Beyond Repair
by
Charlotte Stein
Rating:
4.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
This
book was billed as New Adult. It's written in 3rd person,
but only from Alice's perspective. I agree that it's a bit different
than many of Charlotte Stein's other books, which tend to be
extra-super filthy. It had a little bit of dirty, filthy sex, but
that was mostly an afterthought compared to the emotion and gravity
of the characters. Alice and Holden were so, so, so messed up. The
way they met was crazy; their time together was sweet and bewitching;
and their conclusion was gritty, poignant, and intense.
There
was Charlotte Stein's signature depth of feeling and complete
submersion inside the characters' subconscious. I knew them, I was
them, and I couldn't help loving them. The language was so fun and
quirky. They felt like real people that I'd want to be friends with.
Here's an example of just a little piece of awesome:
She'd
always seen the term grab ass and imagined something brutal and rude.
The equivalent in her head was punching someone's great-aunt with a
penis.
I felt
like neither character had much in the way of physical descriptions.
In this case, it made it so easy to let them fly free. They could
both be attractive to each other without needing to narrow down what
that attraction meant. They loved each other because they connected
and accepted each other. It sounds like such a simple thought, but
they worked through things heartbreakingly and beautifully.
Alice
had some deep emotional issues to work through. I can't give away too
much without spoilers, so let's just say that her issues could have
veered into major psychological help needed, but I felt happy with
the way the book went. She was able to overcome, in what I felt was a
believable way, through being accepted and needed. She already had a
lot of the psychological help paving the way, but she found a reason
to fight once she established an emotional connection.
The
experience of this book is so intense because everything is so
constrained; one house, one moment in time, one single step taken
before thinking about the next. Holden and Alice are so broken and
seeing them heal and open up to each other makes life worthwhile. I
was drawn in to the pain and disconnect of these two. Life just
didn't work for them. They didn't have meaningful connections and
they're full of emptiness. Things didn't get easy once they meet, but
their love gave them reasons to fight through the emotional pain.
I loved
seeing how Holden and Alice connected. They met each other exactly
where they were. They pushed each other just a little bit, but there
was no judgement – only acceptance. It was exactly the type of
relationship that felt perfect. Even when they were dealing with
heavy issues, they were whimsical and quirky – giving each other
nicknames and allowing space for growth.
I'm not
often a fan of movie star books. I hate the whole famous person
thing. But it didn't matter that Holden was externally famous. It
only mattered that he was famous to Alice because it gave them a
connection. They got a little kinky, but that was just another way
for them to accept each other.
Beyond
Repair didn't quite knock my very favorite Charlotte Stein books off
the top of the stack, but I did love it. It was so vulnerable and
achingly raw. I agonized, I smiled, and I couldn't help the wistful
feeling when I read this book.
Flushed
by Sally Felt
Rating:
3.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
This
book was fun and serious all at once. Both characters are dealing
with large issues – mostly the kind common to romance novels:
trust, cheating exes, heroes who have never wanted a long term
relationship. They have family problems and external adventures too
which create a bunch of interesting excitement and interactions.
Isabelle
is dignified, regal, and feminine, but is also “a lioness” with a
good sense of humor. Being from the west coast, I found her fun and
quirky. There are times I felt she went old-skool heroine on me;
she'd get really fragile, have a don't-rock-the-boat attitude
(Southern Charm maybe, I couldn't be sure), or seem to not care about
her job. But on the other hand, she owns her own business and was
really sexually expressive. I liked her even if I didn't always
understand or connect with her. Her biggest conflict in the story is
that every man she knows has cheated so she doesn't trust them. She
knows her own worth and enjoys her sexuality, but she's also demure
and...maybe I would say she's up for the game. And she was good at playing: the banter, sexiness, flirting, she had it all in spades.
Kim has
never been one to stick around. He's is an on-edge but
go-with-the-flow kind of guy. I liked how caring he was without being
demanding or smothering. He had some growing up to do in this book,
but he took it well and matured eventually. And he was a nice guy,
even if he had very little relationship sense and even less ability
to express himself for a good portion of the book.
