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

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

Raw Heat by Charlotte Stein

TITLE: Raw Heat
AUTHOR: Charlotte Stein
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 21k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $4.45

In a world where the werewolves have won and the humans have been driven underground, Serena Kent is a nurse assigned to watch over one of their captive wolves. She’s been enamored with his size and calm nature ever since he was brought in, but consorting with them is grounds for the incinerator. It doesn’t help that he becomes her friend, but when she makes the bold move to touch him when he’s obviously aroused one day, everything changes…

This is going to go down as one of my guilty pleasure books. Because it’s a quickie, erotic read that might not deconstruct well upon finishing, but damn, did it have me going as I was reading it.

There is no foreplay. The very beginning of the book thrusts the reader into Serena’s perspective as she realizes the werewolf she’s been tending to for the past year is aroused as she’s washing him down. She’s been fighting her own attraction to him, and in the heat of the moment, helps him get off. It changes the dynamic between them, breaking down a wall that had been there. Connor is unlike most of the other werewolves the humans have captured, surviving longer, never going feral. He’s also in love with Serena, but the last thing he wants is to hurt her. She’s having none of that, though. Now that the barriers between them are down, she wants everything she can get.

I got sucked into this almost from the start. The prose has a sultry, breathless quality to it, and the heroine’s perspective is tense and hungry right out of the gate. Since she’s also obviously someone a reader can sympathize with – a nurse who doesn’t necessarily see all the bad in the werewolves, unlike her best friend Tara who takes glee in torturing them – I abandoned reservations and threw myself into the moment with her, anticipating my questions about the world they inhabit and the characters they are to be answered afterward.

Those didn’t really come. Connor is an archetype, the strong yet honorable savage trapped in circumstances beyond his control, while Serena never really fleshes out beyond her feelings for Connor and her disdain for what is going on among her co-workers. The world is left somewhat unexplored as well. I learned the basics of what is going on – wolves above ground, humans below – with a few details thrown in for good measure, but I never really felt immersed into the setting to feel like I was completely there.

But here’s the thing. Mostly, I didn’t care. Connor’s a type, sure, but, well, that one tends to be one of my bulletproof kinks. I adored him, regardless of the fact that I don’t think I ever really knew him, and when things go dark in the latter third of the story, I cheered him on. The prose and story length go a long way in compensating for these other shortcomings, as well. I wonder if it had been longer, with the same relative lack of explanations, if I would have been less enamored with it. I honestly don’t know.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. This worked to entrance me for its short duration, and I cheered at the ending. I can’t really ask for more.

Readability	8/10 – Sultry and breathless
Hero	8/10 – Do I think he’s that realistic? No. Did I fall for his strong but silent & honorable type anyway? Oh yeah.
Heroine	6/10 – Wanted more depth to her since it was her POV, but she served her function well
Entertainment value	8/10 – In spite of its simplicity, I got sucked into the sensuality, forbidden nature of this novella
World building	7/10 – Fascinating details, but a lot gets unexplored in favor of the erotica
TOTAL:	37/50

Dark Revenge by Jennifer Leeland

TITLE: Dark Revenge
AUTHOR: Jennifer Leeland
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 86k)
GENRE: Sci-fi BDSM erotic romance
COST: $6.99

When Commander Alex Zeerah gets intercepted on her latest mission, she’s ready to self-destruct rather than be taken prisoner by the captain, the only man she ever had feelings for, the one man she can’t have because of his exile from her home planet. Tory Ingle fought at Alex’s side for years, but he’s spent the last five planning out his revenge on how to clear his name from the treason he was convicted of. Part of that plan includes claiming Alex as his mate, but he’s entirely unprepared for how strong the attraction still is between them. They barely have time to rediscover each other before the threat of civil war looms over their home planet. It’ll take both of them to save the universe…

Yes, I know it’s an EC book so that means a lot of sex. But is it so much to ask that it work with the rest of the story?

It starts off very quickly. Alex is transporting important but unknown cargo for her king when she is intercepted by Tory, her ex-partner in the military and the man she saw exiled from their home planet five years ago. Rather than kill him or let her cargo be taken, she sets the self-destruct, an act he is somehow capable of overriding. He takes her prisoner and demands the rite to claim her as his Saria, an act of claiming a sole member of an offending bloodline to settle revenge. Once this is completed, he chooses her as his mate and restrains her to a rack in his quarters. The sex that follows reminds Alex of everything she could have had if she’d left with him as he’d begged her to do five years ago, but there’s little time to consider the what ifs when the political environment she left behind becomes even more charged. She was never intended to survive her mission, and the cargo she’d been transporting had a far deadlier purpose than she’d ever known. Tory knows much of the truth, however, and he’s determined to put a halt to the wars that are on the horizon.

