Tag Archives: Made Me Cry

Review: Vanilla by Megan Hart

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
Review:  Vanilla by Megan HartVanilla by Megan Hart
Published by MIRA on February 24th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Erotica, Fiction, General, Romance
Pages: 352
Goodreads
five-stars
It's an acquired taste…he just has to acquire it Elise knows what she wants in the bedroom, and she makes sure she gets it. Her thirst for domination has long been quenched by a stable of men only too happy to bow down before her. But sexual satisfaction isn't the same as love, and she's been burned in the past by giving her heart too freely. Niall is handsome, smart, successful and sweet—sweet as vanilla. When they meet, their romantic connection is electric, even though he's way on the opposite end of the kink spectrum. Despite how she fights it, Elise falls for him—but how can a relationship work when both lovers want to be on top?  "Hart wields her pen like a scalpel…in this soul-searching, emotionally sensitive story. Strong characterization and smooth, yet forceful, writing captures your attention and holds you hostage."  —RT Book Reviews on The Space Between Us

When I pick up a Megan Hart erotic romance, I know I’m going to get my heart broken, and all that’s left to discover is how, and whether or not she’ll put it back together again by the end of the book. What I got with VANILLA was heaping helpings of everything I love about her books, with a heroine not quite like any other she’s written and a hero who more than lived up to that definition by how he overcame his own fears and misguided notions to be the man most worthy of the heroine’s love.

Elise knows who she is and what she needs in the bedroom, and she’s not going to give that up for any man, not even one who might be her best shot at true love. After all, the last time she let love overrule her best judgment is still an open wound on her heart, and the last thing she needs is another one.

Niall wasn’t expecting to fall for his friend’s older sister, let alone have her push him into a sexual role he’d never ever thought about, let alone considered as something he could enjoy. But Elise is different and special and that one woman who just might be able to show him another way of making love, and in the process, find the self he didn’t know he’d had.

Any preconceived notions of how a Megan Hart book will go and what you’ll get by the end should always be thrown out, as anyone familiar with her books should already know. When we first meet Elise, I made assumptions about her based on the way she still couldn’t let go of the man who had hurt her even though he’d let go long before. Yet as her on again, off again romance with Niall progresses, I could see that the strength she shows in the face of his initial derision and resistance was a direct result from her previous emotional damage, and how it was Niall who needed to decide if what she offered was what he could take without losing what he’d always thought was his sexual identity. I was so proud of them both for working through the conflicts that threatened to separate them even though they loved each other so much, and how their happy ending was about more than just love and acceptance of the other person, but also of themselves. VANILLA was a perfect Megan Hart story for me and I’m so glad I was able to read it.

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five-stars

Review: Montana Actually by Fiona Lowe

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Review: Montana Actually by Fiona LoweMontana Actually by Fiona Lowe
Published by Penguin on January 6th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, Medical, Romance, Western
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Goodreads
three-stars
A big-city doctor in a small-town Montana practice....A former nurse who has sworn off doctors forever....The scene is set for passions to ignite in Big Sky Country. For readers of Robyn Carr and Sherryl Woods.  City doctor Josh Stanton and his sports car don’t suit the country, but with his medical school debt about to bury him, Josh has to make the best out of a bad situation. Adjusting to his new job and life in the middle of nowhere isn’t easy, but at least the views of the mountains—and one distractingly attractive local—are stunning...After eight years away, Katrina McCade is back in Bear Paw for a break from her life, bad choices—and men. But when a broad-shouldered stranger bursts into town, she finds herself unexpectedly saddled with the town’s sexy new doctor as a tenant. Katrina doesn’t need a man to make her happy, especially a disgruntled physician.  But try telling her body that…"This is a funny, sexy, and heart-warming novel that I feel is a must-read and a keeper. It made me laugh. I loved each character, and wish I could visit Bear Paw."Catherine Anderson, New York Times bestselling author of Silver Thaw"Delightful." --Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Fiona Lowe’s MONTANA ACTUALLY is the first book in her new Medicine River romance series, and while there were some elements of this book that I quite enjoyed, there were others that made it a difficult read for me overall.

