Hot adult romance, with flashbacks to teenage years, continuation of Devil’s Night series
Damon and Winter.
I don’t want to give anything away.
Winter is another strong woman.
I liked that I got a good grovel, explanation, and an apology (gasp!).
Someone has a “disability” but doesn’t let it keep them back. They are still going after their dreams. I loved how this was handled. It’s a different experience of the world, not a lacking one.
Now for the grammar:
1st person past tense with chapters from both Damon and Winter.
“You may not be the happiest wife, Arion, but I’m told this is why God invented Saks and Xanax.”
Damon: When women think, shit didn’t go the way I wanted it to.
Damon: I’d rather chug a gallon of piss warm milk than stay in bed, doing nothing. I’d rather get a third degree burn on my dick. Or develop a peanut allergy.
Hot adult romance, with flashbacks to teenage years, continuation of Devil’s Night series
Devil’s Night continues with Kai and Banks. We didn’t meet Banks in Corrupt, Devil’s Night Book 1. You must read Corrupt for this one to make sense. I can’t say much about the plot without giving away things about Corrupt. So I’ll just say Hideaway is very good, and you should keep reading if you enjoyed Corrupt.
Hideway isn’t anywhere near as dark as Corrupt was. There are far fewer triggers here. I was again kept up way too late reading this.
I loved Banks. She is another strong woman and saves herself when needed. Kai is great. I liked him in Corrupt and enjoyed getting to know him better. We also got the same great secondary characters here.
There were less sex scenes in this one, but they were still hot. If you would be so offended by some things happening inside a church that you couldn’t go on, you should stay away.
I give this five stars because I would read it again.
Now for the grammar:
1st person past tense with chapters from both Kai and Banks.
11 errors: spelling, quotation marks, and italics problems.
Hot dark romance, new adult (college and a little older) with flashbacks to teenage years
Three years ago, Erika “Rika”, did something bad and sent Michael’s three best friends to jail. Now they are out, and the four men want payback. Rika has left the safety of her relationship with Michael’s younger brother and their small town and transferred to a new college in the city where Michael lives. This puts her exactly where the four men want her, in their grasp.
We don’t find out what happened until well into the book. I enjoyed the way it was given to us in flashback chapters along the way. In the beginning, I was chaffing at not knowing. What can I say? I’m a wait and binge watch girl. But at the end, I can say the book was much better for not front-loading this information at the start.
Penelope Douglas is an excellent writer, keeping me up way too late because I can’t stop reading and must find out what happened. The story and pacing kept me gripped the entire way through. There was much drama and some welcome humor to relieve the tension.
The characters are complex, believable, and I liked them even when they didn’t like themselves. They are all flawed, but this is what makes them great. I loved how strong Rika is. I was thrilled that she saved herself several times, not needing a man to do it for her, or at least she did a lot of damage before help arrived.
The sex scenes were hot and very well written. Their little kinks made things more interesting. There was nothing repetitive or boring here.
I do have a couple of complaints. 1. The guys are all promiscuous. They don’t make women pay or feel shameful, so at least they aren’t manwhores. Thankfully, we don’t have to read any sex scenes with other women. 2. I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll just say a major apology is missing. Someone should have had to grovel and didn’t do so at all.
I must caution some readers. This is a dark romance. It does not contain actual rape, but rape is threatened several times by different characters. There is sexual molestation and harassment, including unwanted touching and kissing, again by different characters. Anyone with these types of triggers should stay away.
This is a sexually graphic novel. It contains many sex scenes. There is one menage scene. It felt right for the story, not gratuitous, dirty, or shameful. I actually thought it was the hottest sex scene in the book.
I give this five stars because I would read it again. I’m definitely reading the rest of the series.
Now for the grammar:
1st person past tense with chapters from both Ericka and Michael.
“Grinded” and “thrusted” are not a words. The past tense of grind is ground. It’s thrust in the present and past.
12 other errors: spelling, quotation marks, and italics problems. Two minor problems with continuity.
Favorite Quotes:
Rika speaking to her mom:
“We could re-watch Thor again. I know you like his hammer.”
“I’ll see what Noah’s up to tonight, but if I need bail money or I come home pregnant, you only have yourself to blame.”
Michael:
Rika was a lot like I was a few years ago. Confused, caged, and corruptible. The most valuable lesson anyone learns in life should be learned as early as possible. That you don’t have to live in the reality someone else had invented. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Ever.