From there, the book tangles into a complicated blend of interplanetary politics and action, ultimately offering a fresh and fascinating take on zombies. The problem with that is that I had to muddle through the first half to get to the much more interesting second. The success of their attempts to stop everything hinges on the relationship between Alex and Tory, though that’s not made clear while all the sex is going on. Instead, I had to sit through chapters of stop and start pacing as I’d learn an interesting tidbit about the world then have to sit through yet another sex session. Tory is into control and pain, and Alex finds out the first time he touches her she likes it, but I’m told all this at the start rather than learning it from the characters, and with so little time to get to really know them and feel comfortable in the environment, I read their scenes far more detached than I should have been. They’re not badly written – for an EC book, it’s remarkably clean editorially – but without caring a little bit more for them, they just felt like they were getting in the way of the real story.

Because there’s a lot of story to tell here. The author has taken great pains to create a layered, complex universe, with a broad spectrum of characters in varying Machiavellian roles, and it takes too long to be comfortable in their skins for this to be as effective as it should be. Once Tory and Alex stop having sex as their primary function, the novel hurtles forward into the action plot, engaging me far more as I tried to figure that out than any of the sex did. It gave me a different, fresh perspective on zombies – which I admit are not my thing, as I tend to automatically give zombie books a pass when I’m looking at new releases – and I ended up wishing that more of the book had paid attention to that so I could have enjoyed it more. That’s not to say it doesn’t try. It just happens too late in the story for it to really work well.

The two leads are appropriately strong, though I do have reservations about both. Alex, in particular, lost some of her appeal when various twists toward the end only happen by undermining her strength (by being things she has never seen, which I found highly implausible considering her military career). Much of that is mitigated by a strong secondary cast, however. Jezar in particular fascinates me, so complex, and though I might not have enjoyed this book as much as I wanted to, if there’s a sequel with him (which it really reads like there will be more to follow this), I’ll be all over it.

In the end, this was a book of missed opportunities, because really, I should have loved this from the start. It just needed a better balance between the romance/sex and the plot to work. If Jezar gets his own story, I hope that balance is found.

Readability	7/10 – Dense political maneuvering gets eclipsed too early by copious sex scenes, muddying the plot and ease of reading for too long
Hero	6/10 – While I liked him, I never really felt his baser, more dominant tendencies were fully fleshed
Heroine	7/10 – For the most part, smart and resourceful, it was just her blindness to so much towards the end that got annoying
Entertainment value	6/10 – This could’ve been so much higher if the first half hadn’t been so poorly paced
World building	8/10 – A lot of thought went into creating the worlds, but not quite enough to make sure it was conveyed cleanly
TOTAL:	34/50

Intimate Whispers by Dee Carney

TITLE: Intimate Whispers
AUTHOR: Dee Carney
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 52k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $5.95

Sabrina Turner hears dead people, but it’s not a gift by any means. They bombard her at the worst times, driving her mad as she’s incapable of tuning them out. The only way for her to banish them for a while is by allowing another spirit to have his way with her, giving her body to him for hours until the world is silent again. Another attack leaves her in a fugue state at her local grocery store, where her neighbor Jason sees her and takes her home. When she says something to him only his dead brother would know, he’s driven to find out how and why. The truth will bring them together, but the reality of what she has to do just to survive the voice just might drive them apart…

I meant to get this done and reviewed before Halloween, but the holiday ran away from me. It would have been appropriate, given its slightly creepy tones.

Sabrina Turner hears dead people, and the only way she can get a temporary reprieve from the madness it creates in her is to have sex with one of those same spirits. She refers to it as Him, and considers him her savior. After she gives him what he wants, she gets some peace and quiet for a while. During her attacks, she loses time, forgetting where she is, who she is. It’s during one of these that her neighbor Jason finds her at the grocery store. He volunteers to take her home, but just before she shuts the door in his face, she says something only his dead brother would say. Unable to shake the questions it’s raised, he goes back to her apartment and demands answers. The only reason she gives him a hint of what she’s like is because he played the nice guy and helped her get home when he didn’t have to. They try another technique to make contact with his brother, but that doesn’t help much either. Jason is trying to forget about the whole incident when the ER contacts him and asks for his aid in getting Sabrina home. She’s had another attack. Thus sparks a series of events that will bring them closer together. The only problem is, both of them are holding back secrets, afraid of what the other might think.

