Review: Hard Candy by Angela Knight, Sheri Gilmore and Morgan Hawke

Sybil's Review: Hard Candy by Angela Knight, Sheri Gilmore and Morgan Hawke
Erotic Romance by Loose Id 30 Jun 05

Hard Candy
These stories are erotica with a romance angle, but since each one features a threesome some readers might not agree. There is even some man on man action in one so skip this one if that offends you. I think the summaries on the loose id site are pretty good so I would go over that again.

Where I have to say I am not one of those woman that swoon with giddy joy over slash, if done right I can enjoy reading it. But it is really hard to sell me a HEA where three isn't a crowd. Emma Holly has done it but that is the only author I can think of off the top of my head. And now I would say, Fortune's Star did it.

Hero Sandwich by Angela Knight
I have to say with a title like this I wasn't expecting much. The story is about superhero's, yes I so thought of Wendy when I read that. It amused me. It wasn't the best I have read of AK and no where near the worst - I reserve that spot for The Forever Kiss.

Candy for her Soul by Sheri Gilmore... the devil made her do it. But when she did the devil or whoever Nico's dad was, she sort of lost me.

Fortune's Star by Morgan Hawke brings new meaning to sleeping with your boss. The story amused me and I thought was the best of the bunch. cyborg, fems and ghosts oh my... what? I didn't say it was Shakespeare, go read it, tis fun.

Grade: B-

If one man is good, then two are so much better. An erotic romance anthology for those who like it hot, hard and oh so wickedly delicious, with stories by USA Today bestselling author Angela Knight, and erotic romance rising stars Morgan Hawke and Sheri Gilmore. PUBLISHER'S NOTE: This anthology is also available in e-book format, and contains material some readers may find offensive.

Tags: Angela Knight, erotic romance, Grade B, Hard Candy, Morgan Hawke, Review, Sheri Gilmore, Sybil

Bad Boys… bad boys… what cha gonna do

what cha gonna do when they come for you
post I. since I can't seem to read the whole book at once...

I Love Bad Boys by Lori Foster, Janelle Denison, Donna Kauffman
Indulge Me by LF is the second story of three (started with Asia in All Through the Night ) about 3 friends who make a bet to visit a newly opened porn shop across from their work. This is Becky Harte's story and the only virgin in the group. Hey you had to have one, not that there is anything wrong with that. And everyone can be calm, she isn't a virgin!widow. Out of the three this is my fave. There is something of a big misunderstand regarding her fantasy, they are suppose to pick up a guy in the porn shop displaying interest in their fantasy. What? You don't think of picking up men in pornshops? Where have you been? Her thing is bondage, which everyone assumes means she wants to be tied up when really she wants to be the tie-r-uper not tie-ie.

Naughty by Night tbr

And When They Were Bad tbr

I Brake for Bad Boys by Lori Foster, Shannon McKenna, Janelle Denison
Drive Me Wild by LF is the final tale in pornoland (see Indulge Me) and this one involves the Bad Girl of the group. Of course she does have issues, which made her the slutpuppy she is today (can't have a woman have sex just cuz it is fun). Things to like about the story:
Ian knows Erica and accepts her... faults and all
Ian isn't concerned about being her 'first' he just wants to be her 'last'
Bad things:
The big group hug moment which happens during the last few pages. I could have done without the gang getting together to kiss it and make it all better. They are adults and there is a really nifty thing called a phone.

Something Wilde tbr
Touch Me by Shannon McKenna. I read this coming off a Standing in the Shadows high and wasn't really impressed. I enjoyed her story in All Through the Night much more than this one. I think the whole - guy trying to ask you our repeatedly invites you to his home for the weekend to massage his guests and you don't understand he really just wants to fuck you, was a lil silly. Of course she came dressed in a kill red teddy, so she prolly knew and was just going with it. Cuz he was hot. Not a bad story and so far my fave of the book (still need to read Something Wilde)

Immortal Bad Boys by Rebecca York, Rosemary Laurey, Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
Night Ecstasy by Rebecca York tbr
Velvet Nightin Rosemary Laury tbr
Midnight Court by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom oh wow that was bad. The vamphero spends most of the book mooning over another woman, that he calls his angel. Angel is something not right, but we never really learn what she is. The heroine knows he is mooning over the chick, so much so that after he screws her, he leaves her bed to go stand over his angel's. And decided if he wants to fuck her or not. There is no HEA or even a Happy Right Now ending. The story might have worked if it was longer and MADE SENSE. But yikes, it makes me want to take it to the ubs without reading the other two stories.

Bad Boys Online by Erin McCarthy has its own post as will Bad Boys Down Under by Nancy Warren when I finish it.

