Rachel Likes

And here the story takes off. Manikin springs the series forward and cements the draw for Channeling Morpheus as Pancakes does for The Administration. Providing for a turning point in the nature of the sex and the relationship, but also posing the question to the reader, “What constitutes good and bad in a morally ambiguous world?” A dynamic that will propel this series.

“… vampires are as individual as humans…”

That singular realization completes the fade to gray altering Michael’s black and white prospective and leaves him questioning his own moral compass. Encountering a deranged vampire, Marushka, who kills for the sadistic joy of it, confirms to Michael that his decision to kill vampires is for the greater good. But when he is labeled a serial killer by Wild Bill, he must again question the fine lines between right, wrong and in between. Marushka, Michael and Bill all kill repeatedly and methodically, Marushka gets off on killing, Michael kills as a form of vigilante justice and Bill is simply surviving. Juxtaposing the “bad” serial killer, Marushka, against the “good” serial killer, Michael, and the “conflicted” serial killer, Bill, provided for a subtle commentary on the varying degrees of right and wrong, while enhancing the horror atmosphere of the series.

Though the sexual encounters now have to share the center stage, doesn’t mean they are now a device of the plot rather than a driving force to it. The tasteful crudeness in the sex continues, but is mixed with more sentiment than Wild Bill would like to admit. Wild Bill begins to take on more complexity and depth that doesn’t go unnoticed by Michael. And though the nature of the sex invokes more emotion in some ways it is kinkier, introducing blood play and the erotic element of hairless freshly shaved skin.

When I started this series, I expected some sexy vampire smut with a sensational horror backdrop. What I have found is a story much smarter. Manikin confirms that Price can make a series out of Wild Bill and Michael’s journey together. If the stories continue in the vein of the first three - a series that will be added to my favorites list.

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A sexy vampire smut interlude between Wild Bill and Michael. Worth every moment and not just for them. A seemingly innocuous detail is slipped in at the end - presenting a not so innocuous analogy, elevating this short from just another smut scene. Download for free at Price’s website.

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Another sexual encounter to drive the plot, takes center stage in Vertigo, as it did in Payback. Only this time the catalyst is lust not murder. The MC’s inability to deny lust as one is unable to deny hunger radiates through this novelette.

What else is new in Vertigo besides the catalyst? Surprisingly, the POV. Having the honor of being in Wild Bill’s head for this ride was successfully exhilarating when it could have destroyed the charismatic aura built around him in Payback - but Price pulled it off. Price writes in an About This Book afterward, that she didn’t want to ruin the aura that Wild Bill’s “eloquently trashy turns of phrases” (her words) evoked - and she didn’t. The aura wasn’t ruined and the characterization contained. Wild Bill thinks as he speaks - cleverly, amusingly dryly and with a crude directness.

In this second addition in the series, Michael’s black and white slated view on vampires begins to mingle to gray as he succumbs to lust and the intriguing pull of Wild Bill. He also demonstrates to Wild Bill and the reader that green he may be, but resourceful he is. In Payback, Michael’s attraction to Wild Bill is as obvious as the reader’s attraction to him, but why Bill is attracted to naïve, emo Michael, if his attraction isn’t just a guise, is unclear. The ability to see Michael through Wild Bill’s eyes clarifies Bill’s draw to Michael - adding an element of interest to Michael not noticed in Payback.

Switching the POV in the second novelette could have been a series ending move, but Price got in Wild Bill’s head for a successful sequel. And even more impressive, being in Wild Bill’s head didn’t detract any of the mystery surrounding him.

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From page one I was hooked. Price accomplished that mission fast and with no pretense - the same as she writes.

