no kink

Unscripted by Jayne Denker

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne


Grade: C
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary

Reviewed by Anne
219 pages
 
Faith is “Faith Freakin’ Sinclair.”  She’s creator/producer/writer of an incredibly popular show in Hollywood.  Well, she was up until that point where she grabbed her boss by the balls, literally, and got herself fired.  She’s waiting for it to blow over, but it’s dragging on a lot longer than she thinks.  The only way she can see herself getting back in with the network is to bring back the star she fired months ago.  Now he’s at a small community college taking acting classes and she’s at the mercy of  Mason, aka Professor Mitchell, aka head of the theater department.  
 
Sometimes expectations really color your view of a book. I went into this one expecting romance to be the focus of the book. There definitely was romance, but I think the focus of the book was Faith’s personal growth. When you add in the first person POV, the pretty much perfect guy paired with the heroine full of flaws, and don’t forget the moments of humiliation… that reads more like Chick Lit to me, and Chick Lit is not my favorite genre.

I felt like there was a lot of time and detail spent on the set up of the story, and it dragged. I could have done without the flashbacks, or at least without most of them – the ones that detailed Faith’s crush on her young star and the embarrassing thing that happened between them.  I’m just not big on wallowing in someone’s humiliation.  And the humiliation wasn’t reserved for the flashbacks.  It was an ongoing thing.

On the plus side, the writing WAS funny. It actually made me smile at times. This would probably work really well for someone who liked chick lit or is a huge Kristan Higgins fan, but it was just ok for me.

One final comment – I really like this cover.  However, both the models on it are much younger than I pictured Faith and Mason.

So, where do you fall on the chick lit scale?  Do you like it or not?

The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

The Chocolate Touch (Amour et Chocolat #4)
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Amour et Chocolat #4

Reviewed by Anne
287 pages
 
I know a lot of people are fanatical about reading a series in order.  I’m not really one of them.  Don’t get me wrong, if I can, I’ll definitely read a series in order, but I don’t think much of jumping in to an established series.  That’s what I did with The Chocolate Touch.   The only problem I ran into was that now I want to read all the books I missed!
 
Dominique (Dom) is a famous chocolate maker in Paris and a well known bad boy.  He finds himself drawn to a quiet woman who sits in his chocolaterie (a chocolate restaurant!) each day and savors his chocolate creations.  He’s quite full of himself and he’s drawn to her in part because of her mystery, but in part because he takes her love of his chocolates personally.
 
Jaime is the grand-daughter of an American chocolate mogul.  One that Dom would be very dismissive of if he knew who she was.  (it made me think of Hershey)  She used to be quite the black sheep of the family and political activist pushing for fair trade and honest labor practices for the family chocolate business.  But that was months ago and she’s feeling really lost now.  She’s taking each day one at a time and enjoying every little piece of it.  Her favorite part of the day is the time she spends enjoying Dom’s chocolate creations.  
 
Dom has quite a way with women, but he is used to one night stands and women who pursue him.  He’s actually quite nervous about going after Jaime, much to the delight of his staff.  Jaime feels like nothing special and can’t even fathom that Dom wants to spend time with her.  The fumbling it takes for the two of them to come together was so sweet and fun!
 
This was a great story!  I felt like I was *in* Paris eating decadent chocolates. I loved how the back stories of Dom and Jaime unfolded. Their issues were very believable. I loved them both, but I especially loved Dominique. The chapters in his head were my favorites.
 
Here’s Dom.  He’s finally worked up the courage to approach her and is putting together a box of his chocolates for her.  He’s also giving her samples as he fills the box. (I’m in love!)

“Here, have another.” He pushed the square into her hand.  “No, try this one.”
 
Her flush blurred her pale freckles, but she smiled and took it.  Her enthusiasm, or maybe even more the blush, tempted him to abandon this medium-size box and pull out his largest, fill it with everything of his and three time over.  But he caught himself.  He wanted her to run out.  He wanted her to have to come back here to get her next fix.  
This just makes me melt!

Dom and Jaime have real issues to overcome, but it’s overall a low conflict romance.  (I love those!) This one is really good and I recommend it. I can’t wait to read books 1-3!  How about you?  Does a tough guy hero who specializes in chocolate work for you?  Or is there something else you prefer?

Sky Runners by Fae Sutherland

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Sky Runners (Skybound, #2)

 
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Space Opera, Sci-fi, m/m
Series: Skybound #2
Reviewed by Anne
151 pages
 
Here’s my book club style recap: So, there is this ship and crew (which reminded me of the Millenium Falcon, minus the wookie and plus gay men) who are on a mission to rescue this kidnapped guy (his name is Neith) who is being forced to work in a brothel.  They do a daring rescue, and they succeed, but it turns out he’s been given lots of drugs that make him horny (to the point of pain, of course) and thankfully there’s a guy on board (big old guy with a heart of gold named Killian) who is willing to, ahem, help him out until the drug wears off.  (It’s a long lasting drug!)  Action and adventure ensues.  Will the nasty pimp with a big space ship come after them?  Will they be able to tell really lust and love from drug fueled feelings?
 
What a great read! I have to go back and read the first book in this series now, because, as is usual for me, I started with book 2 in the series. It’s an interesting space/future world set up. m/m vs m/f romance doesn’t seem to be an issue at all in this world, which was interesting and nice.

I was a bit nervous that the story would include a man who had been forced into prostitution.  That’s a touchy subject and not one to be made light of.  I thought the repercussions of the forced prostitution were handled ok. My thought is that there would be bigger after effects, but it wasn’t totally ignored, so I’m good with that. I’m a sucker for unintentional aphrodisiac stories, so that part really worked for me.

I thought Killian and Neith’s relationship was sweet. I enjoyed the secondary characters, too. After reading the interaction between the captain and the pilot (main characters from the first book) I have to go back and read that one.  A caution – Killian has an accent.  You know, the kind where you don’t say any of the “g”s in “ing” words.  That bugged me a bit.  I know it really drives some people bonkers.  But after a while his endearment for Neith (li’l bit) stopped being annoying and ended up being really sweet.

This was a  fun read I’d recommend to people who enjoy sci/fi space romance.