Bad Boys Over Easy by Erin McCarthy, Jen Nicholas, Jordan Summers
Fuzzy Logic by Erin McCarthy is great and makes this book worth reading all by itself. That is good since it is the only one so far I have read. I enjoy McCarthy's humor and heart. And with the first line of - Lucas Manning was absolutely certain he hadn't ordered a box of neon pink dildos. how can you not want to read this story? hee There is a geek hero and I did read this before the smart bitches took on geek heros, so I can't really say if he was a good geek or not. But I enjoyed the story ;).

The Cupid Curse by Jen Nicholas tbr although I have to say the summary for this doesn't interest me in the least.
Mesmerized by Jordan Summers tbr

Any other bad boy books I should look for? I shall make the II post when I have at least one story read from each book. Yes I know, you are just breathless with anticipation

Review: The Man For Her by Alice Valdal

The Man for Her is really a sad book. I went back and forth with feeling like I wanted to slap some sense into lottie and thinking awww true love will wait a lifetime. But I had a hard time with the setup, I had a hard time believing she was in love and loved in return. I think you are suppose to feel that way, given that Patrick isn't the hero of the book but I just couldn't get past it or stop thinking about it.

Patrick and Lottie's story is pretty much...
A woman and man fall in love. He buys some nice property for them to settle down and raise a family but first he goes off to look for gold - one last time. THEN he is going to come home, marry her and they will live HEA. 10 years later, she is still waiting.

10 years! She has been waiting for him for 10 years, with their son! Now I could never decide if he did or did not know about the son when he left, but he knew he fucked her and I am taking a guess he knew where babies came from.

So explain why any man in love, really in love, would leave his love alone, unmarried and maybe carrying his child in 1876. Even if I could buy that he would leave her for his golden whore, just one last time, why wouldn't he marry her first?

That sort of soured the whole thing for me, even though Patrick is never really in the story, he is apart of it.

The book opens with it being 1886 and 'Crazy Lottie' running into Sean O'Connor. Their eyes met and for just a moment Lottie thinks Patrick has finally come home to her. You very quickly find out Sean is his cousin. And he tell her, the day after he follows her to her ranch looking for work so he can earn money to (you guessed it) go find gold and make his fortune. I love that isn't some big ol secret he is Patrick's cousin and we don't suffer from the BIGMIS.

All in all the story is nicely written, for what I think is a first time writer. But I could never buy Patrick was a good man or he had been in love. And I so couldn't see a woman (who was pretty much a lady at the start), alone, making a ranch successful in this time frame.

Has anyone heard of Alice Valdal?

Drive Me Crazy by Nancy Warren

Drive Me Crazy

It took me three days to finish this book, which for me is a long time. I was excited when I started reading it and loved the opening. And hey there was a sexy librarian!

There are so funny moments but nope the story didn't work for me. And I expect a hotter book from Brava. I really didn't care much for the h/h or what happened to them. But there was a secondary couple that worked for me, so I will try the authors writing again. Well and I already have Bad Boys Down Under and Turn Left At Sanity.

Buy Me

Due to the ever wonderful Smart Bitches I have a $10 gift cert to use at Amazon. So I must spend 25 so I get free shipping.

duh

So what do I want to get? Any suggestions? I want Lord of Sin, but I want it as soon as I can. So I shouldn't order it.

I just bought:
Bet Me by Jennifer Cruise (my first of her)
Only with Your Love by Lisa Kleypas
Prairie Wife by Cheryl St John
Angel Rogue Mary Jo Putney
Turn Left At Sanity by Nancy Warren
Lady's Choice by Winnie Griggs
Bad Boys Down Under by Nancy Warren

sssssoooooo what books do I get now

Winnie Griggs

Any one read any of her books? What cha think of them?

The new phone book’s here! The new phone book’s here!

quick name that movie*

hee

New and used books to me!!!!!!
Drive Me Crazy by Nancy Warren
White Heat by Jill Shalvis
The Good, the Bad, the Undead by Kim Harrison (thought I had bought this already but didn't - bad me since it named my blog)
I Brake for Bad Boys by Lori Foster, Shannon McKenna, Janelle Denison
Blue Flame by Jill Shalvis
Tell Me No Lies by Elizabeth Lowell (I have never even heard of this book)
All Tied Up by Alison Kent
The King's Mistress by Terri Brisbin

one of these days I will not have a tbr pile...
hee I just made myself giggle
the movie, with more quotes just in case you can't remember and it is driving you up the wall

Review: The King’s Mistress by Terri Brisbin

The King's Mistress by Terri Brisbin

Hey look I read a beta hero book. It was odd to see a Harlequin Historical with a nonvirgin/been a kings whore/had his baby heroine. That took guts, at least I think so.

I would recommend the book on that alone. Brisbin's writing is something I find I enjoy, she was the one story I really liked in The Betrothal. She doesn't seem to always take the easy way out, not that she doesn't wrap up some things with a nice neat bow. But not in normal HH fashion.

