Affairs of the Heart by Boirslava Borissova
Release Date: June 19, 2011
Publisher: Rose Heart Books
Pages: 216
Source: book provided by the author
Two novellas about love and loneliness, and the unique ways some people deal with them. We are born alone, we die alone but life is our chance to live in love. If possible… or if we so wish…
Lustfully Ever After Anthology edited by Kristina Wright
Release Date: May 15, 2012
Publisher: Cleis Press
Pages: 232
Source: book provided by the publisher
In Lustfully Ever After, classic fairy tales are reimagined for an adult audience with twists (and kinks) to keep readers entertained. In Michelle Augello-Page’s romantically charged BDSM tale “Wolf Moon,” Little Red Riding Hood is the big bad wolf, while Kristina Lloyd rewrites “”he Twelve Dancing Princesses” as a scorching hot MFM threesome in “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces.” Shanna Germain’s “”Mirror Mirror”" shows the sensual Sapphic side of Snow White’s stepmother and Andrea Dale pens a contemporary version of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” in the poignantly erotic “Steadfast.”
This delightful collection of fairy tales will lead you down a magical path into forbidden romance and erotic love. You won’t need those bread crumbs to find your way home—for home is where the heart is and the authors of Lustfully Ever After know your heart’s most wicked and secret desires.
Claiming of Suzy by KT Grant
Release Date: October 6, 2010
Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Source: received from publisher
Suzy Bean is a woman who lives in the moment and loves her overabundant curves. The man she secretly loves, JC Mosino, is the only one who can make her untamed sexual fantasies a reality. After having way too much fun during a party, JC drives her home where their passions ignite. Suzy believes this is night she and JC will go from being friends to lovers. Unfortunately things go awry and Suzy ends up throwing JC out.Now Suzy’s whole world has been turned upside down. She’s given up smoking and is sexually frustrated when she meets a handsome, flirty stranger, who rubs her the wrong way. This chance meeting is one she’ll never forget, for Mr. Hunk is her new boss, Xavier Marks.
JC’s craving for Suzy is consuming his thoughts, and he wants nothing more than to work things out and become her lover. He has a plan, but has to move fast as Xavier works to seduce Suzy. JC will do whatever he can to claim his brassy, buxom beauty for his own.
Review: While I wanted to like this one as much as some of KT Grant’s work, but there was just so many things going on at once with this story that it felt like the story got lost in it all. From the beginning, it picks up with Suzy and JC getting together, and while the sex was real in a way Suzy’s reactions went from Cold to Hot and back again in no time at all. One paragraph she was shy and demure and the next she was chopping at the bit to get to the really good stuff. That along with her constant mood swings throughout the book mad liking her as a character really hard.
Add into that the confusion of JC and Xavier, which man to choose, and the odd way each man went about trying to get the girl just made the entire story so hard to get into that I found myself only finishing the book just to see if it got better at the end.
While KT Grant did bring back in the characters from “For The Love of Mollie” I found that even they were flat in this book. When I fell in love with Mollie’s book I assumed that it would be the same for this one, and yet I just felt this story wasn’t a good as it could have been. I did give it a 2 because there were good things about this book but no enough to make the book worth a reread.
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The Wedding Beat by Devan Sipher
Release Date: April 3, 2012
Publisher: NAL Trade
Pages: 254
Source: book provided by the publisher
Sometimes the best man isn’t even in the wedding party…Gavin Greene is a hopeless romantic. He’s also a professional one: He writes the wedding column for a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, covering spectacular parties from coast to coast. But there’s a thin line between being a hotshot reporter on assignment…and being a single guy alone on a Saturday night at someone else’s wedding.
Everything changes on New Year’s when Gavin meets Melinda, a travel writer with an adventurous spirit. A moonlit stroll across a Manhattan rooftop seems to seal the deal. But then she slips away.