Redefine normal. None of us know the full measure of our power until we start pushing our boundaries and pressing our luck, and the more we do, the less we care what others think. The freedom feels too good.
Rika:
There was no one to help me. There was no one to help me but me. You’re not a victim, his words came back, and I’m not your savior. I turned around, looking back at the house and seeing the lights inside slowly come on. They were in there. And once… I was one of them. Once, I ran with them, kept up with them, and stood next to them. I wasn’t their victim, and I had their attention. I’d learned how to fight. This was on me, and while I wouldn’t make it easy for them, I wouldn’t run. I would never run. I was built for this.
Michael:
“…I respectfully request that, when you come home, you do me before your homework…”
Contemporary romance with imperfectly perfect hero and lots of humor
As a female mechanic, Eden suffered way too much sexual harassment until she was hired by Gage. Gage has his own troubles keeping his garage running with a wandering mind, the fidgets, and the stress of his business partner and mentor just dying. Hiring Eden helps, and Gage would like to be more than her boss, but he would never want to make her uncomfortable.
This was fast paced, engaging, and funny, with a writing style I appreciated. A fantastic job of “show not tell” is done throughout. I loved that we don’t get a label put on Gage’s psychological struggles until midway through, so much so that I don’t want to put the label in this review. When we label something, we often dismiss it and discount the unique experiences of those who suffer with it. The great descriptions and metaphors used allowed me to laugh at and empathize with Gage’s thoughts.
I loved all the characters in this, main and secondary. My absolute favorite is Aunt Iris. She doesn’t get much screen time, but I want to invite her for a long stay and might keep her. She’s hilariously unfiltered and reminds me of my mother who had to make sure she was wearing Depends before I came over for a chat because we made each other laugh so much. I laughed often throughout this book, which nicely balanced the serious parts.
Eden is a strong woman, confident in herself and her abilities. She was reluctant to get into a relationship with her boss. Of course I wanted them to get together, but her reasons were sound, logical. I wasn’t irritated with her or thinking she was stupid. Gage is honorable, hot, cute, and funny. They both grow along the way. The secondary characters add lots of spice to this stew. I appreciated how developed they all were with strengths and flaws. No one was one dimensional.
I don’t know much about cars, but I didn’t have to. Both of them being mechanics and the background of the garage added flavor but didn’t leave me confused. At one point, Gage laments that, “…mechanics never topped the list of women’s fantasies.” True, they didn’t rank in mine, but the ones that have worked on my cars have looked nothing like Gage! Having a hot man who can always fix my car sounds very appealing now that I think about it.
3rd person past tense from alternating main characters. Graphic sex scene (just one, so not a big part of this novel). No cheating or OW/OM drama. Occasional mild foul language.
Grammar – the author fixed the errors I pointed out.
I highly recommend this and would read it again in the future, so 5 stars!
Favorite quotes:
Gage: (After coming home with a dog when he was supposed to pick up a car part.) …he hoped he’d never stray so bad that he’d end up at a nearby farm purchasing a llama. But even if fate doomed him to seek out llamas, he’d probably load up a Jersey cow instead.
Eden: An elderly man even struck up a conversation while she selected feminine hygiene products at the pharmacy. Most men would avoid stopping in front of the tampon display but not this guy. Midway through the conversation, she thought about heading to the condom aisle to see if he would follow but decided against it. She doubted he’d gossip about her selection of tampons with plastic applicators, but he might start a rumor if she lured him near the prophylactics.
Apparently, the lonely senior made a 911 call when faced with the insurmountable challenge of opening a jar of pickled beets. The police attended to the matter, broke the seal, and left with one of her delicious apple pies.
Telling an anxious person to relax was akin to cleaning a cat by shoving it under the kitchen tap.
Being annoyed with Gage O’Neill was the equivalent of shaming a puppy for jumping on your lap.
Gage: “Aunt Iris is brutal. […] She’s beyond horrible. At my sister’s wedding, she tried pairing me with this long-haired blonde sitting across the room. […] And just so you know, hair color wasn’t the issue. I objected because the blonde at the wedding was a dude.”
Gage: “There are two times a man should do this.” He rose from his chair, shook his head and lowered himself to his knees. “And one of them is when he’s scared of his eighty-three-year-old great aunt. Please, I’ll buy you whatever dress you want. I’ll even toss in a pair of shoes. Just come to this wedding with me.”
