Convenient Strangers by Cara McKenna

TITLE: Convenient Strangers

AUTHOR: Cara McKenna

PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave

LENGTH: Novella (roughly 20k)

GENRE: Gay contemporary erotica

COST: $4.45

Stephen left England behind to follow his lover back to the States, but when it finally becomes clear his lover is not coming out of the closet for him, Stephen calls it quits. He goes out to drown his sorrows and runs into the handsome Adam, himself the product of a recent break-up. The two men hit it off, ending with an offer to crash the night on Adam’s couch. In spite of their intent to keep it simple, the chemistry between them is too hot to ignore…

I’ve been on a kick recently with this author, and this is hardly the last book I have of hers on my TBR pile. It succeeds where the previous erotica book I read by here didn’t quite, though, which just makes me more excited about getting to the rest of her backlist.

English Stephen followed his lover back to the States in hopes that this relationship was going to be the one. However, the in the closet tendencies his lover displayed never go away, frustrating Stephen more and more as time passes. Finally, he can’t take anymore and walks out. Heading out to the bar, he gets hit on by Adam, a physical therapist who is coming off his own recent break-up. After a rough start, they hit it off, and decide to take it elsewhere, especially since Stephen doesn’t want to go back home. They agree no anal on the first date, but as the tension between them rises, they both realize they need to renegotiate those boundaries.

This is not a romance. There’s no HEA, and it’s branded as part of the Exotika line at EC. I say this only because of reader expectations. My previous experiences with McKenna’s erotica have blurred the lines between erotica and romance, making it difficult to accept it as either. Thankfully, this one doesn’t fall into that trap.

That’s not to say it doesn’t have an emotional payout. It does, to a degree. Both Stephen and Adam are sharply drawn, and the sexual tension between the two ratcheted up so well, the sex is a relief when it finally occurs. Because they both feel very real, and their emotions are just as vital as their physical attraction, I became attached to both men, eager to see how their one-night stand was going to play out. While there isn’t an HEA, there’s a hint of an HFN, which in the case of erotica, is really all that’s needed (and anybody expecting otherwise isn’t paying attention to how this is being sold). It works. Surprisingly well. Because the sex is hot and satisfying, the characters solid and sympathetic, and the writing clean and concise.

Readability	9/10 – Hot and well-paced
Erotica	8/10 – The chemistry between these two is delicious, which helps with the eventual sex
Characterization	8/10 – I liked both these guys for their very different personalities
Entertainment value	8/10 – There’s nothing wholly original about the story, but it delivers what it promises
World building	5/10 – Takes a back seat to the characters and sex
TOTAL:	38/50

Willing Victim by Cara McKenna

TITLE: Willing Victim
AUTHOR: Cara McKenna
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 41k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotica
COST: $5.20

An attraction to blue-collar Flynn seems simple until Laurel sees his rough-and-tumble attitude inside the ring of an underground fighting club. According to his friend with benefits, Flynn likes his sex rough. Very rough. An intrigued Laurel agrees to watch to see if it’s something that might interest her, but her reaction is far stronger than she anticipated…

I had some issues with the first erotica title I read by this author, and though this doesn't knock it out of the ballpark, it still manages to be hot escapism.

Laurel is twenty-nine and waitressing at a tourist trap, disenchanted with the opportunities her engineering degree has scrounged up. In an attempt to have a peaceful afternoon, she ends up witness to an argument between lovers, but they ignore her attempts to keep it civil. A stranger appears out of nowhere, manhandles the boyfriend into moving it elsewhere, and then walks away. Laurel is intrigued and chases him down. He takes up her offer to buy him lunch, but when she gathers the nerve to ask this man out, he turns her down, saying he’s not most women’s type. She presses, and he finally tells her to show up at a bar on Saturday night, tell them Flynn sent her, and then see if she’s still interested in a date. On Saturday night, she witnesses an underground boxing club, with the man – Flynn, she learns his name is – one of the most brutal in the ring. She also sees him kissing a woman, and discouraged that he’s got a girlfriend, confesses to her that Flynn invited her to watch. The woman laughs it off, saying they’re just friends with benefits, that Flynn likes his sex rough and is willing to take her to dark places most men won’t. She invites Laurel to come watch them after the fight, an offer Laurel eventually accepts. What she sees about Flynn intrigues her even more, and she and Flynn then arrange to hook up on their own.

There’s a warning on the publisher’s site, stating that though everything is purely consensual, the role-playing and rape fantasies that get acted out might prove too much of a trigger for some readers. While this warning is valid and probably necessary – it’s better to err on the side of caution when it comes to these sort of triggers – the story isn’t nearly as rough as I expected it to be. Sure, Flynn uses rough language, spanks and slaps, bosses women around as he wants, but in all honesty, it never feels overboard. That’s largely due to remaining in Laurel’s perspective throughout the entire book. Because she always feels safe, the reader does, too. Flynn is never as menacing as he could be.

