30 Lays in 30 Days: Kate J. Squires

Blurb:

The world's sexiest bucket list.

After emerging from a loveless marriage, Cat realizes hers is a life half-lived. What's a recently-single woman in the prime of her life to do? Have her first ever one night stand. But her experience leads her to more than just an evening of pleasure. Cat has a revelation: she's sick of being a good girl. It's time for this Cat to take a walk on the wild side.

Cat pledges to try 30 different sexual experiences in the next 30 days, before she turns 30. Her list sends her on a journey that will lead to indescribable pleasures and some risky situations, and Cat will learn more about herself than she ever thought possible. Most unexpected of all, she may even find love.

Do you dare take a peek at her list? Read on …

Review: 3 Stars

For this one, I really had to turn off that part of me that wants to find a couple who are passionately in love and devoted to each other from the start.  I mean, you can't fault a book called "30 Lays in 30 Days" for having a promiscuous female lead.

Basically, it's porn with a bit of a storyline.  That's not a positive or negative statement.  Sometimes, after a particularly heavy read, I just want an easy, steamy read.  But, like watching porn, sometimes it can get boring.

I think the whole storyline with Cat's ex-husband was ridiculous.  I was willing to just roll my eyes and go with it, but the way Jackson reacted when he found out that Cat was being blackmailed changed my view of him.  Then, Cat quickly justified Jackson's response, which is on my list of pet peeves (female character blaming herself for partner's poor behaviour).

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Kulti: Mariana Zapata

Blurb:

When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to. 

It didn’t take a week for twenty-seven-year-old Sal Casillas to wonder what she’d seen in the international soccer icon—why she’d ever had his posters on her wall, or ever envisioned marrying him and having super-playing soccer babies. 

Sal had long ago gotten over the worst non-break-up in the history of imaginary relationships with a man that hadn’t known she’d existed. So she isn’t prepared for this version of Reiner Kulti who shows up to her team’s season: a quiet, reclusive, shadow of the explosive, passionate man he’d once been. 

Nothing could have prepared her for the man she got to know. 
Or the murderous urges he brought out in her. 

“Sal, please don’t make me visit you in jail. Orange isn’t your color.” 
This was going to be the longest season of her life.

Review: 4 Stars

Aside from having a lot of strong reviews, I did not know much about Kulti when I started reading it. Having recently finished Scoring Wilder, which has a similar premise, I figured they would be similar.  Not so much.  Both feature elite female soccer players entering into a relationship with a male assistant coach, famous for his skill as a soccer player and off-field behaviour.  That's about where the similarities end.

If you're looking for story with a quick romance, come back to this one later.  The relationship between the MCs in this book grows very gradually.  In fact, I started to doubt that there would ever be a relationship between them at some points.

Kulti in an interesting character.  He is so restrained, it is hard to get a sense of where his mind is at.  He would definitely be in my top 5 male leads for whom I would like a separate book written from his POV. At the beginning, it seemed like there was no redeeming this guy -- his personality was just too closed off to imagine anyone connecting with him.  The relationship built between Sal and Kulti is slow and seemingly platonic.  I came to really respect the restraint Kulti shows.  He puts Sal's career and reputation first and is fiercely protective of her while making no apologies or compromising in response to external pressure.  I love that.  Sometimes, you just want a strong man who is going to take charge with confidence and your best intentions in mind.

I guess my main issue with the book is that I would have loved to have more of the book devoted to the MCs being in a romantic relationship with each other.  The two sex scenes, albeit hot, came very late and were relatively short.

Scoring Wilder: RS Grey

Blurb:

With Olympic tryouts on the horizon, the last thing nineteen-year-old Kinsley Bryant needs to add to her plate is Liam Wilder. He's a professional soccer player, America's favorite bad-boy, and has all the qualities of a skilled panty-dropper.

• A face that makes girls weep – check. 
• Abs that can shred Parmesan cheese (the expensive kind) – check. 
• Enough confidence to shift the earth’s gravitational pull – double check.

Not to mention Liam is strictly off limits . Forbidden. Her coaches have made that perfectly clear. (i.e. “Score with Coach Wilder anywhere other than the field and you’ll be cut from the team faster than you can count his tattoos.”) But that just makes him all the more enticing…Besides, Kinsley's already counted the visible ones, and she is not one to leave a project unfinished.

Kinsley tries to play the game her way as they navigate through forbidden territory, but Liam is determined to teach her a whole new definition for the term “team bonding.” 

