Something New by Cameron Dane

Something New by Cameron Dane
Publisher: Loose Id, LLC
Genre: Menage Suspense
Length: Novel Plus
ISBN: 978-1-60737-824-2
Rating: 2 ½
Reviewer: Rach
Abby Gaines doesn’t believe in love or happily-ever-after. After witnessing her parents’ brutal murder at a young age she was thrown into the foster care system which has hardened her heart and made her adamant never to allow anyone to penetrate her protective shield around her heart. When she begins to have feeling her good friends, alpha male Rodrigo Santiago and bi-sexual Braden Crenshaw she tries to rationalize her feelings are strictly sexual fantasies and nothing she would ever act on.

Rodrigo Santiago is also a product of the foster care system and has similar issues with trust and love. He uses verbal warfare to try to fend off the desires and picks fights to get a rise out of her when ever in the same room with Abby. Yet he can’t stop his body from reacting to her every time he even thinks about her let alone bantering with her. She is the star of his every erotic dream, but the most frightening part is she is not the only one playing the starring role.
Braden Crenshaw wants both Abby and Rodrigo in his bed and his heart for the rest of their lives. He never thought he would ever find a relationship that would not force him to settle and eventually break someone’s heart. He knows the passion and lust that sparks between them all would produce an inferno that would melt steel.

Abby starts having nightmares about the night of her parent’s murder and she knows the only two people who can help her are Rodrigo and Braden. One late night call starts a chain of events and sets off a blinding passion they never expected. Nor did they expect the information Abby’s dreams would produce. The killer may still be on the loose and now that Abby is starting to remember it may put her in danger.

I like the premise for the book. The story of Abby’s parents murdered in front of her and the emotional turmoil it produced sounded like a great story. Even the love affair between her, Rodrigo and Braden was a plot I could get on board with. I felt a little disappointed and ended the book feeling like something was missing. The conflict between Rodrigo and Abby didn’t feel genuine. The writing didn’t invoke that desperation a reader gets to want the heroine and hero to get together. The book had a lot of explicit sex with m/f/m, f/m and m/m parts. Some of the sections were a bit overdone and took away from the storytelling. The best part of the book was Braden’s character. He was well written and read like someone you would know. He brought comic relief when needed and helped smooth the uncomfortable sections of the book. The story line of Abby’s parents did keep me intrigued and was surprised by the ending. Overall, not a fantastic read, but did have elements that were good. I just wished the book had a more substance and believability.

A Thin Line by Emma Hillman

A Thin Line By Emma Hillman
Title: A Thin Line
GENRE: Romance, Rubenesque
PUBLISHER: Excessica
Length: Novelette (15,997 words)
Rating: 2 ½
Reviewer: Rach

While doing laundry late one evening Kate ends up being locked in the apartment’s laundry room with her gorgeous neighbor. Though they have never spoken, Jace’s breath-taking good looks he would be hard not notice around. One night of passion is all she had thought it would be, just a way to keep warm and have a little fun. However, she just could not get enough of Jace. What he does to her body and the feelings he stirs in has her keep letting him come back for more even though Jace has a girlfriend.

Jace cannot seem to stop himself from knocking on Kate’s door almost every night. She is fun and full of fire and passion, but not the type of girl he needs on his arm while he climbs the ladder of his career. Liza is what he needs for his image. A thin picture perfect debutant who comes from class and wealth is the ideal woman for him to marry. Kate is voluptuous and working class, not good for his image, but he cannot and does want to stay away.

The book frustrated me, which is good and bad. Good because the characters were believable and as a reader I took a vested inertest in the story line. I wanted to want Kate and Jace to find a happily ever after together. I felt Kate’s pain and understood her confusion at whom she is and what she wants for herself. I felt I knew Jace and could sense the type of person he could be in reality. However, Kate’s constant wining and wishy-washy behavior got exasperating. She kicks him out, she takes him back, she loves him, and she hates him. The most disappointing part for me was the way Jace treated Kate and how she allowed it. Jace has a girlfriend whom he is not being faithful to and even tells Kate why he cannot leave her is because of Kate’s appearance. Jace is a little too clueless and shallow to be a likeable character and the fact he is cheating with Kate rubbed me the wrong way. By the end of the story I no longer wanted Kate to be with Jace. I wanted her to find some self-confidence and find a man worthy of her. The story was written well, I just personally could not like the hero and if I cannot find any sympathy for the hero, it makes it hard to enjoy the book.