That being said, most of the sex is hot. Very hot. Very, very hot. The base nature of their first encounters do smooth out as the story progresses, and honestly, I didn’t care for the final sex scenes nearly as much as the initial ones (nor the implication that developing feelings means kink preferences aren’t important anymore), but that’s likely due to a pacing and structural issue rather than the scenes themselves.

See, this is erotica. It’s sold as erotica. For three-fourths of the story, it is erotica. But suddenly, in the last quarter, a bunch of emotions are introduced that are likely meant to show the viable shift from hooking up to dating. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s all so rushed and out of the blue that it never feels genuine. Flynn doesn’t suffer from it; his casual comment that Laurel was supposed to ask him out for a date but instead they’ve only hooked up is proof he’s been thinking about her and dating prospects. Laurel is the one who suddenly spills secrets, and it just never makes sense.

Up until this point, though, I liked Flynn and Laurel for what they were. Flynn is blue-collar Boston, surprisingly articulate even with his often brusque manner, while Laurel is relatable in her insecurities and desires. The ending is meant to introduce a potential HFN (unnecessary in erotica, in my opinion), and I think I could be convinced these two have a future based on the characterizations I saw up until that jarring last chapter or two. But that’s not the point of erotica. This should have been all about the heat. In that respect, it worked, providing an intense exploration into less romantic fantasies. I’m in for more. Definitely.

Readability	8/10 – Until the last fourth that didn’t seem to fit, hot and heavy
Erotica	8/10 – Though it devolves into more vanilla as the story progresses, it’s still pretty darn hot
Characterization	7/10 – I liked them more for the first ¾’s but found the emotional dumps in the last bit unbelievable and out of place
Entertainment value	7/10 – If this had stayed firmly within the realm of erotica, this would’ve been higher. As a hybrid, it doesn’t work as well
World building	8/10 – I don’t know if the boxing is necessarily realistic, but damn if I couldn’t see and smell everything
TOTAL:	38/50

Family Business by Emma McKee

TITLE: Family Business
AUTHOR: Emma McKee
PUBLISHER: Wild Rose Press
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 62k)
GENRE: Contemporary romantic suspense
COST: $3.99

Loan officer Nora Bainbridge’s great-aunt is as eccentric as they come, but then again, as an aging actress from Hollywood’s golden era, she’s expected to be. When she breaks her leg, she asks for Nora to move in and take care of her cat, a financial arrangement Nora can’t refuse right now. Little does she know that the TV producer poking his nose around, looking for information on her Aunt Elnora’s ancient connections with the mob, is really an FBI agent, or that he just might be the answer to her recent dry spell…

When an author’s humor works for me, I’m much more inclined to finish a book, even when I can see its flaws. This was one of those cases.

It opens with FBI agent Luke McKinnon staking out aging Hollywood actress, Elnora Bainbridge, in hopes he can determine whether or not his teenaged crush is involved in a stolen art scam. He witnesses her take a fall while chasing her cat and calls 911 anonymously. That same fall puts Elnora in the hospital, and prompts her to pay her great-niece, named after her, to housesit and take care of the over-indulged cat. Nora agrees only because she needs the money. She’s barely making ends meet as she struggles to regain her financial footing after her ex cleaned her out. Luke shows up and introduces himself as a television producer, interested in doing a show on Elnora. He’s struck by the physical similarities between the two women, and it becomes harder for him to separate his growing feelings for Nora with the pressing evidence that Elnora really is involved in something illegal. He should know, after all. His grandfather was one of the mobsters who fought over Elnora before she gave up her acting career for good.

I fell for this story very early on, mostly because I was laughing out loud in the first few pages at Luke’s spying antics. The humor in this worked for me, mostly because I got sucked in by Luke’s appalled thoughts that he would now be scarred with memories of his favorite teenaged crush running around naked in her eighties. It’s a little silly, but that farcical nature worked within the context of the story, keeping it light for most of its length. Not all of it was a success. I’m not a fan of puns at all, and having the nosy neighbor named Ima Payne was mostly just eyeroll-worthy. Still, I liked Nora and Luke’s self-deprecating humor enough to like them in conjunction, thus making it easier to invest in their potential romance.

The supporting cast is colorful as well, from her spirited Aunt Elnora with her illicit online businesses, to Elnora’s attorney Albert, all the way to the overweight, over-indulged cat, Mr. Witherby. Nora bounces around from person to animal with a refreshing aplomb, and if she sometimes seems a bit scattered as a result, it’s nice to be remembered that events are happening very quickly within the story (so quickly that at least once, the author messes up the timeline). More get introduced as the story progresses, and it’s the firm addition of the Mob (as opposed to the hints that they might be involved at the top of the story) that actually starts weakening the tale.

So much is made about what might have happened, the truth is very anticlimactic when it comes out. Then, it plays out so quickly, in a scene that’s far too talky even for a farce, that I was left with a vague sense of, “That’s it?” Add to that a time jump at the end that, while justified, watered down the response rather than heightened it, and I was a little disappointed by the time I got my HEA. If only the last third had lived up to the hype of the first two. This could’ve been truly remarkable then.

