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Baron
Baron by Joanna Shupe is $3.99! This is the second book in the Knickerbocker Club series, which Redheadedgirl really enjoyed. Readers really liked the con artist heroine, but found that Baron wasn’t as good as the first book, Magnate. The third book, Mogul, is also $3.99.
New York City’s Gilded Age shines as bright as the power-wielding men of the Knickerbocker Club. And one pragmatic industrialist is about to learn that a man may make his own destiny, but love is a matter of fortune . . .
Born into one of New York’s most respected families, William Sloane is a railroad baron who has all the right friends in all the right places. But no matter how much success he achieves, he always wants more. Having secured his place atop the city’s highest echelons of society, he’s now setting his sights on a political run. Nothing can distract him from his next pursuit—except, perhaps, the enchanting con artist he never saw coming . . .Ava Jones has eked out a living the only way she knows how. As “Madame Zolikoff,” she hoodwinks gullible audiences into believing she can communicate with the spirit world. But her carefully crafted persona is nearly destroyed when Will Sloane walks into her life—and lays bare her latest scheme. The charlatan is certain she can seduce the handsome millionaire into keeping her secret and using her skills for his campaign—unless he’s the one who’s already put a spell on her . . .
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Horrorstor
RECOMMENDED: Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix is $1.99! This is a dark comedy/horror novel about a haunted IKEA-esque store. Carrie reviewed the book a few months ago and gave it an A:
Even in the darkest moments, the absurdity of the situation adds some sardonic humor. It’s hard not to giggle at a line like “They nailed me inside a Liripip” or a scenario in which someone’s survival depends on disassembling cheap furniture with one of those weird Allen wrench things.
Something strange is happening at the Orsk furniture superstore in Cleveland. Every morning, employees arrive to find broken Kjerring wardrobes, shattered Brooka glassware, and vandalized Liripip sofa beds – clearly someone, or something, is up to no good. To unravel the mystery, five young employees volunteer for a long dusk-till-dawn shift and encounter horrors that defy imagination. Along the way, author Grady Hendrix infuses sly social commentary on the nature of work in the new twenty-first-century economy.
A traditional haunted house story in a contemporary setting, and full of current fears, Horrorstör delivers a high-concept premise in a unique style.
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Nicholas
Nicholas by Elizabeth Amber is $3.99! Now, I don’t mean to be hyperbolic, but I believe this may be the most bonkers book in romance. The heroes in this series turn into satyrs and also have two wangs. These books are also erotica, so expect a lot of sex. However, lots of content warnings as well: dubious consent, incest, and cheating.
HE HAD SWORN TO TAKE A PROPER WIFE.
HE HADN’T BARGAINED ON MEETING HIS MATCH …Nicholas looks very much like what he is — the handsome, successful heir to a vineyard in Tuscany. But Nicholas is much more, for he is one of the last in an ancient line of satyr men. And the dying king of ElseWorld wants him not only to marry, but to wed one of the king’s own daughters — a half-human, half-faerie woman unaware of her heritage. Nicholas won’t shirk his duty to produce heirs to guard his race’s legacies, but he never plans to make his bride his only lover. A satyr’s sexual hunger and sensual skills are legendary. One woman will never satisfy him.
Or so Nicholas believes until he meets Jane. As spirited as she is fey, as beautiful as she is innocent, she is nevertheless determined to make her new husband hers alone — and she is eager for him to teach her every deliciously carnal secret he knows…
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Penalty Play
Penalty Play by Lynda Aicher is $1.99! This is the third book in the Power Play series, but can be read on its own. I’m always wary of heroes who refer to women as “bimbos.” However, readers like how much chemistry the hero and heroine had. It has a 3.9-star rating on Goodreads.
Minnesota Glaciers’ starting defenseman Henrik Grenick is good at two things: hockey and sex. He’s got it all—the career, the biceps, the babes. But the steady parade of women through his bedroom just leaves him wanting more, hunting for the next distraction. Until he meets Jacqui, who awakens a hunger he never knew he craved.
Fiercely independent Jacqui Polson has no time for the seductive hockey player demanding her attention. More band geek than bimbo, she’s in an entirely different league, and growing up with four hockey-crazed brothers left her with no interest in that world. But damn, Henrik’s hot. And when it comes to sex, Jacqui knows exactly what she wants.
