Anne

Like a Wolf with a Bone by Shelly Laurenston (Howl For It)

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Howl For It (Includes: Pride, #0.5)
Grade-A
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Pride #0.5
Reviewed by Anne

(Note: I only read Laurenston’s story.)

So, I am a big Shelly Laurenston fan.  I’ve been reading her stuff for a while and I love it all.  It’s not often that you can say that about an author, but her stuff is ALL good to me.  It’s set in an alternate present day where shifters (that most full humans don’t know about) exist.  One of the things Laurenston does best with her shifters is bring their animal traits into their personalities and habits, whether in human or animal form.  She’s amazingly good! Her stories are  over the top funny and over the top violent, and I just don’t want to put them down when I start them!

I just finished the novella Like a Wolf with a Bone in the anthology Howl For It.  I need to take a moment and mention just how much I appreciate those title.   There’s some nice double entendre along with a nod to the shifterness of the story.  Awesome.

So Like a Wolf with a Bone is a prequel to the current stories.  It takes place in the 70s and there’s some humor to be had from the references that come up.  Darla and Eggie are the parents of one of the most recent heroines, DeeAnn.  Like a Dog with a Bone tells the story of their courtship.  There’s so much to enjoy!

Darla is attacked by a group of full humans.  Eggie manages to fend them off, and by fend them off, I mean that he easily and efficiently kills them all.  However, Darla is hurt and unconscious when Eggie is done with the humans.  Without a whole lot of thought to it, Eggie takes her away from her home – she wasn’t safe there! – and takes her to his military base hospital for treatment.  When Darla wakes up she assesses the situation and after some initial shock, she’s fine with Eggie having rescued her.  So, the conflict in this book doesn’t really come from the two of them together, but from everyone else in the story.  And while there is a lot of humor between Eggie and Darla, it’s the squads of secondary characters that really had me cracking up!

See, Darla has lots of sisters, and Eggie has lots of brothers.  And they are all dating each other.  Yep.  In the rural area I grew up in this wasn’t uncommon.  We used to joke about the family tree growing up, but not out.  Anyway, Darla and Eggie’s siblings have a lot to say about Darla and Eggie being together.  Actually, Darla’s sisters have a lot to say.  They do most of the talking.  And then there’s Eggie’s momma.  She may not know a pacifist from a polygamist, but she’s looking out for her boy.  It’s just all good!

This story was ridiculously funny and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.  I highly recommend it!  It’s probably best appreciated if you’ve read some of the other books in the series, especially the more recent ones where DeeAnn and Eggie are mentioned.

 

 

Riveted by Meljean Brook

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

 Riveted (Iron Seas, #3)
Grade-A+
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Iron Seas #3
Reviewed by Anne

I have loved every Iron Seas story I’ve read, and Riveted was no exception.  I was hesitant about this story because it had no previously known characters, but that was no problem at all.  I loved it from start to finish.  Annika and David were delightful.

Before I read romance I read science fiction/fantasy, and I was always drawn to books that had a romance subplot.  This book reminds me that I still enjoy sci fi/fantasy.  There’s a complicated plot and lots of fun and adventure.  And a mechanical whale.  I kid you not, there is a humongous mechanical whale in this story.

When David and Annika first meet it is while they are on their own quests, paths just crossing.  As the story progresses, and their paths happen to merge for a while, you see that they have more to overcome.  Annika has never been in love and is not sure that she wants to give it a try.  She doesn’t want to be diverted from her guilt fueled quest.  David is handsome and wonderful as seen through Annika’s eyes, but he has a lifetime of insecurity related to the prosthetic hand, eye, and legs he has.  Watching them overcome their issues and find each other is such a joyful journey.  That fact that it takes place in such a fantastical world is icing on the cake.  This is a best of 2012 read for me!

Cherished by Maya Banks and Lauren Dane

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Cherished (Includes: Delicious, #1)

This book contains two novellas
Exiled by Maya Banks and Sway by Lauren Dane
Grade-DNF/A+
Hotness Level-Inferno/Inferno
Kink Level-moderate/moderate
Series-Sway is #1 of the Delicious series, a spin off of the Brown Siblings books
Reviewed by Anne

Exiled by Maya Banks made me feel dirty, and not in a good way.  I didn’t like the way the heroine was coerced into spending what she thought would be 6 months with the hero and his 3 closest friends.  I might have been more accepting of this in a fantasy setting, especially if the heroine was less innocent and more aware of what she was getting into.  I didn’t like the way it made me feel.  At Dear Author they’ve discussed reader consent as an important part of what makes coercion in a sexual setting seem ok or not.  I think that reader consent is what was missing for me.  I didn’t finish reading the book.  I don’t think it was bad, it just wasn’t a story for me.

On the other hand, Sway by Lauren Dane pushed all the right buttons for me.  Daisy is a 24 year old artist, devoted friend and all around good person.  (She is one of Gillian’s circle of friends we met in the book Never Enough.)  Levi is a 40 year old lawyer.  He meets her in a dance class his brother’s fiance badgers him into attending.  They are instantly attracted to each other.  Here’s one of the first passages that caught me.  Daisy has noticed Levi likes to be in charge as they dance and talk and she is commenting on it.

“Do you like telling people what to do? Just to see how they react?” …
“I prefer it when their reaction is obedience.” A flush roared through her, hot and wild.
 

They enjoy a few dances and then go their separate ways, but after bumping into each other around town a few more times they get together for supper.  They realize the chemistry between them is off the scales.  Daisy also realizes that playing submissive (though they never really discuss it in those terms) to Levi really turns her crank.  So as their relationship develops, they have D/s roles while having sex.  Outside of sex, Levi appreciates Daisy’s maturity and independence.

This is a low conflict/no villian romance, which I really love.  The conflict comes from them figuring out how they can be together, and Levi working through some issues with his family.  That was very believable to me.  I can’t wait for more of this series and look forward to reading the next story, Tart, soon!  Unfortunately this series is in trade paperback, which puts it out of my price range.  I borrowed this book from the library and have a hold on Tart.  If I get some book money for Christmas, I just might splurge and buy it, though.