Evan After by Michael C. Grumley

 I got this free through Bookbub. It’s an interesting story of an eighteen-year-old boy experiencing strange things after an accident. A psychiatrist with problems of her own treats him and they get together to help each other. 

The story is really well built and written. Throughout the whole thing you’re kept on your toes. The suspense is kept up until the end. I really enjoyed it. It’s different from what I read usually and it was a nice change. Lots of twists and turns with the psychiatrist’s sister playing a major role in the story making it even more interesting. 

This is my first book by Michael C. Grumley although he’s been publishing for a while now. It has an almost-five star rating on amazon.com and a five star rating on amazon.ca. I can understand why. 

 

Floodgates by Mary Calmes

 My first book by Ms. Calmes, at $5.99, more than what I usually pay for e-books. 

It was good. I really liked it. Read it in a day (only approximately 245 pages). Not a short story either.

Fun, witty, intelligent characters, a good story with suspense ’till the end. Nicely written.

Well done indeed.

 

Always by Kindle Alexander

 No spoilers here folks. Cause I didn’t finish it.

I don’t understand. It’s getting rave reviews on Amazon. Five stars and everything. It’s No. 1 somewhere.

Didn’t do a thing for me. I reached 54% and let go. Wasn’t drawn in the story, found the writing a bit too sweet for my taste, the characters seemed to be built by words (adjectives mostly) and not so much feeling or emotion or thoughts. I felt I was seeing a movie with bits cut out to fit into a two-hour prime-time slot where someone might tell me “you should read the book, it explains a lot” except this is the book. They meet, they fall in love, they go on with their romantic life of which I won’t tell you too much cause you’ll read the book (remember: rave, fabulous, fantastic reviews). The story jumped from one big event in their lives to another, with nothing in between. You know they end up together because the book starts with them being an old married couple (no spoiler there). 

Am I missing the whole point of the story by not reading past 54%? Perhaps. The first half glides along, giving you a superficial look at their almost perfect life with perfect emotion and perfect descriptions. If that’s an introduction to the real heart of the story, it was too long for me. 

Hot, sex scenes, yes. Depth, not enough for me. Maybe I like more complicated, heart-wrenching stories with flawed main characters.

 

It’s not reviewed on amazon.ca, but it’s got 230 reviews that put it at 5 stars on amazon.com. Must be just me. Congratulations, Ms. Alexander. It’s a success.

Ball & Chain by Abigail Roux (Cut & Run series)

No. 8. Well, I liked it a lot. This one is getting mixed reviews on Amazon.com from die-hard fans but I don’t see it. The bad reviews scared me. It was all “tragic failure – unbelievable history rewrites – not enough Ty & Zane” and other blablabla.

I think it was perfect. We still follow the main characters, Ty and Zane, through another adventure and even if you know the author can’t kill a main character you still have your heart in your throat in a couple of scenes.

The characters are still true to themselves in this one, even the Sidewinders Kelly and Nick who join our MC’s in this one as main characters. They’re still funny, twisted and snarky.

I definitely felt the transition from the Cut & Run series to the Sidewinder series (first one Shock & Awe reviewed here). You see where the author is setting up the end of Cut & Run and the implementation of Sidewinder as a standalone series soon.

“Ty wanted them to cut and run.”

A nice way to close the loop. I’m not saying anything else about without giving away spoilers.

It was a great read, great adventure, great characters, great endings (yes, many) and great cliffhanger – not too cruel.

One superhot sex scene, and many romantic, endearing ones too. Oh, those guys…. I love them so.

Sorry my little readers: not for under 18. Not only because of the sex either…

The Dark Tide – The Adrien English series by Josh Lanyon

The fifth (and final?) in the Adrien English mystery series by my new hero Josh Lanyon.

Mr. Lanyon wrote five very good mysteries – after the first one I didn’t try to guess who the murderer was, just went with it – with enough true emotion and romance to weave beautiful well-written stories.

Without giving away spoilers, the romance spreads through all five books but each book has its own murder-mystery to solve, so it’s the romance that keeps us reading. The wish for those two to get together was giving me anxiety. And a couple of times it looked like they wouldn’t make it. My heart broke – I almost wrote to the author to give him shit to put them – and me – through such pain but I didn’t and I’m glad. Do they end up together? After all that? Read the series.

Hot, hot, hot sex scenes with sincere feeling and emotion.

Mr. Lanyon’s characters are strong, well-developed and vulnerable. Everything we want to find in MC’s, plus some witty repartee and a funny, quirky and elegant mom who made me laugh out loud.

Worth the price (these are a little more expensive than what I’m used to pay: around $7 each).

 

Walks off to grieve the end of yet another great series with characters she’ll miss.

Trouble & the Wallflower by Kade Boehme

Another fine book by Mr. Boehme. I’ve read a few and I liked them all.

This one is one of his most recent works. The bad boy likes the shy, silent guy and they finally get together and sparks fly. Then trouble comes, but not with the guys themselves. Will they be able to work through it?

I’ll let you read it to find out. Hint: I enjoyed the ending.

Well written, some funny parts, some touching ones, and some lines that go straight to your heart. 

