Ink Me by Robin Wolfe

TITLE: Ink Me
AUTHOR: Robin Wolfe
PUBLISHER: Eternal Press
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 11k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotica
COST: $3.95

Marie is looking forward to getting a tattoo from the most amazing artist she has ever seen, so much so that she is wet as soon as she arrives. Her arousal, however, is getting in his way…

Erotica is not always about the sex. It’s about experiencing the senses, the sensual as much as the sexual. While this short story doesn’t have a lot of actual sexual contact in it, it attempts to make up for it via using the tattooing in that manner. That’s how the story opens, and honestly, was the incitement that convinced me to buy it. Because it worked. Very well. Unfortunately, it all fell apart.

There’s very little storywise that goes on. Marie has a special tattoo she wants across her lower abdomen, and has specifically sought out Paul to give it to her. She’s attracted to him from the start, and when it makes her twitchy, he attempts to take her mind off it. As I said, the details in the beginning were well-done and evocative, but as soon as it switches to Paul turning things sexual, it all goes downhill. He stops the job because she twitches every time he touches her, and yet, he proceeds to demand that she satisfy him, and forces her to wait for her own release until after he’s done with the tattoo. How is that in any way logical? If anything, she’s more twitchy afterward. How does that help the situation? It doesn’t. It especially doesn’t help me like Paul. His attitude becomes demeaning and selfish. He demands she blow him even though she doesn’t like to do it. Dialogue like, Say you're my bitch first, and then blow me., isn’t hot in the context of how unlikable he was in that entire section, especially when added to this, I don't care if you're going crazy. I said no sex until your ink's done. And I'm losing patience so get the hell back on your knees.

The other aspect that really pulled me out of it was the attitude toward safety. Paul is meticulous in the protection he uses in preparing Marie for the tattoo, and during the actual job. However, when it came to the sex, there is no mention of condoms, and no discussion. He comes in her mouth, as well as vaginally later on. The incongruity is jarring, and only furthers my dislike of the story.

If it’s going to be escapism, make it escapism. This half and half approach just doesn’t work.

Readability	7/10 – An easy read, but the pacing/balance is so skewed that it throws it off
Hero	3/10 – Any kind of sexy behavior at the beginning and nice guy attitude at the end doesn’t work to counter his pure bastard qualities of the middle
Heroine	4/10 – An understandable mindset at the start gives way to a woman who makes me roll my eyes
Entertainment value	3/10 – I find little erotic about a jerk and an idiot
World building	5/10 – Why go to the bother to emphasize safety with the tattooing and then completely slack on safety with the sex?
TOTAL:	22/50

Starjacked by Karin Shah

TITLE: Starjacked
AUTHOR: Karin Shah
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 68k)
GENRE: Sci-fi romance
COST: $5.50

Rork Al’Ren, Head of Defense for the Union, goes undercover to break up a powerful piracy ring once and for all, and finds himself enslaved as a result. It’s better than dead, he thinks, until the notorious Tia Sen, the daughter of the pirate leader, puts a control collar on him and pronounces him hers. Tia isn’t exactly as she seems. Beneath her father’s nose, she does everything she can to free children from future enslavement, but these are secrets she guards preciously, since exposure would mean death to those who help her. Nobody can find out, especially the slave she can’t stop thinking about…

I don’t know what’s in the water these days, but I have been having the hardest time getting through opening chapters on many of the stories I’m reading. Either it’s boring, or overwritten, or excruciatingly bad, and most of the time, I’ll set it aside to try again later or give up entirely. This was one I decided to slog through, though it took me several chapters before I didn’t feel like it was a waste of time. In the end, it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared, though it never veered from the middle of the road.

This is role reversal in space, with the female pirate and the alpha male taken into her custody and forced to do her bidding. Tia has a reputation as long as her arm for her maliciousness, and Rork wants nothing more than to bring her to justice. He lost his wife and unborn child to pirates, as well as a recent comrade, and from the very beginning, his mission is personal, even if he denies it. He witnesses Tia commit a rather heinous crime when he is captured (though it was all for show, and the prisoners she purportedly killed escaped), and cannot understand how he can be attracted to a woman so despicable. Thus begins the song and dance that typifies their relationship throughout the book, Rork disgusted with himself for his weakness, Tia wondering why she cares so much what a slave thinks.

The whole thing would work much better if Tia was as strong a character as Rork is. Oh, sure, we’re told over and over again how strong she is, and we do get opportunities to see her hold her own. But all too soon, she starts to lose it, until she is the damsel who needs Rork to save her. The entire middle section completely disintegrates as this occurs. Pacing disappears, and the story gets stuck in a holding pattern where nothing actually happens. Thankfully, Tia does pull off a little stunt that catapults the action back into play (and while I had no doubt something was going to happen to save her ass, it was a real joy to see her saving it herself), but by the time it happens, I’ve lost interest again. Considering how long it took me to get interested in the story in the first place, that’s not a good thing.

