contemporary

Inescapable by Saskia Walker

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Grade: C
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Menage
Published: 11/29/13
Reviewed by Kate
214 pages

Lily and Adrian have been chatting online for a while now.  Hot, steamy, torrid chats.  They’ve decided it’s time they met in person.  But when Lily knocks on Adrian’s office door, she’s met by Seth (although she thinks it’s Adrian at first).  Seth is trying to convince Adrian to go into witness protection.  When someone makes an attempt on Adrian’s life, Lily sees them, and soon Seth is dragging both Adrian and Lily away to save their lives.  The three of them end up together in an isolated house with lots of time on their hands and just their lusty feelings to keep them company.

The premise for this one drew me in immediately.  Not being a huge suspense fan (even though I can’t seem to stay away from them), I’m happy to report that the suspense was not a huge part of this book, more just an excuse for the three of them to be alone together.  And when the suspense finally comes to its conclusion, it is not a long drawn out thing.  It happens and it’s over rather quickly.

The relationship between Lily and Seth and Adrian is, of course, sudden.  We’re talking little to no conversations between the three of them about actually having a threesome.  It’s more of a “well, as long as we’re all in the same room” feeling to the whole situation.  Yet the emotions that develop seem very realistic.

I was really enjoying this one until Seth made a rather, in my opinion, idiotic move as a witness protection agent.  And everything after that just started to make me mad.  I struggled to get past how stupid he had been in that situation, when I saw other obvious options that were more logical but never crossed his mind. By the time I reached the end, I was just starting to forgive him.

If you like steamy menage with a touch of suspense (and you can overlook a stupid move by one of the heroes) give this one a shot.

Looking For Trouble by Victoria Dahl

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

18812457

Grade: B
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, Small Town
Series: Jackson Girl’s Night Out #1
Published: 7/29/14
Reviewed by Anne
345 pages

A generation ago, Sophie’s mother and Alex’s dad disappeared on the same day, and were never seen again, fueling rumors that they’d run off together.  Alex grew up with his obsessive mom tracking down every lead she could trying to find his dad.  Sophie grew up with her loving father – and with Alex’s mom’s constant trash talking about Sophie’s mom. And Sophie.  This lead to Alex leaving town as soon as he could and never looking back.  Sophie stayed in town her whole life, trying to establish a reputation so good and pure that everyone would overlook her connection to her mother.

A few months ago (in the book Too Hot to Handle), a truck and camper were found with Sophie’s mom’s and Alex’s dad’s bodies inside.  This confirmed that the two ran off together and brought the old scandal to light again in both the town’s and Alex’s mom’s memory.  It also brought Alex back to town for the first time since he left years ago.  When Sophie and Alex meet the chemistry between them is off the charts, but wouldn’t the scandal they could cause be even bigger?

Sophie and Alex are my dream characters!  Sophie is a secretly sexy prim and proper librarian.  Alex is a shaved head, tattooed, biker bad boy.  They are so good for each other and their story was a joy to read.  Sophie’s relationship with her father and brother was also really good, and I enjoyed seeing her grow into herself – in some ways this story is Sophie’s coming of age story.  Alex has some issues to overcome, too.  The fallout of this one event and how it affected the lives of everyone involved is very believable.

On the other hand, the main conflict in this story requires the reader to accept that the town would hold Sophie accountable for her mother’s sins.  It’s certainly something Sophie believes, and it’s both more and less true than she thinks.  This was the weak point in the story for me.  Overall it was really, good, though.

I see by the series label on Goodreads that this book is the first in a new series by Dahl, but it’s clearly linked to her Jackson Hole series, since the events in book 2 are the story of Alex’s brother.  It does stand alone just fine, though, so you could jump in here and do great.

I recommend this book and I enjoyed it very much!  I admitted that the librarian and the bad boy is dream casting for me – how about you?  What’s your favorite hero/heroine combo?

In the Heat of the Night by Katherine Garbera

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Grade: C-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Series: The O’Roarkes #2
Published: 7/10/14
Reviewed by Kate

Meg left her hometown of Twin Palms years ago for New York.  Full of confidence, she was positive she was going to make it big.  Now she’s returning home, with her tail between her legs, to regroup and try for stardom again.  Nothing’s going to get in her way this time.  Well, nothing except maybe Rory, the new firefighter in town.  Rory comes from a long line of firefighters, but when his ex-wife asked him to quit for a safer career he did.  Now he’s trying firefighting again to see if it is his passion or simply family tradition.

So we have a story of both Rory and Meg trying to rediscover themselves.  Both are trying to get over prior relationships that left them doubting themselves.  Both are overly cautious about entering another relationship.  At times they seemed almost mirror images of each other, in their actions (avoiding each other and the potential for a relationship) and feelings (hiding the fact that they’re falling for each other, scared of trying for something they want).

As much as I liked Meg and Rory’s characters (they were both sweet and funny) I just couldn’t work up any excitement for them as a couple.  I never got invested in them.  I found myself more interested in the secondary characters than I was in Meg and Rory.  Overall, this book didn’t really create strong feelings for me, one way or the other.

If you like firefighters and low conflict romance, this one might be for you.  It just didn’t work for me.