I
thought the story didn't have enough conflict for the length.
Isabelle and Kim seemed to just keep rehashing exactly the same thing
for a long time, but there was a nice amount of mystery and adventure
to keep things going. The mystery part was slightly a letdown; things
were sorted out quickly at the end and there wasn't a big reveal like
I was hoping for. But the action was nicely written and as I went
further through the book it got harder to put down.
Isabelle
and Kim were fun together in a way-back kind of way. The book had
today's confidence, technology, and sexual openness, but the charm of
days gone by. Most of the sex scenes were not very explicit, but not
quite closed door. I had a good time reading this story and although
I didn't laugh, I had a smile from all the silly dialogue.
The Horizon
by
Charlotte Stein
Rating:
4 of 5 stars
My
Review:
This was
one of those really fun, sexy books. Charlotte Stein by herself is
always a winner in my opinion, but Charlotte Stein does space cowboy
is practically the cutest thing ever – in a filthy, sex-obsessed
way of course. It's got cowboy slang with just a hint of british
grammar, so it took some thinking on my part to understand the
sentences, but those are some of the funnest books for me to read.
Imagine
some alien species, somewhere between Cybermen from Doctor Who and
Vidiians from Star Trek Voyager (the ones with the Phage), chasing
and capturing two humanoid space pirates to do whatever sick, twisted
things they do. Except for REASONS, the space pirates get away after
being shot up with some neural toxin drug. What happens next is fun
and crazy and erotic. And for as much as there is a rollicking
adventure happening in the background, this story is about two people
finding out they belong together.
Both
characters are pretty tough and unemotional, so every little step
they take towards each other feels so poignant, like their crossing
miles just to say “I like you”. They fight all the time and it's
all so raw and perfect. They're both sort-of awkward but comfortable
in their skin and comfortable with exactly how the other is. They're
not out to change each other and their fighting is always related to
caring and tough-guy posturing. I loved watching them finally figure
out their feelings and see a little bit of their sweet, soft
underbellies.
This
book is written in third person, so we get a nice mix of each of
their feelings. This is not a really long book – somewhere around
100 pages. So it goes pretty quickly and it's the perfect therapy for
the end of a busy day. It goes into my “read again whenever I need
a pick me up” pile.
Man Hungry
by
Sabrina York
Rating:
3.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
This one
was a lot shorter than I expected. It was pretty much three or four
scenes. Jessica is set up by her friend on a blind date with the
friend's cousin. The date has both of them pretending they got stood
up and they have an emotionally charged one night stand.
I
enjoyed the writing and it was a cute, short, sexy story. Some of the
language made me laugh. This author seems to like some very specific,
out of the ordinary romance novel words; like drool and ort (which I
had to look up).
The one
thing that did make me uncomfortable was the sense of slut shaming.
For a rather erotic, sex filled story, you don't expect the use of
the word slut in a somewhat derogatory tone. It makes me feel that
Jessica didn't really own her sexuality when deciding to be with
Justin. It wasn't really a pervasive attitude. It was more of a “I'm
a teacher, so if I have a one night stand that makes me a slut”.
Sort-of the expectation people have of her more so than whether what
she did was right or wrong, but it still made me cringe that the
solution was “since you don't normally do this, it makes you not a
slut”.
So,
overall an enjoyable, engaging read. Fun situations with humorous
characters that have a good time together. But a little bit of female
disempowerment thrown in to make me feel cheated out of a great
resolution. I will keep buying more books by this author. It looks
like I have a bit of a backlist to check out. I hope the other books
are able to be sex positive, erotic stories instead
of throwing in a bit of shaming towards the heroine's sexuality.
Making Over Maris
by
Sabrina York
Rating:
4 of 5 stars
My
Review:
I had a
few too many alpha-male, I-will-dominate-my-woman books lately so
someone recommended I try this book. Nerdy and nice hero who's happy
with the heroine taking charge. Seemed like the perfect recipe for
what ailed me. I really liked how the book started off. Lots of good
sexual tension, misunderstandings, and pining.
