Tag Archives: Insta-lust

Review: Lost in You by Sommer Marsden

Reviews, , , , , , ,

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.

View all my reviews

Review: Unwound by Lorelei James

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

Unwound (Mastered, #2)Unwound by Lorelei James

My rating: 4.5 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 BOUND, the first book in the Mastered series. You could read UNWOUND as a stand-alone, and I’m not entirely convinced that would be a bad thing. But others might disagree.

UNWOUND, book two in Lorelei James’s Mastered series, continues the story that began in BOUND. I did not love BOUND. I thought it sacrificed both plot and character development for the sake of an absurd cliffhanger ending just to ensure a second book would be needed to supply the rest of the story. Yet the quality of its intimate scenes provided a compelling enough reason for me to want to read UNWOUND. if only to see if it would contain all the pieces missing from the first book. When I started reading UNWOUND, I did something I almost never do: I skipped to the last chapter just to make sure the happy ending was there. That’s how burned I felt by BOUND.

I’m happy to report that UNWOUND more than made up for my mixed feelings about BOUND. It did a great job of showing me exactly why its hero and heroine belonged together, culminating in a happy ending more along the lines of what I’ve come to expect in an erotic romance by Lorelei James.

When we last saw Amery Hardwick, she’d just walked out of Ronin Black’s life after finding out he had never told her about being the heir to a billion dollar multinational corporation. There were so many other secrets about Ronin’s life that he hadn’t shared with Amery, mind you, but that one was the dealbreaker for her. After the loss of Amery, Ronin has resorted to engaging in the type of underground Mixed Martial Arts fighting that he’d given up years before, presumably in an attempt to drown his sorrow with violence. But Ronin isn’t as young as he used to be, and his most recent fight has left him bleeding and semi-conscious, pounding on Amery’s front door at 2am. But why is he at her door when they aren’t together anymore? The story then flashes back to 6 weeks earlier, where we see how unhappy the two of them are apart, and how they were mysteriously brought together again on the night of Ronin’s near-fatal fight.

As Ronin and Amery’s rekindled romance unfolds in UNWOUND, we finally get everything that was withheld before: all the secrets Ronin had kept from Amery (and why), all the triggers from Amery’s past which had exacerbated her feelings of betrayal, and more of their individual experiences and motivations. They have both been guilty of assuming the worst without bothering to ask for the truth, and of letting their mutual lack of trust keep them from a more substantial emotional connection. But even as Ronin and Amery are finally being more honest and open with each other in UNWOUND, there are new betrayals yet to come, and other more dangerous secrets that could damage more than just their second chance at love together.

UNWOUND confirmed my decision that it would still be worth it for me to see Ronin and Amery find their happy ending together, despite how I’d reacted to the book which preceded it. There is a large amount of background and plot packed in this second book, but Lorelei James somehow manages to unveil everything in due time without losing track of the romance. Even the newly revealed threat against Amery fits well into the story and never overshadows the undeniable progress she and Ronin are making in learning to trust each other with more than just their individual sexual needs. I especially enjoyed how Ronin’s sister was believably transformed from a vaguely threatening enigma into a genuine friend and confidante for Amery, and someone who could provide Amery with additional insight into the part of Ronin’s past of which even he was not aware.

I may not have loved BOUND, but I’m so glad I stuck with the Mastered series and read UNWOUND. It restored my trust in Lorelei James as an author I can rely on to provide a well-written erotic romance, and reminded me that you can’t judge a writer (or even a series) by a single book.

Ratings:

Overall: 4.5 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (multiple rope bondage scenes, discussion of past extreme BDSM interactions with other characters)

View all my reviews

Review: Bound by Lorelei James

Reviews, , , , , , , , ,

Bound (Mastered, #1)Bound by Lorelei James

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

BOUND is the first of a two book series by Lorelei James about the martial arts master Ronin and the sheltered but feisty Amery, and how they become lovers after a chance meeting in his Denver dojo. Amery has only recently escaped both the restrictive influence of her fundamentalist family and the dysfunctional relationship with the man she thought would love her enough to never stray. Ronin, on the other hand, is a complete mystery to both Amery and the reader, sharing only the barest details about where he came from and what makes him tick. Naturally, once he meets Amery, his dominant nature compels him to make her his own, even as she wonders what she’s gotten herself into while melting into his powerful embrace.

