Category: B reviews (Page 74 of 74)

Forbidden Fantasies by Jodie Griffin

March 22, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I picked this new release from Carina Press up at NetGalley and the blurb looked interesting. I do love books featuring established couples dealing with a conflict.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) After fifteen years of marriage, Jessica Meyers’s sex life is, well, a little predictable. Her handsome husband turns her on, but missionary style once or twice a week? It just can’t compare to the hot new world she discovers in the pages of erotic romances. Her fantasies fuel the fire of her desire, adding a new spark to her and Alex’s lovemaking. But Jess is afraid to tell her husband what she really wants in bed—and her secrets start coming between them.

State trooper Alex Meyers is a master at uncovering the truth—except when it comes to his sweet, shy wife. She’s clearly keeping something from him. An affair? She wants out? When he finally confronts Jess, he’s shocked to learn she wants to turn her forbidden fantasies into nightly realities. But when he takes her to a unique B and B—Bondage and Breakfast—catering to couples and multiples, Alex is about to find out just how far he’ll go.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This is a little gem of a book. It’s short, just under 85 pages, but Ms. Griffin managed to tell a complete story in that space, in a way that I found very engaging. I’ve often thought it is harder to write short than long (this from a person who can’t shut up!). Some of the things that make it easier to tell a whole story in that time is to have an established couple (check) and to keep the story relatively simple (ie, not multiple conflicts/storylines) (check again). Sometimes, a story like that can be boring however. This one was not. Not at all.

The first paragraph was a bit clunky in that it gave the impression that Jessica and Alex had had a fight – but actually, the problem was more that they had NOT had a fight (or a discussion) about the sexual fantasies Jessica wanted to explore. She felt horny and guilty but embarrassed and unable to talk to Alex about it for fear he would think she was “dirty” and that it might threaten the otherwise happy status quo of their 15 year marriage. She has too much invested to rock the boat. Alex, for his part, has been trying to get Jessica to talk to him – he’s noticed how much more interested in sex Jessica is (and he’s pretty happy about that) but she is withdrawing from him emotionally after sex and this has him very concerned.

However, I’m pleased to say that once that first paragraph or 2 was done, the book definitely picked up and the story hit its stride. It’s simple, it doesn’t try to be more than it is and it is definitely sexy. Unlike another book I read recently which was full of sex scenes which appeared to be there only to titillate, in this book, the sex scenes had a purpose. The demonstrated the connection between the couple and served to gradually resolve the “conflict” of the book – whether Alex could “cope” with Jessica’s newly discovered sexual fantasies.

The sex scenes were plentiful and well written. Oh, there were a couple of things that I raised my eyebrows about in that they didn’t altogether fit with Jessica’s previous reticence in the sexual arena and her reluctance to talk to Alex about it but the rest of it was so good I was happy enough to go along for the ride.

I’m not usually a fan of the not talking type story, but it made sense in the context of this book. For a start, normal life meant that sex wasn’t on this couple’s mind 24/7 – Alex is a cop and he’s very busy and often gets called out at all hours on cases etc. Plus, Alex and Jess have 2 children which keeps them busy anyway. The other thing is that Jess is presented as having been very sexually inexperienced and raised in a puritanical household – it made sense to me that she would need some time to sort out what she wanted in her own head before broaching it with her husband. And, finally, the book starts with Jessica finally being ready to talk to Alex about it so I didn’t have to suffer through the “will I/won’t I” part and I got almost straight to the “let’s deal with it” part (which is always more interesting).

If you like a hot little m/f read – I think you might like this one.

What else? I believe Forbidden Fantasies is the author’s debut release. I’m looking forward to reading more from her.

Grade: B+

Shattered Glass by Dani Alexander

March 19, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’ve seen this one recommended by a number of trusted reviewers to I took the plunge. I’m glad I did – it was certainly worth my time and it was a bargain at $2.99 on the Kindle.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) A male prostitute, a mangy cat, a murder and a maniacal mix-up that threatens his career, his impending marriage and his life. Nothing is going as planned for Austin Glass.

Austin seems to have it all. At least on the surface. A loving fiancee. A future with the FBI and a healthy sized trust fund. He also has a grin and a wisecrack for every situation. But the smile he presents to everyone hides a painful past he’s buried too deeply to remember. And his quips mask bitterness and insecurity. Austin has himself and most of the whole world fooled. Until he meets someone who immediately sees him better than he sees himself. As events unfold and Austin’s world unravels, he finds himself pushed into making quick life-changing decisions. But can he trust Peter or what’s happening between them when each meeting seems to be just a series of volatile reactions?

