An Unexpected Return by Jessica E. Subject

Summary:

Looking to experience all the universe has to offer, Prince Aristides escapes from the kingdom of Tyto and travels through space to the Emerald Planet, Elatia. He yearns to partake in the activities the planet is famous for, and fulfill all his sexual desires, but loses his heart and soul to an Adamos apprentice. Unfortunately, she is Terran, and her people are sworn enemies of those from Tyto. If he can convince Xia to give up her dreams of becoming an Adamos, and travel back to Tyto with him, will his parents accept her, or condemn them both?

Abandoned as a toddler on Elatia, and raised by Kalara, an Adamos specializing in erotic massage, Xia decides to follow in her footsteps. But she remains conflicted as to whether she wants to service clients for the rest of her life, or settle down and raise a family. When she meets Aris, he turns the tables on her, and brings her as much pleasure as she gives him.

Will they have their chance to be together, or will their families tear them away from any chance of young love?

Reviewer: Dolce Amore

Aristides, the Prince of Tyto, didn’t want or need his betrothed so he  sets her up with Benignus, his friend, who has craved the woman for more  than two years. Thereafter, Aristides flies to the planet Elatia to  receive sexual pleasure from the revered Adamos. 

He wanted to experience every sensation before he settled down with anyone, if, of course, he found someone he could love.

  Xia is studying to be an Echelon Four Adamo, Mistress of the Sensual  Arts. She reaches level Echelon Two and is given her first appointment,  but realizes that she wants something different. She wants to please  only her future husband, if someone could possibly desire her.  

  She meets Aristides, her appointment, and Xia knows that the desire she  feels for him is impossible. He is Otarian and she is Terran, rise in  Elatia, and they do not mingle. Yet, sharing pleasure night after night  makes her soon fall in love with Aristides and when they face his  parents they discover Xia’s true identity. 

As much I enjoyed Ms Jessica E. Subject’s previous book, Satin Sheets In Space, this book left me disappointed. I was expecting more.  The storyline was routine, full of clichés and with almost no  futuristic elements in it. The characters had little depth; Arisides,  too, comes off as a jerk with remarks like: 

This is what you’re paid to do   

he says as he addresses Xia when they first meet. 2 stars. 

Publisher: Decadent Publishing   

Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

And the Lion Shall Lie with the Lamb by G.R. Richards

Summary:

Jason's life with Maurice has become unbearable.

Day to day, Jason's convinced there’s no escape from domestic discord, but nighttime is a different story. In dreams, he escapes to a world beyond imagination, where there are giraffes as big as dinosaurs, and pretty felines dance with swaggering stags. Also in this world is Tavaris, the lion shifter Jason loves. With Tavaris, he feels safe and protected.

Will Jason have to return to his horrible life with Maurice tomorrow morning, or will Tavaris claim him at last?

Reviewer: PurpleRose

Jason is miserable living with his long term physically and emotionally abusive boyfriend Maurice. It has gotten so bad that he not only doesn't love him anymore but he has come to hate him and himself for still being in the relationship. When he comes home one day after work he is so unhappy he doesn't even bother showering because he thinks there really isn't a reason.

When he wakes up again he finds himself in a grass field filled with animals that not only live happily together but talk and can morph into human-like animals. At first Jason has no recollection of ever being in this strange land until he sees the lion, Tavaris. Suddenly he remembers that Tavaris is his real lover and the person he loves, but when he wakes up every morning he can't remember anything about Tavaris or the dream land. Jason wistfully admits to Tavaris that he wishes that when he woke up everyday it was to this beautiful land with him and not to his miserable life with Maurice. Tavaris tells him all he has to do is believe this is his real world and he would be his forever.

I didn't know if Jason was actually going to stay there or just go back like he always did. It left a big question mark in the story. I'm not really sure how I feel about this book; the writing was done well but I didn't really like this story. Too many questions are left open ended for such a short story and I felt like it was not nearly developed enough. And The Lion Shall Sleep With The Lamb should have been a full length novel, not a short story. We really don't get to know anything about the world Jason finds himself in or explore the main characters. This is common in shorts but in a fantasy setting it felt wrong because it was just too much other-worldliness trying to be shoehorned into such a small story. I'm giving this story 2 stars.

Publisher:eXcessica
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

The Stone Crow by Lori Green

Summary:

When gods break the rules, how can a woman on the run find salvation?

The god Morningstar has had a preacher steal the souls from his congregation with the intent of fighting Yehuda. Except Sara, the preacher's daughter, has stolen the souls and run away.

When the god Crow finds Sara, he offers to help her survive Morningstar's wrath and her father's vengeance. Only Crow never expected to fall in love...and Sara never knew how far gods would go to take what they consider theirs.

WARNING: Violent scenes and mentions of child abuse. Dark images that might haunt.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
Sara, the daughter of a preacher, is different. And her father is evil.