I liked the premise of the book, the twist on the ghost whisperer theme with the heroine being plagued by the voices to the point of madness. The attacks are described well, coming to life even as Sabrina is driven mad by them. Much of that is helped by the author opting to occasionally show the attacks from Jason’s POV. He brings a poignancy to what is going on with Sabrina that her perspective lacks.

Sabrina’s perspective is where the book falters for me. Her characterization is solid enough, but the more I got to know her, the less I liked her. I found her attitude toward Jason bitchier than what was called for, and her behavior often callous in regards to his feelings. I understand her point about how she doesn’t have the space in her life to worry about anybody but herself, but that wasn’t enough for me to explain away how cold she was. In fact, even after she warmed up to Jason, I still found her personality a little off-putting. I didn’t start liking her more until very nearly the end.

On the other hand, Jason was a darling. He came across as caring and sincere, a little on the earnest side, and I found his self-honesty about how he’d never considered dating a black woman endearing. His chemistry with Sabrina was off the charts, too, a fact I could easily recognize even if I didn’t like her very much. He was more patient with her than I imagine most men would’ve been, and the fact that he sticks around through so much is testimony to his wonderful nature.

I did find the resolution easy and kind of obvious, but I appreciate the fact that the ending doesn’t sugarcoat other problems by giving them an easy out. Sabrina and Jason still have things to fight against when the story draws to a close, but then again, so do real life couples. This one might not be a definite keeper, but it does make me curious about the author’s other work. I like that she takes some risks and isn’t afraid of being true to human nature. It’s worth it to find out if that’s prevalent in other titles, too.

Readability	8/10 – The erotic elements work best in this, though the prose is solid throughout
Hero	8/10 – He was the heart of this, his caring nature sold me from the start
Heroine	4/10 – I understood her but for the bulk of the story, I really didn’t like her for being so bitchy
Entertainment value	7/10 – I liked it for Jason and for where it dared to go, but would’ve liked it more if I cared about Sabrina a little
World building	7/10 – Aspects of her talent were handled really well, but I wanted more into her past and why/how she had this gift in order to better understand it
TOTAL:	34/50

Lady's Minstrel by N.J. Walters

TITLE: Lady’s Minstrel
AUTHOR: N.J. Walters
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 10k)
GENRE: Historical erotic romance
COST: $2.49

For six years, Alicia has waited for her husband to return from the Crusades. In his absence, she’s done everything she can to preserve his keep, to help it flourish, so it’s strong when he comes home. Nobody she’s asked has been able to help her, so when a minstrel arrives asking questions about her and the keep, she fears the worst—that the king is about to marry her off to somebody else…

I knew going into this that based on its length and where it was published, the focus wouldn’t necessarily be on plot or world building. But in the end, I enjoyed this for reasons entirely separate from those.

Alicia has been waiting for her husband’s return from the Crusades for six years, running the keep in his absence. She’s done a good job of it, and over time, has become loved and treasured by the people she takes care of. When a minstrel arrives, asking questions about her and the keep, she fears that the king has decided it’s time to marry her off, regardless of the fact that no word has ever come about her husband, or maybe, because of it. Unwilling to show weakness, she summons the minstrel to get the answers she wants from him. If she doesn’t like them, she’ll send him along.

The blurb at EC’s website gives away more, so I guess I can’t be accused of spoiling if I say the minstrel is actually Alicia’s husband Reys. Therein lies the emotional tug of this story. Alicia has missed and mourned him all this time, faithful to his memory, foregoing her own needs in order to save as much money as possible in case she ever had to ransom for his release. Her grief is palpable, her devotion endearing, and through it all, she remains strong and graceful, likeable in a sweet sort of way. Her reunion with Reys is predictable, but the raw emotion from both of them—Reys has been tortured and missed her just as much—compensates greatly for that expectedness. I’ll admit I teared up a little as they each stripped down and bared themselves to the other for the first time in so many years. I believed in their love, even as short as this story is, and fell for the story in spite of its other shortcomings.