Here’s the part of the review where I would normally politely share what went on in BOUND and how it did or didn’t work for me. But honestly, this book has me in an emotional headlock about whether I actually liked it or not. A big part of the problem I had with this book was how it was so obviously designed to hook the reader into the budding romance between Ronin and Amery when there was almost nothing based in reality to make you think they should even be together. She knows absolutely nothing about him, other than that he says he’s crazy about her, while everyone else keeps warning her that he’s no good and will only put her in danger. Yet even that is all just supposition based on no real evidence, and we’re left wondering what the heck is going on with this guy anyway. And because this is only the first of the two books, it’s damn certain that whatever we do ultimately find out about him is what will send Amery off into the night, overwhelmed by righteous indignation at not being trusted with the secrets that Ronin is so obviously keeping to himself.

When that big reveal finally arrived near the end of BOUND, it was all I could do not to throw the book against the wall. (It was a print ARC, so I didn’t have to worry about damaging a valuable ereader, but I resisted all the same.) Of all the possible secrets swirling around Ronin, the one that made Amery insist their relationship (such as it was) was over for good was so ridiculous, so innocuous, compared to what we’d been led to believe, that I wanted to smack both of them for being Too Stupid To Live. How this book could be from the same author who wrote the Blacktop Cowboy books, one of my most favorite romance series?

When BOUND was focused on its more intimate moments, however, it was as good as anything I’ve read by Lorelei James, especially when Ronin had Amery fully immersed in his world of rope bondage. Those scenes kept the book from being a DNF for me, and helped me slide past all its other more troubling parts enough to want to read the second book.
So if you’re willing to look past weak characterizations, an apparent fetish with all things Japanese, and a ridiculous cliffhanger which exists solely for the sake of continuing the story in a second book, then you might enjoy BOUND. I can only hope that Lorelei James is back to her usual overall form in the follow-up book UNWOUND and that the sex scenes aren’t the only reason to recommend it.

View all my reviews

Review: Marked by Lauren Dane, Vivian Arend, Kit Rocha

Reviews, , , , , , , , , , ,

Marked (Beyond, #3.5; Thompson & Sons)Title: Marked
Author: Lauren Dane, Vivian Arend, Kit Rocha
Series: Metamorphosis #1, Thompson & Sons #1, Beyond #3.5
Genre: erotic romance anthology
Publisher: self-published
Format: ebook
Release Date: February 10, 2014

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

Publisher Summary:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Lauren Dane takes you into a brand new world in ALL THAT REMAINS. Summer Killian falls fast and hard when Charlie arrives in Paradise Village. But the heat turns all the way up when she learns Charlie is also with Hatch – the man she loved three years before. While she’s not sure she’s cut out for a triad, neither man is going to give her up.

Take a ROCKY RIDE with New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Vivian Arend as she leads you back to the Six Pack Ranch. Anna Coleman might be the law around Rocky Mountain House, but bad boy Mitch Thompson knows that under the stiff RCMP uniform is a woman with a passion for speed and pleasure that matches his own, and he’s not giving up until she’s his.

Kit Rocha returns to Sector Four in BEYOND TEMPTATION. A promise to a dying friend backfires when Noah Lennox finds that the girl he was supposed to rescue is all grown up–and wearing O’Kane ink. He wants to protect her from the secrets of their past, but she wants him. And an O’Kane woman always gets what she wants.

My Review:

I’m usually wary about reading anthologies for review, since I’ve often found them to be more work than pleasure, but when I heard MARKED included another visit to Kit Rocha’s Beyond series, I knew I had to have it. It also helped to have only three longer novellas included, instead of a dozen or more shorter stories. Although the stories take place in different authors’ book series, each ties into the motif implied by the anthology name by including at least one or more scenes regarding tattoos and the meaning they have for the characters in that world.

BEYOND TEMPTATION is the first novella in MARKED, and if any story belongs in an anthology about the meaning of tattoos, it’s one featuring the O’Kanes and their infamous ink. I’m not sure, though, if a new reader to the Beyond series would be able to get into it as quickly as someone more familiar with that world. (I actually went back and read the first three books again first, just to be sure, and let me tell you, those books more than hold up to a second read.)