I  can see people in a way that others can’t. I can’t tell nobody what I  know but God sketches his plans on people’s faces and I know where  they’re going. I know my Daddy calls himself a preacher but the Devil  has designed all over his skin.

My Daddy wants to destroy this earth. And I don't know how I'm going to stop him. 

When her father had stolen souls from his congregation, Sara takes them  and goes on the run. For eight years she had Tiny, a man who watched  her back during the long years. But now he is dead. And she has no one.  

  There is, however, Crow, a strange man who says he is a god who keeps  the balance between Yehuda and Morningstar, the god who creates and the  one who destroys. He tells her that if her father gets the souls for  Morningstar, the balance is disturbed and the universe will fold.  

She must free the souls and face her father and Morningstar.  

  I have to admit that I didn’t like the book very much. It wasn’t deep  and the characters and the story seem fake and unreal. Take the scene  where Sara tells her boss that a coworker is a bad person, and he  believes her, although the boss has known that man for years and she  just for a few days. It comes off implausible. I found the characters  had no depth, no personality. I give this read 2 stars.

Publisher: Lyrical Press
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Arrow to the Heart by Arlene Webb

Summary:

Dr. Cu has no doubt that love at first sight happens only in fairytales. He knows intimately that it takes a unique blend of chemicals to force two hearts to beat as one. A world-renowned player, he’s accepted his fate. As a God of Love, he’s doomed to remain lonely. But when he opens his eyes and his gaze takes in a woman in need of assistance, he’s shocked to find himself falling, exactly like his many victims.

Naturally, when an arrogant legend is smitten, happiness comes at a price. Cu must fight the powerful Goddess of Love, his controlling mother, in order to protect the mortal who’s captured his fancy.

When his love betrays him, Cu learns how hard a God can hit rock bottom. If he can’t put down the bow and wrap his hand around humility and forgiveness, his destined love will remain a myth.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
Cu has PhDs in Psychology, Human Sexuality, Biochemistry, and Advanced Medicine and he's the son of a love goddess and war god. He meets a woman he wants at the Valentine Gala and she's wearing red… the forbidden color.

After Cu saves her but before sending her home, he asks her if he could visit her but he must keep his face hidden. However, the second night, he wakes up only to find her holding a candle over his face, and everything in his life is falling to pieces.

I tried to like the story, I truly did… but it was full of clichés and I found it very boring. Most of the things didn’t made sense. So I will give it 2 stars.

Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Pain and Revenge by John Simpson

Summary:

Rookie CIA agent James Elliot is sent to his first assignment in London, where he finds out that not only does the CIA know that he's gay, but that he's been brought in on an assignment precisely for that reason. James is thrown into a situation where he must seduce a Russian GRU Agent and find out what he's doing in England.

Warning: male/male forced sex scene that is intricate to the plot. Also spankings are the sadistic Russians specialty and the question is, "Can James Elliot hold out to finish the job?" The novella reaches a satisfactory conclusion as the answer to the question.

Reviewer: RedDragonfly
This was the first book by John Simpson I've ever read and I'm pretty sure it will be the last. I couldn't make it past halfway for this book, I hate giving bad reviews but I just couldn't finish it. There was nothing that I liked about this novel. I wanted to toss my ereader across the room at many points and I just had to finally give up.

The lead characters are not likable (not even James who is the good guy) and in fact the love interest (who really isn't even a love interest like I thought he would be) was a sadist and had no good qualities. I made a big mistake thinking that they would fall in love and you would figure out he wasn't really such a bad guy. Clearly that was a huge mistake because he was pure evil. I ended up skimming the end to see if Gregor ended up redeeming himself but nope, didn't happen.

This book just wasn't my style and I hate giving it 2 stars but sadly I hated it.

Publisher: Naughty Nights Press
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Tricked by Mysty McPartland

Summary:

Riddled with guilt, Greyson has only one option to save his clan from his despicable relatives and that is to trick his cousins betrothed into marriage. He swears an oath that he would keep his hands of her and set her free when the fight is over. What he never plans on was to share his bed with her each night and fight the hunger to have her in his arms.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
Laird Greyson McBain tricks Freel McCoy, his cousin's betrothed, into marriage. It's the only way of saving his clan from his cousin and uncle. He promises he will let her go after he gets rid of them, but they fall in love.

This book should be a wonderful story to read, but it wasn’t. I finished it so I could write a fair review but it was painful.

There was little historical details… vague clothes description and nothing more.

