ROPED IN

TITLE: ROPED IN

AUTHOR: L.A WITT & MARIE SEXTON

Length: Extended novella 39k words

Date: 05/05/2014

Grade: 4+

Details: Received from Amber Quill Press

            Through Love Romances and More

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“Graham and his roping partner Jackson have ruled the rodeo scene for ten years running, but lately, Graham’s heart isn’t in the game. He’s tired of the bruises, the cowboy mentality, and the animal rights activists who picket every event. And then there’s Jackson.

Graham and Jackson have been friends since they were boys. But ever since their drunken sexual encounter the year before, things have been awkward. Graham’s accepted that he might be gay, but no matter how attracted he is to other men, he always panics and runs when the clothes start to come off.

Then Graham has a run-in with one of the rodeo protesters, and everything changes. Kaz is young, idealistic, and sexy as hell. And Kaz has an idea for getting Graham past his nerves and into bed.

All they need is a bit of rope.”

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My thoughts:

This was a wonderful novella and a lovely story.

The three characters in this book all managed to tug at my heartstrings. It would have been impossible not to feel sympathy for Graham who may have found the courage to admit he’s gay but doesn’t have the nerves to stay with a man long enough to actually experience intimacy.

Jackson is Graham’s rodeo partner as well as lifelong friend. Their friendship has been strained for a year though, after a drunken and aborted sexual encounter. Graham has also been in love with Jackson for years but is convinced his feelings are one-sided.

Kaz is a young animal activist, protesting at rodeos. When he meets Graham during one of the protests the attraction between the two men is instant and they act on it. When Graham discovers that all he needs to relax with another man are a few orders and ropes to tie him, a whole new world opens before him.

But Kaz and Graham have nothing in common apart from a very strong and hot sexual chemistry. And Jackson isn’t quite as uninterested in Graham as he had thought either.

I adored the love triangle in this book. Especially because I couldn’t predict how it would end and also wasn’t sure what ending I was hoping for. The issue wasn’t black and white. Both Graham’s option looked good and attractive. Both had their pros and cons. And the rejection of either man was going to be painful to read about, yet one of them would have to surrender to the other.

I loved the BDSM elements to this story. They were light and all the more powerful for it. The analogy between a skittish horse and Graham’s insecurities, as well as the solution for either was wonderful.

“It reminded me of putting blinders on a horse – you didn’t take the threat away, you simply took the horse’s ability to see it. And somehow, with my hands tied between us, I felt more at ease than I had a moment before.”

Kaz’s soft touch dominance and Graham’s reaction to it were beautiful. Kaz is a passionate man with doubts and fears as well as dominant in the bedroom and seeing both sides of him made him all the more attractive as a character. Graham’s road to ecstasy was mesmerizing, as well as incredibly hot and the descriptions of Graham finding freedom while being bound took my breath away.

“Being untied didn’t mean being free. It meant being a victim to my own fears and insecurities. I’d never felt safer than I did at that moment, tied to the bed and pinned beneath his slim body.”

This was my first encounter with Marie Sexton but I’ve read books by L.A. Witt before. In fact, she is one of my go-to authors when I’m looking for a well written M/M novel. All I can say is her partnership with Marie Sexton was as successful as her partnerships with others and her solo books are. I thoroughly enjoyed this charming, sexy and captivating love story.

“No matter how different we were, we kept up coming back to this. Two men who wanted each other. Simple as that.”

CURTAINS

TITLE: CURTAINS

AUTHOR: ANA RAINE

Pages: 59

Date: 02/05/2014

Grade: 3+

Details: Novella

            Received from Changeling Press

            Through Love Romances and More

Own / Kindle

The blurb:

“Ian’s normal, boring life consists of his small town bartending job and his on again/off again relationship with his strictly vanilla boyfriend. Ian wants something more – he just doesn’t know what. When fate – and a travelling theatre troupe – drops his high school crush, Ezra, in Ian’s pat, Ian has to choose between his stable, boring life or risk everything for a future full of uncertainty – and the possibility of real love.

Ezra’s loved Ian since high school, and he’s always regretted the chance he didn’t take. But will Ian consent to be Ezra’s lover – and his partner in his darkest fantasies?”

My thoughts:

Ian’s life is okay. He lives in a small town where he has a bartending job, working for his very much in the closet and not overly committed boyfriend, Calvin. Ian knows something is missing from his relationship. He needs something more than Calvin is willing or able to give him even if he can’t quite name what that might be. When Calvin’s sister arrives in town he cuts off all contact with Ian to keep his gay secret safe.

Ezra was attracted to Ian when they were in high school together but never acted on his feelings, something he’s regretted ever since. When he and the theatre group he works with arrive in town he his delighted to meet Ian again and wastes no time claiming the man he allowed to get away once.

Now Ian faces a choice. Stay in his boring but save and predictable life with the boyfriend who will never be ready to commit to him or take a risk while making all his dreams and sexy fantasies come true with Ezra.