Sara was
recovering from a bad relationship and was so nervous to show her
true self. Jack had been in love with Sara forever and was finally
ready to make his move. Jack decides to ask Sara to help give him a
makeover. She gives him a list: gym, diet, clothes, haircut, even
beard trim. She doesn't catch on that he's really doing all of this
to make himself more attractive to her. And he'll pretty much do
whatever she says. It was all very sweet.
I really
liked how the two of them had to actually talk about what they
wanted. They were both nervous but still took the initiative to check
with each other before they got involved. It's such a refreshing
change from just blundering along and thinking the other person
doesn't really like you.
Once
they started figuring the relationship out, it lost some steam in the
tension department for me. It went from a bit of power play to rather
kinky, femdom sex stuff pretty quickly and some of it was a little
more hardcore than my cup of tea. But by the end, it traded in the
sexual tension for emotional tugging. I was crying right near the
end, it was very moving and courageous.
I found
some of the writing to be rather choppy. Little details thrown in
that didn't seem to have a set up or match with the rest of the
story. Jack is this nerdy, shy hero, but then when the story needed
it, Sara saw him as obviously a horn-dog who would go after anything
in a skirt. They've been friends for years, but Sara knows almost
nothing about Jack. The details that were thrown out made Sara seem
like a self-centered cheerleader type, but all her actions in the
story don't match up with that.
I had a
really good time reading this story and I liked the storyline and the
pace enough that I started another Sabrina York book right away. This
was a fun story that takes two underrepresented romance characters
and gives them a chance to shine.
Almost Real
by
Charlotte Stein
Rating:
4.5 of 5 stars
My
review:
When you
want to get deep into a character's mind, Charlotte Stein should be
your first choice. There's clones and bad guys with big guns,
questions of apocalyptical and ethical proportions, but the real
reason to read this book is to be completely subsumed by Margot.
Margot
is tough, used to having no emotion, has more relationship with her
computer systems than people, and is pretty much completely enclosed
in her head. But then somehow she ends up in a job where she needs to
be married to Sergei. He's the grunt and she's the brains for keeping
their installation of “the corporation” running and hidden. If
Margot thinks she doesn't show emotions, Sergei is like a stone
compared to her. He barely speaks for the first half of the book. I
was honestly expecting some twists with him that never happened, but
that didn't impact my enjoyment of the story. He was big and bad-ass
and silent as a tomb, until he finds out that Margot really wants to
know him. He opens up and blossoms into a normal, crazy, every day,
mostly insecure person – who still happens to be big and tough and
bad-ass.
The sex
is hot, awkward, insecure and tentative most of the time, but still
really awesome and intense. If you haven't guessed already from
something like the cover, it's really explicit too.
This is
not a post-apocalyptic story about clones and the establishment, with
some romance and sex thrown in. This is a deep dive into Margot's
character as she finds out what love is and experiences awesome sex
and a closeness with someone for the first time, in a world that just
happens to be post-apocalyptic with a clone war going on. As well as
her being a bad-ass, like Sarah Connor, for the man she loves - which
is awesome all by itself.
This was
a book that took my entire brain while reading. The language is
awesome, but so subtle that you really have to pay attention to catch
everything. If you just skim read, you'll end up missing half of the
reasons behind things and that would be really sad. We only get
Margot's perspective here, but she ruminates so deeply that you'd
think you're a part of both characters and I had trouble pulling
myself back out of the book once I was finished.
The Courage To Love
by
Samantha Kane
Rating:
3.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
This
book was quite compelling. There was definitely a certain fascination
to everything happening. It was one of my first MMF erotica novels,
so I'm still never too sure what to expect when I pick one up. This
one was really explicit and had pretty much every combination you can
imagine between two guys and a girl.
The
story behind all the sex was actually pretty violent and left a nasty
feeling in my stomach. The violence and rape talk were pretty graphic
and it was hard for me to imagine that a woman who's been through all
that Kate went through just magically is ready to have sex with two
guy now. It didn't feel like she processed her fear and grief, but
she pretty immediately jumped into (not just some safe, gentle sex
but) pretty intense, put all your trust in us, sex with these two
guys (although she did know them from before and trusted them, so
that's something).