The writer tried to give action and vibrancy to the dialogue but she failed, instead creating a boring and absurd story. The story line is deceptive, simulated, and artificial, Ms. Mysty McPartland’s style is non-existent, and she sets the story from the point of view of almost every character; which left me dizzy, confused, and with a headache. The characters are marionettes with no coherence, consistency, or depth so that none of them are believable. And as if that wasn't enough, we have incoherent situations, like this one:

When a large group rode into the clearing, his eyes searched for the woman he was about to trick, and take as his wife… Perhaps a few well-chosen words would calm everyone down, and her escort would leave peacefully. “I am the McBain and have come to escort my betrothed the rest of the journey. Your men can return home.”

“Mistress, ye betrothed is waiting for ye in the clearing just up ahead.” … Finally, entering the clearing, with her heart pounding, she quickly scanned the immediate area.

Maybe the writer should think more in creating a believable story than writing a dozen scenes with no substance. Don’t waste your money or your time on it. Stay away, 2 stars.

Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Tanar's Forbidden Love (Chornicles of The Vampire Society 2) by Topaz Jordyn

Summary:

A twist of fate brought them together. Tanar is injured and in desperate need of Sloane’s assistance. Sloane becomes intrigued and enamored with this tall, dark, handsome stranger. She yearns for his touch, and cannot get him out of her mind. Will Sloane finally find love in Tanar’s arms?

Tanar is torn between his loyalty to the Vampire Society and the love of a human female. He battles to hold onto both. Tanar must battle an old enemy, and try to discover the identity of a new threat to his people—a traitor among them.

The discovery of a new vamp drug, “Black Magic”, has hit the streets and was spreading faster than crack among humans and vamps alike. Is Black Magic the advantage the Shadow Dwellers need to finally become day walkers? Or will the Omega warriors put a stop to this growing threat before they accomplish their goal?

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
This book had incredible potential, if only it was narrated in a different way. In theory, it has passion, action, and romance. But the way it is written, it is just a boring book. And how it starts is just awful. It is the second book of Chronicles of the Vampire Society's series and it is not a stand alone book.

The Shadow Dwellers and the Omega Warriors are vampires. The Shadow Dwellers drink human blood while the Omega Warriors take a pills that has all they need. Tanar, an Omega Warrior, is hurt while fighting against some Shadow Dwellers and he is saved by a human, Sloane Ryan Truhart. But he leaves a week after, without telling his name.

The first scene between the characters is deplorable. He can't stop thinking about her, but he doesn’t remember the exact time that passed from the first moment he saw her: “It had only been a month or so.” Then he breaks into her house, watches her sleeping. We read first that the sheet is “the only barrier between him and her luscious form”, and then moments later she's suddenly wearing a T-shirt and panties. And when she awakes and realizes that he is real and he is the stranger she helped a month ago, she doesn’t scream; just kisses him back. When he stops, she begs him to stay and make her his.

This is not the end, they have sex, unprotected sex, she is a virgin, and Sloane doesn’t even know his name, and then only moments later he tells her that he is a vampire! Can a book be more absurd than that? Oh, wait, he bit her, starting her conversion to a vampire and she could be pregnant. And all this happens in the first 12 pages.

After that, the story slows down, becoming a very boring and large book. Sloane finally discovers what happened with her grandmother, who disappeared when she was little, that Tanar had a fiancée when he was with her the first weeks and what could happen if she gets kidnapped by the Shadow Dwellers.

Like I said, the start is horrible. The rest is not good, but not soooo bad. The characters are all caricatures, no depth. None are believable, the closest to reality is Sloane. But Tanar is the worst character I’ve ever read about. Ms. Topaz Jordyn has no idea of how a man should act in some situations, other than the stereotypical chauvinist male.

I recommend you stay away and save yourself the trouble, it's not worth it. 2 stars.

Publisher: Secret Cravings Publishing
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

A Journey of the Heart by Rick R. Reed

Summary:

Take a journey back to that magical moment in time when two lovers first meet. In this case, it's on board a train bound for England's seaside community, Brighton. There, our narrator and his soon-to-be-true-love meet for the first time and what follows is an encounter so erotic and romantic that it has to be destined for a lifetime. They may have been strangers on a train when they boarded, but that all changes with just a meeting of the eyes, igniting a spark leading to a lifelong connection.

Reviewer: RedDragonfly
A Journey of the Heart tells the story of how our unnamed narrator met his partner 10 years before on the same train trip that he is taking now. While he sits on the train waiting to meet his partner's parents, he whispers the story to Jim (his lover) of how he fell in love with him.

This story was really pretty and I liked the writing style but I just can't give it a high rating. I thought it was going to be a happily ever after from the description of how they were each others true love. Well, they might have been but the fact that the narrator is making the trip to bring Jim's body back to his parents makes it not such a happy story. I also would have liked to find out how Jim died, I don't think that should have been left out or the fact that he was dead wasn't mentioned until the last page. Although, it was pretty clear from the start that there was some kind of problem so it wasn't hard to figure that out. I'm giving this story 2 stars.

