Category: B reviews (Page 18 of 74)

Stay by Sarina Bowen & Elle Kennedy

September 21, 2017 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’ve enjoyed the previous books in the series.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Can you fall in love with someone you’ve never even met?

Hailey Taylor Emery has a hunch that her favorite client at Fetch–an anonymous virtual assistant service–is actually hockey star Matt Eriksson.

Although it’s against the rules for her to check his file, she’s 95% sure she spends at least part of each day texting with her lifelong crush and catering to his every need. Still nursing a wounded heart thanks to her recent breakup, Hailey is perfectly content with some harmless online flirting…until she has to meet her client. Face to face. Cue: utter panic.

Matt Eriksson is no stranger to heartbreak. He’s still not over the destruction of his marriage, and it sucks to be the only guy on the team who knows the truth–that hockey and long-term relationships are a toxic mix. He barely sees his kids, and dealing with his ex makes him feel insane. The only person in his life who seems to understand is someone who won’t show her pretty face.

But it’s nothing that a pair of fourth row hockey seats can’t fix. Hailey can’t resist the offer. Matt can’t resist Hailey. Good thing he doesn’t have to. Fire up the kiss cam!

What worked for me (and what didn’t): I enjoy both of these author’s books separately and together. Him, Us and Good Boy have all been very successful reads for me. Stay didn’t quite hit the the heights of the previous books but I still ripped through it in only two nights and and liked it very much.
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August Round Up

September 1, 2017 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson – B The Butterfly Effect isn’t a romance. It’s not even fiction. It’s a fascinating series of short podcasts bundled together and currently available from Audible for free. Documentarist Jon Ronson embarks upon a year-long study into the porn industry and the effects of a decision by a German man by the name of Fabian, to start streaming porn on the internet for free. While it’s about porn it’s not sexy or erotic (although due to the content it’s NSFW). It’s about what happened to the porn industry in the San Fernando Valley when Porn Hub, X Tube and the various other free porn streaming services began (they’re all owned by the same company, based in Montreal by the way) and ranges through topics such as bespoke porn, the subsequent boom in high quality sex dolls, the Ashley Madison hack and online piracy. Continue reading

In Skates Trouble by Kate Meader

August 24, 2017 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I bought this for 99c recently.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) He’ll give her what she needs . . .

Addison Williams isn’t looking for romance, but when she encounters an eavesdropping stranger on an adjoining hotel balcony, she figures she’s due a little fun. She just hadn’t reckoned on the “fun” escalating so quickly to “out of control.” One minute she’s flirting with a whiskey-graveled voice in the dark, the next that same voice is telling her to do things. Hot, wicked things.

Cup-winning hockey player Ford “Killer” Callaghan can’t believe he let the anonymous woman who blew his mind slip away into the night. He’ll track her down because once could never be enough—even if discovering her identity places her strictly out of bounds.

Stolen kisses. Secret hook-ups. Deliciously forbidden in every way. Can a passion that started in the dark find a lifetime of love in the light?

Originally published in Hot on Ice: A Hockey Romance Anthology, this sexy prequel to the Chicago Rebels hockey series features an older, curvy woman, a younger, driven hero, and a happily-ever-after you’ll swoon over.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): In Skates Trouble is a longish novella about a star pro hockey player, Ford Callaghan, from a team based in New Orleans coming home to Chicago with the Stanley Cup for his “day with the cup” (it’s a thing; I looked it up.) While on a hotel balcony the first night he’s in town, he overhears a conversation between some women on the next balcony over, discussing how, in their experience, men’s oral sex skills are definitely lacking. One woman in particular, complains that her ex-husband was never able to give her an orgasm. He shamelessly eavesdrops because of course but also he’s particularly struck by the sexy voice of the woman who talked about her ex-husband. He likes not only the sound of her voice but what she says about how she’s taking her life back. He thinks her ex-husband was a jerk. (He’s right.) After the woman’s friends leave, Ford and the woman have an intimate encounter each on their own separate balconies, neither one exchanging names.
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Jack of Hearts by Sandra Owens, narrated by Sebastian York & Amy McFadden

August 7, 2017 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This is one from my own TBL.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Alex Gentry doesn’t scare easily. Working as an undercover FBI agent in the biker bar he and his brothers co-own, he hangs with deadly criminals in order to gather information. Danger is just part of the family business. But one thing has him terrified: his attraction to Madison Parker.

Madison is the cousin of Ramon Alonzo, son and second in command to a notorious drug lord Alex is trying to bust. Alex has befriended Ramon as part of his cover, and Madison has unknowingly become his informant. Falling for her could risk this case—and both their lives.

All Madison wants is to get her new bookstore business off the ground, and for her creepy cousin Ramon—to whom she’s unfortunately indebted—to leave her alone. If she could only stop fantasizing about his mysterious new friend, Alex…

As the Alonzo cartel investigation heats up, so does their relationship. But will the secrets they’re keeping tear them apart—or get them both killed?

What worked for me (and what didn’t): One has to suspend disbelief a little for the setup of the Aces & Eights series. Three brothers, all in the FBI, run a biker bar in Miami as a cover for their covert investigations. Just how they maintain their cover when they are involved in the take downs of the criminals they catch involves a similar suspension but if one can look past those things (and I could) Jack of Hearts is an enjoyable romantic suspense, with emphasis on the romantic part (right where I like it).
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July Round Up

August 3, 2017 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Too Close to Call by Tessa Bailey – B Branded as part of the multi-author 1001 Dark Nights series (linked only by a Scheherazade-like prologue), this novella also fits within Ms. Bailey’s Romancing the Clarksons series. I haven’t read the other books in the series and I didn’t have any trouble following the story so it stands alone well. The blurb caught my eye: Guy gets drafted to the NFL from college and realises that it means nothing without the girl of his dreams – the girl who broke up with him in their senior year of high school and who he’s been pining after ever since. He decides he’s going to win her back and heads to his home town to do just that.

To mix my sports metaphors, what follows is a full court press. Kyler Tate has been faithful to Bree Sutton the entire four years they’ve been apart. He still doesn’t understand why she broke up with him after they’d made all these plans to go to college together. But either way, it doesn’t matter, he still loves her and will do whatever it takes to have her in his life. Continue reading

Lingus by Mariana Zapata, narrated by Callie Dalton

July 15, 2017 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This is one from my own TBL.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Most people would describe Katherine Berger as a responsible girl with a big heart, a loyal friend who takes care of those close to her, and the possessor of a wicked sense of humor. There was something about her that most people didn’t know. “My name is Kat Berger, and I love porn.”

When twenty-five-year-old Kat is dragged to a porn convention by her best friend, she’s both embarrassed and nervous. The last thing she ever expected was to meet someone who makes her laugh like no other. This is a story about acceptance and friendship, and a love born out of the most unexpected of places.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Via some Goodreads friends, I saw that this one is apparently pulled to publish (P2P) fan fiction – apparently it was Twilight fan fiction. I don’t get bent out of shape about this kind of thing, particularly when the the story really bears little or no resemblance to the original story the author was riffing on. And apart from that Kat at one stage mentions she’s name a character in one of her books (she’s a teacher but writes murder-mysteries in her spare time) “Christian” which might have been a nod to Fifty Shades of Grey, I really couldn’t see any resemblance to Twilight in this story. Continue reading