Readability	8/10 – Humor goes a long way in smoothing over rough transitions and an anticlimactic ending
Hero	7/10 – His perspective was what enticed me to make this a definite finish, funny and just deprecating enough to be charming
Heroine	7/10 – Self-aware with just enough of an edge
Entertainment value	7/10 – I responded to humor in this, as well as the obvious love for old movies, though the ending didn’t live up to the promise of the first two-thirds
World building	7/10 – Enough hints to make it interesting, not enough to make it rich
TOTAL:	36/50

The Rebuilding Year by Kaje Harper

TITLE: The Rebuilding Year
AUTHOR: Kaje Harper
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 80k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $5.50

After a horrific accident on the job, Ryan Ward has switched from firefighting to medicine, returning to college at thirty. When his bad leg goes out on him on campus, he’s helped by the groundskeeper, thirty-seven year-old divorced John Barrett, and the two strike up a friendship. That friendship provides the basis of John offering to rent a room to Ryan in his house, a move both of them need. But as their friendship deepens over the months, the last thing either of them expects is for attraction to grow from it, too…

One thing I’m coming to appreciate about this author is how very readable she is. Even though I had certain issues with this book, and ultimately didn’t quite enjoy it as much as the other stories I read recently by her, I still read through it in only two sittings, engaged with her voice and the believability of her men enough to get immersed. I even trusted her enough to read a gay for you trope, which tends to be on my list of “oh please no” tropes when I’m looking for something to buy.

This is the story of two thirtysomething men, returning med student Ryan and groundskeeper John. John is divorced and taking a step back from his corporate career with his new job, while Ryan has recently survived a horrific accident as a firefighter and is changing tracks because of that. The title is completely apt for their state. Both are in this state of flux, not just about each other, but about finding their feet in a life they can accept. Ryan has a living situation with a roommate he can’t stand, so when John offers to rent him a room in his house, Ryan jumps at it. Their friendship builds slowly, until gradually John realizes he’s interested in more from Ryan than what they currently have.

This careful build and methodical creation of these two men and their relationship is what anchors this book. I liked both men, though I had a preference for John and his more solid, protective ways. Their friendship felt genuine from their first meeting, and I enjoyed seeing these two discover how to live together as adults. The relationship faltered for me when it began to shift to something romantic. I bought them liking each other, but I never saw the physical attraction until suddenly, it was there in my face and they were struggling with this newfound thing between them. I imagine this is probably as much my issue as it is anything else. While I believe strongly that we love who we love, I don’t buy most gay for you stories because it feels like too much of a copout most of the time (like mating). I need to see and believe in the desire before the author tells me it’s there, or I’m yanked out of believing anything romantic or sexual can happen. Too often, these tropes are used as shortcuts for actual storytelling. In this instance, I think it’s a combination of failing to see the possibility of sexual attraction before it was on the page and my natural reluctance to give in to the fantasy element of this particular trope.

It does smooth out as the story progresses. The sex is reasonably hot, and the emotions at the end are deep and believable. It’s just that hump to get over as the transition happens that lowered my enjoyment of the overall story.

The other element that doesn’t really serve the story well is the side mystery that winds through the plot. There’s a girl John finds wandering on campus, clearly high, that later become instrumental in both of their lives, but the way it kept popping into the story never sat well with me. It felt very shoehorned, like there needed to be specific scenes scattered in the first three-fourths of the story (and very few of them at that), in order to justify the big climax. I didn’t buy it, and actually got annoyed when it would take a sudden left turn into this police investigation.

Overall, this would likely work best for people who enjoy this trope or are already fans of the author. It’s refreshing to see time being taken in creating and building realistic men in an m/m romance, however, and that alone makes it worthwhile to continue following this author’s books.

Readability	8/10 – Slow-paced and methodical, my only complaint rests in the mystery that attempts to get woven through the plotline, it felt very shoehorned
Hero #1	7/10 – Believable and steady
Hero #2	8/10 – While I thought the switch to bi was too abrupt, I liked him more as a person than I did Ryan
Entertainment value	7/10 – Though I appreciated the slow build and the friendship, I didn’t completely buy the turnaround or the mystery aspects
World building	9/10 – Easily the best parts about it, felt very authentic
TOTAL:	39/50

Gambling on Love by Jane Davitt

TITLE: Gambling on Love
AUTHOR: Jane Davitt
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 87k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $6.99

Eleven years ago, Gary ran away from the small town he grew up in on the night he accidentally outed himself and his best friend Abe to Abe’s coach. Now, a winter storm he underestimated and a toss of his lucky quarter have him stranded on the side of the road just miles from where he grew up. As fate would have it, the driver of the truck he hit belongs to none other than Abe, but they have to get out of the storm before they can even begin to deal with the shock of seeing each other again…

Jane Davitt is one of the those authors I can trust to write intelligent prose, which is why I don’t usually have to think to hard about buying one of her books. Unfortunately, it takes more than a strong grasp of language to make a great story.

