Table for Two Hearts by Christine DePetrillo

TITLE: Table for Two Hearts
AUTHOR: Christine DePetrillo
PUBLISHER: Whispers Publishing
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 12k)
GENRE: Contemporary romance
COST: $2.95

When he’s not flying cargo around the country, Eric buys property and flips them. His current project is a restaurant, but when the architect recommended to him shows up, Sam Falcon is not what he was expecting…

There’s not much to this short story, but what started out promising quickly degenerated. The hero Eric is showing off the restaurant he’s just bought to his best friend Dave, and their banter back and forth is fun and realistic. Eric, especially, has an easy charm that makes it easy to like him. His friendship with Dave sparkles with realism, and sets the tone all the throughout the first chapter. It holds through his first introduction to Sam, who, on first appearances, seems to be the perfect woman for him.

It actually held me all the way until Sam shows up for their second meeting. She arrives at the restaurant first, drops something, then hits her head and gets knocked out. Nothing wrong with that. No, my problem started with Sam’s dog taking off at that point to run down the road to Eric’s house – a man the dog has never seen, nor visited – getting the man’s attention, and being responsible for Eric returning to the restaurant to find Sam. Instead of calling 911, he ends up kissing her, and while he recognizes he should be calling emergency services, the kissing continues – until he stops it. Sam gets pissed and takes off, and there’s the sole conflict in the entire story. It’s incredibly pointless and orchestrated, and never feels real nor organic. Everything goes downhill even more after that.

Stories like this are simple, short escapes, and with so few words, they can’t afford to lose a reader with dumb choices. This one did, and I’m particularly disappointed considering how much I liked Eric at the start.

Readability	7/10 – Appealing banter carried it a long way
Hero	7/10 – Felt very genuine until the romance actually hit
Heroine	4/10 – Not as well developed as the hero, though there’s a hint of what she could be
Entertainment value	4/10 – I was enjoying it until the dog turned the story around
World building	6/10 –The details regarding the restaurant set a fantastic setting, but it’s not enough to carry the story
TOTAL:	28/50

Midnight Fantasies by assorted authors

TITLE: Midnight Fantasies
AUTHOR: Mikala Ash, Amanda Carrell, Yolanda Sfetsos, & Maggie Wylder
PUBLISHER: Whispers Publishing
LENGTH: Anthology (roughly 40k)
GENRE: Paranormal erotic romance
COST: $4.95

An anthology of four paranormal erotic romances, each one about a world unknown to this one.

The first anthology I’ve read in months, and unfortunately, the kindest thing I can say about it is that it’s unmemorable. Its stories are simplistic and rushed, and it really doesn’t make me want to read another one any time soon.

The first story in the anthology is Mikala Ash’s “Deep Encounter.” It’s the story of ex-lovers, reunited on a deep sea expedition to examine a new life form. While the romance is unbelievable (because I'm expected to believe all those problems that plague a break-up the first time many years earlier can be resolved with just a few hours of intimacy), this provides the most interesting set-up and milieu. I believed both characters as scientific professionals as well as the ocean backdrop. Even with a romance that made me roll my eyes, it managed to be my favorite one of the bunch.

The second, “The Way to Olympia” by Amanda Carrell, had strikes against it almost from the start. Two archaeologists are on the verge of a great discovery, each in love with the other, but the reason nothing has happened? The heroine’s brother, on his deathbed, made the hero promise never to make a physical advance toward his sister, because he wasn’t good enough. How am I supposed to believe in the hero being worthy if all I’m told from the start is that he isn’t? The story is too short to overcome that, and the whole thing falls flat.

Third in the anthology is “Selkie Skin” by Yolanda Sfetsos. The title gives it away. An Australian woman finds a naked man on the beach, takes him home to tend his wounds, has sex with him, and discovers he’s more than what he seems. The characters are flat, and the set-up lipservice with more telling than showing. My least favorite of the bunch.

Rounding it out is “Transcended” by Maggie Wylder. A woman has been dreaming of the same man for years, making love to him in her dreams, only to have him come to life on her archaeological dig. This might not have been so bad if the hero wasn’t a jerk, and the man who considers him his rival a caricature of evil. This one had the best written sex scenes of the bunch, but loathing two of the three principles doesn’t make it palatable.