We met Noah and Emma briefly back in BEYOND PAIN, when he was the only one with the technical savvy and connection to get vital data back to the O’Kanes from the other sectors not under the gang’s control. At that time, it was obvious that the history he and she had shared in Sector 5 went deeper than just his friendship with her now-late brother. But it’s only BEYOND TEMPTATION that we eventually learn what had brought them together before and what threatened to keep them permanently apart. Emma’s brother had been trapped by his own addictions fed by the evil in Sector 5, and that legacy lurks behind every moment of sorrow for Noah and Emma. But as a newly inked O’Kane woman, Emma has the strength and security to go after what she wants, and she won’t let the mistakes of the past keep her from the man she’s meant to be with. It may be shorter than the usual Kit Rocha story, but the extensive world-building already established in the previous Beyond books helps make BEYOND TEMPTATION a thoroughly enjoyable read and an essential installment in the series. 4.5 stars

After experiencing the joy of being back in Sector Four, I was a little concerned that the rest of MARKED couldn’t possibly live up to my now-lofty expectations. Little did I realize that the second story, ROCKY RIDE, would be just as good, if not a tiny bit better. This was my first Vivian Arend story, and it began with a (somewhat literal) bang. In that opening scene, Constable Anna Coleman meets up with her secret boyfriend and local biker dude Mitch Thompson, out on an isolated country road for some incredibly hot and heavy sexual fantasy fulfillment. When their amazing sex is over, Anna retreats behind her policewoman persona once again, leaving Mitch to wonder how a girl like her will ever be brave enough to go public with a guy like him. But as Vivian Arend then so perfectly shows, the two of them aren’t that different after all, when the facades (and clothing) are all stripped away. Even when it seems like they can’t make a real go of it, especially when so many other people are against them based on their prejudice against him, true motives and true love ultimately win out, making their reconciliation all the sweeter. ROCKY RIDE not only made me want to continue Vivian Arend’s new Thompson & Sons series, but to go back and check out her Rocky Mountain Heat series which preceded it. 5 stars 

It’s a rare anthology where every reader loves every story, and Lauren Dane’s ALL THAT REMAINS was that one story in MARKED I did not love. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth where a devastating virus has killed most of the women, and resulted in the birth of fewer female children being born to those who survived. This has resulted in a dramatically different society in which more people are in committed triads instead of couples, and where women and their sexuality are celebrated and protected from both censure and physical harm. Summer is a young woman living in Paradise Village somewhere in what sounds like it used to the northwest part of the United States. She has settled there in support of her sister Dulce, who lost her own two husbands and their shared children in a tragic train crash years earlier, and has never completely recovered from the loss. Summer has enjoyed intimate relationships with other men, but never been interested anything long term until she meets Charlie, a stranger to the area, and finds herself immediately attracted to him  Charlie is looking for a woman to complete his own triad, and much to Summer’s surprise, the second man in the relationship turns out to be Hatch, the man who was Summer’s first true love and who broke her heart when he left her behind several years ago. Now he’s back and wants to her to join her and his beloved Charlie in a permanent commitment, but there can be only sex between them until Summer can learn to forgive and Hatch can learn to leave his itch for wandering behind.

It was difficult for me to connect with ALL THAT REMAINS, most likely due to it not having enough pages to contain all the back story details. In a full-length book, I could have discovered for myself what life was like for Summer when she was growing up on the New Earth commune and falling in love with Hatch. and what happened to Hatch when he was traveling west to follow her after she’d moved to Portland with her family. But because ALL THAT REMAINS is a novella, all of that was told instead of shown, and it left me searching for an emotional grounding that all the beautifully written sex scenes simply couldn’t provide. 3 stars.

Review: The Other Other Woman by Mallory Lockhart

Reviews, , , , , , , ,

The Other Other WomanTitle: The Other Other Woman
Author: Mallory Lockhart
Genre: contemporary women’s erotic fiction
Publisher: self-published
Format: ebook
Release Date: January 6, 2014

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

Publisher Summary:

What was the worst that could happen with just one kiss?

Mallory was just a mom. An exhausted mother of two, teetering on the edge of a midlife crisis. She was especially tired of having a husband who acted more like a child than a partner. But she wasn’t looking for anyone else. She was done with men; they were all the same. She didn’t need another one.
Matt was just a friend. Located in another state, he was an older, wiser co-worker she could confide in. So what if he was gorgeous, charming, and perfect for her in every way? So what if he saw that, buried underneath her worn down exterior, she was one of the most witty, attractive, and intelligent women he had ever met? He had a wife. He didn’t need another one.