The primary romantic couple in MONTANA ACTUALLY have both just arrived in the tiny Montana town of Bear Paw despite their best intentions. Dr. Josh Stanton is in town to work off his sizable student loan debt after having to fund his own medical school education when he refused to be the type of doctor his wealthy father had always expected. Katrina McCade, an experienced ER nurse, had grown up in Bear Paw but left for the big city to chase her dreams of success and love. Now after a devastating romantic betrayal, she’s back to regroup and decide what to do with the rest of her life. When Josh becomes Katrina’s unwilling tenant, the immediate sparks between them inevitably lead to an affair that they both agree shouldn’t require any ongoing commitment. But when tragedy strikes Katrina’s family, she and Josh will need more than sexual desire to heal the wounds they both carry in their hearts as they learn to trust and love each other in a tiny Montana town that needs them both.

While Josh and Katrina were an interesting couple to watch as they fell in love, I actually enjoyed the secondary romance between Beau and Shannon much more, perhaps because they were both so hesitant to believe they were worthy of the other’s attention, and so were more careful and more easily hurt by their own mistaken assumptions of the other. The layout of the town and its citizens was set up fairly well to introduce the series, although I’m still confused as to how an ER can exist independently of the only medical clinic in town when it’s constantly asserted that there aren’t enough trained people to fully staff both.

Ultimately there were two elements of MONTANA ACTUALLY that made it less enjoyable than I had anticipated. One was the decision to have a secondary character intrinsic to the lives of the core family for this new series fall ill with what initially seemed to be nothing big but eventually became terminal. Others may disagree, but for me it came across as an emotional shortcut required to bring both the primary and secondary romantic couples together more quickly than they might have under less traumatic circumstances.

The other element I found frustrating in this book involves one of my major pet peeves in any romance where sex is presented: inconsistent condom use. The first time Josh and Katrina decide to have sex, there is much discussion, both humorous and serious, about safer sex and making sure that they use a condom. This was a great scene and I was so happy it was included. And then there was never even a brief mention of condoms ever again! It’s always annoying and distracting for me when romance couples do and then don’t use condoms, but when one is a doctor and the other is a nurse? Add to that the periodic assertions by each about how much they want children in the future, and I was nearly convinced that there would be a surprise pregnancy by the end of the book. (Spoiler alert: There isn’t.)

Between the emotional manipulation and the condoms gone missing which took me out of the story, I was just not as happy with MONTANA ACTUALLY as I wanted to be. I do think there’s a good base here from which a successful series can continue, and I’m not sorry I read it. But I’m hoping that future books in the Medicine River series are more like Fiona Lowe’s BOOMERANG BRIDE, a book I adored, than this one.

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three-stars

Review: Never Let You Down by Joely Sue Burkhart

Never Let You DownNever Let You Down by Joely Sue Burkhart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at Night Owl Reviews.

Review Excerpt:

Much like the unconventional relationships highlighted in each of the previous Connagher books, NEVER LET YOU DOWN also features an unconventional way of telling the multi-layered story of Virginia and Jeb’s romance. We have a view of the present day as Jeb returns to woo the woman he’d never stopped loving. We also view the past, as all the questions about how he is inextricably linked to Virginia and Ty are eventually answered in full. And then, as the past and present wind their way around each other toward the anticipated HEA, a third voice enters the story in the form of a book within the book — a slightly over the top erotic western romance with a more than passing resemblance to the love story being told in the rest of the book. This manner of storytelling is risky with the danger of confusing the reader, but I was able to easily keep the three portions separate while appreciating how they all fit together as closely as Virginia, Ty, and Jeb did by the end of the book. It’s a beautiful love story in all its combinations, and a wonderful addition to one of my favorite erotic romance series.

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Review: Only For You by Beth Kery

Only for YouOnly for You by Beth Kery

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Full review available at Night Owl Reviews.

Everything I love about Beth Kery’s erotic romances is here in ONLY FOR YOU. Readers get a quietly dominant hero determined not to let himself be hurt again, a heroine bent on showing him they are meant to be together without ever losing sight of her own wants and needs, a burning passion between them that never dies even when they are apart, and just enough drama and suspense to keep the path to their HEA interesting without overdoing it. Both Seth and Gia have let pride and misconceptions stand in the way of their love and as the threat to Gia’s life remains ever present in the background, they learn to trust and compromise so that everything can work out for them exactly as it should.

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Review: The King by Tiffany Reisz

The King (The Original Sinners: White Years, #2)The King by Tiffany Reisz

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

Second in the White Years books but sixth in the overall Original Sinners series, THE KING finally gives readers the story of how Kingsley Edge founded the 8th Circle, New York’s most exclusive and notorious BDSM club, and fills in more of the gaps only hinted at in previous books. Although no book in this series can technically be called a romance, this particular entry is the least romantic of the lot, reading more as a classic mystery, complete with red herrings, McGuffins, and more than a few double crosses. But that still didn’t mean anything less than a tip-top read, as I raced through its pages trying to guess just how everything would play out on the way to the ending I thought I already knew.