This was a fun little novella. Not a book that took my breath away or made me think but an enjoyable read about nice characters. We watch Ian as he spend the night with his commitment phobic boss and boyfriend Calvin in what is, for Ian at least, a not all together satisfying encounter.

Meeting Ezra again is a shock. From the moment Ian sets eyes on the man he used to go to school with he knows there is more to Ezra, a dangerous edge that excites as well as scares Ian. Giving in to the attraction and Ezra’s domination brings Ian an experience he’s only dreamed about in the past and leaves him yearning for more while scared to put his safe but boring life on the line for an unpredictable future.

I liked the character of Ezra. He’s both edgy and caring; a Dom determined to push Ian’s limits while making sure the man he’s been attracted to for so long is okay.  I was less fond of Ian. He seemed a bit wishy-washy, reluctant to make decisions for himself. I wasn’t entirely happy about Ian’s apparent double standard either; he resents Calvin for dropping him the moment he has family visiting because he doesn’t want to admit to being gay but hasn’t come out himself either. He doesn’t leave Calvin because the man won’t commit, or because the man can’t and won’t give him what he needs but because his boss and boyfriend loses the plot with him. While it was clear that being with Ezra gave Ian what he needed and that his feelings for Ezra were much stronger than the ones he had for Calvin, it seemed that Ian left with Ezra because he didn’t have another choice rather than because he wanted to.

The whole story is told from Ian’s point of view and in his voice and I couldn’t help feeling the language seems a bit childish for the topic. On the one hand Ian seemed to know about BDSM and what was expected of him while he seemed almost completely ignorant at the same time. That confused me a bit.

I’m not entirely sure if I would call this a BDSM story. Sure, Ian calls Ezra ‘Sir’ when they’re in the zone and Ezra is very much in control of their encounters and Ian’s ultimate satisfaction but it still felt more like kink, a form of role play, to me than the start of a D/s relationship.

Having said that, I did enjoy reading this story and got engrossed in all the physical and emotional turmoil Ezra throws Ian into. And I loved that the author gave us a glimpse of their life together, eight months later.

This novella wasn’t quite as deep or soul-searching as I’d hoped from the description but it did give me about an hour’s worth of very pleasant and at times very hot reading.

CONTROL

TITLE: CONTROL

AUTHOR: CHARLOTTE STEIN

Pages: 258

Date: 10/01/2014

Grade: 3

Details: Received from SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca

             Through NetGalley

Own/Kindle

The blurb:

“When Madison Morris decides to hire an assistant to help run her naughty bookshop, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. Two very different men are vying for the position...and a whole lot more.

Andy excites her into grasping control, while Gabriel shows her how freeing it can be to just let go. Soon the lines are blurring and Madison is no longer sure who's leading and who's following. In the midst of kinky threesomes and power plays, can she’ll have to finally decide what--and who--she really wants.”

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This will be one of my more ambivalent reviews I’m afraid. While reading this book I was constantly torn between really enjoying myself and getting exasperated with the writing style.

I loved the idea behind the story.

Madison, the owner of the ‘Wicked Words’ bookshop (and isn’t that a brilliant name for a bookshop specialising in kinky titles), finds herself torn between Andy, the rather dominant and self-assured man about town and Gabriel, a shy, inexperienced and very submissive young man. When she hires Gabriel to work in her shop it isn’t long before she realises that he loves the kinky books she sells, although he does his best to hide his interest from her. It only takes her a little bit longer to discover that Gabriel, while inexperienced, feels the need to be told what to do. When ordered, he is up to almost anything. When Madison discovers her hidden talent for dominating Gabriel, things between them heat up very rapidly.

It doesn’t take long either before Madison realises she is developing feelings for Gabriel; feelings he is clearly experiencing too. Of course things are never that straightforward and especially not in this developing relationship; Andy is still in the mix and while all three of them seem to enjoy the sexy games they get involved in, his presence also emphasises all of Gabriel’s insecurities.

Like I said I really did like the idea behind this story. I enjoyed the games Madison played with Gabriel and how they teased him out of his shell. And I can’t deny that some of those games were very, very sexy.

However - you knew this was coming - I can’t help feeling I would have loved this story if only it had been told in a different way. This book was trying a bit too hard to be funny and snarky. I enjoy a humorous story as much as the next person, but only in the right setting. This book was dealing with deep and often repressed feelings and it could have been a truly touching story if they had been developed further. Because of the author’s constant need to be funny, those feelings sort of slipped into the background, but not enough - for me - to allow me to just go with the laughs. When I did smile I felt guilty for not feeling the emotions while every time I did manage to get really involved in the characters and their feelings I couldn’t help feeling I was missing the punchline. In fact, this book left me feeling that maybe I just wasn’t getting it.

Of course it is quite possible that the problem was exactly that; me not getting it. I would have liked this story to be more serious. I would have liked more insight into the development of the characters. I was constantly on the verge of really liking Gabriel only to never be able to get there because he just wasn’t developed enough. And the same is true for the other characters. Even Madison, who is the narrator never got better than two dimensional.

