Review: Command and Control

Making the Grade: C+

For My Thoughts

What goes together better than peanut butter and jam? It’s a classic match made in heaven and that’s exactly what Trevor Wyatt and Megan Asher are. And just in case PB and J doesn’t do it for you...there’s always “marshmallow” close by if things get out of hand (read the book - you’ll get the reference).

Command and Control by Shelli Stevens was a good second chance at love story for the oldest Wyatt brother Trevor. I love it when the hero is just a little bit bent and broken and needs to be healed by the love of a good woman. Trevor Wyatt is a man truly haunted by his nightmares of the war and he’s going to have to fight himself right along side his demons before he has any hope of getting a second shot at love with his former fiancée Megan Asher. Maybe thinking she’s got his replacement picked out and getting ready to tie the knot is just the kick in the pants he needs to get his head out of them and get his girl back...if she’ll have him.

Stevens does a good job of portraying the oldest Wyatt suffering through his survivor’s guilt and his feelings of inadequacy where Megan is concerned. He felt she deserved better than him, but couldn’t stand the thought of seeing her with another guy. It was the classic I don’t want you, but don’t want anyone else to have you either syndrome.

Megan loves Wyatt. Megan's always loved Wyatt. Megan wants another chance with Wyatt if she can break through his barriers and finally get him to open up about all the feelings he’s kept buried deep inside. So she offers up a tempting proposition to Trevor when she volunteers to give up command and control in the bedroom in exchange for his promise to finally confide in her. Let’s just say that Trevor would be a fool to turn down her plan and his Mama never raised no fool.

So in an exchange of power, things get very heated, very fast in the hallway, the bedroom, the shower and everywhere and anywhere in between. I may have been a tad disappointed in Megan that she thought the only way to get through to Trevor was by bargaining with sex, I thought she was better than that. But in the end, the plan worked and you can't argue with results.

Finally I find something very sexy about a woman who calls her military man Soldier: “You swear too much soldier“; “I’d prefer you sleep in my bed soldier“; “Hold it right there soldier”, and then his responding "Yes Ma‘am". Very hot!

Good second instalment to the series, but not as good as the first for me.

From The Author's Website

Holding Out for a Hero, Book 2

He’s afraid of losing his grip. She’s about to untie his last knot…

Megan Asher has a thriving career, looks, self-confidence to spare. It all means little without the love of her life. Trevor has returned from deployment in Afghanistan a haunted man, emotionally distant and unwilling to connect—except in bed. Then even that fragile thread snaps. Brokenhearted, she is forced to call off their wedding and, after a few months’ separation, try to move on.

With every aspect of his life spinning out of his once-legendary control, Trevor Wyatt convinces himself that Megan is better off—and safer—as far away from his demons as possible. Until he comes back to town for his brother’s wedding, and discovers Megan is dating.

Suddenly realizing what he’s thrown away, he vows to breach the fortress she’s built around her heart. They come together in a cataclysm of rekindled passion that unleashes the very demons he never wanted her to witness.

Back to square one, Megan realizes she must take the ultimate risk to slip past Trevor’s defenses. Give him control in the one place she can. The bedroom. The seductive move is one she prays will be the first step in helping heal him and their love.

Review: The Edge of Night

Making the Grade: B+

For My Thoughts

Reading The Edge of Night by Jill Sorenson for me was like getting two great stories in one. In my opinion there was very little to differentiate between the impact of the main and secondary characters. Both were strong couples whose storylines were interwoven and equally compelling.

April Ortiz is a hard working single mother trying to make the best of the cards she’s been dealt. She’s working as a waitress, taking college courses, lives in a rough neighborhood over run with gang violence and is forced to resort to drastic measures to cut ties with her mom when she lets April down big time. I’m not gonna lie - April’s actions towards her mom shocked me but after thinking about it, I guess she really had no choice and couldn‘t allow her five year old daughter‘s life to be endangered. Add in April’s close ties to the gang life - little Jenny’s father Raul is himself a gang-banger, albeit incarcerated and I had to give April full marks for trying to lead as normal a life as possible and give her daughter the very best she could given her circumstances.

Noah Young is a regular, normal guy...and when I say that - it’s as a compliment. It was refreshing that Sorenson wrote his character as a hard working, dedicated beat cop, not the boss, not a know-it-all experienced investigator - just a great guy. He was relatively new to the Chula Vista police force but had a real passion and interest in working for the gang division and he wanted to make a difference. To him being a police officer meant something - it wasn‘t just a job. He didn’t met April under the best of circumstances when he and his partner were send to Club Sauve where she worked to investigate the death of a fellow waitress who was murdered.