Readability	6/10 – Simplistic and uninspiring
Romance	5/10 – Rushed and mostly unrealistic
Characterization	4/10 – It’s hard to care about caricatures and flat characters
Entertainment value	4/10 – Unmemorable is probably the kindest thing I could say
World building	6/10 – Some stories do better than others
TOTAL:	25/50

Scarlet's Web by Rachel Carrington

TITLE: Scarlet’s Web
AUTHOR: Rachel Carrington
PUBLISHER: Whispers Publishing
LENGTH: Novella (roughly 28k)
GENRE: Contemporary suspense erotic romance
COST: $3.95

Cops Jaden and Kennedy had a torrid affair – until she got promoted and became his boss. Three months later, they’re fighting their attraction, trying to find some way to work together…and failing miserably. When a new serial killer puts Jaden on the defensive, they have no choice but to work together to try and stop the woman determined to get rid of all the cheating men in town…

I have to say this for this story. It was over so fast, I barely noticed. The action and romance move at a swift pace, with some competent prose marking the way. The sex is rough and hot, and the two leads clearly into each other. So why don’t I love it?

Part of it stems from the sloppy mistakes that riddle the text. Prepositions are missing, words are misused, names occasionally have different spellings. Errors like this hold me back from getting immersed in the suspense. Then there’s the actual suspense itself. When the story is in the thick of the action, it clips along at an involving pace. But in order to keep the story short – and sometimes to get to the romance part of it – crucial details happen offscreen. It’s disappointing. There was great potential for this to be a dark, engrossing read. The characters have real conflict and show reasonable depth. The villain has the potential of being three-dimensional. There’s an opportunity for some real angst when the case gets personal for Jaden. But all of it is cheated by cursory examination. Too much attention is placed on the couple, and not enough on the circumstances surrounding them, when both their problems are rooted in their jobs and the serial killer. It’s one big tease for what could have been, and not enough as it is.

Readability	7/10 – Quick moving prose that gets held back by editorial sloppiness
Hero	6/10 – Charming and hot, though there’s not enough of him to be more than that
Heroine	5/10 – A bit of a muddle of motivations
Entertainment value	6/10 – Feels like a nibble, this could have been so much more
World building	6/10 – The real world felt only sketched in; far more attention was paid to the romance
TOTAL:	30/50

Slave to Love by Nikita Black

TITLE: Slave to Love
AUTHOR: Nikita Black
PUBLISHER: Whispers Publishing
LENGTH: Novel (roughly 124k)
GENRE: BDSM thriller erotic romance
COST: $7.95

SIS officer Caroline Palmer is itching to get into Homicide…until Mick McGraw pulls her in on a special task force to find a new serial killer in town. It’s not that she doesn’t want to prove her mettle. It’s that Mick isn’t known as the Iceman for nothing. And that she’s been harboring a serious crush on him for a year, a crush he soundly rebuffed. And that taking the job means posing as his lover in a Master/slave relationship…

I’ve had this sitting on my virtual TBR file for the longest time, so since I’ve had some extra time on my hands with Halloween over and before Thanksgiving shows up, I pulled it out. And promptly devoured. Seriously. I could not. Stop. Reading.

The first half doesn’t read like romance. It’s straight out of any erotic thriller I have sitting on my paperback shelf, because I haunt the mystery section of my local B&N as much as I do the romance section. The writing is taut, the characters are vivid, and the crime violent. Caroline seems marvelously competent as she trades zingers with the other cops, and especially when she is first confronted with Mick. She can more than hold her own, so even though she’s leery of the assignment, she also knows she can’t refuse. It’s a smart woman I’m more than willing to throw in with, in her attempts to hold Mick at bay.

