It's Monday! What are you Reading? (29th October 2012)

This is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey that gives us all a chance to list the books that we read last week and what we hope to read this week.

Oh dear, I think it's fair to say that I'm in the middle of a bit of a reading/blogging slump at the moment, with no books finished last week and only one book reviewed. I'm really going to try harder this week though *sigh*

Books Read Last Week:

None

Books Reviewed Last Week:

Slow Ride by Lorelei James (Rough Riders #9.5) - Contemporary Erotic Romance - 2/5

Books I'm Currently Reading:

Planning for Love by Christi Barth (Aisle Bound #1)

Books Up Next:

Run the Risk by Lori Foster (Love Undercover #1)

Review: Slow Ride by Lorelei James (Rough Riders #9.5)

Publisher - Samhain Publishing
Publication Date - 9th November 2010
Genre - Erotic Romance

Source - Free download from Amazon

Rating - 2 out of 5: It was ok

Book Info - Keely McKay Donohue is enduring the longest wedding reception of her life: her own. The only saving grace is that Jack Donohue is finally hers. Usually her hunky man gives her everything she wants, so why is her groom denying her the one thing she wants right now?

Jack thought his secretive wait-for-the-honeymoon plan was romantic, until he realizes he’s only put Keely in a fighting mood. If he wants to get back on his temperamental bride’s good side, he’d better find a way to sweep his cowgirl off her boots…fast.

Review - This is only going to be a quick review as Slow Ride is a very short read. I saw that this was available as a free download from Amazon and as I had heard a lot of good things about Lorelei James I decided to give it a try. It was an enjoyable read but as it was number 9.5 in the series there are a lot of people mentioned who I assume I would have heard of if I'd read the previous books in the series. They didn't really have much bearing on the story so it's not as if you need to have read the others first, but it does disturb the flow of reading whenever yet another name is mentioned as you end up wondering who that person is rather than concentrating on the story.

Slow Ride starts at Keely and Jack's wedding reception, where Keely is trying her best to get him to, ahem, consumate the marriage then and there. But Jack has a plan to wait until the honeymoon as he wants to start off their married life in a romantic way rather than with a quickie at the reception venue. Unfortunately for both of them, the honeymoon destination is a day's worth of travel away. What ensues is Keely taking every opportunity that she can to seduce Jack. The author manages to build up the sexual tension really well between the two of them and it was a perfect escalation to that moment where Jack takes Keely for the first time as husband and wife.

But the main problem I had with Slow Ride was that it stops before that happens. Just as Jack and Keely are about to finally get it on, after all that teasing and seducing, building up all that tension, the story just stops and the reader is left hanging. It just felt like a little bit of a let down.

Summary - A quick and sexy read that does a great job of building up the sexual tension for the big moment. However, it would have been much better if the reader got to read about that moment rather than being left hanging.

It's Monday! What are you Reading? (22nd October 2012)

This is a weekly meme hosted by Book Journey that gives us all a chance to list the books that we read last week and what we hope to read this week.

Books Read Last Week:

Hostile Takeover by Joey W. Hill (Knights of the Boardroom #5)

Slow Ride by Lorelei James (Rough Riders #9.5)

Books Reviewed Last Week:

Heat of Passion by Elle Kennedy (Out of Uniform #2) - Contemporary Erotic Romance - 5/5

Hostile Takeover by Joey W. Hill (Knights of the Boardroom #5) - Contemporary Erotic Romance - 4/5

Books I'm Currently Reading:

Planning for Love by Christi Barth (Aisle Bound #1)

Books Up Next:

Run the Risk by Lori Foster (Love Undercover #1)
 

Review: Hostile Takeover by Joey W. Hill (Knights of the Boardroom #5)

Publisher - Ellora's Cave
Publication Date - 27th January 2012
Genre - Erotic Romance

Source - Received from publisher for review via NetGalley

Rating - 4 out of 5: I really liked it

Book Info - Ben is the last unattached member of the five-man executive team of K&A Associates. The other four, all Masters, have found the submissives of their dreams. That's fine. The sharp-edged lawyer knows he's the most hardcore of them all, with extreme tastes as a Master he satisfies physically through experienced club submissives. He doesn't really need anything more.

Marcie has loved Ben since she was sixteen. He's never behaved as anything more than a protective big brother, a family friend. But now she's twenty-three and starting her career as a corporate investigator. She may be a blood-and-bone-deep submissive, but she won't hesitate to use her aggressive talents to prove she's meant to be his. With a Master as tough as Ben, she'll have to take whatever measures are needed-even if her deepest desire isn't a hostile takeover of his heart, but an unconditional surrender to it.

Reader Advisory: Marcie's sexual journey contains a group scene of female/female sexual exploration. The Masters also share her in a brief group scene. Both these beautifully erotic moments are essential to deepening Marcie's bond with Ben.

My Thoughts - When I saw Hostile Takeover on Netgalley I was very intrigued by both the blurb and the cover. And luckily, I was not at all disappointed by this book.

