Showing posts with label adult romance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adult romance. Show all posts

Saturday, 1 December 2018

"Rules of Magic" Book Review








My Rating: ★★★★★ 5 Stars

I loved this book. 

Despite not having seen or read Practical Magic, which is the sequel to Rules of Magic, I was very interested in Rules of Magic when I first saw it on NetGalley. I am an Alice Hoffman fan even though I have not read all of her works. 

The premise of Rules of Magic reeled me in and it delivered. I’ve never read a book which made me cry so much. I fell in love with the characters and their love interests and I felt their joys and pains as if they were my own. 

To date, Alice Hoffman is the only author who can pull such a level of emotion out of me. She is an amazing story-teller through and through but its her writing style that throws me into an emotional rollercoaster of a ride. 

In a nutshell, Rules of Magic was a well-written, entertaining read which in my opinion deserves 5 stars. 

Digital copy received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Sunday, 30 July 2017

"The Red" Book Review


My Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3 Stars

I am not a fan of the genre, but its always good to expand your literary horizon. 

I presume erotic books are meant to transport you into another world and render you completely oblivious to the real world while you’re engaged in reading. I also believe it is written to be so far from reality that you can’t help but forget about your problems and stressors; that being said, someone who loves this genre would absolutely love this book. 

It is “action” packed and not exactly plot-driven. If you’re expecting to read a solid plot filled with rich character development then this isn’t the book. 

The Red is truly an erotic piece written for the sole purpose of transporting its reader into a salacious fantasy. 


Digital copy received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

Monday, 26 September 2016

"Tattoo Thief (Tattoo Thief Book 1)" Book Review



My Rating: ★★★★☆ 4 Stars

Let’s get one thing straight, this book has absolutely nothing to do with the stealing of tattoos, because c’mon, that would be torture to the highest degree; however, the thought of someone carving out tattoos from a person’s body does make for a compelling premise of  a future novel. Hint Hint.

So, Tattoo Thief – music, romance, second chances, real estate, drugs, insta-love/infatuation and a judgmental pseudo-psychologist is what we get.

Beryl, our protagonist, is a small town girl of Eugene, Oregon, living a small town life working at a coffee shop and three days a week at a brewpub. She gets the opportunity to become a house sitter for the ultra-rich in the big apple.

Her new-found job places her in the home of rock star Gavin Slater – lead vocalist of Tattoo Thief (yup, it’s a band). His place is trashed, his dog abandoned and Beryl makes it her duty to get to the bottom of this – why he left his place in such a mess, why he disappeared in such a hurry and what part did he play in the death of his muse?

I gave it 4 stars because it was well-written and there was an actual plot, the romance did not overpower the plot at all.

The plot started out great – a small town girl getting a job opportunity in the big city, getting to house-sit for a super-rich, hot, rock star. I loved that about the book, I even loved that she had the opportunity to fall in love with the guy. I found that to be a dream come true fantasy. Ugh, what I would give to be in her shoes.

However, the romance between Beryl and Gavin blossomed prematurely and because of that it felt like they didn’t have much in common except for their loneliness. It would have been more plausible if the author chose to keep them as friends, which is what they were more suited to be based on their conversations.

Beryl was also pretty judgemental toward Gavin. There’s a difference between telling the truth like it is and plain out being judgemental, especially when it’s someone you’ve just met. Like hold up chick, this is my life, not yours; you don’t know what went on so shush. But no, Gavin didn’t tell her that, just wishful thinking on my part.

She also did this creepy thing where she wore his ex-girlfriend’s clothes; the same clothes he told her to throw out. Believe me, I understand that the wardrobe must have been expensive, but don’t go wearing it when you’re going on a date with him. I mean c’mon! Be more considerate toward the poor guy, he’s going to be distraught in memory lane when he sees his dead girlfriend’s outfits on the new girl that he’s dating. That was just wrong and inconsiderate of her. Tsk tsk tsk, any human would know that Beryl.