In the end, I’m left a strong feeling of déjà vu – a hero whose actions become predictable in spite of the fact that roles have been reversed, a heroine who doesn’t live up to her reputation (and I don’t mean the murdering part, I mean the strong, no-nonsense, don’t mess with her part), plot developments that are telegraphed chapters before they actually happen. It doesn’t make it a bad story – though the uneven pacing certainly drags it down – but it definitely keeps it from being a very good one.

Readability	7/10 – A too dense beginning and pacing issues weaken the novel’s strengths
Hero	7/10 – Serviceable as an alpha, though sometimes a little too predictable even with the role reversal
Heroine	5/10 – More damsel than powerful pirate
Entertainment value	6/10 – The pacing and a heroine who doesn’t live up to the promise of her reputation weakens what could have been a very good story.
World building	7/10 – Though there are some good ideas here, clumsy execution holds it back
TOTAL:	32/50

Carol of the Bellskis by Astrid Amara

TITLE: Carol of the Bellskis
AUTHOR: Astrid Amara
PUBLISHER: Loose Id
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 31k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $4.99

Seth Bellski thinks this Hanukkah is going to be the best ever. After all, he’s about to spend eight days with his lover, an unprecedented amount of time for them. That is, until his lover cancels. Since they work together and he isn’t out at the office, Lars Varga isn’t ready to make their relationship public, even if they’ve been together for a year. It’s the last straw for Seth. He breaks things off and heads off to his aunt and uncle’s B&B on his own, only to discover they are nowhere to be found and guests are arriving who expect an orthodox holiday. He’s almost at his wit’s end when Lars suddenly shows up, too…

This was one of the many holiday stories I bought this year that I didn’t get around to reading during the actual holiday because of time constraints. However, while it’s set during Hanukkah, with the holiday itself playing a primary role, it’s more than strong enough to be enjoyed outside of the season as well. I certainly did.

Seth is a paralegal in the law firm of which Lars is a primary partner, and the two have been secret lovers for a year. Seth loves Lars enough to tolerate it most of that time, even putting up with the fact that Lars pretends to have a girlfriend to support the charade that he’s straight. However, when Lars cancels out on the holiday trip Seth was counting on, Seth realizes he needs more. Fearful of the repercussions of coming out, Lars refuses, and Seth breaks things off, traveling to Whistler on his own. He’s greeted by an empty house, with no indication of where his aunt and uncle might be, and barely has time to take a breath before guests start arriving. He’s quickly over his head, because he can’t cook and knows nothing about their individual needs. When Lars shows up out of the blue, Seth gives him a couch to sleep on for one night, to wake up the next morning to Lars cooking. His culinary skills are too valuable to keeping the guests happy, so Seth reluctantly agrees for him to stay. From there, the two deal with the fallout of the fight that starts off the book.

Seth is the sympathetic core of this story. His hurt feelings and anguish are far too familiar to the average reader, as well as the actor’s nightmare conditions with the B&B. Who among us hasn’t experienced those same time of frazzled emotions? It’s to the author’s credit that she portrays Seth as so closely wound (yet still so functional) without veering into being too annoying. Instead, he becomes highly relatable, even if the specifics of his situation might not be what I would ever have to endure. His nerves propel this story forward, from his fears about his family, to his worry about the B&B guests, to his hurt regarding Lars.

Lars, on the other hand, is the calm in the storm. In many ways, he feels very too much to be true – too handsome, too well-dressed, too talented. His fatal flaw is his terror at being outed, and while he loves Seth more than anything, it’s not enough to overcome his trepidation. I found it harder to care about him – most likely due to his overperfection – but I forgave much of it because this is, after all, a holiday story, and by nature a little too good to be true anyway. Plus, Seth loves him. My investment in Seth directed my reactions to Lars.

All that being said, I wish I loved this story. After all, the atmosphere is fantastic, too. It’s refreshing to find such a strong cultural bias realized in a contemporary setting. However, the length worked against it for me. The entire last third of the story felt very rushed, Lars’ eventual change too sudden, and the blatant – and very coincidental – parallels between Seth/Lars and other aspects of the story too heavy-handed in comparison to the deft touches earlier on. I also found myself lost in regards to many of the personalities of the guests. For such a short space, there were too many of them for me to get a really strong grasp on. Every time a scene would come up, I’d invariably have to flip back to where they first arrived in order to remember who was who. It’s still a story worth picking up, though, for its delightful hero and terrific setting.