Because it’s not perfect. Reys is too romanticized to be much of anything but a stereotype, even though the tragic hints of what he went through would have been wonderful if the length had allowed them to be explored. Historical detail is glossed over, with just enough there to let the reader know it’s a historical, and doesn’t shine in anyway. The prose itself is simplistic, too, and while the first sex scene is hot, the latter is lost in the anguish that preceded it.

Is it for everybody? Probably not. Sticklers for historical detail will be disappointed, and the sex doesn’t stray too far from vanilla. But I felt for these two people deeply, and rejoiced in their reunion. When it comes to short story romances, sometimes that’s all you need.

Readability	8/10 – Simple and emotional, but exactly what I needed
Hero	6/10 – The bones of an amazing hero are there, but for a story of this length, he’s too romanticized to be much more of a type
Heroine	7/10 – Shows startling grace and strength that I eagerly responded to
Entertainment value	8/10 – The emotional tug of this is what got me
World building	5/10 – Only sketchy details to paint some background, that’s not the focus on this at all
TOTAL:	34/50

Hide Out by Katie Allen

TITLE: Hide Out
AUTHOR: Katie Allen
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 79k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $6.99

Officer Pete Giordano gets the opportunity not only to escape some of the homophobia of his workplace, but to better his odds at a promotion. All he has to do is keep a witness to a major trial safe. That witness is the gorgeous Trevor, on the run since his father tried killing him after he witnessed a murder. Pete takes Trevor to the small town of Honeysuckle two hours away, where they pose as a gay couple renovating their new house. Their attraction sizzles, but neither is aware the other is gay. At least, not right away…

While I enjoyed the book preceding this one, I wasn’t so bowled over that I had to jump out and read the next. That’s why this has languished on my TBR pile for over a year. In the end, while I probably enjoyed it about the same, I did so for different reasons.

Pete is a cop not really comfortable with his sexuality. He’s never had a relationship, only hook-ups, and he’s recently been getting a little more flack at work. His captain offers him the chance to babysit a witness to a murder trial, the gorgeous Trevor. Trevor is a reluctant witness. He’d still be hiding from his father if the cops on the case hadn’t found him and dragged him back to testify. Pete decides that instead of hiding in a city that might be predictable, he’ll take Trevor to the small town of Honeysuckle. Pete recently bought a house there in dire need of renovation, and it seems like the perfect cover to keep Trevor busy and out of the way until the trial. Their attraction is mutual and sizzling, though it takes a while for them to even tell the other they’re gay. Once they initiate a physical relationship, things start hitting the fan, including a murder and a drop-in visit from old friends Rhodes and Wash.

Trevor and Pete have a warm, affable charm that comes through almost from the beginning. Though Trevor is sullen at first, there are flashes of humor in between his sniping and sarcasm, enough to keep me going until Pete is able to break down more of those walls. Pete is the real find in this. His quiet intensity shields a softer side, one that yearns for a real relationship if the idea terrifies him. I loved how protective he was without being overbearing about it, even though he tried. Trevor was having none of that, however. He rebelled whenever he could, though partially because he loved it so much when Pete went all dominant on him. The dialogue between them is fun, and their chemistry sparkles. I did grow weary of all the sex scenes, but it’s an EC book. The large number was to be expected.

What didn’t really work for me was the murder that got dropped into the middle of the story. While they worked to try and figure out what happened, I kept wondering what any of this had to do with the greater problem of Trevor’s dad and if that would end up getting conveniently resolved. By the time the ending rolled around, I understood more why the murder was a necessary plot point, but I’d been right about the ease in which the witness issue was settled. It ended up being too little too late, though. Resenting and rolling my eyes through a major plot part in the middle of the story is not conducive to falling in love with it, especially when the details and circumstances seemed to stretch the realm of belief.

One quibble I had with the editing is a problem I find in a lot of books where proofing isn’t quite as tight as it could be. Imaging is not the same as imagining. I don’t know how many times I see that mistake made, and it’s frustrating every single time. I know it’s got to be because editors and authors aren’t reading carefully. Skimming through the text, it’s easy to see how the brain would automatically turn that into the word you want to use, but that doesn’t change the fact that it jumps out at me every time I find the mistake. This author is hardly alone in this common error, but it happened more than once in this story, enough to annoy me to the point of needing to mention it.