I don't read many beta boys and I have to say I am not much for REALLY beta boys. But I don't like over the top alpha's (mostly) either so I think I might just be bitchy and hard to please. Then again, I can't really think of too many beta hero's. Maybe I have read them and just didn't notice.

And Marguerite of Alencon isn't a good girl. She doesn't always make the right choices. And when she fucks up, it isn't so much TSTL, as it is a reflection on what she has learned growing up as she did.

But how in the hell she couldn't have known what a whore Henry II was is laughable. I guess it feeds into the want that 'this' person loves you, that you are different and you will make a impact in this person's life. So you see what you want to see and not what is there. Or not.

I digress...

I would recommend this book. It is a good HH with a good written character in Henry II. There is some life in him and he isn't just holding up the wall. Sort of makes me what to go pull out a historical fiction novel and read. Although I think the only thing I have to do with Henry II is The Book of Eleanor: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine. Or not, I think I will go read Drive Me Crazy by Nancy Warren.

Tags: Harlequin Historical, Historical, Review, Sybil, Terri Brisbin, The King’s Mistress

Three Blind Mice

Main Entry: anon·y·mous
Pronunciation: &-'nä-n&-m&s
Function: adjective
Etymology: Late Latin anonymous, from Greek anOnymos, from a- + onyma name -- more at NAME
1 : not named or identified < an anonymous author > < they wish to remain anonymous >
2 : of unknown authorship or origin < an anonymous tip >
3 : lacking individuality, distinction, or recognizability < the anonymous faces in the crowd > < the gray anonymous streets -- William Styron >
- anon·y·mous·ly adverb
- anon·y·mous·ness noun

Is that hard to understand? And the whining about gosh you could have kept it a secret without lying has just got to stop. My god, if I asked someone 'Are you doing x' and they answered 'no comment' I would have thanked them for telling me.

Cuz duh, if that doesn't scream yes what the hell does?

If I was bestest friends with someone from the RTB secret circle and they had lied to me, I would most likely be hurt right now. OMG I hate you mad? No, but hurt. And you know what... I would beat them over the fucking head with email and tell them so. Even while understanding why they did it.

The keyword being email. Because I am much harder on my friends than I am on every day normal people. I expect more because they are my friends. But I wouldn't whine about it on message boards or blogs and make a deal out of it.

BBBBUUUUUTTTTTTT if I wasn't a good friend, if I was a reader, or a fellow writer... they wouldn't owe me shit as an explanation. The site said from the get go that the people behind it wanted to remain anonymous. So I figured it was a secret. And well, I didn't think joe blow who had nothing to do with romance was putting all that time and work into it. I knew it was people involved or with a stake in romance. Because why the fuck do it if you didn't care about romance?

It would be one thing if the people behind RTB did nothing but pimp themselves and say how wonderful they were under socks. I could see tar and feathering them in that case. Really that is just stupid and wrong, but I can't say I saw that. Did I miss a few posts or something?

Do I feel differently about RTB?
no
Will I continue to go there?
yes
More or less than before?
no
Do I think people over apologize for shit they don't have be sorry about?
yes
Am I amazed once more over the amount people can whine over nothing?
yes

Personally I like people on both sides of the argument but really it is time to get the fuck over it. And really I came so so so close to not commenting on this whole stupid thing. But well... when did the word anonymous become hard to understand?

Review: Standing In the Shadows by Shannon McKenna

Standing In The Shadows

There isn't much I can say about this book that Sandy Coleman of AAR hasn't already said in her review but that has never stop me from rambling before so why start now.

Oddly enough I hadn't read the review before I read the book. I think it is because I bought it off a rec on Alyssa's blog. I wish I had cuz stupid me thought this was the first book. Yes and I already had Behind Closed Doors, I just screwed up.

I really thought Connor was going to be a hero I had to apologize to myself for liking. In my, omg I would never be in the same room with this person but in the book, he is hot. But nope. He is Alpha. I mean is he ever Alpha and then some but he is always ready to pull back if he thinks he has gone too far. And there is guilt if he thinks he hurt her. He pushed during sex and do they ever have sex, and then have sex, and then some more sex and gosh it has been 10 mins lets have sex sex. And it is HOT. But even while he is pushing (hee) you can tell he cares for her, would never hurt her and is very much in love with Erin.

But there is a story here, there are characters you can care about and learn to understand. And did I mention the sex? Just checking.

My biggest WTF moment was when we learn Erin stopped going to the hospital the day after she begged him to wake up and he, well, WOKE UP. I mean what the fuck! You go every day for weeks, finally break down and tell him how much you need him and want him and love him - if he would only wake up and let you tell him. Then when he does, you go away.

But even if I did want to slap Erin a time or two, I felt bad because boy has her life ever sucked ass over the last year or so. And Connor does have a few big bully moments but I wouldn't kick him out of bed for it. Hell I can't think of any reason to kick him out of bed. Ever.

So do I go back and read BCD or get Return to Me?

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