Ah, Mick. Homicide cop. Untouchable. Gorgeous. Unavailable. A grade A jerk to Caroline much of the time, with a dark, seductive, sinister side I absolutely, positively could not resist any more than Caroline could. I know I shouldn’t like him. He treats Caroline like crap in the beginning. He pushes all her buttons, winds her up, and does everything he can to get her to bend to his will. And yet…and yet…there was something else there. He’s clearly damaged goods. Highly protective of his heart and his past. And maybe it’s the “let me kiss it better” instinct that sometimes rears its head in me taking over my better common sense. I’m not sure. What I am sure about is that while he was becoming Caroline’s Master in every sense of the world, I was there, holding my breath, wondering if the dark side was going to come out and play. Because it is dark. There’s a scene of forced consent. There’s the manipulation of Caroline’s job. There’s a lot of things that might set off warning bells with other characters. They did ding here, but…well, not very loudly. Because his need for power, to show ownership of Caroline, combined with his tormented side that he so carefully guards, completely got to me.

The story is definitely edgy. The serial killer is a sex crime killer who picks his prey from a BDSM club. Mick does everything he can to prepare Caroline for it, though in his defense, he also gives her opportunity to back out before she’s in too deep. Their games are fairly intense, and while the prose borders on purple in those scenes – I’m sorry, but I can’t see the word “tumid” without snickering and rolling my eyes – the rest of the writing is crisp and tight enough to make up for it.

As dark and seductive as Mick is, this was the most intense ride I’ve taken in a story in a while. I was as breathless when I finished it as I was at every crucial point throughout the book. A keeper, and one I’m definitely rushing off to buy in print.

Readability	8/10 – Slightly purple prose during the smut in the first half, but so well structured with such fascinating characters that I couldn’t put it down
Hero	9/10 – A jerk. Grade A most of the time. But there’s something so icy and seductive about him that I just don’t care.
Heroine	7/10 – Strong enough, though some of her vacillating on the want him/don’t want him got old.
Entertainment value	9/10 – A total guilty pleasure. Extremely seductive and thrilling in more than one sense of the word.
World building	8/10 – The BDSM world is portrayed well, though I would have liked more clarity in their normal lives.
TOTAL:	41/50

The Younger Man by Lauren Hawkeye

TITLE: The Younger Man
AUTHOR: Lauren Hawkeye
PUBLISHER: Whispers Publishing
LENGTH: Short story (roughly 10k)
GENRE: Contemporary erotica
COST: $2.95

A recent break-up after a five-year relationship has a woman deciding to seek sexual release with her co-worker, a man nine years her junior.

I suppose I could expand that summary a little, but you know what? It’s a short story, and honestly, nothing else happens. The heroine – unnamed, and the story is told in 1^st person – picks up her co-worker dressed to kill, they go out, and then they have sex. All night. And that’s it. Seriously.

Not naming either character in this is most likely meant to portray the universality of the emotions involved. The woman is feeling unwanted and unattractive, and seeks to remedy that. The man is practically perfect, which is nice enough, but there’s never any more personality presented than the prowess he displays in bed and everyplace else they have sex. There’s brief mentions of him looking like a bad boy at the very start of the story, but that never pans out. He’s too sweet, through and through, and never developed into a character in his own right. It’s all meant to show how sex is a natural thing, desire is normal, and it’s possible to heal from bad break-ups with the right experiences.

The lack of setting detail also adds to the whole sense of everywhere/everywhen. I was never sure if this was in the US, the UK, or someplace else entirely. Without characters to sink into, I need setting, and this didn’t provide that, either.

The story itself isn’t bad. It’s just boring. It’s act after act of sex with little to nothing inspiring about the prose, and no way for me to connect emotionally with either principles as characters. Archetypes, maybe. But then, I’m not reading erotica to study archetypes. There. I said it. I wouldn’t have even bought this one if it had been billed as erotica. It’s not. It’s billed as erotic romance, so I fully expected it to have a little more romantic depth than it did.

Readability	7/10 – Technically competent, but mostly uninspired
Hero	5/10 – Sweet enough, but he’s a device more than a character
Heroine	6/10 – Very everywoman
Entertainment value	3/10 – The same over and over and over again makes for a very boring read.
World building	4/10 – I have no idea where this was set. Mentions of a pub and a few other terms made me initially think England, but it’s not consistent.
TOTAL:	25/50