Publisher: MLR Press
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

The Seduction of Sebastian St. James (House of Renwick 2) by Rachel Van Dyken

Summary:

When the angelic Duke of Tempest, Sebastian St. James, appeared unexpectedly at his boyhood friend’s home, he had but one goal: Find a suitable wife as soon as possible. However, his impeccable reputation made him a prime target for ambitious mothers of debutante daughters. He needed a plan.

Help came in the form of an unlikely alliance with Lady Emma Gates, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy viscount, who has deemed herself on the shelf, and only wants to marry in order to appease her parents. Together they could sort through the mire of would-be mates to find their perfect matches. That is, if they could keep their hands off each other long enough to pursue likely candidates.

When a man from Emma’s past makes a play for her hand, the truth about her life threatens to destroy Sebastian’s reputation, a reputation he has carefully guarded since his youth. In the end, the Angel Duke has to make a choice that will end up changing his reputation forever.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
Duke of Tempest, Sebastian St. James was searching for a wife. Although he wanted the happiness his best friend, Nicholas, found with his wife, he decided that any debutante would do. He forms an alliance with Miss Emma Gates, the cousin of Sara, Nicholas’s wife.

But when someone from Emma’s past wants to hurt her, will be Sebastian there for her?

I didn’t understand why, if Sebastian and Emma wanted to marry and they were attracted each other, they didn’t just marry? And it’s not the only thing I didn’t comprehend. From the historical books I’ve read, there are a lot of scenes from the book that shouldn’t have existed. I guess Ms. Rachel Van Dyken didn’t fully research before starting to write this genre.

I have to admit that this book disappointed me. After reading the blurb, I was expecting something better. Large parts of the book were boring, the story was a little bit confusing and there were things that didn’t match with the time period. The characters are under developed and their behavior is absurd. Sorry, but I can’t give it more than 2 stars.

Publisher: Astraea Press
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Corporate Desires by Bridget Midway

Summary:

Summary Excerpt Comments
Fresh from her recent incarceration, Edna "Madame Z." Zulma wants a normal life. Unfortunately between her new boss and her parole officer, she's finding it hard to be plain ol' Edna. Throw in the very sexy office manager, Burton McCutcheon, and Edna is starting to think about the BDSM lifestyle again.

Burton's goal of staying focused as he tries to start his own business is affected as soon as Edna Zulma arrives. When he discovers her BDSM past, he decides to fulfill her fantasies...and his.

Reviewer: Fashionta
The book turned me off from the first page. Masturbation is okay but the way it was written in this book, combined with the element of BDSM, made it seem unrealistic. There is too much information at the start and continues throughout the book. The relationship is weird and annoying, yes a sub needs to submit to their Master but the extent they had going was crazy. Even before the main characters revealed themselves, you could see their indications of whether they were to be the Dom or the sub.

I have to give two stars. It was way too long and the length put me off. Sometimes to create an amazing story this length is needed, but this story wasn’t one of them

Publisher: Phaze
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Tempted By Her Innocent Kiss (Pregnancy & Passion 3) by Maya Banks

Summary:

No Man’s Bargaining Chip

Devon Carter was her first; now newly wed Ashley wants their passion to last. But her dreams of true love are crushed by the discovery that their marriage is another of Daddy’s business deals. Her strategy: act the part of perfect wife and make Devon love her.

But Devon misses the bubbly, no-holdsbarred woman his wife used to be. Who is this Ashley with the steely demeanor of a society wife? And will he find a way to rekindle the fire in her eyes…especially now that she’s pregnant?

Reviewer: Fashtiona
At times I found this book hard to read, Devon really made this book hard for me to really enjoy. I didn't like the fact that Devon wanted to change Ashley. I'm a firm believer in being true to yourself, and watching Ashley struggle to change into the person that Devon wanted her to be was hard to read. I also didn't like how Ashley was deceived into thinking she was marrying for love, when in reality she was a pawn for Devon to advance his career. I give this book two stars.

Tempted By Her Innocent Kiss is the only book I've read in the Pregnancy and Passion series, so it can be read as a stand alone book.

Publisher: Harlequin Desire
Review Courtesy Of: NetGalley

Taking Down Mistletoe by Arlene Webb

Summary:

Parties everywhere, but Alek—security and all-around handy guy—is stuck at work in the department store taking down the holiday decorations. Just when he thinks he’ll escape in time for a little celebrating, fate takes a deadly turn. A thirsty leech doesn’t mind going down, as long as Alek joins him.

Tried of sucking on candy canes, Loki is sick of the tall security guard ignoring him. He’s determined, one way or another, that Alek will find himself lying flat. Unfortunately, a man dressed in black enters the scene and interrupts him.