The book opens in 1998 with best friends Abe and Gary as teenagers. We learn of their close friendship that suffers slightly when Abe realizes Gary is attracted to him, but that soon shifts when Abe finally confesses he’s gay, too, and in love with Gary. A puppy love, in the closet, relationship develops, but one day, the two boys are caught in the locker room kissing by Abe’s coach. Terrified about what’s going to happen to them as gay in their small town, Gary runs away, leaving behind a confused Abe when Abe refuses to come with him. Cut forward eleven years, and Gary is just a few miles away from his home town, on his way to do one last thing for his lover/employer who just died. He underestimates the storm he’s driving through, and ends up getting into an accident with a truck. The truck driver is Abe, who was on his way home, and after the initial shock of seeing each other and a couple arguments, they work together to get to the safety of Abe’s house. The pair end up snowed in together for a few days, during which time they have to come to grips with the resentment and residual feelings between them.

The prologue is appropriately gripping and entertaining, with likeable, believable teenagers discovering that first thrill of love. It backslides a little with the jump forward in time, because the twenty-nine year-old Gary is clearly not the same as the teenaged Gary, and the effect is jarring. It seemed to even out, however, and I was excited when Abe came onto the scene. I was looking forward to seeing these two iron out their differences.

However, that doesn’t happen for a long time. More than half the book is given over to this prologue and the first twenty-four hours they spend together. A lot has to happen in that time, I know, but it created a telescope effect, with far too much intense time spent on dragging out their initial conflict, then not nearly enough time spent on the days that came afterward. Once they get clear of the snow, the most conflict we get is from one or the both of them saying the wrong thing to the other, issues that get resolved too quickly in relation to the pace set in the first half of the story. That schism interrupts the flow, and makes it feel like you’re reading two different books, where the characters only vaguely resemble each other. Ultimately, it’s very frustrating, because Gary ends up proving uneven as a result. His prickly behavior lacks enough context most of the time to make the reader empathize with him. Instead, all feeling ends up getting aimed at Abe, who already has the bonus of being the wronged party in this by being the one left behind.

That imbalance typifies the story’s biggest weakness. While the sex scenes are usually hot, with some mild D/s thrown in as Gary finally gets to be dominant and Abe learns to better accept his submissive sexual side, everything around it lacks the cohesion to glue it all together. It’s not helped that the ending is telegraphed early on, easy to predict for anybody paying attention. The solid prose just isn’t enough in this case.

Readability	8/10 – Intelligent prose and believable dialogue, but pacing was all over the place and slowed it down considerably
Hero #1	6/10 – His skittishness is all over the map, making it hard to get a consistent bead on him
Hero #2	7/10 – Though I thought his turnaround in forgiving Gary was too swift, I definitely empathized with him more
Entertainment value	6/10 – It took forever to get past the first twenty-four hours, and then the rest of it snowballed too quickly to really feel much of anything
World building	7/10 – The prologue and storm aspects felt chillingly real
TOTAL:	34/50

The Locker Room by Amy Lane

TITLE: The Locker Room
AUTHOR: Amy Lane
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 85k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $6.99

Xander Karcek loves two things in this world – basketball and Chris Edwards. Both saved him from a neglectful home and a potential life on the skids. But being gay and being a prominent athlete don’t seem to go hand in hand. Chris and Xander are forced to keep their relationship under wraps, even though it’s slowly killing both of them…

This was one of those books that hooked me from the start, but increasing problems as it progressed ended up making me wish I hadn’t spent the time on it.

With a druggie, neglectful mother, Xander is literally starving to death when he meets Chris Edwards on a local basketball court. When Chris’s mother allows the new friend to come home for dinner, the start of a deep, lasting relationship takes root. Chris and Xander are inseparable, and as their athletic careers progress, so do their feelings for each other. They realize they’re in love before they graduate from high school, but their positions as popular sports figures, especially in light of their desires to go pro, keep them private, through college and then on to the pros when they beat the odds and get signed by the same team.

I loved Xander at the start of the story. He’s fighting horrific odds and somehow has the humility and strength to not realize just how hard he’s fighting. Chris literally saves his life by reaching out to him on that basketball court, a connection both Xander and I as a reader recognize. Since the story is told in Xander’s perspective, it’s very easy to get sucked into his pain.

However, those feelings started to ebb about a third into the story, for two very different reasons. First of all, the author is far too much in love with parentheticals for me. One or two are interesting, but more than that and I find the whole stylistic device too contrived and cutesy to stay immersed within the text. They do dwindle down as the story progresses, but there were whole sections where there were multiple parentheticals within single paragraphs. It’s disruptive to my reading experience because contrary to how I’m sure the author intends, it feels like the author has pulled me aside to whisper this little aside in my ear rather than the character doing it. That constant reminder, that sense of over-friendly “let me tell you this little bit,” was enough to destroy how deeply rooted I was within the story.