So what if, after meeting each other in person for the first time, there was an instant physical attraction between them? Would a little kiss between friends be so bad? It wouldn’t go any further; Mallory wasn’t interested in being anyone’s other woman. Who could have known that a fleeting pass across the lips would be the passionate taste test that would leave them both starving for more? That one kiss could ignite a raging fire of sex and desire that would burn them both and lead them to destroy each other’s lives.

This book is intended for mature audiences only (18 and over) due to language and sexual situations.

My Review:

UPDATE 3/10/2014: I received an email from the author tonight letting me know that she had unpublished this book “due to a job conflict” and that a review was not expected. However, since I’ve already spent the time reading it and writing the review, this post will remain as is.

*****************************

Rarely do I have such mixed feelings about a book I’ve agreed to review as I had with The Other Other Woman. On the one hand, the plot and the dialogue and the heroine were so over the top that I felt compelled to read parts aloud to my husband until finally he begged me to stop. On the other hand, I did get hooked into it enough to read all the way to the bitter (and unsatisfying) end. But I can’t give extra credit for not being a DNF.

Our purported heroine, Mallory Lockhart (see what the author did there?), is drifting in an unhappy marriage to a man who never picked up a check in his life. When a work conference introduces her to a co-worker from another location, his fine features and flirty personality get her immediately interested in more. Sure she’s married, sure he’s married, but maybe just one kiss will get this Matt guy out of her system. But then there wouldn’t be a book, would there? And yet, after finishing The Other Other Woman, I can’t help thinking it would have been for the best if that had been the case.

Because this Matt guy is an A-Number-One make-no-mistake-about-it Player with a capital P. Even though Mallory’s brain knows this from the get-go, it’s her body and her heart which lead her all the way down to crazy town, where she becomes what she herself refers to as a Stage 5 Clinger. But we ladies know that the more you cling, the more he pulls back, and it’s only when you make weak attempts to recover your sanity by breaking away from him that he will suck you back in for another vicious cycle.

And that, in a nutshell, is the entire plot of The Other Other Woman: Mallory falls for Matt, Matt keeps her on a string until she says she’s out, then he pulls her back in, and so forth. Oh, and the texts. Lots and lots and lots of texts. If this story was based in reality, these two would have everyone else in their lives noticing how they both are always typing on their phones, because there weren’t enough hours in the day to cover the huge amount of texts between them.

I nearly gave up on this book more than once. But I wanted to see how it would end. And what happened is something I can’t ignore, but I can put it behind a spoiler tag.

View Spoiler »

If you’re just looking for a book that works primarily as a conveyance for some super smutty sex scenes (and there’s nothing wrong with that; I like my smut as much as anybody), then The Other Other Woman might be for you. But I needed more, and that’s why it didn’t work for me. 2 stars

Review: The Dark Affair by Maire Claremont

Reviews, , , , , , , , ,

The Dark Affair (Mad Passions, #3)The Dark Affair by Maire Claremont

My rating: 4.5 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 THE LADY IN RED, book 2 in the Mad Passions series. You could try to read THE DARK AFFAIR as a stand-alone book, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

When I read THE LADY IN RED last fall, Maire Claremont was a new author for me, and I hadn’t known what to expect. Its whirlwind plot and profound emotions were almost too much for me to handle (but in a good way). I actually had to force myself to put it down more than a few times, because I was so worried about what would happen to not only its hero and heroine, but the hero’s friend Viscount Powers, whose help was essential in their plan to save the heroine from her villainous father.

Powers – a tortured and brooding man who refused to answer to any other name – shared the same brutal need for opiates that plagued the heroine of THE LADY IN RED. While her addiction had been induced during her forced captivity in a madhouse, his was entirely self-inflicted after the untimely death of his wife and child. By the end of the previous book, the heroine and hero are both safe and happy in marriage together, but meanwhile Powers has given himself over entirely to his addiction. Months later, when we first see him in THE DARK AFFAIR, he has himself been involuntarily committed to a madhouse.

Margaret Cassidy was a titled lady back in Ireland, but that couldn’t protect her from the harsh realities of famine and poverty, nor from the ongoing violence as those who starved fought back against the cruelty of their English overlords. Her gift for healing has brought her to England, where she is tasked by the Earl of Carlyle to bring his son Powers back from the brink of insanity. Back when Margaret was still in Ireland and her father was still alive, Powers had sent a letter and funds to assist those in dire need of help, asking for nothing in return. Rescuing him now from his addiction is her opportunity to repay that act of kindness, even as her attachment to him quickly moves in a more personal direction. It will take all of Margaret’s talents and indomitable will to bring Powers back not only to sanity, but to a life where he can grieve properly for what he’s lost without sacrificing himself again. But when the violence she left behind in Ireland comes to call at her front door, what ends up being at stake isn’t just their shared happiness, but their very lives.

