The Bodyguards' Princess raised more questions than it answered, chief among them “WTF is going on here?” and “Why am I still reading this?” The answer to the latter is because of you, my lovely Smart Bitch community. You're welcome. Basically this book is a menage romance with some suspense elements and some random BDSM shit thrown in at the end. And hypnosis. I never totally understood what was going on or why and I … Continue reading Review: The Bodyguards’ Princess by Ann Mayburn →
This is PpyaJunebug’s fault. She’s the one who said there was a 50 Shades knock off coming out and that I haaaaaaad to read it. Little did I know that it was a duology and that it was basically the most derivative thing I’ve ever read. Yeah. But don’t worry, it is tooooooootally on the up and up. First off, pretty much everyone who sells themselves in this place as doing so with full consent- … Continue reading Review: A Million Guilty Pleasures & A Million Guilty Secrets: A Million Dollar Duet by CL Parker →
The things that Elle Kennedy does well – internal conflict, understandable emotion, logical attraction, interesting characters – are terrific in this book. Unfortunately for me, and I place the blame for this on myself and not anyone else, I still struggle to suspend disbelief when reading erotic romance, for a few reasons I'll explain in a moment. I'm going to go into some detail about the aspects of this book and some aspects about erotic … Continue reading Review: As Hot as It Gets by Elle Kennedy →
I've said a few times on the podcast that this series really works for me. The combination of really, really smart people and BDSM/sexual exploration with ample doses of nerd culture – I dig it. I'm pretty picky about erotic romance, too. I dislike when contrived circumstances and the power of boner over common sense bring people together repeatedly, and so I don't read a lot of it. The tropes that work so well for … Continue reading Review: The Principle of Desire by Delphine Dryden →
This is a guest review from Dora, who has ranted here before. It's actually been a while since I've read a whole lot of romance, so when I decided I was in the mood to try some again, I knew were to start. (And actually picked up The Iron Duke on CarrieS's recommendation!) Before that, though, I had picked up the Crossfire series by Sylvia Day because I was bored and Sam's Club had given me … Continue reading Bared to You by Sylvia Day: A Guest Review from Dora →
When Sarah sends me an email with a link that says, “This is relevant to your interests” I should know by know that she does not have my best interests at heart. She has YOUR best interests at heart, because y’all seem to find my head explosions entertaining. This is, as you may be able to tell, a dinosaur (!) beastiality (!) short story (thank fuck) that is exactly what it says on the tin. … Continue reading Ravished by the Triceratops by Christie Sims and Alara Branwen →
The Seen Trilogy by Cynthia Sax is three erotic novellas featuring an exhibitionist heroine and voyeur hero. I’ve never really understood exhibitionism, the same way I’ve never really understood why people (celebrities especially) make sex tapes. It’s like 1. you’re gonna realize you have cellulite in places you didn’t think you did and 2. unless you use a set I’d be all like, “Fuck, I forgot to dust the bedside table. Is that a receipt … Continue reading He Watches Me, He Touches Me, He Claims Me: The Seen Trilogy by Cynthia Sax →
I am a finicky erotic romance reader. I dislike when characters start porntalking, when there is endless discussion of who is what for whom (I'm hard for you, you're wet for me, she's humid for the mailman). I dislike when otherwise normally-conversing humans start talking about their cocks every other sentence, and get very irritated when a sex scene of amplified raunch is shoved into a book in such a way that I wonder if … Continue reading After Hours by Cara McKenna →
I was leery about reading Rush for two reasons. First, there’s a glut of less than stellar erotic romance being published due to the Fifty Shades of Grey buzz. Second, WTF is going on with the cover? Seriously, can we talk about the cover for a second? What is that? It looks like the mysterious blue water from maxi pad and diaper ads. Bizarre cover art aside, this was a great read. It was the … Continue reading Rush by Maya Banks →
I said out loud twice while reading this book, “This is the least erotic erotic romance. No one's having any sex.” Hubby thought I was nuts, but while the story was friendly and sometimes very sweet, there was not much erotic content, in my opinion. If you're looking for explicitness, this is not the Canadian equivalent of small-town, large-family cowboy erotic romance (Lorelei James, for example). I liked this book, but I was expecting erotic … Continue reading Rocky Mountain Desire by Vivian Arend →
I received a pitch for this book from the author, and was intrigued by the mix of elements she highlighted in her email: the multi-cultural characters, the use of European soccer clubs as a setting, and the interesting conflict with the heroine posing as the fiancée of her gay best friend while being attracted to his nemesis. I not only bought it but sent a message to Jane at DearAuthor, since she and I both … Continue reading Player’s Ultimatum by Koko Brown →
