This week at Smexy…..

B- review – August Ice by Dev Bentham (m/m contemporary)
C+ review – Deep Autumn Heat by Elisabeth Barrett (contemporary)
C review – Secret of the Wolf by Cynthia Garner (paranormal)
D review – Rodeo Rebel by Debra Kayn – (contemporary)

The Awesome that is Firelight by Kristen Callihan

Guest Author – JC Daniels

AAD Spotlight – Samantha Sommersby
AAD Spotlight – Lissa Matthews
AAD Spotlight – Rosalie Lario

Being a More Responsible Blogger

Smexy’s Top Ten

News From Mandi: My week started out great with Forever and a Day by Jill Shalvis. One of the sexiest books she has written, and I find almost all her books pretty sexy. Dr.Josh is stressed, exhausted and totally overworked and I loved every second of him. The heroine is pretty fab too. Review to come this week. I got a sneak peek at the first part (part one of eight) of the new Beth Kery serial, Because You Tempt Me. Billionaire hero, struggling artist heroine. Hero has a hot scene in the closet by himself. Oh yes. As this is a serial, part one is very short. I’m not sure if I am going to review each part, or maybe review two parts at a time? I don’t know yet. I tried Arc Angel by Elizabeth Avery. The blurb really caught my eye, and I was interested in reading a superhero romance. The very beginning is really cute as the heroine turns into a popular comic book superhero, and she has no idea why. But it starts to fall apart when everyone around her accepts that she has superpowers without questioning it. And the hero (the comic book creator) is really weird. Not sexy…just…odd. I put it down around 40%. Not for me. I ended the week with I Own the Dawn by ML Buchman. I didn’t like it as much as his debut last year, but still a fun, engaging military romance. Review coming soon.

Tori News: Oy vey. It’s been a busy 2 weeks for me. Internet problems and AC problems have me precariously close to hiding under the couch until life straightens up. Having no internet is beneficial to reading though.

JA Saare’s The Ripple Effect, the third book in her Rhiannon’s Law series, was one of the hardest books I read this year. Cause and effect is the foundation for this dark urban fantasy as our heroine, Rhiannon, has to pay heavily for decisions made in the past. I will be guest reviewing this one at FictionVixen.com with Amy. Jennifer Estep ALSO broke my heart in her 6th installment of her fantastical urban fantasy Elemental Assassin series. Widow’s Web opens new doors and closes others as you watch Gin struggle with emotional turmoil in matters of the heart and the job. May will be reviewing this for Smexybooks.

Robin D. Owens’s Heart Secret, #11 in her Celta’s Heartmates deviates from her usual fare as this focuses almost entirely on the protagonists. Plenty of angst makes for a delicious romantic journey between two heartmates who need to let go of the past in order to secure their future. Review to come.

Speaking of angst, Kristen Ashley’s Play It Safe is a delightful standalone about lost love and second chances. Her recently released Breathe also plays with the theme of second chances with VERY alpha cop Chace Keaton and the virgin librarian who he has loved forever but had to give up when he was forced to marry someone else. A well plotted mystery intertwines, giving us a hot romance suspense. I also read her Until The sky Falls, which may be the only KA book I have found I didn’t like. The hero was an abusive, manipulative, bastard. We are suppose to judge him by paranormal standards rather than human but still…even by PNR standards, he was just horrible.

Keri Arthur is rereleasing her Ripple Creek Wolf series this year. Ms. Arthur has said that this series was the basis for her bestselling Riley Jenson series. The first one, Beneath A Rising Moon, is a harlequin-esque PNR that is HEAVY on the R. A commitment wary heroine and a tortured hero makes for some angsty smexytimes as they come together to bring a killer to justice. Review to come.

I’ve read a couple of other books but they are super secret and I have been threatened with bodily harm if I talk about them. :( Right now I am reading Seawitch by Kat Richardson, a fav UF series of mine and then on to Dark Soul by Aleksandr Voinov. SQuEEE.

News From May: This week I started with Widow’s Web by Jennifer Estep – and wow. I’ll be reviewing it here at Smexy, I really loved the book and once again Estep shows us a very gritty, never pretty or neat world for Gin… and that’s all I’m gonna say about that!

Per Mandi’s insistence, I read Firelight by Kristen Callihan which was really good. I enjoyed the paranormal aspect to the book as well as the author’s style. Though the hero came across as more of a living sex toy than a man when we finally see him hook up with his lady love – it was really a great read and I’ll be picking up the next book for sure.

Intrigued by the premise and comparisons to some favorites and I took a chance on a new author. Yes, this week I read a very advance copy of a debut author’s book – An Affair to Dismember by Elise Sax. I really enjoyed this one, lots of fun and giggles in this mystery with romantic elements. It is reminiscent of some of my favorite light mysteries (early Plum series, Lucy Valentine series, older Crusie books) but definitely has its own flair and stands on its own.  It isn’t coming out until January (per Amazon, per Goodreads it has a 10/30 release)– but I’m recommending it and will be reviewing it here.

I also read a book that I’m not supposed to talk about yet – how’s that for secretive and exciting? It was a good one and will be reviewed here at Smexy as well.

What’s next? SO many things I want to read! I think I’ll take on Christina Dodd’s book Wilder next.