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Review: Letting Go by Maya Banks

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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

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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

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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: 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: 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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