Category: B reviews (Page 32 of 74)

April Round Up

May 4, 2015 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Dirty Secrets by Jane O’Reilly – B+ The second in her recent erotic novella duology, Dirty Secrets is about Jules, Amy’s (from Dirty Talk) kind-of-former-best friend. Jules has split up with Dave the Dick for the last time. She has escaped to London for a month to try and recover herself. Somehow over the course of their relationship, Jules lost all sense of her self worth, her value and her self esteem. Dave the Dick slowly eroded her confidence in everything. She is finally out and she realises that he’s done a number on her but it is only as she begins to recover that she realises exactly how big of a number he did.

Theo is a friend from school. They haven’t seen each other in 10 years, but when she calls him he offers her a haven and she takes him up on it. Good decision Jules! Theo is a co-owner of an exclusive sex club in London, the complete details of which are (I think, deliberately) vague. They cater to fantasies, with a particular emphasis on women’s pleasure. Theo offers Jules a 30 day membership to explore her fantasies and get in touch with her sexual self. Theo’s gentle friendship and calm support, together with the encouragement and charm of Theo’s business partner, John, are balms to Jules’ soul and there are sexual adventures with a “stranger”. Continue reading

Dirty Talk by Jane O’Reilly

April 21, 2015 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I was provided with a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley. Note, the author and I follow each other on Twitter and chat regularly.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When words are not enough…

Amy can’t believe she’s let herself be bullied into a write off with the odious Dave. Now she needs to produce twenty pages of a story by next Friday – the content is to be of a very particular nature!

Fortunately Amy has an advantage: she’s a secret – and voracious – reader of erotica and she knows just what turns her on! But when it comes to putting her own words down on paper embarrassment and nerves have left her with a severe case of writers block…

Enter her good friend Phil. While she’s always thought him too sexy to be true her crippling shyness has held her back. But with Phil as her willing muse, Amy’s reality is suddenly more erotic than any fantasy…

What worked for me (and what didn’t): One look at the title will give readers a fair idea of what they’re in for with Dirty Talk. Jane O’Reilly gives good sex like whoa. What makes the story even better though is that she also delivers on characterisation and romance. This novella is just over 60 pages long and that’s not a very high page count to do all that. In fact, I was just marvelling over this very thing, and how completely I’d bought into the HEA, when the story took a slight downturn when an unexpected revelation is made. But more about that later. Continue reading

Radiance by Grace Draven

April 13, 2015 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: This was recommended by many Twitter friends so I bought it.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) THE PRINCE OF NO VALUE

Brishen Khaskem, prince of the Kai, has lived content as the nonessential spare heir to a throne secured many times over. A trade and political alliance between the human kingdom of Gaur and the Kai kingdom of Bast-Haradis requires that he marry a Gauri woman to seal the treaty. Always a dutiful son, Brishen agrees to the marriage and discovers his bride is as ugly as he expected and more beautiful than he could have imagined.

THE NOBLEWOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE

Ildiko, niece of the Gauri king, has always known her only worth to the royal family lay in a strategic marriage. Resigned to her fate, she is horrified to learn that her intended groom isn’t just a foreign aristocrat but the younger prince of a people neither familiar nor human. Bound to her new husband, Ildiko will leave behind all she’s known to embrace a man shrouded in darkness but with a soul forged by light.

Two people brought together by the trappings of duty and politics will discover they are destined for each other, even as the powers of a hostile kingdom scheme to tear them apart.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): My Twitter friends were right. I liked Radiance very much. The conflict is mostly external and the romance is really quite delightful.

Ildiko and Brishen both knew they would be expected to marry for political alliance rather than affection and both are resigned to their fate. Nevertheless, each has some misgivings about marrying someone from another species. This is the first inter-species romance I have read and I appreciated that the first look at “other” was from Brishen’s point of view. It was the humans I was seeing as different and the descriptions were apt and amusing but they also served to relax me into the “other” of the Kai (the species to which Brishen belongs). Continue reading

March Round Up

April 2, 2015 / Kaetrin

Monthly Mini Review

Rock Chick Redemption by Kristen Ashley, narrated by Susannah Jones – B+ I said in my review of Rock Chick (I read the print version) that I imagined Amanda Ronconi reading the story to me and that this would probably mean I’d be inclined to judge the narration by Ms. Jones more harshly. I listened to Rock Chick Rescue and Rock Chick Redemption for fun, “just for me” listens because sometimes it’s nice for me just to be a consumer and not a reviewer and I wanted my brain to relax for a bit. But I wanted to say something about the narration.