Aunt Iris: “Maybe if you went up to Lotus Point with my handsome grandnephew, you’d toss away this friendship nonsense.”
Aunt Iris: “Getting married on the beach. A bikini and a veil. It’s utter nonsense. I hate boring weddings but if I wanted to see a bride in her skivvies, I’d go to a strip club.”
I received a free copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
Luna’s brother brings the wrath of the Dakkari down on their little human village. Luna offers to serve the horde king that comes to punish them in exchange for her brother’s life. He accepts, and her life is changed forever.
This was a fast paced read with likable characters. Luna was strong, and I liked seeing her emotional growth along the way. The horde king was good and honorable. Lots of details like regularly used alien language and an alien version of horses made for great world-building. We don’t learn much about why humans are living on this planet as refugees, but I enjoyed the snippets of information I did get. The sex scenes were titillating but not scorching. The aliens were similar to humans but had tails and black and yellow eyes with no whites. They have a built-in, vibrating, clitoral stimulator, which had me laughing. Don’t all the best aliens have sex toy equipment?
The Dakkari instantly reminded me of the Dothraki in Game of Thrones. Those names are similar, they are a nomadic alien-horse-riding culture, and the men all have long hair. “Kalles” is their word for woman and the first the horde king calls Luna, which is close to khaleesi to me. It isn’t overwhelming, and there are plenty of differences, but I would guess the author is a fan.
I don’t want to give too much away, so how do I say this? The climactic action was too easy to foresee and cliché. But I was very happy that Luna fought for herself and didn’t just wait to be rescued by her man.
First person past tense, all from Luna. No cheating. No OW/OM drama. Several graphic sex scenes. The only foul language I noted was the occasional use of the F word when referring to sex. This is the first in a series of standalone novels. HFN.
Grammar: Error count 15 – wrong, missing, or misspelled words. Missing comma between two independent clauses, but it was consistent so accepted as style. Not terrible.
I enjoyed this and would read more books in the series. I don’t think I would read this one again, so 4 stars.
Guilty pleasure like a soap opera or CW teen series
This is a guilty pleasure, like a soap opera or CW teen series. I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit I read it.
Raven is taken away from her prostitute mother and sent to a small group home in another town where she attends Brayshaw High. This school and town are ruled by three non-biological brothers. The beginning is a hate to love story, but that’s over quickly. Actually not much of it takes place inside the high school.
It becomes very difficult to suspend disbelief. It has some unique twists, so it isn’t cliché, but it gets ridiculously unbelievable. Secret identities, parentage, babies, and marriages. Comas, arranged marriages, mafia-like old families running the world behind the scenes, 16-year-olds having backstories fit for 30-year-olds. It’s insane but enjoyable, a guilty /pleasure/. All three of these books are very long, but it was well paced and kept me reading to the end. I did read all three of them.
I liked some things about the characters and hated other things. Overall, Raven is a strong female character and some secondary females are strong too.
This is really one long book, split into three parts. The first two have major cliffhangers. It would properly be labeled as Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3. Lots of foul language and violence. First person present tense from alternating main characters. Many graphic sex scenes. References to rape and child molestation, but none on camera.
Many reviewers have complained about an overabundance of lip licking. I absolutely agree. It’s crazy overkill. Fortunately, this was addressed in the second two books and only happens rarely there. In part one, Raven thinks about how hot the three guys are far too much.
There is a lot of promiscuity in this novel, but it seems to be consensual. Public and group sex acts. Unprotected sex occurs with a rejected offer to use a condom. There is no discussion of birth control or sexual history. It seems neither is worried about pregnancies or STDs, which is stupidly irresponsible.
Grammar: The comma situation is gruesome with routinely missing commas where they belong and extra commas where they don’t belong. Double punctuation marks like ?! are used. This comes from email and messaging but is not correct English. Beyond that, there were: BOBH: 5, TABH: 4, ROB: 6 including wrong words, extra words, missing words, missing or extra quotation and punctuation marks.
I’d give this three stars but the grammar problems knocked my enjoyment down a star.
Favorite quotes:
From Boys of Brayshay High: “Can’t help it.” I throw my hand forward, weakly squeezing the packed muscles of his biceps. “You try sitting a foot from a beast in the flesh with crazy eyes and a dirty smirk and let’s see if your thong stays dry.”