THE KING also advances the story of Kingsley and Søren’s relationship that began in THE PRINCE, showing how Nora would fit perfectly between them if Kingsley could learn not to resent her place in Søren’s heart. And when combined with the ongoing White Years’ conceit of framing each story of the past with a continuation of the characters’ present-day lives, the result is a essential volume for any fans of the Original Sinners series. Just make sure you’ve read all the previous books first, so as not to spoil the secrets revealed within.

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Review: Intrusion by Charlotte Stein

Intrusion (Under the Skin, #1)Intrusion by Charlotte Stein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

I have been struggling with how to write a review for Charlotte Stein’s new book INTRUSION, the first in her new Under The Skin series with Avon Impulse. It’s her first foray into romantic suspense, and if this book is any indication, the rest of the series will be more of her best work yet. Stein’s gift with combining confusing emotions with passionate and often non-traditional sexual encounters has always made her erotic romances a special delight for me. But with INTRUSION, she’s included an undercurrent of impending danger that adds a sharp edge to each and every scene even as we know something terrible is going to happen before we can enjoy its promised HEA.

There’s not much of an initial backstory for Beth or Noah, though we can sense the shared nature of their individual traumas. Each has retreated from the world in their own way, although Beth still goes out and works at a job every day, returning to an empty home she doesn’t quite trust as safe. And it’s Beth who makes the first contact in a way that’s unconventional as every other part of this mesmerizing story. What follows is easily the best romance of any subgenre that I’ve read this past year, with a perfect title and a heroine who saves both her hero and herself in more ways than one.

My struggle with this review is how to convey why this story was so amazing for me without giving away exactly what Charlotte Stein has done here. INTRUSION really needs to be read cold, without any previous indication of where it will go or how it will get there. All you should know is that any biases you might have about romantic suspense, erotic romance, or even first person present tense should be set aside, however temporarily, so you can be totally open to what Charlotte Stein offers here. And then if you’re like me when you’re done, you’ll say “What did I just read?” and “When can I have more, please?” Because I just can’t imagine reading anything better right now.

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Review: Breach of Contract by J.R. Gray

Breach Of Contract (Bound #2)Breach Of Contract by J.R. Gray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

This review may contain spoilers for LEGALLY BOUND, the first book in J.R. Gray’s Bound series. You could try to read BREACH OF CONTRACT as a standalone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

BREACH OF CONTRACT continues the story begun in LEGALLY BOUND, a book I thoroughly enjoyed earlier this year after following the author on Twitter. (Full disclosure: I follow a ridiculous amount of romance and erotica writers on Twitter and they sometimes follow me back, but that doesn’t mean I enjoy or even accept every book they might have available for review.) LEGALLY BOUND introduced its readers to an underground BDSM community in contemporary Chicago populated by high-ranking politicians, law enforcement officials, and other prominent citizens concerned about their private kink becoming public fodder. As sole owner of the exclusive club where only the finest kinksters come out to play, George Siris is the unofficial ruler of this small but highly influential world. But even as he enjoys all the superficial benefits of such a position, his heart remains locked away, his true desire for any other person suppressed for as long as anyone can remember.

When Daniel Caplin found himself emotionally involved with Rafael Argon, the client he was defending against a police vendetta in LEGALLY BOUND, it was Daniel’s wisecracking legal partner Jesse Goldmen who was the voice of reason even though his own personal life was an even bigger mess. Now that Daniel and Rafael are in love and living together as a D/s couple in BREACH OF CONTRACT, Jesse finds himself jealous of what the two men have together. He’d thought himself immune to such feelings after years spent in a loveless marriage, yet when George offers a chance for him to escape, it isn’t only Jesse who’ll discover love in the unlikeliest of places. But when the vulnerable clientele of George’s club are suddenly threatened by a blackmailer bent on destruction, no one will be safe from what might happen next.

“You will learn to use that mouth of yours for good as well as evil.”

As much as I loved the unconventional romance between Daniel and Rafael in LEGALLY BOUND, I was even more enthralled by the thrilling emotional dance between George and Jesse in BREACH OF CONTRACT. The previous book had only teased at what might happen between them and it was that promise that made me so impatient to read their story. Here we eventually see that what the sarcastic joker and self-possessed Master have in common is a rejection of love purely as as an act of self-preservation, and that the trust required from them both still might not be enough to win their own happy ending together. For as Jesse slowly leaves his comfort zone to pursue what will either be the best or worst decision of his life, George must also contend with someone trying to destroy his club and the people he cares about the most. This added suspense provides the story’s overall driving element without overwhelming its romantic aspects or dulling the intensity of the various interactions between its primary characters. And even as a self-professed lover of epilogues, I can assure readers that the one here is both compelling and essential.