Taking center stage to introduce us to this series, is Michael, a newly decided vampire hunter and young man on the verge of adulthood. By way of Michael’s youthful, black and white slated, determined POV, here’s what the reader learns: his intelligence in researching and preparing for his goals, his naivety in the ease those goals will be achieved, hints of his “noble” (if not self-righteous) motives to rid the world of vampires, his sexual preference and inexperience and his greenness on the whole of life. And though Michael’s young, emo self might not be of utmost interest, what and who he experiences, very much are. Enter Wild Bill. Wild Bill is the draw of Payback. The reader is as charmed, intrigued and in lust with Wild Bill in the matter of his first few amusing, crudely clever lines as Michael is and his draw only gets stronger. With a display of unassuming charisma, reminding me of Brad Pitt’s portrayal of Tyler Durden, Wild Bill is an electric current pulsing through the story keeping both the reader’s and Michael’s heart beating and bringing the story it’s life.

Payback revolves around one of the hottest sex scenes I have ever read and the energy between Wild Bill and Michael - despite the fact it is a threesome. The sex is pornographic, but I can’t label this story smut. It is too intelligent to term as such. A dynamic was presented that smarted at me and left me wanting more of these two’s story. Despite the sex being the main interaction in the novelette, it isn’t what binds Wild Bill and Michael - the sex is a means to an end. It is a murder that binds them together. And that is where Price distinguished this piece from falling in a smut category - by allowing the plot to evolve via the sex instead of the sex evolving through the plot.

In the writing, Price keeps the number one rule of successful writers in mind throughout her work: keep it simple. The prose are not pretentious or muddled. The writing wasn’t beautiful, it was crassly eloquent - so well suited to the characters, mood and world she presents. Price displays her writing ability to be exceptional - and with in a novelette no less.

After floating in a three star sea for the past month, I am very pleased to be back on four star ground. And if Price is able to sustain the quality through the rest of the novelettes, I will be happily sheltered in a five star series. Thank you Channeling Morpheus (and Mr. Hassell for the awesome recommendation).

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Anyone remember the movie Soldier? 1998, Kurt Russell is a soldier trained from infancy, fighting some galactic war, takes refuge with a refugee group living primitively on some abandoned planet and his socialization from merciless institutionalized drone to popular hero commences. *guessing no one raises their hand at that question* You shouldn’t remember it, it is a terrible and forgettable formulaic action adventure laced with sap to draw every audience member in - and a guilty pleasure of mine every time I catch it on SyFy or TNT on a lazy afternoon. Tweak the plot, change Connie Nielsen’s character to the male equivalent (maybe Orlando Bloom could be cast instead), swap the adolescent boy for an infant girl, add a dash of gay love and you’ve got The Sentinel.

Overlook the preposterous details - because The Sentinel is a sappy diverting distraction. Yes, strapping an infant in a back sling and going fishing has never gone as smoothly as it does in this book. Why in the futuristic sci-fi world a highly developed, technological Federation is pitted against villagers living as if it were medieval times - I have never figured out, but go with it. Any obstacle to our heroes playing house is very conveniently confronted and eliminated - I don’t want the melodrama dragged too far out, so I am happy about it. And everyone holds hands and dances into the sunset … under a rainbow.

If this story was anymore than 57 pages, I would have groaned and rolled my eyes from at least the 50% mark on. However, it is only 57 pages and sweet and supplied what I was looking for when I picked it up. Perfect for a lazy afternoon.

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Quick, easy, fun read with the right amount of awkwardness. This is the second piece I have read by Mr. Adams and he has proven he can get to the point and deliver even in a short read. You have my attention Kyle Adams.

Well this is a perfect quintessential quickie! I wanted to read some hot man on hot man sex, not into plot, but enough background that I was into the two characters, easy before bedtime read and free. Check, check, check and check. Well done Kyle Adams.

I am currently putting this book aside with the intention of picking it up at a later date. It isn’t a bad book, but I am not in the right mood to enjoy it for what it is at the moment. I am at 50% and don’t want to give a bad review to a book that is decent (probably will be a three star, depending on where it goes from here could be a four star or could be a two star), simply because I am not in the mood for it’s content. So here are my thoughts on this book to date.