What worked for me (and what didn’t): This quirky m/m romance come detective novel comes with bags of humour, an engaging, if very large, cast of characters and angsty goodness to top it all off. Told in Austin’s 1st person POV (except for a brief flashback scene in Peter’s POV), the writing style is light and funny, with Austin delivering cracking one-liners, mainly at his own expense. His characterisation is very consistent and his arc is believable. Events shortly before the commencement of the book have left him ripe for an implosion and, when he meets bunny-slipper wearing Peter at a diner when he’s waiting for an informant, his heretofore buried homosexuality makes itself known – along with all the baggage he’s been hiding as well. Austin’s life – his job, his relationship with fiancee Angelica, his relationship with his co-workers and his plans to join the FBI are all threatened by his burgeoning feelings for Peter. But, can he be trusted? It seems that almost every word coming out of Peter’s mouth is a lie. There is enough there however, for Austin to keep coming back.

As Austin is presented as someone who’s lid has finally blown off rather than it being a totally new revelation, I found his journey to be quite believable, even if some of the individual decisions in terms of his position as a detective and his dealings with the criminal justice system were more than questionable. He did face consequences for those decisions though so, even though some of those things were perhaps a bit on the unbelievable side, it wasn’t magically made better and it gave some balance to those aspects of the story.

Peter was harder to get to know. As we see him almost exclusively from Austin’s POV. There were a couple of questions I had about him even at the end (which the author was kind enough to answer for me when I emailed her – she was a bit too subtle for me in places!).

There were some small editing issues in the book – some random words cropping up in the middle of a sentence where they didn’t belong, a few typos – this is a self published piece but frankly, I’ve seen the same (and even much worse) errors in traditionally published books. I did notice it however so it gets a mention here.

To add to the sense of quirk this book has in spades, each section has a brief sentence providing a descriptor of the scene to come. Eg,

Fucking Bunny Slippers

Not a Cock Sucking Fixation

Givin’ It Before Gettin’ It – Always Beat Them To the Punch

The Truth Sucks. And It Is Awesome

It was amusing at first but I was a bit over it by the end. If it had been each chapter instead of each scene change, I don’t think I would have got so sick of it but the scene changes were frequent and it seemed like there was one of these lines every 2 or 3 pages.

The plot is convoluted – but the book is 331 pages long on my reader, so we are talking a full length novel here – there is room and time for the large cast of characters – they pretty much all had things to do and they were all distinct enough that it wasn’t difficult to keep track of. However convoluted the plot, it made sense and I never felt that the story was being tortured into a twisted knot to make it all fit – clearly the author knew where this was going from the beginning. As this was as much a noir-ish detective novel as a romance, I appreciated that very much.

I also appreciated that the female characters in the book were not caricatures – I’ve seen a few complaints about the place that a lot of m/m romance seems to be very woman-hating – in that female characters are all the evil-witches of evil and there are no nice ones. I’m not all that sensitive about the issue (I’m not sure what that says about me!) but I’ve seen the complaint enough that I noticed here that character’s like Dave’s wife, Marta, the fiancee/ex-fiancee, Angelica and even Cai’s mother, are portrayed in a (mostly) flattering light.

What else? My buddy Kris rated this one 4 stars on Goodreads, which is like an 11 for anyone else so you don’t just have to take my word for it.

There are more books in this world coming out later this year I believe and I’m certainly looking forward to Cai and Agent Cordova’s story.

Grade: B

Out of Focus by LA Witt

March 12, 2012 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This book had been recommended to me by a number of reviewers I trust so I decided to dig it out of my TBR pile.

What it’s about: Photographers Dante and Ryan (aka Angel) have been happily together for about 12 years. They are both Dominants and Angel never bottoms ever, and so they take on a third, submissive partner, from time to time. They meet horse rancher Jordan, brother of the bride at a wedding they are photographing and there is instant lust between all three. There follows some sweet and sexy manoeuvring to establish that there is interest and that Jordan is interested in exploring submission. Things get complicated when they all fall in love with each other and it looks like at least one them is destined to be hurt.

What worked for me and what didn’t: The story is told in the alternating 1st person point of view of all three main characters, mainly changing from chapter to chapter, but later in the book, within a scene as well. I was often confused about whose head I was in and it took me a while to work it out each time the chapter/scene changed. This was complicated by the similarity of Dante and Angel. They’re both Doms and both photographers and there wasn’t much else to differentiate their characters for me. I had to keep reminding myself who was who. It was easier to differentiate Jordan – he’s a submissive for one and if there was a scene on the horse ranch it was most often (but not always) from his POV so that helped. I did like that I got all three main characters points of view but the alternating 1st person was confusing.

