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ArecRain (8 KP) rated Tortured in Books

Jan 18, 2018  
T
Tortured
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was ensnared by the man's look on the front of this cover that I had to buy it. I don't know why, but I was just fascinated by his expression. After reading the description, I was so taken by this book that I immediately had to read it. I actually expected the female protagonist, Sierra, to be a whore with prisoners. The description led me to believe. It also made me think that she was some week female under the influence of her enemy.

I was so completely wrong. Not only does Sierra only have sex with three people the entire novel --two because she wanted to and one because she is pretty much forced--, but she is one of the strongest heroines I have ever read. She watched her mother, who had the gift of sight, being forced to work for the enemy Saxons, who later murders her for hiding Sierra's brother. Sierra and her brother, Torin, are then forced apart. It is thought that Torin is left for dead, while Sierra takes up her mother's job as the Saxon king's Seer. Her entire life, Sierra never loses her fire, her hope, or her determination. When she sees Dryston, she sees her chance to escape and doesn't hesitate to snatch it.

I was so completely enraptured by this novel: by Sierra's life and emotions, by Dryston's mission, determination, and tenderness when taking care of Sierra, and by the entire nations hope of being free from the Saxons. McIntyre weaves such a compelling story that one cannot help but be tangled up in. I actually completely forgot that this was meant to be an erotic novel because I was so caught up in the storyline. I am glad, however, that I did not read this book for the erotica. Honestly, the erotic scenes fizzled. They were short, lacked description, and were actually passable.

One of the best novels I've read in a long time.
  
B(
Blackmailed (Blackmailed #1)
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Wow, what to say about this novel. I found it so completely ridiculous in so many ways. I'll start with how Brianna came into her position in the first place. Her father, Andrew Wyatt, blackmails his own daughter, Brianna, into being Cole Master's whore so that she can produce an heir for Wyatt. How does he blackmail daughter of legal age into doing his bidding? By threatening her brother, his son. Apparently, that is enough to turn his daughter into a breeding mule. Normally, I would find it hard to believe that anyone would act like such a neanderthal in this day and age, but I have been wrong before.

When Wyatt brings his daughter to Cole, who agrees to this all out of curiosity, Cole is immediately protective of the plain girl. The best way I can explain it is lust at first sight. For some reason, Cole feels protective of Brianna and cannot wait to sexually awaken her....and then share her with his head of security, Tyler Cannon. Cole isn't gay, but he is consumed with thoughts of sharing her with his lifelong friend. What I found most disturbing is that the day after Cole pops Brianna's cherry (also the first day they met), he gets his wish of sharing his new charge. How he does it actually infuriates me. After Brianna's first time, she falls asleep in Cole's bed, only to wake blindfolded and tied to the bed so Tyler can do whatever he wants with her. If I was in the same position, I would furious, not turned on.

And so their sexual activities continue and Cole obtains custody of Brianna's birthday. Cole asks Brianna to marry him, Wyatt becomes furious, Cole shuts him down. Pretty simple yet insane plot line.

On a lighter note, the erotic scenes were fantastic although I could do without the dirty talk. For some reason, talking during sex is always more exciting when you are actually doing the deed. Reading about it is...well awkward.

An entertaining novel despite plot.
  
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ArecRain (8 KP) rated Indecent/Wicked in Books

Jan 18, 2018  
I
Indecent/Wicked
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
I was not expecting this omnibus to be as great as it was. When I requested it, I thought it was just going to be another run of the mill erotic novel. And while there really wasn’t anything special about it, I still love it more than I should.

First, I loved the complication of the characters. They each have their story, their dirty little secrets, and what makes them tick. There was nothing glamorous or fairytale like to this story. It showed the ugly side of the relationships along with the good, which was usually the sex. The erotic scenes were pretty spicy, but nothing fantastic. I was reading it more for the story than the erotic factor.

