Anne

Gilded Lily by Delphine Dryden

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

19486419 

Grade: B
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Steampunk
Published: 7/1/14
Reviewed by Anne
304  pages

Freddie lives two lives.  In one she’s the privileged Frederique, an unmarried young woman with a large dowry, who nonetheless sits on the sidelines of all the ballrooms and has a habit of getting in trouble.  In the other she’s Freddy Merchant, a talented tinker and aspiring makesmith who works on the bad side of town.

Barnabas has several duties – he’s a newly minted spy and who has been assigned by Freddie’s father to keep an eye on Freddie by posing as a suitor for her hand.  He’s also looking for information on his brother’s disappearance.  Since his brother also worked for Freddie’s father, this assignment suits both his purposes.

Freddie immediately realizes that Barnabas is yet another man her father has hired to spy on her, and that gets them off to a bad start.  However, they’re both surprised and intrigued by the other, and Barnabas is supposed to follow Freddie wherever she goes, so they are spending a lot of time together, and they grow more and more interested in each other.

I enjoy steampunk, but I’m pretty picky.  I love, love, love Meljean Brooks Iron Seas series!  I’ve tried a few other steampunk romances and most of them fell far short of the bar Meljean Brook set, which means after I tried those few I’ve shied away from steampunk.  But then I saw that Delphine Dryden had written a steampunk romance!  I’ve loved almost every Dryden story I’ve read – particularly her nerd stories – so I figured it was worth giving Guilded Lily a chance.  I’m so glad I did!

Freddie is an awesome character, and the kind of female lead I wish we had more of in romance.  She’s intelligent and brave.  She’s as independent as she can be, given the rules of the society she lives in.  She’s also quite adventurous!  She definitely would make a better spy than Barnabas.  The really cool thing is, Barnabas realizes that, and it doesn’t make him feel like any less of a man.  In fact, he appreciates those qualities in Freddie and enjoys the excitement she brings to his life.

Barnabas is not a take charge alpha male, so that means he’s not the typical romance hero.  I loved that!  He’s still a strong man, and he’s a perfect partner for Freddie.  I really enjoyed the two of them together.

As I mentioned, Freddie and Barnabas don’t immediately hit it off, and Delphine Dryden writes that very well!  It’s fun to watch them come to appreciate each other and then realize they are attracted to each other.  Dryden’s dialog is awesome, too!

“If that wasn’t some sort of sensor array, my name’s not Fred Merchant.”

“Your name isn’t Fred Merchant.”

“You know exactly what I mean.  The point is, there was some sort of nonstandard equipment, and that was no military vessel.  You know that instantly, and I must concur.  What’s more, I’ve consulted a map my father had handy—

“He had it handy?  Just lying about in a parlor, I suppose?”

“Don’t interrupt, please.  I have my ways.” ~p. 71

The steampunk world is also really interesting.  I enjoyed the giant squid like creatures, the submersible vehicles, and the steampunk take on the underground tunnel between England and France.  I could tell from comments that I’d missed some flying machines in previous stories, and I’d really like to go back and read them!

So with all these things I loved, why not give it an A?  Well, it had more politics in it than I enjoy.  That’s definitely a personal preference and might be an added bonus for someone else.  I got a little lost in all the who was spying for who stuff, especially concerning Barnabas’ brother.

Before I read it I looked it up on Goodreads and was surprised to see it was the third in this series.  What?!?  How did I miss the other two books?  I went ahead and read this one out of order, since I really liked the blurb, and it worked just fine for me.  There were moments where other characters who had clearly been featured in previous books jumbled up a bit in my heard, but overall I had no problems following this story.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys steampunk or is interested in giving it at try.  Freddie and Barnabas are unlike the usual heroine and hero we read in romance, and that was really fun!  Please let me know in the !comments if you have any other steampunk or sci-fi/fantasy to recommend!

