Heat Level – Blaze

Throw Back Thursday- Naked In Death by J.D. Robb

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Naked in Death (In Death, #1)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-In Death #1
Genre-Romantic Suspense/Mystery
Reviewed by Kay
294 pages

Eve Dallas is police officer in the year 2058 and also a childhood sexual abuse survivor. She has a couple of good friends and rarely dates. Her work is her life pretty much. She is fresh off of a case that has scarred her emotionally when she inherits a mess of a case. It involves the death of a Senator’s granddaughter, who was a licensed companion. In this future you can be a prostitute as long as you’re licensed to do so. What makes the case more interesting is that the victim was shot with a gun from our current time period. Guns are outlawed in the future. Only serious collectors have them, which leads her to Roarke as a suspect.

Roarke is a very wealthy man with a collection of 20th century guns and he is friends with family of the deceased. But the death of the prostitute is only the first victim and the beginning of this mystery. As Eve gets sexually involved with Roarke, she endangers not only her career but her life as they work together to find this killer that has scared the community.

This was an audio read for me and the first In Death book for me. I enjoyed it and am headed to the library for the second one in audio form. Anyone who likes romantic suspense and a good whodunnit, this is a good start to what I hope is an exciting series. My only complaint as a romance reader is that it could’ve been hotter. Thank you to Anne and my friend Wendy for suggesting this series to me.

The Secret Heir of Sunset Ranch Charlene Sands

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

       
Grade-C-
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Genre-Contemporary
Reviewed by Kay
192 pages

The Cast

Justin: Ass-hat who lost a bet and had to pretend he was Brett for a weekend-and while he was at it, decided to sleep with Kat as Brett. Son of the wealthy Slade family.

Brett: Justin’s soldier buddy who died in the line of duty, was raised by his Aunt Mattie. Had never met, much less slept with Kat.

Kat: Slept with Brett (who was really Justin), then found out she was pregnant. Was raised in an extremely poor and abusive household. Wants better for her son. A reformed gold digger. Currently living with Aunt Mattie.

Aunt Mattie: Brett’s aunt. Lost her husband and her nephew-both had been in the military. The news of her nephew’s death caused a heart attack, leaving her in a fragile health state.

Connor: Young son of Kat and Justin. A model baby, always sleeping when the story requires it.

The Plot

Justin returns home after his stint in the military is finished. He heads over to Brett’s aunt’s house to confess his guilt over Brett’s death. When he arrives, he discovers Kat living there with Connor, the son he didn’t know about. Aunt Mattie believes Connor is her nephew’s son. Kat pleads with Justin to not reveal Connor’s paternity as Aunt Mattie’s health is too fragile to handle such a blow. Justin reluctantly agrees, but demands to be a part of Connor’s life.

This was a book about secrets. Everyone seemed to have at least one huge skeleton in their closet. Starting off with Justin’s “Brett’s not my name” secret, it was just one secret after another.

It was also a book about money. How having money or not having money can lead to different motivations. Justin is not afraid to throw his money around. Kat struggles to not chase after money.

Secrets and money are not a good combination for me. I can handle one or the other, but when you put them together, it gets too soap opera-ish for me. And that’s what this book read like. A soap opera. The characters seemed a bit like stock characters. A hero with money and a secret. Check. A heroine with a secret and no money. Check. I just couldn’t connect with either of them and their conflict didn’t pull me in either.

Obviously, secrets and money don’t work for me as a combination. Do you have any combinations that don’t work for you, but are okay individually?

Winters Heat by Cristin Harber

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Winters Heat (Titan, #1)

       
           

Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-No Kink
Series-Titan #1
Genre-Military Romantic Suspense
Reviewed by Kay

This started out a little rough for me. I had to push myself forward. I am glad that I did because this turned out to be a really good book.

There’s this private military group called Titan. They help when the regular military can’t. The mission in this book was to retrieve a disc that had human trafficking information on it. Colby Winters (from Titan) was sent to get it and he ended up with a whole lot more. Mia Kensington is a therapist who was fulfilling a client’s last wish, which was to retrieve that same disc. She ends up kidnapped by a mountain of a man. A man she thinks is really hot but very dangerous.

I really liked both of the characters in this story. Colby was very alpha and Mia was a firecracker. I also enjoyed the secondary characters too. As a suspense fan, I was in heaven when the action really got going. There were some steamy love scenes also. I will definitely be reading the next book in this series.