Anne

M/M Monday – Never a Hero by Marie Sexton

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Never a Hero (Tucker Springs, #5)

Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m
Series: Tucker Springs #5
Reviewed by Anne
174 pages


What a wonderful book!  I’m really enjoying this whole series.  This book is no exception.  In fact, it’s one of my favorites.

Owen was born with just one full arm.  His mom has always been embarrassed by him and critical of him.  He’s on his own now, and has even overcome (for the most part) the stutter that further shamed him in his mother’s eyes.  (No kidding, this is a real Mommy Dearest!)

When Owen’s neighbor moves out, Nick moves in downstairs.  Owen is surprised by how comfortable Nick is with him.  It turns out that Nick’s sister, June was born with one arm, too.  Together June and Nick help Owen come out of his shell and out from under the damage his mother has done.  Along the way, Owen and Nick start to fall for each other.  There really shouldn’t be any problem, but Nick keeps holding back, and Owen can’t understand why.

This was such a sweet story.  I actually have several notes and highlights up until a twist in the story about half way through the book.  After that I just was reading as fast as I could to figure out how things would work out!

I loved Owen and Nick, but I liked June even more!  She was a bit of a whirlwind.  I have a couple friends like her – they light up the room when they come in and sweep you along with their plans.  She was a great addition to the story.

As I mentioned, there’s a pretty big twist in the story, and mentioning it would be a big spoiler. So I’ll just say, it was believable to me, and the resolution was believable to me, too.

I highly recommend this series.  Every book is a keeper!  Even though there are different authors involved, each story has been wonderful.  I want more!

Anne’s Home!

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

I went on vacation. Maybe you didn’t know. Above you can see the dash of our minivan.  We spent a lot of time in the van, so, despite taking a husband and four kids with me, I managed to do a LOT of reading. (Yay!)  Some of it even happened poolside instead of in the van! (Double Yay!)  Now I’m home and writing up reviews, but I know a lot of the reviews won’t show up here for weeks, so I couldn’t resist a little preview.  So here’s what I read on vacation:

 
The Good:
Just What He Wanted by HelenKay Dimon – This was my first HelenKay book (other than some short story anthologies I read years ago.)  I liked it.  My only complaint is that now I’ve got several books in this series I want to read!
 
Mercy Bound by Kele Moon – This was pretty short and I liked it, but I wanted more.  Not more sex, because there was plenty of that, but more of the world and the people. Interesting look at humanoid aliens!
 
Closer by Charlotte Stein – I’ll go almost anywhere with Charlotte Stein.  This time it was rubbing up against strangers on a train.  Another pretty short one that was just right for me.  Now I need more Charlotte Stein!  (I’m working my way through her backlist.)
 
Breaking by Claire Kent – this is a novella sequel to Escorted, featuring the same characters.  It was written to stand alone, but I really think the whole thing had more meaning because I read the first one.  A novella about a man who uses sex to distract his partner from a discussion he doesn’t want to have – that makes for a LOT of sex.  At least Ander is very good at it. 🙂
 
Lamplighter’s Love by Delphine Dryden – I’m working my way through Delphine Dryden’s backlist, too.  I REALLY enjoyed this one right up until the ending.  Ugh.  The steampunk world was really cool.  The strong, intelligent woman was awesome.  The ending made me want to pull my hair out. That’s a lot of feeling to have for a novella.
 
The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand How have I not read this series?  I’ll tell you how.  I didn’t think it was hot enough.  I read something about this book (4th in the series, I think) that mentioned that it was hotter than the others and I was sold.  And, once again, my biggest problem?  Now I want to read the first books in the series.  I haven’t been transported by a book like this in a long time.  It made me want to go to France and eat chocolate.  I settled for the chocolate, but it was still a very good read.

The Meh:
Unscripted by Jayne Denker  This wasn’t bad, but it was much more chick-lit than I like.  First person POV from the heroine only, and has lots of humiliation for her to endure.  Just not my cup of tea.  