The second issue stems from the story itself. While I was initially enraptured by how much in love these two guys were, the heavy, heavy melodrama surrounding them grew too unreal to believe. All the conflict is external to these two, which is more than fine as long as that conflict is organic. But there is no middle ground with these two. They’re either flying higher than a kite, or they’re vomiting over the choices they have to make. It’s too extreme for me, and by halfway through, I felt like I had an ulcer, too. Toss in the fact that all the women surrounding them lack nuances, all worshiping at the altar of Xander, and I realized I just couldn’t relate to any of these people as believable enough to get past the other shortcomings.

I’ve heard so many readers exclaim how much they love this author, so I wanted to give her a try, but I can see now that her style is not going to be one I’ll be able to enjoy. The angst levels are too extreme, and the heroes too idealized. But at least now I know.

Readability	7/10 – The overuse of parentheticals and italics exacerbate the story’s over-the-topness
Hero #1	7/10 – His anguished, insecure strength was appealing, but it becomes increasingly unrealistic as the story progresses
Hero #2	5/10 – Too idealized to ever really believe
Entertainment value	6/10 – I was actually really enjoying this, but the constant over-the-top melodrama proved too much
World building	8/10 – The sports element is well incorporated and feels mostly authentic, while the rest of it suffers from extremes
TOTAL:	33/50

Out on the Net by Rick R. Reed

TITLE: Out on the Net
AUTHOR: Rick R. Reed
PUBLISHER: Amber Allure
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 18k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary romance
COST: $5.00

Ray Tolliver realizes on the day he’s supposed to get married that he’s gay, so he calls off the wedding…at which point, he begins blogging about his experiences in hopes someone else might be able to learn from his choices…

This short novella is comprised of a series of blogs written by recently out Ray Tolliver. It starts with his wedding day, where he finally admits to himself that he’s gay. His best friend Doug agrees to cover for him when he wants to call it off, at which point, Ray sets out recording his new life. He’s a virgin to gay sex, so his first entries are about the local rest stop notorious for gay hook-ups and his adjustment to being single again. They progress from there to his first date and beyond.

The appeal here is in the chatty nature of the author’s voice. It reads much faster than 18k, which works both for and against it. In the case of the former, it meant getting sucked in and finishing it before I knew it. For the latter, however, I got done and wondered, “That seemed a little easy.” I liked Ray, and I liked the window I got into his life, but without getting more depth into the resolution, I didn’t really buy it. I also wondered why Doug, the best friend who took the brunt of an angry bride and wedding party, never even got a mention after the first chapter. For someone who was so supportive and helpful, I would’ve thought Ray would look to him to for moral support at the very least. But no, Doug is just gone after that.

There are fourteen blog entries, but they lack dates to know just how much time has passed between each one. It’s sometimes easy to pick up on it, but not always. However, in spite of these flaws, the peeks we get into Ray’s life are entertaining and authentic. Reed proves his finesse with multiple genres here, ensuring I’ll keep coming back to his titles, regardless of what he decides to tackle next.

Readability	8/10 – Chatty and breezy, though sometimes the dialogue felt unnatural
Hero #1	8/10 – Believable and sweet
Hero #2	4/10 – This is where I had problems with the dialogue, I never really believed him
Entertainment value	7/10 – Liked the format and the freshness of the protagonist
World building	7/10 – A strong balance of details within the blogs
TOTAL:	34/50

Lying Eyes by Amy Atwell

TITLE: Lying Eyes
AUTHOR: Amy Atwell
PUBLISHER: Carina
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 103k)
GENRE: Contemporary romantic suspense
COST: $5.39

Jewelry designer/store owner Iris Fortune is trying to lead a normal, stable life, but her magician father keeps finding ways of disrupting it. His latest scheme involves mythological Russian gems, a thief named Mickey who makes her heart pound more than her lawyer fiancé, a strong-willed rabbit named Edgar, and oh yeah, two half sisters she never knew she had…

There is so much going on in this romantic suspense, it’s almost tough to know where to start. The premise at the beginning is simple enough. Mickey, a hired thug, snatches Cosmo, an aging magician, because he hasn’t followed through on his end of a corrupt business deal. It’s up to Mickey to find the gems Cosmo was supposed to turn over, except Cosmo manages to get away. Mickey then goes to Cosmos’s daughter Iris, the owner of a jewelry store at the Bellagio, to see if she knows anything. Iris is engaged to a lawyer with political aspirations, a boring, safe choice to counter the less than predictable life she had growing up. Iris gets a call from her security company about an unauthorized entry, and when she realizes it has to be Cosmo, lies to protect him. Thus starts a long, convoluted race to find the gems Cosmo is withholding.

The problem isn’t that the plot isn’t interesting. It certainly is. The problem rests in just how many people get involved in it. Right away, we’re thrown into the thick of things, because in addition to Mickey and Iris, there’s Hunter the cop, Allie and Cory (Iris’s half-sisters), the other thugs Mickey works with, Turner the hitman, and the Boss who’s behind it at all. By the story’s end, we get even more characters. It’s not just trying to keep them all straight. There are scenes in so many different POVs (only one per scene most of the time, thank god), that it’s often hard to make emotional connections to any of them.

