inferno

Bound to be Tamed by Becca Jameson

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

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Grade: B+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: HIgh Kink
Genre: Contemporary, menage, m/m, m/m/f
Series: Emergence #2
Published: 7/29/14
Reviewed by Kate
369 pages

Stephanie has decided to enter into a full time Dom/sub role with Doms Aiden and Dane.  So she takes a huge step and quits her job (her new relationship is not the only reason that she quits) and moves in with the men.  Aiden and Dane have been looking for a female sub to add to their relationship and Stephanie is perfect for them.  But can they walk the fine line between helping Steph embrace her submissiveness and pushing her too hard?

Stephanie is new to the Dom/sub scene and Dane and Aiden want to push her past her comfort levels.  And boy do they push her.  She struggles with each new task they set before her, yet finds that each task completes something inside her.  What a journey to watch her go through.

Dane and Aiden are relatively new to the scene as well.  Only having been Doms for around 6 months.  For being newbies, I was surprised at how good they seemed at it, maybe even a little too good.  I really wanted to see them stumble a bit.

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this review it’s this:  the sex scenes were smoking hot.  Extremely graphic and extremely frequent.  A friend of mine would refer to this one as a one-hand-two-finger read.  The scenes between Dane and Aiden were perfection and the scenes between the three of them were beyond that.

I’ve not read the first book in this series, but it’s at the top of my TBR pile. This one met and exceeded my expectations on so many levels.  If you like menage, m/m, and bdsm this is one that you have try, but you might want a little privacy while you’re reading.

Try Me On for Size by Stephanie Haefner

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

18870201

Grade: DNF
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary
Published: 8/11/14
Reviewed by Anne
288 pages

I don’t DNF (Did Not Finish) a book very often at all.  It was especially disappointing that it happened now.  This book had a lot going for it.  For starters, the premise certainly caught my attention: Mia’s lingerie shop needs a big sales boost to save it from going under.  She and her partner decide on the idea of picking a spokespenis/spokesmodel and making dildos cast from his penis to sell in their store.  And what better way to pick the spokespenis than to try out five different models and choose your favorite?

The first glitch she runs into is one she doesn’t even recognize.  While she’s waiting for applicant number one, Oliver approaches her.  When he realizes she’s been stood up, he decides to go with the flow and pretend to be whoever she’s waiting for.

The book (at least as far as I read) had some enjoyable humor in it, but things went downhill fast.  Here’ are some notes I made while reading, Goodreads updates, and texts to Kate:  (book text in italics, my comments in regular font)

Page 3: spokespenis  Funny!

Page 12: And so far it hasn’t been all that orgasmic  Then you’re doing it wrong!

Page 13: spokespenis  Funny!

Page 14: “Only a real live vagina can get the data we need to do this right.”  Ok, I’m starting to like this – vaginas and data!

Page 15: waiting in a bar for Penis Number One to arrive Funny!

Page 21: “Mia opened the door and led him up to the third floor.  No turning back once she took him inside.  To her bed.  To test out his penis.” Funny!

Page 23: “Okay, so, I’ll need you to just kinda lay there and let me do what I need to, um…do.  Okay?”

“Sure, but shouldn’t I get a condom?”

“Wasn’t this already explained to you?  I need to see how you feel without any barriers.  We did the screening and we’re both healthy and disease-free, so it’s all good.”  Um.  No.  Not all good.  Lying at this point is pretty unforgivable, unless he just happens to have a test at home… (this is never mentioned again!)

Page 27: “Are you seriously telling me you had sex with this gorgeous man and didn’t have an orgasm?”

“I thought the point was to test it out and see how it felt.  Make sure it was the right size and girth and whatever.  I thought I was supposed to retain some sort of professionalism.”

“Seriously?  We’re going into the dildo business.”  Funny!

Page 40: “Oliver would not be celebrating this marriage.  He’d smile and do all the things a groom is supposed to do, but being happy about it?  Nope.”  What?!? He’s engaged?  WTF?

Goodreads update: Ugh. The “hero” is engaged to someone else, and we find this out after he has sex with the heroine. No. This makes me angry!”

Page 51: The thought of her with someone else made him feel as if his intestines were being yanked out through his chest.

An engaged guy shouldn’t be jealous that a woman he just met was having sex with another man.  But he sure as hell was.  OK, I’m reading on, but I really need her (Mia) to be thoroughly pissed that he cheated on his fiancée with her!

Page 51:  And in the high society they’d grown up in, an easy way to secure one [a proposal] was an unplanned pregnancy.  Nobody dared announce a bundle was on the way without a ring on that finger. Ew.

Page 51:  He might be working for this company…  Really?  He thinks he might go through with being the spokespenis?  Well, I guess that might be scandal enough to break his engagement?

Page 52: Was Mia in danger of losing her shop, her job?  He couldn’t let that happen.  Seriously?  Why would he care?

Page 53: …he suspected the pregnancy might not even be real. Excuse me, there are ways of checking on that.  And if she was so awful, why have sex with her.  Ugh.

Page 55:  And maybe, if he annoyed her enough, she’d leave him.  Problem solved.  Not really solved if she’s pregnant!

Page 70: Having him in any capacity would most likely end badly and she couldn’t risk putting the shop…  How would it risk the shop to have a relationship with him if he wasn’t an employee?  This is nonsense.