When the parasite-exterminator, in the form of a dark, handsome hunk, arrives and latches onto Alex, things go from weird to downright bizarre. Did Alek really find love under the mistletoe, or has something beyond sinister taken hold of him?

Reviewer: PurpleRose
This book was a little on the strange side and I can honestly say I've never read a book like it. A mistletoe is an evil living thing that sucks the life out of people that attaches itself to. In comes Van, who can't be looked in the eyes because his eyes will show crazy lust filled visions but he is also an exterminator that helps kill evil.

Weird and more weird in my opinion. It's an interesting idea but not really done well. The writing wasn't that good, it was a little hard to understand what's going on at times, and it all might have been a little too weird for me. Also, there were a lot of voices that weren't the two main characters which I didn't really care for, but I guess I can see the reason for getting into the mistletoe's head to understand it's evil. I also didn't really like any of the characters and hated Loki. I didn't really see a point for him even being in the story, he was just annoying. I'm giving this book 2 stars but I really think it probably should be only 1.

Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

The Marsh Hawk by Dawn Mactavish

Summary:

It was to be a gala three-day event at Moorhaven Manor, the rambling country estate of Lady Jenna Hollingsworth's betrothed, Viscount Rupert Marner. To be attended by half the Cornish nobility, not to mention a host of peers from London, it would be a diversion of picnicking, riding, archery, and shooting. it would end in Jenna marrying another.

But was her new husband the same man who had killed her father? After one night of passion, she began to wonder. The jarring aroma of leather, tobacco and recently drunk wine drifting toward her on the breeze--she remembered it so well, as well as the tall, muscular shape beneath the multi-caped greatcoat, and those eye of blue fire through the holes in his mask. Oh yes, she remembered the man with whom she shared a secret past. He was the highwayman known as...The Marsh Hawk....

Reviewer: BlackTulip
I thought after reading the blurb that it would be a good and entertaining story ... Regency, Cornwall, and Highwaymen are appealing and exciting elements ... Well I think that I have never read such a crazy story as this one! I felt completely overwhelmed by that book. There was too much of everything.

I'm generally the kind of person who likes descriptions but very quickly I felt that I was drowning. As a result, I skipped a lot of them. I found the writing and style rather heavy and exaggerated.

Love at first sight is alright with me but to marry in such a hasty way, without knowing each other like they did was too much, in my opinion it was not believable . And then it got worse, the more they were in love, the worst their actions and reactions were.

At twenty two years old, Lady Jenna seemed to me at first a sensible and determined young lady but she turned out to be ridiculously stubborn and immature. She couldn't stop crying for anything and everything. Simon Rutherford, The Earl of Kevernwood was not better. He was far too stubborn and proud. The whole book is a big miscommunication between the two main characters, Jenna and Simon. It was exhausting and irritating.

Even the end has a double layer. But when you think it's over, at last, it's not. I can only give 2/5 !

Publisher: Leisure Books

Smoke Screen by Stevie Woods

Summary:

Julian has a secret. He's infatuated with his best friend, Richard, and always has been. The trouble is that Richard is married to the toast of London society, a belle of the ball that Julian knows he can't compete with.

Just about the time Julian decides it's hopeless to dream about Richard, though, he finds out that the happy couple might not be so perfect for each other. Richard and his lady wife have some secrets of their own, secrets that might just destroy all of them. Can Julian convince Richard that the web of deception, smoke and mirrors might just work in their favor?

Reviewer: BlackTulip
At first, I was very optimistic about this book but quickly I found that something wasn't working and at the end, I remained utterly unsatisfied.

There is nothing original with the storyline, two best friends that love each other but think that their being together is something that can never happen. They don't even try to address the issue. One of them marries, believing that it will solve his problem, but of course it doesn't, it becomes even worse.

There is too much thinking and not enough action. They are wasting their time having fantasies about each other and there is too much pointless angst, when it could have been resolved quickly and simply. The wife could have had a more important and interesting part in that story. What a waste.

Another thing that bothers me is that there is no precision as to the period when the story is supposed to happen. And mostly, I really can't say that I felt any connection with the two protagonists. Apart from all this, it was not badly written at all. I very much liked, Beyond The Veil, an older book by this author and I intend to read Stone by Stone. This one just didn't work for me. I give 2/5.

Swap by V.A. Gyna

Summary:

After Lisa runs into her best friend's husband, whom she had a crush on since she was thirteen, she hatches a plan to seduce him. Lisa's hunky boss is the bait as she devises a plan for a partner swap aboard his yacht with her best friend and her husband.

Reviewer: Jasmine
In this story, when Lisa sees her old high school crush, Jeff, she launches an outrageous plan to have sex with him.

To ensure success, Lisa includes in the plan her best friend, Jenna, who is married to Jeff. Lisa uses her hunky boss as bait for a partner swap aboard his yacht with Jenna and Jeff.