The INCREDIBLE!!:
Her Favorite Rival by Sarah Mayberry – I’m a Sarah Mayberry fan.  This book is exactly what I expect from her.  Very well written realistic contemporary romance.  She is so good at what she does and this book was AWESOME!  Co-workers have the hots for each other, but neither thinks office romance is a very good idea.  This is two intelligent, hard working people falling in love, and I loved it!
 
Curio by Cara McKenna – I’d heard about this book.  The male prostitute book.  Like I’ll follow Charlotte Stein almost anywhere – I feel the same way about Cara McKenna.  Still, I hesitated with this one, until I read Escorted by Claire Kent a few months ago.  That male prostitute story really worked for me.  I think I liked this one even better.  They’ve got a lot in common, though.  Both stories are told from the heroine’s POV only, and both have novella sequels.  Curio has several sequels.  I’m definitely checking them out!
 
Never a Hero by Marie Sexton – This is Tucker Springs book #5.  I want to move to Tucker Springs and be friends with these people.  I think this story was my favorite in the series, which I’ve read totally out of order.  I still need to go back and read book 1!
 
Making it Last by Ruthie Knox – This was by far my best read of the entire vacation.  I never cry when I read and this book had me tearing up.  It’s a novella sequel (I guess those are a thing now.) to How To Misbehave.  It catches up with Amber and Tony several years and three kids later.  They’ve barely got any time together.  The construction market is tight, and that’s got Tony working way too much and traveling way too far to get jobs.  Amber just sent her youngest off to school and she’s feeling a little lost.  A destination wedding in Jamaica gets them away from it all, but herding their kids along makes it not much of a vacation.  This story was so good and so real.  I need everyone to read it so I can talk to them about how much they loved it!

I’m still working on Exotica by Eden Bradley and I just started The Stone Guardian by Danielle Monsch.  Both are Netgalley copies.  Exotica is already out, and The Stone Guardian comes out on July 15.  I really want to love The Stone Guardian.  It’s a GARGOYLE ROMANCE.  You guys!  How cool is that?  And it’s the first in a series, so I’m crossing my fingers.  I just got through the first chapter/prelude.  The thing is I’ve got tons of laundry and other chores to do before I have a chance to read.  Unless I take my kids to the pool…  then I can read poolside and pretend I’m still on vacation!

So, how is your summer reading going?  Have you read anything really good or really bad this summer?

Covet Thy Neighbor by L.A. Witt

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Covet Thy Neighbor (Tucker Springs, #4)

Grade: B
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m
Series: Tucker Springs #4
Reviewed by Anne
175 pages
 
Seth is a tattoo artist who lives above his business.  He’s delighted to learn that his new neighbor is extremely good looking, gay, and open to a little flirtation and more.  He’s distressed to learn that Darren is a Christian pastor.  Seth was terribly hurt by his devout Christian family when he came out to them.  He just can’t get by the fact that Darren is a pastor.  However, they keep running into each other and the attraction just isn’t dying down. Even worse, they find they have more and more in common.
This is the fourth entry in the Tucker Springs series.  This one is written by L.A. Witt and was my first L.A. Witt book.  It stands alone well, as all the books do.  In fact, I’ve read these books entirely out of order, starting with book 3 (Dirty Laundry), then reading book 2 (Second Hand), and now book 4.  Yes, I intend to go back to book 1 (Where Nerves End), which is another L.A. Witt book. 
 
The Tucker Springs books have been just magical for me.  This one especially intrigued me, because I wondered how the issue of Christianity and a pastor having sex outside of marriage would be handled.  I thought it was handled well.   I liked the contrasting experiences they had in coming out to their families.  The growth Seth had to make was painful for him.  Darren was almost too patient.  But it all worked for me, and I was disappointed to see it end.  All of the issues weren’t totally dealt with, but I felt really confident that they would work through anything they came up against.
 
This was another low conflict romance – a favorite of mine.  I’d compare this series to Lauren Dane’s Brown Siblings series.  Very hot and the conflict in the book is internal to the relationship.  I recommend it!


So, how about you?  Have you read this book?  Can you recommend another book that handled Christianity well without being preachy?