April and Noah are drawn to one another instantly, but if two people should stay away from each other - it’s these two. Cops and women with deep connections to the local gang are a disaster waiting to happen.

Now we get to my favorite character in The Edge of Night...Eric Hernandez - Uncle Eric. He was the glue that held all the players together. For me, he was the most interesting and emotion evoking character in this story. Eric was a great “brother-in-law” to April, a terrific Uncle to Jenny, a caring grandson to an invalid grandmother he was caring for and his story took an unexpected turn when we discovered he was a sweet and caring boyfriend to Meghan who ironically enough was Noah Young’s sister.

Oye!

Eric was someone you couldn’t help but root for. Sure he ran with the wrong crowd, walked on the wrong side of the law, but we got to see that he was forced into a life he simply didn’t know how to escape. People relied on him to provide for them and so he found himself doing distasteful things because he couldn’t see another way out and he didn’t want to let the people in his life down. Ms. Sorenson did show us just a glimpse of how the future could have been different for Eric - if he hadn’t been born into a long time gang family. Eric’s hidden talents could have changed his life if he’d been allowed to develop them.

In addition to all the human drama unfolding, there’s still a killer on the loose targeting young Latina women. It’s up to Officer Young to discover the truth, juggle his responsibilities as a police officer and try not to blur the lines between right and wrong too often for the women in his life who mean the most to him.

I really enjoy Ms. Sorenson’s writing and I hope she revisits Eric’s story - because he truly does deserve his own HEA.

From The Author's Website
Bantam Dell
April 2011
ISBN 978-0-553-59263-4

Read an Excerpt here

In a sultry California city on the Mexican border, a brutal crime pushes a struggling young mother and an idealistic cop to the edge of passion—and beyond.

To support her small daughter, April Ortiz does what she has to do—which means waiting tables in a skimpy outfit at a popular nightclub in a gang-infested area of Chula Vista. When one of her co-workers is raped and murdered, April does what she knows she shouldn’t—she defies the neighborhood code by giving the police a hardcore gang member’s name.

Clean-cut cop Noah Young wants a shot at breaking this case more than anything in the world—that is, until he meets the unforgettable April Ortiz. When April gives Noah the tip, a spark ignites. As the fire between them threatens to blaze out of control, the two are dragged down further into the dark mysteries of the graffiti-lined streets, taunted by a crazed killer who could strike again at any time.

Review: A Little Bit Naughty

Making the Grade: C

For My Thoughts

Their hands reach across the grocery shelf at the exact same moment, the prize within their grasp...it’s the only box left on the shelf and over a box of caramel corn - a friendship is born.

A Little Bit Naughty by Anne Rainey is your typical friends to lovers story. I got the feeling Amanda and Leo had been “best buds” for years and my only question was why? These two obviously had chemistry and real feelings for each other.

Amanda and Leo spend more platonic time together than most couples in a relationship. Lunches two to three times a week, going to the movies, out to dinner, he calls her sweetheart and touches her at every opportunity. And then there is their shared love of caramel corn. If that isn’t a match made in heaven I don’t know what is.

Again why are these two just friends? I guess they just needed the right incentive to take their relationship to the next level. And what better excuse then the fake fiancé ruse.

Amanda’s got the upcoming dreaded family reunion she doesn’t want to attend alone where she will be subjected to the usual questions and concerns from her family about her *gasp* lack of a boyfriend. Leo the ever gallant BFF offers to attend with her as her “pretend boyfriend”. Amanda has real misgivings about their ability to carry off the charade in front of her family for a weekend, but she can’t forget the feel of the bulge in Leo’s pants when they practice fake kissing. *Whispers* he’s hung don’t you know.

Sharing a cabin offers all kinds of sexy opportunities for Leo and Amanda to get down and dirty and they do over and over again. They discover quite quickly that they are indeed compatible in and out of bed…and they like it.

I think in the future they’ll be sharing a lot more than caramel corn together and more importantly Amanda will no longer be attending the family reunion solo.

From The Author's Website

Samhain Publishing — 10/2010
A Tahoe Nights Story
Read an Excerpt here

Amanda Harding has always been a grave disappointment to her parents. She’s slightly plump, owns a bookstore and single. All no-nos. When the annual Harding family reunion comes around, Amanda dreads the thought of going alone, again. In comes best bud Leo Prentice with a plan. He’ll play the smitten lover. No worries, right? But what happens when the fake kiss turns both of them inside out?

friends turned lovers romance

Review: The Heat is On

Making the Grade: C

For My Thoughts

The action in The Heat is On by Elle Kennedy starts out fast and furious (mmmm I sense a movie title in there somewhere), a bank robbery in progress, people cowering on the floor, lives being threatened by the likes of Hook Nose, Black Hair and Red Shoes. Not exactly the place to be scoping out your next potential date, but it’s hard for Matt O’Connor to resist the beautiful blonde lying on the floor next to him as they share a snarky, running commentary on the ineptitude of the idiots robbing the bank.