Readability	8/10 – Warm and personable
Hero #1	8/10 – His frazzled nerves vibrate through the pages, lending him a sympathetic air
Hero #2	7/10 – A little too good to be true, but hey, it’s a holiday story
Entertainment value	7/10 – The rushed ending and the large cast for the story’s size held me back from truly loving this
World building	9/10 – Incredibly immersive, so refreshing to read a story with such a strong contemporary, cultural atmosphere
TOTAL:	39/50

Kendra's Choice by Lauri Robinson

TITLE: Kendra’s Choice
AUTHOR: Lauri Robinson
PUBLISHER: Wild Rose Press
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 30k)
GENRE: Historical romance
COST: $3.50

As the oldest daughter of the area’s pastor, Kendra Parker has spent a great deal of her time taking care of others, and not nearly as much time seeing to herself. Helping a local elderly woman edit her articles is just another example of this…except for the fact that the article is all about a woman pleasing her man. Suddenly, Kendra is filled with desires she has no idea what to do with, and the prospect of finding someone she can test some of these theories with consumes her. Perhaps, however, the day of her sister’s wedding isn’t the best time to do that. But that’s the day Major Sterling Marlow rode up to visit, and he’s the one she can’t seem to get out of her head…

The idea of a historical heroine in search of sexual enlightenment in a western setting that wasn’t about a cowboy or prostitution intrigued me. Too many clichés get trotted out when it comes to historical westerns, so I trusted this author to pull it off because of the first book I’d read by her. The only problem was, that wasn’t really the story I got. It starts out that way, but the author too quickly abandons the original premise to follow the romance tried and true, resulting in a story I just can’t believe in.

Kendra is intelligent, sassy without being obnoxious, and still at heart a good girl who takes care of others in need. She’s a little miffed that her younger sister by two years is getting married before her, though not necessarily jealous of the fact that little sis got pregnant which forced the wedding to happen prematurely. It seems more than a little unfair to her, so with the recent fuel for her imagination from the article she is editing, she starts seriously considering how she can experience that kind of pleasure for herself.

In rides Major Sterling Marlow. Literally. He arrives at the Parker home unannounced, and gets invited to stay for the wedding. First sight of Kendra, and he’s in lust. Though this isn’t his first visit to the homestead, the author explains away their ignorance of each other by using Kendra’s many stays with ailing parishioners as the reason they haven’t panted over each other before. The chemistry is sharp from the get-go, and I settled in for what I hoped to be a sexy, light-spirited romp.

That’s not what the story actually is. Before the wedding celebrations are over the following morning, both Kendra and Sterling have decided they’re in love with the other, on the basis of some dinner conversation we aren’t privy to (it gets summarized that it happens in a sentence), a dance, and some stolen kisses and petting. Sound fast? It was. As a result, I didn’t believe it for a second. I know I’m supposed to suspend disbelief a lot of the time when I’m reading romances, and if I know that’s the kind of story I’m letting myself in to, that’s fine. But this was misleading from the start, like it wasn’t okay for them to simply be in lust for a little bit before actually falling in love. From that point on, the story devolves into a forced separation, some angsting on both of their parts that they’ll never see each other again, minor drama in which Kendra at least equips herself in the smart manner I’d witnessed at the start, and then…that was it.

I’m just not of the school that immediate sexual attraction equals love. The vast majority of the time, this device doesn’t work for me. Maybe that makes me cynical. I like to think it makes me a realist who knows you can have great sex without wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone. It takes more to build a relationship, and if the author isn’t going to bother showing it to me, I’m not sure why I should bother trying to believe it.

Readability	7/10 – Simple mistakes kept drawing me out of it
Hero	6/10 – I wanted to like him more than I did, but his swift leap to love never made sense to me
Heroine	7/10 – I liked her marginally better than Sterling, because of her strong and independent nature that didn’t stand in the way of her doing the right thing by her family, but again, the leap to love held this back
Entertainment value	6/10 – A lively sense of setting and character, but my failure to believe in the swiftness of emotion disconnected me from the romance
World building	8/10 – The juxtaposition of Kendra’s free-spirited nature with her historical western environment heightened both aspects
TOTAL:	34/50

Leap of Faith by Kate Willoughby

TITLE: Leap of Faith
AUTHOR: Kate Willoughby
PUBLISHER: Liquid Silver Books
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 16k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $3.99

Kira has been fascinated by her Peruvian heritage her entire life. With the gift bestowed upon her by her grandmother’s death, she can finally afford to visit it as an adult, and sets out on a private “immersion tour.” Things quickly go off the course she expects, however, when her guide abandons her on the path, and she is left to meet up with Amaru on her own. A one-on-one encounter with a man who pushes all her buttons isn’t exactly what she had in mind, but Kira’s willing to go along with the escape. Even though Amaru seems a little out of this world…

This story – either a long short story, or a short novella, depending on how you judge the word count – is a re-release for the author, with a little bit more meat added to its previous existence for this time around with Liquid Silver. I find it curious to go back and read older works by authors I’ve come to adore via their later works. Sometimes, the earlier works are just as wonderful. Others, they hint at the promise to come. Occasionally, I’m very glad I didn’t start with an older work first, because I wonder if I’d ever try them again.

