Delighted Reader

Violent and heatbreaking, I need to finish this and get another book going so I don't have nightmares about it like I did last night.

Good first half, but it feels like it is loosing its way and they need to make up their minds.

If all you want are sex scenes with no character development, then this ones for you. Close to DNF.

Trudging along

Slow going since I am reading this in paperback and need lighting unlike reading on my Kindle any time of the day I want too. I so am not a paperback reader anymore. Give me my Kindle or iPad to read on any day. 

Still slow going on story progress as one liners seem to be the rule rather than the exception in this story line. Egos? They have them in spades. I miss the days when this series was awesome. It has lacked something the last 5 or more books. Maybe it's time to conclude this series instead of letting it kill itself by repetition of boredom?

The never ending story....

So far so good. I have been disappointed in this series the last several books so this better redeem the series.

Loving this story, but I might have to switch to reading since I won't be driving anywhere soon to listen to it.

Hot for His Hostage by Angel Payne
Series: The WILD Boys Of Special Forces #6
Genres: BDSM Romance, Contemporary Romance, Paranormal Romance, Romantic Suspense
Published on August 12, 2014
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Amazon | B&N | Goodreads
Rating:

Angel Payne’s W.I.L.D. series has been on my list to read for a long time. I really wanted to get into bad boys, dominant to the heart, faithful the submissives that own them. Well, I jumped in at book 6 and I was prepared to over look the things I didn’t understand that I should have read about in the first five books. So when the book started hot and heavy and I was lost about the airplane hijacking, I let it go thinking the set up came from a different book and I would just flow with it. It worked for a bit. I mean, Shay meets Zoe in the airport bar with her dancer friends who are coming on to him. He helps them get back to the hotel when all the planes are grounded from freaky fog. But he knows Zoe is submissive and he plans on having that one night stand and get back to his undercover mission.

The first night together I was all over Shay and how wonderful he is with Zoe. But when the next morning comes, I am immediately back in confusionville. And this had nothing to do with being lost coming into the middle of the series. See Zoe is on the flight Shay and the bad guys are hyjacking. Shay, or Shane, his undercover name, wears a mask but Zoe finds herself attracted to his voice. He does things on the flight I just felt gave up his cover. Then Zoe faints and we jump several hours into the future and they have landed.

That was the second problem I had with the book. Jumps in time that seem critical to the story. So here I am confused as to how they land a plane they hijacked in Area 51. While Zoe is hooked up to an IV to rehydrate her, Shay comes clean to her about his mission and then they engage in a BDSM scene again. All while they are on a base, where paranormal super soldier type stuff is taking place. I just sat scratching my head. Sure the BDSM was hot, but I kept waiting for the creepy nurse to walk in or the head bad guy, Stock. It was just too surreal.

So Shay is undercover to find his mom who he thinks they are keeping to do experiments. Rescuing her is his ultimate goal. Zoe on the other hand is just a dancer in Vegas. I didn’t feel much depth to her character and when they are running around from the CIA I just wanted to laugh. It wasn’t suspenseful or interesting.

Zoe has a group of friends that offered some comic relief. They even stayed in one of the friends mentor’s houses as they regrouped once. Zoe’s younger sister, Ava, is getting married to one of the WILD boys so her story must be one of the five I missed. Throw in Shay’s older brother, Tait, sharing a woman with Kell. I am pretty sure they have a book too. I could see Shay’s best friend Colton hooking up with Zoe’s friend Brynn. It all just felt disjointed.

So most of the book, I was fine with the two getting iy on and connecting. Otherwise I was just plain bored with the rest of the book since it left me feeling lost, uninterested and just not caring what actually happens because I found it all kind of silly. Then at the end, it felt like an abrupt ending. Then flash forward in time. Not really my kind of ending.

There is a paranormal, super soldier element as well. I don’t want to give too much away, but it seemed to come out of left field to smack me in the face. It all felt forced and uncomfortable.

I really, really, really wanted to love this book. That is why it is so hard to say I didn’t.

Keep Me Safe by Maya Banks
Series: Slow Burn, #1
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Published by Avon
Published on October 7, 2014
Pages: 297
Format: ARC
Amazon | B&N | ARe | Goodreads
Rating:

Keep Me Safe is the first book in a new romantic suspense series called Slow Burn. But there is a twist. This world has gifted or cursed however you want to take it. Some can see the future, some have to touch items to be transported to where the person is or even getting into people’s minds to make them do things. The story starts off with a bang, leaving you to hang onto your seat as there is no foreplay to catch you up.