The first story has to do with Lucky and Colin. Lucky has her own inner demons and a past that has messed with her perception of men. Colin is a psychologist who seem to can’t turn it off when interacting with Lucky who doesn’t want him digging in her brain. It was interesting to see how their relationship developed and how they dealt with each other’s faults.

The second story concerns Lucky’s co-worker and friends Renae and Colin’s best friend Will. Will thinks Renae is a lesbian which is was initially stopped him from chasing her tail. Currently, he is courting someone else, but when Renae makes the first move, Will is certainly not passing up the chance. Will and Renae’s relationship is less complicated than Colin and Lucky’s, but that still doesn’t mean they don’t have their issues to work through.

This novel was so realistic to me in terms of relationships, the troubles that come with them, and how the couple works through them. It was something refreshingly new, especially since, while they didn’t get the happy endings we normal expect from such novels, everything still worked out in the end.
  
The Dumb House: (Scottish Classics)
The Dumb House: (Scottish Classics)
John Burnside | 2015 | Fiction & Poetry
6
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
This book was nothing like what I thought it would, and for that reason, it disappointed me.

I believed this novel was going to be a creepy, man-holds-children-captive kind of story, but unfortunately it wasn’t. This was far more intelligent, with lots of complex writing than I had expected, and due to that, I couldn’t really get into it. I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed so I feel like a lot of this book went over my head.

There’s no doubt about it, our narrator is one of the most terrifying and disturbed narrators I’ve ever come across, and thanks to my love for the macabre, this made reading his story sometimes enjoyable. When he was simply recalling his actions in the here and now, I was interested, but when he got into his ramblings about his ideas on testing the innateness of language, my mind moved onto different things. Hence it taking me almost a week and a half to read 204 pages.

Burnside is an incredibly beautiful writer, it doesn’t surprise me to see he’s a poetry writer as well as a fiction writer. I’m always one to praise an author for their poetic prose, but sometimes things get a little too complex for me and all meaning is lost on me. This happened a lot throughout reading The Dumb House.

In terms of the story, this wasn’t exactly what I had hoped it would be. It was very slow to get anywhere, and even when we did get to learning his experiment on his children, that whole section was equally slow-moving. It didn’t feel like an awful lot happened other than several uncomfortable sex scenes and some horrifying violence.

Unfortunately, this one didn’t do it for me, which is a shame, because I was so looking forward to reading it. I suppose if you love intelligent fiction that is reasonably ambiguous, this might be great for you. I personally like a book that challenges my mind, but this one went too far for me.
  
Pure Healing (Pure Ones #1)
Pure Healing (Pure Ones #1)
Aja James | 2012 | Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Pure Healing (Pure Ones #1) by Aja James
Pure Healing is the first book in the Pure Ones series. In a nutshell, it is about a vampire like species who hold honour in high esteem. They are unable to have sex with each other unless it is their true mate, but are quite conniving in finding ways around that little rule! ;) Valerius and Rain met ten years ago, but made sure their paths crossed as little as possible. Now, however, it is unavoidable.

This story will drag you in and not let go. Told in the first person for the first and last chapters, and then third person multiple point of view throughout the rest of the story, it will definitely keep you on your toes. You will also 'see' an amazing part of the world in this story, one that is too often neglected. The originality of this story, coupled with the amazing world-building, fantastic story-line, and brilliant characters, demand that this book be given the full five stars.

The writing itself is smooth, with no editing or grammatical errors to disrupt the reading flow. The pace was smooth, and the story action-packed. It is steamy in places, but only where it should be. Lots of other characters NEED to have their story told, so I can't wait for those. And I sincerely hope for a HEA for the whole of the Pure Ones. They have suffered losses in this book, and I don't like that! And yes, I know they're not real, but read the book and you'll understand where I'm coming from!

As a final comment, I will just say I'm definitely not Team Ere, but Team Dalair all the way!

* A copy of this book was provided to me with no requirements for a review. I voluntarily read this book, and the comments here are my honest opinion. *

Merissa
Archaeolibrarian - I Dig Good Books!
  