Leap of Faith falls somewhere in the middle. It lacks the humor and sense of playfulness I normally associate with this author, though the romance and sensuality is there in abundance. Kira is a functional heroine, intelligent and big-hearted, while Amaru is one of the most giving alphas I’ve read in a while. It should add up to a sweeping romance, and yet, I find myself a little underwhelmed by it all.

It’s not because of the setting. The Peruvian background is lush and richly realized, providing a welcome retreat from the usual romantic settings. There is never any doubt that the author has done her research, either. Incan details creep organically into the narrative, immersing the reader into the milieu and making the ultimate explanation for Amaru’s circumstances believable.

No, where I stumble is with Kira. She is presented from the start as very down-to-earth, in spite of this fanciful trip of hers, and represents the reader’s contemporary perspective. Yet, the entire experience has a fairy tale quality, all the way down to Amaru’s treatment of her. The juxtaposition of her modern sensibilities with the swiftness of her acceptance is never as smooth as I needed. Explanations are given in the form of references to her grandmother and her grandmother’s stories, but they felt like convenient plot devices rather than a valid justification for why Kira fell into the fantasy as easily as she did. It ended up glossing over any depths for her motivations and made the final test a little too predictable for my tastes.

All things considered, it provided a pleasant enough fantasy to escape for a short while, due in large part to its locale. It just won’t be a very memorable one, in the long run.

Readability	7/10 – A swift read, though not necessarily memorable in the end
Hero	7/10 – Surprisingly sweet for such an alpha
Heroine	6/10 – I would have expected a little more skepticism, or at the very least, more depths to why she so readily accepted the fantasy of the situation
Entertainment value	6/10 – A pleasant fantasy, but in spite of its exotic location, a little too forgettable
World building	8/10 – In spite of wanting more on Kira’s background to make her acceptance more believable, the atmosphere and Incan background were rich and vibrant
TOTAL:	34/50

Pyke's Peak by Chris Owen

TITLE: Pyke’s Peak
AUTHOR: Chris Owen
PUBLISHER: Torquere
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 31k)
GENRE: Contemporary menage erotic romance
COST: $4.95

The relationship Pyke has with his two best friends is easy and uncomplicated. He loves both of them, the sex is great, and everybody’s happy. Mostly. The thing is…Pyke wants more. He wants the three of them to live together, so he goes out and buys what he thinks is the perfect house for them. Shea is on board almost immediately, but Laurel is harder to convince, especially when Pyke and Shea decide their commitment to each other needs to be more defined…

The one aspect of this story that I enjoyed the most is also its single biggest flaw. This is the story of three twentysomethings, two bisexual men and a woman, all best friends. They have an easygoing camaraderie between them that mirrors a lot of friendships I saw in college and the first few years afterward – a mutual respect and genuine liking that occasionally got really great sex thrown into the mix. At the story’s start, they’ve never done anything all together, but during the first scene between Pyke and Laurel, she expresses the desire to watch Pyke and Shea together. This pretty much jumpstarts all of Pyke’s fantasies. He decides to move things onto the next step, and using winnings from a recent lottery win, purchases an old, eccentric house for the three of them to share.

The amiable back-and-forth as well as the genuine affection between the trio sets the tone and rhythm of the entire story, and I’ll admit straight off, I loved that part of it. It felt like a window into the lives of three people I might have known at one point in my life, with authentic dialogue and believable reactions. But this sense of unfocused everyday is also the story’s greatest flaw. Outside of buying the house, nothing much really happens. It all feels very fly on the wall and episodic, rather than having any cohesive plot arc. The house provides a point of focus for many of their actions, but there is never any sense of urgency that demands I get over-involved with the characters’ emotions. I zipped through the story with the feeling of hanging out with friends, and while it adds a certain real quality to their characterization, it also makes them feel remarkably ordinary.

Pyke’s determination to get the three of them into a relationship tends to overshadow actual development of the relationships as they already stand. His scenes with Shea have a rushed quality, like he’s doing what’s necessary until he can get what he truly wants, while we get no perspective from Shea or Laurel on how they perceive things to be happening (except through the rather clichéd mechanism of eavesdropping). Considering the story’s length and simple presentation, it would have been easy to add more to it without negatively impacting the real-life quality it seems the author was aiming at. More explanations and further evidence of why exactly they should be a threesome (rather than Pyke’s incessant telling the reader that’s the way it should be) would have turned this from an enjoyable ménage into an extraordinary one.

I still enjoyed it, though, for what it was – an effortless, appealing story about friends in love.

