Thirty Days by Shayla Kersten (Liquid Silver Books)
This book horrified me. So much so that I literally can’t bring myself to read the sequel. Thirty Days got fabulous reviews all over the web and has intrigued me for a while, so I was excited to find the time to read it. But once I did, I was absolutely appalled. If this is really what people think BDSM is, no wonder it’s so reviled and hated — because it should be.

This whole review is italicized, bolded, and written in flashing red and yellow danger signs in my head, so imagine that as you read it. I’ll try to be restrained (harhar — very weak joke).

Cavan has been in held in literal sexual slavery for nine years, probably since he was 13, maybe 11. He has a 6th grade reading level. He has no idea how to interact with anyone normally. He hasn’t seen a woman in a decade. He has no idea if he’s really gay or really into BDSM, because he was given no choice about either. And these issues are NEVER resolved in the book. He’s three months out of this literal slavery — THREE MONTHS!!! — and he’s taken to a BDSM party to be hooked up with Biton, a dom who is three months past his partner’s death from cancer. Biton wants Cavan, takes him, and then when he figures out the depth of Cavan’s issues, including not knowing whether he’s actually gay or submissive, doesn’t immediately stop the relationship and treat Cavan as the little boy he is emotionally and intellectually, but continues with the relationship because he wants to, because he’s hot for Cavan and because ::gag:: Cavan is so sweetly submissive:

Biton set down his coffee cup and stood up. “He doesn’t understand that being a slave is a lifestyle choice. He’s never really known any other life. He thinks being tortured is normal.” Biton paced the kitchen, anger at the people who did this to Cavan growing with each step. “He’s a gentle soul. I don’t think he’d be into submission if he hadn’t been forced into it.”

“And you want to keep him around.” It wasn’t a question and Harry hit the nail on the head.

Biton wanted Cavan, but the idea of giving up the thrill of control, of power over a helpless body, bound and gagged, waiting for his whim…The memory of Cavan strapped in the sling Friday made him shiver. “Yes.”

How can someone write those three paragraphs together? Seriously? How can you say you don’t think he’d be into submission if he weren’t tortured into it when he was thirteen and then shiver at the memory of this same man strapped into a sex sling?! It made me nauseous, personally, and although Biton isn’t the man who enslaved Cavan, he’s coming pretty fucking close here, to my mind.

Exposition reveals that Cavan showed up in an ER three months previously “badly beaten. His back was a bloody mess, broken arm, two fractured ribs and rectal lacerations from some kind of foreign object. He refused to press charges against his attacker” and the BDSM “Society” that Biton and his friends belong to “warned Wainwright [Cavan's "master"], threatened to exclude him and issue warnings to potential subs.” You’re shitting me? They fucking WARN him?! They don’t CALL THE COPS?! The ER doesn’t CALL THE COPS?! A whipped back, a broken arm, broken ribs, and anal rape doesn’t qualify for someone getting arrested, whether or not Cavan files the charges?!

Somebody posted on Twitter (it might actually have been Jane) a few days after Roman Polanski was arrested that they’re sick of how the media says Polanski “had sex with a 13 year old girl”, rather than saying he “drugged and raped his 13 year old victim”. Don’t say “had sex with” when it was really “drugged and raped.” In this story, Biton and his friends continue to call Cavan’s abuser his “former master” and a “dom.” No, dammit. No. He’s a pedophile, a rapist, a torturer and, apparently, a murderer. Don’t continue to call him a “dom” when what he did was so hideous. Raping, torturing, and enslaving thirteen year olds is so far from being a BDSM dom that it’s not even funny. So unfunny I was crying with despair when I read this book.

In fact, this book almost made me throw up. This is NOT BDSM, folks. Some things are too big for a romance to cure. A boy — barely 20 — three months out of a decade-long abuse, rape, and torture, a boy with a 6th grade education and an inability to interact with anyone normally, should not be entering into ANY relationship, let alone one with a sexual dominant who has problems understanding the ability to give consent. Because more than anything, Cavan cannot give his consent, the foundation of Safe, Sane, and Consensual. Grade: Epic EPIC FAIL.

Pink Buttercream Frosting by Lissa Matthews (Samhain Publishing)
If you’re going to write about BDSM, if you’re going to have one character be a much sought-after dom and the other be a newbie sub, then the sex should be something other than vaguely hot, but otherwise normal, ordinary vanilla sex. You can’t just slap a BDSM label on a romance that in all other respects is a vanilla romance and expect your audience to believe you without actually including anything that looks or feels like BDSM sex. Bondage, discipline, domination, submission, sadism, masochism. Those are some pretty scary words and some pretty involved practices. But having your hero identify as a dom and your heroine identify as a sub doesn’t mean that their story is a BDSM romance unless you actually have them interact on a BDSM level. Don’t get me wrong, it’s possible to be BDSM-identified and have a vanilla relationship and be happy in it (so I’m told), but then you can’t call the book about that relationship a BDSM romance. To be a BDSM romance, the relationship must be built with, explored through, filtered by BDSM practices in the relationship, not just generic BDSM identification by the characters without any application in the relationship.

Aidn is a much sought-after dom who does not date his submissives. Huh? Why not? “He dated vanilla women, engaged in vanilla sex and kept the dominant side of himself just out of reach. It was simply something he did, something he’d done in the years since…” (ellipse in original). Ah. The old “past submissive ruined me for everyone else” trick. Right. Anyway, so Aidn meets Bailey at the mall, they recognize each other from the BDSM club they both frequent, and they go to her place to have sex, because they’re too hot for each other not to. He’s stripped her, has her sitting on her kitchen counter, orders her around a bit, and then cuts her panties off her. Big whoop-dee-doo. Without the constant internal refrain from both characters about their need to dominate or submit, none of this would be out of place in non-BDSM erotica. They do nothing — NOTHING — that vanilla people wouldn’t do when having sex. And then Bailey thinks:

She was slipping into a place that she’d only dreamed of. Subspace; the sensation of floating on air, a bliss so sweet it could be painful. She’d read about it, talked to others about it, but until Aidn, she hadn’t had an inkling of what it might be like to feel it. She gave herself up to it, gave herself and her pleasure over to him, and he was taking her there, making her fly. She was a different woman than she’d been just hours ago.

Oh good lord, no. Subspace is, usually, an endorphin high from being beaten. It’s a feeling of floating, an in-body/out-of-body experience that is the result of physical overstimulation and PAIN. Sure, good BDSM relationships can have submissives slipping into a submissive mindset with a word or a look from their dominants, but that’s not subspace, dammit. It’s certainly not flying! Good lord.

And, finally, submissive does not equal doormat. When a guy fucks you three ways to Sunday then leaves before you wake up, doesn’t contact you for two weeks, and then walks into your bakery, you do not just kiss him when he tells you to. You give him the cold shoulder, make him explain himself, scream at him for being an asshole. Not Bailey. No, sir, she kisses Aidn and calls him sir. Then when he runs AGAIN, she goes looking for him. Give me a break. Might as well write “WELCOME” from sternum to belly-button and lie down in the doorway.

And! way to go, Aidn, ruining another dominant’s scene on purpose by being a possessive asshole about a woman you’ve been running away from for 50 pages. Fabulous manners there. BDSM does NOT give anyone the permission to act like a complete asshole like Aidn seems to think it does. Irrational jealousy is not an attractive trait and not the innate right of a dominant. In fact, most doms are the opposite of jealous.

Bailey’s a doormat, Aidn’s an asshole, and the only thing BDSM about this story is their constant harping on it being their true identity. Take that away and it’s a mildly hot Harlequin with an alphole (TM SBTB) hero and a ridiculously self-effacing heroine. Grade: F

This book can be purchased from Samhain.

