Grade: B
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Moderate Kink (BDSM, D/s)
Genre: Contemporary
Reviewed by Kate
Toy Box by Delphine Dryden
48 pages
I really enjoyed Dryden’s recent nerd romance stories, so I thought I’d try some of her backlist.
Rafe and Lauren started their relationship as Dom/sub, but everything turned vanilla when their first child arrived. Now the kids are spending the weekend with the grandparents and Rafe decides it’s time to step into his Dom role once more.
Ahhhh. I love a good husband and wife reuniting story and I really liked that there wasn’t any real conflict in this short (such as overcoming infidelity). It was all about them connecting with their Dom/sub relationship again. I highly recommend this quick read.
BDSM
With This Collar by Sierra Cartwright
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: High Kink
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM
Series: Mastered #1
Reviewed by Kate
174 pages
When Julia attends her friend Lana’s wedding at a private residence, she is shocked to discover that the vows are quickly followed by a collaring ceremony. Lana is not just becoming a wife, but her husband’s slave as well. Julia and Lana have been friends since their girl-power college days and Julia can’t believe Lana would willingly submit to a man.
As Julia’s about to protest, fellow wedding attendee Marcus, a Dom, stops her. They talk after the ceremony and Marcus challenges Julia to submit to him for the night. Julia accepts his challenge as a way to understand her friend a bit better, and because she just can’t say “no” to Marcus. But one night is all she wants, her last boyfriend was a domineering jerk and Julia’s determined to stick to the nice guys from now on. Marcus has been in a 24/7 master/slave relationship that was too draining for him. He’s not looking for anything more than one night either.
One night turns into an every weekend relationship. When Marcus pushes for more, Julia runs. But can any of the nice guys measure up after Marcus?
Marcus came across as a bit arrogant in the beginning. But I suppose every good Dom must be a little arrogant and confident. I appreciated that he was the one looking for a more permanent relationship.
Julia is very strong and independent. She struggles with combining her independence and her new found enjoyment of submission. Her responses to Marcus made me laugh throughout the book. She may be submissive, but never a doormat.
The only negative I had happened right away at the beginning. Lana invited Julia to her wedding and simply warned her that it would be “a bit untraditional.” It seemed far-fetched to invite your vanilla friend to a collaring ceremony without more of a heads-up. Anything to get a newbie to the dungeon, I guess. Makes me wonder though-what other ways have you seen authors use to get a newbie into a dungeon?
The Seduction Hypothesis by Delphine Dryden
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Moderate Kink
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM lite, Nerd-manceSeries: The Science of Temptation #2
Reviewed by Anne
This is going to be a hard review for me to write, mostly because I’m having to reign in my desire to just squee like a fan girl about how good this book is. Because it’s good. And I really liked it. And it’s funny. And it’s good and I liked it and you should really, really read it, because it’s good. And…
OK, let me try again. I’m a huge Big Bang Theory fan, and when the first book in this series, The Theory of Attraction, came out it made me think of BBT and I really wanted to read it. So, I bought it and read it ASAP. I enjoyed that one and told all my friends about it. This was back before we started the blog, but it was an honorable mention on my Best of 2012 list here. I liked it and all my friends knew about it. So when the second book, The Seduction Hypothesis showed up on Netgalley, I think either Kay or Kate messaged me about it and I put in a request to read it. Thankfully the publisher (yay Carina Press!) approved a copy for me. I enjoyed this one even more than the first.
Ben and Lindsey are in the same nerdy social circle, and that’s been a bit painful lately, because they dated for a while and then broke up. Lindsey would like to try some BDSM, but even hinting about it to Ben got a bad reaction. At the same time, Ben doesn’t like the way he sees her watching their friend, Ivan. His jealousy and her desire for more lead to them breaking up. And that makes for one uncomfortable trip to BeastCon, the fan convention their group of friends is attending together. When Ben begins to realize just why Lindsey left him, he’s already been regretting their break up. He sees the BDSM comic she’s reading. He sees her watching not just Ivan, but watching Ivan AND Ivan’s girlfriend, Cami. He sees the D/s vibe between Ivan and Cami and things click into place. He decides the Con will be a great place to try to win Lindsey back.
This book is the second in this series, but it does stand alone very well. If you read Theory of Attraction first you’ll really appreciate the scenes with Cami and Ivan in this book, but you’d be fine without having read it. This book is both hot and funny. Ben throws himself into learning the ways of BDSM, but he’s not perfect. Lindsey and Ben share some giggly moments in the middle of their sexy times, and that read so true to me.
Dryden has GOT to be a nerd. Either that or she knows a lot of them, because I have some nerd cred and she knows how nerds talk. There’s a sentence in the book where the characters talk about cake being merely a vector for the icing delivery as salad is for dressing. I’ve had conversations like that. Seriously. They are both funny and effortless in real life when you’re immersed in such subjects. Dryden really nails that in this book. She also has countless geek references that all made me smile. So much fun!
So, when you read The Seduction Hypothesis you get all the goodness I just wrote about, PLUS you have a female lead with a Cthulhu tattoo and a male lead who isn’t afraid research BDSM and make a crib sheet on how to carry it out. I love this book and I highly recommend it. It’s going on my best of 2013 list!
So I’m curious… If you read this book or Theory of Attraction, did it work for you? Is there more good nerd-mance out there? What would you recommend?
So I’m curious… If you read this book or Theory of Attraction, did it work for you? Is there more good nerd-mance out there? What would you recommend?
Dirty Girls' Good Books 