Readability	8/10 – An easy, loping rhythm that felt completely in synch with the story’s tone
Menage	7/10 – It wasn’t so much sexy as it felt genuine, they felt like real friends
Characterization	7/10 – Remarkably real, while remarkably ordinary
Entertainment value	7/10 – I liked the real life feel it had, though the lack of very much happening kept it unfocused
World building	7/10 – The house is the most real aspect of this, as it was meant to be, I’m sure
TOTAL:	36/50

Board Resolution by Joey W. Hill

TITLE: Board Resolution
AUTHOR: Joey W. Hill
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 45k)
GENRE: Contemporary BDSM erotic romance
COST: $5.95

Savannah Tennyson is her father’s daughter. Bred to be his replacement, her entire life has been about the business, all the way to the rules she has posted on her wall. Business partner Matt Kensington is her intellectual and business equal, and if she has the occasional less than professional thought about him, she just squirrels it away to savor when she is all alone. Because she is alone. More often than she would like. And now Matt, with the help of his four-man team of associates, is determined to show her she never has to be alone again…

With the exception of one, maybe two, stories, I absolutely adore Joey W. Hill. Her writing is dense and evocative, and the eroticism of her prose unparalleled. She’s one of the few authors that I’ll read paranormal water creatures by, and when friends ask for D/s suggestions, I always recommend her. Ellora’s Cave recently released this short novel on its own as an ebook, after having been part of an anthology several years ago, so I’m only now discovering it. While some people will certainly have some issues with it, it worked so completely for me as erotic fantasy that I was shocked to see just how long it really was.

At thirty-five, Savannah has a plethora of not so flattering nicknames, including but not limited to, Savannah Cyborg. She has no personal life and lives for the business, the vast majority of her contact being with Matt and his “child prodigies” in the board room. As she’s gotten older, though, she’s increasingly aware of her isolation, and the armor she wears to protect herself grows thicker and thicker. At the story’s start, she is on her way to a meeting with Matt, scheduled for Friday evening, a tactic she is sure he is using because he knows it’s the one time she is most vulnerable. What she doesn’t expect is for his words to almost immediately take a sexual tone, blunt and erotic, but when she announces she’s leaving, he orders her to sit. This starts the back and forth game they have always played, a game that has always resulted in an inevitable draw. The difference is, this time, Matt intends to win, and Savannah is mostly trapped until that happens.

This is the first line readers might not be able to cross if they aren’t immersed already in the erotic fantasy of it all. This entire exchange has tones of noncon, though it’s done entirely in Savannah’s POV and she makes it clear from the start that she views this as an extension of their negotiations in the board room. She is determined not to let him win, which means temporarily acceding to his commands. In doing so, she finds herself strung up on a sling-type apparatus, blindfolded, gagged, and then put on display as Matt’s four-man team enters the room. What follows is Matt’s seduction, using the men who have come to claim Savannah as one of their own as his tools. While it’s a ménage in the technical sense (without physical contact between the men), the focus is all on Savannah and getting her off, and the men are just living, breathing means of making that happen. The entire night has been scripted before she ever arrived, playing out at Matt’s command, and if you’ve bought into the fantasy of it by this point – which I had – it’s a highly charged, whirlwind of an erotic adventure.

The characterizations of the two leads might not be as fully fleshed as they could have been – for instance, Matt takes a back seat for a large chunk of the story as the four men service Savannah; each of which, incidentally, felt as realized as either of the two leads – but that’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things. Few people write BDSM like Hill does. Even fewer make me accept such an outrageous erotic fantasy so easily. Yet, she’s done it here, and I know she’ll likely do it again. Because another of her stories has just been released this week, in the anthology Laced with Desire, and features one of the four prodigies, the third in this particular series as it turns out. I’ve had the second on my print TBR pile for ages, but now, knowing it’s connected to this one – albeit loosely – I’ll be pushing it closer to the top.

Readability	8/10 – Some of the mechanics of the equipment slowed me down trying to get a visual on it, but otherwise, I was shocked at how fast it read
Hero	7/10 – With so many other men in the room, he often took a back seat, but I liked what I got
Heroine	7/10 – I had a few problems with her experience vs her reactions, but I appreciated the attempts to make her so strong
Entertainment value	9/10 – Accept the fantasy of it, and it’s erotic bliss
World building	8/10 – My notions of their relationships at the start of the book were different than what was offered in the middle, but the crisp detail of the business world – even in their dialogue – crackled
TOTAL:	39/50

Immersed by Liz Craven

TITLE: Immersed
AUTHOR: Liz Craven
PUBLISHER: Samhain
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 57k)
GENRE: Sci-fi romance
COST: $4.50

In her latest assignment, healer Ilexa Dhakir has been placed amongst the Hakimu, the clan of her brother’s best friend. Thane also happens to be the man she’s been in love with since she was a child. Thrust into the middle of a society she knows nothing about, she’s forced to rely upon Thane for guidance, but her independent spirit and need to heal don’t always make that easy…

As much as I loved the first book in this series and looked forward to reading the second, it’s taken me quite a while to actually finish it. I’ve started, stopped, and restarted this book four separate times over the past year, and each time, just couldn’t get involved enough to keep going. I slogged through this last time, and while it did improve from the beginning that just couldn’t grab me, it never quite reached the same heights the first book did for me.