Once again, Maire Claremont has written a story that transported me into a world more darkly intense than most historical romances, with characters I couldn’t help but root for as they were forced to trust in each other even as they should rightfully be mortal enemies. The depth of Powers’s sorrow had only been hinted at in the previous book, but here it is front and center with everything you might expect, and worse. He has abused his mind and body for so long in self-imposed guilt for the death of his wife and child that his recovery is never really certain, even as the story moves toward that conclusion. And when we find out just how they died…well, it’s definitely understandable why he has suffered so greatly, even though it’s just as obvious to us, if not to him, that their deaths should not be on his head.

It’s also clear that only someone like Margaret would even have a chance to break through the wall of anger and opiates that Powers has built all around him, and not just because of her beauty and determination. Only Margaret has the ability to focus his attention beyond his own pain and outside the bubble of privilege in which he has lived his whole life as a member of the English nobility. But it will take more than that for them to move forward with a life together, and their Happily Ever After will be won only after those who seek to defeat them are confronted one last time.

I’m sad to see the Mad Passions series come to an end but I’m looking forward to seeing what Maire Claremont comes up with next. THE LADY IN RED vaulted her into my list of favorite historical romance writers, and now THE DARK AFFAIR has firmly established her place near the very top.

Ratings:

Overall: 4.5 stars
Sensuality level: 3.5

View all my reviews

Review: Hard As You Can by Laura Kaye

Reviews, , , , , , , , ,

Hard as You Can (Hard Ink, #2)Title: As Hard As You Can
Author: Laura Kaye
Series: Hard Ink #2
Genre: contemporary romantic suspense
Publisher: Avon
Format: ebook and print
Release Date: February 25, 2014

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

Publisher Summary:

Five dishonored soldiers.
Former Special Forces.
One last mission.
These are the men of Hard Ink.

Ever since hard-bodied, drop-dead-charming Shane McCallan strolled into the dance club where Crystal Dean works, he’s shown a knack for getting beneath her defenses. For her little sister’s sake, Crystal can’t get too close. Until her job and Shane’s mission intersect, and he reveals talents that go deeper than she could have guessed.

Shane would never turn his back on a friend in need, especially a former Special Forces teammate running a dangerous, off-the-books operation. Nor can he walk away from Crystal. The gorgeous waitress is hiding secrets she doesn’t want him to uncover. Too bad. He’s exactly the man she needs to protect her sister, her life, and her heart. All he has to do is convince her that when something feels this good, you hold on as hard as you can—and never let go.

My Review:

This review contains spoilers for Hard As It Gets, the first book in the HARD INK series. You could try to read Hard As You Can as a stand-alone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

One of the trends I’ve been noticing lately in romantic suspense is when each book in a series has its own self-contained romance with an HEA while simultaneously continuing a overall story arc which won’t be resolved until the last book. I really like this type of hybrid plot, because then I don’t have to suffer a cliffhanger used to keep the hero and heroine apart just so the reader will feel hooked into reading the next book. Yet, I am still most definitely hooked, because each book gives me a little bit more of the puzzle that will ultimately end with the bad guys brought to justice and the heroes/heroines free to live their lives without constant fear.

In Laura Kaye’s new HARD INK series, we have been introduced to five men who once were the closest of comrades as they fought together in the Special Forces. When the man who had earned their trust through his leadership then betrayed that trust in the most terrible way possible, it was these five who had survived the jungle ambush, only to be betrayed yet again by their own government. After they were forced to resign in disgrace without being able tell anyone why, each of the men went his own separate way. But when the family of the man who had betrayed them were threatened by the same unknown forces which had engineered their dismissals, each of the five come back together to protect those who are now in danger, with the goal of uncovering who was behind their betrayal and find the evidence they need to clear their names.

The first book in this series, Hard As It Gets, told the story of the group’s unofficial leader, Nick Rixey, and how he found the love of his life with Becca Merritt, the daughter of the man whose treachery he could never forgive. Now that the group is all together at the heavily fortified location of Hard Ink, the Baltimore tattoo parlor owned by Nick and his brother Jeremy, their new mission is to find out who paid off Colonel Merritt and ordered the kidnapping of Becca’s brother, Charlie. Charlie was successfully rescued at the end of the first book, but only because Crystal, one of the waitresses at the seedy strip club where he was being held, decided to help them by not sounding the alarm.