Bondage Betrayal by Lila DuBois (Liquid Silver Books)
This book makes the strong distinction between nice normal sane people who do a few kinky things now and then in the bedroom and those dirty rotten perverts who fully identify as kinky and try to live it all the time. I’m actually loathe to include this book in this list, because it’s got some really great writing, really hot scenes, and deep emotional issues. Then again, it’s also got a Big Mis that’s solved in three seconds and the characters are suddenly soulmates again.

Savannah is a famous yet anonymous and stunningly sadistic femdom. The first scene of the book is hot until you get to the part about: “He screamed, not merely a cry, but a true scream. Around the room people jumped, some of the Doms moving as if they would interfere, but no one did.” Um, why not? Because they should have.

That aside, then, Savannah in her normal life is an artist with a dark past, a deep betrayal in her background. She accepts a commission for a sculpture for a building only to see her dark past, the man who betrayed her, as she leaves the building. They meet again at a BDSM club that evening and most of the book is spent in flashback in alternating points of view that tells about the dark betrayal. Roman and Savannah were very much in love and exploring shaking things up in the bedroom a bit. They go to the house of a “Master” and go through a pretty intense but positive scene as Roman is coached by “Master Wilcox” and another guest. Wilcox then convinces Roman to let him “train” Savannah because she’s a “born submissive” and “needs” submission all the time and Roman can’t provide it because he’s too weak. Proving him right, Roman says yes rather than listening to his instincts. With smoke and mirrors and digital recorders, Wilcox then convinces both Savannah and Roman that they have abandoned each other, all the while raping and torturing Savannah. Savannah feels abandoned and betrayed (duh) and runs away, Roman feels abandoned and betrayed and runs away, everyone runs away until they come back together in the end with 20 seconds of “I’m sorry”, “no, I’m sorry”.

On the surface, it looks like the conflict between the characters is a deep betrayal, but underneath, the conflict is actually a Big Misunderstanding that pits The Plucky Hero and Heroine against The Evil BDSM World. BDSM is the enemy. Anyone who does it as more than spice in a relationship is evil and a torturer. And anyone who feels the need to do it more than occasionally should be willing to give it up to please their partner. And yes, technically, sometimes people who do BDSM are evil, but really, statistically, many more vanilla people are evil than kinky people. Grade: D

This book can be purchased from Liquid Silver.

Look, I know that authors are convinced that their books are unique and spring from their own fears and desires, so they’re just trying to tell this one story and aren’t writing a treatise about all BDSM everywhere (this was Tymber Dalton’s defense about her hot mess of a story). And they’re right, of course. But those fears and desires are themselves shaped by culture and society and the people we’re with and the shows we watch and the books we read. And if all books, shows, people, society, culture represent BDSM as sick, twisted, perverted, ridiculous, then that’s going to be reflected in your writing sometimes, however much you might not want it to, unless you’re a very strong-willed writer OR unless you have a healthy understanding of and respect for BDSM-identified people that comes from lots of experience in and with BDSM. Yes, DuBois’ book shows some scenes in which BDSM is used to enhance sexual interaction, but the fundamental, underlying message of the story is that anyone who wants it full-time, anyone who actually identifies as full-on kinky, is evil and sociopathic, abusive, manipulative, and murderous. Is that really what she was trying to say? On the other hand, Matthews has it in her head that BDSM is Hott! and Exciting! and makes a relationship better and bigger and more meaningful. But that doesn’t mean that any sex scene labeled BDSM is kinky — it just doesn’t.

Impacted! by Mickie B. Ashling (Dreamspinner Press)
Finally, a book that gets BDSM very right, in my opinion (Yay!), but is terribly, horribly, awfully written (Boo!). It’s just as possible to get the BDSM right and be a truly bad writer, as it is to be a great writer and get the BDSM wrong. Everything Ashling writes about the BDSM sounds fine. She seems to get the emotions, understand the way it feels, understand the whys and wherefores. It’s not abusive, it’s not the enemy, it’s not there just to make the story hot. But she’s just a truly bad writer: info-dumping; terrible flat, bland voice; ridiculously flat, stereotyped characters; characters and storylines that come out of nowhere; cringe-worthy motivation — you name it, this book has it.

Scott is an oral surgeon (no, really — there’s a whole plot point about making sure his partner doesn’t do some delicate oral surgery because he doesn’t have the training. Sexay!) and a sexual submissive and masochist. He comes to work one day and finds that his new dental hygienist is the dominant he hooked up with for a one night stand a few weeks ago. Hijinks ensue, mostly having to do with their homophobic mutual boss. It’s one of those stories that thinks it’s a romance because there are apparent external barriers keeping the couple apart, but not really, and the characters fall in love and express that love so early that there’s no emotional tension or uncertainty at all. It’s boring. Seriously boring. Even with the ridiculous plot twist at the end of the book. The BDSM’s good, but the story as a whole is a cure for insomnia. Even though I struggled through in order to write the review, I’d have to say that this book was truly unreadable. Grade: F

Oh, and P.S.? No dom is going to pierce his sub’s left nipple. Left side flags dominant. Right side flags submissive. Do your research.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format.

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I admit that the one and only book I read by you was one about football and I had a fairly negative reaction to it given that so little of the football aspect was portrayed with accuracy.  I was  hoping that this would be different.  While Hot as Sin is readable, it suffers from the same problem as the football book.  The story is paramount and little details don’t matter so long as the story proceeds in the fashion that you want.  Accuracy, authenticity take second fiddle to the emotional arcs of the characters.

Sam and Dianna were the epitome of young love (or at least that is the set up that you want us to buy initially).   Sam was 20 and I think Dianna was 18.  Dianna, for reasons revealed later, leaves Sam at the tender age of 20 and Sam has never, ever gotten over it.  He’s so connected to her that when he is told she was in a car accident in Colorado, he immediately flies (from the Lake Tahoe area) to be by her side.  Sam is a forest firefighter, a “hotshot”.

The story that you tell about them – young, hormonal and immature was well conveyed to me. Their emotional arc was in overcoming this. I found it rather frustrating that, despite time and distance, they weren’t perceptive enough to come to the realization separately.  It was easier for them to progress forward by pretending the other was responsible for their failed relationship. Of course for either character to admit their own role in a failed teenage relationship would have lessened the tension in the story (given that I didn’t buy into the myopia, there was no tension for me either, only frustration). As an add on sort of conflict, Sam is distressed that he is a firefighter and Dianna is a big cable news star (not of a major news network but of some regional show).

The external conflict is represented in the form of Dianna’s search for her sister.  Her sister called to report she had joined a commune.  Dianna rushes to meet her sister. After a frustrating meeting, Dianna leaves, upset.  She gets into a car accident which results in fatality of another driver and lands in the hospital.  The twin brother of the dead driver finds out that Dianna has a sister and kidnaps her.  The sister is able to escape and report she is in danger but her captor cuts the message short.

For some reason, Sam decides for Dianna that if she reports this to the police they will not listen to her and the only way to save Dianna’s sister is to go after her. Even if the sister is a flake, if she calls you and reports she is in physical danger and then you can’t return her phone calls, it seems reasonable to report this and not go running into the mountains with some firefighter.

Sam, who cut his teeth on “class five rapids on the American River in California” takes Dianna on similar level white waters in a tipsy inflatable raft.  “Was he out of his fucking mind?” he asks himself at one point.  That is my question exactly.  Also, given that Sam is from the Sierra Nevadas and Dianna is from San Francisco, what the hell are the two doing hiking by themselves? Doesn’t it make sense to get someone to guide them or is one mountain range just the same as any other?  Of course, having a guide along would ruin the possibility for sexy hijinks between the two.

