Tag Archives: Night Owl Reviews

Review: Secret Pleasure by Lora Leigh

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:  Secret Pleasure by Lora LeighSecret Pleasure by Lora Leigh
Series: Bound Hearts #13
Published by St. Martin's Griffin on August 18th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Erotic Romance, Erotica, Fiction, Romance, Suspense
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Goodreads
two-half-stars
In Secret Pleasure by #1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh, Sebastian and Shane De Loren were born to love Alyssa Hampstead. No other woman on Earth can burn for them, ignite with passion between them, the way Alyssa does. But after three sensual months of pleasure come to a crashing halt, Sebastian and Shane are left fighting their powerful family, risking it all to have Alyssa one more time... Alyssa has closed off her heart. A senator's daughter in the political spotlight, she'd rather be quiet and safe than feel the emotional intensity Sebastian and Shane roused within her years ago. But when the sexy cousins blaze their way back into her life, Alyssa cannot help but succumb to the heady pleasures the two men can give her. And as an unknown enemy draws near, Alyssa will need Sebastian and Shane to protect her...and satisfy every forbidden craving...

It’s almost impossible to accurately summarize everything that is wrong with this book without revealing any major spoilers. I’m heartbroken because this has always been one of my favorite erotic romance series.

Full review available at Night Owl Reviews.

two-half-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 Bookseller’s Daughter by Pam Rosenthal

The Bookseller's DaughterThe Bookseller’s Daughter by Pam Rosenthal

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

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

Review Excerpt:

From the very start, Marie-Laure displays her unyielding spirit and indomitable will, and we see that despite her lowly status, it is clearly she who is too good for Joseph. But as THE BOOKSELLER’S DAUGHTER progresses, Joseph is forced to come to terms with his useless existence, and by the end, he has grown emotionally into a fully adult man worthy of her heart. Even though I had an idea of how and where they would ultimately end up together, the journey there kept me riveted the entire time, and made the seemingly inevitable ending even more enjoyable for me. It’s a wonderful historical romance well worth reading. (Copyright Night Owl Reviews)

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Review: Never Say Never ed. by Alison Tyler

Never Say Never: Tips, Tricks, and Erotic Inspiration for LoversNever Say Never: Tips, Tricks, and Erotic Inspiration for Lovers by Alison Tyler

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

Review Excerpt:

As with most Cleis Press anthologies, the stories featured within NEVER SAY NEVER are uniformly entertaining and perfectly chosen to represent their individual topics. Those that were especially effective for me tended to explore less obvious ways to highlight their assigned topic. Charlotte Stein’s “Allowed” showed how being deprived of the one thing you want makes it the one thing you want even more. “Silk” by Teresa Noelle Roberts proves yet again that submission is just as much psychological as it is physical. And Dante Davidson reminds us in “No Shame” that knowing exactly what will happen next can be the best aphrodisiac ever.

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Review: The Payment Series (Prized, Possessed, Purgatory) by Cassandra Carr

The Payment Series (Prized, Possessed, Purgatory)The Payment Series by Cassandra Carr

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review at Night Owl Reviews, where you can find the full text.

Review excerpt:

Just because Payment was a rough read for me doesn’t mean it couldn’t be enjoyable for others. But please heed the disclaimers and be aware that this is not BDSM-lite by any stretch of the imagination. There are hundreds of graphic sexual acts forced upon its heroine, including grossly unsanitary ones that you might not otherwise expect. They work within the context of the story, but they may not work for all readers. Be sure you know what you can handle before you decide.

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Review: Best Erotic Romance 2014, ed. Kristina Wright

Best Erotic Romance 2014Best Erotic Romance 2014 by Kristina Wright

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Night Owl Reviews. The full text of the review can be found there.

One of the things Cleis Press does best is their yearly anthologies of short erotic stories, usually pegged to a specific theme or conceit. So with Best Erotic Romance 2014, I knew there would be some wonderful sexy times between couples who truly love each other, and that’s exactly what I found.

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Review: Twisted – Bondage With An Edge Anthology, ed. Alison Tyler

Twisted: Bondage With an EdgeTwisted: Bondage With an Edge by Alison Tyler

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Night Owl Reviews. The full text of the review can be found there.

Although I enjoyed reading the whole book, there were a few selections that I would definitely consider as favorites. They were the stories where I was immediately engaged without having any idea what would happen next, and pleased by where the story ended up: “Foundation Stone” by Jax Baynard, “Rope Drought” by Teresa Noelle Roberts, and “Broken” by Alison Tyler. These three stories explored a variation on the bondage theme that I found unique without being over the top, and each made me wish that they had more pages. Not because I found what was there to be incomplete, but so I could stay in the worlds they’d created for just a bit longer.

If you’re a fan of short erotic fiction, and bondage is one of your reading kinks, you can’t go wrong with Twisted. It’s a perfect example of what makes the Cleis Press erotic anthologies so reliably good.

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Review: Kept – An Erotic Anthology

KeptKept by Sorcha Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by one of the authors for an honest review at Night Owl Reviews. You can find the entire review posted there.

Overall, Kept was an entertaining read, and all of the stories were memorable. I’d recommend it to anyone who prefers their PNR/SF romance with a capture fantasy twist.
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Intimidator (Preyfinders #2) by Cari Silverwood

Intimidator (Preyfinders, #2)Intimidator by Cari Silverwood
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

3.5 stars

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

Although I enjoyed the Precious Sacrifice novella, I was less taken with this sequel. I enjoyed the premise of how a Preyfinder acquires his target, and the backstory of how Willow and Ally came to be near-recluses in their grandmother’s house in the middle of a neighborhood they both should have left behind years before. But the level of violence was quite a bit higher in Intimidator than it was in the previous story, most likely due to the comparably greater length, and I don’t have a particularly strong stomach for such things. The scenes with the alien enemy’s “nerve chewers” were especially distasteful for me, and I actually forced myself to skim through them, as much as I hated missing out on likely important plot points, especially near the end of the book. But if you have a greater tolerance for this type of thing, then it shouldn’t affect your appreciation of Intimidator. It will be interesting to see where this series goes next. I wonder how long the inevitable story between Talia and Brask will be teased out, or if they’ll finally get their own story in the next book.

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