contemporary

Poster Boy by Anne Tenino

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
20795658
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, m/m
Series: Theta Alpha Gamma #5
Published: 4/21/14
Reviewed by Anne
355 ebook pages

Jock (yes, that’s his name) has recently transferred to Calapooya (college) after being horrifically outed as gay and kicked off the hockey team.  His big brother, Tank is a member of the Theta Alpha Gamma (TAG) fraternity and Jock becomes a member, too.  He’s still feeling a lot of anger and shame about how things went down at his previous college, and he’s also feeling a little lost about being openly gay.  However, he’s looking forward to getting the hang of this hooking up thing now that he’s not trying to hide anything.  That’s easier in theory than it is in practice, and he’s still not had that first encounter he’s looking for.  So, seeing Toby, who is known for sleeping around, and ridiculously attractive to Jock seems like a situation meant to be.

For his part, Toby is surrounded by happily committed couples and is starting to think maybe it’s time for him to look for something more permanent.  Jock pushes all the right buttons for him and he’s hoping to actually get to know the guy before having sex.  However, when one thing leads to another, he’s happy to proceed straight to sex with Jock.  This leaves his feelings pretty bruised, though,  when Jock thanks him for a great experience and walks out the door looking for other guys to hook up with.  Toby understands, but was hoping for more.  The two of them manage to avoid each other pretty well until circumstances push them together on a semester abroad in France, where Toby is basically an RA and Jock is one of the TAG students he’s supervising.

I loved this book and I didn’t want to put it down!  It’s really funny, but the issues Jock is facing are real and given the weight they deserve.  Once I was done and thought about it, I realized there were things that should have bothered me, but really didn’t. The biggest issue is that Jock is young – young enough to need a fake ID at a bar – and Toby is not.  Toby is a grad student working on his masters thesis.  Jock is also just barely out of the closet and Toby has been out for years.  It didn’t bother me while I was reading it, though.  Other than his new sexual freedom, Jock comes off as pretty mature.  I also felt like the ending really addressed this age difference and resolved any issues I might have had.

Besides the humor, my favorite part of the book was how Jock and Toby actually talk to each other.  Their road isn’t smooth, but they acknowledge hurting each other when it happens and they work to fix things together.  That was a joy to read.  Their relationship is sweet and hot, and the background of the hilariously immature TAG brothers kept me smiling and rolling my eyes through the whole book.  Seriously, it’s hard to explain how funny this story is!  Beer terrorists.  Testicle poems.  Toby feeling like a babysitter for a bunch of fratbros.  A very unexpected May/December romance.  (Actually, that was more sweet than funny.)  I highly recommend this book, and it’s going on my Best of 2014 list!

I can’t wait for the next book in the series, and I’m hoping it will be about Turbo, one of the TAG brothers they are all sure is straight, but seemed a little confused to me.  Here’s hoping for more TAG fun soon.  In the mean time I’m checking out Anne Tenino’s backlist!

Once Upon A Billionaire by Jessica Clare

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
Once upon a Billionaire (Billionaire Boys Club, #4)
Grade: B-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Billionaire Boys Club #4)
Published: 4/15/14
Reviewed by Anne
248 pages

Griffin is not just a billionaire, but a member of the royal family in Monaco-like country in Europe.  He’s pretty proud that he has just one staff member, but as it turns out he relies heavily on that assistant to do everything for him.  When this assistant is too sick to attend to him on a trip back to his home country, he finds himself desperate enough to accept his friend’s offer of lending his assistant, Maylee to Griffin for the trip.

Maylee is a small town southern girl who still hasn’t lost her accent or her Golly Gee! outlook on life.  As it turns out, though, she’s an incredibly good assistant and Griffin comes to rely on her.  He’s as rude as he is good-looking, though, so it’s a good thing Maylee has a thick skin and is determined to complete this assignment for the money it will let her send home to her family.

My initial impression was that Griffin was an asshole.  Unfortunately that changed very little during the book.  Maylee walked the line of being TSTL.  Had she not been extremely competent, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive her actions on the plane when she met Griffin for the first time.  As it turned out, Maylee saves this story.  She’s aware that she’s a little backwoods country girl, but she also knows what she’s good at, and she knows that Griff needs her.   Griffin might be incredibly rude to her, but that doesn’t make her feel bad about herself, and that was wonderful to read!

This would have been an A read, but the last few chapters of the book just felt really rushed to me.  I thought MayLee and Griffin had issues to talk through that couldn’t be solved by grand guestures.  I cheered every time Maylee made a stand for herself, so I cringed a little bit when their problems resolved themselves the way they did when she returned to New York.

It especially bothers me that she ends up being completely dependent on him.  It bothers me because, while I’m convinced he loves her, I’m not convinced that he won’t trample all over her feelings and keep thinking he’s better than her.  They’ve got a lot to work through and it leaves me uncomfortable feeling like she’s really stuck with him  – and she’s given up trying to do anything independent.  (Yes, she mentions a business she’d like to start, but I find that improbable, because she’s never mentioned it before this and has no business experience.

All that said, I know I’ll keep reading Jessica Clare.  I adore her sense of humor!  Harry Potter references always win with me!  Maylee and Griffin do a pretty good job communicating with each other about sex, even if they don’t talk enough about their relationship.  Jessica Clare has all the elements I like, even if this wasn’t a favorite read for me.

Laugh by Mary Ann Rivers

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
18777580
Grade: B-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Burnsides #2
Published: 5/6/14
Reviewed by Anne
224 ebook pages

Sam Burnside is a doctor who works too much and worries about his siblings too much.  He’s driving his partner in a new health clinic crazy, so she sends him off on errand to volunteer with a local farmer and build some goodwill in their community.  Nina Paz is that farmer and the chemistry between the two of them is immediate and electric.  The thing is, they both have some pretty serious issues they’re dealing with.  Sam’s got some crazy ADHD and a way of pushing away the brother and sisters he loves so much.  Nina is ten years out from the death of her husband.  She’s distanced herself from her family and built a new one made of a tight knit group of friends, but she’s still dealing with her losses.

This was a hard read for me.  Not hard emotionally, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters.  Honestly, it seemed to require a lot of reading between the lines to understand what was going on and how the characters were feeling.  That’s something I’ve really enjoyed in the previous books I’ve read by Mary Ann Rivers, but I struggled with it in this book.  Additionally, both Sam and Nina have lives filled with really tough and sad situations.  I know they took hope from their relationship and each other, but it was pretty depressing to read.

On the other hand, it’s full of one liners that made me laugh – the dialog is hilarious!  The characters are believable.  Sam’s ADHD was very interesting to read about.  It wasn’t a mild childhood thing that passed with age, but something he continued to struggle with and cope with.  That read very real to me.  He’s impulsive and blurts things out, and this causes him problems in his relationships.  Watching Nina come to understand this was very sweet.

I’ll definitely read more Mary Ann Rivers, and I’m thinking the dark tone of the things Sam and Nina were dealing with was just too much for me in this story.