A Fever in the Blood by Anne Mather

Summary:

Cass fled to Italy, and to Ben.

He was the one person in the world who could help her. And help she desperately needed.

So it was a shock to find that she'd only added to her problems instead of solving them. She was a grown woman now. She had four years of marriage and a great many daunting experiences behind her. And yet the attraction between them flared up again

It was an attractio that had to be denied at all costs - because there was just no way that Ben and Cassandra could be happy together.

Reviewer: QueenBee
I'm a fan of Anne Mather but this book had me comparing it to the movie Clueless starring Alicia Silverstone. There the main character Cher had a relationship with her (former) step-sibling and here we have the same. Cass and Ben are half-siblings who were close until four years ago, the last summer they spent together. That summer Cass had become a woman and shared a kiss that set off a series of unpleasant events. Now Cass is back in Ben’s life after running away from her abusive husband whom she married on the rebound after she went back to her family.

From the first page when Cass appears at Ben’s apartment the tension in the room is so obvious it made me acutely uncomfortable. The characters behave in such a manner that makes you scream incest, especially when they become romantically involved. For the rest of the novel the relationship that never was supposed to be is treated like it’s perfectly normal in their eyes. Yet only Ben’s mother, who discovered them the first time when they kissed and sent Cass packing four years ago, makes a fuss.

When we are confronted with the truth it was too late for me to change my opinion. There were hints about it in the blurb but the author waited too long with her great revelation. I have to give it half a star - it's probably the worst Harlequin I've ever read. The relationship the way it was described and the plot both made me cringe. Anne Mather usually writes better than this.

See the original review on goodreads
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/227474423

Sinful Treats (Club Velvet Ice 1) by Violet Summers

Summary:

Ever wonder about the people who work at, and the customers who frequent, the sex club Velvet Ice?

Kendra came to the club to help her best friend celebrate her 21st birthday, on Halloween no less. Her curvy body dressed as a she-devil, her normally sane self agrees to try and gain access to the third floor. With security distracted, she makes it into the forbidden and mysterious playground.

Sinclair is ready to drag the woman back down the stairs where she belongs, but finds himself drawn to her. The fascination on her face as she explores the scenes going on around her enthralls Sin. He knows she's a born Submissive and his attraction to an obvious novice is a big no-no.

Kendra gets herself into trouble with a more experenced Dom and its up to Sin to come to her rescue, but he isn't about to let her go. She came to explore a night of wild fantasy and Sin is the person to show her exactly what it means to belong to a man like him.

Contains: BDSM, spanking, sex club

Reviewer: avidscribe
Derivative, hackneyed, zzzz.

Sorry, but it’s true. It’s BDSM where the Dom falls for the young, voluptuous, innocent sub who doesn’t know she’s a sub and he instantly falls for everything about her, even though he’s been around for years and knows better. He loses control and reacts to her, drowns in her and she gives him the best orgasm of his life, the best kiss, the best tonguing ... oh give me a break!

How many authors? How many times? A writer needs to find a new way into this field now heavy with submissions in order to get a rise from her readers and this writer didn’t even try. There is no new material here, not even the effort to step up to the plate. This is simply an abbreviated contemporary romance with a ridiculous accelerated timeline to get the two players together. I want believability. She adds in a double orgasm for the man (!), the girl’s reticience to return to the BDSM club the next day (naturally) and a trumped up excuse to get her there. There is zilch for character development.

Whether the fault is the editor’s or the writer’s, this story also came with bad grammar and that riles me too as more and more material comes to “market” without being adequately reviewed. [The world was full of Dom’s ...] Beta anyone?

If you want to read a great series of books with a BDSM club theme, try Cherise Sinclair’s MASTERS OF THE SHADOWLANDS series where a man can be written masculine without the necessity of falling back on describing his every reaction as ‘fucking this’ or ‘fucking that.’ That’s just a writer’s hack when she doesn’t want to spend the effort to develop a believable male.

I read Elliot Mabeuse’s A GOOD STUDENT this past week and the man has set a new standard in my eyes for truly great erotic writing that doesn’t pander, that shocks with its raw visceral words and first person (male) thinking. He’s spoiled me with blazing imagery and his strength of words. I immersed inside the world he spun and didn’t want to leave when it ended. Writers should have him on their must-read list before they submit their own work. Readers need to be aware that once you read a truly well written story like A GOOD STUDENT that works like SINFUL TREATS are going to be little more than an enervating, intolerable swill afterwards.

I give this half a star.

See the original review on goodreads

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/223289226