These two are some emotionally scarred, lost boys in need of a rescue. CPS should have intervened for them early in their lives, but they slipped through the cracks and are now the product of what happens when society lets kids down. Their lives are sad, but the love they find in each other is sweet - that’s the draw of the book. What I am struggling through in this book is how the MC’s pasts, may be too real for me to enjoy their sexual moments (ever trip over a porn where the participants are clearly at a low point in their life and not enjoying what they are doing - not a turn on). These two triggered a protective parental instinct in me - which was not my desire to feel when I picked up this book. Their stories are sad and probably very accurate to why many disenchanted youths may find themselves prostituting themselves and how they struggle to get themselves out of that business and how they find themselves fitting in to "normal" life once they do. I picked this book thinking it would have angst and struggle, but still a certain “fun” to it. Now that I know this won’t be a “sexy” read for me, I am sure I will be picking it up again when I am more in the mood for the emotional rollercoaster and for reading about these two painfully struggling for their HEA.

As the GR rating concurs (at the time I am writing this review, at least), Fighter is a solid four stars. In fact, it is unexpectedly awesome.

Spotting this book on one of my GR friends updates at 10:30 PM one night, I saw it was free, synopsis engaged me and it was only 124 pages. Figured I would give it a go for a few minutes, you know, just see what I could expect from it. I ended up going to bed well after 1:00 AM, only to wake up promptly at 6:30 AM the following morning to shower, dress and finish Marcus and Esca’s short, but delightfully diverting tale.

For a free, hundred page fan fiction, the quality exceeded what I expected and the story arc delivered what I was looking for to get me out of the sea of three star books I seem to be floating in of late. Projecting a Shades of Grey meets Stockholm Syndrome feel to it, Fighter delivered emotionally scarred heroes to root for in a dark underground world. The criminal world building is solid, but what shines in this novella is the trust building between Marcus and Esca. The author is able to make the awkwardness of their situation palpable and the reader can feel Marcus and Esca tiptoeing on eggshells around each other even as they are drawn to each other. Both responded cautiously and logically despite the brevity of their story. The plot and UST were so satisfying that I was not phased that there were only one (and a half) lightly detailed sex scenes. The intrigue was in their emotional coming together not their physical one.

Fighter is listed as a fan fiction of a movie, The Eagle, and a series, Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff - I am unfamiliar with both. Reading the synopsis of this movie (without ever having seen it) and the series, it appears to me that the only thing in common with the fan fiction are the names of the characters. And maybe the image of the, for me, very unexciting actors in the author’s head that are placed on the cover. For those of you that are familiar with the movie and series, I’d love hear your thoughts on how this fan fiction equated to the stories from which it is drawn. I did not feel I needed to have been familiar with either of them to enjoy the Fighter and have the impression that it stands alone well.

The writing was very passable, well done for a non- professional writer with only a beta reader. My only real complaint would be that the end was conveniently tidy for the main characters and loose ends for secondary characters could have been more defined.

Fighter was a random find that I expected nothing from and have found myself pleasantly surprised. Fully recommend to add to your free shelf for a few hours read one day when you are looking for some intrigue and tension - just not in your own life.

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I feel like I may have read a different book than other reviewers here. This was a silly read for me. I kept giving it a chance and waiting for it to go somewhere, it did feel like it was going to go somewhere, but then it ended. I didn't feel anything for either of the characters and I felt that the atmosphere building and story arc where just trying too hard. Glad it was free.

I read chapters 1, 2, 3, skipped to chapter 15 to see if it was going anywhere, other than downhill, read part of chapter 30 and promptly decided that I gave this enough of a chance, but this is not for me.

I picked up The Dark Duet worried for my “comfort zone.” The premise of a girl being kidnapped to be sold in the sex trade by a clearly damaged male with a nefarious revenge plan pushed my limits. A part of me didn’t want to like this book and another part said, “Read it. It has a four plus star rating.” But once I decided to jump down the rabbit hole to find that disturbed part of me that a book in this vein appeals to, I sprinted through both Captive in the Dark and it’s sequel, Seduced in the Dark, in a matter of three days.