Dianna, however, turns out to be “instinctively better at rafting than most of the guys he went rafting with during his off months.” Dianna and Sam also engage in cliff climbing (something Dianna also has never done before) and hiking long distances (again, something Dianna is engaging in just one day after a traumatic car wreck).  The boon for the story is that because Dianna is so inept, Sam gets to save her again and again and again.

There were editing problems:

Pulling out a credit card, he got them each a room, knowing it wasn’t exactly what they’d prefer, but deciding to take what they could get at this point.

He didn’t beat around the bush when he emerged from the lobby. “They only had one room left.”

How could he get them each a room when there was only one room left?  He could have “tried” to get them each a room but he couldn’t actually succeed.

“But he couldn’t ignore the dichotomy between her salary and his.”

Dichotomy? I think you meant discrepancy?

Also

“She was gravity and he was falling.”

Gravity doesn’t make things fall.  Gravity is the pull between two particulate masses.   Gravity = the force on two masses.  If she is the force that pulls two masses together, then he would be one mass and …. what would be the other?  There were others, but the point is that once I spotted a couple, I began to question all the metaphors and similes.

The implausibility of the story continues to the very end where the hero rises miracuously from a fall that should have killed most mortal men and he just gets a CT scan and is released.  Like that would EVER HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE.  Also? They give him clothes from a doctor because he is just too big for the hospital gowns (he is, by the way, 6′2″ which is not so enormous that they don’t have gowns for peeps his size.)

The writing style was frustrating.  The characters constantly talk to themselves in the form of rhetorical questions. Sometimes it seemed like it was pages and pages of rhetorical questions:

But hadn’t he done the same thing she was doing now, immediately assumign that she had to be looking down on him and his salary?

How much of the blue-collar, white-collar dichotomy was in his own head?

…

Only a handful of people knew he played.  How could he have forgotten Dianna was one of them?

…

Damn it, was there anything they could talk about that wasn’t a minefield?”

….

Did he know that his touch made her heart race?  That even without touching an erogenous zone, she was getting hopelessly aroused?

Also, for a book called “Hot as Sin” there was little sex in the story.  Up until page 173, the only sex scene was a furtive teenage grope and penetration in a truck.  The sex occurred, of course, on their trail hike.  As the two were sexxorring their way across the Rockies, I kept thinking where is the urgency to find your sister?  Needless to say, toward the end of the book, everything irritated me.  D

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

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Your books have a beautiful look to them. They look and feel lush, heavy, as if the reader should curl up in front the fireplace with a hot toddy, a blanket and commence reading. Unfortunately for me, if I had done that, I would have been cooked to a crisp because this book too me a month to finish. It’s a lengthy tome, nearly 400 pages, and at the end, I couldn’t really understand why it was so everloving long.

Caleb is the beginning of a paranormal series that is populated with, at least, vampires and werewolves. The first story features Caleb, a shapeshifting vampire, who is the eldest of a group of vampire brothers. (They are a group of rogues, says the blurb. By rogues, I assume that means renegade or someone who rejects the an established group, rather than say a dishonest, knavish fellow.)

The story begins quite well. Allie, the town baker, is in lust with one of her regular customers, Caleb Johnson. She tries to flirt with him, but he seems resistant. She buys a push up bra and provides him (or hopes she provides him) with a tantalizing glance but he seems unmoved. She’s at the end her rope because he does come in every morning and her instincts tell her that something is there between them only he won’t act on that chemistry.

The reason he won’t act on the chemistry is because Caleb is a vampire but when Allie is attacked outside her bakery by a true werewolf, Caleb comes to her aid. He is badly wounded and Allie, urged by a voice in her head, gets the wounded wolf in her vehicle and drives to Circle J, the ranch of the Johnsons. Once there, she’s incarcerated by Caleb’s brothers and then, when he needs blood to live, is taken to Caleb to feed. Caleb feeds upon Allie until she is near death from blood loss. To save her “life”, Caleb has to turn her, which is easily done by having her food from him and slipping into her mind to make the blood taste like champagne.

Does Allie have problems with the fact that she was killed, taken from her family, her entire life changed without request because she tried to save Caleb’s life? A few but none that stop her from boning Caleb until he’s crosseyed. Allie’s loss of her family, contact with her brothers, is nothing more than a blip on her radar. She argues about it once and then it kind of fades away. The supposed fued between the Johnsons and the D’Nallys which brought Allie to death and then into vampirism also fades away. Caleb refers to Allie as his wife and she accepts his claim as wife. Then doesn’t. Then does. Then doesn’t. The plot threads dangle like jellyfish tentacles in the ocean; seeming dozens of them held up by nothing more substantial than gelatinous masses.

The worldbuilding was convenient, at best. When there needed to be some magical, paranormal capability, there was. When it would interfere with the story, then the worldbuilding point was forgotten. For example, why does Allie JUST NOW start hearing voices in her head? Why is she the only one to be fertile when vampires can’t get pregnant? Why is she only able to feed from Caleb?

Allie is one of the most foolish heroines to come along in a long time. She leads Caleb into a nest of bad people hoping that they’ll be interested in just talking to her. Of course, they aren’t. She’s a valuable female, after all. All breeding females in paranormals are valuable so everyone wants her and everyone wants to go to war for her. Merely by making Allie phenomenally sexually attractive to every paranormal male around her does not render her likeable, particularly when she plays the stupid role for most of the book.

To say this book is slow moving would be an understatement. Snails being chased by ground beetles move faster than this book. These characters do nothing but talk. There was a 10 page discussion Caleb, Allie and Caleb’s brothers, and their BFF werewolf neighbor have in the kitchen about whether Allie is pregnant and whether she has a special power. (They don’t know because they’ve cut themselves off from the greater vampire world so they are just guessing which is supposed to be super attractive instead of merely ignorant).

This was 400 pages of talking, talking, and more talking and it wasn’t even fun and interesting talking. It was mundane, ordinary conversations that are barely worthwhile listening to live let alone reading in print.

Toward the end, the villian makes his appearance and is clearly more powerful than either Allie or Caleb or both combined, but the villain places himself in a precarious state because of Allie’s powerful attraction: “You know, I really shouldn’t humor you, but I find that we’re so much alike, it’s difficult not to indulge your moods.”

And, the concept of the baby that the group spends so much time contemplating? Doesn’t even enter her mind when Allie is taken hostage. She is ready to die rather than help the villain. No thought to her supposed pregnancy until toward the end of her captivity (which is pages and pages and pages long but in reality is no more than an afternoon). Conveniently, a new deadly weapon that is deadly to weres and vamps is not deadly to Caleb. Why? Not sure. I think Allie makes him invincible but maybe it’s because, well, I don’t even want to guess.

I guess the saddest thing of all is that this book isn’t even that sexy. McCarty is a well known name within erotic romance circles and this book has, I think, four love scenes that were as dull as the dinnertime conversation. D

Best regards

Jane

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

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The previous two books in the series have told us some awful things about James, the hero in Billionaire’s Bride of Innocence. James was desperate to have a family and when his super model girlfriend could not deliver the goods, so to speak, he divorced her, impregnated a nice young woman, and married the nice young pregnant woman.  Yes, James is a classy guy.  But he’s a billionaire who wants children.  Doesn’t that really absolve him of all sins?