If there’s a third book, I’m likely to pick it up even though this one didn’t knock my socks off. I keep finding just enough to keep me engrossed. Maybe with the third book, she’ll find a way to blend all her strengths into a single story and make it better than all of its predecessors.

Readability	8/10 – Minor errors, and the plot stretches credibility, but a swift, entertaining read
Hero #1	8/10 – I liked his quiet intensity, especially with the soft center he hid
Hero #2	7/10 – His petulance and behavior grates sometimes, but when he let himself relax, he was lovely
Entertainment value	7/10 – Charming with likable characters, but I would’ve enjoyed it more if the murder plot didn’t seem utterly ridiculous
World building	6/10 – Some is done with the small town atmosphere, but a lot of it feels skimmed over
TOTAL:	36/50

Icing on the Cake by Shayla Kersten

TITLE: Icing on the Cake
AUTHOR: Shayla Kersten
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 19k)
GENRE: Gay contemporary erotic romance
COST: $4.45

Slated with getting the last minute cake for his best friend’s wedding, uptight Jeff is taken aback by his visceral response to the bald and tattooed baker he’s supposed to hire. He’s thrilled when Ollie is interested in him as well, but when he discovers Ollie wants him to give up his control, he’s not so sure the exchange will be worth it…

I’m only labeling this an erotic romance because of the HFN that gets tacked onto the end of this novella. For the vast majority of the story, it’s just plain erotica. Hot erotica.

Jeff is an uptight businessman who is playing maid of honor for his best friend’s whirlwind wedding. She gets called out of town at the last minute and asks him to get the cake sorted out, citing a specific bakery she wants him to use. He goes down and is greeted by the bald, tattooed, biker-type baker, a man that throws his libido into overdrive. It’s obvious very quickly that Ollie, the baker, is interested, too, and their flirtation expands into a consensus of sex, at least until Jeff sees the dungeon set-up the man has in his bedroom. Ollie is determined to make Jeff lose control, however, and Jeff, for all his anxiety about doing so, can’t seem to walk away.

There’s not much more to describe. The men have a lot of sex, with Ollie admitting first to himself and then to Jeff that maybe it’s time for him to start think about serious dating again. Jeff is a fly-by-night kind of guy, though, and all the talk about “substantial” freaks him out. Not enough to say no to a second night, though. The novella benefits from the fact that the sex is mostly hot. It reads swiftly, and except for the occasional snort-worthy phrasing (like …his come rushed to freedom), succeeds at what it intends. If this was sold as straight erotica, it would likely rate higher, because my expectations for characters and the ending wouldn’t be quite as stringent. As it is, though, the author clearly strives for the HFN, but can’t get there for me, mostly because her two heroes are more archetypes than fully-fleshed characters and little time is spent doing much of anything but having sex.

Readability	8/10 – Hot with only a few phrasing things that made me snort
Hero #1	5/10 – Little is known about him except he’s uptight
Hero #2	5/10 – More of a type than a character, though I do have a soft spot for that type
Entertainment value	7/10 – I got lost in the heat of it which helped since the HFN is weak, reads more like erotica than a romance
World building	5/10 – The food stuff is excellent, but very little is done about everything else
TOTAL:	30/50

Once Upon a Kiss by Kate Willoughby

TITLE: Once Upon a Kiss
AUTHOR: Kate Willoughby
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 38k)
GENRE: Contemporary fantasy erotic romance
COST: $5.20

Livvy is the last of her friends to get her true love wish, but a technicality makes it impossible for her to get it by legal fairy means. Davina figures out how to grant her wish for a fairy tale ending using black market magic, which has the unfortunate result of a house made of gingerbread, hair that weighs a hundred pounds, and finding a naked man asleep in a glass coffin on her front yard. All right, so that last one isn’t unfortunate, especially since the man is her hot new neighbor, and Davina’s magic has restored the use of his legs…at least for now…

This is the third story in the author’s Be-Wished series, but surprisingly enough, can be mostly read alone. However, compared to the first two books, I can’t say that I enjoyed it quite as much.