So why does a book with this premise work? It certainly isn’t because of the forced sex trade setting - the fact that the author didn’t have to make up it’s existence and that numerable victims suffer in this illegal industry horrifies me. Tackling a love story between a barely legal girl and her assailant nearly had me pass on this book. And it certainly wasn’t the non and dubious consent warnings that accompany the publisher’s blurb. It was the fact that I am a sucker for stories that breed love from hate. Understanding from what lies at the core of a human and how relating to that core can make the difference in the connection. Fellow reviewers, the publisher and the author all promised I would witness this progression in The Dark Duet. And I did.

Livvie is a good girl. A pretty girl. A poor girl with a family, that we’ll say, doesn’t offer the “positive reinforcement” and unconditional love found in American families living behind a white picket fence. Livvie is young, naïve, unfulfilled, shaky on her self confidence and with an undefined sense of self, and most importantly - in need of acceptance and the desire to be loved. But Livvie isn’t a good girl who goes bad. Nor does being a good girl mean she is a weak girl. In her grapple for control over her own body, life and choices, Livvie discovers the hidden side to herself - which she refers to as “Ruthless Me.”

“Make him love you,” Ruthless Me whispered. “Make it so he can’t live without you. The Devil you know.”

In this disturbing tale of a girl who desires her captor to love her, the man who will sell her as a sex slave, she finds her strength and the part of herself that will orchestrate her escape, her fight, her survival - and perhaps the love that she desires deep down.

Caleb. Caleb is seriously damaged goods. Seriously damaged goods that drive this story. A veteran to the sex trade industry, who was also kidnapped and enslaved as a child, his situation and past torments garner sympathy - yet his character doesn’t. He is not particularly likeable, but you know there is more to him and he is intriguing enough that you want to find out, “Why is Caleb alluring?” The whole time you read, your fingers are crossed that you will find that the “more to him” will be relatable, an understanding on a human level will be found and his character will prove to be worthy of Livvie’s love. Despite being so arrogantly confident in his cause and abilities, he shares a lack of self worth with Livvie. He acts like a piece of scum. He believes himself to be such scum. But he doesn’t want to be. Roberts keeps the reader’s intrigue with Caleb by giving little glimpses of his desire to be Livvie’s knight in shining armor.

For the first time in recent memory, Caleb wanted something other than revenge. He wanted the girl. He wanted Livvie.

Caleb was stunned for a moment. What an interesting turn of events. Was he the hero of this scenario? He nearly smiled.

What Roberts does well in The Dark Duet, isn’t in presenting a twisted romance with some tawdry kink that is soaked in captivity and Stockholm Syndrome. Those dark elements are a dime a dozen, and though they might be the draw to the book, they won’t make it stand out. What makes it stand out is Roberts posing the question to the reader, “Are we complete products of our environment or is there something intrinsic to a human’s persona that will persevere when confronted?“ Is Livvie the good, pretty girl lacking in self esteem, who was profiled well by Caleb, who will meekly accept
being enslaved to be a game piece in a nefarious plot … or will “Ruthless Me” throw a wrench in the plans? Is Caleb so brainwashed from growing up in the sex trade, that who he could have been, who he is by nature, was foregone the day he was kidnapped himself? Whatever the case may be, it is clear that Caleb and Livvie are both captive in the dark to who they really are - and off to be seduced by who they might be.

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At 21 weeks I lost my twin sons due to prematurity that resulted from a subchorionic hematoma that I suffered from most of the pregnancy. This was my first intimate brush with death and loss and grief. I had been thinking that as Christmas 2012 approached I would be bringing my twins home from the hospital, instead that fall, my husband and I purchased burial plots and picked out a coffin. I was so starkly shocked by the turn of events that I felt everything with such gut wrenching purity that I had no idea where to start processing how I felt anything. A few weeks after the funeral, life carried on as if the summer of 2012 hadn’t happened at all. My husband returned to work, my life picked up where it had left off prior to the pregnancy and conversation of my twins’ fate seemed to cease amongst family and friends, it turned into a taboo subject that I was left to reconcile with on my own. The offered words of, “Everything happens for a reason” and “Time will heal all wounds,” were nothing of comfort to me. Just phrases to fill an awkward silence with dear ones that felt sympathy, but couldn’t relate and didn’t know the right words of comfort - if there were any.