With the crisis averted, Matt decides to make a move on his snark-alicous partner-in-crime and ask her out for dinner. When she appears to think it over before stamping “Denied” on his forehead, Matt is dumbfounded, literally in shock - Who the hell mulls over going out on a date with him? With a sympathetic grin and a sassy wave, Savannah Harte leaves Matt O‘Connor in her wake to nurse his wounded ego. You go girl!

Big, bad-ass, bald, commitment-phob, Navy SEAL Matt O’Connor finally meets the one girl who doesn’t want a relationship. He’s been a man-slut for years and in his own words “if he were counting notches on his belt - he would need 10 of them.” It seemed kind of like poetic justice then that Savannah Harte, owner of her own florist business Harte to Harte was the first girl to put the unflappable Matt off his game.

Savannah should have been the girl of Matt's dreams...she just wanted to have sex with him and then when she got bored with him as she inevitably would, she would just send him on his merry way with no regrets. But the more serious Matt got about having a real relationship with Savannah, the more she was determined to keep things between them all about the S-E-X.

This is my first Elle Kennedy book and although it’s the sixth book in the series, I had no issue picking up this series midstream. There are mentions of characters I’m going to take a major leap and assume are from previous books, but they had no real bearing on this story.

This was a fast, easy, sexy read as this commitment challenged duo tried to get past their fears and give love a chance to bloom.

I will definitely be checking out some of the other Men in Uniform stories in the series.

From The Author's Website

The Heat is On
(April 5, 2011, Samhain Publishing)
Out of Uniform #6

Read an Excerpt here

It’s all about the thrill...

As a Navy SEAL, Matt O’Connor specializes in Bad Boy. At least, that’s what he thinks…until he finds himself face down on the floor during a bank robbery, arguing with a sexy, bad-girl blonde who wields her sharp tongue with surgical precision.

Just like that, Matt begins to wonder if maybe the idea of settling down with one woman isn’t as crazy as he thought.

Savannah Harte is addicted to first kisses and whirlwind romances. Once the thrill is gone, though, she’s outta there. She’s eager to follow the adrenaline rush she feels with Matt into the nearest bed, but when tangled sheets begin to feel like tangled heartstrings, her first instinct is to cut him loose. There’s only one problem: Matt’s not going anywhere. And not even a steamy threesome seems to dull her growing feelings.

Which leaves Savannah having to decide what she wants more. The casual thrill of now…or the scary thrill of forever.

Warning: This title features a hot threesome with explicit sex, a bad-girl heroine, and two Navy SEALs guaranteed to make you sweat.

April TBR Challenge Review: Texas Tangle

Save a horse, ride a cowboy...or two!

The TBR challenge this month was to read a Western (contemp or historical).
I don’t do western as a rule but I did find Leah Braemel's Texas Tangle in the E-book pile and it’s as close to a Western as I’ve got.

Making the Grade: C-

For My Thoughts

I’m gonna try and Texas two-step my way through this review.

It’s hard to write a review for a book that just doesn’t do it for you and you can’t pinpoint why? I didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it. If I had to accurately describe my feelings...I tolerated it.

I liked the cover and the premise sounded promising. I should have felt sorry for the heroine, but I didn’t. I should have swooned at manly men Dillon and Brett, but I didn’t. Sometimes you just don’t make the connection. Doesn’t mean it won’t work for you. Lots of people liked Texas Tangle so you may too. After all we all can’t like the same food, men or books. That’s what makes the world go round. I did like Merlin the donkey.

Nikki Kimball has definitely been dealt a raw deal. She’s newly divorced trying to make a go of running a horse breeding ranch. She’s got a douche of an ex-husband who cheated on her, her parents treat her no better than dirt on the bottom of their shoes (I really hated them) and a brother who she’s helping by letting him live at her ranch while he’s on probation - HE is the king of the douchebags; A-hole with a capital A. Nikki’s the poster child for bad luck when her house is burgled and everything gets stolen, her credit is ruined and her bank accounts emptied. Huh that's family for ya.