Caleb Devereaux is working against the clock to rescue his baby sister from a killer’s grip. All the money in the world hasn’t help find her, but one woman can. Tracking her down has taken what little time they have away. So when Caleb finds Ramie St. Claire, he immediately shoves his sister Tori’s scarf into her hands where upon Ramie is transported to Tori’s body, experiencing the exact same thing she is, but in spirit form. Hit, kicked and even raped, Ramie knows the terror that Tori is feeling. But she also has the location and that is what Caleb needs. Remorseful of what he visited upon Ramie, he leaves promising to come back to her.

Ramie is on the run. Saving lives was her job, but it was taking a toll on her. Knowing and feeling everything these killers do…until one kill gets away and starts to stalk her with his own powers. When Caleb finds her six month after she has been on the run, she knows the killer can find her too. But she doesn’t wait around for Caleb, but takes off and spends the next year one step ahead of her stalker while he continues to kill girls to torment her.

Desperate, Ramie turns to Caleb after almost be captured and losing everything, her license, her clothes, her car… everything. Caleb owes her and she is just scared enough to demand he take care of her. Now the countdown is on as a killer keeps kill and taunting them. With Tori at the house, things are tense as she hasn’t healed mentally from her attack. Two other brothers, Beau and Quinn, are skeptic of what is happening to Ramie and just want her gone for Tori’s peace of mind. Security better than Fort Knox and Caleb determined to hold onto Ramie is what keeps her there.

The story progressed quickly with the killings, rescue, stalking all taking place right up front. But the romance was even quicker. Sure Caleb met Ramie one time to rescue his sister. Then he researched her. He gets her back a year later and within days he is professing his love. While I felt they had an attraction, this didn’t hit me until after they made love for the first time. It just seemed to come out of no where. When they had thoughts early on of each other it wasn’t the “boner” kind of thoughts. It wasn’t looking into her eyes, or the curve of her breast or even the instant I am horny for her. This may sound crude, but as you feel love, you kind of expect some build up instead of what I felt was a *wham* let’s do this.

The violence of the story is not graphical, but there is a lot of blood, knives, rape, etc. It is not glossed over, but neither do you get all the gory details. It’s violent. It’s a serial killer after all.

Ramie was a strong character feeling what I believe any person would feel when they go through someone else’s torture. I too probably would have wanted to die after a while. It wasn’t really a gift as much as a curse to rescue people. And while Caleb didn’t want to have her touch anything else, or to save anyone else, he fully admits he would do it all over again for his sister to be rescued.

The two along with the siblings and a few security details, work against time to find the killer and save Ramie. The ending is very abrupt. Climatic and then it is pretty much over. I think I would have liked a little more at the end. The aftermath. Maybe a lead in to the next story.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the book. I felt helpless, sad, angry, and even fell in love with Caleb. I think I would have liked to see him more in a super hero roll, but he was good at being Ramie’s hero, which is what matters. A nice start to a terrifying series of psychotic killers and the women who will take them down.

Hey guys! I am so lucky to be able to offer one paperback copy of Keep Me Safe by Maya Banks to a commenter.

To enter, leave a comment ON THE BLOG (not here) and we will get you entered!

US only. Giveaway ends October 14, 2014 at 11:59 pm.

I love Richart. Such a gentleman. Old world mannerisms. Kick ass moves.

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The Delight

Quarterback? You had me at Quarterback! A new series to love about football players and the ladies who tackle them into love. Filled with more than sports or even time in bed, this one hits many emotional levels sure to leave you wanting more.

You bet I am all in on a football romance. Well I have been laying low with my own injury that I would like to attribute to football, but alas it was lazer tag. So I keep tracking my healing process to be reading for the NFL season. What better way to heal than to read football romance!

When Cassie learns who her father is, she knows it isn’t going to be an easy road to travel to get to know him. Giving herself one last night of wildness before meeting him, she drags her best friend out on the town for some clubbing. Dancing horribly, but enthusiastically draws the attention of Trey Owens, the quarterback of the Sante Fe Bobcats. Not a lover of publicity or media, Trey disguises himself to have a little fun. Who knew either of them would find each other and hit it off so wildly?

While Cassie knows her father is the coach of the Sante Fe Bobcats, she doesn’t know Trey is the quarterback. Put under some insane rules by her father, she must give up dating while getting to know him. But after a crazy, not nice start to their relationship, she stumbles into Trey again and still doesn’t know he is the quarterback. Well, she isn’t a sports fan, being a nerd and all, so I guess I have to forgive her some, but not totally since I am a computer nerd too and also a fan of football. Hello!

