A Reviews

The Year We Fell Down by Sarina Bowen

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

20896313
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Ember
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult
Series: The Ivy Years #1
Published: 3/24/14
Reviewed by Anne
193 pages

Corey should have been starting college on the hockey team.  Instead she’s starting in a wheelchair, hoping she might walk again some day, knowing the hockey is not in her future.  Her wheelchair means she’s been placed in the sparsely populated “gimp dorm” instead of one of the many large and not-handicapped-friendly dorms most freshman stay in.  Luckily for her, she got assigned an awesome random roommate, and the guy across the hall is Adam Hartley.

Hartley is a hockey player whose having a year off from the sport after breaking his leg in two places.  He and Corey become good friends as they limp and roll around campus.  They help each other work through issues big and small and start to wonder if their friendship might turn into something more.  Hartley doesn’t feel ready to leave his high class girl friend, yet, though, and Corey feels like Hartley is way out of her league.

Let me start by saying, in general, I don’t read New Adult books, and this is one.  I heard some good buzz, and specifically read a review by Jane at DearAuthor.com and decided to give this story a try.  I’m so glad I did!

My main complaints against New Adult romance in general are 1.) too much angst  2.) my inability to relate to characters.  I found Corey and Hartley to be relatable, and for all their issues, they were surprisingly low angst characters.  It certainly takes place in college, and in a college atmosphere.  It’s socially nothing like my geek experience was, but I know a lot of people who had experiences like those in the story, so that’s believable to me.

Corey is such a strong character.  She’s not perfect, and she makes some poor choices, but her attitude toward life is one of soldiering on.  She doesn’t just hope that better days are coming, but she makes the most of where she is right now.  Hartley is pretty messed up emotionally, and his friendship with Corey helps him to see things more clearly.

Without ruining things, I want to say that when Corey hits a major sad point in her life, I was impressed with how she handled things.  She made choices to improve her life.  She mourned her losses, and with the help of her friends, she moved on.  That kind of maturity was very relatable.

I also felt like the author did a great job explaining why Hartley was making the choices he was.  You could feel his confusion that his choices weren’t leading him toward happiness, and see him struggle to make changes that would.

I highly recommend this book.  It’s got great characters and a wonderful story.  It’s going on my best of 2014 list!  In fact, it might be the best book I’ve read this year so far.  How about you?  What’s your best book so far?

Shattered Bonds by Lynda Aicher

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

20738814
Grade: A-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Wicked Play #7
Published: 9/1514
Reviewed by Kate

Noah is one of the owners of the Den, a BDSM club, but he’s been out of the scene for 4 years now, since the tragic death of his last sub.  But when he meets Liv, the sister of one of the other owners, he starts to feel tempted to give in to desires he separated himself from years ago.  When an accident happens, the Den finds itself shaken to its core.  Noah and Liv grow closer while trying to hold the club together.

This is really a telling of 2 tales.  The first being the story of Noah and Liv.  The second being the culmination of the last 6 books.  Lynda Aicher does a fabulous job of weaving the two stories together.  Giving us enough of our favorite characters without cheating us of Noah and Liv’s relationship.  Because the characters from the other 6 books play such a huge part in this one, I think you would have a hard time reading this one as a stand alone.

The characters is this one, *insert happy, contented sigh here* blew me away.  Noah is so conflicted and hurting.  At times his pain almost made me cry.  Liv is such a caring and giving person, yet she realizes that she can’t “fix” Noah.  I loved that they supported each other, rather than fixing each other.

A note for fans of the BDSM in the first books of this series:  This one is extremely low on the kink scale for this series, comparatively.  If you’re looking for whips and chains and crosses and pain, you won’t find it in this one.  Just some very mild restraints (hands only) during sex and oral. But the lack of kink doesn’t detract from the story one bit.

If you liked the first books in this series, this is a must read.  If you haven’t given this series a try, you need to start at the beginning.  It’s well worth the time and investment if you like BDSM.  The Wicked Play series is one of my favorite series and Lynda Aicher has become one of my favorite BDSM authors.

Lynda Aicher managed to write the last book in the series with a much lower kink level.  Have you run across any other series that have successfully done this?  Can you enjoy a tamer book after reading hotter books earlier in the series?

Talk Sweetly to Me by Courtney Milan

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

20325481

Grade: A
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Historical, London
Series: Brothers Sinister #4.5
Published: 8/19/14
Reviewed by Anne

I saw “Courtney Milan” and “novella” and “mathmetics” and I was in!  I have a good history reading Milan and enjoying her stories.  I’m not a huge historical fan anymore, but Milan + math was enough for me.  I was right, too, this story did not disappoint.

Rose is a “computer,” a person who does math for a researcher.  She’s a genius and really enjoys her work.  She’s a bit shy and shocked to find herself attracted to her neighbor, the scandalous Stephen Shaughnessy.  He’s an advice columnist and a known rake and he’s surprised to find himself falling for her.  As a way to spend more time with her, he manipulates her into giving him math lessons.  This leads to some incredible math innuendo!

Stephen and Rose are wonderful characters.  I was pleasantly surprised that the Rose is black!  That was new for me in a historical.  Stephen is white.  He seems untroubled by their differences, but Stephen is not a worrier by nature, and he’s not experienced the discrimination that Rose is used to, both for her gender and her race.

Rose is very intelligent and comfortable with it.  Stephen is entranced by her and her abilities.  He appears to be quite shallow, and as it turns out, he has a pretty light hearted approach to life, and he doesn’t feel bad about that.  It’s who he is.  It does turn out to be an obstacle between him and Rose, though.  He’ll have to convince her that he’s serious about her.

This was a wonderful historical novella, and I highly recommend it to historical or math lovers.  I think it’s the very first historical nerd-mance I’ve read!  And the math jokes abound and are awesome!

 

“You’re not going to multiply with me?”

“No,” she said somewhat severely. “You’re going to multiply on your own.” p. 20

 

 

“All you had to do was look up a number in a table.  Was that too difficult for you?”

“A great and might table, ringed by fearsome logarithms, with their terribly, terrible…” He trailed off.  “Oh, very well.  Set me another problem, Miss Sweetly.  My resolve is firm and my angles are acute.  But beware — if I have to draw another diagram, things may become graphic.” p.32

 

I will say, despite the cover, it’s not a ballroom and opera historical.  Stephen and Rose are solidly middle class.  It’s a great story, though!

This is the last installment in the Brothers Sinister series.  I haven’t read any of the others, and I still loved this one, so jump right in!

I only read historical romance occasionally.  How about you?  Do you enjoy historicals?  If so, do you prefer ballrooms and opera?  Pioneer America?  Medieval?  What’s your favorite?