The Marriage Bargain by Sandra Edwards

The Marriage Bargain
by Sandra Edwards
GENRE: Sensual Contemporary Romance
Length: Novel (approx 58K words)
ISBN# 978-0-9829099-1-1
Rating: 4
Reviewer: Rach
Camille Chandler is a journalist interning at a trashy tabloid magazine in hopes of landing a permanent position. Her hefty student loan payments are fast approaching and with a secured position her money woes would not be all that bad. With her first journalist job practically in the bag with endless possibilities to further her career and be able to meet her loan terms life was not half bad. That is until she is assigned a task that winds up taking her organized world, wreaking havoc on all she depended on and the worst part is it could end up breaking her heart.
France’s multi-millionaire and deemed playboy Julian de Laurent is need of a wife to fend off the arranged marriage by his father. He thought placing an ad in the LA Trades was a full proof method in obtaining an actress he can pay to play the role for six months. What he didn’t expect was to find someone like Camille Chandler or for what turned out as a fake marriage to turn into more. Will his inability to trust and Camille’s secrets tear apart true love?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Camille’s character is strong, proud and a bit misguided about life. She accepts an offer to play Julian’s wife for six month believing their mutual attraction can be ignored and when it is evident that is not the case she believes she can protect her heart. The reader’s gets a good amount of background to understand why Camille has the issues she has and you can feel her confusion, uncertainty and loneness by the way the author has developed the character. I could not help, but love Julian. He was intense when he needed to be, but he had such a soft heart and even though he saw himself as not being capable to love you see right through to his heart. This book is only 140 pages, but the author was able to create depth to the characters and even the secondary characters, such as Julian’s brother Andre and Camille’s best friend Tasha provides comedy relief just when it was needed. There was only one true love scene, but it was sweet and sensual. The chemistry of Camille and Julian is intoxicating. I would recommend this book for when you are in the mood for a light fun love story with a HEA ending.

The Wagonmaster By Nita Wick

Title: The Wagonmaster
Author: Nita Wick
Publisher: Freya’s Bower
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-935013-47-1
Release Date: Available now
Format: Ebook
Genre: Historical Romance
Length: Novel
Rating: 5 Lyres recommended read
Reviewer: GJM
Adelaide Jennings is a woman ahead of her times, not only has she studied at Harvard she has graduated and is a doctor not an easy feat since she’s a woman and while she may be qualified it’s doubtful she’ll ever practice her trade simply because she’s a woman. Addie’s motivation is her father who is dying of consumption while she now knows she can’t cure him she does plan on getting to Oregon so she can ease his suffering in his final days.
When she is denied permission to join the last wagon train of the year, leaving Fort Laramie for Oregon because she’s female and single. Addie decides to proposition the Wagon master Joshua Reynolds. She pleads with him to marry her in name only and promises that she’ll have her father’s solicitors draw up and file the paperwork to dissolve the marriage as soon as they reach their destination.
Joshua Reynolds doesn’t want a wife, he had one before and it didn’t work out well. However he reluctantly agrees to a marriage in name only. He also informs Addie that he will be busy so she had best be able to fend for herself on the trail as he won’t have the time to coddle her.
When some of the families with the wagon train are struck with cholera it’s up to Addie to put her medical knowledge to the test, but when Addie succumbs to the dreaded disease who will save her?
This story is a must read for historical fans, the characters are so well written and the story line grabs you from page one and just doesn’t let you go till the end. Ms Wick gets a recommended read from me as I believe that whenever an author can get a reader to laugh or cry while reading they deserve the highest honors. I not only laughed a few times I also shed a few tears along the way the only time I put the book down was to go grab the Kleenex. Kudo’s Nita you truly have an amazing talent for drawing in your readers.

Forty-Eight Hour Burn [Service Club 1] By Tonya Ramagos

Forty-Eight Hour Burn [Service Club 1] By Tonya Ramagos
Title: Forty-Eight Hour Burn [Service Club 1]
GENRE: Contemporary Menage Erotica
PURCHASE LINK: http://www.bookstrand.com/node/807695
PUBLISHER: Siren Publishing
Rating: 3 ½
Reviewer: Rach
Georgia loves Gavin and knows his kind of loving is hard and demanding. She also knows a relationship with Gavin would include his best friend Randy. Over the years as she has hungered for Gavin, she has discovered a blossoming love for Randy. She is primed and ready to take on these rough demanding Firefighter Cowboys. Her only hesitation is that from their first touch she knows the passion they will ignite can burn her to her core and she could lose herself to them.
With only forty-eight hours Randy is set on showing Georgia all the erotic pleasures they inflict and that a relationship with them would provide her all the love and pleasures she could have ever dreamed.
Gavin will accept nothing but complete submission from Georgia and she must relinquish all control. There will be no compromise and room for discussion. Especially with a new danger threatening the happiness they were just starting to explore.
The characters were fun, but a bit one-dimensional. I wanted to know more about the past between Gavin and Georgia. I felt as though I was missing a big chunk on the story. There are quite a few explanations in regards to certain aspects of what had transpired previously, however, it was written as in a “matter of fact” manner. The friction and sexual tension between the characters was fantastic. A reader can feel the need and longing Gavin exudes. The erotic scenes would make anyone hot and bothered. Tonya Romagos has a talent for writing smoking hot love scenes with the just right balance of fire and tenderness. This was a novella, only 138 pages and a lot is packed into the short novel. In addition to the evolving romance between Georgia, Randy and Gavin someone is tormenting the people in the town who live in menage relationships. The crimes begin to escalate in cruelty and Gavin becomes even more determined in his controlling ways. The unraveling of the crimes and the reaction by Gavin did not flow well. The buildup was almost a letdown. However, all in all it was a fun and hot quick read and I will definitely check out book two of this series.