Technically Dating by Jena Wade

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
22361960
Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: m/m, Contemporary, Nerd-mance, novella
Published: 6/25/14
Reviewed by Anne
59 pages
 
Bruce is a pretty shy geek running a training for the company he works for at an out of town hotel.  Westley is the good looking concierge at that hotel and is assigned to assist Bruce for the training.  When they meet at the hotel they realize that they nearly hooked up the night before at a club.  Westley is surprised at how different Bruce is out of the club, but still interested in him.  Bruce is surprised that someone as good looking as Westley would be interested in plain old him, but he’s sure not going to turn down the attention!
 
This was such a cute story!  Bruce was such a nerd with his Wolverine ties and buying Legos for his nephew AND himself.  He’s pretty insecure in general, but especially about having a relationship.  Westley isn’t a terribly deeply developed character, but that’s something I can accept in a short story.  Watching the two of them get to know each other and fall for each other was fun!
 
My only issue with the novella is that it opens with a scene where Bruce comes across as very confident in the club.  We never see that side of Bruce for the rest of the story, so I guess it’s just a persona he uses when he goes out to pick up guys?  I’m not really sure, so that was a little confusing.  Once I settled into the story and got a better feel for who Bruce was, though,  things really worked for me.
 
I highly recommend this book for readers who like m/m and nerds.  It’s a great read!  I look forward to reading more by Jena Wade!

One Sexy Ride by Vivian Arend

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne
20983760
Grade: C+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Thompson & Sons #2
Published: 6/19/14
Reviewed by Anne
156 pages
 
Len is the quiet brother in his family.  He’s never had a serious relationship and doesn’t want one.
 
Janey is an outcast in her  family.  Instead of going away to college after high school, she’s learned her trade and is becoming well known in her home town for her remodeling and fix-it all skills.  She’s always had a crush on Len, her best friend’s quiet older brother.  She’s flirted with him for years.  She’s a little confused when he finally decides he’s ready to date her, but she’ll go for it!
 
I have such conflicted feelings about this story. I loved the characters and liked the story, but lots of details bothered me.  On the good side, Len may not talk a lot, but when he does, it’s good – Len is a dirty talker!  Janey is confident in herself, and I enjoy reading characters like her.  Even though she was forging a path different than the rest of her family and what they wanted her to do, she knew she was good at what she was doing and she was enjoying it.  She always had a thing for Len, but it wasn’t embarrassing for either of them.  Just feelings he never returned. They were friends and neither felt bitter about that.
 
I had two big problems with the story.  The first was that I was confused on a few different plot points.  For example, early in the story, Len decides he’s ready to date  Janey, but he never really says why.  Later he mentions (not to Janey) that  he heard she’s going to be moving out of town, so he’s planning a short term relationship with her.  When I read that, I wondered if she really was planning on leaving town.  I think it mentioned it in the book blurb, but I tend not to trust them.  Janey herself didn’t mention those plans, and Len never discussed it with Janey, so I wondered if it was gossip or an assumption he’d made.  It wasn’t until quite late in the book that the subject was cleared up, and it was unsettling to be left hanging like that.
 
Another example of this confusion is that Len makes a major revelation about himself to Janey, and it caught me so off guard that I initially wondered if he was kidding.  When it turned out to be true later in the story I was almost surprised.  Probably either of these situations alone wouldn’t have bothered me, but to have this confusion as a reader more than once makes me think it wasn’t just me.
 
Unfortunately, I also had a very big problem with what was at the heart of Len’s issues.  I don’t want to spoil anything, so I’ll just say I don’t think his big traumatic thing would have happened like it did.  When I read it, it just pulled me out of the story, and made me think “This author has never been in this situation.”  Either that or her experiences were light years away from anything I’ve seen.
 
So, I had some issues with the story, and despite great sex scenes and characters, it was just ok for me.  I’ll read more by Vivian Arend, though.  I’m curious to hear if anyone else has read this book if they had the same experience, or if it was just me!