Review for Beyond Eden

 

Title: Beyond Eden
Author: Kele Moon
Publication Date: September 8, 2010
Source: Bought
Summary (from Goodreads):

 Three lifelong friends find themselves tangled in a web of love, pain and dangerous secrets in this erotic Garden of Eden tale.

Tall, dark and handsome Danny Carlow has always gotten whatever he wants except for the two he wants more than anything-his best friends, lovers Paul and Eve. Determined, he waits like a snake in the grass, poised for the right moment to offer them a temptation too delicious to resist.

Artist Eve Everton makes the painful decision to leave her true love Paul for the siren call of New York City. Ten years later, with her life in shambles, she returns. When Paul's waiting arms aren't available, Eve falls for Danny's charm and finds herself a willing accomplice in the dangerous games Danny plays.

Former college football star Paul Mattling is now a successful attorney with a bright future ahead of him. But behind those brilliant blue eyes are secret desires for a taste of the forbidden. Will he play it safe or give in to Danny and Eve and bite the apple?

Reader Advisory: Not for the faint of heart, the pain in this story is vivid and real, the emotions even more so. Haunting and poignant, Beyond Eden presents a darker side of BDSM. You might gasp. You might cry. You might find yourself reading it again and again.

                                  Review

After reading a few tamer novels (and being let down by a few recent ones) I went on a search for something hot. I wanted dirty, sexy, erotica and found Beyond Eden. The summary was intriguing enough to get my interest and the rating for the book was high so that upped my expectations. Was I sadly fooled. Ugh!

Let me just start with a confession. I never finished this book. And that’s a first for me. I tried, really I did. But there’s something wrong if I’m bored by erotica and find myself yawning through the sex and skipping parts to get to the end - an end I never did get to. I think I got half way. That was the best I could do.

The nicknames pissed me off from the start. If I had to read another word of Danny Boy or Paul Guy or Eve Girl I was going to fucking scream or throw up. Oh my God. You’re supposed to be characters in your late twenties. Grow the fuck up!

There was no depth to the characters. All they did was go to the gym or work, yet you never actually saw them in action, except when it came to sex. That was the only action you saw and it was mediocre at best. Actually I think mediocre might be too good of a word for this crap.

The only thing that I found remotely surprising was it was because of Paul that Danny was sucked into the BDSM lifestyle and not the other way around. If you read it, which I’m not recommending you do, you’d see what I mean.

The only reason Beyond Eden is even getting half a star is because Moon managed to surprise me with that little bit of info. 

Where are all the toe curling, lip biting, moaning out loud erotic books hiding?! Someone please tell me!

                                                 1/2 star

 

Review for With Good Behavior

Title: With Good Behavior
Author: Jennifer Lane
Publication Date: July 13, 2010
Source: Author
Summary (from Goodreads):

In a world gripped by organized crime, family dysfunction, and dim hopes of redemption, can true love persevere? For Sophie Taylor, a beautiful psychologist who lost everything when she violated an ethical boundary, and Grant Madsen, a handsome naval officer who sacrificed everything to protect a loved one, finding that love may carry an unbearable cost.

Starting their lives over in Chicago, both are fighting influences from their family and running as fast as they can to escape the past. When their paths cross outside the parole officer's door, the attraction is instantaneous. But a hidden connection may not only shatter their fledgling love, but prove deadly to them both.

                                 Review
 

Anyone who knows me knows I have weakness for three things: mint chocolate, Ian Somerhalder and vampires who look like Ian Somerhalder.

But there are two other things that drive me fairly crazy as well: men in uniform and bad boys. So when I read the blurb for With Good Behavior and discovered our hero, Grant Madsen, is a former Navy sailor who also happens to be an ex-con, well… let’s just say more than my interest was aroused. A man in uniform who did time? This is like my ultimate naughty fantasy come true. The only thing that could have made the package better was to give the guy a Southern accent. I would have been all over that like ­– never mind. I’ll stop now.

Back to the story.

Grant Madsen and Sophie Taylor are the two people the story is centered around. There are, of course, many other players in the game, but everything leads back to these two. Thanks to one person, their lives are tied together before they even meet outside their parole officer’s door. Oh, did I forget to mention that? Yes, both Madsen and Taylor are ex-cons. Both were sentenced because of their lack of judgement due to the same person. Only they are not aware of that little fact.

I like how the author didn’t go the normal route of one being the criminal and the other being the parole officer and suddenly forbidden love is in the air while the PO tries to save the ex-con by proving his innocence. Yeah, that’s been done. Thanks for moving us along Ms. Lane!

I also really liked how the story revealed itself by bits and pieces of flashbacks and had so many different characters thoughts and memories involved.  It gave the reader a chance to see what happened from the character’s POV rather than be told how it happened from another character. By drawing different characters into the story and sharing what happened to them, it made you care for more than just Madsen and Taylor. Of course I didn’t care for all the characters, but there were ones that grew on me and I felt sad when their time came to an end.

