moderate kink

Simple Need and Ink Spots by Lissa Matthews

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Simple Need (Simple Need, #1)  Ink Spots (Simple Need, #3)
Grade – B+, B+
Hotness Level – Inferno
Kink Level – Moderate
Genre – Contemporary, Novella (52 and 75 pages)
Series – Simple Need #1 and #3
Reviewed by Anne

Some time ago, probably December of 2011, I went on my yearly buying frenzy at All Romance eBooks and I picked up books 1 and 3 of this series.  I’m not 100% sure why I didn’t pick up book 2, I think it had to do with a Goodreads review mentioning the use of vegetables…  I don’t know, but now that I’ve read these, I may have to go pick up Book 2, Carnal Ecstasy.

These books are short.  And they are wicked hot.  And they are a mix of things that REALLY work for me, and small moments that pull me out of the stories. Let’s start with Simple Need.  Elise is at a bar after a recent text message dumping by a loser of a boyfriend.  She meets Vinter, who is pretty much opposite in every way from the guys she usually dates.  To her surprise, Vinter is very interested in her.  She doesn’t realize how much.  She’s contemplating a one night stand and Vinter is asking her name and thinking thoughts like this:

“What’s your name?”
“Does it matter?”
Does is matter?  Of course to hell it mattered.  How was he supposed to whisper it in her ear as he pounded her ass if he didn’t know it?  “Yes.”

 Simple Needs was full of little moments like that that I loved.  But it also had times that made me shake my head wondering, such as the scene where Elise falls asleep in the car with her hand resting “limply between his legs.”  Now, I can imagine falling asleep driving home with a long time boyfriend, but on the way to stranger’s house?  A stranger whose name you don’t even know?  I think I’d be looking for road signs!    And there’s the moment where Vinter has made Elise waffles and serves her three of them and she thinks to herself, “She’d never eaten three waffles in her life”  All I could think was REALLY?  How big are those waffles?  Because I can totally handle three waffles.  With peanut butter and syrup, thank you very much. 

However, moments like these were outweighed by Vinter’s sweetness and the overall hotness of the writing.  This would have been an A read for me without the weird moments.  And I cannot end the review for this book without mentioning that Vinter’s penis is pierced.  Many times.  Go read it and see for yourself. 

Ink Spots was the same kind of read for me.  This book features Vinter’s friend Jaz, a tattoo artist, and a waitress he’s been interested in, Mandi.  They have a mutual friend, Jackie, who negotiates a birthday gift for Mandi, and the gift is 24 hours of Jaz.  As is the case with Simple Need, Jaz has deeper feelings for Mandi, but is willing to use this 24 hour deal to get to know her better. 

As with Simple Needs, this story is peppered with WTF moments, such as the fact that the heroine allows Jaz to tattoo her, with the tattoo of his choosing!  I understand that she’s been his waitress for a few months and that she’s crushing on him, but that’s a lot of trust.  And then there’s the fact that he decides to tattoo his name onto her shoulder.  Seriously!  And she’s fine with that!  Crazy.

But again, for me the hot and sweet moments outweighed the crazy.  You’ve got lines like this:

She was a heavy weight against him, a big girl, but shit, he loved it.

 
 And Mandi is 40 and sexually experienced!  Hooray for a non-slender flower virgin heroine!  At one point when they are having anal sex, Mandi is thankful for her sex toys and former lovers, because it leaves her more ready to enjoy this with Jaz.  I think I’ve read a lot of slut-shaming, where heroines are bad for having sexual experience before meeting their HEA hero.  I really enjoy a story where sexual experience doesn’t equal evil.
 
So, Ink Spots was also a B+ read for me.  I think this makes Simple Needs and Ink Spots officially crack reads for me.  Because I’m not sure they are good, but I really enjoyed reading them, and I know I’ll read them again. Crack.  And, yes, now I need to go get Carnal Ecstasy and see if it measures up.

Giving by Charlotte Stein

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Giving

Grade – B
Hotness Level – Inferno
Kink Level – moderate
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Anne
In my continuing trend of reading shorter, dirtier books, I read another of Charlotte Stein’s novellas.  Giving is a contemporary set story about Clarissa and her boyfriend, Oliver.  Oliver has given Clarissa three birthday requests.  All of them have to do with Clarissa sexually dominating him in different ways.  Clarissa agrees to do this for Oliver.  Giving tells how they play out these three wishes and Clarissa’s surprised response to playing with Oliver in this way.
I thought this was a very well written story.  It’s short, but it’s very complete.  I felt like I understood what was going on in their heads.  I think this is remarkable because this story crossed my personal kink line.  So even though it got to something that made me personally uncomfortable, I didn’t feel uncomfortable for the characters.  It was clear that this was consensual and enjoyable to them, which made it a good read for me.

The Reluctant Dom by Tymber Dalton

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Reluctant Dom
Grade-A
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-Moderate Kink
Reviewed By Anne’s sister, Kate

Kaden and Leah are in a 24/7 master/slave relationship. Leah, a cutter, uses the BDSM aspect of their relationship to cope with her feelings. When Kaden finds out he is dying, he worries that Leah will start cutting again, or worse, when he dies. He asks his best friend Seth to move in with them and train to be Leah’s new master, so Seth can help Leah cope with her feelings after Kaden is gone.

There was a lot of sex (m/f, m/f/m…no m/m) in this book, but that wasn’t more the main focus. It seemed to be more of a novel where the sex plays an important part in the development of the story. I hesitate to describe the scenes as steamy because they seemed a bit short, again more there for plot advancement than for entertainment.
The story focuses on Seth’s introduction to BDSM and Leah’s adjustment to Seth as her new master. I was glad that Seth didn’t just jump on board with the whole plan. He loves Leah, and once he finds out that she needs the BDSM to cope, he agrees to do it. But there are tons of WTF moments for him.
 
Kaden does his best to make the transition to Seth as a master very smooth for Leah. The relationship develops into a threesome.

Kaden finally dies in the last fifth of the book. And there were definite tears for the reader as you follow Seth and Leah through the initial days without Kaden.

And the ending…a little over a year later…you see the changes in both Seth and Leah. Although I would like to complain about the shift in narration. The entire book is third person. Then the last chapter (a year later) is suddenly first person…and from the point of view of a secondary character. The change was a bit jarring.

So, all in all, I loved this book. I don’t see myself rereading it too often, simply because of how emotional a read it is.