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The Deal
RECOMMENDED: The Deal by Elle Kennedy is 99c! This book was recommended to me by so many people at this year’s RT Booklover’s Convention. I really loved how the heroine’s past trauma was handled, though the romance felt a little too instant for me. I wound up giving it a B-:
I will give some kudos to some pretty primo sex scenes though. Since Hannah has expressed difficulties with orgasming during sex, Garrett pulls out all the stops to make sure she’s comfortable enough to get off. It’s actually kind of…sweet. Especially when Hannah cries and launches herself into his arms afterward because it’s been years since she had an orgasm with anyone but herself.
She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy…
Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cocky captain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.
…and it’s going to be oh so good.
All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.
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Maybe This Christmas
Maybe This Christmas by Sarah Morgan is $1.99!! This is a contemporary holiday romance. The hero is a former champion skier and single dad and the heroine is his best friend. Friends-to-lovers catnip, ahoy! A few readers weren’t too fond of the hero, but many loved how the transition in the couple’s relationship was handled. It has a 4.2-star rating and is the third and final book in the O’Neil Brothers trilogy.
This winter, ex-skiing champion, reformed heartbreaker and single dad Tyler O’Neil has only one mission—making sure his daughter, Jess, has the best Christmas ever. The fact that his best friend, Brenna, is also temporarily moving into his chalet at the overbooked Snow Crystal resort is a delicious distraction he’s simply going to have to ignore. Theirs is the one relationship he’s never ruined, and he’s not about to start now.
Ski pro Brenna Daniels knows all about the perils of unrequited love—she’s been in love with Tyler for years. But living with him is absolute torture…how can she concentrate on being his friend when he’s sleeping in the room next door? Then when Tyler kisses Brenna, suddenly the relationship she’s always dreamed of feels so close she could almost touch it. Could this be the Christmas her dreams of a happy-ever-after finally come true?
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Empty Net
Empty Net by Toni Aleo is 99c! This is the third book in the Assassins series, which focuses on a hockey team. This one in particular features a one night stand. Some readers felt the heroine to be rather frustrating at times, though many loved the hero – a sweet, Swedish hockey player. It has a 4.2-star rating on Goodreads.
Audrey Parker is up against the boards. She’s stuck in a job she hates and pining for a total jerk. Meanwhile, her sister Fallon is moving out and getting married to hockey star Lucas Brooks. Where is Audrey’s Prince Charming? Nothing she does has ever seemed to be good enough for any of the men in her life. Audrey’s about to hit rock bottom . . . until she wakes up next to Tate Odder.
The thrill of moving up from the minors to the Nashville Assassins was a welcome distraction. But not even becoming the first rookie goalie to tally three shutouts in the Stanley Cup Finals alleviates the pain. With the loss of his parents and sister weighing as heavily on his soul as ever, Tate Odder can’t keep pretending he’s okay. That’s when he meets smart, sexy Audrey. Her gentle warmth and quirky sense of humor make him feel whole for the first time in too long. But to stay that way forever, Tate must find a way to accept his past and learn to live for love.
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Snow Angel Cove
Snow Angel Cove by RaeAnne Thayne is $1.99! This is a small town contemporary romance set around the holidays and is the first in a series. This is also more on the clean side if you happen to prefer your romances that way. Some readers felt the ending came a little too abruptly, while others thought the author did a great job making the characters interesting and endearing. The third book is also on sale for $2.99!
New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne welcomes you to a small town full of big surprises that are both merry and bright…
Nothing short of a miracle can restore Eliza Hayward’s Christmas cheer. The job she pinned her dreams on has gone up in smoke—literally—and now she’s stuck in an unfamiliar, if breathtaking, small town. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a helping hand…for her sick young daughter’s sake as well as her own. But she’s not expecting her holiday hero to almost run her down with his car!
Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine. At first, putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza’s hands assuages his guilt—until he sees how quickly he could fall for her. Having focused solely on his business for years, he never knew that what his life was missing was Eliza and her little girl. But is he willing to risk hoping for a yuletide romance that could lead to forever?
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I really enjoyed the Deal and Empty Net. Tate is the cutest, and if I recall correctly he’s several years younger than the heroine.
“This is also more on the clean side…”
I call on all SBs to stop already with the “clean” description when there is no physical intimacy within a book. ‘Cause the opposite of clean is dirty and we are (aren’t we?) sex-positive here.
What do you think?
@LML: I’ve seen these referred to elsewhere as “sweet” and “spicy,” which I like because both are nice terms. 🙂 That said, sweet is not as instantly recognizable a code word as clean (but neither are terms like TSTL or HEA, until you learn them).
@LML: Some people prefer romances that don’t have graphic depictions of sex, but maybe there’s another way to sum up that characteristic. Thoughts?
Re: heat level- how about PG, PG-13, R, etc??
Honestly “clean” doesn’t bother me because I don’t attach moral baggage to the word, and I think of the opposite as explicit or graphic (“dirty” connotes a specific type of content and tone that I have no problem with, either, but that I don’t see in the romance genre), but I take your point. Clean could be replaced by descriptors like tame, non-explicit, non-graphic. Tags only go so far in indicating whether the book is someone’s taste, as I imagine there are readers who simply don’t want detailed descriptions of sex acts and prefer a fade to black, and there are other readers who want “wholesome” stories with no premarital sex.
Interesting debate. I agree, clean is problematic. Whenever I see “clean romance” I always picture a book without Cheeto prints on the pages… I’d prefer graphic/non-graphic. Sweet can still be explicit and wholesome just sounds boring, even though that may not be true.
Oh, and, HOCKEY ROMANCES!!!!!!!
Not a Christmas romance, but the young adult historical fiction Servant to the Wolf “will be available free for download on Amazon from December 25th-29th.” It’s really good
On making a book’s characteristics clear, simple and to the point seems best: no sex, no explicit sex, sex — not graphic, graphic sex. The middle two are a bit difficult to get both short and to the point; my thought was that ‘no explicit sex’ is for fade-to-black (there’s sex, but it’s behind closed doors), while the idea of not-graphic sex is for the “we see them in bed but the descriptions are all about the emotions, the passion, the tenderness, in other words, purple but no tab a in slot b. Anyway, I think using something along the lines of these four would be helpful to people.
I personally don’t have a problem with the word “clean” when used to describe romances without sex. I don’t equate the word “clean” with sex, but the degree of descriptive sex in a book.
How about using the word “clear” instead of “clean” as in clear of sex scenes.
Heat levels like: No Heat, Luke warm, Hot.
The descriptor “sweet” indicates to me a lot about what to expect, although as @DonnaMarie points out, sweet can also be explicit.
It is so easy with inspirationals. One word, bang, we know religion will be as present as another character in the book.
@Amanda, I grit my teeth each time I read “clean”. Yet the only improvement I can offer is “chaste”. Which while accurate, is probably as appealing as “wholesome” when applied to reading entertainment instead of bread.
I like @Carol ‘s suggestions. They get the point across without offense.