The only thing I had trouble with was Karita. I understand why books have abusive spouses in, and in most cases the victims are women. But it’s the women like Karita that I just want to shake some sense into. Yeah, your husband is the Mafia king pin, but the asshole is beating you and your kids. Get the fuck out! If not for you then for your kids. My blood boils when I read about characters like Karita, but then I guess that’s a sign that the author is doing their job when I want to scream.

And the author definitely did her job in this novel.  

 ** I received an ebook from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Review for Slave

Title: Slave
Author: Sherri Hayes
Publication Date: July 28, 2011
Source: Bought
Summary (from Goodreads):

Stephan has lived the lifestyle of a Dominant for five years. After several rebellious teenage years, it gave him the stability and control he had been seeking after his parent’s death.

As president of a not-for-profit foundation, he knows what his future holds and what he wants out of life. All that changes when a simple lunch with his college friend and Mentor, Darren, leads him to buying a slave.

Thrust into a situation he never thought he’d be in, Stephan can’t walk away. He is compelled to help this girl in the only way he knows how.

Brianna knows only one thing, she is a slave. She has nothing. She is nothing.

Can Stephan help Brianna realize that she is much more than just a Slave?

                                 Review

I picked up Slave because of all the rave reviews everyone was giving it. Yes, again I was tempted by other people’s opinions. I really have to stop picking up BDSM books because of the reviews. Why? Because (again) I was slightly disappointed. It was an okay read, very quick which I liked since it did its job and distracted me for the couple of hours it took for me to read. But I was just left…wanting.

We’re introduced to Stephan, a Dom in the BDSM world. He’s told by a friend that there’s a young girl in need of rescuing. A slave to a very cruel and abusing Dom. Stephan is not about buying his Subs but once he meets the young Brianna he knows he has to help her and get her away from Ian. Thus, he purchases his first human being. Brianna is scared and scarred and sees all men as the enemy. The enemy that will beat, starve and basically rape her. Can she find the good in Stephan and become the Sub, not the slave, he desperately wants her to be?

We don’t know because the story just all of a sudden ends. And that’s when I find out it’s only one of three books (I believe) in the Finding Anna series.

The writing wasn’t bad. Hayes has a way of pulling you in even when you feel like the book isn’t really all that captivating. It’s labeled Erotica but, while there is mention of Brianna’s past horrible experiences, there is no erotica in the story. There’s no sex of any kind, erotic or not. Now, while I’m glad Stephan kept it in his pants and didn’t damage the poor girl any more than she already was, when I pick up an erotic book, I want an erotic book. I guess the kinky stuff is coming later on, but who knows?

There was no back story to the characters and I guess that’s where I felt disappointed. I like knowing who the characters are that I’m reading about. I like to get into their heads and their lives and know what makes them tick. We find out nothing about Stephan and Brianna, and I found that very frustrating. I want to know how Stephan got involved in the BDSM world, I want to uncover Brianna’s past and find out exactly how she came to land in Ian’s hands when she appears to come from a very normal background – the one and only thing we did learn about her.

I get that Hayes wants to keep us guessing and wondering so we’ll be inclined to read the next book in the series, but I believe that she could have given us some insight to the characters and still kept the mystery for the next books.

I’m conflicted on the ending too. It felt like a chapter ending, not a book ending. I liked it, but at the same time I said out loud, “That’s it?”

Child trafficking isn’t something that’s wrote a whole lot about. I think the whole thing is still very taboo in books. I haven’t come across very many fictional books anyway, so I did find it interesting that Hayes mixed slavery with BDSM. It’s a unique take on things, but that’s the take that bothered me. BDSM is supposed to be about people wanting to be in that world. Brianna was sold and forced to be a slave, and even when Stephan bought her in the purpose of saving her he still messed up. Instead of collaring her and trying to turn her into a sub he should have been alerting the authorities and getting this girl the right kind of help, not the kind of help he felt she should have.

I think Hayes wrote the BDSM world in a very misleading way. There still could have been a story if Stephan had done the right thing. Brianna could have been given help, set straight and sorted out the mess she went through and Hayes could have sent her back to Stephan whole and in full control of what she wanted.

Because really, we’re supposed to believe Stephan is a good guy, and while I do see good qualities in him, isn’t he just as wrong as her previous owner to buy a human and keep her against her will?

1/2

 

Review for Between the Sheets

Title: Between the Sheets
Author: Robin Wells
Publication Date: February 1, 2008
Source: Bought
Summary (from Goodreads):

 How do you have a life when everyone in America thinks you gave the president-elect a fatal heart attack during an illicit sex romp?
 
Emma Jamison never thought she'd have to answer that question, but here she is, smack dab in the middle of a political scandal that would make Monica Lewinsky blush. Trouble is, nobody believes that Emma wasn't the call-girl who killed the president-to-be with her, uh, carnal skills.
 
So Emma packs up and moves to small-town Chartreuse, LA, to escape her infamy and to start over. But when her grandmother starts dating the grandfather of district attorney Max Duval, the quiet life she was seeking blows up in smoke. 