Megan, James’ docile sweet, innocent wife, loses the baby. In the hospital, she overhears James’ two friends, Hugh and Russell, speculating as to whether the marriage will stay together now that James has lost the one thing that he wanted.  Hugh is incensed that James impregnated and then married Megan in the first place, knowing that James did not love her.   Megan is distraught over this news and basically moves into the pool house, refusing to allow James touch her.

James is upset because, well, he wants to be a dad and how can he get her with child again unless they have sex?

Becoming a dad was what James wanted most in the world these days, but it was almost impossible if your wife never let you make love to her.

James sympathised with Megan. He really did. But running away from life was no answer. You had to face up to things, then move on.

Of course, Megan was an extremely soft, shy, vulnerable girl. That was why he’d chosen her.

Megan is torn, though, because she loves James and even the revelation that he is just using her as a baby making machine doesn’t quite kill off that love.  Further, Megan is helplessly attracted to James so that when he suggests a second honeymoon for the two of them, she readily agrees.  Not only does she readily agree to go and have island sex with him, she seeks out the help of her friend, Nicole, to get a full makeover.  She is to become the sexier, more outgoing Megan in order to better appeal to James.

Yes, Megan has no pride. Or backbone.  Or sense of self worth. Her entire life is wrapped up in James and even though there is a tiny period at the end where Megan decides that maybe she is better off without James it doesn’t last long enough to convince me that Megan will be anything but an appendage to James.

James is both appalled and titallated by the new Megan.  He was a bit bored with their pre miscarriage sex.  Megan was usch an innocent and James felt constrained in trying out his dirty ways with her.  What are James’ deep secrets?  Well, he apparently likes to do it in other positions than the missionary and he ties her wrists to the headboard at one time.  Oh, James, your kink is so intimidating!  Thank goodness James is a billionaire because how else would a woman ever want to stay with him?  Actually, Megan was frustrated with the loving that James was doling out.  It was a bit too tame for her as well, but she didn’t say anything to James and she lacked the confidence to initiate anything.

Very little emotional energy is spent contemplating the miscarriage.  James just wants to start boning Megan again so he can make more little babies.  Megan can’t stop thinking about how much she longs for James’ body even though he has no love for her.  It’s probably fair to say that he little  affection for her either, other than she was a suitable baby making vessel.

I’m not certain what disgusted me more. Megan’s inability to value herself and her persistence in continuing to abase herself to try to gain James’ love or James for being a grade A bastard.  I loved it when he accuses Megan of being deceitful when he finds her birth control pills because for a man whose baby making is at the forefront, birth control pills are akin to the devil’s drug. I vacillated between wanting to punch James in the face or shake Megan till her teeth fell out.  It’s not a failure of a book, the writing is too competent. I can give it a D because I am sorry I read it.

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com or in eHarlequin.com“>ebook format from Harlequin only until November 1.

This book was provided to the reviewer by either the author or publisher. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. The Harlequin Affiliate link earns us an affiliate fee if you purchase a book through the link and the Sony link is in conjunction with the sponsorship deal we made for the year of 2009. We do not earn an affiliate fee from Sony through the book link.

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Thank you for sending me your story when I was moaning on Twitter one night about wanting to read a BDSM romance. I hope you don’t regret it.

When I agreed to read the book, I had no idea it was #2 of the Beautiful C*cksucker series. I had no idea that BC *was* a series. I tend to agree with the outrage over the name (Paul Bens’ original reaction, Teddy Pig’s response, Karen Knows Best’s extensive discussion) but I also know that in BDSM play, some epithets that would otherwise be unacceptable (”cunt” comes to mind) are endearments during a scene. Which is not to say that they should be used as titles to the book/series. I will admit, though, that I deliberately avoided most of the debate and arguments because it was too huge and I’ve only got so much mental energy. But if the writing for BC#1 was anything like the writing for BC#2, we should all just have ignored it and let it slip into well-deserved obscurity.

I also had no idea how BC#2 connects with BC#1. And OMFG, doing the research, BC#2 is the second romance for the dom of BC#1 after his sub from BC#1 fucking DIES!! Holy Flying Spaghetti Monster, if I’d known that, I wouldn’t have read it. Don’t freaking kill off the main characters from a previous book! Cardinal Sin of Romance #1! Even if it is after 20 years of “happiness.”

Right. So. That aside…Mikisaburo Nabeshimi is a high-profile cop in Tokyo. He goes to New York to drop his son off at Columbia and meets Dave Kirkland, a brash young cop, when Miki meets a friend of his at the courthouse. Dave is the unofficial foster son of a Chinese woman killed by the man that Miki’s friend successfully defends against the murder charge. (Confused yet, dear readers? This is a novella. None of these stories are really resolved.) The story is the progression of Miki and Dave’s D/s relationship as they chase down Miki’s friend’s client and prove that he’s actually guilty of serial murder.

So, my notes say: “Dave is a bratty little shit with no personality, Miki is stereotypical inscrutable Japanese dom.” I think that kind of sums it all up. This is one of those books that, to my mind, get BDSM so wrong, it’s scary and dangerous. Miki basically inflicts his domination on Dave, a complete BDSM newbie without a clue of what Miki’s doing. He makes Dave guess what’s going on, never talks with him about anything, “punishes” Dave in various ways for infractions in protocol and behavior that they haven’t talked about or agreed to, and just in general acts like an absolute shit. The whole concept of

“I can sense what you need even if you can’t. Trust me”

is actually contrary to all good BDSM practice. It’s not sexy, it’s frightening. Then again, Dave is an immature asshole who takes risk after risk without thought for the personal or broader consequences. BDSM is about safe, sane, and consensual, and all three of those require open and honest communication. BDSM is both mentally and physically dangerous when not discussed openly and for Miki to keep Dave guessing, to never talk to him about what they’re doing, is stupid and wrong. (And biting hard enough to leave a scar, without TALKING ABOUT IT BEFOREHAND, is not only wrong, it’s actually about impossible.)

What is also stupid and wrong is that Miki decides that he and Dave will go under cover to catch the killer. He informs Dave of this fact, then acts the same way with the undercover assignment as he does with the BDSM: never talks to Dave, never tells Dave his plans, keeps Dave guessing and on his toes and in the dark. Which is all very well for the sex (or not), but OMFG!stupid for a freaking undercover assignment that could get either or both of them KILLED! Metaphor for the relationship? I think so, but not in a good way.

There are story lines that go nowhere and coincidences that are just too much to believe (Dave’s best friend’s suicide?! The fact that Miki figures out the connection between the NY killing and killings in Japan in about a second?! Dave’s inherited apartment?!). All the incest imagery was strange and freaky and odd: Miki’s (platonic, lesbian) wife talking to Dave about their son gets Dave all hot and bothered, for example. Ick. And finally, Miki talks about his former lover (hero of BC#1, remember) as a friend and sometimes lover, but not as the love of his life: this is romance? How am I supposed to trust the HEA of this book if you’ve not only destroyed but called into question the very existence of the HEA of the previous book? All this AND the resolution of the suspense plot is confusing (I have no idea of who is doing what, where, and in what order) and anti-climactic.

So. Just no. Thank you for your generosity and I’m sorry I couldn’t like the book. But just no.

Grade: D

Best Regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

As a Mean Girl review, this one doesn’t really need an FTC disclaimer, but here’s one anyway: This book was provided to the reviewer by the author. The reviewer did not pay for this book but received it free. We endorse good books that portray BDSM positively, realistically, and safely, but this book isn’t and doesn’t.