As their relationship moves beyond games, Henrik needs more—not just of Jacqui’s touch, but of her. Jacqui discovers there’s more to Henrik than just the gruff facade. But after a lifetime of fighting their own battles, neither has ever let anyone get so close. As they soon find out, needing someone isn’t a weakness, it’s the only thing that matters…
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I’ve read Nicholas, and it is crazy, but also somehow really boring at the same time. All around, I didn’t enjoy it. The actual plot parts of the story weren’t that good, and the sex didn’t make up for it. It also had one of the worst multiple partner scenes I’ve read.
After reading the headline on the post, I thought that Nicholas was the hockey book because the cover looked like a sports book. I guess adding a sport to all that crazy would have been too much!
I would really love to read the official SBTB review of Nicholas.
Read this review an hour ago but had to come back and comment, because I’m still trying to figure out how the biology works in Nicholas.
Horrorstor’s premise had a lot of promise, and the message was on point, but it devolved pretty quickly into gore (YMMV). I personally DNF’d due to that.
Warsworn by Elizabeth Vaughan is $2.99. It’s a book 2, but book 1 was on sale fairly recently, so heads up to those of us who got that then.
I liked Horrorstör, but if you can read a paper copy, I’d recommend it. The pseudo Ikea catalog format added to the experience, imo.
Yeah, OK, the cover of NICHOLAS stopped me in my mouse tracks, momentarily speechless. I also kind-of-but-not-really want to know how this anatomy works, but another innocent eager to be taught carnal secrets makes this a no-go anyway.
I wanted to like Magnate, but I really only enjoyed the historical aspects. The hero was a real alphahole, and looking back I see I highlighted “Her husband was promising retribution, likely physical, and she found it . . . arousing. What was wrong with her?”. (This was not a BDSM thing, by the way.)
Does anyone know if the followup books were less like this, or is this just how Joanna Shupe tends to write?
@Robot: I tried to read one Shupe book in a different series and bailed because of the punishment theme in that one. I don’t know if she does it in every book (and I’m not interested in finding out), but it’s definitely not a tone she’s reached for just once as a lark.
@Robot, I DNF Mogul, which is in that Shupe series and it was the only Shupe book I tried. While I don’t recall any sort of threat of physical retribution, the hero was a super alphahole, as you put it. It was a second chance romance and of course the hero was a jerk about it not working out. I did like the historical aspects, and it had more diversity than most romance novels.
I read Nicholas. I also read the others (there are at least two more) … which actually got crazier. There actually is an explanation of how the anatomy works … yes, it’s crazy.
Anyone else cheap like me and consider $3.99 not a sale? Even $2.99 is pushing it for me. (These days even $1.99 gives me pause but that’s because I have 485 unread books on my Kindle and I really shouldn’t be buying any more for a while…)
I skimmed the description of Nicholas and thought I saw “wings.” It didn’t seem so bonkers that he’d have two. Then I saw all the comments about anatomy. I wondered why people were so stuck on the two wings. I mean, practically no one cites the law of conservation of mass when a human shapeshifter changes into some ginormous dragon in a paranormal, so why would wings be so different? I went back and checked the description again. Oh. Okay.
Several of Heidi Cullinan’s books are on sale for $1.99.
For those curious in how the anatomy in Nicholas works:
He only has two dicks on the full moon. He has to double penetrate a woman on that night, and after having an orgasm, the second penis retracts back into his body. He also has a weird tendril on that night that helps to soothe any damage he might cause. The heroine’s nipples also glow when she’s aroused because she’s part fairy.
Ever since my library got Overdrive I’m like naaaah on almost anything over $1.99.
Just saw that Goddess by Kelly Gardiner is FREE @ amazon. My notes say it is about Julie d’Aubigny, “17th century swordswoman and bisexual badass”. I KNOW it was mentioned here! 🙂
(Thanks all for the Nicholas comments!)
I guess even $3.99 can seem like a sale, when the original price was $9.99 or $14.99 (like The Glass Ocean reviewed below). O.O
Thanks, MarciaS! There are some good titles included in the $1.99 sale.
@Emily.
Thanks for the explanation. It was going to distract me all day trying to work that out and I already have too much to get done. You’ve saved my day.
I read the Shupe trilogy recently, and of the six principals, the heroine from book one was the only one I liked at all, and I didn’t buy into any of the romances, because all of them seemed dysfunctional.
