Archive for the ‘4 Whip Review’ Category

ISBN: 9781426890703
Publisher: Carina Press

Mandy is content with her job as a librarian, her longtime boyfriend, Martin, and the lovely home they share. So what if their sex life is vanilla? She’s not the wild type anyway.

But when she wakes up one morning-unsatisfied-from an erotic dream starring her favorite movie star, Mandy starts to crave sexual adventure in real life. Too bad Martin won’t oblige, because it’s not Tuesday or Friday. Then Mandy finds out what Martin’s been doing the other days of the week-or rather, who. And suddenly she needs to prove to herself that she’s not boring in bed.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of smoking-hot men willing to help her on her sensual quest: a nameless library patron who could be Brad Pitt’s twin, a coworker she suddenly sees in a different light, and the neighbor who usually rubs her the wrong way wants to show her he can rub her the oh-so-right way, too! Lucky for Mandy, her lovers are more than willing to share…

Overdue for Pleasure by Shelley Aikens is a book that I received for review from NetGalley.

As you can read from the blurb, Mandy, the main character of this book wakes up one morning and her whole life changes. She goes to work at the library, only to be tempted by a stranger. This encounter leaves her so unsettled that she decides to head off on a buying trip, only to have a fantasy encounter with another stranger on the bus. At this point, she is so unsettled that she decides to abandon her day and head home, only to find her long time boyfriend, Martin, at home, obviously having recently had sex with someone. In a fit of anger, she throws Martin and all his possessions out of the home they were sharing. What a horrible day!

This book is written from the point of view of Mandy and written almost as a dreamy fantasy. It seems that Mandy feels out of control of her life and she is drifting from one fantasy encounter to another. She goes from being a person who has her life all set for her at the beginning of the book, through a period of uncertainty and exploration, to finally a more settled state at the end of the book. This book is quite graphic; it is billed as Erotica. As such, there is alot of sex in the book, but there is also a good story line. The life of Mandy over the short period that the book covers is well conveyed. Her character goes through alot of change. Although some of the characters are a bit inconsistent, the character of Mandy is well fleshed out.

The pace of the book is good and this book can serve as some nice light, spicy reading for a few hours. Not for the faint of heart!

This review was originally posted on Sugarbeat’s Books

ISBN : 0758219229
Publisher : Aphrodisia/Kensington Books

Travel back to a world where lords and ladies ruled the ton by day and wild, wanton abandon ruled them at night…

Abby Deane has no problems piloting a small plane to her new job–until she lands and realizes she has traveled back in time to Regency England. She’s fascinated by everything around her, especially the seductive Myles Hardy. If she can’t get back to her own time, she might as well enjoy the potent sensuality simmering beneath that rock-hard body…

Myles Hardy can’t take his eyes off the mysterious and alluring woman who’s suddenly appeared in front of him. Miss Abby Deane talks of the future, but it is pleasuring her here and now that most intrigues him. And her bag of sensual delights holds the key to revealing her most secret desires and forbidden fantasies…

This erotic time travel (paranormal novel) is the first novel by Celia May Hart – an author for Aphrodisia Kensington. One More Time is mainly set in 1807 in Regency England. Abby Dean flies her small plane to the hotel that she has recently been hired to manage, but when she attempts to land, the runway disappears and she makes an emergency landing in a field. She meets Myles Hardy when she knocks on the door of what is supposed to be the hotel. At this point, she discovers that she has gone back in time, she realizes that she will have to depend on Myles to help her in this unfamiliar century! Myles finds that idea of her coming from the future far fetched, but is intrigued by the selection of sex toys in her luggage. For some reason, Abby has the blueprints of the mansion/hotel and offers to work with Myles to discover a statue he is seeking that has supposedly been hidden somewhere in the mansion.

The cover of this book is what attracted me to read it! Nothing like a mostly naked, well-buffed man to convince me that this book was worth reading. Like many of the Aphrodisia books, this one has a warning on the back about how sexually explicit it was. There certainly was alot of sex in this book! It isn’t for the faint of heart! Abby and Myles have sex almost immediately and continue having sex at the drop of a hat throughout the book. It was particularly steamy once the Greek Gods came alive and started getting busy with everyone! This book is what I would classify as a Romantica – a cross between a romance novel and an erotic novel. As a romance novel it was a bit thin in the story line. As an erotic novel, it was extremely steamy. It had paranormal aspects as the statue that Abby and Myles are looking for comes alive along with the associated Greek Gods and their bacchantes. Group sex abounds once the various gods and their hangers-on come alive and join the group of interesting people now living at the mansion. This book gets a super-hot rating from me for the erotic aspect but only average for the romance aspect. It did, however, get 5 stars from Romance Times and was a nominee in Romance Times 2007 Reviewer’s Choice Award in the Erotic Romance Category.

Romance Times says: “This scorching roller-coaster of a read is an erotic page-turner. It has romance, intrigue, licentious nobility, a Greek god come to life and an unexpected ending. Feisty Abby and sensual Myles are the perfect couple to surmount the obstacles in their way. This may have been the first book I’ve read by Hart, but it certainly won’t be the last!”