Both Ilexa and Thane were introduced in the first book, as the sister and best friend of the hero. Here, the spark between them finally gets to catch, but it’s a slow burn. Ilexa is thrust into tribal life without any indoctrination about custom and muddles things almost from the start. Thane is suitably alarmed and tries to help, but he’s in constant conflict about his desire for Lex and his sense of duty to her brother. They struggle to find some kind of balance between her need to help, and their mutual attraction, and what unfolds is a world just as fully realized, and still different, as what was presented in the first book. The details of this clan, with its primitive beliefs in the midst of high technology, are rich and fascinating, almost more so than those in its predecessor, and my continued interest in their society was the driving force that finally got me sucked into the story. I was far more intrigued by the various political machinations than I was Ilexa and Thane’s romance, but through time and the eventual forward momentum of the action, I came to care more for what was happening between them.

I think part of my problem stems from the characterizations. Thane seems all too familiar to me as a reader, an archetype that perhaps I’ve read too much of lately with not enough to truly make him stand out. Ilexa actually had far greater depth, strong and independent, but one aspect never settled well with me. She left her home planet to volunteer in a medical exchange program, and did so much to the worry of her family. Everybody said she’d lost her spirit, that she appeared as if something truly traumatic had happened to her. Thane comments on it more than once throughout the story. When the explanation is finally given, it was very anticlimactic. I didn’t understand how it could justify such an extreme reaction on her part, especially since she supposedly suffers from the same symptomology. Because I could never resolve that disparity to my own satisfaction, I ended up dissociating from her more as the story progressed.

I didn’t necessarily feel a romantic sense of “Ah…” when the book ended, but the satisfaction in seeing how the Hakimu evolved and came together more than compensated for it. I know the next book is supposed to be about another of Ilexa’s brothers, but I almost wish it was more about this particular world. I’d love to know who ends up giving birth to the Malkine, and how Ilexa comes to influence it, but those stories, it seems, will likely have to live in my imagination.

Readability	8/10 – A constant forward momentum helps keep the reader engaged, though I found it less involving than the first book
Hero	7/10 – Alpha and sexy, if not entirely consistent
Heroine	7/10 – Strong and independent, but it felt like her reasons for leaving her home never measured up to how far she had supposedly fallen
Entertainment value	7/10 – A solid read, but not nearly as good as the first book
World building	9/10 – The juxtaposition of Ilexa’s experiences with Thane’s homeworld is the book’s greatest strength
TOTAL:	38/50

Bounty of the Heart by J.M. Snyder

TITLE: Bounty of the Heart
AUTHOR: J.M. Snyder
PUBLISHER: Amber Allure
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 18k)
GENRE: Gay historical romance
COST: $5.00

Bounty hunters Emmett Ward and Jack Robison find themselves in icy Alaska, on the outskirts of a small mining town where a dog sled race is about to commence. Their purpose? To kill Lin Ji, a Korean criminal responsible for more horrors in both men’s histories than either wants to talk about. When Jack’s old partner shows up, however, his dogged interest in Emmett creates strife between the partners – in Emmett because he loves Jack but has never had the benefit of more than his platonic friendship, in Jack because there is more to this old partner than meets the eye…

The single greatest strength to this story is the reason the reader gets sucked in from the very first page – its vivid Alaskan setting. The temperature chills from beyond the page, the sense of isolation exacerbated by the young and innocent Emmett’s emotional distance from the partner he’s been in love with for years. It’s an excellent use of setting to act as a metaphor for the protagonist’s turmoil, primarily because it’s not one often exploited in romantic fiction. This sense of place puts the reader right in the spot with these two men, with promises of an intense ride to come.

It’s unfortunate, then, that the ride never really happens. While this is most definitely a very smooth and swift read, it doesn’t meet the standards set in those first couple pages. For one thing, it’s labeled a historical, and while that becomes evident as the story progresses, there is still a very contemporary feel to a lot of the various elements – Monty’s (Jack’s old partner) openness regarding homosexuality, some of the dialogue, and so on. The characterizations never quite reach the depths the opening hints at, either. Everything is told from Emmett’s POV, and it’s apparent very early on that his perspective is very unreliable. We see Jack only through his eyes, and frankly, he hero worships the man. So much time is spent in his head, and with Monty, we get little opportunity to actually get an opinion of Jack for ourselves, except as a grizzled older man determined to protect Emmett at all costs. I liked Jack, but I never felt like I knew him, and considering he’s half of the romantic pairing in this short novella, that’s a problem.

The progression of both the romance and the action plot never runs as evenly as the prose would suggest, either. Both rely on convenience and coincidence to run its course, and as a result, neither really manages to fully satisfy. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the story, though. In spite of its flaws, Emmett is full of such longing for Jack that it’s impossible not to want him to get it. I’m not convinced it wasn’t misplaced gratitude, but it’s still far too palpable to ignore. Add in the vivid setting, and I found myself smiling when the story was done. Hope sprang from the frigid terrain, warm and rich where their world was not. My one wish is that the story was longer, to better give the author time to more fully flesh out her characters and streamline the plot they were given. Then, it could have been incredible.