Trey on his own is trying to stay out of the limelight, but falls hard for Cassie in almost a stalkerish way. When he finds her again, he thinks it’s fate and won’t let go. He too doesn’t know Cassie is the bosses daughter and they blithely go on their way to falling in love while hiding it from coaches and the media.

The romance goes over a coarse of time and you see the two fall in love slowly but also in the right manner. They do find out about each other at some point and Trey is always there for Cassie when the family treats her like (sorry) shit! But he also keeps the romance secret for his own sanity not wanting to be the headline of the week doing the coaches daughter.

Now let me take one time out and deck the stepmother, Tabetha. This is one unclassy bitch and I am sorry to use so many curse words in my review, but she makes Cassie’s life a living Hell because she feels so threatened, when Cassie does nothing to deserve it besides be a good sister…she has two half sisters. Tabetha baits her, tricks her, calls her names and in general is one woman who needs to have her ass kicked.

The sisters were hilarious and also giving me some agony! At 16 and 14, they are they age where boys matter, clothing matters and their mother denies them both. Not that denying them boys is so bad, but she never lets them have their own personality. Cassie befriends them, keeps their confidences and even bails the older one out of a sticky situation. Overall, Tabetha should have been thrilled they had an older sister like Cassie around.

Trey is hunky along with his two cohorts. One is dealing with an alcohol problem that the other two are trying to keep him away from. This causes some scenes of drama and ultimately comes to a head at one point. All of them are good guys, playing football and trying to live their lives outside of the media.

While the love scenes were sexy, they tended to fade out towards halfway through the story. It became more about relationships at that point versus getting your game on*wink*.

One Night with a Quarterback was a good introduction into a new football series I am putting on my auto by list!

Pure Heat by M.L. Buchman 
Series: Firehawks, book #1 
Genres: Romantic Suspense 
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca 
Published on May 6, 2014 
Format: eARC 
Amazon | B&N | Goodreads
Rating:  

Going into Pure Heat, I had never read anything by M.L. Buchman. I had seen the covers on other books and thought I should really read those, but never did. Caught with the option to start on their new series, I jumped. Imagine my surprise when I found out the author is male.

Injured but still recovering, Steve Mercer, knows he will never be back to fighting fires like he once did. His leg muscle mass is almost gone, so he trains in the next best way he can help with drones seeing fires in no way a man can get to. Mercer saves a fighters life, while also putting his foot in his own mouth around the hot lady that helped him. Wanting some action without the long term commitment is first on his mind, but he quickly comes to realize this woman is what he needs longterm.

Charlene Thomas has lost many people in her life. Both her father and fiance to the wildfires, and a mother. When she sees her uncle almost become tinder for a fire, she wants to reach out to the guy who saves him, but he quickly gets on her bad side. Master wildfires is her life and now she gets some help from the a drone operator.

While the book description makes it feel like there is a terrorist group out setting fires and such, really it was a very small part of the book. The two work great together as a team fighting fires and coordinating efforts. On the ground they seem to rumble. Throw in some characters from other books, I felt a little lost. Some of the technical fire fighting talk got in the way of the flow of the story. I kept expecting terrorist to leap out, or to cause problems and it really never rose up to that kind of story. The suspense just never really grabbed me.

While the love story was sweet, the sex scenes were kind of mechanical, and left me wanting more.  He would play with her nipples, they get a little busy and poof it was the next day. It seemed very stilted and uncomfortable reading. So that is why I was relying on a good suspense filled story that  I never felt I got. The two have some things to get over in both their pasts and that sometimes make them cranky pants.

Mostly this was a story of redemption for Mercer, who felt his life might be over after his accident. A story of redemption for pushing her fiance into being a firefighter when he didn’t have the skills or intuition for it. I felt some sympathy and hope for them but at times I just wanted to kick them in the pants to get off the pity party ride. Throwing in a hint of suspense with a terrorist group and a big fire that they need a lot of mind power to outwit. It just fell flat for what I was expecting.

Terran by Cara Bristol 
Series: Breeder, book #2 
Genres: Domestic Discipline, Sci-Fi Romance 
Published by Loose-ID 
Published on May 5, 2014 
Format: eARC 
Amazon | Publisher | Goodreads
Rating:  

The Delight

Going back to the land of Parseon, I was hoping to see woman’s right growing. Slowly things change with Civil War on the horizon. They need more heros like Marlix!

 

Terran is the latest installment in the Breeder series about a planet where men rule supreme through Alpha and Beta designations, while all women are denoted at Breeders. While you don’t need to have read the first book, Breeder, to understand this story, it does give a lot of background knowledge you don’t get in this book.

Basically….Women are only good for breeding and no better than slaves on this planet. The planet Parseon is made up of five regions under the control of five ultimate Alphas.