FI
Fantasy in Death (In Death, #30)
J.D. Robb | 2010
8
8.0 (4 Ratings)
Book Rating
<i>Fantasy in Death</i> is an interesting take on the death-by-gaming plot that has previously been done by a couple of fantasy and science fiction authors, most notably in Niven and Barnes' Dream Park series. I doubt that most of Robb's readers will be familiar with the other books, as they're probably coming from the romance world (crossing over from her Nora Roberts titles) instead of the science fiction genre.

What hit me the most, though, was nostalgia for the dot com boom. The portrayal of the hot start-up company with its open, cheerful offices full of tech toys and energy, well-paid employees on fire with ideas and enthusiasm happily burning the midnight oil to work on exciting projects&mdash;I remember those days! Okay, the technology wasn't as advanced as the stuff in the book, but I can relate.

I always enjoy the portrayal of Dallas and Roarke's relationship as a mature partnership. It is a bit clich&ecuted at this point that every case has some aspect that justifies bringing in Roarke as a civilian consultant, but it's part of the formula. The sex is somewhat paint by numbers by now, too, but as prolific as Robb/Roberts is, I'm wondering if she has templates for different series and she has her own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratemeyer_Syndicate">Stratemeyer Syndicate</a>-type operation going on somewhere. (I've never read anything but the Eve Dallas books, so please take that as the joke it's meant to be!)

I was a little disappointed in the reveal, as I felt that the bad guy was too obvious. I won't say more, as I don't want to give anything away. I'll probably continue reading the series, but I'm past feeling an urgent need to grab them as soon as they come out, and this definitely isn't one of the few series that I could re-read and enjoy.
  
The Boy at the Door
The Boy at the Door
Alex Dahl | 2018 | Mystery, Thriller
2
2.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The plot (0 more)
The main character, the pacing (0 more)
Just Say No
I wanted to love this book. I really did. I heard about it in a book magazine, and I fell in love with the blurb.

However, I got to reading this book, and I found myself not caring about what happens. The pacing was just to slow for me, yet I continued to read in case it got better. It did not.

As for the characters, I found myself not caring about them. I just couldn’t connect to any of them. I did like Johan from the Little I read of him. I wondered why he’d stay with a horrible piece of work like Celia. And Celia was definitely a nasty piece of work! The way she treats her husband is vile! She talks about showering him with plenty of sex and affection and then basically being a bitch to them in order to get him to stay. She recommends other women do this too. No, thank you. The way she acts when she hears that Tobias is going to be staying with her for a few months is just horrible too. I realize it’s a big deal to have a kid you’ve never known come to stay with you for a few months, but I just felt she was way over the top. And don’t get me started on how she treats other people like she’s better than them. Yet she wants to come across to others as having the perfect family, so why treat others like crap if you are concerned with how they perceive you? Celia is nothing but a spoiled, selfish, vile brat. She’s one of the main reasons I couldn’t finish this book.

Maybe others will like this book, but I just couldn’t get into it due to slow pacing and mainly because I couldn’t torture myself to keep reading about Celia. This is being added to my DNR shelf.

(I received a free ebook of this title from the First to Read program).
  
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Gail (4 KP) rated All Tyed Up in Books

