Kate

Menage Monday – Texas Tangle by Leah Braemel

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Texas Tangle (Tangled)
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary, menage
Published: 6/28/10

Reviewed by Kate
216 pages


Here’s the run down.  Nikki is alone.  All alone.  Her brother actually just skipped town after bringing a huge truck and emptying her house out.  So not only does she not have anyone left, she doesn’t even have a mattress to sleep on.  Dillon has know Nikki since high school and liked her for just as long.  In fact he even got in a fight with his foster brother Brett over Nikki.  When there’s the slightest chance that her brother’s friends might come back and try to get more money from Nikki, Dillon jumps on the excuse to get Nikki to stay at his house with him.  Oh, and he just happens to have a mattress there too.

Brett is attracted to Nikki.  But he’s terrified that if he pursues her, he’ll lose his best friend, Dillon, and the only family that has ever cared about him (Dillon’s family).  So he backs off.  But despite doing his best to ignore his attraction, Nikki notices.  And she’s torn.  She’s attracted to both men, but doesn’t want to ruin their friendship.  Could there possibly be a way for everyone to get what they want?
 

The relationship between Dillon and Nikki and Brett was deep and complex.  You keep rooting for it to work for them.  They actually talk about the important things, rather than just assuming everything will magically work out.  The sex scenes were scorching hot and I wasn’t ready for the book to end when it did.  I wanted to know more about this trio and their future.

 

My only complaint was that Dillon and Nikki have a relationship before the triad comes together.  Now this is just a personal preference of mine, but I appreciate my menages starting and ending together.  However, the author wrote the addition of Brett very well.

 

Leah Braemel has written a menage with strong characters that I will definitely be rereading.  I also look forward to reading some of her other works.

Glory, Glory and Snowbound With the Bodyguard Reviews

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Today’s review is for a double edition Kate got to review from NetGalley.  This review contains two books:  Glory, Glory by Linda Lael Miller and Snowbound With the Bodyguard by Carla Cassidy.  The two books contain 416 pages together. Please make sure you read down to the second review, because it is so much better than the first book!

 
Glory, Glory: Snowbound with the Bodyguard
Glory, Glory by Linda Lael Miller
Grade: D
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Published: 10/1/13 (Glory, Glory originally copyrighted in 1990)
Reviewed by Kate
 
Glory is returning to her hometown for her mother’s wedding.  10 years ago, she was blackmailed into leaving town without telling her boyfriend Jesse that she was pregnant and giving the little baby girl up for adoption (please tell me you see where this is going).  That’s right.  The first time Glory sees Jesse’s orphaned niece (who was adopted by Jesse’s older brother) she just knows that it’s her little girl-the little girl Liza looks just like a picture of Glory’s great-grandma. 
 
There is so much that I wanted to like about this book.  I love secret baby books and I had such high hopes.  Sadly, this one came off more as a soap opera than a romance.  Why, you ask? 
 

Signs this book may really be a soap opera:
  1. No one questions Glory’s claim that Liza is her daughter, everyone believes her.  There are no blood tests and no one searches the adoption records.  Glory confronts Jesse (who, remember, didn’t even know about the pregnancy), blaming him from keeping Liza from her all these years.  And while confused, even he believes her,
  2. Jesse is a border-line cheater.  He tells his girlfriend that they need to slow things down a bit (and rumor has it he had already bought a ring for her) then proceeded to come on to Glory later than night.  When Glory doesn’t give in right away (can you believe she actually had some backbone?) he makes a date for a few days later.  He’s also the king of “I know you said ‘stop’ but we both know what you really want.”  Oh, and he doesn’t officially break up with his girlfriend until after he’s slept with Glory,
  3. Glory decides that leaving again may be what’s actually best for little Liza, but manages to get a few shags in with Jesse on the way out of town.  No one finds time for nookie quite like a soap opera.  And finally,
  4. Jesse and Glory are finally brought together because Liza asked her dead parents (Jesse’s brother and sister-in-law) to make it happen.

 
I struggled to rate this book.  It was pretty terrible as far as romances go, but I actually found so much of it to be really funny (although I don’t think it was written with that intent).  Unfortunately, I think fans of secret babies and fans for Miller’s more recent books will be disappointed in this book.
 
***
Snowbound With the Bodyguard by Carla Cassidy
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Published: 10/1/13 (Snowbound with the Bodygurard originally published in 2008)

Reviewed by Kate

 
Janette was raped by the town sheriff and had little Sammy as a result.  The sheriff hasn’t paid any attention to her since the attack, until he hears she had a little boy.  Now he wants his son.  Janette takes Sammy and runs, but gets stuck in a small town in the middle of a huge snowstorm.  With no place left to turn, she heads to the only place with a light on-West Protection Agency.  Dalton West has been protecting his heart by closing himself off to everything but work.  Janette threatens to crack the shell he’s built around his heart, but he has no choice but to offer her a place to ride out the storm-both outside and in her personal life.
 
Strong, gruff, and at times abrupt, Dalton was the perfect counterpart to sweet determined Janette.  Add a scumbag of a villain and just enough suspense to keep me up late at night turning pages and you have yourself a solid, well written romance.  Although this is the first book I’ve read by Carla Cassidy, it definitely will not be my last!

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Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week: Everything You Need to Know by HelenKay Dimon

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

This is day 4, the final day of our Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week.  (Note: we here at Dirty Girls’ Good Books generally make an effort to only review books that you can buy RIGHT NOW.  We’re making an exception this week, putting up some early reviews of Red-Hot Reads.)
Everything You Need to Know
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, novella
Published: 10/15/13

Reviewed by Kate
105 pages


Jordan owns a website that shares the nitty-gritty about all the bachelors and playboys of our nation’s capital with all the single women looking for love. Forest is the owner of a large company, and more importantly, a mystery. Nobody knows anything about him or his love life (past or present). So for Jordan, it started out with a good healthy dose of attraction with the excuse of getting the down low for her website. For Forest, it started out as a challenge and quickly became something a lot more. But while Forest is beginning to think things might be getting serious, Jordan’s running in the opposite direction. She’s terrified that her instant attraction and need for Forest means she’s turning into her man-eater mother.

Flirty, sexy fun from beginning to end.  The perfect balance between all things good in romance.  Strong, determined alpha. Independent, intelligent woman.  Their budding relationship was sweet and tender.  Their chemistry was hot, hot, hot!  A must-read for fans of HelenKay Dimon or anyone who hasn’t tried her yet!