From its riveting start to its slam-bang finish, BREACH OF CONTRACT more than fulfills the promise of LEGALLY BOUND and has me just as greedy for the next story as I was for this one. If you’re looking for erotic M/M romance with strong suspense elements in a BDSM setting, I highly recommend both books in this intriguing series.

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Review: An American Duchess by Sharon Page

An American DuchessAn American Duchess by Sharon Page

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

AN AMERICAN DUCHESS is the latest from Sharon Page, an author I’ve loved and enjoyed for years in all kinds of romance subgenres. It tells the story of a modern young woman whose determination to embrace life in the face of death both attracts and disturbs a more traditional man equally determined to retreat from life for the same reasons.

Zoe Gifford was raised dirt poor and no amount of new money later in life will ever make New York society ever truly accept her or her mother. But that money will be enough to buy a marriage with the younger brother of an English Duke, and release the rest of Zoe’s trust fund so she can finally be free from her family and their expectations. When Zoe first meets her fiance’s older brother, their immediate mutual dislike appears to mask an even stronger physical attraction. But how can she marry the Duke for love when she had no intention of staying married in the first place?

Nigel, Duke of Langford, has survived the Great War at a huge cost to his physical appearance and psychological health. Now all he wants to do is bury himself at his family estate in England and hide away from the rest of the rapidly changing world. His brother’s American fiancee is the perfect example of the type of woman he thinks he can’t abide, yet she’s also compelling in a way that Nigel simply can’t resist. When Nigel discovers his brother’s plan to subvert Zoe’s plans for a brief marriage, the damaged Duke knows that he must claim Zoe for his own. But neither Nigel nor Zoe could have anticipated just how true the words “for better or worse” would be for them after the wedding was over.

Although I enjoyed AN AMERICAN DUCHESS overall, it was still a story that both charmed and infuriated me in equal amounts. The first section of the book starting from when Zoe and Nigel first meet, all the way up to their wedding, could have stood alone as a very good category romance. But this is also the story of what happened after they fell in love and were married, and what happens next is both tragic and confusing. Tragic, because Nigel and Zoe experience the worst sort of loss that two expectant parents can face, and the way they each cope with their grief drives a gigantic wedge between them. Confusing, because in the middle of their personal tragedy, both Nigel and Zoe became involved in additional plotlines that seemed to exist solely to provide an epic Big Misunderstanding that would seemingly force the couple apart permanently.

Of course, it was the time apart that made Nigel and Zoe realize that their love was worth every effort to trust each other with their mutual secrets and to do everything they could to make things work. But it was frustrating to see only hints of what Zoe’s life had been like during their separation, and then see the two of them magically resolve every single difference in a conversation they could have had all along. Even the baby epilogue (cleverly named “The Baby Epilogue”) presents the results of an obviously successful pregnancy with no reference to any difficulties the couple had faced previously in the book. Still, even with all the difficulty I had with the latter half of the book, the intimate scenes between Zoe and Nigel are uniformly great, and their initial romance is so wonderful that I still have to give 4 stars for the book as a whole. I just wish the rest of Nigel and Zoe’s story had lived up to the promise of what had gone before.

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Review: Make It Right by Megan Erickson

Make it Right (Bowler University, #2)Make it Right by Megan Erickson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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

After a year when I’ve declared so many romance tropes and subgenres off my reading list, only to be shown how good they can actually be, it should have been no surprise that I would find a book so wonderful that it redeems the one subgenre I’d sworn off for good: New Adult. But make no mistake, MAKE IT RIGHT by Megan Erickson is the one New Adult romance that I truly believe even those weary of that subgenre could enjoy reading.

Although MAKE IT RIGHT is the second in Megan Erickson’s Bowler University series, it works quite well as a stand-alone story. Starting the series with this second book might even provide an advantage to the new reader, since the story revolves around the redemption of a much reviled character from the first book, MAKE IT COUNT.

Max Payton is infamous among his college friends for the rotten way he treated his last girlfriend, Kat, and how before that, he’d slept with the high school girlfriend of his best friend Alec. Now that Alec and Kat are a couple, Max must content himself with the occasional nightly pickup of whatever women are still willing to throw themselves at him. But when Lea Travers shows up one night at the local convenience store where Max is slightly drunk and feeling down about his life, he realizes that this girl is someone he’d really like to be the true version of himself with, just for once.