I must say despite the attractive storyline, this story disappointed me. Although Swap is a short story, I did not like the author's narrative style and give it 2 stars.

Publisher: New Dawning International Bookfair
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Faolan's Curse by Emly Forrest

Summary:

They don’t call it spellbound for nothing.

Faolan didn’t mean to look, but the White King’s Premier Wife was just too juicy. It was purely accidental and if that pesky magpie hadn't caught him looking, the young, handsome faery spellcaster-in-training might have gotten away with it. The problem? In Faerie, it's a supremely serious crime. The only prudent thing to do is own up to the king and take his punishment.

Luckily, his majesty appears to be quite drunk when Faolán arrives to learn his fate, and the punishment the king hands down is a joke: Faolan must get a human woman from Dublin to fall in love with him. Too easy.

However, when love strikes the cocksure faery--and is not returned by his heart’s desire--things get complicated. Then a few spells go haywire, a friend contributes his own misadventure to the mix, Faolan works a bit of careless magick, and things get complicated fast.

WARNING: Some strong language and explicit sex.

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
This story is about Faolan, who saw the White King’s premier wife naked and decided to tell the King and take his punishment. The king's, a drunk faery, punishment was he has to make a human woman fall in love with him.

Faolan decides he wants the first woman he sees, Brigid. However, she doesn’t want him. After a few spells go haywire, he gets a secret spell from his father, but he makes a mistake while casting the spell, and Brigid starts to love him but he has a permanent hard on.

I didn’t like the story. The characters are superficial, Faolan is an arrogant and stupid faery, and there was very little about the rest of the characters. I give only 2 stars because the story line was tedious and absurd.

Publisher: Lyrical Press
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Heart Desires by Becca Dale

Summary:

Devlynn Connors doesn’t trust her own ability to find a man who isn’t a control freak, but when she turns her future over to her friends and Madame Eve, she fears nothing will change.

When he flies to Las Vegas for a 1Night Stand hook-up, First Lieutenant Stephan Mallard isn’t looking for love. He’s looking to appease his sister’s fear that he will end up alone. A man can do anything for one night, right?

Can Madame Eve overcome misinformation and misperceptions or will Devlynn and the Lieutenant go home alone?

Reviewer: Dolce Amore
I must say that I expected a lot more from this book. The story line is not credible; the main characters are not sufficiently developed and their behavior is incredibly stupid; and the secondary ones are almost non-existent.

Ms. Becca Dale tried to create an original story where Devlynn Connors meets Erik Mallard on a plane to Vegas. Each are going to Vegas for a blind date, not knowing that the other is their date. I liked this part, it was sweet.

What I didn’t like was that, on the plane, he started to touch her, although a male flight attendant knew what they were doing. And the fact that he invented some kind a fantasy to hide what they were doing. He was saying that she was his wife and he was rubbing her stomach because she was pregnant.

But this part wasn’t the most unbelievable. It seems that Erik let her best friends, who appear in just two or three sentences in the whole book, to complete the questionnaire she received from 1 Night Stand, although she knew that they would chose a strong-minded, arrogant jerk. When you pay a lot of money for a blind date, you make sure that the guy fulfills your requirements. And Devlynn’s date was selected by his sister, this part I understood, who wanted a well-mannered and well-groomed woman.

And then they start to behave strangely: he like a jerk and she like a bitch.

I won’t say more, I will let you find out if they clarify the situation.

I give it just 2 stars and hope that the next of Ms. Becca Dale's books will be better.

Publisher: Decadent Publishing
Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Loving Jacob by Lee Brazil

Summary:

When Malcolm Jenner’s sex-on-the-side turns into more, he isn’t above begging for a second chance.

High-profile attorney Malcolm Jenner is looking for a bit of fun, nothing serious. He's got duties and responsibilities, after all. He doesn't usually choose his lovers from the office, but his attraction to Jacob Renault is too compelling to resist.

However, Jacob isn't interested in temporary. He wants it all—Prince Charming, the castle, the happily ever after. There's no rule that says the younger man can't have fun while he's searching for his prince, though...

At first neither is willing to compromise on their stance, but an agreement is reached, with each man planning to do his best to subvert the other to his viewpoint. Lust turns to love, and what’s impossible becomes merely improbable, but is it going to be enough?

Reviewer: TigerLily
I'm giving Lee Brazil's Loving Jacob two stars. If I was rating this only based on the two main characters of the story I would be giving it one star but Lee has a way with words and her writing is beautiful, so I'm adding a star.