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I opened THIS anthology because I liked Sindustry I. But this volume is so obviously all the leftover stories from the Sindustry I anthology that didn’t quite make it into the first volume. And most of these stories should NOT have been included. This anthology had very few redeeming stories and some that make me want to puke, which kinda dampens any enthusiasm I might have for the whole. Mostly it’s filled with stories with awful, weak, boring, TSTL characters who couldn’t characterize their way out of a paper bag, and their ridiculously over-protective and unrealistic saviors. I have never really understood what m/m readers are complaining about when they say that that one of the characters doesn’t have to be the woman, but I do now. In this volume, one half of the relationship was invariably the damsel in distress who needed saving, the other the knight in shining armor who knew just how to take care of things, pretty lady…uh, I mean lad. Yech.

As in Sindustry I, the premise is that these are all stories about people in the sex industry, either strippers, prostitutes, or porn actors. This volume does a much worse job of speculating about whether it is possible to have a realistic representation of tricking and yet still have a good romance. Because the other problem with most of these stories is how glamorized prostitution or stripping is made out to be. And it’s not. That’s why I liked “Sunshine” so much, I think, because it showed some gritty realism about what money does to a relationship.

“Package Boy” by Connie Bailey
A strange little story about a high-end rent boy who has fallen in love with a client who happens to be the heir to a Mafia family. He hears a hit ordered on his lover while on another call and the rest of the story deals with how he and his lover respond to the news. Told mostly in choppy, untagged dialogue, the conflict is mostly external. The relationship conflict isn’t sign-posted very well so I didn’t know that it existed until it was solved. The affection between the lovers is genuine and the sex is pretty hot, but there’s a bit too much grating, unexplained mafia language. Grade: C

“Dance for Me” by Maria Albert
This story was both so melodramatic it was funny, and so completely disturbing I was sickened. Carlo is saved from an abusive john by Michael, a bouncer at a club. Carlo is barely 21 and has been kept in literal sexual slavery for 7 years, only to have been thrown out by his captor 2 weeks previously. Michael is 43 and lives at the club, which seems to be a kind of halfway house for gay homeless men, complete with Leprechaun-like Irish owner. Carlo and Michael instantly fall in love, but can’t communicate enough to actually figure things out without intercession by Michael’s boss. Carlo is a complete mess and Michael seems a few cards short of a deck and to have a relationship between them when Carlo is only 2 weeks out of 7 years of abuse and Michael seems emotionally unstable was unbelievably appalling. There’s a limit to what can be solved in a novel, let alone a short story. Don’t set up characters who need years of therapy and think some sex and a few kisses makes everything all better. Ew. The ending’s even worse, the HEA degraded beyond compare by the creepiness of Michael’s final words to Carlo. Grade: F

“Unorthodox Utopia” by G.S. Wiley
Stephen owns a salon but needs extra cash. He hires on as hair and makeup artist for a low budget porn shoot, where he meets Jeff, one of the actors, who has an abusive boyfriend. The story, told from Stephen’s first person point of view, is a nice, gentle blossoming of a good relationship, as Jeff leaves his boyfriend and grows closer with Stephen. There’s no sex, just two men getting to know and care for each other, even if they do it rather too quickly considering Jeff’s abusive relationship. Grade: C+

“Leather Dancer” by Andrew Grey
Denny is dragged to a Leather Expo by his way-more-outgoing friend. There he sees Robbie, the next-door-neighbor he’s been crushing on for months, dancing at a booth. Over the next month, they build a solid relationship. The characterization seems non-existent. Denny is a shy introvert, then he’s the driving force behind the relationship. Robbie is an annoying wet noodle who seems to bend to Denny’s whim and whatever the story needs him to do. Complete lameness: having Denny buy books from a booth at the Expo that is obviously the Dreamspinner booth, complete with titles mentioned. Stretching credulity: Robbie takes Denny to his father’s restaurant on their first date. Boring writing, very little conflict. Grade: C-

“Corona & Lime” by Sonia Devereaux
Jacob hasn’t wanted or had a relationship — or even sex — in ten months, since his boyfriend dumped him. Race is paid by Jacob’s friends to pick him up in a bar. They go to Race’s apartment, but Jacob puts on the breaks and they fight in a very amusing way (to me, at least). The next morning, they find a way to the beginnings of a relationship. The story is told from the point of view of both Race and Jacob as they each feel out their vulnerabilities and find how the other could fix them. Each convinced that the other couldn’t want them, the end is sweetly optimistic. Grade: B

“Sunshine” by JL Merrow
I thought Merrow’s story in Sindustry I was one of the best in that volume. “Sunshine” is definitely the best in this. The story is set in England, I presume in London, and replete with British slang. Daniel is a street-walker, Rob a bouncer at a bar who checks up on Daniel on the way home. He takes Daniel home with him once, paying for sex, ruining their tentative friendship and the story tells how they find their way back to each other. Sweet and sad and wonderful. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like Merrow has any full-length novels yet, just short stories. Pity. Grade: B+

“Night Moves” by Patric Michael
Guy who is NOT a trick spontaneously rescues a hustler and vows to protect and keep him all of his days. Huh? Over-emotional, crying at the drop of a hat, unbelievable love at first sight, out-of-left-field motivations, and generally a story that makes absolutely no sense. And don’t people know that relationship tattoos are incredibly bad juju? They’re a death knell to a relationship, so if characters go out and get one, I’m pretty much ready to chuck the book. Not sexy and romantic, just stupid! (But that might just be me.) Grade: D

“Wanting More” by Cari Z
Alex is a stripper who goes home with a trick, only to be discovered by the guy’s long-term partner. He is surprised when the partner, James, shows up at the club 2 weeks later and asks for a private dance. Surprised but thrilled, because he’s very attracted to James. They establish a relationship of sorts, with lots of really hot D/s sex, that eventually works into something more. A satisfying development of a wonderful relationship. Although if James didn’t learn from his previous lover or from Alex, when IS he going to learn?: a fact which threatens my belief in the HEA. Grade: B-

“The Cowboy and the Movie Star” by Kate Roman
Oh, blech. Jake is the foreman of a ranch hired out for a gay porn shoot. Matthew is the star of the show and a complete and utter wet blanket. If any heroine acted like Matthew—completely unable to take care of himself in any way—I’d chuck that book across the room without hesitation. One night of hot man-lovin’ changes their lives and Matthew quits in the middle of the shoot, except Jake doesn’t believe him….blahblahblah. The core of the story is when Matthew says to Jake, “Jake, do you know how long it’s been since someone’s touched me because I asked them to? Or because they wanted to? Because they wanted me?” And, I mean, sure. That’s the fantasy, right, that prostitutes and porn stars want their One True Love as well, that sex isn’t worth it without love. But these characters are awful, the story is unbelievable, the villain is ridiculous, and the sex is boring. Grade: D

“The Meaning of Perfection” by Taylor Lochland
A prostitute falls for the owner of the hotel who rents him and his roommate rooms for their jobs. Julian, the hotel owner, takes payment in kind from Felix’s roommate, which makes Felix very jealous because he wants to be the one servicing Julian. He eventually gets the chance, only to have Julian reject anything more in the morning. They eventually find their way back to each other, and poof! Felix quits whoring. Um, yeah, not so much. Grade: C-

“See Me, Feel Me” by Zahra Owens
A stripper takes a private gig for a friend, only to be wined and dined by a blind massage therapist, who does his own, unofficial sex work during his business. A fun little read, but the length of these “short” stories sometimes leaves me feeling like the story could be 2000 words shorter. Very little conflict and merely a progression of the relationship ensues and while that’s enjoyable, there’s no incentive to keep reading besides some moderately enjoyable sex—nothing’s at stake. Grade: C+

“Exposure” by Marguerite Labbe & Fae Sutherland
Whoa, hello head hopping! Give me whiplash, why don’t you! Ahem. That aside, this was a surprisingly hot story about a photographer introducing one of his models to a little bit of BDSM. The instant attraction between the two made me roll my eyes a bit, but then I was completely sucked in to the sexual and relationship tension between the characters and was very happily following along until the photographer called the model “Pretty baby.” That just stomped on all my squick buttons and pulled me right out of the story. I could tell that it was still hot in the same way it was before, except every time “pretty baby” showed up again, I’d get squicked all over again. Except for that, very enjoyable, and very very hot, very well-written D/s sex with a little bondage thrown in. Grade: B

Looking through the whole, now that I’m done, there’s quite a few more Bs than I thought there were. But still, the awfulness of “Dance for Me,” “Night Moves,” and “The Cowboy and the Movie Star” overshadows the good of “Exposure,” “Sunshine,” and the quirkiness of “Corona and Lime.” Skip this volume unless you can find those three stories separate.

