Review: Forbidden Desires by Kelly Yeakle

Forbidden Desires by Kelly Yeakle

Publisher: Evernight Publishing
Genre: Alternative Romance

Heat Rating: 2
 

Blurb

When Dani meets the delicate beauty that is Carmen she knows instantly that she wants her—in her life and in her bed. But can Miss. Commitment-phobic look beyond the sex to see the woman beneath?

To Carmen, the wildly beautiful Dani is a new and exciting friend. What she hadn't counted on is the simmering desire she feels when in Dani's presence. As her relationship with her boyfriend sours, Carmen begins to wonder if there is more to Dani than she realizes.
Should she give in to this, the most forbidden of desires?


Lia's Review

When I started to read this novel, I was blown away at the imagery used in the first few chapters. The author painted a picture with vivid colors and heartfelt emotion. I instantly liked Carmen. She reminded me a bit of myself. I could related to her and wanted her to succeed. Dani was Carmen’s opposite, and it was their differences that made them into such a great couple. When reading this book, it felt as though I was reading about real people. Both of their personalities were so well developed and realistic.

I loved that there was no bad guy in this book. Although David, Carmen’s boyfriend was the element that stood between Carmen and Dani’s happiness, David himself wasn’t a villain. He was just a typical man who forgot how to treat a woman. By the end on the book I actually felt bad for him.

One thing I hate is when a relationship is rushed and forced. It’s so rare to see a book where the romance takes time to build. This story had that. Dani and Carmen didn’t fall head over heels with each other in a week. It took time. They developed a friendship first, and only then moved to the next step. Their attraction to each other seemed more real with the friendship. By the end of the book, I was convinced that they were in love and happy together. Perfect character development!

My only complaint with this book is that a lot of it was telling the story. I wish there had been a little more show and a little less tell. Besides that, however, it was a great and memorable love story.

4 Tea Cups!

 

   

Review: The Professor's Assistant by Bren Christopher

The Professor's Assistant by Bren Christopher

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books
Genre: Alternative Romance

Heat Rating: 3
 

Blurb

Lured by rumors of a momentous invention, Agent Julian Blake steps into the New York Gate and emerges outside London. It is the same year, 1885, but an Earth parallel to his own. The two timelines are almost identical, but the slight variation is enough to threaten his mission as it includes an attitude toward same-sex attraction that is less than accepting.

He never expected that difference to pose a problem. Julian has an important mission to complete; a mission with far-reaching consequences not only across the alternate Earths, but into their pasts. For the momentous invention is a working time machine. And the inventor’s assistant is a beautiful, auburn-haired young man named Daniel who causes Julian to disregard the Department rules he has lived by for so long.

But there are others interested in the professor’s new invention, and when tragedy strikes, the professor’s lovely assistant might just be the only person left alive with the knowledge to recreate the device.

Now Daniel is a target, and Julian is in a race to protect him and retrieve the knowledge of the time machine from those who would misuse it.

Contains: Explicit m/m sex


Dodie's Review

The story of Julian and Daniel is a beautiful story. They meet – there is an instant attraction – and realize quickly that they are in love with each other. As happens far too often in romance novels, neither one does anything stupid to drive the other one away. As difficulties arise in their burgeoning relationship, they analyze the situation, and correctly realize when they are overreacting to something.

Due to Daniel's job as the professor's assistant, he becomes a target of the “bad guys”. This was my main problem with the book. There is not enough tension and build in the “bad guys” confrontation with Daniel, so consequentially the payoff is not as powerful as it could be. Everything is resolved neatly, there are not any inappropriate leaps or inconsistencies in the story, but the tension is not there in the suspenseful moments, so the denouement falls flat.

The plot with its historical sci fi elements was refreshing and intriguing. The romantic scenes between Julian and Daniel were absorbing, and illustrated the developing love between them. While the denouement was not as powerful as it could have been,The Professor's Assistant is nevertheless a great story and highly entertaining read.

4 Tea Cups!

 

   

Review: My Angel's Delight by Cindy Lee

My Angel's Delight by Cindy Lee

Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Genre: Paranormal Romance

Heat Rating: 3

Blurb

What could be better for hard-working Sabrina than a day off relaxing naked at home by her pool? How about an angel with a supremely sexy body who visits her for a few hours of fun and excitement? Add to this a handsome pool cleaner with a hot body who Sabrina’s always lusted over and you have an afternoon full of intense sex and delightful surprises!


Dodie's Review

This Quickie begins with some hot sex between Sabrina and an angel that has dropped in for a visit and ends with a sweet romance and some hot sex between Sabrina and James – her handsome pool cleaner. What could get better than that? While a very short read (obviously for a Quickie), there is just enough background information provided for the characters to really get a sense of who they are, and to provide the necessary framework for the story. This was a great short read!

