D Reviews

Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week: Fearless by Tawny Weber

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

This is the second in our week of reviews of Cosmo Red-Hot Reads.
Fearless

 
Grade: D
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, novella
Series: not part of a series, but it is one of Harlequin’s new line: “Cosmo Red Hot Read”
Published: 9/15/13
Reviewed by Anne
119 pages
 
Gia has a huge crush on Luke.  The only problem?  Well, there’s two problems.  First, they work together and their company has a no dating between employees policy. Second, Luke doesn’t seem to know she exists.  He’s pretty wild, and she’s pretty boring.  But Gia’s friends have a solution.  See, Gia and her friends (or should I call them “friendz”) have created “the Girlz Guide to a Rockin’ Life” and when one of them has a problem… it’s “gettin’ it” time!  No, really, brainstorm solutions to the problem, and they call that “gettin’ it”.  So, yeah, they drink some drinks and brainstorm and decide that Gia could follow Luke to a work convention he’s going to.  She could go undercover and seduce him.  Enjoy a hot weekend of sex, and then go back to being just Gia at work.  They’ve heard he has a job offer from another company, so they’re sure he’ll be moving on, never knowing that one of his co-workers was his weekend fling.  Really, what could go wrong?
 
This story was really hit and miss for me. The “Girlz” club and the fact that when they help each other out they call making a plan “gettin’ it”… It just made me feel old. (And I’m not that old.  I’m not!) I think it just seemed a little ridiculous, and that pulled me out of the story.

I did enjoy the parts where Gia/Vanna and Luke got together in Vegas. I just wanted to see more of them. We were *told* they talked a lot about personal stuff, but it was all off page. The sex was hot, but transitions (not the sexual kind) from scene to scene were awkward. I would have to reread to understand… Ok, there was just one scene on page, and now we’ve skipped to the afterglow of time #4 of having sex.

And it’s kind of a spoiler, but I’ll just throw it out there ’cause I saw it coming from that initial gettin’ it session… after the weekend is over, *gasp* Luke does NOT take the new job offer, and now Gia has to work with him.  Will he recognize her?  What if he does?  What if he doesn’t?

I was disappointed by Gia’s behavior back at work. I know the no fraternization policy was presented as the reason they couldn’t get together, but it didn’t seem to stop anyone else. Her behavior just didn’t make much sense.

So, I guess it was more miss than hit.

Finally, this was my first Cosmo Red Hot Read and I had high expectations of it. I enjoy novellas and I enjoy hotter more explicit reads, so this seemed like a good match. I want to mention that while this one didn’t work for me, I adored Cake by Lauren Dane (we posted the review yesterday). So I will not be judging all Cosmo Red Hot Reads by this one.

Turn and Burn by Lorelei James

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Turn and Burn (Blacktop Cowboys, #5)
Grade: D+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary

Series: Blacktop Cowboys #5
Published: 8/6/13
Reviewed by Kate
368 pages 


Tanna was hurt in a barrel racing accident and hasn’t been able to get on a horse again. Unfortunately, that kind of leaves her floundering as barrel racing was her life. She agrees to help some friends out with their resort over the summer. Fletch is an overworked veterinarian. But when he hooks up with Tanna, who he calls ‘Sugar Twang’ (she shall forever be ‘Sugar Twang’ in my head), he feels the longing for something more. But he’s definitely tied to the area while Sugar Twang is only there temporarily. How can the two of them possibly work?

Okay, that’s all that general stuff you can get by reading the book description (well, except for the Sugar Twang bit, I threw that in for a bonus). Now, onto what you really want to know.

I think that we all know that Lorelei James succeeds at writing series that keep us coming back for more and more and more. Turn and Burn is filled with all the things that should keep you coming back for more. It is a solid entry into the series, but it didn’t blow my socks off. There was nothing extremely memorable about either Fletch or Sugar Twang. And unfortunately, a day later, I’m already forgetting them a bit. Fans of Lorelei James, and especially her Blacktop Cowboys series, will enjoy this one, but I don’t think this is the best example of her writing.

The other thing I think I need to address in this one is Fletch’s nickname for Tanna. Sugar Twang. Now I’m generally fine with nicknames. But for some reason this one grated wrong. And it was on every page. I didn’t enjoy the book as much because every time I read it, it pulled me out of the story a bit. Sugar Twang? *shuddering*

So, obviously Sugar Twang is not my favorite nickname.  How about you?  Are you pro-nickname or anti-nickname?  What are the ones you’ve loved or hated?

Surrender Your Love by J.C. Reed

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Surrender Your Love (Surrender Your Love, #1)
Grade-D
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-Surrender Your Love #1
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
324 pages

Another story where the male lead is a wealthy business man. Jett has made a name for himself with his family’s money in the real estate world. He comes to a meeting with a realty company and meets Brooke, who is actually quite rude to him. She spurns his advances and heads home, pissed she was essentially stood up for a business meeting.
Fast forward a bit and there’s a drunken one night stand that she doesn’t really remember. She just wakes up in bed with Jett and a hangover. There is also another night, off page mind you, where she’s drunk and they have sex. She then finds out that he is her new boss and leaves on a trip to Italy with him.  There is a deep dark secret for both of them in their pasts. Are you as confused and bored as I am yet?
I really didn’t like the main characters at all. Jett was a little whipped in the beginning for me and Brooke, who claimed she never gets drunk, was kind of a whore. If you can have nights of sex you forget because of being drunk, then I see a pattern in your behavior. The sex was hot but the story just was boring . I don’t need to read on in this series.