Overall grade: C-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Books on Board or other etailers.

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• Regarding Gay Romance
• REVIEW: Healing Heart by Thom Lane

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I only opened this volume when Dreamspinner sent it to us because Madeleine Urban had a co-written story in it. I adore her longer co-written stories with Abigail Roux, and the volume started off with “Reluctant,” so I thought I’d have a great little story and then skim through the rest. Instead, “Reluctant” was truly awful and the rest of the stories saved me from chucking the volume off my computer.

At 332 pages, this is a seriously hefty volume (electronic, of course). And with only 12 stories, that’s between 25-30 pages a story, much longer than the usual short stories crammed into an anthology. This gives enough time to actually flesh out the characters, plots, and themes. Or time for the story to move from blah to boring and awful.

The theme for the volume is sex industry workers: both low- and high-end prostitutes and strippers, mainly. What was fascinating to me more than anything was how each story used the sex industry angle—as a meet-cute, as conflict, as a moral failing, as a perfectly legitimate profession, with or without comment. I’m strangely fascinated by this particular profession and by how the HEA is achieved or dealt with in light of the prostitution. I also love to see whether the prostitution itself is the conflict or just part of the story with conflict elsewhere. This volume certainly gave me enough to work with.

“Reluctant” by Rhianne Aile & Madeleine Urban
Gregory is recently divorced because he thinks he’s gay. His doctor (!) gives him the card of the high-end prostitute he employs and Gregory makes an appointment. He gets his first blowjob and a refund, then makes a “real” date with Rico, who has fallen in love with him. Considering this is the first story in a volume about sex workers, its complete lack of any exploration of the actual sex work and the effect it has on both worker and consumer is a glaring and incomprehensible error. Rico falls for Gregory. Why? No clue. Gregory falls for Rico because he’s hot and gives good head, apparently. No discussion at all of whether Rico will give up his very well-paying job, no discussion of anything besides a naughty meet-cute and some sex. Fail all around because even the sex was boring. Grade: D

“Stripped Bare” by S. Blaise
Luca is intrigued by the voice of the man calling to book him for a stripping gig for his sister’s hen party. Told in the first person, Luca chases a curiously reluctant Ethan until Ethan gives in a meets him, revealing his physical disabilities. I loved Luca’s relentlessness and his optimism as he works on bringing Ethan out of his shell. The conflict was of the “I can’t believe a gorgeous stripper like you would like someone like me” variety, but although there was nothing earth-shattering, it was a fun little read. Grade: B-

“Boomerang” by Rachelle Cochran
Chance works at the club Boomerang, moonlighting occasionally as a rent boy. He waits on a table with his old high school crush. They meet again and, after overcoming his uncertainty about Evan’s sexuality, Chance dives into a relationship with him. A nice, gentle, sexy story, in which Chance’s rent boy status is pretty much a non-issue. Grade: B-

“Fun and Games” by Lenore Black
I adored this sweet little story. Patrick is a video game designer, working the final kinks out of a game weeks before release. He’s not perfectly sculpted and toned—he’s a dork and kind of soft around the edges. His friends buy him a prostitute for his birthday, just so he’ll get laid. But Jack keeps coming back, “the gift that keeps on giving.” The connection between the characters, the fun they have and the affection between them makes this a gem of a story. Grade: A-

“How Could I Not” by Jamie Freeman
A complicated little story. Ben is set up on a job with Josh, a rich older man who wants Ben to fuck him while they watch a video montage of a guy who looks startling like Ben. Josh becomes a once-a-week client for Ben and they slowly build a real relationship. This sounds a little creepy, but the writing and the characterization is strong enough to make me believe in the romance. But then we drop a whole grade for “No condoms, just pull out.” Give me a fucking break. Grade: B-

“The Frost Affair” by Sasha Skye
This one’s a little different, in that the sex worker is not a rent boy, but the kept lover of a senator. The senator is trying to spice things up a little in their love lives, to make sure Grayson isn’t bored with his older lover—which means the sex is pretty hot and frequent. I enjoyed this story, although I spent the whole thing hoping that the Senator wasn’t one of those who was against gay rights but banging his boy on the side. But I did notice an entire lack of lube and some ATM action (Google it, but beware, NSFW), which just kinda grossed me out. Grade: B-

“The Stripper and the Hairdresser” by Bethany Brown
Can we have some conflict, please? Something to overcome? Something to make the characters grow? Something to draw the characters together. I mean, I know that most real-life romances are just “two people meet, are attracted, fall in love, and have a HEA/HFN.” But romance stories need a plot with a dark moment, to have any impact whatsoever. This story is indeed “The Stripper and the Hairdresser” and that’s pretty much is. OMG boring. Grade: D+

“A Muse” by Zahra Owens
Ack! Second person narration: “You are very direct and the guy who recommended you to me had told me that.” I don’t know why people do this. It might work for the author to write hir masturbatory fantasy in 2nd person, but it rarely works for the reader. First person can edge into bombastic and egotistical, but when you add second person too, it all gets a little too much for me. And seriously, “androgynous, but manly”?! You can’t have it both ways—you really can’t. And please, do some research: “suddenly grateful for high-end digital cameras with state-of-the-art screens that don’t require me to peer through tiny viewfinders and miss ninety percent of the action”: uh, no—high end digital cameras require you to look through the tiny viewfinder. Trust me. It’s the cheap ones that use the screen. All that aside…this is an interesting story about a fine art photographer luring a rent boy into being his muse which I would have liked very much if it weren’t in second person. Grade: C

“Fin de Siècle” by S. Reesa Herberth
The only historical story in the anthology, this is an amazingly well-written glimpse into the turn-of-the-century encounters between an artist and a prostitute in Paris. Gabriel becomes Jean’s muse and they tentatively establish a relationship. The atmosphere and feeling of the story are brilliantly done, melancholy yet optimistic. And I actually like that although Jean and Gabriel find their way to each other by the end of the story, there is no talk yet of Gabriel giving up prostitution. Very well done. Grade: A-

“Chat Line” by Clare London
The conceit in this story was unoriginal, carried on too long, and almost embarrassing. Jerry calls a sex line, thinking it’s a line for a company that provides domestic help. The miscommunication goes on for pages longer than its funny, moving far into boring. The phone sex is pretty hot, but the “I want to meet you after one paid-for conversation” was a little unbelievable. Grade: C