Review: 4 Stars

Scoring Wilder was actually a cute read.  It combines the allure of a forbidden student-teacher  relationship with the excitement of catching the eye of a celebrity.  Liam Wilder is a popular professional soccer player who starts to coach a university-level women's soccer team.  Even though dating him is forbidden, all the girls are gaga over him.  It just so happens that he has his eye on Kinsley, a freshman who is set to take the world by storm herself.

“ If he were interested in any of the rest of us, we would have done exactly what you're doing. You’re just the lucky… or maybe unlucky one.”

To be honest, I don't like the idea that a guy can have any girl he wants and the relationship happens because the girl is lucky that he pursued her.  The idea undermines chemistry and make women seem like lemmings.  That aside, I think there was actually a strong connection between Kinsley and Liam.

I like the quirky sense of humour the author brings to Kinsley

“My fingers dragged across his chiseled abs, adoring every single contour. This is your life now. You are the person that sleeps next to this set of abs. Also, this set of abs is attached to a man that probably has some major neurological damage since out of all the models in the world, he’s chosen you and your flat-ass.

“Hey, I like your ass. It’s not flat,” he said right after I realized that my internal monologue had actually been an external monologue. “Also, I’m more than just my abs.” 

“Of course you are, babe. Of course you are.”
Don’t worry, abs. I’m actually here for you." 

“Yeah, still out loud,” he smiled, pulling me into his side.”

I also enjoyed that the book centres on a female athlete -- first one I've read amidst several male athlete-driven books.

Absolute Lovers: SJ Hooks

Blurb:

Professor Stephen Worthington has been schooled in the bedroom by free-spirited student Julia Wilde. But what started as a casual arrangement has turned into so much more—at least for Stephen.

Head over heels, Stephen is tired of being just “sex buddies.” Julia’s resisting, but her blithe attitude towards keeping it casual may just be a front. Can he prove to her that their amazing sexual chemistry can mix with romance and ultimately win her heart?

Review: 3.5 Stars

I really loved Absolute Beginners.  I raved all about it here and was really looking forward to the sequel, Absolute Lovers.  When I received an ARC, I jumped to read it.  Was it a good read?  Yes.  Did I enjoy it as much as the first book?  No.

I still loved Stephen.  He's sweet, endearing, loyal and sexy (when he shows his confidence in the bedroom).  He never wavered in his adoration for Julia and proved himself to be a standup guy again and again.  I also liked that we got to learn more about Julia's past and what makes her tic.

For me, this book had some pretty big shoes to fill to compete with Absolute Beginners.  There is something about the initial transformation, in any book, that draws me in.  Watching Stephen come out of his shell is a big part of why I liked that book so much.  So, where does the next book go from there?  How do you keep that momentum going?

I think the author tried to keep the momentum going by making the transformation become a shift in their relationship from sex buddies to lovers.  I don't know if I just have less interest in the man's perspective in chasing his love interest (as opposed to the female perspective) or if the chase didn't do very much for me in this book.  I found Stephen's internal dialogue over the top in terms of his love for Julia.  Also, there wasn't as much steaminess in this book.  Is it just less interesting to read about being making love vs. discovering each other's bodies and the newness of that pairing?  That's probably part of it.  I also think there was just less detail in this book; fewer descriptions about positions, oral, booty calls...all that fun stuff.  Also, as a side note, I found the one chapter from Julia's POV to be a bit random since the rest of both books are entirely from Stephen's perspective.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Apartment Novels: Amanda Black

After reading and really enjoying The Single Game, I figured I would "back up the bus" and read The Apartment Novels Series.  These books focuses on Lily and Ethan, Eden's aunt and uncle.  Most of the book is set before Eden is born.

Blurb:

Lily has spent a lifetime putting everyone else’s needs before her own.

Ethan is struggling to find a place in the home he left behind.

When the two meet by chance in an empty apartment, everything changes. Drawn together by an inexplicable desire, Lily and Ethan discover a passion neither knew existed. And so, they make a pact: Nothing from their outside lives will enter the apartment—not even their names.

But what will happen when the apartment’s walls inevitably come down?

Review: 3.5 Stars (my review pertains to both The Apartment and its sequel, The Blank Canvas)

Whenever I read a series that features the same characters across more than one book, I pay attention to whether there was enough of a story there to warrant more than one book.  These books are borderline in that regard.  Amanda Black certainly does not shy away from sex scenes.  There probably could have been about half as many of them here without diminishing the connection between the main characters.  Also, the extent to which every sex scene was 'earth shattering, split you into a million pieces, circle the planets and come back down to earth in a lusty post-coital fog' was a bit over the top.  

