Kate

Love In Straight Sets by Rebecca Crowley

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Love in Straight Sets          

           

Grade-A-
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kate
159 pages

Regan is the resident diva of the tennis world.  She’s gone through coaches faster than Augustus Gloop ate his way through the Wonka factory.  She’s planning on retiring soon, but wants one last win.  A big one.  At the Baron’s Open.  Enter Ben, a one-hit wonder who won the Baron’s Open years ago and then disappeared from the tennis courts.  He’s agreed to coach Regan and she’s agreed not to fire him.  Both Regan and Ben are drawn to each other, but his job hinges on his ability to keep his hands off Regan, and his sister’s safety depends on him keeping his job.

The world of sports romance is dominated by MMA, football, baseball, and hockey men.  And while I enjoy a good sports romance every once in a while, I’m kind of tired of the same-old, same-old.  How many big, buff guys running around the football field or sparring in the ring can you really read about?  The fact that this one is about a tennis playing female was such a refreshing change of pace.

These are characters that I quickly fell in love with.  Regan wasn’t just an outright bitch.  You get to see what’s under the surface that makes her a character you root for. I loved that Ben saw right through Regan’s diva act.  He didn’t put up with her crap at all and saw through to the vulnerability underneath.  They both have their moments of stupidity that made me just want to yell at them, especially Ben.  But if those moments hadn’t been there I would probably be complaining that they were too perfect.

My only complaint…I would have appreciated more sex in this one.  There’s no sex until 84% into the story and then we only get one scene.  Honestly though, the story was so engaging that I didn’t realize that I was already that far into the story.

I absolutely loved this one.  It’s the first book that I’ve read by Rebecca Crowley, but I’ve already added some of her back list to my TBR pile.  This one is definitely worth reading.

Up In Flames by Lori Foster

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Up In Flames: Body Heat\Caught in the Act            

Grade-B+
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kate
368 pages

The book is split into 2 novellas.  Up in Flames is about the first third of the book, with Caught in the Act taking up the rest.

Up in Flames-Melanie and Adam went to high school together.  She was a rich girl, he was poorer than dirt.  Although they both were attracted to each other during school, neither made a move.  Now, years later, they find themselves on the same party boat.  When they go overboard during a storm and end up stranded on an island, things really start to heat up.  I will be honest and say that I love the whole stranded together on a deserted island plot line.  That’s pretty much a sure fire way to get me to read a book.  And this one did not fail to dissapoint.

Caught in the Act-Mick, a police officer, has fallen for a lady he’s never met.  He’s seen her jogging before and just knows he needs to meet her so he follows her into a jewelry store.  When the store is robbed, he protects Delilah and takes a bullet.  Delilah offers to let him recover at her place.  And while he does need time to recover, he’s also beginning to suspect that someone is after Delilah.  So he moves in with her to keep her safe.  Caught in the Act had just the right amount of suspense for me. Delilah is such a unique character and Mick accepts her for what she is.  There was a lot of secret keeping, especially on Mick’s side, that I didn’t appreciate, but otherwise I enjoyed this one a lot.

This is the first book I’ve read by Lori Foster but I’m looking forward to checking out her back list. I especially want to see if there are stories for the secondary characters (Mick’s friends) from Caught in the Act.

The combination of these 2 novellas made for a quick and enjoyable read.  Fast paced and engaging, I did not want to put this one down.  At one point I found myself mad at my 7 year old who interrupted reading to ask when supper would be.  Then I looked at the clock and discovered that it was already 7:30pm.

Married To The Trillionaires by Ella Mansfield

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
Married to the Trillionaires (Menage for Mankind, #1)
        
Grade-D-
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Mild Kink
Series-Menage For Mankind #1
Genre-Futuristic Menage
Reviewed by Kate
95 pages
*Warning: the following review contains spoilers*
In the future…April has been raised in a “religious” community, where things have continued much as they are today. Namely, women are giving birth to babies. Outside of these isolated religious communites, women are done with the pain of child birth. Eggs are painlessly harvested and fertilized. Unfortunately, no one realized that more boys would be born than girls and that the girls would be born frail and weak and worst of all-*gasp*-sterile. So it turns out that the girls from the religious communities are in high demand. And that their parents are greedy enough to auction the girls off to the highest bidders (yes, that’s right, bidders-plural). After all, who else is going to repopulate the earth?
April’s father is looking to get remarried and has decided that the best way to get the money he needs for his new life is to auction April off. Although he is kind enough to set some restrictions. She can only be sold to a group of four or less men (bless his heart, five men just might have been too overwhelming for the little virgin) and that she must actually be married to one of them.
Bill, John, David, and Steve decide to pool their money together so they can purchase April. Then they set up a very formal business arrangement, contract and all. April will live with Bill (since he is putting in more money to start with-at least I’m pretty sure that’s why) and he will provide for her. Each of the other 3 men will get one hour with April every night. That’s right, every night. Any daughters that are born will be sold at auction with the proceeds divided between the men.
They buy April and proceed to pass her around that first night. Bill is nice enough to hire a masseuse for April the next morning, because he wants her to be ready for the night. They send her from one room to the other, night after night. And April is completely okay with it. Mainly because Bill has a hired chef who serves her shrimp and lobster and other dishes that she’s never had before.
They’re all starting to fall for each other and everything goes well. The men decide to update their contract to say that they will not auction off their daughters and will let them choose who they wish to marry. But before the new contract is even signed, April hears that’s it’s not uncommon for the daughters of their kind of arrangement to be auctioned off and she discovers the original contract that the men had signed. So she runs away (what else is a heroine who, up to this point, has been spineless supposed to do?). Of course, she ends up pregnant and, of course, the men find her shortly before she delivers. And everybody is happy once again.
I really was looking forward to reading this one. I love futuristic menages. But this one went wrong for me right off the bat. April is so meek. She never complains when her dad tells her he’s auctioning her off. And once the men buy her, there’s not ever a period of time when she is upset about it. Then you have the men. I just couldn’t get past the fact that they were so business about it. They started off as asses and never really changed throughout the story.
The sex scenes were plentiful. After all, the poor girl had 4 men to please each night. And I suppose they could be considered hot, although for me the formulaic approach that April had to take (first Bill, then John, then David, then Steve, and finally back to Bill) made everything feel so cold. Nothing was ever spontaneous.
The only positive I can give this one is that it is short. But if I were you, I wouldn’t waste my time.