From Trouble at Brayshaw High: “Nuh-uh, child,” Maybell reprimands and moves forward with a first aid kit. “Don’t be lookin’ at them like that. They did right, calling me. You look as bad as you did when you found out the green Power Ranger was leaving the show.”
Possessive alpha male post-apocalyptic romance with a ménage kink
A strain of Ebola has just killed 99.99% of the world’s population. Rachel is somehow immune. As soon as she leaves her home in San Diego, she runs into Adam, a Hispanic former marine. Adam is much older and has a kink – he likes to share his woman with other men in ménage situations he controls completely. Rachel is a virgin, and Adam tries to stay hands off, but he’s only human.
It was good, but I’m not fangirling. I’m curious about the next book, thinking of reading it, but thinking there’s got to be better stuff out there. Why? It dragged a little. The writing just didn’t keep me needing more. I read this in pieces during my lunch breaks and wasn’t compelled to read it at home instead of watching movies or while I’m supposed to be working.
There were some very good descriptions of the changed world in the beginning, full of dead bodies, some gore, and reminiscent of The Stand. The cause of the virus is known, opening a strong plot element that wasn’t explored, at least not in this first novel. I liked the mixed-race aspect. There were some funny scenes. I appreciated them but wanted more.
I did love that our lead female didn’t need her man to save her. She kicked ass when it counted. I wasn’t a fan of her starting virgin status, but it didn’t bother me too much. Her horrible self-image got annoying.
The sex scenes were okay. It was hotter when they were just talking about sex than when it was actually going on. There was a little bit of talking during sex, which I liked, but not enough. Overall there weren’t enough sex scenes to really make this an erotic novel. There also weren’t enough plot elements to make it a good non-erotic novel. So I’m stuck in mediocre.
3rd person past tense alternating between the main characters. HEA, graphic sex scenes, some foul language, some violence. Contains an off-camera rape concerning a secondary character. No cheating. No OW/OM drama. Does contain one consensual ménage scene. Speaking of, a huge deal was made of Adam’s kink. Rachel not being able to accept it and Adam not being able to be himself sexually was touted as a deal breaker. But we got one sex scene and the issue goes away at the end. This was very unrealistic. Either the setup or the ending was false.
Very few grammar mistakes other than no commas between independent clauses, which is consistent so accepted as style. Three missing words. One wrong word. One missing comma after an introductory clause. One case of head-hopping within a section. One unnecessary dialogue tag.
Favorite Quotes:
“Unfortunately for you, I’m a breast man.” – Adam
“He was so confident, so sure of himself. Like Babe Ruth pointing and calling an out-of-the-park homerun before he’d even picked up the bat.”
“She glanced at all three men, still amazed to have been left alive with these three perfect specimens of masculinity. How did this happen? Apparently, in this new world there would be no potbellies, no receding hairlines and no man boobs. No, not here. It was like they’d been outlawed.”
“Nice man.” He chuckled. “Have you seen my gun collection? I think you have me confused with someone else.” – Adam
PTSD and Small-Town Gossip Threaten Contemporary Romance
It’s a standard romance formula – a woman is cheated on and loses her job, so she moves home to a small town where she meets a great guy. The twists here are that he’s an ex-soldier with PTSD, and she’s a massage therapist dealing with the profession’s negative reputation- that sometimes massages come with “happy endings”.
It’s cute, sweet, and has some good laughs and steamy sex scenes. I liked the characters both main and secondary, especially their maturity. Misunderstandings were handled pretty quickly by talking them out. I loved the banter between them. They come out with some zingers. They aren’t perfect but grow with the story, working on their issues. PTSD is realistically shown as something that requires ongoing treatment and self-awareness. It has relapses with good and bad days, months, and years. This issue isn’t a major focus of the story but is part of the greater theme of self-acceptance and learning to ignore the haters in life.
Overall, I enjoyed this but was heavily distracted by grammar mistakes. I’d probably have given it a 4 but must knock it down to a 3 due to this.
1st person present tense with a few slips into past tense. Chapters from alternating main characters.
HEA, graphic sex scenes, no OW/OM drama, very little foul language.
Grammar: tons of missing commas mostly between two independent clauses, but they weren’t all missing. So it wasn’t a conscious style choice. Missing comma count: 150. Other error count: 36 – Wrong or missing punctuation marks. Missing, wrong, and misspelled words. Dialogue separated from action sequences which identified the speaker. Missing dialogue tags where needed, so I couldn’t tell who said some things. Mixed tenses.