Readability	9/10 – Smooth and clean, with enough variation in pacing to keep it interesting
Hero #1	7/10 – Sweet and innocent
Hero #2	5/10 – Focus on Emmett without more of Jake makes Jakes more of an enigma, even if he is an intriguing one
Entertainment value	7/10 – Room for so much more, and the romance is underdeveloped, but I liked the characters and mood of this
World building	8/10 – Vivid Alaskan setting, though the time period feels more contemporary than I think is intended
TOTAL:	36/50

Hearts Afire: June by Dee S. Knight & Colleen Love

TITLE: Hearts Afire: June
AUTHORS: Dee S. Knight & Colleen Love
PUBLISHER: Liquid Silver Books
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 56k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $5.50

An anthology of two contemporary erotic romances about firemen…

This anthology is the perfect example of a story ruining an entire collection. Granted, there are only two stories in this one, but the second is so abysmal, it completely retracts any positive thoughts I might have had about the first, and those were not that many to start out with.

The first story in the anthology is “The Fireman and the Ice Queen” by Dee S. Knight. Fireman Harm Reynolds has been recently elected as the union liaison, at a time when the firemen are on the cusp of new contract negotiations. He’s warned ahead of time that the assistant mayor, Beth Edwards, is nicknamed the Ice Queen, but the woman he meets – while conservatively dressed – is far from cold and bitchy to him. In fact, he finds himself attracted to her, a first since his wife’s death eighteen months earlier. They quickly launch into an affair, all the while continuing negotiations, but almost immediately Harm starts having nightmares that convince him it’s too soon for another relationship, so he calls it off. There’s not a whole lot that’s original about this story’s set-up or delivery, but I found it a little difficult to immerse myself into it. Part of the problem lies in the editing. There seemed to be a greater preponderance of errors than I usually find in LSB books, particularly in regard to missing words. Lots of articles go missing - Maybe this will be time he can't get off with easy answers, just as one of many examples – and it gets frustrating after a while. It only exacerbates the feeling of the entire story feeling by the numbers, especially with the all too predictable ending. The romance of this is functional, at best.

However, in comparison to the second story, Colleen Love’s “Inferno,” it’s a masterpiece. First, it starts out with an eerie prologue about a nameless man hearing voices to tell him to start fires, which creates an entirely different mood than what is presented in the first chapter less than two pages later. Then, we meet Henri James – and I’m going to admit to being put off from the start by the name, because that’s a masculine French name first and foremost to me and not a nickname for Henrietta like the author says – who is about to do a dinner interview with a fireman named Cade Lane who saved a baby’s life. My struggles with the heroine continued (I mean, really, a reporter driving a Lexus?), and fell apart completely when any professional credibility she had gets thrown out the window because she is so overcome with immediate lust at the sight of him, she forgets his name (among other mistakes). Within moments, he’s kissing her knuckles and she’s whispering, “I don’t usually do things like this,” and I’m gagging. Because there is no attempt at characterization, there is no attempt at UST, and the prose itself leaves a lot to be desired. Sometimes, the author has paragraphs that run for more than a page, long, boring dry sentences pieced together without any sense of rhythm or pacing. Maybe it might not have been so bad if something actually happened, but no, it’s all sex for the first half/nearly two-thirds of the story. And it’s not even good sex. The significance of the prologue doesn’t come into play until that point, but it’s too little, too late.

If you’re a fan of either one of these authors, go ahead and pick it up. If not…my suggestion is to skip it.

Readability	6/10 – The far weaker second story almost had me giving up
Romance	5/10 – The first was far more believable than the second
Characterization	4/10 – How many different ways can I say the first was stronger?
Entertainment value	3/10 – I barely finished this anthology at all
World building	6/10 – The first felt very authentic
TOTAL:	24/50

After Hours by Lynne Roberts

TITLE: After Hours
AUTHOR: Lynne Roberts
PUBLISHER: Wild Rose Press
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 12k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $2.00

Elle Simpson can’t keep her eyes off the new intern in her office, even though she has a strict policy not to get involved with men at work. But he’s the hottest guy she’s ever seen, and she’s gone too long without sex, and…did he really just volunteer to spend a week of overtime with her?

There’s one thing this short story supplies in great abundance: smoldering UST. It starts from the first page and remains unrelenting until the hero and heroine finally break. Elle can barely work because of her constant thoughts about David, while David has been hot for Elle ever since he started as an intern. Their attraction is unknown to the other, which only heightens the tension. Everything else falls to the wayside.

Everything.

Both characters are consumed with thoughts of sex. Little depth is given to them otherwise, though because of Elle’s circumstances, we know more about her (the fact that she’s widowed, her daughter is at college, etc.). That’s not necessarily a bad thing if I keep thinking this is erotica and not erotic romance, but the ending and the growth they show in the last thousand words makes it clear this is meant to be the start of something bigger, and in that respect, I can’t say it necessarily works for me. However, as an erotic short, it does. The UST is very good.