4 Tea Cups!

   

Review: Love’s Deceit by Joyee Flynn

Love’s Deceit by Joyee Flynn

Publisher: Silver Publishing
Genre: Alternative Romance

Heat Rating: 4

Blurb

Dimitri Anslow has been in love with Alexander since he came to the warrior camp as a twenty-four year old pre-transition trainee. Fifty years later, he finally has the perfect plan to be with Alexander… at least physically.

After their life changing sex, Alexander tells Dimitri that he doesn't love or want him. Crushed, Dimitri tries everything he can to forget the man, jumping from guy to guy. As Alexander gives him mixed signals, Dimitri tries to come to terms with the fact that his mate may never be his. Can Dimitri move on from the one that owns his heart or is there something worth fighting for?


Lily's Review

Love’s Deceit is a lovely read which you can really get your teeth into – excuse the pun – the story length is long enough to get to know the characters, invest in their happiness and fall happily into the world of vampires and warriors.

Dimitri is a great character and you really feel the strength of his love for Alexander. The pain of having such powerful feelings for someone but not having them returned smokes off the page. I could have cried for him a few times; about how he was used and discarded, how he flitted from one mad sexual encounter to another.
Alexander is how many men are, aloof and confident on the outside, but on the inside confused and just wanting what everyone else wants. I could almost see him standing before me, the descriptions of his sublime physical appearance were so intense.

The vampire/warrior world Ms Flynn creates is very believable, the secondary characters add wealth and depth to the story. The fact that their customs and practices are so ancient heightens the tension and the need, as a reader, to have a happy outcome.

Verdict:

The first book I have read by this author and I am certainly impressed. The voice is smooth and believable, the characters well rounded and the plot flows well. Great job.

4 Tea Cups!

   

Review: Summer Sizzle by Berengaria Brown

Summer Sizzle by Berengaria Brown

Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat Rating: 3

Blurb

Craig and Seth are both on holidays at Two Waters beach. The lust between them is instant and fiercely hot. Sex at the beach, in the woods, in the sauna… When they finally take a break the couple discovers they actually have other interests in common and begin to build a relationship outside the bedroom.

Their growing intimacy is interrupted when Seth is called to a meeting at the school where he teaches. Seth is shattered when he and most of his colleagues find themselves suddenly unemployed due to school consolidation. His well-ordered life has come to a crashing halt, along with his vacation—and perhaps his romance.



Dodie's Review

Craig and Seth are instantly attracted to each other, and have a lot of sex, A LOT of sex. Hot, steamy, highly detailed sex in a variety of places. It was very clear, right from the get go, that they were very much instantly in lust with each other. So what's the problem, you ask? It just wasn't clear to me how they got from instant lust to forever love. The one thing that was really missing, were the intimate moments when they really became a couple.

Don't get me wrong, this was a highly entertaining read, and a fantasy that is easy to slip into. Who doesn't dream of finding an extremely attractive bed partner on their beach vacation. The sex scenes were frequent, and steamy, and fascinating to read. Craig and Seth were both very likable, and I was very pleased with the ending. All in all, well worth the time spent reading it.

3 ½ Tea Cups!

   

Review: Relentless Love by A.J. Llewellyn

Relentless Love by A.J. Llewellyn

Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Genre: Alternative Romance

Heat Rating: 3

Blurb

Sequel to Relentless Passion.

Alex has already lost one lover to his brother Zeca. Now his fickle shenanigans have driven Hugh, his other lover, away as well. Alex desperately wants what his brother has, an intensely passionate relationship, so Zeca shares their father Toppy’s advice—you have to love before you can be relentless. Good advice, if Alex weren’t so afraid to follow it.

When Toppy’s own love life gets a little, um…strange, he escapes to St. Tropez. He takes Alex with him, who finds himself face-to-face with Hugh. Too bad Hugh is already lip-to-lip with someone else. But Alex has come too far to turn back now.

The game is on, and while Toppy gets up to his own sexual shenanigans under the St. Tropez sun, Alex will do anything to get back into Hugh’s life…his bed…his body. He’ll first have to learn to face his fears. Only then can he find relentless love.


Dodie's Review

While this book is a sequel, you don't have to have read Relentless Passion to understand what is going on in Relentless Love. Zeca and Antonio have a strong presence in this book, so their fans from Renltless Passion will be able to follow their story here as well. Toppy and his shenanigans feature prominently in the book as well; however, this is truly Alex and Hugh's story.

As a preliminary warning, there are numerous steamy scenes between Alex and Hugh, and between other characters as well. So apart from being a great love story, the sex scenes are detailed and erotic.

