continuing close association eventually leads them to a love that is immediately threatened by those who intend to recapture Samara in their goal to breed terrorist warriors.

Most of False Match involves Samara and Chase learning to trust and love each other even while their growing attraction is threatened by the emerging secrets of what Samara had done when Adam was Paulson’s captive. It was an interesting change of pace to have a hero and heroine who weren’t compelled to fall in love by their DNA and it made their HEA all the sweeter. Lynne Silver ends this story with a heart-stopping epilogue cliffhanger that ensured I would be seeking out Desire Unmatched, the newest book in the Coded For Love series. I can’t wait to read it.

Ratings:

Overall: 4
Sensuality level: 3 (hot sweet love scenes between the H/h)

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Review: Conquered Match by Lynne Silver

Conquered Match (Coded for Love, #2)Conquered Match by Lynne Silver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This was a short but intense look at what genetically enhanced soldier Ryan does to punish his wife Thea for leaking details of the Program to the press. We discover that Thea has been the one to dictate the terms of their relationship ever since they had been found to be a perfect genetic match for each other. Ryan had always been content to let her be in charge, not realizing Thea was trying to force his hand into being the dominant one. Now that she’s betrayed him and everyone else, Ryan finally knows what needs to be done and is ready to give Thea what she needs to fix their marriage and ease the anger that led to her stunning betrayal.

Although this story was dramatically shorter than the previous one, what occurs between Ryan and Thea was portrayed well, conveying all the immediacy of Ryan’s reaction to Thea’s actions and the deep tenderness behind the decisions Ryan makes to heal them both. Thea has needed this domination from the beginning, and Ryan knows that giving it to her now is what can make things right. I wished there had been more to read, but was happy for this brief visit back to the world of the Program while waiting for the next full length book to arrive.
Ratings:

Overall: 4
Sensuality level: 4 (light BDSM including anal sex)

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Review: Heated Match by Lynne Silver

Heated Match (Coded for Love #1)Heated Match by Lynne Silver

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

Lynne Silver’s Coded For Love series tells the stories of men who were genetically bred by the US Government in a secret program designed to create unstoppable warriors who would only be able to mate successfully with the women who were their perfect genetic counterparts. The Program has continued in secret for decades and it’s only recently that the public has become aware of what’s been going on, thanks to a Program wife who leaked the story to an outside source. At the same time, there are various groups both here and abroad who are trying to kidnap any one of the men for their own evil experiments. This sets up the compelling plotlines and intense romances which follow in each book.

Heated Match starts the Coded For Love series off with a sequence of incredibly intense scenes as two people who’ve never met before discover they are each other’s perfect genetic match. Adam is supposed to be protecting a diplomat’s infant son from being kidnapped at the boy’s high profile 1st birthday party. As one of the highest performing “super soldiers” in the Program, he should be focused on his task, yet there’s a woman there who has got him more sexually aroused than he’s been in years. Loren has crashed the birthday party in the hope of discovering more information about the Program, but there’s something about one of the bodyguards that has her thinking more about sex than getting the scoop for her story. When the diplomat’s son is kidnapped, the resulting investigation exposes Loren’s familial connection to the Program, and its leaders’ machinations work to bring Loren and Adam together to fulfill the genetic destiny neither of them is ready to embrace. What no one realizes is that the Program and all its participants are in mortal danger from someone in their midst who has been betraying them for years.

The Program that Lynne Silver has created in this series reminded me of Lora Leigh’s Breeds series, but not in a derivative way. We have the “fated mates” setup to bring Adam and Loren together, and the prerequisite secret family affiliations that neither of them had known existed before they met. During this initial story we discover much of the plotting and betrayals that had occurred during the creation of the Program, and they lead us to the moment where everyone’s future depends on finding the diplomat’s kidnapped son. As passionate as the scenes were between Adam and Loren, the suspense elements of the plot often threatened to overwhelm my enjoyment of their destined romance. I wanted more of them, and less kidnappings and torture, but the overall story arc was captivating enough that I would definitely be reading the next book in the series.

Ratings:

Overall: 4
Sensuality level: 3.5 (multiple passionate scenes of H/h who can’t stop having sex)

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Review: Take Me At The Ballgame by Cassandra Carr

Take Me at the BallgameTake Me at the Ballgame by Cassandra Carr

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

You can find the full review for this book at Night Owl Reviews.

Full disclosure: I shared a hotel room with Cassandra Carr at Romanticon this year and we got along well.

The bulk of this story is taken up with all the times Sydney and JT enjoy each other sexually in the privacy of the press box, and there’s not a thing wrong with that. The scenes are engaging and neither of them comes across in any negative way. On the contrary, JT shows an refreshingly positive side defending Sydney when another person spots them in a compromising position and attempts to make the most of his discovery. Neither JT nor Sydney expect more from each other than what they have at that moment, and what they have is some well-written sexual encounters that made reading Take Me At The Ballgame a brief but enjoyable treat.

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Review: Man Hungry by Sabrina York

Man HungryMan Hungry by Sabrina York

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

The full text of this review is available at Night Owl Reviews: Man Hungry by Sabrina York

What I loved most about “Man Hungry” was the initial setup of how the hero and heroine met in the bar and had their preconceptions about each other blown out of the water. What I did not love was the fact that they only used a condom on their first night and never again thereafter without even any claims of being “clean” or use of an alternate method of birth control. I was also put off when Justin’s reaction to Jessica’s reassurance that this was her first one night stand was visible relief, especially when he was the one who had pushed for her to go home with him that first night. But overall I did enjoy “Man Hungry” and will definitely be reading more of Sabrina York’s work in the future.

3.5 stars

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Review: Body of Work by Karla Doyle

Body of WorkBody of Work by Karla Doyle

The complete version of this review can be found at Night Owl Reviews

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

“Body of Work” is a wonderful story about how two people wary of trusting the wrong person again can’t help but keep coming back to each other, first for lust and then for love. The scenes between Cassie and Brian are easily the best part of this book, and their relationship is both touching and believable.

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Review: Too Hot to Touch by Samantha Cayto

The full version of this review can be found at Night Owl Reviews:

Review: Too Hot to Touch by Samantha Cayto

Zoe needs to hire a temporary dishwasher for her Greek diner until her regular guy recovers from a broken arm. Sean needs a temporary job until he begins professional training for a full-time career as a truck mechanic. “Too Hot to Touch” is a short but thoroughly enjoyable story about how these two people discover first lust, then love, in each other’s arms.