I also got lost in the timeline. When I thought only a few days had passed the story would surprise me by revering to passing months. And don’t get me started about the amount of times the word ‘lewd’ was used. It popped up so often that I ended up dreading the next time I would come across it.

I’m surprised to hear myself say it, but I can’t help feeling that this book would have benefited from a little bit less (rather hot) sex and more character development and attention to the emotions experienced by Madison, Gabriel and Andy. If you are in the mood for a funny and lighthearted sexy romp, this book may well be exactly what you need. If you want to feel the deep emotions that develop between well established characters, you probably want to pick up another title.

CLAIMED

TITLE: CLAIMED

AUTHOR: STACEY KENNEDY

Pages: 244

Date: 04/09/2013

Grade: 4-

Details: No. 1 Club Sin

            Received from Random House

            Through NetGalley

Own / Kindle

The Blurb:

“Presley Flynn is ripe to experience her secret fantasies . . . and Dmitri Pratt wants nothing more than to fulfill them. Once inside the elite Club Sin in Las Vegas, Presley is nervous but excited—and determined to surrender to her every desire. Dmitri is her Master, and his touch is like fire. With each careful, calculated caress, he unleashes her wildest inhibitions, giving her unimagined pleasure.

Presley is different than the other submissives Dmitri has mastered. The BDSM lifestyle is new to her, and so are the games they play at Club Sin. From the start, Presley stirs emotions in him far beyond the raw purity between a Dom and the perfect sub. For the ecstasy they share goes beyond the dungeon igniting a passion that claims the very depths of the heart.”

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There are as many reasons to read as there are readers, or books. Sometimes you need to learn something, sometimes you want to be scared, there are occassions when it is all about the mystery and then there are the moments when all you want and need is a sweet love story. Today was one of those love story days for me and wasn’t I lucky that I decided to start – and finish – “Claimed” by Stacey Kennedy.

Because a sweet love story is exactly what we find on these pages. Yes, it is definitely an erotic story, and yes there is a strong BDSM theme to it, but neither the story nor the subject matter is shocking. In fact, I would call this BDSM light.

When we meet Presley Flynn she is a bundle of nerves about to meet Dmitri Pratt – on a side note, Pratt seems to be an unfortunate surname for this character since he is anything but incompetent and foolish. Aged 25, Presley has recently broken up with her one and only boyfriend of eight years after catching him cheating on her. When her friend and roommate, Cora, sees her devouring BDSM novels she decides to introduce Presley to the club she is a member of. While Presley knows that the stories excite her and is very curious  about the life-style, she is very nervous about acting on her feelings and even more scared about coming across as not good enough.

Master Dmitri is fascinated by the young woman from the moment he first sets eyes on Presley. Especially since he can’t quite get a handle on the combination of lust, fear, insecurity and determination she exhibits.

“He couldn’t tell who she truly was; the innocent little darling scared out of her wits, or the brave woman not hiding from her sexual desires but fighting to express them.”

Dmitri doesn’t only decide to allow her into his club, he also fast-tracks her application process just so that he can start training her as soon as possible; before Presley has a chance to second guess her desires and let her fear keep her away. And so begins Presley’s slow but very intensive introduction into the pleasures of Domination and submission.

“That, Presley, is what makes you a submissive. You find peace and happiness when you relinquish control.”

As Presley spends more time with Dmitri she not only discovers the delights of BDSM and submitting to a man who seems to know exactly what she wants and needs, she also discovers sides to herself she never suspected were there.

“She had thought she’d come to Club Sin with something to prove to herself, to be a different woman, but tonight she felt as if she had become the woman she was meant to be – free and calm.”

But Presley isn’t the only one with issues to overcome and lessons to learn. As much as Dmitri teaches Presley that it is not only ok but also good to stand up for herself and stop always trying to please everybody around her, she teaches him that he doesn’t have to carry the weight of the world on his lone shoulders. It takes a few lessons, but Presley and Dmitri soon discover that:

“Together, we’re better, aren’t we?”

Like I said, this is a sweet and romantic, not to mention sexy, story. And if it is BDSM-light it is also sexy light. And I have to say I’m glad about that. In this story, with this innocent main character, anything else might have stretched my willingness to suspend disbelief a bit too far.

There is of course something cute about Presley in this book, coming to the realisation that the BDSM she has been reading about in her romance novels isn’t quite like the reality she’s encountering. I read that and couldn’t help thinking that there must be a lot of (mainly) women out there who have discovered the joys of reading this genre and now think they know exactly what BDSM is. Chances are that most, if not all of them – probably including myself – would be in for a rude awakening  if confronted with the reality of the life-style.

This is a feel good book without protracted drama; a light and easy read and just what I needed today. I look forward to future Club Sin titles. There is always room for a good romance in my life.