So there it is – a well-written book with a plot, even though some parts were pretty ridiculous. It doesn’t fall in the erotic genre by the way. 

Saturday, 20 August 2016

"On Deadly Ground" Book Review



My Rating: ★★★☆☆ 3 Stars

Many thanks to Endeavour Press and NetGalley for granting me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Previously published as King Blood, On Deadly Ground is a post-apocalyptic-horror-survival story with a hint of eroticism and other themes such as revenge and love. 

I love the post-apocalyptic book genre most of all, so I did enjoy this one to a certain extent. I love a thick book, and this was a whopping 675 pages. Those were the only things I really liked about this book. It isn't an awful read, but it could have been better.

Many times it felt like the horror/gore scenes were a bit too overly done and therefore it failed in its attempts to be terrifying. 

The lengthy dialogues between characters were extremely formal and thus unreal. 

Some characters were very naive but I noticed major developments by the end of the book.

One in particular was extremely, sexually creepy, so I was elated whenever her scene ended. 

Now the plot: pretty anticlimactic. There was such a huge build-up that I thought I would be blown away when the big reveal came, instead I was disappointed to the point of not wanting to continue reading. 

Overall, it was an OK read. I wouldn't recommend it to the two main people I recommend books to, but others could have a go at it. If you're into post-apocalyptic/survival stories and don't typically pay attention to writing style then try it out. 




Thursday, 16 June 2016

"A Dark Billionaire Romance #1-6" Book Review







My Rating 
★★★★☆ 4 Stars

Thanks to the author for sending me the full series free of charge. I really do appreciate it.

Before I go into my review I just want to say, objectively, this was a good book. Buy the book, support the author.

My review is a bit odd. How can I give it 4 stars, say it's a good book that you should pick up, but not be in love with it? Well, it all comes down to preference; and I'm a very picky romance reader.

1. Romance.
2. Billionaires.
3. Lavish lifestyle.
4. BDSM?

What's not to love?!

I'm not a fan of romance, never will be.
Not a fan of Billionaires either, nor the lavish lifestyle.
Absolutely no comments on the fourth. BUT, I am a fan of Aubrey Dark since I first read Mine & His. I respect her writing.

This is not a review of her previous work but I feel it necessary to comment on how I was initially intrigued by her dark spin on romance and how I ended up wanting to read THIS series. Three reasons:
Her writing style - clear, concise, far from pretentious, one or two typos.
Her imagination - she has a dark mind, almost as much as mine, except mine is devoid of romance and would include much more torture.
Her research skills - she writes like she is an expert on the profession of all her male protagonists.

I liked this one, not as much as I liked the one featuring Rein (or was it Rien) but this was a good book. I can see the appeal. As I said, her writing style in her previous works was superb and that style was carried over to this series.
There was a plot to keep readers intrigued.
Enough romance scenes to satiate the erotic genre fans.

There was a scene featuring a character from one of her earlier books which made me speed-read then left me wanting more. Do you see? More than a year has passed since I read His & Mine and that one character has somehow always found a way to sneakily cross my mind. That's how much I enjoyed that book and in addition to the previously mentioned reasons, I wanted to read this series so that I could somehow recreate and forge a new connection to another character of hers. It didn't happen but not because of any negatives on the part of the author, but it's because I can only stomach certain types of romance. And those romance books need to be a lot dark with just a bearable hint of anticipated romance. I don't mean Fifty Shades of Grey dark or Stonehart dark (Uncovering you series). Those aren't dark in my books, those are merely mild BDSM bullshit. I mean dark dark, the real kind where the professional is in his element, has a scalpel peeling off the face of some bad guy while the girl is in the other room panicking but aroused (you know the book I'm talking about! Damn it!!).

Again, this was a good book. It really is. Go read it if you get a thrill out of the erotic genre. Support the author, buy her books