blaze

Second Helpings by Charlie Cochrane

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

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Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: m/m, Contemporary
Published: 7/21/14
Reviewed by Anne
243  pages

Stuart’s partner Mark died in a car crash a year ago and he’s still having a hard time living day to day.  When his dad starts dating a new woman, her son, Paul, calls Stuart to check on Stuart’s dad and make sure his intentions are good.  Stuart and Paul don’t get off to a great start, but recognize the loneliness in each other.  Paul has just moved away from his partner, Ben.  Ben just stops calling, texting, emailing, or contacting Paul in any way.  So, as Stuart sees his dad coming back to life with his new girlfriend, Paul is seeing his relationship ending.  Stuart and Paul decide to get together again and see where things will go.

I really enjoyed this story!  It reminded me of a Lauren Dane story in all the best ways.  You get to know the characters and watch them get to know each other.  They aren’t perfect with each other.  They make mistakes and have to decide if it’s worth the work to set things right.  They each have to decide if they are ready to let go of their previous partners or not.  Just the kind of book I love to sink into!

It’s set in England, which I really enjoyed.  I love the little differences in slang and really appreciate that they weren’t edited out!  Stuart’s dad and Paul’s mom are nice secondary characters.

After I read the book I checked out Charlie Cochrane’s backlist – it’s huge!  I’ve got that giddy feeling you get when you realize there’s a long list of good books to read!  It does look like most of her writing is historical.  I really enjoyed this contemporary story, but next time I’m in a historical mood I think I’ll try one of hers!

This was a great story!  I recommend it to readers who enjoy contemporary m/m and like a slower paced relationship centered book.

Gilded Lily by Delphine Dryden

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

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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!

Spirit Bound by Christine Feehan

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

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Grade: F
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Magic, audiobook
Series: Sisters of the Heart #2
Published: 12/27/14
Reviewed by Anne
404 pages

So, I have to tell you, I really grew to hate this book.  In fact, I stopped listening to it when I was on section 18 of 21, because it was just making me too angry.  I didn’t set out to hate it!  I was really looking forward to it – Christine Feehan was my gateway author into vampire romance with her Dark series.  I loved her Drake Sisters series even more.  Spirit Bound is even set in the same town and world as the Drake Sisters series.  I went into this book expecting it to be pretty good, but things went downhill pretty fast.

First, let me give you the set up.  Judith is one of 6 magical sisters.  They aren’t biologically related to each other, but formed a family in their adulthood after surviving traumas in their pasts.  They live together on a farm in California.

Stefan is an secret agent for Russia.  He had a horribly traumatic childhood and has spent his entire life doing undercover work in one situation or another.  Stefan is assigned to insinuate himself into Judith’s life so that he’ll be there if she’s pursued by a master criminal who is known to be obsessed with her.  Oh, and Stefan has magical powers, too.

OK, pretty decent set up.  It gets complicated pretty quickly, but Feehan handles that well and it’s easy to understand.  The audiobook narrator was decent and I have not audiobook related complaints.  I enjoyed the magic in the story and I loved the sisterhood!  What I didn’t enjoy was the hours and hours I felt like I spent in Stefan’s head thinking about how he’d never allowed himself to love anyone, but now he was falling for Judith (before he even met her) and how he had decided that he was never going to love anyone, but his heart was opening to her without him even asking.  And his childhood was awful and he learned early never to trust anyone, but already he’s trusting her.  And he was never going to love anyone, but he’s falling in love with Judith.  Oh, and did I mention that Stefan was never going to allow himself to have loving feelings for anyone, but Judith has already taken over his heart?  Because Feehan mentions it a lot.  A. Lot.

We get some of the same head time from Judith, but it’s not quite as bad as Stefan’s inner monologue.  There are a couple bad guys in the story, but the one in town directly pursuing them (Ivanov, I think) is a sadistic, cruelty loving, bad guy who is into sadism and likes to hurt animals and people just for the joy of it, because he’s a sadistic bastard.  Yes.  He’s a very, very bad guy and the story is filled with Stefan remembering horrific anecdotes from his childhood (he grew up with Ivanov) so we can be impressed with how awfully sadistic he is.  Sheesh, that got old.

But, through all that inner monologue and driving home of points with lots of repetition, I was still really wanting to know how things would work out for Judith and Stefan.  I was curious and even rooting for them.  But the thing is, the more I got to know Stefan, the more I disliked him.  He’s a controlling asshole with no relationship skills.  He wants to know more about Judith, so he breaks into her home and looks around.  He stalks her, but we’re supposed to be ok with it because he has feelings for her?   He treasures Judith like she’s a thing to be owned.  He withholds information from her even when it seems like he should be coming clean.

And then, as if he weren’t being a big enough asshole, he starts drugging her to get her to sleep through the night so he can go out bad guy hunting without having to explain himself.  He says he does it to keep her safe while he’s gone. What????  Because leaving a strong, independent, and powerful woman totally incapacitated and protected only by a security system that he himself routinely breaks through is a good decision?  And he does it repeatedly.  Repeatedly!  And when another character calls him out on it, Stefan thinks he’s justified because he’s doing it all to keep her safe.

When Judith miraculously is roused from her drugged state and saves his life and then realizes what he’s done and is very angry with him  – only then does he start to reconsider his decision to drug her.  He admits to her that he “probably shouldn’t have done that.”  Oh. Really?  Thankfully, Judith is very angry with him.  Unfortunately, he continues to boss her around, which is how he ‘takes care of her’ and even more unfortunately, she lets him!  And when she’s still kind of upset he decides he needs to have sex with her.  He needs it.  And they start kissing passionately and he realizes he doesn’t know if she’s resisting or capitulating – and he doesn’t care!  He needs this closeness with her.

That was it for me.  I was driving while I listened and I just reached over and shut off the player.  I couldn’t listen to another word.  All I really wanted was for Judith to dump him and find someone better.

I know some of Feehan’s other books have old school “heroes” like this, and I’ve enjoyed them in the past.  I don’t know if I’m growing up and feeling more strongly about consent?  Or maybe that kind of behavior is somehow more acceptable to me when it comes from a vampire with super-human needs?  I don’t know, but this book left me steaming mad and very disappointed, I love Judith and her sisters and their farm and their powers, but I can’t listen to another word..  Please, someone, recommend a sisterhood series that will cleanse my palate of this mess!