This week at Smexy….
B review – Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas (historical)
B review – Even White Trash Zombies Gets the Blues by Diana Rowland (uf)
B review – Wake of the Bloody Angel by Alex Bledsoe (fantasy)
B review – The Darkest Day by Britt Bury (pnr)
B review – Archer’s Lady by Moira Rogers (steampunk)
B- review – Melt Into You by Roni Lorne (erotic m/m/f bdsm)
B- review – Carolina Home by Virginia Kantra (contemporary)
Let’s Talk Blogging and Twitter Discussion
AAD Spotlight – Kris Cook
Megan Hart Kills Mandi Yet Again – Discussion on Tempted.
Guest Author – Moira Rogers
Smexy’s Top Ten
News From Mandi: This week I read My Lady Mage by Alexis Morgan, the first in a new historical pnr series. I liked it for the most part. It slows down in the middle and the romance is a little on the quieter side, but I enjoyed the story and the supporting characters. It’s a series I’ll follow…review to come next week. I read Decoy by Michaela Debelius. This one started out very interesting with a secret government facility and a hero who was created into a super-human type being. But it all fell apart and I ended up having a lot of issues with it. Not sure if I will review it, maybe I’ll write up my thoughts on Goodreads. I moved onto Tempted by Megan Hart and as always, it blew me away. I wrote up my thoughts earlier this week. I then tried my first Mary Calmes book, Frog. A sweet m/m romance. I definitely want to try more by her – I think I have Acrobat waiting on my Kindle. I had to DNF Butterfly by Kathryn Harvey. It is an older book, but showed up in my review request folder as a “Fifty Shades of Grey” type book, so I thought I’d try it. It is about a sex club, but as I read there were no sex scenes. It didn’t make sense. Not for me.
I read Giving it Up by Amber Lin. A very dark, erotic contemporary which has a great premise. Unfortunately, by the end of the book the romance didn’t work for me and the heroine’s extreme emotional issues were not resolved. I like this author’s voice and I will be keeping an eye on her books for sure. But this one was a little disappointing. I’ll be reviewing it soon.
I also read Lie to Me by Tori St. Claire, a dark, violent erotic romantic suspense and I liked it. She writes great sexual tension and sex scenes. Review to come soon!
News From May: This was the week of no sex in my reading… or even my movies. Anyone else scratch their head at their being no real sex scene in Magic Mike? Yeah, me too. ANYHOW! When I was done giggling and then laughing until I cried at Magic Mike (did not find movie to be sexy, but hot men + good time with BFF = win) I got back to reading.
Precinct 13 by Tate Hallaway was a surprising win! Review to come here at Smexy – I really enjoyed the straight UF nature of the book, as well as the plot that this mental patient is in fact a very powerful magical person and now she can see that she wasn’t crazy at all…
Erin Knightley’s More Than A Stranger was a very sweet story about a girl who fell in love with her brother’s friend via writing letters to each other – they’d never met. Now a decade later he’s back (from being a spy) and she’s got no idea who he is. Downside was with no sex and no real suspense plot, there was something very visibly missing. Still – nice read.
Moonshell Beach by Joann Ross earned a DNF after 100 pages of hearing every detail about every person who walked onto the page I felt like I was sitting next to the town gossip and she was just putting her .02 cents in on everyone who walked past. It was painful. I also noted some ‘magical’ element of heroine having foresight or vision or some such? There were a few mentions and that’s another no thanks in my straight contemp romance.
Finally this week, Mandi demanded that I read Liberating Lacey on the 4th. I got to about 40% before stopping to go do housework because that seemed more interesting. I’m sorry smexy readers – this girl is just not an erotic fiction reader. A romance story with some heat? Bring it. But nonstop sex scenes are just boring to me, not interested. I’ll finish this one eventually – but for now I’ve had enough and I can go figure out what book is to be next from my TBR pile…
Even though sometimes I feel like there is too much sex in regular romances, I do love a good erotic romance when I’m in the mood. I finally read Liberating Lacey this week and adored it. Such great characters. I didn’t want to put it down. Since we all have different tastes, isn’t it great that we have so many books to choose from these days?
Dear may, You’re strange. That is all. xoxo Me