Thankfully, enough time is spent with Mickey and Iris to recognize them as the central pairing. Mickey is charmingly roguish and capable of pulling Iris out of her safe little shell. She’s intelligent and just wary enough to be believable, but I did feel that she got lost in the shuffle quite often. They have strong chemistry, and I loved how he was able to get her to relax.

Between all this, however, are scenes that often drag on too long (seriously, losing Edgar in the gardens lasted forever), and some that seemed completely extraneous altogether. I would have enjoyed the book a lot more if it had been more tightly focused, rather than allowed to ramble on where it did. It worked to keep me guessing as to what would happen next, but beyond that, I was left fairly unsatisfied.

Readability	7/10 – Clean editorially, but some scenes drag on for far too long and the huge cast does little but muddy the waters
Hero	7/10 – Charming and roguish
Heroine	7/10 – Has a tendency to get lost in the shuffle of more colorful characters, but nothing awful about her
Entertainment value	7/10 – This would’ve ranked higher if certain parts had dragged it down
World building	9/10 – Extensive and fully realized
TOTAL:	37/50

Sexual Persuasion by Maryn Sinclair

TITLE: Sexual Persuasion
AUTHOR: Maryn Sinclair
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 62k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $6.99

When Charlotte Stone first spotted Alex Andros, she didn’t know he was the lawyer for one of the most dangerous men in Boston or rumored to be his lover. She only knew the reaction she had to him – instant, chemical, dangerous. She’s prepared to take her friend’s advice and avoid him, but when her ex corners outside of the party, Alex is the one who rides in for the rescue. He wants her to come to her own conclusion about him, outside of what she’d heard, but Charlotte is reluctant, at least until her ex decides to try blackmailing her into coming back to him…

I had such high expectations for this book after the first sizzling chapter. But this is one example of things going steadily downhill.

Charlotte owns an upscale furnishing store and attends an auction with hopes of winning some art work to sell. There, she runs into her ex, a man who did various BDSM things to her while she slept the last night they were together. She tries to get away, but ends up getting rescued by the gorgeous stranger who’d been watching her since her arrival. His name is Alex Andros, and he’s the attorney to one of Boston’s top racketeers. He’s also rumored to be the man’s lover, but Charlotte finds it very hard to believe he’s gay after the way he looks at her. She brushes him off, but when her friend has to leave her to get a ride home by herself, Alex comes to the rescue again. They spend a pleasant evening having drinks, only to have Charlotte come face to face with her ex again once Alex drops her off. Charlotte barely escapes being raped, and calls Alex for help. Drawn to Charlotte already, Alex knows he has to do whatever he can to get the ex off her back.

The sexual tension in this story crackles from the very start. My first reaction was that it was too intense too soon, and I almost gave up on it, but I got too sucked in by Alex’s charisma and the chemistry between the pair to stop. I read avidly, drinking it all in even through the near-rape. It all started to fall apart for me, however, once Alex and Charlotte consummated their attraction. The sex scenes didn’t work for me nearly as well as the tension and plottier scenes, and gradually, my interest dwindled. I grew tired of hearing just how terrific Charlotte’s breasts are (they’re very large, very natural, and apparently worshiped by all men who see them), as well as the over the top dialogue and certain terminology (the author has a propensity for using the word “hole” too much during sex scenes). It would ebb when they’d return to their tense, non-sexual scenes, but not for long.

It’s also not helped at all that the big conflict in this is Alex’s absolute refusal to share anything personal about himself. Well, that’s not entirely true. I can understand that kind of reaction if what he’s refusing to share is so truly awful. But he’s ultimately hiding an affair that he had in college with a man. He already neither confirms nor denies his bisexuality to the public or Charlotte. I just never understood why it was such a big deal that this one relationship remain such a mystery except to create artificial drama.

This spiral downwards accelerates at the end, with an added twist (that wasn’t really a twist) that came out of nowhere to give Charlotte something to misunderstand and both of them something to hash out. It turned the entire last scene into something completely unbelievable, and there, the chemistry that had saved much of the story for me already, was gone completely. The last few paragraphs are unexpectedly abrupt and crass considering what’s been going on (I mean, really, she calls it making love to Alex’s face but then turns around and in the big romantic moment tells her employees she’s going upstairs to fuck?!? Um, no.), and I’m left with a sour taste in my mouth. It’s such a shame, too, because there was such genuine heat and allure in the first third of the book. It just fizzled when they actually came together.