Then along comes white knight and neighbor Dillon Barrett and his best friend and foster brother Brett Anderson riding in on their white stallions - ok they were just driving trucks - to save the damsel in distress. Dillon and Brett are as close as any two blood brothers can be and when all three attended high school together 10 years ago both Dillon and Brett had a "thing" for Nikki, but neither followed through on asking her out and lost the opportunity when she ended up preggers and married to her douchey ex-husband. He who hesitates loses the girl boys!

So now years later, just when it seems like Nikki's life can’t get any worse, it's like she’s been gifted with these two hunky guys served up to her on a silver platter and now she's supposed to choose between them...or not.

I found it interesting that after almost ruining the brother bond between Dillon and Brett when they were in high school when Brett and Nikki shared a kiss - now they're just going to let bye-gones be bye-gones like nothing happened and share her in and out of bed? Or better yet one of them will be the bigger man and step aside so the other one can have a go at a relationship with her. Nope back to option #1 - they are going to live like one big happy family. Everybody into the bed!

This book just wasn’t for me but that doesn’t mean much. I'm not going to claim that I read or like a lot of ménage stories. I've read them but they are not my read of choice. Texas Tangle does have lots of tangling in the sheets, on the kitchen table, in the front seat of a Jeep but one of the threesome scenes had a particular scenario that had me going whaaaaat? Did he really just asked her to stimulate that? Never read that request in a book before. It kind of had a WTF factor for me.

Had this book not been part of my TBR challenge, I would have finished the book, but probably wouldn't have written a review. My momma always told me if you don't have nothing nice to say - then say nothing at all.

From The Author's Website

Publisher: Carina Press
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Length: Novel
Read an Excerpt here

Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an over-drawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.

Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki. Now, ten years later, Brett still longs to be the man in Nikki’s life, but he’s determined to stand back and let Dillon win Nikki’s heart.

Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?

Review: Make Me, Sir

Making the Grade: A

For My Thoughts


I wasn’t going to do it. I wasn’t going to start this book but who am I kidding - I can’t resist the allure of the Masters of the Shadowlands even if it is the last book Cherise Sinclair has published in the series. Please, please, please don’t make me wait too long until the next book Ms Sinclair. Does begging work? Not at Club Shadowlands usually but I’m hoping Ms. Sinclair takes pity on me and releases another book soon.

When a good friend of Gabrielle Renard’s goes missing from a BDSM club Gabi is determined to help in the FBI investigation any way she can. Word on he street is that several more woman are to be taken from similar clubs and sold at an auction into sexual slavery. The kidnappers appear to be targeting young women who are disobedient and although Gabi isn’t into the BDSM scene since she did dabble in the lifestyle in college, she's more than willing to go undercover as a decoy if it means helping find her friend Kim. Although Gabrielle works for the FBI - she’s a victim specialist - not a trained FBI field agent. And Gabi is not a sub and the Doms at Club Shadowlands will not be aware she is working undercover for the FBI when she agrees to join the submissive training program except Shadowlands Owner Master Z.

Oh dear God Gabi - what have gotten yourself into? Being a sub + acting bratty = no deed goes unpunished at Club Shadowlands.

Marcus Atherton is the new trainer at Shadowlands and he's totally suspicious when Master Z asks him to take on a new trainee - but it’s Master Z’s club - so take on a new trainee he does. Master Marcus has no tolerance for rude, disobedient subs and working with the newest trainee Gabi is going to push his patience to the limits.

There were times I felt very sorry for poor Gabi knowing what she was going to have to endure. Every time she deliberately misbehaved I cringed wondering what “punishment” the Doms or Master Marcus would conjure up for her. And they didn’t disappoint. Let me just say ginger root - seriously? Who knew it had such burning qualities? Silly me - I thought you just used it for cooking.

Given how intuitive these Doms are, Marcus knows early on something just isn’t right with Gabi or how she’s acting. Her bratty behaviour seems to be totally out of character and Marcus instinctively knows she’s hiding something. With the help of the other Doms, Marcus conducts a little experiment on Gabi to break down her defences - conveniently when Master Z isn’t around to protect her cover.

Subspace - The final frontier. These are the sexy voyages of the subs and their Doms. You want to know what that cryptic sentence means - you gonna have to read the book.

This book was by far the longest and most involved story yet. The suspense plot involving the kidnapping and trafficking ring was interwoven throughout the book and was definitely tense and keep me on edge wondering how it was going to play out.

I say this with every book I‘ve read in this series by Ms. Sinclair, but I do think that is was the best one yet. Given the way the story arc with the sex slaver traffickers ended, I firmly believe that this storyline is not over. Someone at Club Shadowlands is not the good Dom they appear to be.