I could wish that Susannah Jones has slightly more vocal range and could portray a larger variety of male voices – pretty much, all the heroes sound the same and they’re really only slightly deeper in pitch than her female character voices. (For regular audiobook listeners, this is a trade off we make fairly often. There are only so many character voices a narrator can perform and many male narrators cannot sound “female” in pitch and vice versa; however, they do adjust their tone sufficiently to give an audio cue to listeners that this is the hero or heroine talking and, provided it’s not grating, that can be enough.)

But, as for the rest, Ms. Jones was brilliant. She didn’t have any trouble with some of the more convoluted sentences Ms. Ashley uses (which I love even though their grammar is sometimes quite tortured) and the completely nailed the humour of the piece. I cannot even express to you how much I love her characterisation of Tex. He is twice as hilarious on audio. Continue reading

Obsession in Death by JD Robb, narrated by Susan Ericksen

March 30, 2015 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I’m a fan of the series and pre-ordered the audiobook.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Eve Dallas has solved a lot of high-profile murders for the NYPSD and gotten a lot of media. She—and her billionaire husband—are getting accustomed to being objects of attention, of gossip, of speculation.

But now Eve has become the object of one person’s obsession. Someone who finds her extraordinary, and thinks about her every hour of every day. Who believes the two of them have a special relationship. Who would kill for her—again and again…

With a murderer reading meanings into her every move, handling this case will be a delicate—and dangerous—psychological dance. And Eve knows that underneath the worship and admiration, a terrible threat lies in wait. Because the beautiful lieutenant is not at all grateful for these bloody offerings from her “true and loyal friend.” And in time, idols always fall…

What worked for me (and what didn’t): When a lawyer is murdered and a “note” written for Eve Dallas on the wall at the crime scene, it is obvious that the unsub isn’t your run-of-the-mill killer. Obsessed with Eve and thinking they are BFFs, the killer metes out “justice” in a way that Eve cannot, constrained as she is by, you know, the law.

The book takes place immediately after Christmas 2060 and ends up at New Year’s – the next book it will finally be 2061!!! Can you believe that so little time has passed in Eve’s world but there have been 40 full length books? Continue reading

Rock Chick by Kristen Ashley

March 26, 2015 / Kaetrin

Why I read it: I was in the mood for a KA book and I hadn’t read this one yet. (If I say I was saving it, will that make it sound better?)

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) Indy Savage, cop’s daughter, rock chick and used bookstore owner, has been in love with Lee Nightingale, once bad boy, now the man behind Nightingale Investigations, since she was five years old. No matter what ingenious schemes Indy used to capture his attention, Lee never showed an interest and Indy finally gave up. Now Indy’s employee, Rosie, has lost a bag of diamonds and bad guys are shooting at him. When Indy gets involved, Lee is forced to help. Complicating matters, Lee has decided he’s interested, Indy’s decided she’s not. But she can’t seem to keep Lee out of her life when she’s repeatedly stun gunned, kidnapped and there are car bombs exploding (not to mention she’s finding dead bodies).

Indy’s best bet is to solve the mystery of the diamonds before Lee. Lee’s challenge is to keep Indy alive and, at the same time, win back her heart.

What worked for me (and what didn’t): If I had’ve realised how much fun this book was I’d have read it way sooner. I wheeze-laughed my way through the story. I loved Indy and her antics and enjoyed watching Lee try and keep up with her.

“Who’s Ike?”

“Another of my men.”

“How many haven’t I met?”

“Luke, Mace, Jack and Ike.”

Mace? Who had a name like Mace? Where did these macho idiots come up with this shit? “You got a guy named Mace?” I asked. I couldn’t help myself.

“His name’s Mason. Mason is a shit name. We call him Mace.”

That made sense.