C Reviews

One Sexy Ride by Vivian Arend

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
20983760
Grade: C+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Thompson & Sons #2
Published: 6/19/14
Reviewed by Anne
156 pages
 
Len is the quiet brother in his family.  He’s never had a serious relationship and doesn’t want one.
 
Janey is an outcast in her  family.  Instead of going away to college after high school, she’s learned her trade and is becoming well known in her home town for her remodeling and fix-it all skills.  She’s always had a crush on Len, her best friend’s quiet older brother.  She’s flirted with him for years.  She’s a little confused when he finally decides he’s ready to date her, but she’ll go for it!
 
I have such conflicted feelings about this story. I loved the characters and liked the story, but lots of details bothered me.  On the good side, Len may not talk a lot, but when he does, it’s good – Len is a dirty talker!  Janey is confident in herself, and I enjoy reading characters like her.  Even though she was forging a path different than the rest of her family and what they wanted her to do, she knew she was good at what she was doing and she was enjoying it.  She always had a thing for Len, but it wasn’t embarrassing for either of them.  Just feelings he never returned. They were friends and neither felt bitter about that.
 
I had two big problems with the story.  The first was that I was confused on a few different plot points.  For example, early in the story, Len decides he’s ready to date  Janey, but he never really says why.  Later he mentions (not to Janey) that  he heard she’s going to be moving out of town, so he’s planning a short term relationship with her.  When I read that, I wondered if she really was planning on leaving town.  I think it mentioned it in the book blurb, but I tend not to trust them.  Janey herself didn’t mention those plans, and Len never discussed it with Janey, so I wondered if it was gossip or an assumption he’d made.  It wasn’t until quite late in the book that the subject was cleared up, and it was unsettling to be left hanging like that.
 
Another example of this confusion is that Len makes a major revelation about himself to Janey, and it caught me so off guard that I initially wondered if he was kidding.  When it turned out to be true later in the story I was almost surprised.  Probably either of these situations alone wouldn’t have bothered me, but to have this confusion as a reader more than once makes me think it wasn’t just me.
 
Unfortunately, I also had a very big problem with what was at the heart of Len’s issues.  I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say I don’t think his big traumatic thing would have happened like it did.  When I read it, it just pulled me out of the story, and made me think “This author has never been in this situation.”  Either that or her experiences were light years away from anything I’ve seen.
 
So, I had some issues with the story, and despite great sex scenes and characters, it was just ok for me.  I’ll read more by Vivian Arend, though.  I’m curious to hear if anyone else has read this book if they had the same experience, or if it was just me!

Wolf Run by B.A. Tortuga

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
22404441
Grade: C
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Paranormal, Shifter, Triad, m/m/m
Published: 6/4/14
Reviewed by Anne
106 pages
 
Mick is a alpha wolf shifter who left his pack to travel alone.  He’s looking to set up new roots though, hoping start his own pack.  One day he comes across Scotty, a wolf shifter caged in a small yard running around like crazy.  When he offers to free Scotty, Scotty declines, explaining that he promised his mate Danny that he’d stay put while Danny was at work, since Scotty gets lost easily.  Mick is attracted to Scotty and has a strong urge to take care of him and keep him safe.  He wonders if Scotty and Danny might be the start of his new pack.
 
This was an impulse buy for me.  I was very interested in the set up and enjoyed the excerpt I read.  It started out as a good read, too.  I liked the way that the men’s wolf nature showed up in their human forms, too.  Scotty’s puppy-like hyperness was especially charming… until it hit me that puppies are babies or kids… and then I started having a hard time with it.  I want to be clear, Scotty is an adult in the story.  It’s just that his behaviors are so child like.  It just bothered me.  
 
Also, I enjoy reading about committed triads.  It did catch me off guard that there was sex between Mick and Scotty before Danny had even met or heard about Mick.  That struck me as pretty odd, though it may have just been a part of the world building?  Maybe this wolf society is a lot more open with sex?  
 
Speaking of sex, there were many sex scenes and they were hot and well written.  It did start to tip to the point of a little too much sex vs. plot, and the sex got a little repetitious.  As the book went on it started to drag for me, and I had to make myself finish the last quarter of the book.  There just wasn’t that much conflict or much left to be resolved.
 
So, it was an ok read for me.  I’d recommend it for people who like m/m shifters and a lot of sex.  I haven’t read a lot of m/m shifters, and I enjoyed that aspect of this book – please leave me a recommendation in the comments if you have one you like!

Meet the Baumgartners by Selena Kitt

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

9306838
Grade: C+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/f, m/f/f, f/f
Series: The Baumgartners #0
Published: 9/12/10
Reviewed by Kate
85 pages

I’m not really sure where to even start with this one.  Carrie and Maureen are college roommates and lovers and Carrie’s perfectly satisfied until she catches Steve “Doc” Baumgartner masterbating in the shower.  What follows is a sexfest involving the three of them, but especially Carrie and Doc.


To say that this one was steamy and hot would be the understatement of the year.    This is not a book that you read in the living room with the family all around.  They’ll start asking questions about why you’re blushing and sweating.  This is a book that requires privacy for reading.