The beginning of the story is about setting up Dante and Angel’s relationship with Jordan and this was done very well. In fact, by the middle of the book, I was wondering what was keeping Dante and Angel together. I mean, I could see they not only were together but happily so but I wasn’t seeing the how/why of it. About the time this was beginning to really bother me there were some scenes which showed Dante and Angel alone together and reflecting on how they met and who they were to one another. I think, in hindsight, that the author did this deliberately to add to the tension of the book, and it worked.

The sex was very hot and very plentiful but the best parts of the book for me, were when each realised they had fallen in love with the other and that what was supposed to be an intimate but not emotional relationship had morphed into something else. Angel was worried that Dante would leave him to be with Jordan, there were things he couldn’t do for Dante that Jordan could and did and it seemed that Dante’s other needs were met by Jordan too.

The fact was, Jordan was everything I couldn’t be for Dante, and slowly but surely, if I read the two of them right, he was becoming what I had always been.

Jordan was worried that he’d forever be the interloper, the “expendable one” who would be “first drop” if something went wrong. Of course, by then they had all fallen in love with each other so breaking it off was going to hurt no matter what, but the idea of a true menage relationship with the three as equal partners was full of complications and each was dubious about how it could and would work. In fact, the author did such a great job of alerting me to the possible pitfalls, I didn’t entirely buy the HEA. I would have liked to have seen some practical examples of the problems being successfully resolved instead of an epilogue which told me that “it had been hard, but it was worth it”. Once again, I could see that it did work but I didn’t see the how, except this time, I wasn’t shown it later.

What else? I did like the way the characters talked about their relationship, especially at the beginning, setting safe words, advising hard limits and working up their own set of rules. It added to the sense of reality of the book, because I’m sure that in real life people have to sort these things out by conversation rather than the osmosis which occurs often in fiction.

There was a secondary storyline involving Eli, Jordan’s mooching ex-boyfriend and his lack of ability to finally kick him out. It took up quite a bit of room in the story and the conversations between Eli and Jordan were largely the same. I didn’t really get why it was featured so strongly. It certainly wasn’t as interesting to me as the developing relationship between Dante, Jordan and Angel.

Favourite Quote:

Angel had been there. He hadn’t been cropped out of the image. I’d shifted my attention to Jordan, to Angel, to Jordan, to Angel. Neither pushed the other completely out of the picture; each simply rendered the other… out of focus.

Grade: B

Glomming on Megan Hart

February 23, 2012 / Kaetrin

Mandi from Smexy Books recently discovered Megan Hart. In sharing the love, I was inspired to do a re-read of 3 of my favourites of hers and read the other 2 books which had been languishing on my TBR.

Dirty – A (re-read)

This is what happened…

I met him at the candy store.
He turned and smiled at me and I was surprised enough to smile back. This was not a children’s candy store, mind you–this was the kind of place you went to buy expensive imported chocolate truffles for your boss’s wife because you felt guilty for having sex with him when you were both at a conference in Milwaukee.
Hypothetically speaking, of course.
I’ve been hit on plenty of times, mostly by men with little finesse who thought what was between their legs made up for what they lacked between their ears.
Sometimes I went home with them anyway, just because it felt good to want and be wanted, even if it was mostly fake.
The problem with wanting is that it’s like pouring water into a vase full of stones. It fills you up before you know it, leaving no room for anything else. I don’t apologize for who I am or what I’ve done in–or out–of bed.
I have my job, my house and my life, and for a long time I haven’t wanted anything else.
Until Dan. Until now. (Goodreads blurb)

Elle Kavanagh has a troubled family past. She takes comfort in numbers and counting and wears only black and white. And she does not do relationships. Then she meets Dan Stewart. And he is sweet and persistent and sexy and hot and persistent. This is a very romantic book (complete with HEA) and the prose is spare and lyrical and evocative and just plain beautiful in places.

“And then the prince went away, Dan, and left the fox bereft.” I looked down at my hands, holding his.

“Would you be sad if I left you?” He asked me, and at first I wasn’t sure how I would reply.

At last the answer came on a breath as tremulous as a breeze wafting curtains from an open window.

“Yes, I would.”

He squeezed my hand. “Then I won’t.”

He pulled me close to him, my head on his shoulder, and for a long time that was all I needed or wanted to do.

Dan smiled at me with lips still moist from mine. I have seen clouds part for the sun. I have seen rainbows. I have seen flowers in the morning, covered in dew, and I have seen sunsets so brilliant with fire they made me want to weep.

And I have seen Dan smile at me, his lips still wet from my kiss, and if I had to choose which sight moved me the most I would say it was that one.

It is a wonderful, moving book and holds up extremely well on a re-read. Still an A for me.

