inferno

Caged Warrior by Lindsey Piper

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Caged Warrior (Dragon Kings, #1)

Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Paranormal
Series: Dragon Kings #1
Reviewed by Anne
379 pages
 
I picked this book up at the RT Convention and packed it in a bag to take along to my sister’s house.  I read the first 20 pages on the plane and I was hooked!
 
In the Dragon King world a dragon race lives among humans.  They look human in appearance, more or less, but they don’t shift forms.   They DO possess dragon powers, which vary from person to person, or rather, dragon to dragon.  Their race has problems reproducing.  Audrey was banished from the dragons and led a life with humans, until she and her human husband had a baby.  Then dragons arrived.  They killed her husband, kidnapped Audrey and her son, and delivered them to the sadistic Dr. Aster’s lab.  After a year of torture and experimentation, Audrey is separated from her son and sent to train to be a cage warrior.  (Think Gladiator type cage matches.)  She’s been promised that if she can stay alive for a year, her son will be returned to her.
In the warrior complex, Leto is assigned to train Audrey.  Leto’s success is tied to Audrey’s by Old Man Aster (who runs the Cage), and they come to realize they have to find a way to work together even though they hate each other.
 
This book really worked for me.  I know, I know, I don’t like angst, and this book is full of angst.  I also don’t like children in danger, and Audrey’s son, Jack is certainly in danger. That was all off page, though it’s Audrey’s constant focus, which made it tolerable for me.   But there’s fighting!  And there’s powers and brainwashing.  And it’s complex, but written well enough that I didn’t have problem tracking along with it.
 
Audrey is such a strong character! You get to see her gain self confidence and grow stronger. You get to see Leto come to admire her more and more as he gets to know her, though in the beginning he’s just the latest in a line of abusers.  I was ok with Leto’s asshole behavior because, from the beginning it was clear to me that it was all about the reality of training for cage fighting.  They had a short time to get her ready to fight, and Leto has a personal stake in her success.
 
The story line was really interesting with enough twists and turns to really keep me enthralled.  The best part was that they didn’t seem to come out of nowhere.  Each twist was an “ahhh!” moment for me, where suddenly things fell into place.  I thought the world was interesting and well written.  I want to know more!  The villains (Old Man Aster and his son, Dr. Aster) are a bit two dimensional.  That was fine with me.
 
Overall I give the book a 4.5 out of 5 and look forward to reading more. It was dark and gritty.  Lindsey Piper’s writing reminds me of Kresley Cole minus the screwball humor. I really enjoyed it and I’m putting it on my best of 2013 list.

Burning Up by Anne Marsh

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Burning Up (Smoke Jumpers, #1)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-None
Series-Smoke Jumpers #1
Reviewed by Kay

Let me start by saying that I LOVE firefighters and books about them. I really, really do. I loved Jo Davis’ series and  Bella Andre’s series both and have missed them since they concluded. If there’s a book about firefighters, I’m usually bouncing in my chair until their release date. This book in no way disappointed me. It was fun, exciting, suspenseful and sexy. What more could you ask for?

Jack Donovan is a smoke jumper, meaning that he literally jumps from a plane into fires to fight them. He, his brothers and his friends from the military all created a business doing smoke jumping. He gets a call from his foster mom, Nonna and he finally goes home to find out about a string of fires that threaten the town he grew up in. Needless to his brothers and teammates follow him. He knows his run in with the girl he left behind will be stressful to say the least because he has never gotten over her.

Lily Cortez is a woman on the run from a past she can’t seem to escape. She ran away to the big city to avoid all things that reminded her of the bad boy from school she always wanted but never had. In the city, she built a life for herself only to have it fall apart at the hands of an unknown threat. She moves back to her hometown and things are good for awhile but then fires start to pop up there too.
She knows her stalker has found her again and he can hide in plain sight.

I enjoyed this book on every level. It did kind of drag a little toward the end but did finish well. If you love romantic suspense, this is a mild one in my opinion. The bad guy is a sicko no doubt, but he was also chilling in his pursuit. The two main characters had great chemistry and the love scenes were sexy. I can’t wait for the next book which is on my computer and for me, a book away.

Taken By Him by Red Garnier

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

 Taken by Him (The Billionaire's Club #2)

Grade-A
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-None
Series-The Billionaire’s Club #2
Reviewed by Kay

This second installment in the Billionaire’s Club features the man-whore, Luke Alexander Preston and executive Peyton Lane. They both are on a hiatus from their regular lives. Luke, from sleeping with everything that moves and rehabbing from a gunshot wound. Peyton wanted a vacation so she could do something she has never done, have a fling with a man she’s not likely to run into in the circles she keeps.

She meets Luke after he runs into her literally. From there they are hyper aware of one another. A fling starts that will end in two or three days time with no strings attached. This story worked for me so much. It was funny, a little sad and a whole lot sexy. Very descriptive love scenes, a favorite of mine. This was a short read and there could’ve been more story but with this for some reason I didn’t care about that. I will definatley be reading the other books in this series and may go through the author’s backlist. This is on my best of 2013 list.