This week at Smexy…

A review – Reaper’s Stand by Joanna Wylde (contemporary/sheena)
A review – Loving You Always by Kennedy Ryan (contemporary/sheena)
B review – The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle (contemporary/tori)
B review – Too Friendly to Date by Nicole Helm (contemporary/mandi)
B review – Worth the Fall b Claudia Connor (contemporary/tori)
B review – Carolina Blues by Virginia Kantra (contemporary/helyce)
C+ review – As Long as You Love Me by Ann Aguirre (new adult/tori)
C- review – Final Lap by Erin McCarthy (contemporary/helyce)
C- review – Echoes of Scotland Street by Samantha Young (contemporary/tori)

Swoon Off – Phin vs. Daniel
Samantha Young’s Video Blog Tour
Interview with Kimberly Kincaid
Smexy’s Top Ten

News from Mandi: 

A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev is one of the best books I’ve read this year. A heroine who leaves India and comes to Michigan to study abroad. A hero who will do anything to help his family, and comes looking for the heroine to secure her divorce from his brother – a marriage that happened when she was 4 years old. Oh the drama and angst. A warm romance that will make you smile and get antsy from all the tension. Review coming.

Maybe This Christmas by Sarah Morgan is adorable. It’s the third book in the O’Neill series and I highly recommend them all (focuses on three brothers). The sexual tension in this book is intense! She builds it, and builds and then builds it some more. Really fun holiday romance. Review coming.

Reaper’s Stand by Joanna Wylde. Picnic went and got himself some. I approve. Love, love, love this series. You can read Sheena’s review above.

Making His Move by Rhyannon Byrd is a novella that is basically just one night of sex, but Rhyannon Byrd sex is extra dirty. It’s fun. I’m posting an excerpt tomorrow for smex scene sunday.

I DNF’d Smoldered by Rachel Blaufeld and Dangerous Match by Alyssa Stevens. I couldn’t get into either one.

Next up for me is Til Dragons Do Us Part by Lorenda Christensen

News From Tori: It’s been a normal week at Casa Benson. We’ve slowly started our renovations back up again. It’s been really too hot to do much so now with cooler weather starting, we can start working on the master bath and bedroom. :)

What To Do With  Bad Boy by Marie Hart. This doesn’t release till Nov. but I’m telling you now you need to mark it on your calendar. I adored it. Funny, sweet, super sexy, and unbelievable heart breaking. It’s the perfect rom com with a delightful opposites attract trope between a clean cut widower and a potty mouth tattooed mechanic.

Melancholy by Bella Jewel. I wasn’t that impressed with book one. I thought the drama was way over the top, the heroine a bit of a push over, and the hero an alpha douche. Melancholy was so much better. Still high on the drama meter, the protags had much better chemistry and I liked the romance conflict between them was resolved in an adult matter. An engaging storyline and advancement in the arc made this an enjoyable read.

Rocker’s After Dark by Deanna Chase and more is a six book anthology. I admit to buying for Roxie Riviera’s story which is a spin off of her Russian Protectors series. A lovely short romance based on a Cinderella like theme. Deanna Chase’s Defining Destiny was also good. I enjoyed the fantasy feeling it invokes with the basis that everyone has a “soul mate” that increases the gifts they are born with. I have yet to read the rest but if they are as good as the two I read then I will be happy.

Locke by Harper Sloan. Fans of his series will certainly enjoy this one if only because we finally get the story of a couple whose romance has been building since book one. I liked it but didn’t love it. I think the hero’s conflict was resolved to easily for the massive build up we have endured for five books. I also am not a fan of people who push the one they love away over and over and over and over until that person gives up and finally leaves only to freak out because…OMG, THEY LEFT ME. Seriously? Lots of smexy times though and I honestly can say the h/H 100% belonged together.

At Death’s Door by Astrid V. Tallaken was a DNF for me. I’ll be honest, angels and religious based romances are not my favorite storyline. I was under the impression that the angels, demons, ect was a smaller part of the storyline. This is not on the author but me. The background information and world set is extensive and written with a heavy hand. I was constantly having to go back and figure out who was who and why this was happening. It got to be too much so I put it down. I may try and come back to it at a later date.

Indecent Proposal by Molly O’Keefe blew me away. Lord, the emotion and complications this woman imparts in her books is staggering. I laughed, cried, shouted in anger, swooned, and wanted much much more once I hit the end. Two lost souls whose one night stand produces a surprise that take them down an unbelievable and painful path of self discovery, forgiveness, and learning to love oneself. Review to come.

Beauty and The Mustache by Penny Reid. I’ve had this on my kindle for awhile and was finally able to get to it. Reid writes some of the best introvert geek romances on the market today. I couldn’t stop laughing as Reid builds a romance between a poetic game warden and a back woods knitter who comes home to be with her sick mother and six rambunctious brothers. A fabulous story about love, loss, forgiveness, and learning to let go.
Perfectly Good White Boy by Carrie Mesrobian. I’m not sure what to think of this story. Or rather I should say, I’m not sure what I was suppose to take from this story. A YA that revolves around a young man in his last year of high school. Told entirely from his POV we meet an remarkably normal 17 year old boy who has a remarkably normal family, friends, and life. I will say that Mesrobian has an engaging voice for YA and remarkable (heh) insight into the mind of an adolescent boy. I will need to think on this. Review to come.

The Resolution of Callie and Kayden by Jill Sorensen was a nice wrap up of the tremulous journey that these two battered and abused soul embarked on. Through out this series my heart has broke over and over by the pain these two have suffered at the hands of others. Im so glad we are left with the knowledge that these two young lovers have the well earned chance at making it.

This weekend I will be reading Black Dog by Caitlin Kittredge.