Giving It Up

author: Audra North

I wanted so much to like this book! Because hello…female photojournalist Domme and SWAT hero submissive. But to be frank, I found it to be rather boring.

Beatrice and Warren have mutual friends who are a couple. Beatrice has always crushed on Warren, but thinks he hates her given his terse attitude every time they meet up at barbecues or dinner parties. While shooting pictures for said couple’s wedding, Beatrice overhears Warren on the phone with a Domme agency. What he’s looking for is a little out of his price range, but Beatrice is willing to fill in for half the cost. She needs the extra money to help take care of her Nana.

Enter in a 5-week engagement where Beatrice agrees to play Domme for Warren every Wednesday night. They’ve both been harboring feelings for one another for a long time, but Warren had a shitty breakup and is too busy taking care of his parents, his sister, and his nephew for a relationship. And well…Beatrice thinks Warren doesn’t like her. Cue several pages of each of them having feelings but remember this is just a “business arrangement.”

I understand the connection between Beatrice and Warren. Beatrice grew up in a household where she had very little control, while Warren is too busy running around taking care of everyone that he just wants to not be in control for a while. However, their transformation (Beatrice learning to take control of her life vs. Warren learning to let someone else help with his burdens) was more telling than showing.

Several characters would comment on how different Beatrice and Warren seemed, but it didn’t resonate with me on an emotional level. There also wasn’t enough interaction between Beatrice and Warren, and several details regarding Beatrice’s story felt open-ended. How did Beatrice conduct herself at her estranged sister’s wedding? What’s going on with Beatrice and her part-time gig at a Domme agency?

It was a bit of a slog because a lot of the book felt like filler. The main characters interacted more with other people than each other, to my disappointment.

– Amanda

Contemporary Romance, Erotica/Erotic Romance, Romance

Long Distance

author: Thomas Zahler

I’m biased in favor of Thom Zahler, with whom I shared a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, but I just have to say how much I love his romance comic, Long Distance. It tells the love story of Carter, an advertising designer in Columbus, Ohio, and Lee, a NASA scientist who lives in Chicago. The two meet in an airport and embark on a long distance romance.

This is a sweet, funny, warm story that is honest about the challenges of a long distance relationship without being too angsty. It benefits from great supporting characters including Lee’s fabulous grandmother who I adore absolutely. Carter and Lee share geek interests which makes their conversations a lot of fun, and they communicate well. I love it that they are happy going out but they also like watching old science fiction shows on DVD (one time Lee comes to visit, Carter is hit with a deadline, so he works on his laptop while she watches his DVDs). The art is retro and cute and clever, with different color washes representing different points of view.

My favorite thing about this comic, other than the relaxed chemistry between the characters, was its clever, unorthodox, but very happy resolution. I appreciate that Carter and Lee value and support each other’s careers, and figure out a way to stay together as a committed couple without giving up the careers and friendships and familial ties that are so important to them. It’s a sweet, smart story that should make romance readers who like contemporaries with intelligent characters very happy.

– Carrie S

Graphic Novel, Romance

Where the Wild Things Bite

author: Molly Harper

I’ve been dying to try the Half-Moon Hollow series for a while and I couldn’t resist a book-loving heroine and a charming vampire pairing. This is also my first book that I’ve read in the series. I’d say readers can make it through without any prior knowledge of the previous books, but I’m sure reading them would help them have a better connection to secondary characters who come up later.

The heroine, Anna, was hired to research whether a guidebook to shifters was the real deal or not. It is and she opts to hand deliver the book back to its owner, Jane Jameson Nightingale, as the book has some pretty sensitive material best said in person. However, her plane to Half-Moon Hollow crashes after the pilot abandons the controls and tries to rob her of the book. Thankfully, the only other passenger on her tiny little plane is a vampire named Finn, who saves her life.

Unfortunately, the plane crashes and strands Finn and Anna in the woods, potentially with some crazy dude still after them and the book.

I loved Anna as a character. She has severe anxiety, agoraphobia, and hates flying, all due to a very toxic mother who was essentially grooming Anna to become dependent on her so she’d never leave the house. Reading about her upbringing was so sad and I was cheering for her the whole way.

However, her romance with Finn felt flat to me as I didn’t often feel the emotional connection between them and because Finn’s backstory wasn’t as fully explained as Anna’s. At times, it made their interactions (and there are a lot of them since they’re stranded in a forest together) a little boring.

If you’d like a paranormal romance with that has some lighthearted, lost-in-the-woods action, I’d recommend Where the Wild Things Bite. But if you’re prefer your romances with some emotional depth, you may find this lacking.

– Amanda

Paranormal, Romance