Page 80: “Hey.  When’s your next prenatal appointment?”

“I don’t know.  Why?”

“I want to go with you.”

He thought he saw a brief moment of panic in her reflection.  She turned to him.  “Why?”

“Isn’t that something dads-to-be do?”

“Maybe, but that’s not how I’m doing it.  I don’t want anyone there with me.  It’s a doctor’s appointment.  It’s private.”

There’s a red flag, and he just lets it go!

Page 90: “Have dinner with me tomorrow night.  I’ll take you on a real date.” Really?  What about your pregnant fiancée?

Page 92:”…Eww.  I can’t be married to some low-class Chippendales wanna-be.”… “I don’t care.”If he didn’t really care he should break things off.  He’s an ass.

Page 93:  Why couldn’t he just tell her he didn’t want to marry her?

He knew why.  The miniscule chance in the back of his head that maybe she was telling the truth about the baby. …  He had to find out for sure, before this went too much further. This is stupid.  Marrying her would bring a lot more drama than having a baby out of wedlock.  And he’s cheating!  Scummy!

Page 103:… he was a jackass for keeping it hidden.  Holy hell if she ever found out. Uh, yeah, he’s a total jackass.

Goodreads update: Alright. I’m going to dnf this one. I’m on p. 100 of ~260 and Oliver still hasn’t told Mia about his fiancee. And instead of manning up and breaking up with his fiancee, he just tries to be so awful that she’ll dump him. His fiancee is written as a one dimensional bad guy. She’s probably lying about a pregnancy, she’s shallow, lazy, and manipulative. And he has no problem having unprotected sex with Mia. Ugh.

Email to Kate:  I really hated this book.

So, that’s all I’ve got.  I’d say stay away from this book, unless you can work with cheating.  Disappointing.

Bliss by Lisa Henry & Heidi Belleau

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

22496938
Grade: C+
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: Moderate Kink
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, m/m
Published: 8/18/14
Reviewed by Anne

When I read the blurb for Bliss I was really intrigued!  The set up is a bit complicated, so I’m going to use the official blurb to explain:

They’re always happy.

Rory James has worked hard all his life to become a citizen of the idyllic city-state of Beulah. Like every other kid born in the neighboring country of Tophet, he’s heard the stories: No crime or pollution. A house and food for everyone. It’s perfect, and Rory is finally getting a piece of it.

So is Tate Patterson. He’s from Tophet, too, but he’s not a legal immigrant; he snuck in as a thief. A city without crime seems like an easy score, until he crashes into Rory during a getaway and is arrested for assaulting a citizen. Instead of jail, Tate is enrolled in Beulah’s Rehabilitation through Restitution program. By living with and serving his victim for seven years, Tate will learn the human face of his crimes.

If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it is. Tate is fitted with a behavior-modifying chip that leaves him unable to disobey orders—any orders, no matter how dehumanizing. Worse, the chip prevents him from telling Rory, the one man in all of Beulah who might care about him, the truth: in a country without prisons, Tate is locked inside his own mind.

 

I’m so conflicted about this story.  On one hand it’s really well written, on the other it’s terribly dark and the romance is pretty weak.  It actually read more like horror to me than sci-fi.

The thing about the story is that the chip doesn’t just make Rory unable to disobey orders, it leaves him craving Rory’s happiness and desperate to get any orders he can from Rory.  However, the whole time he following orders and trying to find anyway to make Rory happy, the real part of him suppressed to the back corner of his head is screaming.  Sometimes it’s screaming in disgust, sometimes in pain, sometimes in horror.  His personal morals just don’t matter in the face of avoiding the pain the chip will cause him if he even considers something against its programming.

And that’s where things cross the line for me.  Rory is very clear to himself that he is not gay, yet he finds himself compelled (and instructed) to seduce Rory.  Even when the act is painful for him, he knows it will be worse if he stops, so he tells Tate he’s into pain in order to get him to continue.

If that whole thing wasn’t horrifying enough, things get worse when a third party is involved.  At least when Tate and Rory are together Tate isn’t looking to hurt Rory or go against his will – he just doesn’t know that Rory isn’t in control.  When this third party comes in (I’m being purposefully vague to avoid spoilers) he seeks out painful and humiliating things to have Rory do.

So, one major problem I had with the story was that it’s just so much darker than what I enjoy.  The second problem was that almost the entire time Rory and Tate know each other, Rory is chipped, and basically being tortured.  And Tate is unknowingly one of his main torturers.  That makes it really hard to believe that any kind of healthy relationship could grow between them.  And truth be told, I wouldn’t have minded reading the story of how they overcame that start, but the story is all but over when Rory’s chip comes out.  That made the HEA pretty unbelievable for me.

The thing about this story is that despite all those negatives, I just couldn’t put it down.  It was horrifying, but I had to know what happened next.  Also, what little I saw of unchipped Rory I really liked.

However, in the end, I think this would have made a much better non-romance sci-fi book.  Honestly, I’ll probably be avoiding Lisa Henry in the future.  I’ve read and loved Heidi Belleau before, so I’m going to blame Lisa Henry for the darkness that still haunts me.  If you like darker evil stuff, though, this is would be a great book for you!