This week at Smexy…

B+ review – The Stillness of You by Julie Bale (new adult)
B+ review – After Hours by Cara McKenna (contemporary romance)
B review – Music of Ghosts by Sallie Bissell (romantic suspense)
B review – The Proposition by Jennifer Lyon (contemporary romance)
B review – Kentucky Home by Sarah Title (contemporary romance)
C review – Surrender by Stephanie Tyler (romantic suspense)
C- review – Real by Katy Evans (contemporary romance)
D review – The Billionaire’s Muse by Ava Lore (erotic)

Guest Author – Tracey Cooper-Posey
May says – Leave the Dead Guy Alone
Tori’s Top Ten

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News From Mandi: The Chocolate Rose by Laura Florand is a very sexy book. Set in France, it pairs a beastly chef with the daughter of his most hated nemesis. Tension y’all! Enjoyed this one a lot and will be reviewing on Monday.

Also reviewing on Monday is Play with Me by Alisha Rai. An erotic novella of lovers reunited. Kinky lovers reunited I should say. As teens they discovered they liked things more spicy in the bedroom, and when they get together ten years later, whew! Things are still hot. I loved the heroine in this book. Both the hero and heroine love to role play – and while the hero like to be alpha and in control, the heroine is feisty and there were times she made me laugh.

Hurricane Lily by Rebecca Maher has a really strong first half. The heroine moves to an isolated house on a cape, and she has extreme anxiety. She hasn’t stepped foot outside of her house for months. But the house is falling apart so she hires a handyman to come in and do extensive repairs. Our hero has anger issues and thinks assumes the heroine is a wealthy, snobby ice princess. But these two soon get past assumptions and start to really get to know one another. Like I said, the first half has a very intense, well done vibe. Didn’t love the last 25% but I still recommend this one. I’ll be reviewing soon.

Finally I read Locked by Maya Cross. Your standard girl meets boy who is wealthy and likes to spank people. First in a series, so doesn’t end with a HEA. This one wasn’t bad, but I didn’t feel a lot of chemistry between the hero and heroine. I also felt the hero and his bdsm ways were forced and not really a part of him. Review coming soon.

I’m currently reading Night Demon by Lisa Kessler then I’m going to try By Design by Jayne Denker.

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Tori’s News: I read a lot in these past Two weeks and now am super tired.

ZzzZzzZzz

Erotic/Erotic Romance

Still by Ann Mayburn

Lust by Charlotte Featherstone
Sinful by Charlotte Featherstone

After Hours by Cara McKenna
Break Me Slowly by Joya Ryan

Romance Contemporary

A Little Bit Of Deja Vu by Laurie Kellogg

Neanderthal Seeks Human by Penny Reid

Bone Deep by Bonnie Dee

Coming Home by Laurie Breton

The Millionaire Tempted Fate by Shirley Jump
Extreme Love by Abby Niles

New Adult/Romance

She Likes It Irish by Sophia Ryan

Lexi, Baby by Lynda LeeAnne
Trish, Just Trish by Lynda LeeAnne

My Everything by Heidi McLaughlin

Romance Historical

If He’s Tempted by Hannah Howell (Review to come)
Again The Magic by Lisa Kleypas

How To Lose A Bride In One NIght by Sophie Jordan (Review to come)

Romance Suspense

The First Prophetby Kay Hooper

Urban Fantasy/Romance

A Kiss Of Blood by Pamela Palmer (Review in June issue RT Magazine)
Rogue Descendantby Jenna Black (Review to come)
Of Shadow Born by Dianne Sylvan (Review to come)

Paranormal Romance
The Sweetest Temptation by Amanda Bonilla
The Sweetest Mercy by Amanda Bonilla
The Sweetest Torture by Amanda Bonilla

Romance M/M
Take It Off by LA Witt & Aleksandr Voinov
Bullheaded by Cait Ford

I will be finishing Wicked As She Wants by Delilah S. Dawson this weekend and other books up for review.

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News From Helyce: This weekend, I am so excited to be scrap booking; enjoying my creative side and catching up with some girlfriends who I don’t get to see to often now that the kids are older and we’ve all gone back to work!

Bad Attitude by K.A. Mitchell–I am a huge fan of this author and she made us wait a long, long time for this book so I was so excited to read this.  I loved Gavin and Jamie but this one really lacked intimacy for our H/H and the ending is way too rushed.

Cowboy Take Me Away by Jane Graves–Ms. Graves is a new to me author and I’m so glad that I took a chance on this contemporary.  Well done second chance love story. Review to come soon.

Dirty Laundry by Rhys Ford–Ms. Ford has become an auto read for me. This is the 3rd book in her Cole McGinnis series and this one focuses a little more on the relationship of Cole and Jae. Good character growth and the introduction of Cole’s younger half brother, Ichiro-he sounds yummy! Review to come.

Surrender by Stephanie Tyler–I’m a fan of previous military themed romantic suspense stories by this author so I was happy to try this first book in a new series. I liked everything about it, unfortunately the romance of our h/h lacked….romance. It just got a little lost and I missed it! I will read book two, though, if only to see who Avery ends up with; Gunner or Key-or both.

Bare It All by Lori Foster–I loved this one! Carrying through with the human trafficking theme from previous books, Foster gives us a quirky and odd heroine who I really enjoyed. Her honest approach to everything was quite refreshing. Review to come closer to release date

Never A Hero by Marie Sexton–I needed another m/m to round out the week so I jumped forward in my review schedule and read this and I really enjoyed it. It deals with a sensitive subject, but I thought it was handled well even though the ending is a little “glossy”. I’ll read anything Ms. Sexton writes!

In between scrap booking I hope to finish Nightbound by Lynn Viehl. We return to the world of the Darkyn here and I’m enjoying so far. I think there is something special about the heroine in this one, but can’t put my finger on it.

 

News from May: 

I was too close to perfection with great reads, and the end of this week has gone down into a smoldering pile of literary poo. *le sigh* But, it was good while it lasted and hopefully I’ll be back with some good reads once again real soon!

 Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella was hilarious. Seriously one of her best, and I will review it here at Smexy next week. It gives me hope that contemporary books that have comedy + romance are on the rise once again. Oh how I’ve missed them!

I DNF’d a historical book which I can’t even find now – or remember the name so I guess it was really bad. It was an older book – that’s about all I can say about that.

High off recent contemporary successes I read three more this week, reviews to come soon, but unfortunately none of them quite worked for me.

 Bolted by Meg Benjamin is part of a 4-book series by four different authors all relating to one wedding disaster but with different couples. Cute idea, just didn’t ever quite get the point of this particular book. I also had problems with Seal of Honor by Tonya Burrows. While I loved the set-up (it kinda made me think of A-Team… which I adore!)  for the team of operators, the romance REALLY didn’t work for me. The third was His Southern Temptation by Robin Covington and it had some cute moments, but I really had issues with the characters and plot.

I feel like I’ve been so super light on historical and UF – I think I’ll try to dive back into those genres next week!