A Reviews

Along Came Trouble by Ruthie Knox

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Along Came Trouble (Camelot #2)
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Camelot #2
Reviewed by Anne

This book made me smile and put Ruthie Knox on my short list.  I’d rank her up there with Jill Shalvis, Victoria Dahl, and Sarah Mayberry.  A sweet and hot romance with some humor thrown in.  I really want to go buy her first two books that I missed.

Ellen is a hard working, divorced single mom of a 2 year old son.  She’s also the sister of a very famous singer, Jamie.  Jamie unintentionally turned Ellen’s life upside down when he started dating her next door neighbor, Carly.  Even after Jamie and Carly broke up and Jamie left town, the press remains very interested in Carly.  When the paparazzi continues to be aggressive, Jamie hires a security team to take care of Carly and Ellen.  Caleb is head of the security team and very thankful for the job.  He doesn’t expect that neither woman will want his protection.  And he doesn’t expect to be so attracted to Ellen.

I thought this book would be about a forbidden attraction between Ellen and Caleb.  Thankfully, it’s not.  Pretty early in the book Caleb decides it’s ok if he has a thing with Ellen.  Also pretty early in the book he decides he doesn’t just want sex, he wants more.  So they negotiate.  They negotiate about what security provisions Ellen is willing to make, and they negotiate about what kind of relationship Ellen is willing to have.  I really enjoyed their negotiations.  I really enjoyed almost everything about this book!

Ellen and Caleb both are intelligent and not afraid to apologize when they realize they’re in the wrong.  And there are times when they are in the wrong.  They aren’t perfect, and that was nice to read.  Ellen especially has a lot to overcome as she comes back to life after divorcing her emotionally abusive husband.  She struggles to not depend on a man and stand on her own.  I really appreciated her journey and felt for her.

Rock star brother Jamie and neighbor Carly have a great story.  I think if their back story had been filled out they could have carried a book on their own.  It certainly added a lighter side to the book when things got heavy between Ellen and Caleb.  Carly’s grandma was a hoot, too, but I think I’ve read too many books in a row that had an outspoken elderly woman character.  They start to all blend together.

My only complaints about the book have to do with Ellen’s son, Henry.  I thought his Yoda-style speech pattern was annoying, and his confusion of pronouns felt unrealistic to me.  I could be wrong, though, I’m not a speech expert.  I did LOVE that he called Caleb “Cabe”.  Very sweet. 

Overall, my small complaints were handily outbalanced by all of the things I loved in this book.  I highly recommend it and can’t wait to read more by Ruthie Knox!

One Good Earl Deserves A Lover by Sarah Maclean

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

One Good Earl Deserves a Lover (The Rules of Scoundrels, #2)
Grade-A-
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-The Rules Of Scoundrels #2
Reviewed by Kay

Pippa Marbury is smart. Really, really smart. She knows something about almost everything. What she doesn’t know, she wants to learn. She’s to get married at the onset of this novel and she wants to know more about sex. How to seduce her betrothed who seems oblivious to anything of a sexual nature.

Cross, no name but Cross for most of the book is part owner of The Fallen Angel gaming hell. He is close friends with Pippa’s brother-in-law. Cross is a consummate rake by reputation. He was the spare that became the heir. He has a truckload of guilt and a few secrets to go with his rakishness. Is that a word?

Pippa goes to the hell to see if Cross can answer her questions on seduction and the physical aspect of marriage. Cross is dumbfounded but intrigued. He is tempted beyond measure but refuses her request for a number of reasons. Pippa misunderstand his refusal. See, Pippa is the smart girl but plain in her eyes and most others also. Listening to her description of why Cross refuses her is tear inducing.

This novel was almost a total hit for me. It was so close to perfection. I have been reading a lot of books that have been just okay. Not bad but not like this one. What kept it from a perfect rating for me was 1) they were both betrothed to other people at certain times in the book and 2) he was a redhead. I know it’s petty but red headed men just don’t do it for and it’s hard for me to but into it.  Still, it’s on my Best of 2013 list.

The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Iron Duke (Iron Seas, #1)
Grade – A
Hotness Level – Blaze
Kink Level – no kink
Genre – Steampunk
Series: Iron Seas #1
Reviewed by Anne


I’ll preface this review by saying this book is an all time favorite of mine. I recently re-read it and I liked it even more, so there might be a bit of fangirl gushing going on today.
 

The Iron Seas series by Meljean Brook is steampunk. It’s an alternate history where some things are the same, but others went along a different path. So in The Iron Duke, we have a historical England that has recently escaped enslavement by The Horde. The Horde controlled the people by infecting their blood with “bugs”.  They also used technology to change the people in ways to match their slave occupation.  So a miner might have a pick axe for an arm and so on.  

The Horde looks different than your average English person. (I picutre the Horde as Asian.) The Horde was driven out of England due to actions by Rhys Traehearn, aka the Iron Duke. He’s a national hero. On the other hand, Mina, who is the product of her loving English mother and a member of the Horde who raped her, is pretty much despised on sight by everyone due to her Horde looks. Despite that, she’s an inspector with the police force, and the book starts when she’s called to investigate a death on Traehearn’s property.

Traehearn nearly immediately thinks Mina is someone he would like to have. Mina also feels an attraction to Traehearn, but for reasons of her own would never act on this attraction.  Traehearn is determined and the investigation keeps them together.  Unfortunately and fortunately, the investigation quickly deepens and gets more complicated.  This leads to lots of adventure and more time for them to spend together.

There is so much good about this book. Even the things that bothered me initially turned out to be so well handled, that in the end I didn’t have a complaint.  One example is Thraehearn’s alpha-ness.  When he first meets Mina he is enthralled by her.  She is interesting.  He wants to have her.  He gives no thought to her feelings.  He’s quite confident that she will be amenable to anything he wants.  Her resistance just makes her more attractive to him.  He’s rich enough that he can pull strings to get whatever he wants, and he doesn’t hesitate to force Mina into a situation where she has to go along with him.  He’s really an arrogant ass.  So the author has a big job in turning him into a sympathetic character.  But she does it and she does it well.  Amazingly, at the end of the book, Traehearn is every bit as much of a take charge alpha man as he was at the beginning.  He has a greater understanding and love for Mina, though, and that comes through loud and clear.  He’s not afraid to make sacrifices to ensure her happiness, even if he’s awfully alpha about how he does it.
 
Another thing I really appreciated was that Meljean Brook builds an interesting world, and she does it without boring info dumps.  The book has great secondary characters, too.  It’s got ships on the sea and air ships that float under huge balloons!  It’s got zombies and mechanical flesh.  It’s got the best of sci fi/fantasy and romance together.  I highly recommend this entire series!
 
One final note.  There is a prequel to this story.  It’s a short story called Here There Be Monsters.  (It’s in the anthology Burning Up.)  It’s one of my all time favorite short stories and is only loosely related to the Iron Duke.  However, reading it first probably did help me understand the world building.