What holds it back from being fantastic is the lack of breaks in the story to denote POV and scene changes. I don’t know if that’s a flaw on the part of the publisher or an aspect of the author’s writing, but there are no extra spaces or symbols or anything to signify switching. The first time it happened, it completely jolted me out of the story. The second time, I scowled, because it became clear it was going to happen all the way to the end. It’s annoying and disrupts the flow of the story, and when there isn’t that much to the story to begin with, every part counts. Still, it’s nice to see some solid UST instead of jumping straight into the sack. It makes a refreshing change in short stories.

Readability	6/10 – The lack of breaks to denote POV and scene changes really weakens the heat in this
Hero	6/10 – Charming, but the focus is on the heat rather than personality depths
Heroine	7/10 – More depth to her than the hero, but again, the focus is on the heat
Entertainment value	7/10 – Think of it as erotica, and it works a lot better than as a romance
World building	6/10 – There’s some fleshing out off the office world, but – and I’m going to sound like a broken record – the focus is on the heat
TOTAL:	32/50

The Vampire Fred: Wicked Game by Vaughn R. Demont

TITLE: The Vampire Fred: Wicked Game
AUTHOR: Vaughn R. Demont
PUBLISHER: Torquere
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 52k)
GENRE: Gay paranormal erotic romance
COST: $5.95

Fred Tompkins has the most mundane life ever. Boring job, still a virgin, nothing interesting whatsoever. Then he dies, a victim in a car accident, and things finally start to get interesting. Now, he’s a vampire, with his sire crashing in his bath tub, an entire demon hierarchy to learn about, and memories that aren’t his filling his head. Oh, and finally losing his virginity. At least that’s a bonus, right?

The initial charm of this novel hits you straight away, with a title that stands up and shouts, “This isn’t your typical vampire book!” I mean, we all know a Fred. The nondescript, hard-working, quiet guy in the corner cubicle who never says boo, always has spare change for the vending machine, and holds the elevator for you, even if he’s running late. That’s not your typical hero, and definitely not your typical vampire. Yet, this is the narrator the reader gets to travel with, and his charming, borderline neurotic geek persona sucks you in from the very first sentence. You feel for this guy because of how highly relatable he is, and if his circumstances are a little out there, all the better. It’s a fantastic counter to the mundanity of his existence, at least for the first half of the story.

The entire book is told in 1^st person, present tense, a risky choice, but in this case, it works to a degree. Combined with the relatable narrator, it puts the reader into the moment, adding to the confusion and frustration about what’s going on. It also has the unfortunate side effect of blinkering the reader from a lot of depths in regards to the other characters. With his distinctive worldview, Fred is not always a reliable witness to events, in spite of his special capabilities as a vampire. His perspective on his sire Daniel mutates at the blink of an eye, and because of his conflicting emotions, it’s very difficult to get a good picture of the vamp.

This is where the story starts to fall apart for me. The longer Fred is a vampire, the more he learns about the vampire world he’s been brought into. It’s unlike a lot of worlds that get created, with vampires being reincarnated, different factions having different purposes (like guards to the Queen, etc.), and so on and so on. It’s very confusing, primarily because Fred has absolutely no clue what’s going on. He discovers he’s an Inquisitor – which means he has the ability to absorb memories by drinking blood – but he doesn’t know how to control it, and gets constantly bombarded with facts and trivia that make no sense. It’s probably exactly as it would happen to Fred, but it leaves the reader with a headache trying to sort out. There is a serious lack of information on how everything works – and Daniel’s reticence to explain anything to Fred only derails the situation further – and this quick build-up of questions and “Huh?”s forced me to distance from the story in order to try and figure it out. It doesn’t help that the first time Fred dreams about a past life, with the prose still in 1^st person, the voice and circumstances are so different that it jolted completely out of it. Those scenes are never organically incorporated, and any kind of smooth flow is lost.

There’s a tremendous amount of potential in this author’s world. It just needs a better execution in order to best engage me as a reader. I really liked Fred when the story started. I only wish the Fred at the end hadn’t grown into someone unrecognizable. By learning so much from the blood he drinks, he morphs from the no-nothing to SuperVamp. That’s great for character growth, not so much for having fallen for the underdog Fred from the beginning.

Readability	7/10 – Awkward scene shifts and lack of information hold back an otherwise engaging voice
Hero #1	7/10 – A refreshing change from the more know-it-all heroes out there, though some of that charm disappears as the story progresses
Hero #2	6/10 – Inconsistent, though not unlikeable
Entertainment value	6/10 – This started out being a lot higher, but as the story grew more complicated and the flow weakened, my enjoyment lessened
World building	7/10 – I love the potential of what this could offer, but not the way in which it was presented; there’s just too many questions and too many awkward transitions for me
TOTAL:	33/50