I can’t wait for the next instalment. Whose story is it going to be? How long do I have to wait? Please Ms. Sinclair answer the burning questions. Inquiring minds need to know!

From Goodreads:
Her job is to make his life miserable. His job is to make her submit. Whose heart will surrender first?

Across the country, rebellious BDSM submissives are being systematically kidnapped, one from each club. When her friend falls prey to the slavers, FBI victim specialist Gabrielle volunteers to be bait in a club not yet hit: the Shadowlands.

She finds that being a bratty sub comes naturally, especially when she gets to twit the appallingly conservative Master of the trainees. But she soon discovers he’s not as stuffy as she’d thought. Or as mean. She’d expected punishment, even humiliation, but she sure never expected to fall in love with a damned lawyer.

Courtesy of a prima donna ex-wife, Marcus loathes disobedient submissives. When the club owner insists he admit an incredibly bratty trainee, he’s furious. But as he comes to know Gabrielle and sees the alluring sweetness beneath the sass, he starts to fall for her.

Unfortunately, Marcus isn't the only one who believes the feisty redhead is a prize worth capturing. And in the world of the slaver, such treasure is worth a hefty fee.

Review: Love You More

Making the Grade: A

For My Thoughts

It takes all of two pages before Love You More by Lisa Gardner grabs you by the throat, squeezes and has you gasping - WTF is going on.

A young, pretty, female state trooper, her dead husband seemingly killed by her own hand and her missing six-year-old daughter. If you aren’t intrigued by this story, how it’s going to unfold and what long time friends State Police Detective Bobby Dodge and Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren have to do with the case...then you are stronger than me. I couldn’t wait to see where this complicated case was headed. Love You More is a barn-burning, page-turning, I dare you to try and put me down kinda book.

Although D.D. and Bobby appear in several other of Gardner’s books (this is their fifth book together), I think it’s fair to say this outstanding book can definitely be read as a stand alone. It was great to see D.D. and Bobby Dodge back in the saddle again working a case. D.D. is a great female character. She’s a ball-bustin’ Boston Cop, smart, a little rough around the edges, but there is no mistaking that she knows how to work a case and get results. Bobby definitely takes a supporting role - this is all the D.D. Warren show. We are also offered just a little glimpse of D.D‘s private life as she deals with a huge personal issue at the same time as she’s under the gun to solve this case.

Love You More is told from two different points of view. Gardner keeps feeding us little scraps of information as told from State Trooper Tessa Leoni’s first person point of view. I kept wondering if Tessa Leoni was really fooling everyone but then I went back to those first two pages and kept wondering to myself - WTF is going on in this book. It was clear as the case unfolded that Tessa Leoni was a master planner, a highly skill strategist and at the end of it all, I admired the lengths Leoni went to and the pain and hardship she endured for her daughter. More than anything Tessa loved her daughter Sophie to infinity and beyond.

We also get insight into the police investigation from D.D. and Bobby’s point of view. We get to see their decisions, the direction the case is headed and the assumptions being made based on the evidence in this very confusing investigation. No one is above suspicion including prime suspect Tessa Leoni and as the case progresses her police co-workers and an old childhood friend.

The twists and turned did not stop. It was tense, it was dramatic, it was masterful in it’s story-telling and all the pieces of the puzzle lined up like ducks in a row. I had no idea where the story was going and I love when a story takes you on the kind of journey. I wanted so bad to keep reading and was dying to find out what was going to happen next. At one point mid-way through I thought I had a handle on what was going on and was patting myself on the back thinking I was all that and oh soooooooo smart. D’oh I wasn’t even close.

There is only one thing that I have a quibble about and that is throughout this whole book D.D. has to come to terms with a life changing moment in her life and she needs to tell her current love about the monumental change that is about to affect their lives. I was disappointed that this issue was relegated to about a paragraph with no resolution. No face to face meeting just a quick phone conversation of “Alex…we need to talk”.

I can only hope and assume that Gardner is planning on dealing with this little bombshell in the next book.

This was an amazing book and I think it would make a kick-ass movie. Loved, loved, loved it.

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Bantam; First Edition edition (March 8, 2011)
Read The First Chapter

Pushed to the brink by an abusive husband, state police trooper Tessa Leoni finally snapped and shot him in self-defense. But Tessa isn’t talking–not about her dead husband, her battered face, or her missing six-year old daughter. Now, Detective D.D. Warren will have to race against the clock to unearth family secrets, solve a murder and save a child.