Anne

Beyond Pain by Kit Rocha

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

We generally only put up one review each day, but I loved this book so much (and I don’t want to shuffle the rest of our reviews!) so I’m putting it up as a second review today!  One of my favorite reads of the year so far!  ~Anne
Beyond Pain (Beyond, #3)

Grade: A
Hotness Level: Inferno+
Kink Level: Moderate Kink (menage, flogger)
Genre: Dystopian, Futuristic
Series: Beyond #3
Reviewed by Anne
247 pages

Six was abused and discarded by the former leader of Sector 3. Bren has been looking after her since she first arrived. He’s gets her like no one else in the O’Kane gang does. And because he gets her, he knows he can’t make a move until *she* is ready. She’s got to heal some and find the parts of herself she lost in Sector 3. This book is the story of what happens when Six is ready, and it’s awesome!

For all the action that happens and the continuing story arc of the politics in Eden and the sectors, this is a low conflict story (my favorite!) about the developing relationship between Six and Bren. And, oh, is that relationship sweet and hot!

I’ll get this out of the way right away… sex between Bren and Six is scorching. There’s one particular scene that involves the two of them watching Lex, Dallas, and Rachel… I have no words. There are also a lot of scenes between just Bren and Six and I love that you can see their relationship grow with each encounter.

As much as I liked the sex, I think my favorite part of the book was the strength shown by all the O’Kane women, but especially Six and Lex.

“There was a secret in these women that went deeper than the ink around their wrists, and sometimes she thought if she watched for long enough, she could unlock it for herself.” (p.8)

Lex has been strong throughout the series. We get to watch Six come into her own. We get to see how the O’Kanes truly value each member for the assets they bring to the gang. So when Six figures out what she wants to do, even though it’s not something an O’Kane woman has done before… well, they stand behind her because they recognize it’s something she would excel at. And this happens more than once! Very cool.

When you take this gang and it’s leadership that value women on an equal level with their men, and then you add in the sexual freedom and openness… well it’s just awesome! Seriously , this is a world where it’s ok for a woman to want sex, and to want as much of it as she’d like. No slut shaming. It’s incredible! And the writing is so strong, it’s easy to believe in it.

Another thing I loved in this story is that when one of them goofs up and things go bad between them, they both are hurt but strong, and it’s not easy for them to get back together. Because the characters feel so real, their hurts feel real and it takes some work for them to repair their relationship.

This is book 3 in the series, and it would be best if the books were read in order. (Start with #1, Beyond Shame.) Each book is the story of the main couple, but there are several story arcs going on, and the book will be appreciated so much more if you’ve read the others.

If I have any disappointments in this book it’s that there were a couple scenes I’d hoped to see in this book that weren’t there. [ we didn’t get to see Six’s induction ceremony (drinking in) and we didn’t get closure with Miller yet (hide spoiler)] I hold out hope that we’ll see both these things in another book, though! I’m also excited to learn more about other characters. Emma and Noah, of course, along with the whole tangle of Rachel/Cruz/Ace. There’s also a stripper in Sector 3 who Six pointed out as being really intelligent. I want more of her!

I highly recommend this series!!
 

M/M Monday – Waiting for Ty Samantha Ann King

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Waiting for Ty (Lovers and Friends, #2)
Grade: B-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m
Series: Lovers and Friends #2
Reviewed by Anne
117 pages 

So, Ty and Landon have been best friends for a long time now.  Each wonders about making that a sexual relationship, but neither knows if the other is attracted to him.  To top it off, neither of them has ever been with a man before.  So they are each secretly lusting after the other.
 
Finally, having downed enough beers, a celebratory sports hug turns into much more.  And now they have to navigate the aftermath of that night.    Was this a one time thing?  Or something more?
 
Well, it’s a romance, so of course it’s something more!  This was a quick read and it was pretty good.  It was a solid story and the pacing of it was good.  I’ll admit that I had a hard time keeping the guys straight sometimes.  Overall it had a good feel to it though.  it’s the second in the series, but I had no problem keeping up with everyone.  The first book in the series is Sharing Hailey, and it sounded pretty good!  And I LOVE that Landon appreciates that Hailey has broken ground for him (they’re siblings, if I remember right) when he thinks “He knew for a fact that introducing Hailey’s menage to the family had been more complicated than introducing his relationship with Ty.”
 
It was good read and I’d read this author again.
 
This was the first m/m book I read where both guys were m/m virgins.  Are there other books out there you would recommend like this?

Never Deal with Dragons by Lorenda Christianson

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Never Deal with Dragons

 
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Paranormal, Dragons
Reviewed by Anne
235pages
 
“It’s amazing how often my day starts with a three-legged dragon and an enraged dairy farmer.” p.11  So starts Never Deal with Dragons.  Myrna Banks is a rarity in her time – she can speak dragon language.  Ever since the dragons were accidentally created during World War III, humans have needed dragonspeakers and negotiators.  Myrna is good at both, though she is underappreciated in her current position.  This is due, mainly to some bad choices she made regarding her ex-boyfriend, Trian.  So she is much less than happy when he waltzes into the middle of her negotiations between the 3 legged dragon (pregnant with twins and very hungry!) and a dairy farmer less one cow and beloved pet.  Unfortunately it looks like Myrna and Trian will be seeing a lot more of each other as he works for a dragon who needs her help.
 
From the very first line to the end of this story, I didn’t want to put this book down.  It’s an interesting world with interesting characters!  Just the concept of dragons being created and then turning out to be dominate over humans…  really fun to read how this has played out and changed the world.
Myrna was a strong woman who seemed to get into a lot of situations, but they weren’t humiliating for the sake of humiliating her character, and she was very good at handling them.  This is good, because the whole story is told from her point of view.  That was a drawback for me, as I enjoy seeing the hero’s point of view, but it worked in this book.  
 
Myrna was frustrating at times.  She had a tendency to cut Trian off when he was trying to explain himself, and this created most of the conflict in the book.  If she’d listened to him, or asked a few more questions instead of assuming, the whole thing would have played out much more smoothly, and it still would have been a good story, in my opinion.
 
Trian wasn’t quite sorry enough for the wrong he did to Myrna, but she kept cutting him off before he could really say sorry, so I’ll cut him some slack, and his actions certainly made up for the past. 
 
The first half of the book was better than the second, but both were still good.  It was pretty funny throughout, though.  The situations with the dragons were real for the world created, but still really funny.  It was a wonderful world and I hope there will be more stories in it!