Lea doesn’t have the long history with Max from high school like her friends do, but what she’s heard about him is all bad. Still, she sees something genuine behind the jerk facade he puts on for everyone, and as events on campus conspire to bring them together, it’s obvious that the attraction is mutual. What both she and Max eventually discover is a deeper connection that could heal the invisible wounds they both carry inside. But can it survive the mistakes they’ve both made and their unshakable assumptions about loving and being loved?

So many New Adult books make the mistake of fetishizing tragedies in their relatively young characters’ pasts, but in MAKE IT RIGHT, this is never a problem. The perfect tone is set from the start, and what makes us sympathize with the characters is constantly balanced with moments of humor that are never out of place. Max is much more than what he shows to the world, and we see his troubled home life from his point of view, even as its effect on his behavior is made all too obvious as the story unfolds. Lea, too, has endured both physical and psychological blows that would be daunting for a person twice her age. But the histories each brings to this new relationship are presented matter-of-factly, with no superimposed drama to forcibly wring the last bit of sentiment out of readers. This careful balance between lightheartedness and deep emotion is what I find missing in so many New Adult romances, and its presence here is one of the big reasons I loved Max and Lea’s story so much.

The other great feature of MAKE IT RIGHT for me was how the author always kept me guessing as to how events would play out, while always ensuring the necessary groundwork had already been laid for what would happen next. Even when I was able to predict the nature of the inevitable Big Misunderstanding, I was still surprised by the series of events it triggered, leading all the way up to Max and Lea’s happy ending, blowing away every assumption I’d had up until then. Ultimately, neither Max nor Lea should have ever trusted each other to be the person they needed, but when they took that leap of faith, I took it with them, and was rewarded with one of the best romances I’ve read this year.

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Review: Hard To Hold On To by Laura Kaye

Hard to Hold on To (Hard Ink, #2.5)Hard to Hold on To by Laura Kaye

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

HARD TO HOLD ON TO continues the story of a group of men once proud to be a part of their country’s Special Forces who were forced out under a cloud of suspicion thanks to betrayal by their own company commander. Now they are trying to clear their names while under siege by a powerful street gang determined to stop their efforts and silence them for good. Each installment in this HARD INK series advances the overall story arc while providing a romance and HEA for each member of the group. And although this particular story is much shorter than those which have preceded it, Easy and Jenna’s romance still packs an emotional punch as they discover both love and solace within each other’s arms.

Easy may have been Edward Cantrell’s nickname, but his life so far had been anything but that. The Army helped him escape the mean streets of his childhood, but when that was taken away from him the hard way, all he had left was the Ravens motorcycle club and survivor’s guilt bordering on suicidal. When he helped rescue Sara’s sister Jenna from where the Church gang had held her prisoner, he never expected it to mean more to him than helping out the woman of his good friend, Shane. But now that Jenna needs him, Easy might finally have a reason to live again, and find the love he never thought he’d deserve.

Jenna had grown up mostly ignorant of all the terrible sacrifices her sister Sara had made to keep her healthy and safe. But after being held in the same awful place where her sister had been tortured after their father’s death, Jenna isn’t taking anything for granted, especially where it concerns the man she credits for her rescue. Maybe she and Easy aren’t the most likely couple to succeed, but after her near-death experience, Jenna realizes that life’s too short not to take a chance on love.

HARD TO HOLD ON TO upholds the great precedent of the HARD INK series with another well-written romance under pressure, made believable in spite of the otherwise implausible time constraints and reliance on an insta-lust trope. In HARD AS YOU CAN, we saw Jenna learn just how awful her sister’s life had been while she herself had only had to worry about finishing college and keeping her epilepsy under control. So when Jenna turns to Easy for support in the aftermath of her rescue, it makes a strange sort of sense in that Jenna feels like she’s already been too much of a burden for Sara. What nobody counted on, however, was the spectacular sexual chemistry between Jenna and Easy, least of all themselves. And while insta-lust may not be the best reason to pull back from the cliff of self-destruction, Laura Kaye made it work for me, with some scenes so heart-wrenching that I would have allowed the characters anything they wanted just to see them happy again.

As much as I always want more of something good, HARD TO HOLD ON TO works well at novella length, whetting my appetite even more for the next full-length HARD INK story to come. It’s a must-read in the series, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

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