Readability	7/10 – I had a much easier time with the tension than the sex scenes or later dialogue
Hero	6/10 – The longer it took for him to discuss what happened, the less I liked him
Heroine	5/10 – Other than her physical attributes, I never understood what the appeal was
Entertainment value	5/10 – The tension that crackled at the beginning wasn’t followed through in the sex scenes or overplayed ending
World building	6/10 – More was needed to give the villain any kind of depth or believe Alex’s reputation
TOTAL:	29/50

Reckless in Moonlight by Cara Bristol

TITLE: Reckless in Moonlight
AUTHOR: Cara Bristol
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 44k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $5.99

Dana Markus is in the middle of a divorce. Her husband left her for a woman barely older than their daughter, and now she finds herself wondering about her own desirability at the age of forty-five. During an evening skinnydip in her pool, she fantasizes about her neighbor’s twenty-eight-year-old son, only to have him show up in the hot, living flesh only moments later. Attraction flares from the start, but Dana isn’t looking for a relationship, and especially not one with a younger man. But their desire for each other is combustible. Is it so wrong to want some of that passion for herself for a change?

I have to admit, I’ve been curious about this author. I hadn’t read anything by her before now, because the titles I’d seen were domestic discipline in nature, and while I understand it’s purely fantasy and escapism, that’s a no-go area for me, no matter what. So when I saw this older woman/younger man story come up, I decided to take the plunge and try her. I learned something very important. Her erotic style and sense of humor don’t mesh with what I enjoy.

It’s a straightforward contemporary. Dana is forty-five and in the throes of a divorce. Her husband cheated on her and left her for a woman only two years older than their daughter, and Dana is feeling less than desirable. She fantasizes about the neighbor’s hot son, a twenty-eight year-old doctor with a body like Adonis. The night they actually get to meet face to face – in her backyard after she’s been skinnydipping – that fantasy becomes reality. Lon has been lusting after his parents’ hot neighbor for months, and now that he has got a taste of her, he wants to have a go at dating. She’s a little hung up on the age difference, but he quickly takes care of that. With lots and lots of sex.

Buying from LI is a lot like buying from EC 90% of the time. The focus tends to be on the sex in the romances, which isn’t always a bad thing. It only gets in the way when the erotic style doesn’t work for me, and unfortunately, that was the case here. Much of it has to do with terminology, and that’s a preferential thing that varies from reader to reader. What bothered me – like having cocks and pussies referred to as “weeping” – might not bother others. I did debate early on if I should keep going once I realized I was going to have issues with it, but because it’s such a recent release and because I’ve been so curious about this author for so long, I stuck it out.

It wasn’t just the erotic style that didn’t work for me. Attempts to lighten the mood with jokes and banter fell flat as well. Humor is so subjective, though. Lines like, “I plan for you and my cock to get to be best friends,” are obviously meant to be funny (within the context of the story), but just made me roll my eyes and wonder if I was reading about teenagers instead of adults. I ended up feeling rather indifferent about the whole experience, from the characters to the romance to the sex. I don’t regret buying this book, though, because my curiosity has finally been satisfied.

Readability	6/10 – Purely based on the author’s humor and erotic scenes not working for me
Hero	4/10 – So much was spent on the sex there was too little time to learn what he might actually be like when he wasn’t
Heroine	5/10 – At least she didn’t whine about the age difference for half the book
Entertainment value	3/10 – I learned the author’s erotic style and sense of humor does not mesh with what I enjoy
World building	5/10 – Everything felt skimmed over in favor of all the sex
TOTAL:	23/50

To Die For by Caitlyn Willows

TITLE: To Die For
AUTHOR: Caitlyn Willows
PUBLISHER: Amber Quill
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 42k)
GENRE: Contemporary suspense erotic romance
COST: $7.00

Once a victim of domestic abuse, Zoe has moved on with her life, doing her best to rebuild with the man responsible for the damage behind bars. But now he’s out, and in a chance encounter, lets her know he’s coming after her. When Detective Frank Ludwig finds out, he swears to protect her. He’s been in love with her for six months, and damned if he’s going to let anybody hurt Zoe, even if she’s more than capable of taking care of herself…

Though this romantic suspense had a lot of potential in it, I finished it feeling like it just never quite hit the mark.

It starts off at an emotional high, as Zoe is coming off her shift where she has just saved a cop’s life by talking to him and keeping him engaged. However, in the same incident, she was also threatened. Her abusive ex-boyfriend was the criminal in question, and when he heard her voice, exploded with anger, emotions that have built since he was arrested and convicted after she’d turned him in. She arrives at a Denny’s, trying to figure out what she’s going to do next, and is dismayed to see a group of cops she works with there already. They applaud her as a hero, but when the man she’s been lusting over, Frank Ludwig, decides to join her, the whole story comes out. Frank has been in love with Zoe for months. When he hears about the danger, he refuses to see her slip through the cracks, taking her personal safety into his own hands while the department does what they can to track down her ex. Thus begins an explosive few days, as the threats escalate and the pair come to grips with their mutual attraction.

In spite of the confusing opening pages, enough becomes clear as the story progresses and Zoe opens up to Frank a little. I was intrigued about where it was going. Zoe is sympathetic and relatable to many women, insecure, plus-sized, and I liked her, even though she felt scattered. I disregarded the latter because it felt organic to her situation. I was meeting her in the middle of an emotional crisis. Of course, she’d be scattered. But what was scattered at the start became bouncing around from one extreme to another as the story progressed. It got a little tedious.

