This week at Smexy…

A review – Marked Anthology (erotic)
B review – After the Rain by Daisy Harris (m/m)
B review – As Hot as it Gets by Elle Kennedy (erotic contemporary)
B- review – Fighting for Irish by Gina Maxwell (contemporary)
C+ review – High Seduction by Vivian Arend (erotic contemporary)
C+ review – One Ride by Chelsea Camaron (contemporary – motorcycle club)
C+ review – Rule Breaker by Lora Leigh (paranormal)
C review – Belle Fury by Lola Dodge (paranormal)
C review – Jaded by Anne Calhoun (erotic contemporary)
DNF review – Cold Iron by DL McDermott (urban fantasy)

Sexy Excerpts from the Marked Anthology.
Smexy’s Top Ten

News from Mandi:  Last week I mentioned I was going to read Archer’s Voice. Well I did and it’s a very sweet story about two young twenty-somethings who each have to deal with a tragedy. Bree recently witnessed her father’s murder and she had a close call with sexual assault. This has her running to the vacation spot her family visited years and years earlier. It’s hear she meets the reclusive Archer. When Archer was a kid, something devastating happened, and he has never spoke since. Raised by his odd uncle, Archer is labeled the town’s weirdo and everyone gives him wide berth. But Bree sees something in him and a friendship develops. It all becomes very mushy and romantic, which made me smile. I do think this book reads young – I’d classify it as a new adult due to their age, but it reads — more innocent than that.  Archer may start the book as a bearded, virgin, recluse – but he is also quite young which comes out in both of their personalities.

I DNF’d two this week – Bound by Lies by Hannah Peach just isn’t for me. I didn’t like how the story was progressing.

I also DNF’d Wind Chime Cafe by Sophie Moss. I liked how this one was developing – heroine moves to small town with her daughter. Hero is just home from military service. His family inn is for sale and heroine wants to open a cafe. But then we learn the heroine’s 8 year old daughter was the only survivor in her classroom of a mass school shooting that killed her 17 other classmates. She hid in a broom closet – now she carries a broom with her to school. This does not sit well with me at all. I first of all find school shootings completely horrific and don’t want them in my romance books – or anywhere. So I couldn’t read this.

Holiday with a Stranger by Christy McKellen is pretty cute. Heroine is a total work-alohic who is forced to go on vacation to her best friend’s cottage. One night a strange man walks into her bedroom. This man turns out to be her best friend’s brother who is also looking for some vacation time. Both refuse to leave so they end up vacationing together – and falling in love. I’m not sure I totally believed in their HEA – I needed a little more convincing from the hero that he would be there for the heroine long-term – but otherwise cute and sexy story. Review coming.

I’m currently reading THIS boxed set of romances. I’ve just started the first one – I’ll report back!