contemporary

Her Best Laid Plans by Cara McKenna

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
20410569
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Cosmo Red Hot Read
Published: 4/15/14
Reviewed by Anne
88 pages

Jamie is a 20-something American house-sitting for two weeks in Ireland.  Connor is a bartender she meets there and has instant chemistry with.  She’s up for a vacation fling, and he is, too.   But what will happen if they want more and neither has time or room in their life for more?

This was a well written short story and I enjoyed it.  There were some funny moments, and I liked how things worked out in the end.  Unfortunately it suffers from me expecting to be blown away by every word Cara McKenna writes.  So when she writes a nice short story that’s just pretty good, I find myself a little disappointed.  

I’m also beginning to think that maybe Cosmo Red Hot Reads just isn’t meant for me.  It’s been very hit or miss.  I’ve got another one lined up to read.  I’ll see what I think after that.

The Cowboy’s E-Mail Order Bride by Cora Seton

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Mail Order Bride
Series: The Cowboys of Chance Creek #1
Published: 4/30/13
Reviewed by Kate
228 pages

After a series of bad events in his life, Ethan is drunk and goes on a rant about what the perfect ranch wife would need to be.  Unknown to him, his friends video tape the rant, edit it, and post it to YouTube as a “looking for a wife” add.  Autumn works for a hoity-toity magazine in the city.  Due to upcoming cutbacks, her job is on the line.  She responds to the YouTube add and plans on writing a story about her adventure.


Mail order brides are some of my absolute favorite romances to read.  Although this is the first modern day one I’ve read.  I was a little nervous about it, to be honest.  Just how would an e-mail order bride story in today’s world really work?  What kind of situations could the hero and heroine be in that would make this the solution?


By page 15, I was pretty sure that I hated Autumn.  Ethan’s friends had gotten him into this mess, but Autumn jumped in with eyes wide open-planning on using Ethan.  By page 20, I was starting to like Autumn a little more. She’s battling her own inner demons and I began to see where she was coming from a bit.  Of course it helped that Ethan didn’t come clean with her right away.  It wasn’t a book where one person was lying and the other was a saint.  It became a story of secrets, which I typically despise.  Not so with this book.  Watching these two work through all the secrets was an enjoyable journey.


If you like mail order bride stories give this one a chance.  Cora Seton has created a pair that I rooted for in Ethan and Autumn and she’s introduced us to a cast of secondary characters that leaves me wanting more.  I’ve added the rest of the Cowboys of Chance Creek series to my TBR pile.


Have you read any modern day mail order bride romances?  Do you have any I should add to my TBR pile?

Kissing Drake by Jenna Dales

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
21794241
Grade: C-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Butterfly Girls #1
Published: 4/17/14
Reviewed by Kate
123 pages


Paige owns a small bookshop on an island.  She’s happy and content with her life, has no desire for things to change…except for maybe adding a man to spice things up.  Enter Drake, dressed in a business suit and stranded by a storm.


Unfortunately I was never able to get to the point where I actually liked Paige.  From page one she comes across as a horny book store owner who is so hard up for sex that she will basically go after anything male.  Her calculation in her approach with Drake left me with an icky feeling.  It’s definitely meant to be a one time only kind of deal, but we all know it very rarely works out that way (in romances anyway), but it still just felt a little gross for me.


In the second part of the book, Paige is a different person.  A completely different person.  One I found I could like much more, but it just felt like such a sudden change from horny and contented Paige to wistful and wanting-to-wander Paige.  One of the Paiges felt out of character, I’m just not sure which one.


Drake didn’t impress me much, one way or the other.  I can’t decide if I wanted him to be more upfront and honest with his supposed-to-be-a-one-night-stand or if I just wanted him to be more sure of himself in general.


This one is probably worth checking out if you like small town romance with people working on their issues (alone, not really together). It just didn’t work for me.