B Reviews

Flasher! by Elene Sallinger

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Flasher
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink up to High Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Erotica, Flash Fiction, BDSM, ménageReviewed by Kate

37 pages


This is a collection of flash fiction erotica, or extremely short stories. Most of the time we don’t know much about the characters back stories or how they met. There are no beginnings or endings, we are simply there with them at that moment in time. The six stories in this collection range from a hot and sweet after-boot camp reunion to crops and bondage. From strangers to masters and most things in between.

Elene Sallinger’s writing seared the pages and left my Kindle smoking. It felt like the stories were excerpts from books rather than just a collection of random scenes. My only complaint is that I now have six stories worth of characters that I want to know more about.

This was my first time reading any flash fiction.  It worked well for me as a quick break between book, although for some of the stories I really wanted to know more about the characters’ befores and afters.  Have any of you tried flash fiction? If so, what did you think?

Glory, Glory and Snowbound With the Bodyguard Reviews

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Today’s review is for a double edition Kate got to review from NetGalley.  This review contains two books:  Glory, Glory by Linda Lael Miller and Snowbound With the Bodyguard by Carla Cassidy.  The two books contain 416 pages together. Please make sure you read down to the second review, because it is so much better than the first book!

 
Glory, Glory: Snowbound with the Bodyguard
Glory, Glory by Linda Lael Miller
Grade: D
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Published: 10/1/13 (Glory, Glory originally copyrighted in 1990)
Reviewed by Kate
 
Glory is returning to her hometown for her mother’s wedding.  10 years ago, she was blackmailed into leaving town without telling her boyfriend Jesse that she was pregnant and giving the little baby girl up for adoption (please tell me you see where this is going).  That’s right.  The first time Glory sees Jesse’s orphaned niece (who was adopted by Jesse’s older brother) she just knows that it’s her little girl-the little girl Liza looks just like a picture of Glory’s great-grandma. 
 
There is so much that I wanted to like about this book.  I love secret baby books and I had such high hopes.  Sadly, this one came off more as a soap opera than a romance.  Why, you ask? 
 

Signs this book may really be a soap opera:
  1. No one questions Glory’s claim that Liza is her daughter, everyone believes her.  There are no blood tests and no one searches the adoption records.  Glory confronts Jesse (who, remember, didn’t even know about the pregnancy), blaming him from keeping Liza from her all these years.  And while confused, even he believes her,
  2. Jesse is a border-line cheater.  He tells his girlfriend that they need to slow things down a bit (and rumor has it he had already bought a ring for her) then proceeded to come on to Glory later than night.  When Glory doesn’t give in right away (can you believe she actually had some backbone?) he makes a date for a few days later.  He’s also the king of “I know you said ‘stop’ but we both know what you really want.”  Oh, and he doesn’t officially break up with his girlfriend until after he’s slept with Glory,
  3. Glory decides that leaving again may be what’s actually best for little Liza, but manages to get a few shags in with Jesse on the way out of town.  No one finds time for nookie quite like a soap opera.  And finally,
  4. Jesse and Glory are finally brought together because Liza asked her dead parents (Jesse’s brother and sister-in-law) to make it happen.

 
I struggled to rate this book.  It was pretty terrible as far as romances go, but I actually found so much of it to be really funny (although I don’t think it was written with that intent).  Unfortunately, I think fans of secret babies and fans for Miller’s more recent books will be disappointed in this book.
 
***
Snowbound With the Bodyguard by Carla Cassidy
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Published: 10/1/13 (Snowbound with the Bodygurard originally published in 2008)

Reviewed by Kate

 
Janette was raped by the town sheriff and had little Sammy as a result.  The sheriff hasn’t paid any attention to her since the attack, until he hears she had a little boy.  Now he wants his son.  Janette takes Sammy and runs, but gets stuck in a small town in the middle of a huge snowstorm.  With no place left to turn, she heads to the only place with a light on-West Protection Agency.  Dalton West has been protecting his heart by closing himself off to everything but work.  Janette threatens to crack the shell he’s built around his heart, but he has no choice but to offer her a place to ride out the storm-both outside and in her personal life.
 
Strong, gruff, and at times abrupt, Dalton was the perfect counterpart to sweet determined Janette.  Add a scumbag of a villain and just enough suspense to keep me up late at night turning pages and you have yourself a solid, well written romance.  Although this is the first book I’ve read by Carla Cassidy, it definitely will not be my last!

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Louder Than Love by Jessica Topper

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Louder Than Love
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, rock star
Published: 9/17/13

Reviewed by Kate
 

Katrina “Tree” is a librarian who has been floating in a haze since her husband died.  She and her 4 year old daughter have moved back to her home town and have surrounded themselves with friends.  When looking for a musician for the library’s childrens’ program, she runs across Adrian Graves.  Adrian used to be famous and is now living a shadow of a life.  Tree and Adrian set out on a journey of self discovery and healing, falling in love along the way.

 

Tree and Adrian have so much hurt in their past that at times their struggles to return to life are hard to witness.  But their support for each other is sweet and charming.  I quickly fell for each of them.

 

I can admit to not being a huge fan of the rockers that are flooding the pool of romance heroes lately, but the way that the author wrote Adrian really worked for me.  I was pulled into the mystery that is Adrian so completely that I was almost halfway through the story before I realized that it was being told completely from Tree’s point of view.

 

My only complaint is that there is a small secondary story running through the middle of the book involving an ex-boyfriend of Tree’s.  It added a small element of suspense, but ended without a true sense of closure.  It just seemed really out of place in the story.

 

In this debut novel, Jessica Hopper has shown her strength in creating strong characters in an emotional story.  I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next.

 

I’m curious though.  Have you fallen on the rocker hero bandwagon?  Which is your favorite rocker hero?