This has to be one of the most campy erotica novels I’ve read, and after I agreed to suspend reality and go along with the absolute outrageousness – and the nonstop sex scenes and moist channels, I mostly enjoyed it. Kyra Simmons, a mild-mannered accountant, brings her best friend Geris to a meditation retreat – one of the funniest opening chapters I’ve read in awhile – and as they exit, two mammoth 7-foot-tall men in … Continue reading The Empress’ New Clothes by Jaid Black →
I mentioned to Candy recently that I was reading Kinsale’s The Dream Hunter and she said that she was looking forward to hearing my opinion, since she had problems with it. Yesterday we discussed it at length, which turned into something of a tandem review: Sarah: What was your problem with The Dream Hunter? I’m getting frustrated with it and want to know your reasons for irritation. The language is beautiful but I want to … Continue reading The Dream Hunter by Laura Kinsale →
Ann Herendeen has written a very clever, highly articulate, historically sharp and delightfully entertaining romance, one that would make certain factions of the RWA tear their hair out in massive clumps. Forget one man and one woman. We have two men and one woman, a few men with other men, another man and a woman and a few other men, and a butler. If these folks ever got around to playing Twister, the video rights … Continue reading Phyllida and the Brotherhood of Philander: A Bisexual Regency Romance →
Rarely do I pay much attention to Romance novel titles; if not downright offensive, they’re often inane and rarely informative. Highland Fling, though, really is a perfect title for Jennifer LaBrecque’s new time-travel Blaze, for it not only cleverly invokes a Scottish dance, but it also describes two primary relationships: the one between the hero and the heroine and the one between this reader and the book itself. While not a substantial read, Highland Fling … Continue reading Highland Fling by Jennifer LaBrecque →
If I had to label this book, I would not list “romance” first. It’s certainly one of those books that doesn’t fit neatly into one specific genre. The heroine, Milagro de los Santos, is Latina, and her character is certainly shaped by that fact, so does that make this a Chica Lit book? It’s a vampire story with a romance element that runs through it, but it’s also not just about the heroine’s development as … Continue reading Happy Hour at Casa Dracula, by Marta Acosta →
Ah, the infamous elephantits cover, from our cover snark on gay romance illustrations. It’s quite difficult not to judge a book by its cover, when the cover is so completely outrageous, AND when the man with the basket-balls appears on BOTH the front AND the back cover. I am usually not at all bothered by the appearance of what I read on the bus, but this could have raised some serious eyebrows with the homeland … Continue reading The Price of Temptation by M.J. Pearson →
Dude tries to stop some young thugs from beating up a sweet young thang on the tube. Dude gets the crap kicked out of him. Dude falls into a coma. Dude enters into an incredibly self-conscious reverie as he attempts to wake himself up from said coma. And there we have the entirety of Alex Garland’s The Coma. Not all stories with simple plots are brief or insubstantial, but both are true for this book. … Continue reading The Coma by Alex Garland →
Editor’s Note: We found out there was at least one factual error in this review. The offending sentence has been removed; the other alleged error is somewhat debatable (because Candy’s a contentious bitch) and stands for now. She’s going to hash it out in the comments. If you want to read more details on the errors, check out Cindy Cruciger’s livejournal. Revenge Gifts centers around Tara Cole (note slight humor of name if you say … Continue reading Revenge Gifts by Cindy Cruciger →
All right, finished my first Eloisa James novel, and… well, it wasn’t painful. It was, in fact, mostly pleasant. Overall, though, I think the book was pretty damn lukewarm because—ah, hell, Sarah said it best when we were discussing it last week: “Early parts of the book were fab. And then it felt like the author had a big, “Uh, what do I do now?” moment and ended up driving the story while she applied … Continue reading Duchess in Love →
Christine Sanders is an American heiress who inherits a considerable shipping fortune when her father dies. Her heinous uncle and legal guardian (Romance Novel Commandment Number 19: Thou Shalt Not Allow an Orphan Heroine to Have a Decent Guardian, Unless Thou Art Setting Up The Scene for a Guardian-Ward Romance) rushes her into marriage with Justin Delerue, Earl Smithton. Unfortunately, Christine hears some extremely unkind remarks bandied about by Justin and his best friend on … Continue reading Pirate’s Price by Darlene Marshall →
Most of the time, I get books from BooksFree, and I have a queue as long as my arm of books I want to read. I glom backlists [BF is good for that] and I skip from contemporary to Regency to historical to paranormal depending on what arrives in the mail. Sometimes, I am between shipments, or as in this case, a shipment went awry, and I end up with Nothing to Read. Oh, the … Continue reading She Drives Me Crazy by Leslie Kelly →