“As Beauty Does” by JL Merrow
A professor-student story that doesn’t squick me! Very English set, Nathan, a rent boy, has a regular blow-job customer every Thursday night. He discovers the guy is his English professor in one of his new classes, which makes things a little uncomfortable on Stephen’s regular nights. After Nathan is bashed and ends up in hospital with a broken jaw, he and Stephen begin to establish a relationship. Great story, fabulous characterization. I especially love the use of the characters’ own language choices and words to indicate who they are and how they feel: you can tell that Stephen is very definitely a staid English professor, Nathan a working class student, just from the way they talk. Grade: B+

“The Four Seasons” by Diana Copland
This story is so unrealistically suspend-all-disbelief, it’s just yummy, because wouldn’t it be great if the world were perfect like that? Law student Michael endearingly hits on a beautiful man in a hotel bar, but is gently turned down because Christian is a very high-end prostitute who tells him to call when he’s made partner. 5 years later, Michael sees Christian on a corner, selling blowjobs for $50 a pop. He takes Christian in, finds out how and why he sunk so low, tells him he’s worth something, a la Pretty Woman (“The bad stuff’s easier to believe” moment), and they make beautiful love. Michael, of course, wakes up alone. 3 years after that….well, you’ll have to read the story, but everyone ends up rich and happy and fighting for gay civil rights. It’s deliciously over-the-top but the affection and relationship between Michael and Christian is very well done. Grade: B

Overall, I enjoyed the anthology. Some stories definitely stuck with me (“Fun and Games,” “Fin de Siecle,” and “As Beauty Does” especially and none were truly horrific—they were just boring, more than anything else. But I have a strange fascination with rent boy/male prostitute stories, so my fetish is well-fed and happy.

Overall Grade: B-

Best regards,
-Joan/Sarah F.

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Fictionwise and other etailers.

Related Posts:

• REVIEW: Sindustry II
• REVIEW: Unrequited by Abigail Roux
• REVIEW: Remastering Jerna by Ann Somerville
• REVIEW: Bound and Determined by Jane Davitt and Alexa Snow
• REVIEW: Hidden Conflict by Various Authors
• Four Ways NOT to Write BDSM Romance
• REVIEW: Beautiful C*cksucker II: Such a Good Boy by Barbara Sheridan
• REVIEW: Personal Demons by James Buchanan
• Regarding Gay Romance
• REVIEW: Healing Heart by Thom Lane

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I had heard your name mentioned when Australian writers were being discussed. And with “Paperback Hero” fresh on my brain, I decided to try “Cattle Baron: Nanny Needed” when I saw it at the eharlequin site.

Amber Wyatt knows she’s going to cause a scene when she shows up at her ex-fiance’s wedding to the granddaughter of the filthy rich Sir Clive Erskine. In fact, she’s planning on it. But despite what the bride’s mother, in her awful hat, might think, Amber has something tasteful in mind to remind Sean of how he jilted and publicly humiliated her.

But Rosemary Erskine hauls out the big guns and has her nephew, Cal MacFarlane step in. The result is Cal taking Amber out of commission, but in a kind way that takes the feelings of all parties into account. Cal’s fear is that his powerful relatives will retaliate against Amber, which is indeed what happens.

Now out of her broadcasting job, Amber decides to take Cal up on his offer to fly back to his Outback cattle station, Jingala, and spend some time doing what she’s always wanted to do, write.

When they arrive, it’s to discover that Cal’s uncle and young wife are having marital problems with their infant son smack in the middle of it. Amber quickly steps in to try and soothe things. But will she only make matters worse or is there hope for her budding romance with Cal?

Since I’ve never read one of your books, I decided to read the excerpt chapter before buying. I was psyched by it and by how your heroine and hero are introduced.

I loved the first third of the novel. Amber’s plan at the wedding to show her fiance what she thinks of his actions was classy, IMO. And Cal handled her and the situation beautifully with tact and sensitivity to both Amber and his family. His instincts for them to be seen on the town that evening were great and his offer to have Amber back at his station to work on her book after his grandfather pulled the strings to get Amber fired, which Cal warned Amber would probably happen, was sincere and well intentioned. So I was looking forward to seeing what would happen once they got back to Jingala.

What happened was a third of the book worth of WTF.

Finally I turned one aspect of it into a drinking game. If I took a swig of beer each time you had Amber mentally think of Cal as the “Cattle Baron,” I’d be stinking drunk by the end of the book. Instead I drank water and ended up heading to the loo a lot.

I like background information about books with settings that are new to me but damn, did the middle section of the book have to turn into a field guide/nature book for the Australian Outback? Way TMI here. Plus the information that’s included as “later she (Amber) found out….” seems awkwardly inserted. If I want to learn that much information about Australian wildlife, I prefer to watch Sir David Attenborough.

Amber becomes Earth Mother/baby prozac. I mean, really? Kid’s been screaming his head off for months, no one can calm or soothe him then suddenly Magic Amber arrives and he immediately pipes right down? As for Amber’s psych 101/Earth Mother evaluation of Jan, at first I can go along with her suggestions and questions. But after she’s been at the station for weeks and is still trying her counseling I say, look at the writing on the wall, Amber and trust that Cal and Elliot and the whole damn household have tried everything and nothing’s worked. Amber’s also supposed to be a journalist who’s done some expose pieces on troubled youth so her amazed reaction to Cal’s statement that mothers abandon their children makes me think less of her intelligence.

I wasn’t nearly as happy with Cal once he got back to the Outback. What happened to Mr. Nice Guy? Cal can have a nasty streak and I don’t mean about Jan. He’s snide and snappish to Amber whenever the discussions turn to his ex-fiancee, Brooke, but he sure feels like he can comment and grill her about Sean. And he tells Amber he’s not going to push her into anything then pushes her into kissing him. Even after she declines and says “no” more than once.

And enough! about Amber’s luscious skin. Just…enough already.

I had hoped that after the Australian travelogue, the last third of the book would perk up. Alas, “Descending into melodrama – sounds like a daytime soap.” is what I wrote in my notes. Jan is such a two dimensional bitch. No shading, no subtlety at all. But I give you points for the fact that when Brooke, with her perky breasts, made her inevitable appearance, she wasn’t a bitch.

Here are two incidents that had me shaking my head: Jan is shaking the baby and going off the rails yet Cal and Amber stop on their way to defuse the situation to discuss her new silk robe from Japan. (o-0)
Amber is falling down the stairs after being pushed but she’s more worried about the chance that the MacFarlane name will be blackened by the scandal because of who pushed her? WTF?

Oh, the soap opera drama. Lots of !!!! Too many !!! And every superlative adjective from the thesaurus to describe the MacFarlane station, house, horses, food, clothes….

I’ve said before and will say it again, epilogues aren’t my thing. But at least this one is short as well as a hoot – it’s so bad. The use of the word “dynasty” was a nice OTT touch. I just wonder what the family reunions will be like between Amber and the rat who dumped her. B for the first third of the book but a D for the rest.

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Sony or other etailers.

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I’m a fan of military suspense novels from way back when “The Hunt for Red October” was first published. Your novel, “Zhena,” caught my attention in that I wanted to know how well a Russian sleeper spy novel could work this long after the fall of the Soviet Union.

The novel starts well. We’re in the old, basement files of some former Soviet spy agency with an aged government worker questioning why someone is poking around here so many years since this area was last accessed. We quickly discover that a 20 year old program is being reactivated and the primary agent to be recovered is Susan Anderson.

Susan is a Navy wife. She grew up in an orphanage, attended Purdue University on a scholarship where she met Bill Anderson who was in the ROTC. It was insta-love. Susan just “knew” that Bill was the man for her. Now after almost twenty years of marriage, Bill is the XO of a submarine, they have two children and are living the American Dream – Navy style. Bill’s climbed the ranks and Susan has been behind him the whole way.