This story is about 75 pages, 70 of those pages are basically spent telling the story of how Malcolm and Jacob met and broke up. Malcolm is 41 and has been married for twenty years with a fifteen year old son. He has discreet sex on the side with men until he meets Jacob. With Jacob, he falls in love and tells him he wants to spend the rest of his life with him. Jacob takes this to mean that Malcolm will leave his wife but Malcolm meant - I'll buy you an apartment and you will always be a secret. So Jacob decides its a good idea to start a relationship with Malcolm's brother-in-law Peter, who he ends up marrying and is with for five years before Peter is killed in a car accident. In that five years that Jacob is married to Peter, Malcolm and Jacob only see each other once. That leads us to the last five pages of the book, Malcolm and Jacob are reunited at Malcolm's now ex-wife new marriage ceremony and even after not speaking for five years and Jacob having been married, they still declare their love for each other.

I pretty much had problem after problem with the characters and didn't like either of them and found it really hard to believe the ending of the story. I felt like it should have had another 70 pages of them building a relationship again not just have them declare love for each other after such a long time apart.

Publisher: Breathless Press

Reveal Me (Unveiled 1) by Cari Quinn

Summary:

Alana MacGregor craves excitement, but when her sometimes lover dumps her at a popular sex club, she wonders if she’s outgrown her live-fast-and-recover-later lifestyle. The last thing she expects is to run into the nerdy guy she rebuffed in high school—or for him to rock her world in ways no other man ever has.

Hot on the trail of a story, Carter Nicholas can’t believe his luck at encountering the one woman he’s never forgotten. He’s come a long way from being a wall-hugging geek. Now he gets all A’s between the sheets. But can he convince Alana he’s her sure ticket to an unforgettable night—and maybe much more?

Reviewer: avidscribe
It’s one more lousy decision. First, Alana moved away from her hometown in Maryland to chase after a musician she was crazy about. Before the ink was even dry on their lease in Virginia, he’d bolted, leaving her stranded in a town she knew no one in. She manages to get a job for a newspaper there using her considerable skills in photography only to find they are using her for jobs like photographing sex toys for a series on the newest innovations in pleasure rather than giving her the more meaty assignments she craves.

Now she’s back home on vacation to see her good friend Kelly and Ramon, a man she met on one of her many visits home and is having a long distance relationship with now. Kelly drags her to the hottest sex club in town only to abandon her there and Ramon picks the dance floor as the perfect spot to reveal he’s seeing someone else as he proceeds to publicly dump her. Could things get worse? Sure. Her car is sitting in the parking lot there with a dead engine and flat tire.

Time for a drink. Or three.

Looking at the world through the bottom of an empty glass, she’s frustrated about everything in her life right now, including the fact that she’s horny and came to the club to get laid. Enter an old high school friend. It’s the Ugly Duckling tale—last time she saw him, he was an embarrassing geek. The man before her now is brawny and suave and her libido goes into overdrive. She wants him. Doesn’t matter she’s not quite sure who he is, he’s available and, judging by the hardness she feels as her fingers brush his zipper, he is willing. With little introduction and no subtlety, she dives in for a kiss, decides she likes what she tasted and they proceed to leave the club and fuck in the grass out back ... only it’s not just fucking and she senses she’s latched on to one of the good guys worth keeping.

It’s a short story with time acceleration because nowhere would two people come together so quickly in today’s age without at least knocking back some of the preliminaries like, oh, names maybe?! He knows who she is, at least; she's the girl who got away, the girl of his dreams, the one girl who has been his lust object since high school. He can’t believe his luck that of all the gin joints in all the world, in all the towns, she should walk into his kind of thing. He knows what he wants, he just has to convince her too.

Alana is not going to make it easy. She is edgy, confrontative, combative and distrusting. She’s also done him wrong long ago and needs to apologize. Sex will pave the way.

It’s an Ellora Cave Quickie and, at 58 pages, the characters are not very developed and the accelerated storyline unbelievable. For what it is, it works fine. However, I’d say this is the same kind storyline I’ve read on 40 other shorts this year alone; just substitute BDSM or werewolf or runaway abused woman for a variation on theme to repackage it. There is nothing that stands out and makes me specifically want to read more of this writer’s works. The dialog is not snappy, Alana is mildly unlikable, the sex is same-old, the setting just short of seamy. The fact that she is a photographer and he a writer might have made for an interesting storyline but their professions are used as merely background filler and I found that disappointing. However, the brevity of the story cannot allow for real judgment of her total work. Two stars.

Review Courtesy Of: ManicReaders

Found (Brides of the Kindred 4) by Evangeline Anderson

Summary:

A warrior with a scarred heart who doesn’t know how to love. And the woman who must teach him how before it’s too late…

The son of the evil AllFather, Xairn is filled with conflicting emotions. On one hand, he has finally gained his freedom and cut the ties that bound him to his race and the sadistic male who is his father. But doing so has unleashed feelings in him Xairn would rather keep buried. Desires that he prayed would never manifest now rage through him and they are centered on one woman alone…

Lauren Jakes is the long lost cousin Liv and Sophie never knew they had. Abducted by the Scourge, she formed a connection with Xairn more meaningful than any other in his life. But though Lauren thinks she knows him, there is more to the huge Scourge warrior than she comprehends. A nightmare childhood and a cruel father have scarred Xairn’s heart almost past the point of healing. But that is nothing to the secret inside him—the forbidden desires coded into his very DNA itself, which urge him to commit unspeakable acts in order to sate his newly awakened hunger.