Livvy is a freelance illustrator, the last of a trio of young women who made wishes on vacation a few years earlier to find true love. Her two friends have found theirs, but when Livvy had been offered hers, she’d turned it down as a joke, thus nullifying Davina’s commitment to her. Now that she’s seen it come true for her friends, she’s more open to it, especially with her friends wanting it for her as well. Davina decides to use black market magic to satisfy Livvy’s request for a fairy tale ending, but the results end up turning chaotic at best. Most of them are temporary, thank goodness. Like Livvy’s walls turning to gingerbread. And her hair growing ten feet over night. But then she discovers her gorgeous new neighbor, the paraplegic Joe Kimball, asleep in a glass coffin in her front yard. She kisses him awake, and after momentary confusion about whether or not he’s dreaming, he whoops for joy at being able to use his legs again. There’s a catch, though. Every time he leaves Livvy’s house, all of his clothes disappear. Which is convenient considering how much sex they are about to have.

My respect for this author is no secret. I love that we seem to generally share the same sense of humor, something I’ve found surprisingly rare in romantic fiction. While this romantic comedy is much in the same vein as its two predecessors, however, I can’t say that I enjoyed it quite as much. It has some fantastic farcical elements, with the various fairy tales enacting themselves in her life, and while I did laugh at some of them, as soon as the new scenario with Joe was introduced, I found myself more worried than anything else. See, none of the other things that had happened with the wish had lasted. Compound that with the knowledge of how erratic Davina’s magic is at the best of times, and I couldn’t shake the dread that Joe’s legs were going to give out on him at any moment. With that ominous thought always lurking in the back of my mind, I was never able to completely give myself over to the moment and enjoy what was going on between them. I also didn’t understand why Livvy wasn’t more worried about it, either, which lowered my respect for her as a character. She’d reacted accordingly to all the earlier problems, why not to this one which had so much more at stake?

Joe’s disability isn’t dwelled on too much, actually. There’s a single scene of him in his wheelchair before the glass coffin incident, and then he’s so exuberant about being able to walk that any drama is tossed out the window. Some attempts are made later on in the story that generate a little conflict, but it felt a tad too orchestrated by that point, especially considering their lack of a serious reaction earlier in the story.

For the first time, I found myself not amused by some of the humor, too. That’s more likely due to the characters and my lack of immersion more than the author’s skills, however. The jokes are there, and I laughed or smiled at a good number of them, but not everything is going to tickle my funny bone and sometimes it just felt like these guys were trying too hard. Like Joe’s characterization. He’s a gorgeous war hero who has a secret geek side, and his excitement about getting to spend a night with Livvy having sex and playing Dark Source (a collectible card game that sounds remarkably like Magic: The Gathering) annoyed me a little as both a tad immature (even if probably accurate in regards to male thinking) and too hard to believe.

Did I enjoy the read? Ultimately, I did. I like the characters, and there’s a farcical edge to the whole thing which differentiates it from much that’s out there. But it doesn’t quite attain the same levels as its predecessors for me. It’s more of a sketch than a fully rendered picture, appreciable for its potential and hints of what it could be but ultimately not quite as satisfying.

Readability	8/10 – Mild headhopping and some humor that doesn’t always work for me (a first with this particular author) detracts here
Hero	6/10 – For some reason, I kept expecting more depth in regards to his disability, though in keeping with the romantic comedy mood, I suppose the lack of it makes sense
Heroine	7/10 – I liked her humor and independence, but I couldn’t help but wonder for too long why she wasn’t more worried about Joe’s legs
Entertainment value	7/10 – Diverting entertainment, but not as memorable as I’ve found other work by this author
World building	7/10 – There’s more exploration into the fairy world, but it seems to skate over the surface rather than fully satisfy
TOTAL:	35/50

Getting Even with Warren by Wynter Daniels

TITLE: Getting Even with Warren
AUTHOR: Wynter Daniels
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 15k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotic romance
COST: $2.49

At the funeral of her much older husband, Macy meets his oldest son for the first time, the biracial Alex. Attraction sparks between them, and both think sleeping together is the perfect way to get back at the man who did wrong by both of them…

Though she left her husband a month before his death, Macy Halstead must still attend his funeral for the sake of appearances. There, she has to sit and watch all his mistresses mourn for the man. The only person who attracts her attention in a positive way is Alex, her husband’s oldest son. The product of an affair, Alex has always believed he wasn’t as good in his father’s eyes as his half-brothers because of the color of his skin, and has resented the man his entire life. He’s attracted to the latest widow, as well as intrigued by how young she is. They come to agree almost at the same time – albeit to themselves at first – that sleeping with the other is the perfect revenge on Warren. If they get fantastic sex out of it, too, all the better.