It was
actually somewhat jarring to have completely intense sex scenes
thrown in with external sadism and violence almost whenever these
characters leave the house. The two men (Jason and Tony) obviously
cared for Kate and protected her very strongly but they felt really
young to me. Almost like they were playing pretend all the time.
Outside the bedroom, they did what they could to keep the story going
and they seemed honorable and caring. But they felt like teenagers
trying to strut their stuff more often than mature adults.
It was
an interesting plot, not something an ordinary person would have come
up with. The style and voice behind the book was well done and the
emotions of the characters felt real. There's a bit of BDSM thrown
into the book, but when you've already got two guys and a girl, it's
nothing too hard core to throw in a little extra dominance. There
were some plot points (outside the sex, obviously) that didn't really
get resolved at the end of this book. I'm guessing since this is book
one, these things will be taken care of in a later book.
All in
all, I can't say for sure if I'll read book two. I did find the
characters and the sex scenes pretty fascinating, but I'm not sure if
I can stomach the possible violence in later books.
Ruin Me
by Cara
McKenna
Rating:
4.5 of 5 stars
My
Review:
It was
my second time through with this book. Somehow I missed writing a
review the first time I read it, but it was so good I had to read it
again. I think I got a lot more nuances this time.
First
off, I started following Cara McKenna on Twitter after I read this
the first time. On this second read, seeing how she likes birds so
much, I realized how many bird references this book has. It is just
amazing and awe-inspiring that so much background can have birds
thrown in and not be immediately obvious and also not end up being
over-the-top. I never noticed it on the first read, but now it seems
so unmistakable I can't believe I missed it.
Robin
and Jay (hehe...birds) are almost engaged but Robin just can't get
over her attraction to Patrick. He's the guy that saved her from a
thug with a knife years ago and served jail time for beating the guy
up. Robin visited him every week in jail (long before she was with
Jay) but they never pursued anything when he was released. She's
never stopped thinking about him and they end up seeing each other in
passing all the time because they live in the same small town.
Jay
understands that he'll never be able to move forward with Robin while
she's lusting after Patrick. He's secure enough to let her experiment
if she wants to and finds some of it alluring, but we really don't
get in his head much because this story is written first person, only
from Robin's perspective. We know that Jay is very caring and
comfortable for Robin. Things are set in motion and he seems to be ok
with it, but I couldn't tell if he connected with his own emotions
enough to decide what he really wanted with Robin.
Then
there's Patrick. He seemed sort of timid but strong and burly. He's a
lumberjack and can obviously take someone in a fight. He's pretty
quiet but he's got some unspoken attractions to Robin. On the one
hand, I was a little frustrated that he hadn't taken some initiative
sooner. But at the same time, I was glad Robin started taking some
baby steps towards making her own decisions and controlling her own
destiny.
It's
quite a question to ask: do you love someone enough to let them
experiment with someone else, or do you love someone enough that
you'd never be ok with sharing? Really makes you think about what
love means and “if you love someone you set them free” or if you
hold on tightly because you're in love. It wouldn't be an easy
decision if I were in this position and I think Cara McKenna did a
nice job with the nuanced feelings between all the characters.
Jay and
Robin just seem so comfortable with each other. I could really see
where Robin was coming from that she didn't want to lose what she had
with Jay for the possibility of attraction with Patrick. It was sad
but understandable to see her so passive in the sense that she really
just wants someone else to make the decision so she doesn't have to.
By the end, I'm not sure that she quite gained a back bone, but she
at least took some steps in that direction.
This
story had a lot of erotica to it, including a little bit of two guys
and a girl. However, while the writing was pretty explicit, it was
mostly vanilla sex and/or heavy petting. In fact, this is one of the
first books I've read that could take the all-star-awkward-sex award.
I swear almost every incident of sexuality involved a lot of awkward
fumbling and real-world, trying-to-figure-this-stuff-out,
ouch-don't-do-that-again blundering. But it all turns out very
endearing and heart-wrenching. I enjoyed all of it, including the
complicated questions it engendered, and I know I'll read it again.