Now a conflict is brewing—both in Xairn’s soul, and aboard the Fathership where the twisted AllFather has hatched a new, malicious plot to bring his estranged son home. Can Xairn resist the brutal lust growing within him? Can he fight against his very nature which urges him to dominate and control any female he mates? Can Lauren heal his heart before the AllFather’s trap closes on both of them? And can she teach him how to love before it’s too late?

Reviewer: avidscribe
(Contains Spoilers)
This needs to be read in succession to be understood. The first book in this series is entitled Claimed. The second is Hunted, the third is Sought. Evangeline has included an author’s note in this latest saying she is now planning two additional books but not until 2012.

I enjoyed the first three books but the fourth now feels labored. It’s the same outline. Beast Kindred; no, Blood Kindred; no, Twin Kindred; no Scourge has an issue showing the woman of his dreams all that he is because he doesn’t believe she will accept him. So this time it isn’t a mating fist or razor sharp fangs or a menage the Earth female is fearful of but a Dominant man with a double penis and a need for a submissive.

It has become like a Doris Day comedy with the man preserving his sanctity and the woman pulling out every trick to seduce him. Four times and this now feels overdone. Also note that the BDSM elements were mild and involved only a light spanking and restraint. "Forbidden desires"? "Unspeakable acts"? Huh? What book was this describing? We don't even get rough sex here. It's whitewashed and wholesome with Xairn apologizing every time he becomes sexually aroused around Lauren.

I've said it before—Evangeline’s males lack the balls and confidence that is needed for an alpha male in this kind of situation to be believable. They are protective, fierce warriors but around their women in private, they cower.

I was excited to catch up with the characters from the past books but it’s the women who we read more of as we find Olivia continuing her pregnancy and dealing with stomach churning food cravings, Sophie morose about not being pregnant too and Kat starting to plan her wedding to Deep and Lock. The detective working on Lauren's disappearance case for her mother has more time devoted to him and the hint he may also be carrying Kindred blood and not know it. He will be figuring in the next book as his relationship with Sylvan's cousin, Nadiah, is developed. I guess I wanted to see more interaction of the Kindred men with their mates. The men are mostly thrown into this book to stand up with Xairn in the end as he confronts his father.

And there’s where the story fell apart for me. For three books, we’ve been worked up to the promise of a climatic moment. It's Luke fighting Darth Vader. It's Inigo Montoya ("You killed my mother, prepare to die!"). It's payback and we waited impatiently for it.

The AllFather is a monster who drains captives dry of their emotions, who has the awful technology to create warriors in a vat to build his army, who thrills at his son's pain and harvests human suffering and trauma to maintain his existence. He is possessed of a terrible omniscient power that can scour the galaxy for his runaway son and the human female he is protecting and pull them back. Lauren is part of a prophecy that would restore the Scourge's race by mating with the AllFather and bearing only daughters to rejuvenate the race.

To have the AllFather taken down and destroyed very quickly is not satisfying. It is, in fact, very anticlimatic. Egregiously so after a long wait where the expectation grew with each successive book. Surely he would pay for his crimes. Surely he would suffer. We've been thirsting for retribution and we are denied it. Add to that the discovery and then loss of Xairn’s mother that is so unnecessary and needlessly cruel to the storyline and I felt horribly deflated. What would it have taken to have given Xairn something loving of his past and let her live?

There were some wonderful moments. I was happy to see Xairn adopt a puppy, to give him back the loving moments he had with Sanja who had been malevolently torn from him by his father but I enjoyed most the chapters involving Lauren and Xairn on the planet O’ah where trusting Lauren is exploited by one of the locals who intends to keep her for the skin trade there.

I will read the final two books even though I'd give this one only 2 stars. I remain hopeful because I think Evangeline puts a lot of effort into making her scifi atmospherics intriguing, involving and often hilarious. This book did not contain the hilarity of Kat's story, though. It's more sobering with Lauren lookalikes being kidnapped and abused by the AllFather in an attempt to lure his son back to the ship for a final confrontation he thinks he will win.

Finally, I understand this was self published. It should have been beta’d. The mistakes are not the sort, for the most part, that can be found in a spell check. They are relationally based to the text. She needs to run her book past a few good grammarians before she releases it. (Hand raised) I find this situation increasingly common to ebooks and it’s a shame more effort isn’t being made to make a book error free.

See the original review on goodreads
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/225488753