contemporary

The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Chocolate Touch (Amour et Chocolat #4)
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Amour et Chocolat #4

Reviewed by Anne
287 pages
 
I know a lot of people are fanatical about reading a series in order.  I’m not really one of them.  Don’t get me wrong, if I can, I’ll definitely read a series in order, but I don’t think much of jumping in to an established series.  That’s what I did with The Chocolate Touch.   The only problem I ran into was that now I want to read all the books I missed!
 
Dominique (Dom) is a famous chocolate maker in Paris and a well known bad boy.  He finds himself drawn to a quiet woman who sits in his chocolaterie (a chocolate restaurant!) each day and savors his chocolate creations.  He’s quite full of himself and he’s drawn to her in part because of her mystery, but in part because he takes her love of his chocolates personally.
 
Jaime is the grand-daughter of an American chocolate mogul.  One that Dom would be very dismissive of if he knew who she was.  (it made me think of Hershey)  She used to be quite the black sheep of the family and political activist pushing for fair trade and honest labor practices for the family chocolate business.  But that was months ago and she’s feeling really lost now.  She’s taking each day one at a time and enjoying every little piece of it.  Her favorite part of the day is the time she spends enjoying Dom’s chocolate creations.  
 
Dom has quite a way with women, but he is used to one night stands and women who pursue him.  He’s actually quite nervous about going after Jaime, much to the delight of his staff.  Jaime feels like nothing special and can’t even fathom that Dom wants to spend time with her.  The fumbling it takes for the two of them to come together was so sweet and fun!
 
This was a great story!  I felt like I was *in* Paris eating decadent chocolates. I loved how the back stories of Dom and Jaime unfolded. Their issues were very believable. I loved them both, but I especially loved Dominique. The chapters in his head were my favorites.
 
Here’s Dom.  He’s finally worked up the courage to approach her and is putting together a box of his chocolates for her.  He’s also giving her samples as he fills the box. (I’m in love!)

“Here, have another.” He pushed the square into her hand.  “No, try this one.”
 
Her flush blurred her pale freckles, but she smiled and took it.  Her enthusiasm, or maybe even more the blush, tempted him to abandon this medium-size box and pull out his largest, fill it with everything of his and three time over.  But he caught himself.  He wanted her to run out.  He wanted her to have to come back here to get her next fix.  
This just makes me melt!

Dom and Jaime have real issues to overcome, but it’s overall a low conflict romance.  (I love those!) This one is really good and I recommend it. I can’t wait to read books 1-3!  How about you?  Does a tough guy hero who specializes in chocolate work for you?  Or is there something else you prefer?

Willow Springs by Toni Blake

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Willow Springs (Destiny, #5)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Destiny #5
Reviewed by Kay

I had put off reading this book because my TBR list was so out of control. I try to read current books to review but honestly, I love this series so here goes.

Amy owns the book store in Destiny and she is kind of renown for her matchmaking abilities in town. She’s done a pretty good job of it too. For everyone but her, She is also a cat lover (she won me over for this reason alone) also and adopts out strays from her store. She has a good circle of friends but Logan is her best friend. They grew up two houses from each other and formed a bond early. She sees herself as unlovable due to being plain but I pictured her as the girl next door type.

Logan Whitaker is a fire fighter in Destiny. He recently was at a fire that left him with some emotional scarring. He took a leave of absence from the local fire department to deal with the tragedy. He withdrew from family and friends, even Amy. He has some life altering decisions he comes to on this leave.

I adore this series and stumbled on to it by accident and I’ve never been so happy I did. It is a gem, truly. Sweet, precious and endearing. I really enjoyed the story here with the exception of Logan. I found him to be not only selfish and stupid but in my opinion almost a cheater. A douche bag who practices douchebaggery. No redemption for him with me. Do I buy the 34 year old virgin? Not really but I played along. Other than those things, this was another good edition to a great series.

Breaking by Claire Kent

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Breaking (Escorted, #1.5)

Grade: B
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, same couple series
Series: Escorted #1.5
Reviewed by Anne
61 pages
 
This 61 page story picks up a with Ander and Lori a few months from the end of Escorted. (See my review of Escorted here.) Ander has been working on his doctorate and they’ve been apart off and on.  He unexpectedly comes home from a trip a week early because he needs to be with Lori.  (This story, in contrast to Escorted, is told entirely from Ander’s POV.)  He may have been needing to see Lori, but he can’t bring himself to share his problems with her.  Instead he just keeps seducing her.
 
Amazingly, I think this book had too much sex in it for me!  However, that was a plot point of the story, so it’s not exactly gratuitous.  It’s exactly what Ander was up to – he’s distracting Lori with sex.  He uses it as a shield.  It’s an interesting and kind of believable idea. Of course, that’s not going to last forever, and that conversation was where the story really shone for me.
 
I’d recommend this story to anyone who enjoyed Escorted, but I think this story would be more enjoyable after reading Escorted.


So, what do you think of this trend of authors writing novella length sequels/epilogues for established couples.  Do you like it?