Why I read it:  I received a review copy from Kit Rocha.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads)  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.

Beyond Temptation by Kit Rocha: Taking place between the events of Beyond Pain and the soon-to-be-released Beyond Jealousy, Temptation features O’Kane member Emma Cibulski and the mysterious tech expert living underground somewhere in Sector Three, Noah Lennox.  Emma and Noah both have history in Sector Five and Noah has a hard-on for revenge against Five’s leader Mac Fleming.  He blames Mac for his best friend (Emma’s brother)’s death.  For reasons which are a little less clear to me, Mac is after Noah too and Noah has distanced himself from Emma for the past 4 years so as to protect her.  She’s all grown up now and seeing the tough kickass woman she has become, Noah can no longer keep away.  There is a secret to do with Emma’s brother that everyone except Emma seems to know and when it is revealed, it does throw a spanner into the works of their burgeoning relationship.    The story ends with definite HFN/HEA but Noah’s journey to take down Mac Fleming is only just beginning and I expect we will see more of it revealed in the next book.   The sex, as usual, is smokin’ hot and super dirrrty. There is also definite connection between Emma and Noah.  When Noah sees what Dallas and Lex have, he wants it with Emma – that partnership and equality of exchange.  The Beyond series is way more female positive than many post-apocalyptic books and I am enjoying the developing world building of the series as well as the great characters and dirty, inventive sex.  Spending time in the Broken Circle is always fun and this novella was no exception.  Grade: B

Rocky Ride by Vivian Arend: I’ve read some of the Six Pack Ranch series (well, listened) and I have the rest on my TBL/TBR so I have some familiarity with the Coleman family.  Anna Coleman is a member of the “Moonshine Colemans” (I think) and her story, with Mitch Thompson, marks the first in the Thompson & Sons series (with the second book Baby, Be Mine due out soon).  Mitch Thompson works in the family garage with his father, his brothers and his sister. He’s a tattooed biker who looks a bit rough (in a gorgeous way) – but looks can be misleading.  When the story starts, he and Anna have been meeting on the sly for a sex-only relationship for a while and it is Mitch who wants to take the relationship to the next level. Anna is initially hesitant but she soon finds that being a couple with Mitch is better than she could have hoped. Anna is a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and as such, she needs to have a sterling reputation and her public behaviour has to reflect well on the department.  When she and Mitch get caught having almost-sex in the back hallway of a bar, Anna is reprimanded and other things happen which cause Mitch to decide that they ought to stop seeing each other for a while until her record is clean.  He says he’s not worth risking her career over.  This annoyed me a little because I saw it as Mitch making a unilateral decision for the both of them and, given it was about Anna’s career, it was really her decision to make IMO.  That said, Anna seemed to think it was a mutual decision (exactly how lost me) but when she finds out about the other things later, she’s pissed off with Mitch making decisions for her – so she does get there eventually. And, she teaches him a lesson he won’t soon forget.  The chemistry between Anna and Mitch is apparent and their sex is hot hot hot – there is even a cameo from Ashley and Cassidy from Rocky Mountain Freedom in steamy circumstances.  I liked Mitch very much, as well as Anna.  I could easily see how the novella could have been filled out into a full length novel by some of the side issues that were glossed over but because it was a novella, their absence didn’t really bother me.  This book flips the trope that males don’t want commitment on its head – Mitch’s wish list includes going dancing with Anna – Anna’s list (which Mitch is pretty happy to fulfil don’t you worry) is much much dirtier.  I liked it.  Grade: B

All That Remains by Lauren Dane:  In a world where climate change has taken its toll and disease has wiped out a large swathe of the population, polyamorous relationships are the norm.  Interestingly, in this world, because women are so few, they are treated with great respect, as people of priceless value.  I’ve seen dystopian stories where women in the minority are persecuted or kept as slaves so this was a nice twist. Established same sex couple Charlie and Hatch arrive in Paradise Valley seeking work.  There, they meet Summer – Charlie instantly knows she’s special and suggests to Hatch that she might make a great third.  It turns out that Hatch and Summer have history of their own and the story is about how the three make a relationship work.  It is certainly sexy and I loved that Hatch and Charlie were a couple and in love too even if instalove (on Charlie’s/Summer’s part) is not my favourite trope.  It is some 400 years since the catastrophic changes to the Earth occurred – I think this is clever – it creates something new in a familiar setting and there is not a requirement for a huge amount of world building up front.  What is there is enough to understand the story and I gather it will be expanded as the series continues.  I wondered how Ms. Dane would introduce a new world in a short story but I think she did well here.  While it was my least favourite of the three novellas, I think that is largely because I’m not a fan of instalove.  It’s certainly an interesting world and the story was steamy and girl-positive. Grade: B-

What else? I do think that romantic novellas tend to work best when there is an existing connection between the main characters and that was the case here with the first two novellas and for 2/3 of the triad in the Dane story.  Because they already have deep feelings for one another, I can buy into a HEA/HFN with a fairly short word count more easily.  Dane’s book was perhaps more ambitious because it introduces an entirely new post-apocalyptic world, as well as having some instalove.  All three stories were fun and sexy and the formatting was smooth – the very few errors I spotted will likely be corrected before release.  Marked is an example of self-publishing done well.  For those who haven’t read one or more of the authors before and want to dip their toe in, or for existing readers, there’s a lot to like.

Grade: B

BUY IT:
AMAZON     KOBO