And that’s what a good part of this story is. Sex comprises almost half of its word count, with conflict generated out of the blue and then disregarded paragraphs later. If that’s all you’re looking for, I suppose it works, but for me, I need to at least feel the attraction first. I didn’t here. I could see why Macy was attracted to Alex – from his description, he sounds hot – but she lacks any kind of personality or enticing description to make me understand why he feels so connected to her so quickly. Without feeling that connection myself, it became a chore to read sex scene after sex scene, in a voice that, while clean and rather unobtrusive, didn’t engage me either. This sex should’ve been charged with so much emotion – his anger, her anger, their sublimated desires – and it fell far short of reaching that. It’s a victim of too much. In this case, too much sex completely obliterated any impact the story might have generated because it didn’t give the characters enough time to come to life outside of their orgasms.

Readability	7/10 – Nothing wrong with it, but never really engaged me either, it felt a lot longer than 15k
Hero	4/10 – By the numbers and flat
Heroine	4/10 – Other than her disdain for her dead husband’s philandering, I never understood what was so special about her
Entertainment value	3/10 – Without being able to engage in either leads, it was just one sex scene after another
World building	4/10 – No attempts are made, and since when do cameramen have secretaries?
TOTAL:	22/50

Winning Joanna by Kathleen Coddington

TITLE: Winning Joanna
AUTHOR: Kathleen Coddington
PUBLISHER: Ellora’s Cave
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 39k)
GENRE: Historical erotic romance
COST: $5.20

In a bid to keep a preferred hunting estate accessible, the king orders the widow who owns it to marry the Earl of Reston, an order she flatly refuses. Determined not to lose, he sends the Earl to win her over, but Hugh is caught in a storm along the way and ends up on her doorstep half-frozen. Joanna has no idea who he is, so he decides to pretend to be someone else in hopes of finding out why she refused the marriage proposal. He doesn’t expect to fall in love, though…

I’m not having great luck this week. It’s not that books are terrible. It’s just that they’re all kind of bland, and this one, the blandest of them all.

Set in 1347 England, it’s the story of Hugh, Earl of Reston, a widower recently returned from fighting in France, who gets told by the king that he’s going to marry Lady Joanna Leland. The king considers it a good match – Joanna lost her husband and son two years earlier, Hugh lost the mother of his daughter nine years earlier – but he’s mostly interested in keeping the estate for hunting. Joanna has decided to give it to the abbey, and since the king won’t have that, he sends Hugh along to change her mind. Hugh gets caught in a winter storm as he’s traveling and arrives on her doorstep half-frozen. He takes advantage of the fact that nobody knows who he is and poses as someone else, slowly gaining favor within the household. He and Joanna become close, and he knows he has to come clean about his identity, but the situation just never seems appropriate.

It’s a story of mistaken identity and deceit, and honestly, a very blatant one. Hugh claims to be a widower with a nine-year-old daughter he never saw, and yet, nobody seems to question the odds that the very same man Joanna refused was also a widower…with a daughter he never saw…who fought in the war…and has the same first name. I mean, really? All these supposedly astute people in the household and nobody even suspects? It’s made even worse because Joanna is supposed to be highly strategic, boasting about always beating her dead husband at chess. She’s not. She’s dim. Just like the rest of the characters.

The story isn’t helped by its dishwater prose, either. Love scenes are uninspiring, and the pacing drags along. Because Joanna is overly chaste and prim, and this is an EC title, extra sex scenes amongst the servants are also included and feel completely out of place. Joanna and Hugh watch a pair of younger servants going at it, and there’s a chapter in the middle between the older pair, told from their perspective, that really does little to advance the plot. We hear them discuss how it would be better for Joanna to marry, and that Hugh is a wonderful option, and then they have sex. None of this was necessary. It was already obvious the servants were behind this option, and the sex is there as padding. It’s all so superfluous that I was bored out of my head. That feeling never abated, especially since everybody kept acting increasingly stupid regarding Hugh’s true identity.

In the end, there’s little to keep me engaged. I can only hope that I pick better books next week.

Readability	7/10 – Bland prose meant my mind kept drifting
Hero	6/10 – Not nearly as bright as he thinks he is
Heroine	5/10 – Even dimmer than the hero if she didn’t see who he was right away
Entertainment value	4/10 – A bland and kind of generic romance, based on a lie so transparent it made the protagonists look stupid
World building	6/10 – I can’t attest to the accuracy but it never really came alive for me
TOTAL:	28/50