not quite HEA

Captive In The Dark by C.J. Roberts

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Captive in the Dark (The Dark Duet, #1)
Grade-B
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-Low
Series-The Dark Duet #1
Reviewed by Kay

Well, I wouldn’t classify this as a romance. It’s a dark suspense novel in my opinion. It has been all over a review site I frequent and I assumed there was something more to it than it’s blurb. I have had it on my Kindle for awhile and decided it was time. Anne and I spoke about this book months back and thought it was too dark. After reading it, I think we were right.

Caleb is a flesh peddler. A human trafficker. A horrid, horrible person. His only feelings are those of revenge. It is what he lives for and for what happened to him, I feel his desire for revenge is justified. However, he is a despicable human being.

Livvy is an eighteen year old high school senior. All she wants is an escape from the life she leads through a college scholarship. She’s innocent, inexperienced and beautiful. She somehow captured Caleb’s attention. God help her.

Livvy is to become the instrument of Caleb’s revenge against the man who wronged him. She is to be a submissive, willing to do whatever is asked of her. Caleb needs to break her down to make her into a virginal prize on the trafficking market. As they spend more time together, Caleb feels more and more for Livvy.

I’m not saying anything else regarding the outcome of the book but know there is a second one out there. This is a dark, gritty, powerful and life changing novel. I sat my twenty year old daughter down and told her about this book as a warning. C.J. Roberts has penned an excellently written novel. I certainly hope this book doesn’t try to make this more romantic because this man in my opinion is beyond any sort of redemption.

Big Girls On Top by Mercy Walker

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

Big Girls on Top
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Inferno
Kink Level-None
Series-Big Girls #1
Reviewed by Kay

Bev is a size 18 girl. A woman really but I’m keeping consistent with the title. She’s a registered nurse but works as a bartender at a strip club because she makes more money there. She loves her job and her co-workers for the most part. I don’t think it ever said how tall she was but she has fiery red hair and Irish green eyes. Oh, and she hides her freckles well.

Quinn is Italian, gorgeous and very well muscled. Aren’t they all? He shows up to talk to the manager/owner of the strip club, Terry. Bev sees him and watches for him to come out of the back all shift. As she’s leaving with the other girls, she hears someone running up behind her. The club has had a few problems with patrons harassing the girls in the parking lot, so, Bev grabs her stun gun, turns around and stuns the person rushing up to her. It’s Quinn of course and when he comes to he’s so not happy with her. She tries to apologize but he takes off with a pretty hateful glare on his face.

The next day she walks in to Terry’s office to apologize to Quinn. Terry leaves them in there to talk it out but Quinn grabs Bev and kisses the hell out of her. They then engage in some pretty blistering sex on the desk.  I won’t reveal the rest but suffice it to say, the ending was abrupt but should send the reader into wanting book two.

There were several things I liked about this story. First, I loved that Bev was comfortable in her own skin while being aware of her weight. She totally owned it and flaunted what she thought were her best assets. Second, I loved Quinn being okay with her size. Third, the humor in the story was very good. Fourth, the sex was great.

I did have things that I didn’t care for also. First, the descriptions of her appetite and eating were borderline gross. Second, some of the descriptions of their sexual encounter also border on gross for me. Thirdly, it needed more editing.

I wish there had been a little more story but I knew it was a short read going in. I liked it and appreciate Mercy Walker giving us the opportunity to read and review it.

When You Don’t Get What You’re Expecting

Posted on by Dirty Girl Anne

So, I just finished all 38 pages of Cara McKenna’s Brazen.
Brazen
There.  Enjoy that cover goodness!  For about 37 pages I was in love with this short story.  It’s different.  It’s really hot.   Caroline and Sean are awesome together.  And Caroline put together an honest to goodness harem of young men who are on a schedule to come and hang out with her each evening.  (Or should I say hang out and come with her???)  But on that last page…  it’s not a happy ending.  They each go their own way.  I just didn’t see it coming and it really caught me off guard!  (Note to self: check tags on goodreads reviews to look for HEA before reading.)  I think I still would have read it if I’d known it was just about a short affair.  I think I would have liked it better for knowing what I was getting into, actually.  Which brings me to my point…

I hate it when I don’t get what I’m expecting!  I read to escape my real life.  I expect a HEA, and I appreciate some hot sex along the way.  But I’m picky about that, too.  I like to know what kind of heat level to expect before I read.  I’m generally ok if a book is hotter than I expected, but if I’m expecting explicit love scenes and I don’t get them, it leaves me disappointed.

Most of the time, reading for escape, I’m reading for an HEA.  The new 50 Shades trend of trilogies where you only get the HEA after all three books?  Drives me CRAZY.  I don’t want to wait that long!  But it makes me horribly mad to read and find a cliffhanger ending when I’m not expecting it!  That’s rare now, as I’m reading more reviews and on the lookout for such manipulations!  I’d rather think of the trilogy as one big book, and I don’t want to read them unless I can read them all.

There are excpetions, of course, because I totally love Dallas and Roarke (J.D. Robb) and I think I’ll read anything in the Kate Daniels world (though I’m a book behind!) and these are both series that stay with the same couple all the way through.  Oh, and the Adrian English series by Josh Lanyon goes on that same couple series list.  In each of these cases, the book itself comes to a pretty satisfactory ending, it just leaves you wanting more – not teetering at the edge of a cliffhanger.

So I know what I want.  And I’ll read reviews and snoop around to make sure I’m getting what I want.  And if I’m goign to step out of my usual, I like to know it going in.  (Ummm, yeah, people have mentioned that i might have some control issues.  It’s ok, I’ve got it under control.)  How about you?  Do you enjoy a surprise?  Are you ok with a cliffhanger?  What do you think?  ~Anne