“I’m definitely okay with it being a forever kinda thing.” Gavin’s heart fluttered. “God, where’d you come from?” Boehme, Kade (2014-02-27). Trouble & the Wallflower (Kindle Locations 2829-2830). Dreamspinner Press. Kindle Edition. 

I like these boys. They’ve been through crap. One is a bad boy with a reputation that almost causes him to lose this opportunity and the other has serious social issues. Together they’re great.

Hot sex scenes, folks. Be warned. Or be happy. Whatever rocks your boat.

 

 

Fatal Shadows (Adrien English no. 1) by Josh Lanyon

Wow. Great book. I had heard of Josh Lanyon through social media and Goodreads and finally bought the first of his Adrien English series. Murder-mystery at its best: I only guessed the identity of the killer 80% in! This is great for me, as I usually guess pretty quickly whodunnit; the result of watching lots and lots of movies with my dad who loved to spoil it for everyone (I do the same to my kids apparently) and reading lots of mysteries including Agatha Christie.

Good story, really well written – excellent editing by the way – funny, quirky and witty main character, twists and turns that keep you interested. Great read.

I liked it so much I bought the next one right away.

Not for the impressionable, innocent minds.

But for everyone else: hell yes.

Wanting by Piper Vaughn

 For a short freebie, this is a well-rounded, thoughtful, flowing and complete story of a young man’s first love. In just 54 pages, we have an introduction that sets the story and presents the characters right off the bat, two or three developments that take the story somewhere and a very satisfying ending.

All in all, a pretty good, sweet read. Congratulations, Piper Vaughn. A real talent.

Even the sex scenes are well-written and touching.

What more do you want?

Well, actually, I would want more of the main characters – if the story continued, I would read it. There is a Valentine’s story for these two, but funny enough the 54-page book is free, the 22-page Valentine’s story is $1.50. It’s still not a lot, you’ll say. True. And for the quality of the writing, if you look at it from the perspective of paying $1.50 for actually 76 pages because you read the first one for free, it’s still quite a good deal. 

Take a look at what your teens are reading on their e-readers: you can’t easily tell if they’re reading stuff with sex in it… this one shouldn’t be in there if you’re really strict about this sort of thing. If you tend to be a bit more lenient, the sex scenes in this one are very tasteful. 🙂

Secrets and Ink by Lou Harper

You already know I like (even love) Lou Harper’s writing. This book is like candy. 

Funny, witty, suspenseful, sexy, hot, endearing main characters, good story, it’s all there. 

Its only flaw is being too short. At 128 pages, it’s a good length for a story but I liked the main character, Jeremy, enough that I would have read more about him. There could have been more of the romance even after the climactic scene where the suspense is revealed. Maybe a sequel? Ms. Harper, if you’re reading this, go for it. Drop me a line, I’ll review it too.

That Jeremy. A complete, complex and cute character you like right off the bat, in only a few pages. Quirky, funny with a dark past, just like we like ’em. 

On why he wouldn’t remove his spider tattoo: 

“Erasing the past like it never happened – like revirginizing yourself. I don’t believe in that crap.”

Well said, Jeremy, well said.

A good read for a very reasonable price.  

For mature audiences only. 

 

Never Understand by Miranda Mailer

 Ha! Now that’s what I’m talking about. A female main character with guts and glory who doesn’t succumb to the guy right away. She’s just not buying it. And good for her.

Refreshing to say the least. I’m tired of reading romance novels with sniveling, insecure, easily impressed heroines who bat their eyelashes at the billionaires of this world. The minute the guy buys some exotic, expensive flower the girl is mush in his hands and puts out for the best sex of her life while doing … nothing. Just laying there. Sheesh. She then apparently deserves to be flown to Paris for an outrageous dinner. Yeah, right.

Ms. Mailer’s main character, Jana, is a strong-willed, intelligent wannabe actress with integrity and guts. She’s not easily swooned by the rich guy who tries to impress her with wealth and nice suits. It’s an interesting spin on the usual romance novel story of poor girl and rich guy. 

Well written, although it could use a bit more editing as there’s some words missing here and there, but not enough that you can’t understand the sentence. 

It’s part one of a trilogy. Sometimes it bugs me when authors write three short stories and give the first one away as a freebie to get you hooked on buying the other ones. In this case, even if I don’t end up buying the other two, it was still a pleasant, fun story to read and it can stand alone. There’s no big cliffhanger that leaves you blaspheming the author for the blatant attempt at selling other novels by grabbing your insides and making you buy the next book (Fifty Shades anyone?). It ends on its own and just makes you want to continue reading if you like the characters; it’s not like the author is holding out on the “what happens next? if I don’t find out I’ll kill myself because there must be an explanation in the next book” ending. 

And may I say that the sex scenes are hot. Very, very hot. The descriptions of feelings and sensations are wonderfully written, instead of big, crass words and jets of jizz flying everywhere. Well done indeed.

Yeah… my imaginary young readers: I am sad to say that you can’t read this before you’re eighteen. I have to tell you this, in all conscience. I will say, though, the minute your birthday comes up, rush to amazon to get it and read it. Especially if you want to learn how to write hot, classy sex scenes. Just a thought.