Gavin crisscrosses New York City to find her again, navigating stressed-out brides, gossip blogs, a budget-cutting boss and his daft but well-meaning parents. Along the way, he learns that there’s something worse than losing the woman of his dreams — having to write an article about her wedding.
Review: Gavin Greene is a peculiar man. Not just peculiar, he is definitely not what you would picture as a wedding columnist. As a man with a love for weddings and a strong desire to get hitched some day, he can’t seem to even get up the courage to be assertive with women. There is just something about him that makes you want to love him, while wondering how he has survived on the New York Streets so long unattended. When a chance meeting with a woman, named Melinda, at a house party where he was a +1, may just make his life finally come into focus. If only he hadn’t let her walk away without getting her last name or number.
With a burning desire to know this woman, and advice from a client on how to take charge, plus a best friend full of her own romance follies, Gavin is in for the ride of his life to find his perfect mate. Will finally finding her be everything that he wants or will he realize that fantasy may in fact be better than reality when it comes to love?
Melinda is the perfect woman, at least to Gavin. While she comes with her own secrets and a past that doesn’t lead to the best conclusions, she isn’t really introduced as more than a fantasy woman until the last half of the book. Her erratic and adventurous spirit would seem to be the perfect match for Gavin’s grounded and reality stricken behavior. But with her comes a slue of problems and hurdles these two much overcome to be together. With a hand full of lies, misinterpretations, a heart attack, cheating fiancee, and a best friend with a killer right hook, these two will have to really want it to make this relationship work.
This was a great story from an up and coming author that really showcased her personality and cheeky sense of humor. The story of Gavin and Melinda was well rounded, and while it did get a bit long winded in some parts, turned out just the way I had hoped it would. While the fun along the way really made these characters work for the ending, I found it enjoyable to have the HEA worked for instead of just a given. The suspenseful twist with Gavin’s best friend, Hope, was something that I had expected as a reader, and it made me love this book in the end. I can’t wait to see what is next from Devan. This book will be a re-readable one for sure.
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A Bite’s Tale by Veronica Blade
Release Date: January 4, 2012
Publisher: Crush Publishing Ink
Page Count: 188
Source: Bewitching Book Tours
A Cinderella who spends her nights as a wolf. A prince with a taste for blood.Seventeen year old Cydney struggles against her werewolf nature, trying to keep everyone around her safe. No way will she risk exposing the beast at the prince’s ball, no matter how her two cousins try to persuade her. Even as she attempts to get on with her life, Cydney can’t forget the boy she loved three summers ago — or what she did to him after losing control.
Turned into a vampire to save his life, the prince refuses to live up to his royal duties. He just wants to find the girl he loved and lost…the werewolf girl who bit him. But his father, the king, commands him to attend a ball where he must choose a wife. Can he find his Cinderella before he’s forced to marry another? He doesn’t even have her real name, much less a glass slipper.
Review: For these two star crossed lovers, only trusting in each other will allow their hearts to take them to eternity. Many things stand in the way though social standards, secrets but most of all genetics. “Jack” has a secret, one that could make Cydney leave forever, and he is willing to do anything to make her see that he is a great guy and that this secret is nothing more than heritage. But a genetic accident tears these two apart, and while both are alive, living full lives are not in the cards for either. The only solution is finding one another again and seeing if the magic is still there. Is a happily ever after in the cards for these two, or will fear and society keep them apart even longer?
This is a new age spin on a classic tale of Cinderella and her quest for Prince Charming. While some things that obviously been changed the same elements have stayed the same, and for those of us that can remember the original can connect with this story on more than one level. The entire story was an easy read that made following the characters easy and quite enjoyable. I would have liked to see more of what happens at the end of the book after the ball, but continuing this as a possible series is created with the ending you find here. I haven’t read too many YA books in the past but this one was a nice refreshing change from my usual reading habits. Veronica Blade really showcased her writing style in this book and it was a pleasure to get to read this one!