The con artist heroine from book two was my least favourite of the women, because she’s so weirdly prissy about what she does. She’s the sort who is like ‘How DARE you call me a con artist! There’s nothing wrong with what I’m doing at all! I am such a pure and virtuous person!’ and she just come off as delusional to me. I love morally grey heroines when they’re unapologetically aware of the issues with what they’re doing, but this bizarrely dogmatic ‘how dare you’ breed of criminal heroine rubs me the wrong way. You’re a con artist who makes her living on lies and deception, lady, just own it!
@anonymous
I didn’t like the heroine in Baron either for similar reasons. That romance didn’t work for me in part because I didn’t like her and in part because I wasn’t sure I believed in the long term viability of the relationship. I could just see one or the other eventually regretting their decision. I did like the other books in the series though, although there were a couple of off moments in the last book.
I listened to Shupe’s episode on the Wicked Wallflowers podcast recently, and she said that she really loves asshole heroes, and I think you can really see that in her Knickerbocker Club series. Imo, I do think that aspect has been toned down in her new series, and which, for someone who also loves asshole heroes, is a bit disappointing.
The heroine’s nipples also glow when she’s aroused because she’s part fairy.
…and I think I have my Halloween costume. Thanks, @Emily and Elizabeth Amber.
Wow. Was about to google this double peen situation, but @Emily saved the day. This has given me so much to think about. Not sure I wanted to think about it but… yep. This is going to haunt my dreams for a few days.
@Emily
“He only has two dicks on the full moon.’
I JUST SHOUT-LAUGHED SO HARD I THINK I WOKE THE NEIGHBORS.
“He also has a weird tendril on that night that helps to soothe any damage he might cause.”
BECAUSE, YEAH, SURE, WHY NOT? TOTES THE CRAZY SAUCE I COME HERE FOR.
Thanks to you all, I borrowed Nicholas from the library. Can confirm it is so bad, it’s batshit hilarious.
@ Cat C
I am cheap like you. I save $3.99 sales for fav authors or have-to have it now books (Nicholas is not one of them). I own SO many Kindle books that my TBR should be listed in Guinness. I am going to have to add it to my will because it will outlive me. My name is Kelly, and I am a book hoarder.
“two dicks on the full moon”…
Is it cynical that I am expecting there to be a tie-in sex toy in the works?
I read Nicholas and then promptly demanded that every other person I knew read it, too. It’s that bananas. The satyrs, the double wang, the weirdo tendrils, the wide variety of sex partners. The rest of the books in the series just get crazier. I don’t recommend them for the sex. But the crazysauce; it’s exquisite.
Ahhhhh I remember reading the two-dicked satyr books years ago and yes, finding it weirdly boring for being…what it is. Does this book have the magically created sex-doll creatures?
@Emily #16: I wasn’t even CLOSE to how this might work. Another title for the “I can’t even” file. Thank you.
@cbackson
Yes, it does. I think one of the later books has one of the heroes falling in love with one, but I never read that far into the series. I only read the first two which are equally as out there and equally dull despite that.
*has been recently reading more crazysauce romances*
*buys Nicholas because it’s been on his TBR wishlist for forever now*
I’ve got a feeling it’s either going to be amazing in the bonkers-ness, or terrible, and there’s only one way to find out.
@Emily thank you for the explanation so I don’t have to wonder…. except I still find myself perplexed. Currently, I’m wondering if a soothing tendril was really the best adaptation possible or if maybe super lubricating glands in the wangs might not have been a better choice? Or just not huge wangs? I’d really rather read a character who was like, I’m not going to be controlled by my dicks and the moon phases, so let’s go to the theater and hit a dessert bar afterwards.
Regarding Nicholas,
I read the entire series. It was seven books long. Later books have two tales.
Yes the series does start going more and more bananas. Particularly Rayne, which has actual mentions of bananas for the hero and who will die if he doesn’t have sex. Literally.
Then… it’s like the author got bored after the siren/succubus that raped the male protagonist (saving his life) and just didn’t even try anymore.
If anyone wants the crazysauce without having to slog through the dullness, mrsgiggles . com reviewed all of them.
@Christine
I believe the tendril was chosen because it could both soothe and provide additional pleasure. And as to your second point, lol trust me not banging was definitely not an option for the hero.