                               Review

Let me start by throwing two words at you: weenie starch. Even if I had hated the book that little nickname for Viagra would have made the read worth it. But I didn’t hate the book. It was fun and flirty, even with the eye rolls I had to throw in every now and then.

I loved, absolutely loved Dorothy! The witty, flirtatious, sexually empowered elder was the hit of the book in my opinion. And when you mixed Harold, her confused yet so sweet partner into it, things just got so much better. The things that came out of her mouth (like the weenie starch comment) had me almost rolling out of bed with laughter.

I liked how Max didn’t automatically believe Emma was innocent when it came to the ‘butler did it’ scandal. It was fun watching him slowly figure it out, doubt himself, yet like her anyway despite the trouble she found herself in.

Emma had guts. She didn’t become a hermit and hide when shit hit the fan, she tried to clear her name with everything she had, but even when that didn’t work she didn’t let it stop her. Imagine having everyone believe you were responsible for fucking the next president to death! I do wish Wells had thought of a different surname for poor Emma though. Every time I read it, especially in this book, I couldn’t help but think of (former?) porn star Jenna Jameson.

And ladies, especially authors, lets vow here and now to stop using the word “manhood”. It’s just….ugh! If you’re adult enough to write about tit fucking – or sex in general – then you’re grown up enough to use words like dick, cock and penis. Hell, even use length, just stop with all the manhood crap!

Despite the manhood and hugely aroused descriptions (Really? Hugely aroused?) it was a fun little read and I’ll definitely be looking for more of her work!

1/2

Review for Gabriel's Rapture

Title: Gabriel's Rapture
Author: Sylvain Reynard
Publishing Date: May 22, 2012
Source: Publisher
Summary (from Goodreads):

Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell.

Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the rapture of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover.

When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he be forced to share Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?

                             Review

I cannot describe the ear deafening girlish squeal that rang through my house when I opened my email eight days ago. Could it be…? Was it really…? Oh my Gawd! An ARC of Gabriel’s Rapture was there waiting for me…and had been for two days! Two days, people! This is why you should check your email every. Single. Day.

I was just getting ready to devour it when life called and I was pulled away and forced back into reality for a bit. But finally – finally! – I was able to return and when I did I could not put this one down. My reader and I became BFF’s over the last two days. I stayed awake until my eyes had tears in them and were burning from staring at my reader for so long. Children were ignored, hubby was neglected, housework forgotten. No one existed except Gabriel Emerson.

The ride Reynard creates in his second book was once again a hit. I love that it starts right back up in Italy where Inferno left us. Now, while we don’t really learn anything new about our two lovers in this one, we do see a tremendous change in our Professor Emerson. The selfish, greedy man we met not too long ago is transformed in this book into something softer and gentler. The journey that’s full of twists and turns and misunderstandings that make you want to pull your hair out and cry, turn our damaged Emerson… good. Whole. He finds his humanity and in doing so discovers he wants things with his Beatrice that he banished wanting long ago.

Julia has also changed. She no longer is the prudish, judgmental woman I wanted to slap so many times in Inferno. By loving Gabriel she’s opened herself up to the possibility that not everything about a person’s past is dirty and sinful and she can have intimacy with someone without it being cruel. My heart ached right along with hers during the second half of this book. Even though you know there’s something she’s missing, and it’s right there, right there in front of her if only she would open her eyes makes the entire thing so bloody frustrating.

When she runs out into the rain to email Gabriel and finds him right outside her building my inner cheerleader was screaming at the top of her lungs. Finally they were going to sort this mess out! But Julia is cautious and still hurt; she doesn’t understand what Gabriel has really done. I had to clutch my reader to keep from throwing it out of frustration at these two in that moment. I’m glad all wasn’t forgiven and forgotten with a snap of her fingers, though. I loved that she decided they needed to get to know one another again and take it slow.

However, there’s slow and then there is the torture that Julia endured from Gabriel. Very clever, Professor. 

Withholding the sex just makes you all the more attractive and irresistible. I’m not sure how Julia stopped herself from screaming YES to his condition right then and there. C’mon, girl!

The only thing I didn’t understand was why, WHY, didn’t Gabriel resend that text to Julia?! Okay, I get that if he did then there would be no story blah, blah, blah. I get that, I really do. But when an error like that occurs you fix it ASAP. No one would have been none the wiser to it. Ahh authors and their clever ways of creating a plot.

Finally, my favourite quote from the book: “O gods of women whose fathers wish to castrate their boyfriend in the lobby of the Four Seasons, please don’t let him be carrying anything sharp.”  I still giggle every time I think of it.

I think it goes without saying from my gushing that I loved this book. I loved the highs and lows and, as much as I wanted to scream, I even loved the misunderstandings that made the book. And I especially love the cover. Have you seen the cover? Of course you have, but take another look. Beautiful, isn’t it?

I look forward to seeing what Reynard comes up with next.

***I received an ARC from the publisher (thank you, thank you, thank you!!) in exchange for an honest review.