Shane owes both his life and the success of Charlie’s rescue to Crystal, but that’s not why he can’t get her out of his mind. Ever since the loss of his beloved sister to kidnappers when he was just a child himself, Shane has been fixated on rescuing other women in similar straits, in the hopes that one day he’ll find his sister. In the brief moments they had shared, Crystal pushed all of Shane’s hot buttons, and not just because she looked like she needed rescuing herself. So when Shane needs to return to the strip club to suss out more information on who is threatening the Merritt siblings, it’s Crystal whom he seeks out, hoping to discover what she knows and perhaps more.

Crystal is counting the days until she and her sister can leave Baltimore and the people who control their lives. Their father owed debts to the powerful street gang that needed to be worked off after his death, one way or the other. Crystal has sacrificed her body and freedom in order to keep her sister protected, so when Shane reappears, the danger he presents overpowers any sense of hope that he could help them both escape. But Shane has never taken no for an answer, and it takes all of his persuasive powers to slowly work his way into Crystal’s life, and eventually, her heart.

I loved how Hard As You Can picked up immediately where the previous book left off, and as its complicated series of events unfolded, I was able to thoroughly enjoy Shane and Crystal’s romance without worrying that the book wouldn’t be trying to wrap everything related to the overall story arc just yet. The reasons behind Crystal’s decisions are unveiled at just the right pace, and the way her life story meshes with what motivates Shane to his own behaviors make it all the more obvious why they would both be drawn to each other even as they are justifiably concerned that it’s a mistake for them both. A reasonable reader could certainly point out that the transformation of their insta-lust into declarations of love by the end of the book might be based more on codependency than a true emotional connection. For me, however, the romance worked, as Laura Kaye showed how both Shane and Crystal were able to move beyond the forced proximity based on mutual peril to an unselfish and genuine love that can only get stronger once the people who threaten them are neutralized. I look forward to seeing how their relationship deepens as the series continues.

If you enjoy romantic suspense with hot alpha heroes and heroines who more than hold their own, you can’t go wrong with Laura Kaye’s HARD INK series. Hard As You Can was just as great a read as the first book, and I can’t wait to see which of these heroes is featured in the next story. 4 stars.

 

Review: A Certain Latitude by Janet Mullany

Reviews, , , , , , , ,

A Certain LatitudeTitle: A Certain Latitude
Author: Janet Mullany
Genre: historical erotic romance
Publisher: self-published
Format: ebook and print
Release Date: November 23, 2013

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own personal enjoyment during a time when it was free on Amazon.

Publisher Summary:

1800—Allan Pendale, lawyer and the youngest son of the Earl of Frensham, is bound by ship for the West Indies, to impart the news to his estranged father that his mother has died. But he also has another mission—to find out the truth of his origins.

Miss Clarissa Onslowe is also on board, traveling to take up the role of governess to the daughter of the wealthy planter Mr. Lemarchand. There is nothing to keep her in England. An indiscretion five years before led to her reputation being ruined; her abolitionist family has disowned her and no gentleman would marry her now. But now she seeks redemption with her family by revealing the truth about the miserable lives of the slaves who work on the sugar plantations.

Clarissa’s previous encounter with love has left her aroused and restless, and Allan is a man for whom lust is a daily pastime; thrown together belowdecks during the long sea voyage, they embark on a sensual odyssey where no desire is left untested. But if they thought their exploration and ecstasy could not be bettered, then there are more pleasures to be taken and boundaries to be broken at their island destination—where “March” Lemarchand, sugar king and master of seduction, awaits them both…

This is a substantially revised version of Forbidden Shores (2007) published under the name of Jane Lockwood.

My Review:

Although I am a big fan of Janet Mullany’s work in contemporary erotic romance (Tell Me More, Hidden Paradise) this was my first experience with one of her many historical novels. A Certain Latitude was originally released under a different pen name, and it would have remained unread by me (even at the temporary price of FREE) if she hadn’t reissued it under the one I already knew and trusted. I couldn’t tell you if what she refers to as “substantial revisions” made this a better book than the original, but I can say that A Certain Latitude far exceeded any expectations I might have had going in, and is as good as any other historical erotic romances I’ve read. What made this book so enjoyable for me was what I’ve now come to expect in Janet Mullany’s work, namely a plot that turns a well-worn trope on its head and scenes of intimate passion which envelop not only the titular hero and heroine but also the supporting characters who enter their sphere with intentions both good and evil.

