C Reviews

Seducing The HIghlander by Michele Sinclair

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Seducing the Highlander (McTiernay Brothers, #5)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-McTiernay Brothers #5
Genre-Historical
Reviewed by Kay
373 pages

Craig McTiernay is a highlander who is comfortable with his lot in life for the most part. He has a large and wonderful family. He has wealth. He’s good looking and he has his best friend, Meriel.
Meriel is a laird’s daughter and his sister-in-law. They have developed a true friendship since their twins married each other.

This story is about each of them falling in love with one another despite their vehement stance on not marrying. Both are headstrong and stubborn but very passionate about everything. When they finally give into their feelings, it is truly a realistic look at marriage. It’s ups and downs. It’s adjustment periods and the realization that we each have our faults.

My huge problem with this is that I had to wait for two years to get this book. The author, who, in her defense, writes great love scenes, started another series before she finished this one. I HATE that! I read a lot and in great number, so if I have to wait a long time for a book it’s hard for me to remember characters and such. Unfortunately, I never warmed to the book because of not remembering details and it pretty much ruined the series for me. Then I look up to see what the author is writing next and it is a book to the other series and that cemented it for me. Very sad because I love Scottish historical romance and she did it well.

Unscripted by Jayne Denker

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne


Grade: C
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary

Reviewed by Anne
219 pages
 
Faith is “Faith Freakin’ Sinclair.”  She’s creator/producer/writer of an incredibly popular show in Hollywood.  Well, she was up until that point where she grabbed her boss by the balls, literally, and got herself fired.  She’s waiting for it to blow over, but it’s dragging on a lot longer than she thinks.  The only way she can see herself getting back in with the network is to bring back the star she fired months ago.  Now he’s at a small community college taking acting classes and she’s at the mercy of  Mason, aka Professor Mitchell, aka head of the theater department.  
 
Sometimes expectations really color your view of a book. I went into this one expecting romance to be the focus of the book. There definitely was romance, but I think the focus of the book was Faith’s personal growth. When you add in the first person POV, the pretty much perfect guy paired with the heroine full of flaws, and don’t forget the moments of humiliation… that reads more like Chick Lit to me, and Chick Lit is not my favorite genre.

I felt like there was a lot of time and detail spent on the set up of the story, and it dragged. I could have done without the flashbacks, or at least without most of them – the ones that detailed Faith’s crush on her young star and the embarrassing thing that happened between them.  I’m just not big on wallowing in someone’s humiliation.  And the humiliation wasn’t reserved for the flashbacks.  It was an ongoing thing.

On the plus side, the writing WAS funny. It actually made me smile at times. This would probably work really well for someone who liked chick lit or is a huge Kristan Higgins fan, but it was just ok for me.

One final comment – I really like this cover.  However, both the models on it are much younger than I pictured Faith and Mason.

So, where do you fall on the chick lit scale?  Do you like it or not?

Menage Monday – Training Their Mate by Vella Day

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Training Their Mate (Pack Wars, #1)
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-High Kink
Series-Pack Wars #1
Genre-Paranormal/Shifter
Reviewed by Kate

When Liz makes a botched attempt to kill Harvey Couch(who raped her mother), Harvey sends some thugs after her. But not just any thugs, werewolf thugs. It’s a good thing that Trax overhears Couch’s orders and manages to save Liz from the attack, but not before she discovers the existence of werewolves. Trax takes Liz to the home he shares with his brother Dante do they can protect her from other attacks by Couch.

Trax and Dante recognize Liz is their mate(they’re werewolves too-but good ones) but are afraid that if they reveal their furry selves, she’ll run and be in danger. They decide to wait until she’s fallen for them before they tell her the truth. we all see where this is going, don’t we?

Liz’s character is filled with the need for revenge, But surprisingly, she’s smart enough to realize she’s out of her league dealing with werewolves. So she leaves Couch to Trax and Dante. Of course, once she’s no longer worries about revenge, she has nothing else to focus on except Trax and Dante. Trax and Dante are part of an organization who take out the bad werewolves like Couch. Dante is a bit of a softy as far as Liz is concerned. But Trax has a one track mind and can’t pay much attention (or be nice) to Liz until after Couch is caught. Trax is a dominant, so when he does pay attention to Liz, it usually involves tying her up. I honestly pictured the pair doing a good-cop/bad-cop routine throughout the whole book. Trax was unfeeling and Dante was always there to soften the harshness of Trax’s character.

My frustration with this book came not from the characters or the plot, but more from the world the author has created. I had so many questions that went unanswered until the very end ( if they were ever answered), even though they had no bearing on the plot. Questions like: How did Dante and Trax know that Liz was their mate? Was it normal for two males to share a mate? Could non-werewolf females be impregnated by werewolves? The list went on for a while. I feel part of the responsibility of a paranormal/shifter author is to make the reader aware of the rules in their world, because let’s face it-each author’s world is a unique. Not knowing the rules of this world really pulled me out of the story quite a bit.

I am an occasional reader of shifter romance. How about you? A huge fan or not so much?