Least Favorite Quote: “Mandy leans closer t me.” T with no O. It makes me 1) wonder if even Word’s simple grammar check was run and 2) want to cry.
I received a free copy of this book from BookSirens and am voluntarily leaving my honest review.
Mystery, action, and romance. Elliot and his friends woke
up in a cave they had been exploring to find 50 years had passed and the world
as they knew it was gone. This is more SciFi than post-apocalyptic as
significant time has passed since the upheaval. It’s not so much about survival
as the mystery of what happened to the world and these men. We don’t get the
answer in this first novel, just clues. But it’s not a cliffhanger. Subsequent
novels in the series take up the mystery with other couples as the main
characters.
The beginning drew me in with a sense of mystery, making
me want to understand what was going on. It’s not an action start but a teaser
start – a creepy feeling. We aren’t given a load of backstory at the beginning.
The setting and action slowly revealed the state of the world. Great writing
with quick pacing kept me reading. Little things like new slang words and names
not matching the genders they are currently most often assigned to helped add
realism to the future setting.
There were good action scenes, very good descriptions of
the environment, good world building, and some humor to relieve the tension.
The women are strong and don’t wait for the men to save them. I don’t want to
give too much away, so suffice to say I adored Jade’s action during the climactic
action scenes.
3rd close, past tense. Chapters from different
characters, most from the mains, but a few from secondary characters. We also
get some journal entries written by a secondary character at the beginning of
the upheaval. I liked the glimpses of the beginning.
Occasional foul language. Significant violence. There are
some graphic sex scenes. A lot of it is described with scatterings of verbs or
adjectives in a poetic way.
No cheating, OW/OM drama, or nonconsent. HFN
Error count: 11 – Pretty good. These were missing, extra,
or misspelled words and missing punctuation marks. Commas are not routinely
missing, so I marked where they were for a total of 38 missing commas. Head-hopping
occurs in only one chapter.
Overall, I really liked this. I don’t see myself wanting to re-read it, so 4 stars. I am going to read the next in the series.
Post-apocalypse is just a backdrop for this set of sex scenes
Previously published as More Than Survival by Camryn Lynn
I didn’t
enjoy this. It has many positive reviews, so I wasn’t expecting to be so
disappointed. I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic romance, especially those with
some smut in them. But this just didn’t do it for me.
There isn’t much world building here. The story doesn’t leave the cabin. Uncle Seamus disappears and Sawyer appears. Nothing else happens besides sex. There really isn’t a plot here. A post-apocalypse is just a backdrop for this set of sex scenes.
There was
too much sex, and I found the sex scenes unrealistic and somewhat boring. There
was barely any dialogue during the sex scenes. The dialogue is usually my
favorite part and what makes a sex scene hot for me. I didn’t find any of these
hot.
I didn’t
like how ignorant Lucy was about sex. At 18, she hadn’t learned the basics and
had never tried touching herself. This is difficult to believe. I hated that
she tried to get pregnant on purpose to keep Sawyer with her and that after she
had decided she wanted to wait, he decided to chance it. There was never a
discussion about having children.
I never
connected with Lucy. She was a survivor and able to take care of herself,
hunting, cooking, chopping wood, etc. But she didn’t feel emotionally strong.
She was lonely, and her focus was on keeping Sawyer happy so he would stay. I
got the impression that if she hadn’t been lucky and some abuser had come along
instead of a nice guy, she would have accepted the abuse to not be alone.
Fortunately,
Sawyer was a nice guy. I didn’t feel that Sawyer was a developed character
either. We never get his point of view or learn much about him. Both characters
were unrealistically beautiful and perfect.
I hated
that it ended on a cliffhanger. We never find out what happened to Seamus or if
Sawyer returns. Near the end, I was so bored that I started skimming, looking
for something to happen, and then it ended abruptly. I thought there was much
more to the story because I was only at about 70%, but the rest is another
novella. So turned out I had started skimming during what should have been the
climax of the novel. Not good.
Error
count: 12 before I started skimming in Chapter 8. 4 in the Prologue, but they
became less frequent after.
M/F, no cheating, no OW/OM drama. 3rd close to h only, past tense. Lucy is a virgin, but Sawyer is not. His sexual history is not revealed.
V. B. Law 