The men on this planet pair up usually with another male who is Beta. Sex is common between an Alpha and his Beta, but anal sex is the norm on this planet, where vaginal sex is only used for the purposes of breeding. Think of females essentially as animals. They are kept in a breeding facility until they are bought to be used to breed. They can be sold off or used in any manner their owner wishes. Corporal punishment is normal and expected.

So we left off in the first book where Dak, an Alpha on the council, has taken a Breeder, Orma, basically in what we call wife. He still doles out spankings and punishments as the Alpha, but he doesn’t see females as he once did. He has set up trade with Terran (Earth). There is a settlement called the Enclave, where men and women go to live to share their lives not like they have on Parseon. But the other four members of the council are not totally on board with all of this.

In walks Marlix, another Alpha on the council, with his beta to the Terran Bazaar looking for fabric that is impenetrable. He is rebuffed by the prepatrious, Tara, but strangely also aroused and feeling protective. When she is brutally set upon by a group of Betas, he takes her away to his region to heal her. Unconsciously, though he knows he will never release her. He battles to accept what he feels towards her to what he has been raised to and fought to uphold in his world.

Terran citizen, Tara, ran from her past to start a new beginning on Parseon only to be kidnapped not only by a bulking Alpha, but an Alpha in charge of an entire region. While she is thankful he helped heal her, she is uncertain what his intentions are and makes a play to escape. Thwarted, she finds herself punished, which she hates but at the same time loves. Slowly she is drawn into a submissive lifestyle that is better than a breeders life, but still subservient to a man.

But Marlix broke a treaty by taking Tara that Dak must answer for. Throw in a council bent on not allowing women to have any rights and a civil war starts to brew. Wracked with indecision on a lifestyle he is brought up to believe in, Marlix is left with hard decisions, uncomfortable feelings and learns we don’t always say what we mean.

This was an interesting second look into a society I want nothing to do with. It is growing and changing and we still don’t know what civil unrest will happen with three councilmen looking at change while two are looking to further the breeder protocol. I am totally for women’s rights, so this pushed me even more since the first book came out. It is not consensual for the most part, but neither is it brutal between Marlix and Tara. Marlix though was a hero I could learn to adore. He never was attracted to the male species and never fornicated with them or his beta. He really only used women analy. Feeling affection for his sister (or breeder by his sire as it is called), he gets it beaten out of him. Alpha, but not the typical alpha. He wants to enjoy life some, but also doesn’t understand not being honest.

Tara had a hard life and lesson on Terra, so coming to Parseon was a retreat from it all. Unbeknownst to her is that she is submissive, but not in a BDSM way. She likes not having to make decisions, but at times does flare up at Marlix. Strong when needed, sexy when she wants sex and just plain a woman who has lived her life in pain.

I think I enjoyed Terran more than I did Breeder. Breeder was hard because you got to see the life of a breeder up close. Terran allowed you to see a human going into this world. It was easier to swallow…and she does a lot of that too. Overall, a great story and now I can’t wait to find out what happens next to this world.

Naughty Bits (Part II): The Training Session by Joey W. Hill 
Series: Naughty Bits, book #2 
Genres: BDSM Romance 
Published by Intermix 
Published on May 20, 2014 
Format: eARC 
Amazon | B&N | Goodreads
Rating:  

The Training Session starts the training of Madison with Logan as the dominant. They go slowly into a session with Troy as the submissive and Madison as Logan’s assistant. Fascinated by every decision, Madison finds herself being drawn into the training session. The session is strictly for Troy, but Logan is also showing Madison how each decision is made with the submissive in mind. Trust is paramount.

Slowly Logan weaves Madison into the scene making her long for this to be real. Leaving her hungry for more, but also hesitant to open herself up.

As Naughty Bits has its new Grand Re-Opening, Madison learns to relax and think with the customer in mind. With each new experience she gains more confidence in herself as well in the need to help others find happiness in their sexuality. So when Logan asks her on a date, she leaps at the chance with the condition that they not have sex. Don’t forget that Logan is kind of old fashion in some ways.

When Logan comes over to Madison’s place for the date, it turns into another training session with Logan showing he can be trusted to keep his word. Madison retreats into her head and Logan goes to get her. The two ebb and flow in their scene that had power impact on both the characters and myself.

While the scenes aren’t deeply intense, they are sensually intense, making you sit on the edge of your seat. Reading became a compulsion of the senses that I didn’t want to let go. I put my trust in Joey W. Hill and I was rewarded with a story that blew me away. And now I have to wait once again for the next installment, dang it!