There were events in Alex's past, as in all of our pasts, that strongly shaped his world view and the way he approaches life. Hugh proposed to Alex, and Alex panicked. He never doubted his feelings for Hugh, but until then, he had a superficial take on life. He tried to keep things light and casual as he was scared of anything more permanent. Needless to say the fact that Alex panicked, did not sit well with Hugh, who returned to St. Tropez and to his family.

Relentless Love is the story of first Alex gets a handle how his past has shaped his world view, and then goes to St. Tropez to try to get Hugh back. Along the way, as on any true quest, he encountered several obstacles. Some of his making, some of Hugh's making, and of course, some of Toppy's. I enjoyed Alex's journey, but I especially appreciated the extra chapters letting us know what happens after Alex and Hugh's dramatic showdown. I liked the author taking the extra step to show us how their life begins to take shape and on into the future.

4 1/2 Tea Cups!

      

Review: Higher Learning by Kris Starr

Higher Learning by Kris Starr

Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Genre: Alternative Romance

Heat Rating: 3

Blurb

Work on Anne’s master’s thesis is going well until her world is spun off its axis by the stunningly beautiful and very sexy Leslie. Interviewing this woman about her sexual history is turning into an exquisite form of sensual torture, but somehow Anne can’t find it in herself to stay away. On top of that, Leslie’s scorching kisses and electrifying caresses bring long-buried feelings and painful memories to the surface. And it doesn’t help that Anne’s boyfriend Michael is willing to let Anne do a little experimentation.

Anne’s obsession with Leslie begins to spiral out of control, affecting both her work and her relationship with Michael, until all that remains is a possibility that Anne both craves and fears. But not everything is as it seems and it turns out Anne’s not the only one keeping secrets.


Dodie's Review

This story is Anne's journey to overcome some difficult things that happened in her past. When Anne was younger she had to overcome a betrayal combined with ridicule in her high school. Not normal teenage angst ridicule, but to the level where she had to change schools, and it profoundly affected her life – her ability to connect with other people. Now that Anne has met Leslie, she is forced to try and work through the blocks this long ago betrayal formed in her psyche.

Kris Starr has done an excellent job of laying all the emotions out on the line for the reader to experience. Not just the sex scenes, which are erotic and hot, and essential to moving the story along, but also the descriptions of the pivotal events in Anne's and Leslie's backgrounds that made them who they are. There's something about the way that Kris Starr describes the betrayal and humiliation that both Anne and Leslie experienced in their pasts that makes you think that the author has been there before. While you may or may not be able to identify with the experiences, you can definitely identify with the feelings the characters experienced, which makes this a true character driven story, and a wonderful read.

4 1/2 Tea Cups!

      

Review: Mercury Rising by Daisy Harris

Mercury Rising by Daisy Harris

Publisher: Ravenous Romance
Genre: Alternative Romance

Heat Rating: 4

Blurb

Take a sexy romp with the gods in this hilarious and hot ménage!
Over-extended - and closeted - charmer Mercury the Messenger struggles to accommodate all the factions of the Deities International Conference and Kibbitz. However, his skills at diplomacy stretch to the limit when the object of a chance tryst turns out to be his assistant, and his arranged fiancée arrives at the scene.

Dillon Rodriquez, Mercury's executive aide and a soon-to-be MBA student, refuses to be the closeted god's side-dish. But when an accident at the conference strands the god in the human world, Dillon agrees to act as his guide.

Traveling from San Diego down the Baha Coast to Cabo, Mercury experiences a side of life he never imagined, and he learns that if he wants to earn the love of the one man who matters, he has to stop trying to please everyone else.

Warning: contains male-male loving, male-female loving, male-male-female loving, male-male-male...well, you get the idea!


Clare C's Review

Three intertwined love stories in one novel—who wouldn’t love that? Add in the talented wordsmithing of Daisy Harris, and you have the makings for a fabulous escape.

Mercury is the typical old-fashioned type of people pleaser. He wants everyone to like him and he’s desperately afraid of coming out of the closet. Meeting Dillon forces him to reevaluate the cost of hiding his homosexuality from the pantheon of other gods and goddesses. Their story is touching and sweet, hot and cold, and bitingly realistic.

Woven into this story is the story of Vesta, the virgin goddess and Mercury’s fiancée. She fights her attraction to the Norse gods Thor and Loki as she tries to figure out why she agreed to marry a man she’d never met. The minor story of Peleus and Thetis, and the subsequent birth of Achilles, is of lesser importance. It might pave the way for a sequel, but if not, the conclusion still brings all the elements to a satisfying conclusion.

The mythological characters in Mercury Rising leap from the page in an entirely human manner that will have you turning pages far after the time you should have been asleep. Daisy Harris is a new-to-me author. I’ll be looking for more from this talented author.

4 1/2 Tea Cups!