Dirty Thirty
this is how you write bisexual erotica.
Rebekah Reads Books n' Stuff
author who LOVES to read. gimme romance. gimme erotica. gimme the goods.
How to Misbehave (Novella)
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm i don't really know how I feel about this because there was literally one bit at the beginning that almost made me DNF like a champ. the writing was good. Tony was good. Amber was... goodish.here's the thing though, when i got to this: "Even before college, her faith in God and goodness had started to fray, and the summer break she spent in the slums outside Cape Town doing charity work with a group of Nazarene students left it in tatters"... "God wasn't watching. There might be a God, or there might not - she hasn't made up her mind about that. But she'd seen enough dire poverty and need in South Africa to shake her out of her complacence." i almost threw my phone out the window.as a reader, this turned Amber into that person who has no concept of how shitty this kind of white savior bullshit is. this turned Amber into the type of woman who tries to explain to me she knows how hard it is to be black cause she spent a summer in a South African slum and it was sooooooo hard. this made me side-eye Amber so hard. i was just sitting there thinking, don't blame God. BLAME THE DUTCH! BLAME EUROPEAN GREED! i can't begin to even unpack Africa and white savior complexes and a bunch of other shit that has me rubbing my forehead in a goodreads review. i don't expect every one to be hip to global race relations. i really don't. i am most of the time i'm okay (as in ive come to terms, sort of) with the fact that romancelandia is overwhelmingly white, but i would honestly authors left this type of shit out. seriously. this story is so short, and her faith is actually not a crucial part to their relationship development at all, this seemed so unnecessary. so yeah, this is more like a 2.5. it could have been a 5.
Big fat dreamy sigh. I just loved this book. Longer review to come. :)
Trusting Tomorrow
I just read two really porny erotica novellas so my brain was a little scrambled in terms of what a standard romance should look like and then BAM, I tried out this little number and it was perfect.This book pretty much has every I want in a romance. Both heroines were likable. The supporting characters all functioned well and I wanted to know more about them. It's good if readers care about everyone in the book. Logan and Brooke's hesitations for getting into a relationship made sense. I can't imagine that dating as an undertaker is easy. People naturally avoid her profession, so she's developed a habit of keeping women at arm's length. And Brooke went through a really bad break up. Of course they would be apprehensive about jumping into something serious.My favorite part was the actual pacing of the relationship building. It was realistic. I think often in romance, and even I've been guilty of this in my own writing, the characters almost get together too quickly. This story accurately portrayed the stops and starts that I think are natural to the way people actually end up together. Maybe you kiss once and it's super awkward. Work and family stuff get in the way. You're nervous or scared. Or in this book, all of the above and people die. The only reason I didn't give this a full five stars because it has a bit of that characters-having-issues-that-could-have-been-solved-with-one-conversation conflict going on. Other than that, this story was kinda of just what the Doctor ordered type romance. I think if you enjoy a good, simple romance, you will really like this one. And I mean simple in a good way.
Lost me after the first sex scene.
Make Me
I need a shower. Not a cold one, though. I just felt dirty. This story is filthy. I write pretty filthy stuff and this shit was just filthy. And hot. It took a bit to get used to the POV. It's so deep, but also limited that you're really left wondering what the hell is going on with the other two dudes. It's all so deep and limiting that I kept forgetting the heroine's name because of course, she's not thinking of her own name all the time.This POV also had me feeling pretty skeeved out but Tyler and in fear for Brandon's mental health. The complexity of their relationship is sorted out eventually, but I don't know, maybe I'm thick. As I was reading I really couldn't get a sense if whether Tyler was just a Dom who was excellent at mind games or an actual jerk. Also Maisie, that's the heroine, is so unreliable, that you don't really get a sense of what the fuck is going on until chapter 3 or 4. The times when they aren't having sex or about to have sex are summarized in Maisie's head so you also miss out on moments of levity between the three. Again this adds to the weird feeling about Tyler and had me wondering if Brandon was gonna flip the fuck out at any given moment. You never hear anything that isn't foreplay from Tyler until the very end and Brandon always seems to be apologizing or begging or on the verge of crying and running away. Now I'm just rambling. This novella is good and very hot, but this is another that left me wondering if I was actually supposed to like the characters.
The Story Guy (Novella)
I really enjoyed the novella. Rivers writes some beautiful, lyrical prose and her characters are very likable. The only thing that kept me from giving this a pure 5 is the POV. I love first person, present. LOVE IT! but I actually would have liked to have seen this or parts of this from Brian's perspective. He's going through a lot. At the end, you get a sense that down the road he's still going to have plenty of issues. Which is fine, I mean don't we all have issues. But I was a little worried for him as the story progressed. Anywho, I will definitely read more of Rivers's work. She's got a new fan in me.
Chase knows how to write the erotica.
I would have the sex with Cedric.
After Hours: (InterMix)
McKenna is making it really hard for me to not buy up all her books. Homegirl knows how to write a damn story.
I really enjoyed Raina's introduction to this cast of characters and the addition of not two but four kiddos to the pack. The books flow right from one to the other. I read Book 3 sixteen months ago so it took me a little while to remember who was who. If your memory sucks like mine, go back and take a peek at book three before you jump into this one.
Read this a while ago. It's bizarre thinking of Irving writing sex scenes that take place in the same room where I had freshman gym.
I really loved Sasha, but I had a hard time connecting with Kerry.
Take What You Want
This story was totally sweet and totally adorable. Determined to turn her spring break and herself around, college senior Ellen Price spruces up her look and sets out for a sexual conquest. LOVE ENSUES!Ellen was shy and nerdy, but thank god she was the one driving the story and the actions. She didn't wait for Josh to make all the moves or rely on him for her own sense of self-worth. Her growth came from within.Josh was sweet and sexy and smart. His issues with his parents and his future were very easy to relate to and the amount of angst he struggled with was just right.My only gripes are that some of the dialogue was one note and I guess standard. (they refer to each other as the perfect man or woman, etc.) For 22 years olds, there was no slang, no colloquial speech at all. And the physical descriptions were also brief and standard, considering the amount of sex. They with both brunettes with perfect bodies, but other than Josh's glasses, I wouldn't be able to pick either of them out of crowd. Same with Josh's family. The interactions were mostly from his POV, so you get no description of them. I like to be able to SEE the characters. Another than that it was quite enjoyable. I will definitely check out more of Grey's work.
I really enjoyed this, but I wish more of the emotional stuff had been discussed between the heroine and the hero. I feel like the most important conversation took place between the heroine and her sister. Otherwise, Westlake knows how write and the sex ain't bad either.
