Kate

Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week: Everything You Need to Know by HelenKay Dimon

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

This is day 4, the final day of our Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week.  (Note: we here at Dirty Girls’ Good Books generally make an effort to only review books that you can buy RIGHT NOW.  We’re making an exception this week, putting up some early reviews of Red-Hot Reads.)
Everything You Need to Know
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Contemporary, novella
Published: 10/15/13

Reviewed by Kate
105 pages


Jordan owns a website that shares the nitty-gritty about all the bachelors and playboys of our nation’s capital with all the single women looking for love. Forest is the owner of a large company, and more importantly, a mystery. Nobody knows anything about him or his love life (past or present). So for Jordan, it started out with a good healthy dose of attraction with the excuse of getting the down low for her website. For Forest, it started out as a challenge and quickly became something a lot more. But while Forest is beginning to think things might be getting serious, Jordan’s running in the opposite direction. She’s terrified that her instant attraction and need for Forest means she’s turning into her man-eater mother.

Flirty, sexy fun from beginning to end.  The perfect balance between all things good in romance.  Strong, determined alpha. Independent, intelligent woman.  Their budding relationship was sweet and tender.  Their chemistry was hot, hot, hot!  A must-read for fans of HelenKay Dimon or anyone who hasn’t tried her yet!

Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week: Naked Sushi by Jina Bacarr

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

This is day 3 of our Cosmo Red-Hot Reads Week.  (Note: we here at Dirty Girls’ Good Books generally make an effort to only review books that you can buy RIGHT NOW.  We’re making an exception this week, putting up some early reviews of Red-Hot Reads.)
Naked Sushi
Grade: D-
Hotness Level: Blaze
Kink Level: Mild Kink
Genre: Contemporary, novella

Published: 10/15/13
Reviewed by Kate
 
Pepper gets caught after a little copy room nookie and is fired.  The stranger in the copy room manages to get away.  Turns out Steve, the stranger and nookie partner extraordinaire, is an FBI agent trying to dig up info on Pepper’s ex-boss.  Pepper’s always wanted to be a spy, so she decides to help Steve out.
 
This book boggled me on so many levels.  Pepper walks in and catches Steve trying to make copies of some of her boss’s documents and he decides the only way to avoid having his cover blown is copy machine sex?  I can think of a few other options myself, but I guess since he had a bad case of the I’ve gotta have her nows I’ll give him a little leeway.  I can forgive his little bit of unprofessionalism.  But it just keeps happening throughout the book.  They just can’t keep their hands off each other, no matter what’s going on at the time.  Temporarily stuck in a storage room while you wait for the bad guys to leave?  Cue the tacky porn music…
 
Pepper is supposedly this nerdy girl who wears glasses and flannel shirts all the time and knows nothing about sexuality but one look at Steve and she’s suddenly this smoking hot siren.  She was ditzy, flaky, and quickly became annoying.  And let’s not forget that Pepper’s always wanted to be a spy, so she becomes Steve’s little shadow.  But honestly she’s following him around more for his magic fingers than his spy know-how.
 
This story’s one saving grace was that it was short.

Menage Monday — Bonds of Desire by Lynda Aicher

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Bonds of Desire (Wicked Play, #3)
Grade: A
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: High Kink
Genre: Contemporary, BDSM

Series: Wicked Play #3
Published: 7/15/13
Reviewed by Kate
229 pages 


I have been reading menage and BDSM for a while now. When I run across a book that incorporates both I get a little excited. When I run across one that puts both the BDSM and the menage together like this one does, I walk around with a smile on my face for a week afterwards. Let’s see, what can I tell you about this book without sounding too gushy?

First off, the initial chapter is dark and tense and will suck you in and not let you go (it’s why I gave this book a high kink level). Tyler, a male escort, has been brought to the Den by a sadistic Dom. And when the scene goes wrong, Seth is the first one to rush to his side. Seth, a co-owner of the Den, has seen Tyler at the Den a few times before and always felt drawn to him. The Den calls Allie, a lawyer, in to council Tyler. Allie feels an immediate pull toward both Tyler and Seth. Allie and Seth take Tyler to the hospital and convince him to recover at Seth’s place. Tyler agrees, but he’ll only stay if Allie stays as well.

And so we have a set up that places Seth, Allie, and Tyler together in Seth’s place. And then the story gets really good. Each of the trio is drawn to the other two. Seth is a Dom, through and through and has never entertained the thought of having 2 subs, until now. Tyler couldn’t imagine wanting to be under another Dom after everything he’s been through, but there’s something so settling about being around Seth and Allie. Allie has been raised to think that anything outside of a vanilla mindset is wrong. So how can she be attracted to not only 2 men, but 2 men who are attracted to each other as well?

I have to say, Allie is the best heroine that I’ve run across in a long time. The inner turmoil she goes through is soooo realistic. Most of my notes were about agreeing with the feelings she was having. I could completely understand the doubts she had and I appreciated a heroine who was a bit reluctant without being tiresome, or annoying, or whiny.

I also love the relationship that develops during the course of the story. Despite being a co-owner of a BDSM club, Seth is not into pain at all. He doesn’t even go for the titles of Master or Sir. Allie is definitely a sub. Tyler falls somewhere in the middle. He’s a sub with Seth, but takes on more of a Dom role with Allie.

Perhaps I have been reading too much of the hardcore BDSM books out there right now. But I really enjoyed this more gentle look at a relationship that became more about the connections than the pain. The first two books in this series are more hardcore than this one. But this one could be read completely on it’s own with no issues.

I’ve added an auto-read author to my relatively short list. Lynda Aicher continues to impress me with her characters and storytelling. I’m looking forward to catching up on her backlist and anxiously awaiting book 4 in this series.  I think it’s become obvious that I enjoy both ménage and BDSM books.  And when they can be combined?  I’m in heaven  How about you?  Are there any sub-genres that you love to see together?  Cowboy sci-fi?  M/M historical?