Kate

Bound to the Sea by Lyra Fawn

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

22733140

Grade: B-
Hotness Level: Inferno
Kink Level: No Kink
Genre: Paranormal, Shifter, Serial
Series: Claimed by the Alpha Dolphins #1
Published: 7/15/14
Reviewed by Kate

Two dolphin princes, a gang of murderous shark-shifters, and one little librarian with an over developed sense of curiosity.  Put all in a blender, mix well, and you’ve got the first book in this dolphin-shifter serial.

Lucan and Dario are princes from warring dolphin pods.  They have been exiled and sent to land to find a descendant of Neptune.  The Descendant will be able to finally bring an end to the dolphins’ war.  Mona has been drawn to the water all her life and spends a great deal of her time lying on the beach watching all the surfers.  It’s no surprise that she spots Lucan and Dario the minute they step on the beach. They just have an aura about them.  What is surprising is when, in the midst of a shark attack, she notices them shift into dolphins and drive the shark away.  What’s a girl to do?  She either has to follow them to see if they really did turn into dolphins or she will have to wonder the rest of her life.  Of course, she follows them.

I got a little excited when I read the title of this series.  Dominate dolphin shifters?!  Sign me up.  And I was not disappointed.  Lucan and Dario are both swoon-worthy princes.  Mona is impulsive and carefree.  I feel like her character has some growing to do, but this is only the first part of a serial, so I’ll cut her some slack.  I look forward to seeing where these characters go from here.

I do feel it worth noting that there are a few steamy sex scenes in this book, but no menage scenes…at least not in this installment.

I’m curious on two things though.

1.  I was ridiculously excited to read about dolphin shifters, is there type of shifter that you wish someone would write about?  Or a kind of shifter that you wouldn’t want to read about?

2.  The new fad of serial releases is starting to grow on me a bit.  How about you?  Are you a serial fan or not?

 

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.

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.