Jun 4, 2018  
AT
All Tyed Up
Julia Harlow | 21016
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
All Tyed Up by Julia Harlow
The story follows Isabella Beachwood and Ty Griffin. Their Journey Begins a little bit shaky. Isabella has this attitude and it’s just like no he might be a player, he’s hot, he’s sexy and he’s got this charisma that she knows women are all over him. Then there’s Ty he’s just like wow this voluptuous woman is just too hot I need her. I got the feeling that he was just going to take over and commander her.
Ok I enjoyed this book. I laughed and even got a little teary eyed. At first I was in love with Isabella. She is a independent woman doing her thing. But as the book progressed she became snobbish to me. For instance the part where she misjudged him and thought that he was married and had a baby. How in the world did he end up apologizing to her when she jumped to conclusions? Then she had the nerve to say that she needed to think about it for a couple days. I was like girl get over yourself this man did nothing wrong and yet you're punishing him. And then there’s Tiberius Griffin( AKA Ty). Man he is delicious sounding everything about him just sounded so perfect. Until he let her basically boss him around I mean what alpha male let’s the woman boss him around? I understand let her take control every now and then but you know he basically gave in to her every demand. I like that she wrote about body image because so many women have body image issues and it’s something that affects us everyday. But anyways on a good note I really love the authors writing. I thought she wrote the characters well and from her perspective they were perfect the way they are. I really enjoyed the funny parts and don’t let me forget the sex. It was hot! hot! hot! So if you’re looking for a book that’s sweet, tempting and fun this is definitely for you.
  
One Day in December: A Christmas Love Story
One Day in December: A Christmas Love Story
Josie Silver | 2017 | Fiction & Poetry
10
8.6 (8 Ratings)
Book Rating
I loved the idea of this book and it sounded just my perfect romance read.  However it was so much more than I could have hoped for!  I read it in one sitting and found the lovely sunny day had gone dark and wet by the time I moved from the sofa - but oh! what a day I had in the world of this amazingly beautiful love story!

The story is told over a ten year period, beginning in December 2008 which is where the Christmas part comes in.  The story is told in sort of diary form from the characters perspectives and jumps many months at a time so you get the good bits whilst the story unfolds. 

It sounded like it could be yet another love triangle with the obvious difficulties however it is so unlike anything I have read before.  It is a book for all ages – no nasty double crossing, no detailed erotic sex scenes or nasty, bitchy comments we are so used to being part of daily lives – however, there  are many tear-worthy moments in this absolutely wonderful true love story. 

The author has found a way of telling a story in today’s times without having all the drama that we are so used to seeing in these types of situations.  Everyone deals with events in a very mature way and forgiving way which ensures that whilst reading you can live in a feel-good bubble.  I did plenty of bubbling while reading and many sharp intakes of breath at times too.  It is a story of love, heartache, friendship and the unbreakable bonds.

I can honestly say I will be recommending this to everyone I speak to in person, on twitter, Facebook and anywhere else that I can.  It’s amazingly beautiful – you really should go read it!

Thanks to Josie Silver, NetGalley and Penguin for giving me the opportunity to read and review prior to the paperback release in October 2018.
  
Take It All
Take It All
Quin Perin | 2018 | Erotica, LGBTQ+
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
smut, in its most pure and beautiful form!
I was gifted my copy of this book direct from the authors, that I write a review was not required.

Quin and Perin write. smut. Pure and simple, down and dirty SMUT. If you don't like smut, steer clear cos let me tell ya, this here is one excellent SMUT book!

Now, I've decided that daddy kink really doesn't do anything for me, not really, but I did read The One With Daddy, since it's the first one in this little smut-fest. It's well written, but from only Dave's point of view. It's sexy, it's hot, HAWT, but it's not really my thang.

The One With The Politician, however, was right up my street! Again, told only from The Politician's point of view, it's all about him getting his rocks off since his wife ain't giving him what he really needs. And boy does he get them off! Hot, HOT HOOOOOOOOOOOOT!!

The One With The Jock? I need more of these two! I feel there is a longer story that they need to tell, a story out there, somewhere, in the minds of Quin and Perin and I hope they write it! Please write it!

Then there is a bonus read, that I also feel needs a longer drawn out tale! Reece and Elijah clearly have chemistry, even if they have yet to touch!

These four stories are NOT romances: they are purely and simply sex. And I make NO apologies for loving books such as these! Sometimes, you just need to read about two guys who have explosive chemistry getting down and dirty with each other!

Keep em coming, please God, keep these sorts of books coming at me, cos I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED them in my life!

S0, only because they are so bloody short, and only because one character in each pairing has a say...

4 stars

**same worded review will appear elsewhere**