The notion of “civilized” people devolving into depravity while isolated in a more primitive place where the rules of polite society don’t apply is a trope less commonly found than it once was. It dates back to a time when the “old skool” romances were the norm, and often featured ugly racial stereotypes as a lazy shortcut in lieu of actual character development. But while it’s true that the veneer of civilization began to decompose for Allan and Clarissa even before they reached their destination, it’s clear that what remained was there all along, irrespective of what would take place on the island. It needed only the close quarters of the ship to emerge, and the all-too-knowing encouragement of one dissolute and dominant man to be forced into full flower as they move inexorably toward their shared destiny.

I must emphasize most strongly that A Certain Latitude is a true erotic romance in every possible way. The sexual encounters involving each of the featured characters are absolutely essential to the plot, as well as those which occurred well before any of them had arrived on the island. The scenes we experience as the story unfolds are explicit and unforgettable, with pairings that may shock those unused to such graphic detail. It’s rare to find such unflinching scenes in historicals that are written so well and in such loving detail, although they do exist in the works of Kate Pearce, Robin Schone, Sharon Page, and Maire Claremont. Thanks to A Certain Latitude, Janet Mullany is now a member of that elite list for me, and I’ll be seeking out all her other historicals for another chance to experience that special reading joy. 5 stars

Review: Betting On You by Sydney Landon

Reviews, , , , , , , , ,

Betting on You: A Danvers Novella (Danvers, #4.5)Betting on You: A Danvers Novella by Sydney Landon

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

Although BETTING ON YOU is the latest entry in Sydney Landon’s popular Danvers series, the connection between its hero and heroine with the rest of the series is tenuous, at best.

Seth is the charming and successful local businessman from FALLING FOR YOU (book 3) who was used by Beth to make Declan jealous after their relationship-ending fight. Mia is a new character to the series, introduced as an IT specialist working for Danvers on an installation project for Seth’s office. She moves in the same circles as Seth, thanks to her own family’s placement in local society, but is determined to make her own way in the world and not be dependent on them, or any man they might recommend.

When Seth and Mia first meet in the room where Mia is installing computers, their instant connection is obvious, but both choose to try to overlook it for sanity’s sake. But when Mia’s mother uses her charity bachelor auction to throw Seth at Mia in a way she can’t ignore, the result is some incredibly hot sexual encounters that neither of them wish to end. Yet their liaison would be a real threat to Mia’s hard-won job at Danvers for as long as Seth is still a client on the project she leads. They both agree to hold off until the office installation is complete, but during that time, Seth starts having doubts about what Mia might be expecting once they can be together again. Can a real relationship work between them, or is it just too much, too soon?

There’s no denying that Sydney Landon can write great sex scenes between characters that we want to root for. But what was missing for me in BETTING ON YOU was a sense that the hero and heroine really wanted this future for themselves. Seth, especially, was a great disappointment to me in both word and deed. He was the one who had pushed Mia into what he was certain they both wanted, and assured her their desire was mutual. Yet the minute he had to cool his jets and wait until it was safe for both of them, he started behaving like someone who had really just been looking for sex all along, despite everything he’d been saying. Mia seemed more grounded and realistic about what their relationship had actually been, and was hurt by Seth’s behavior but prepared to move on with her life. Yet when he finally realized that he needed to make things right with her, it seemed like her forgiveness was just a little too easily given.

All the problematic elements of this story including the insta-lust and the rushed ending could have been avoided with a longer story, but this is a novella, and those are the traps so many of them fall into. For me, BETTING ON YOU was a nice quick love story with some very well-written sex scenes, but I’m hoping that any future Danvers books will take the time needed to establish a more enjoyable and plausible happy ending for everyone.

Ratings:

Overall: 3 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (light BDSM, semi-public sex)

View all my reviews

Release Week Blog Tour: Unraveled by Jen Frederick

Promo, , , , , , ,

Unraveled (Woodlands #3)

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
iTunes
Smashwords
All Romance eBooks
Goodreads

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)

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
GoodReads

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)

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Kobo
GoodReads

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.

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

a Rafflecopter giveaway