Reason Enough – B+ (re-read)

Elle and Dan haven’t quite achieved their goal of having sex in every room of their new house–but “almost ” Marriage hasn’t dampened their hunger for one another in the least, and their relationship is as hot and passionate as ever. But when Dan brings up the subject of having a baby together, Elle finds herself conflicted. Between her dysfunctional family background and her fear of how a baby might change their life together, Elle’s not sure she’s ready for the big step. Dan doesn’t bring the subject up again, but the issue takes hold in Elle’s mind. And as their frequent lovemaking sizzles with unquenchable desire, Elle’s heart is filled to the brim with love and the longing to give Dan “everything.” (Goodreads blurb)

This Spice Brief is set after Dirty but I actually read it first the first time round. It says something about Ms. Hart’s writing that this 56 page short was able to completely take me in when I hadn’t, at that time, read Dirty. It makes more sense, it is true, when one has read Dirty first. And for those who have, there is a lovely Dan and Elle fix for those who didn’t quite get enough in the novel. My note on re-read? I love Dan. That is all. 🙂

Tempted C-

Anne Kinney’s perfect life turns upside-down with the arrival of Alex Kennedy, her husband James’s best friend. Its not until James leads her into an affair with Alex that she realizes her husband might want her to sleep with Alex–because he can’t. (Goodreads blurb)

A sexy book with, again, some lovely writing but the ending wasn’t satisfying for me and it wasn’t poignant either. In the end, I didn’t love the story arc, even though I loved other things about the book. You get the sense early on that there is no happy ending here. However, by the end, I wasn’t confident that James and Anne were okay and Alex’s motivations were a bit of a mystery still. There is a Spice Brief which tells the story from Alex’s POV and I might pick it up one of these days. I’m curious to know Alex better but I’m not sure it can make me feel differently about the story overall.

Naked – C-

No strings. No regrets. And no going back.
I didn’t think he wanted me. And I wasn’t about to get involved with him, not after what I’d heard. Sure, Alex Kennedy was tall, dark and unbearably hot, but I’ve been burned before. When I solicited him to model for my erotic photography book, I didn’t expect such a heated, passionate photo session. And now that we’ve crossed that line, our bodies aren’t the only things that have been exposed.
But I can’t give my heart to a man who’s so… unconventional. His last sexual relationship was with a married couple. It’s enough that my ex-fiancé preferred men, I can’t take that chance again no matter how much my body thrives on Alex’s touch. I can’t risk it, but I can’t resist it, either.
Alex can be very convincing when he wants something.
And he wants me. (Goodreads blurb)

The blurb, unfortunately, isn’t very accurate. Plenty of time and plenty of sex have passed since the events of Tempted and Alex and Olivia get together more as a result of him renting the downstairs flat in the building she owns than anything else.

I spent most of the book waiting for the other shoe to drop. When it kind of did, there were only 2 or 3 pages left and not enough time for me to feel that the HEA was secure. All the time they were getting together, there was a tone to the prose which made me feel like there was sword hanging over their heads and it was going to cut deep any second. I can’t say I was convinced Olivia and Alex would last and I found the ending unsatisfying. I still found Alex largely a mystery, notwithstanding he’s been a major character in 2 books now (that I’ve read). There seemed to be too many things left unsaid and unresolved. There were some lovely passages, but the story left me wanting more (and not in a good way).

Stranger – B+ (re-read)

Funeral director Grace Frawley faces loss each day, so she has decided that paying strangers for sex would be the best way to save herself from experiencing loss herself. Then she meets Sam, and Grace wonders if she can go back to the impersonal. (Goodreads blurb)

This was another re-read. Sam is the brother of Dirty‘s Dan Stewart. He’s been in New York but comes back to town when their father dies. Grace’s job means that she sees people dealing with loss and grief all the time. As a result, she’s so frightened of being bereft, she doesn’t venture into relationship territory at all. And then she meets Sam. Like Dan, he’s persistent. And charming and sexy and hot.

What is unusual about this book is that much of the sex in it is not actually between Grace and Sam – a lot of it is between Grace and Jack. We first met Jack in Dirty when he’s involved in a threesome with Dan and Elle. Inspired by those events, Jack has taken up work as an escort and that is how Grace meets him. It sounds strange, but it works. Trust me.

This book was excellent right up until the end, where there wasn’t enough to satisfy me about how Grace and Sam were going to work out their HEA. I needed at least another conversation – the ending was just too abrupt to satisfy. Sam’s “issues” came up late in the book and I can’t say that I truly understood them or what would happen in the future.

Otherwise, it was really good and beautifully written. The scene where Grace is providing funeral services to a couple who has just lost their young son had me in tears.