This review was originally posted on Sugarbeat’s Books

Fortune

By Annabel Joseph

Publisher: Ellora’s Cave

Kat doesn’t know whether or how to end her six-night-a-week party habit, not to mention her unhealthy addiction to meaningless sex. Then an accident lands her in the hospital. She wakes to find a menagerie of origami figures—and a gorgeous neurosurgeon—beside her bed. The complexity of the paper creations is nothing compared to the complexity of dark-eyed, authoritative Ryan, who seems determined to give her life some direction. Trouble is, Kat’s just as determined to resist his efforts to tame her wild side.

With persistence, Ryan draws Kat into his world of dominance and submission, where quiet commands and lengths of rope awaken needs and desires she never knew she possessed. But Ryan’s intimate, erotic shibari sessions frighten Kat as much as they excite her, for each simple knot requires infinite trust and inspires complicated emotions.

Then a family crisis tests their love and threatens to snap the fragile ties that bind them. Will fortune ever smile on this unlikely couple, or will fate tear them apart?

Reader Advisory: For those who subscribe to a “more the merrier” philosophy (*cough* we do *cough*), this story contains a scintillating m/f/f/m scene.

Fortune By Annabel Joseph Review

Review By Jasmine

4.75/5 Whips from the Backseat

Fortune by Annabel Joseph is an emotional read.  Be prepared.   Ryan and Kat are two people making a journey to come together and it is no easy road.  Kat is complicated.  Kat is confused.  Kat is trapped by modern life, or maybe just trapped in her life.  Ryan is a sexual Dominant who steps in and forces Kat to look at herself, to evaluate where she is in her life.

The emotional development Annabel Joseph incorporates into this BDSM Romance raises the bar for other authors within the genre.  So why not a 5/5?  Ryan.  He is a sadist more then just a dominant and there is the element that detracted from the intimacy for me as a reader.  There is paddling, spanking, whipping, and more in a lot of BDSM books.  In previous reads the submisive partner may not have at first enjoyed a certain activity, but rarely was an item used that the one on the recieving end did not enjoy, or at least not hate.  The scenes in the book where it was just an enjoyment on the Dominant’s part of inflicting pain made me uncomfortable.  Nowhere near uncomfortable enough to stop reading.

Fortune by Annabel Joseph is a highly recomended read if you like BDSM and it ranks in the top 10.  There is a lot to say about this book and its approach to realistic characters.  That is the best compliment you can give a book these days.  A lot of them are good and enjoyable reads, but there is not much to say beyond that.  This is the type of book you tell others to buy so you can talk to them when they finish reading it.  So please comment if you have read it – there is so much to discuss.
- Jasmine

Find out about Annabel Joseph and her other titles at her website – http://annabeljoseph.wordpress.com/

The last in my series by Joey W. Hill, a bit late, but I am still excited to share.

Branded Sanctuary

Book VII of the Nature of Desire Series (best read after Ice Queen/Mirror of My Soul, where Brendan and Chloe are introduced as secondary characters)

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Chloe has always been a creature of joy and laughter. However, since a brutal attack nearly a year ago, the trauma she experienced from the event has gotten worse. Much worse, such that she has started hiding from her life, even putting up walls between herself and those she cares about most. However, during a panic attack one night, she impulsively calls a number that’s been hiding under her lamp all these months. She met Brendan at her boss’s wedding. With confidence and seduction, he easily steps into the role of helping her manage her fear. By the end of the long call, they’ve indulged in some serious flirtation and mindblowing phone sex – and she’s feeling emotions and needs she’s buried for too long.

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However, the problem is that Brendan is the perfect male submissive – and Chloe isn’t wired for the D/s lifestyle. While their attraction is undeniable, Chloe doesn’t know if she can be everything Brendan needs. Whereas Brendan believes that, once he helps her overcome her fears, he must let her go. As a submissive, he’d never ask her to be something she’s not – even if it will break both of their hearts to turn away from how they feel about each other.

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Branded Sanctuary by Joey W. Hill

Review by Terry Kate

4/5 whips for me 5/5 for the story

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I cried.  I did I read the book and I cried.  I felt for Chloe.  Her trauma was real, the struggle she had, the walling up of the emotions.  It is skillfully crafted and and I know I am an empathetic reader, but I certainly felt her embarrassment at moments as well as her pain.  Which also takes talent to evoke in a reader.  The story differs from the other works in the series in that Chloe is not a dominant to Brendan’s submissive.  It is not a classically BDSM story.

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Maybe that is where the story lost me.  Brendan is like the uber-slave extraordinaire.  Thousands and thousands of dollars are bid on him for one night, but what he will be happy with is outside this life-style?  I am not sure I totally buy it.  So though I like both characters and I adore Chloe’s struggle not to lash out at Brendan with all the pain she has locked up inside after her devastating experience, the fit between them does not feel as perfect as those between the couples in earlier books.  Their story did make me interested in reading the two stories in the series  had skipped.  And which are recommended to be read before this one.  Hey I never claimed to be one to follow the rules…

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The story is touching, the romance between Chloe and Brendan is sweet, the emotional level that Joey Hill raises the book to is as usually unmatched.  Is this my fave in the series, no.  Will I revisit and re-read it? Yes.  It is a hard to put down read that takes us through a dark time in a woman’s life and the journey is what makes this a powerful read.  Oh and if anyone has read the two books I skipped please comment and share your thoughts on those!

- Terry Kate

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