And now we, the reader, learn why after Susan receives a strange phone call one night. At first, when a series of noises begin, she thinks it’s someone’s fax machine. But when a wave of nausea overtakes her and she briefly loses consciousness, she wonders. Then bizarre things begin to happen – things which alternately frighten and infuriate her. Who is behind all this and why is she starting to question her entire life? And can she figure it out, and save her family, before the other agents realize the recovery didn’t work?

The book is listed at Fictionwise as a suspense/thriller so it didn’t bother me that Bill never makes an appearance in the story. Despite being published by Hearts on Fire Books, there’s no romance beyond Susan and Bill having a happy marriage. So with the emphasis on suspense and thrills, I wanted to be on the edge of my seat as I read. I wanted pulse pounding excitement, damn it. Unfortunately, that isn’t what I got.

The writing is stilted at times with awkward insertion of facts. There are scenes, such as with the scene involving the Russian agent Elena in Newport, that are weird.

Elena had nearly passed out when she saw Sasha and Mara together. Elena knew Mara’s new name was Jean. A hope sprung up inside her. Perhaps Sasha had just forgotten protocol and was trying to contact the other primary herself. What she didn’t realize was that Mara hadn’t been activated yet as she had. Of course it wouldn’t take her long to figure that out. Perhaps if she just allowed Sasha to see her, they could talk once Mara had left.

WTF? Why would the italicized part be in a paragraph from Elena’s POV?

And instead of a story which had me madly flipping pages to find out what happens next, I felt very uninvolved. It was almost like I was listening to a voice droning on and on. There were almost no visuals, no clues about facial expressions, movements, emotions, anything. As a reader, I felt detached from what’s going on. But then maybe that’s the automaton response you’re trying to have Susan feel as The Voice of her Soviet conditioning is taking over her and she’s detached from it all.

By the end of the book, I felt I’d invested enough time to want to know how it would all end but not because I felt any emotional attachment to Susan. I mean, even the cabin killing spree was so flat and dull. My thoughts? “Susan blows way some of the villains and searches for the missing child of her friend.” Yawn, flip another page.

Okay, I take some of that back. I did get a touch worked up about the fact that Susan has no problem taking out three of them but then she suddenly decides to offer the leader an out? Go away and we’ll call it quits. WTF?? Did she honestly think this driven man would just shrug, grin and head off leaving her alone? Come on! That’s just stupid – as she quickly finds out.

I also found it amazing that Susan manages to find people from 20 years ago who remember so many minute details about people they briefly met. I can’t even remember what I had for lunch last week much less the interests of people I barely met over twenty years ago.

You include a nice plug for Purdue University but a suspense book isn’t the place for it. It adds nothing to the story except to put the brakes on for 2-3 pages. This is one of the many times that there is too much detail about extraneous things.

The book also has a distressing tendency to stop for a 3 page recount of the action up til that point. A refresher isn’t a bad thing but totally halting the narrative flow is another.

A final item that I have to grouch about is the fact that there is no spacing in this ebook to mark changes in POV. Since I downloaded a Sony format of the story from Fictionwise, this pissed me off. Also, the times when the Russian alphabet is used the letters show up as “Russian characters” despite what format I looked at.

The basic plot is interesting and I could have believed that there was a secret Soviet sleeper cell awaiting reactivation. But the story telling didn’t engage me and there were too many other issues which detracted from my reading pleasure to suit me.

~Jayne

This book can be purchased at Amazon or in ebook format from Amazon for $2.00 or at other retailers.

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I really fell in love with your series with the book featuring Tegan and Elise, Midnight Awakening. I believe it was in that book that we were introduced to Andreas Reichen. Andreas is a German vampire whose entire “family” was killed during a purge of Darkhaven homes who are perceived to be impediments to the ultimate rule of the bad vampires.

Andreas “gift” is overtaking him, spurred in part by his loss of control following the eradication of his family. Andreas is pyrokinetic and his rage literally fuels the fire. As he seeks out revenge against those he knows betrayed him, he loses his ability to harness both his gift and his bloodlust.

Claire Roth is the wife and breedmate of Wilhelm Roth. Roth and Andreas have always been at odds. Roth has been promised power in exchange for helping to eliminate those who stand by the Order, a group of Generation One vampires who hunt down rogue vampires and engage in an ongoing battle to keep humans safe. (As I was writing this review, I had to go back and look at previous books because there is little in this story that explains the nature of the conflict. It’s presented in a very elemental fashion. Andreas is part of the good guy team and Roth, part of the bad).

Claire and Wilhelm maintain a cordial existence but Claire and Andreas have a past. The two fell in love, but Andreas left, fearing his gift would ultimately harm Claire. Hurt and vulnerable, Claire fell easily into the hands of Wilhelm who poured on the charm to win her. The two settle into a peaceable yet far from loving relationship. Here’s where the story breaks down for me.

I was intrigued by the initial play on the breedmate concept but as the world in Ashes appeared to play fast and loose with the original canon, I not only lost interest but became frustrated. There ominous warnings regarding Reichen interfering with the blood bond between Claire and Wilhelm but there were no real repercussions.

Under the mythology you have set up, a breedmate (a female specially capable of breeding/pairing with vampires) has intense sexual and physical reaction to her mate when she drinks the mate’s blood. If she doesn’t drink the mate’s blood, she essentially condemns herself to die. Therefore, in order for Claire to have lived the life she has, she would have to regularly take blood from Wilhelm which implies that she also would be having sex with him, wonderful, orgasmic, blood pumping sex. Yet, this is never, ever addressed. Further, as Claire and Andreas bond, we are told that Wilhelm can tell through the matebond when Claire receives pleasure. Yet, we also know early on that Wilhelm cheats on Claire regularly. What impact does that have on her? What would that do to experience your mate’s pleasure while he is getting it from someone else? These questions are totally unanswered.

I was further disturbed by the fact that Andreas and Wilhelm were both born and bred in Germany, had lived there for years. Yet both of them act like characters from Die Hard.  Of course, Roth is John McClane, big, brawny, capable of handling every task with glass in his feet all the while cursing up a storm. Roth is no more German than Mongolian Beef is Chinese cuisine. His entire aspect from his attire, to his mannerisms, to his way of speech (replete with Anglicized curse words), and rhythm of speech, bespeaks of a non European.

If there is ever a place that diversity would be welcomed, it is the paranormal world. I mean, we have shapeshifters and vampires and aliens. Surely, we can have a few non white Anglo characters right? The most German that a reader is provided is the reference to Claire as Frau Roth a couple of times. I kept wondering what the point was of having German characters without providing us with any international flavor.  It further struck me how homogenous even the paranormal genre is that even a German character doesn’t appear to be any different than the standard Hollywood action hero.

Finally, the idea that one woman’s love could save him from his beast has been done before, not just in the ouvre of paranormal but in this series. Ashes of Midnight is nothing more than one super alpha male being saved by the love of a great woman. There is no nuance in this story and because it’s the same plot recycled from previous stories, there is no suspense either.

The story arc focuses primarily on Andreas and his battle over being consumed by his own fire. Claire has no character arc as serves only as the paranormal cure for Andreas’ illness. I think this is the last of the Breed series for me.

I feel compelled to explain the grade here for a moment. I think the prose is competent, if not a little melodramatic. But because the German background of the characters was so lacking and because the book deviated, I felt, so far from the original canon in order to drum up some conflict and then ease into an easy resolution, I cannot give this a better grade than any book in the series. D

Best regards,

Jane

This book can be purchased in mass market from an independent bookstore or ebook format from the Sony Store and other etailers.

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