Despite this, I did enjoy Lily and Ethan together.  Clearly their chemistry is off the charts.  There were some opportunities for more plot that were not explored.  I wouldn't have minded a closer look into Ethan's past; maybe even an appearance by Rachel (or at least more about how things turn out with her new protege).  Lily really got off easy with Scott; there could have been more consequences there.  Lily forgives Ethan quite quickly.  Nothing really came of Lily's interactions with her colleagues; I thought there might be a throw down with  Kim.  After reading a fair bit about Maggie and Eric's miscarriages, Eden's birth feels glossed over.

I was somewhat distracted/confused by the timing of things.  These books are written in the present, with reference to recent popular culture.  But, The Single Game also includes present-day cultural elements when there two stories are meant to be a couple of decades apart.  So, it seems to me that the books should be written to reflect that.

I wonder if this series will continue from here - maybe Emma's kid or one of Lily and Ethan's kids?

Crow's Row: Julie Hockle

Woah....Just finished a bit of a reading marathon.  Or, at least it feels that way emotionally.  Julie Hockley's Crow's Row Series has me kind of reeling.  I feel like I've been through all of the drama myself and now that I'm not reading this book, I don't know what to do with myself.  I'll just give the blurb to the first book because the second blurb gets into spoiler territory.

Blurb:

For college student Emily Sheppard, the thought of spending a summer alone in New York is much more preferable than spending it in France with her parents. Just completing her freshman year at Callister University, Emily faces a quiet summer in the city slums, supporting herself by working at the campus library. During one of her jogs through the nearby cemetery while visiting her brother Bill's grave, Emily witnesses a brutal killing-and then she blacks out. When Emily regains consciousness, she realizes she's been kidnapped by a young crime boss and his gang. She is hurled into a secret underworld, wondering why she is still alive and for how long.

Held captive in rural Vermont, she tries to make sense of her situation and what it means. While uncovering secrets about her brother and his untimely death, Emily falls in love with her very rich and very dangerous captor, twenty-six year- old Cameron. She understands it's a forbidden love and one that won't allow her to return to her previous life. But love may not be enough to save Emily when no one even knows she is missing.

Review: 4 Stars

I didn't know much about this series when I started reading, aside from the blurb and there being some excitement about the second book coming out.  This books turns out to be a pretty stellar read that keeps you on the edge of your seat.  I'm only moderately interested in story lines about the underworld. But, I really couldn't put these books down.  

The romance side of this book is not straightforward by any means.  I am still not sure whether there is an element of Stockholm Syndrome going on here.   Cameron is an interesting anti-hero, though pretty frustrating at the same time.

Now the challenge is waiting for the third and final instalment in the series.  It took about 3 years to get the second book.  I'll probably have to re-read these books when the third book comes out.  

So - that pretty much tells you nothing about the books.  Suffice to say, they're worth the read and better to go in blind that know the storyline.

Opening Up: Lauren Dane

Blurb

The men of the Twisted Steel custom motorcycle shop are great with their hands... and they're not afraid to get dirty.

PJ is exactly the kind of woman Twisted Steel owner Asa Barrons doesn't need. The last thing he wants to do is mix business with pleasure, and PJ has some of the best custom detailing he's ever seen. But the chemistry between them won't be denied, and soon he's introducing her to a whole new world in the bedroom, pushing her far beyond anything she's ever experienced. PJ finds she can't get enough, but how far is too far before he consumes her completely?

Review: 4 Stars

I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable Opening Up was.  Every time I read a few duds, I start to get down in the dumps and convince myself that I'll never read a good book again.  (I know, completely unrealistic and overly dramatic).  Thankfully, Opening Up brought me out of a slump. 

One thing I quite liked about Opening Up is that the main characters talk to each other quite a bit.  So often, I have a hard time believing the connection between two lovers because there is minimal dialogue.  Asa and PJ actually had thoughtful conversations, which helped to make their connection feel genuine and believable.

I also really appreciated Asa, who exudes alpha hotness without being a jerk about it.  So often, alpha males act like they're always right and the women in  their lives just yield to whatever beliefs the alpha enforces.  Asa is a strong, dominant man who can also show vulnerability, admit when he's wrong and grovel with the best of 'em.  His flexibility also leaves room for a interesting dynamic between him and PJ, who is a no nonsense, intelligent and self-possessed woman.

The whole "daddy issues" got a bit boring after a while, but that's just a minor quibble.  I am definitely looking forward to the next book in the series.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.