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.
