A Reviews

The Seduction Hypothesis by Delphine Dryden

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Seduction Hypothesis (Science of Temptation #2)
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Moderate Kink
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM lite, Nerd-manceSeries: The Science of Temptation #2
Reviewed by Anne

This is going to be a hard review for me to write, mostly because I’m having to reign in my desire to just squee like a fan girl about how good this book is.  Because it’s good.  And I really liked it.  And it’s funny.  And it’s good and I liked it and you should really, really read it, because it’s good.  And…

OK, let me try again.  I’m a huge Big Bang Theory fan, and when the first book in this series, The Theory of Attraction, came out it made me think of BBT and I really wanted to read it.  So, I bought it and read it ASAP.  I enjoyed that one and told all my friends about it. This was back before we started the blog, but it was an honorable mention on my Best of 2012 list here.   I liked it and all my friends knew about it.  So when the second book, The Seduction Hypothesis showed up on Netgalley, I think either Kay or Kate messaged me about it and I put in a request to read it.  Thankfully the publisher (yay Carina Press!) approved a copy for me.  I enjoyed this one even more than the first.
 
Ben and Lindsey are in the same nerdy social circle, and that’s been a bit painful lately, because they dated for a while and then broke up.  Lindsey would like to try some BDSM, but even hinting about it to Ben got a bad reaction.  At the same time, Ben doesn’t like the way he sees her watching their friend, Ivan.  His jealousy and her desire for more lead to them breaking up.  And that makes for one uncomfortable trip to BeastCon, the fan convention their group of friends is attending together.  When Ben begins to realize just why Lindsey left him, he’s already been regretting their break up.  He sees the BDSM comic she’s reading. He sees her watching not just Ivan, but watching Ivan AND Ivan’s girlfriend, Cami.  He sees the D/s vibe between Ivan and Cami and things click into place.  He decides the Con will be a great place to try to win Lindsey back.
 
This book is the second in this series, but it does stand alone very well.  If you read Theory of Attraction first you’ll really appreciate the scenes with Cami and Ivan in this book, but you’d be fine without having read it.  This book is both hot and funny.  Ben throws himself into learning the ways of BDSM, but he’s not perfect.  Lindsey and Ben share some giggly moments in the middle of their sexy times, and that read so true to me.  
 
Dryden has GOT to be a nerd.  Either that or she knows a lot of them, because I have some nerd cred and she knows how nerds talk.  There’s a sentence in the book where the characters talk about cake being merely a vector for the icing delivery as salad is for dressing.  I’ve had conversations like that.  Seriously.  They are both funny and effortless in real life when you’re immersed in such subjects.  Dryden really nails that in this book.  She also has countless geek references that all made me smile.  So much fun!
 
So, when you read The Seduction Hypothesis you get all the goodness I just wrote about, PLUS you have a female lead with a Cthulhu tattoo and a male lead who isn’t afraid research BDSM and make a crib sheet on how to carry it out.  I love this book and I highly recommend it.  It’s going on my best of 2013 list!

So I’m curious… If you read this book or Theory of Attraction, did it work for you?  Is there more good nerd-mance out there?  What would you recommend?

Ten Reasons To Stay by Sabrina Jeffries

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Ten Reasons to Stay
Grade-A
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Schools For Heiresses
Reviewed by Kay

This novella was previously published by Sabrina Jeffries. It will be re released on May 6, 2013.
This is the story of one of the heiresses from the school, Eliza Crenshawe. She was picked up from the school by her uncle under false pretenses. He takes her home and says he is going to marry her off to his friend.

Colin Hunt, an earl, has just arrived at his newly inherited estate. He sees a boy sneaking into his stables. This worries him because he has a lot of impressive horseflesh. He confronts the boy only to find out it’s a girl. The girl is trying to make it back to her school to escape a forced marriage.

Colin and Eliza are precious together. Eliza as she fights for her dignity, virtue and survival, all by herself. And Colin as he fights for acceptance because he’s a foreigner and he fights the demons of his past.

This is a great, short read. I loved every second of it. I’m a big fan of Sabrina Jeffries, so this just solidified that for me. It was moving, tender and hot. Three things I just adore. And when he counts the ten reasons she should stay….sigh.

Family Man by Heidi Cullinan and Marie Sexton

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Family Man
Grade: A

Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m

Reviewed by Anne

 

Vince is a 3 times married and 3 times divorced man who is just finally admitting to himself that he might be gay.    Trey is a 25 year old student working 2 jobs to support his mother and grandmother.  He knows he is gay, but he’s been way too busy for a relationship. When Vince decides to try going to a gay night club and see if that helps with his confusion, he’s shocked to see Trey, an acquaintance from his neighborhood there.
 
What a sweet and hot story!  Painfully real at times.  Just pretty darn awesome.  There is so much going on in this book to love.  I’ll make you a list:

  1.  Vince’s journey from realizing he might just possibly be gay to finding himself in a relationship with a man and considering coming out to his family is heart wrenching in a very good way.  I can only guess what that kind of emotional journey is like, but I imagine it just like Cullinan and Sexton wrote it.

  2. Vince’s sister is awesome, both in her teasing of Vince and in her support of him.  She was a wonderful person to read about.

  3. Trey has a journey, too, and it’s a bittersweet one.  His life experiences with his alcoholic mother make it believable that the age difference between him and Vince just is not a big deal.  

  4. I felt like this could have been a true story.  All the details felt right to me.  The character that had a seizure and the descriptions of it, the scenes in the hospital?  I’ve been there, done that, and reading this made me want to compare notes with the authors because they really got it right.

  5. I enjoyed Vince and Trey’s families, especially Vince’s mother and Trey’s grandmother.  They were strong women who had raised strong men, and I liked seeing their relationships.

  6. The relationship between Vince and Trey had such sexual tension!  At the same time it was really sweet.  They gave each other room to figure things out.  Neither pushing the other to move faster than they were comfortable with, but at the same time clearly enjoying their time together.  

  7. Vinnie and Trey dance together.  And it’s hot.

  8. The part where Vince’s sister has to help him dress for a not-a-date with Trey.  So funny and sweet.

    Rachel ended up putting him in a pair of suit pants but with a dark plum-colored shirt with iridescent silver pinstripes she dug out of the back of his closet. He tried to shoot it down, because it had always felt too flashy to him, but Rachel insisted.

     “You’re gay now, big brother. You can be a little flashy.”

     “I am not gay.”

     “Right. You’re just making yourself a nervous wreck over a night out with a man. Completely different story.”

  9. The story grabs you from the first line. Seriously. I bought this book because I read the excerpt on All Romance ebooks. Here. Go check it out. I read it and I bought the book, that simple. (I checked it out because it was Smart Bitch Sarah’s book club pick of the month for April, so props to her, too.) 

Probably the only thing about this story that made me pause was how it switched point of view back and forth from Vince to Trey.  I enjoy it when a story switches back and forth, but in this case Vince’s POV is told in third person, and Trey’s in first person.  On one hand that made it really easy to tell whose POV we were in, on the other hand, it took me a while to get used to it.  By the end of the book I didn’t really notice at all, though, so it’s pretty much a non-issue for me.
 
I loved this book so much.  I want to go back and re-read it right now!  I highly recommend it.  It’s going on my best of 2013 list, and I’ll be looking for more by these authors!