Frank proved the same. I liked him from the start, his fierce defense of Zoe, his determination to do the right thing. I was rolling onto loving him until the first time he really put his foot in his mouth. He has a tendency to stop thinking once their relationship turns sexual, and blurts out the first thing he thinks of, which is usually very much the wrong thing to say in the moment. This propensity gets worse as the story goes on, mostly because it felt like that was the only way to create any internal conflict between these two. They yo-yo like this throughout the entire book, a jerky effect that is mirrored by the stop and go nature of the suspense angle. It makes it easy to put down, even though I wanted to pick it up again moments later.

Suspense thrives on building tension, and while there is danger throughout this book, when the lulls come, the tension drops away almost entirely rather than ebb enough to relax the reader into getting sucked even harder into the next swell. I suspect it worked against me because of the extended nature of the romantic scenes within those lulls. I needed that momentum in the romance, but they went on too long for me, even as hot as these two were together.

In the end, the story was enjoyable enough for me not to regret reading it, but I ultimately feel like maybe with some tighter editing, it could have been really great.

Readability	7/10 – Minor typos and some terminology that usually turns me off, but otherwise swift and easy
Hero	6/10 – His reactions felt realistic in hindsight, but his propensity for stepping in it wore thin
Heroine	6/10 – Liked that she knew how to take care of herself, but she felt a little all over the place
Entertainment value	6/10 – The pacing was rather jerky, making it easy to put down when I hit lulls
World building	7/10 – The emotional reality of Zoe’s past was well-done, but I kept feeling like I was missing something in regards to the suspense portion
TOTAL:	32/50

Headstrong by Meg Maguire

TITLE: Headstrong
AUTHOR: Meg Maguire
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel
GENRE: Contemporary romance
COST: $5.50

When Libby catches the latest man her father has hired to keep an eye on her, she offers him a deal – play double agent and get her father off her back, and she’ll pay him even more. For Reece Nolan, the offer is tempting. His family is in dire need of the money, but Libby is everything he’s always hated. It doesn’t help that she and his brother Colin hit it off almost from the start. But which brother will eventually win Libby – the one she wants or the one she understands?

I’ll be honest. The only reason I bothered finishing this book is because I’ve loved so many other works by this author. If this had been the first thing I’d ever read by her, I would’ve been done by the third chapter and written off trying anything else.

The plot is straightforward love triangle. Libby is a free-spirited rebel, living on a boat, certified genius who likes to stir the pot. Reece is uptight and glacial, with an eye for the straight and narrow, while his brother Colin is much like Libby. Libby meets both brothers in separate incidents – Colin when he rescues her from an annoying drunk, Reece when she catches him spying on her for her father. Soon, she’s wormed her way into their lives, and all three of them are left wondering just what is going on.

I’m not going to talk anymore about the plot. It’ll spoil everything, and the way it’s played out, it’s impossible to tell just who is going to end up with who until almost the end. Each is given time to explore their point of view, turning it into a bona fide love triangle. There’s just one major problem. I absolutely couldn’t stand Libby. At all. And without liking her, I just got angrier and angrier at how she acted with both brothers.

That’s not to say she’s not well-drawn. She’s clear as day. She manipulates, she likes creating trouble, and she has no problems keeping people on edge. While I liked her initial introduction, as soon as I saw her behavior outside of that specific incident, my opinion of her plummeted. It didn’t matter whose eyes I saw her through, whether it was Reece’s or Colin’s, and it only got worse when it was her own and I could follow her manipulative thoughts. What was probably meant to be forthright and quirky annoyed me to the bone. I loathed how she treated people, and wished more than once she would just go away.

Reece and Colin are much more sympathetic, even as different as they are. Their family is the emotional core of the story, and their presence helps a little bit to mitigate some of the damage having Libby around did for me. But it wasn’t enough. And I was definitely not satisfied with the ending. I was so frustrated with Libby’s treatment of both men that it wouldn’t have mattered which one she ended up with. They both deserved better, frankly. None of her backstory that was meant to help make me understand or like her did anything but make me roll my eyes.

I wouldn’t suggest this as an introduction to this author’s work. I’m not even sure I’d suggest it for a fan of her work. My reactions to Libby are extreme, though, so maybe others might not have the issues with her that I did.

Readability	8/10 – Technically proficient and readable, my issues lie with the characters
Hero	7/10 – I’m not going to elaborate because I don’t want to spoil the triangle
Heroine	3/10 – I’ve often had problems with Maguire’s heroines, but I genuinely disliked this one so much I almost gave up more than once
Entertainment value	2/10 – Triangles work best when all three sides are equal, and my issues with Libby were so strong I was angry more than anything else
World building	6/10 – Proficient enough to create a mood, but not as vivid as I'd expect
TOTAL:	26/50