I have read a few books recently focusing on BDSM - it seems to be difficult to avoid the topic these days in erotic romance ever since the popularity of Fifty Shades - but this definitely seems to be one of the better ones in my opinion. What I liked most about it was that it didn't just focus on the sexual side of BDSM, but gave a lot of insight into the psychological aspects of being both a submissive and a dominant. I found this absolutely fascinating and it's not something I've come across much in this genre. This is the fifth book in the series so I've come to this party very late but, according to the little hints the reader gets about the previous couples from the series, they all seem to have very different types of relationships and I'll be going back to the beginning of the series to see how the author describes the psychological aspects of these relationships.

The sexual aspects of the book were pretty hot but, as Ben is a sadist and hardcore Master, there were some elements that made me feel a little uncomfortable. But this is just a personal thing and I still enjoyed the book as a whole.

I really liked Marcie as a main character. Although this might sound contradictory considering the fact that she is a submissive, she is a very strong and feisty character who knows exactly what she wants in life and will stop at nothing to get it. She challenges Ben a lot and I loved seeing the chemistry and change in dynamics between the two of them that this brings about.

I did like Ben, although not quite as much as I liked Marcie. His background is explained, therefore detailing why he is reluctant to give up his heart to anybody, but this information seemed to mostly be given by others and I didn't really feel as though I got into Ben's head as much as I would have liked to when it came to his past. This meant that I didn't really connect with him as well as I did Marcie. Plus, he does something to Marcie that is pretty unforgivable (I won't go into any more detail than that though so as to avoid spoilers) and this made me like him a little less too. Although he was very sorry for what he did and he did willingly atone for his sins so it didn't make me completely hate him. I can see that this event was pretty essential to the development of the plot though so that made it slightly easier to forgive him.

Summary - An enjoyable Erotic Romance that gives a very detailed and interesting look into the dynamics of a BDSM relationship. A great read!

Other books in the series:
1. Board Resolution
2. Controlled Response
3. Honor Bound
4. Afterlife
5. Hostile Takeover

Review: Heat of Passion by Elle Kennedy (Out of Uniform #2)

Publisher - Samhain Publishing
Publication Date - 24th March 2009
Genre - Erotic Romance

Source - Purchased

Rating - 5 out of 5: It was amazing!

Book Info - Carson Scott is the king of one-night stands, so a naughty encounter with a sexy brunette in a nightclub supply closet is right up his alley. When his mysterious seductress disappears, he’s blindsided by an unfamiliar emotion—disappointment. One thing’s for sure…if he ever encounters his lady of the evening again, he won’t let her slip away so easily.

Between her catering business, family issues, and her broken heart, Holly Lawson has too much on her plate to think about committing to a serious relationship. Hot, sweaty, anonymous sex with a Navy SEAL…now that sounds like the perfect appetizer to take the edge off. With no plans to ever see him again, she indulges in a fling. Only to come face to face with him weeks later while working a wedding.

Worse, Carson is hell-bent on the one thing she doesn’t want. The R word. She has no intention of falling for him, but in the face of his seductive, mind-changing methods, her resistance is crumbling…

Warning: This title contains a ridiculously hot Navy SEAL, a sassy heroine, and sex in a supply closet. Read only if you have time to take a cold shower afterwards. Graphic sex, explicit language.

My Thoughts - Wow, this book is HOT! The chemistry between the two main characters means that you have to take the warning in the book blurb very seriously - only read it if you have time to take a cold shower afterwards! The sex between Carson and Holly made steam come out of my Kindle (okay, not literally otherwise I may have cried over the loss of my beloved Kindle, but you know what I mean).

I fell for Carson from the first page. He is used to having women fling themselves at him and he has had way more than his fair share of one-night stands. But now that his best friend is settling down and getting married (Garrett from book one in the series) he can't help but think he'd like to do the same. But a one-night stand in a night club supply closet makes him see that his lifestyle is getting a little out of control. He hates himself for succumbing to anonymous sex with somebody he's never going to see again so he vows to stop fooling around and look for somebody to get serious with - ideally the woman from the nightclub who he hasn't been able to stop thinking about since their encounter.

What I loved most about Carson was the way that, after finding Holly again, he did everything he could to let her know how serious he was about being in a relationship with her. I love books that have a hero who isn't afraid to go after the woman he loves and Carson is definitely that kind of guy. He's fun, sexy, charming and a Navy SEAL. What more could a girl want?

Holly is also a great character. She is the mother figure for all of her brothers and sisters since her mother died a couple of years ago and they literally can't do a thing without her. They are constantly phoning her for help with things that they are more than capable of doing themselves, especially since Holly is the youngest of them all. But she does it all with a smile on her face and never complains - her family are everything to her. She is incredibly strong, being able to take on the responsibility of her family whilst grieving the death of her own mother. But I loved how Carson brings out her fun side and makes her realise that it is also time for her to start living her own life rather than running around after everybody else.

Summary - A steaming hot romance with characters that are so easy to fall in love with. I am loving this series and I can't wait to get started on book three.

Other books in the series:
1. Heat of the Moment
2. Heat of Passion
3. Heat of the Storm
4. Heat it Up
5. Heat of the Night
6. The Heat is On
7. Feeling Hot
8. Getting Hotter (released November)