Married To The Trillionaires by Ella Mansfield

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.

One Night With An Earl by Jennifer Haymore

One Night with an Earl (House of Trent, #2.5)
Grade-A
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-House of Trent #2.5
Genre-Historical
Reviewed by Kay
120 pages

This is a short and very sweet novella. It’s about an Earl, who never thought he’d be one and a widow who thought she had lost her chance at love before she ever married.

Andrew Sinclair, the Earl of Weston reluctantly agrees to attend a masquerade party held by a member of the Ton. What he finds there is the chance to be with the only woman he has ever loved, Lady Fenwicke. He never thought he’d be the Earl of Weston because the heir before him was sure to have children. Then that heir died but when he tried to claim the woman he loved, she was betrothed to another.

Lady Beatrice Fenwicke, before her marriage, was an innocent seventeen year old girl. During her marriage, she was a victim of domestic abuse. When she was widowed, she became a pariah. Someone to be given the direct cut, ostracized and she became a recluse. She agrees to accompany her best friend to the masquerade ball knowing what her heinous parents would think. She sees the perfect man there. Can she let go one night in her miserable existence? Can she have one night with an Earl?

I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of the House of Trent series. But this novella? I’m a huge fan of it! It was precious, well paced and steamy. It had a couple of things that are my favorite tropes. Second chance love, a heroine who becomes strong and a loveable hero. Jennifer Haymore was a favorite author of mine with her first series but I kind of got lost after that but now I may have to re-evaluate. Oh, who am I kidding? You had me at masquerade ball.

Favorite lines:

“You have the sweetest laugh I’ve ever heard.”- Andrew

“i’m going to work to earn your trust. I know that’s difficult for you. But if one day you trust me completely, Beatrice, then that will be my greatest reward.”

It’s All Geek to Me by JL Merrow

It's All Geek to Me
Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, M/M, novella
Published: 2/10/14
Reviewed by Anne
55 pages

This is a short story about Jez, who falls for Rhys when he meets him at the comic book store.  Jez wants to impress Rhys even though Jez isn’t really into comics and is only in the store on an errand for a friend.

It’s really well written and funny.  While Jez isn’t a comic book geek, he’s got a lot of geek cred in other areas.  There are TARDIS references, Star Wars references, so many, many more.  On top of that, the book is set in London and it doesn’t seem to be Americanized, so there’s lots of England-slang to enjoy.

It’s a cute, sweet story I really enjoyed and I’ll be watching for more by JL Merrow!