I don’t know how I came across Makichen’s book or why I even gave it a go. It sounded kooky and bordered on bizarre, but he wrote with such conviction it was a comfort. Besides leaving me grief ridden, my twins' death had also shaken my comfort in the universe and my place with in it. It brought the reality home of how fleeting life could be and that nothing is for granted. Spirit Babies didn’t unshake this new realization, but it made it okay. It never gave a reason on why I had to bury my twins and it didn’t even really offer hope that this wrong would be righted, but it gave me solace. My faith in God was never shaken, but it reminded me that I had it.

This book will not be for everyone and it is not meant for everyone. One would hope that most will not ever face a need for this book. But if you find yourself having trouble conceiving or just seeking a connection with your spirit baby or in the unfortunate state of burying your infants, Makichen relays his encounters with spirit babies with a compelling admission of truth that connected me back to the universe and my journey in it. It allowed me to find the hope in myself that the wrong of the summer of 2012 will be righted and that my spirit baby will grace me again. I hope his words do the same for you.

Coming Home is a three star story, that had the potential to be so much more. Where it should have dealt with notions of anger, resentment and redemption, instead forgiveness and acceptance was doled out far too easily making Tally and Lex’s relationship much sweeter than it should have been (and much duller).

I recently read Unintended, also by O‘Shea and Coming Home caught my attention for it’s premise and yes, it’s pretty cover. Unintended was also a three star story for me, but it suited my mood and with it’s $0.99 price tag was great for an afternoon escape into literary land. I paid $5.38 for Coming Home - I am guessing of which most went to an astute copy editor since proper grammar and paragraph construction is really the only aspect where O’Shea’s writing improved.

As with Unintended, O’Shea does a good job of capturing the youthful fun of teenage torment and love, the difference being that in Coming Home Lex and Tally are 28 and 32 respectively. Yet they display emotions and reactions as men on the verge of adulthood, giving this book a very Young Adult / New Adult feel to it. Honestly, I am still not sure how to categorize O’Shea’s works. My first reaction is to move them to the Young Adult column, a lot of the sex in her books are glazed over or alluded to and the premises of the books deal with issues one would encounter in high school or college. However, there is enough detailed sexual encounters and situations that as a parent I would not want my young adult children reading this, which makes me move it into the New Adult column.

Furthermore, the lack of any real obstacles to the main characters’ relationship was shockingly disappointing. O’Shea had so much to work with here, but glazed over serious opportunities to make her work stand out. Tally relentlessly bullied Lex through high school, years later Lex gives down on his luck, Tally an opportunity no else is willing to. Lex recognizes Tally, but Tally does not recognize Lex and to further complicate the relationship, Tally has a disgraced, deceased father and a homophobic mother - all elements that should build angst and tension, leading to a climax in the story arc. Not so, any irritating obstacle that could jeopardize Tally and Lex’s relationship is resolved in the first third of the book. What follows for the other 70%? A sweet easy romance, briefly interrupted by a soap opera-esque devised incident and an HEA.

I will compliment O’Shea for juxtaposing the school days bullying and feeling of isolation with the bullying and isolation Tally and Lex face from the town for their sexual orientation. Painting small town myopic mentality as the real bully was well done.

All in all I probably wouldn’t be so harsh on this book had it not been for the price tag. Tally and Lex’s story is a sweet and easy romance that distracted me nicely for a couple of summer afternoons. At the same time, I think it is a glaring example of the brazenness of publishers these days to retail a mediocre 230 page book for over five dollars due to the growing popularity of the genre. I realize everyone has to make a living, but a price tag should represent the value of what a consumer is purchasing. Coming Home is a $2.99 maybe $3.99 value for the read. And that’s my five dollars and thirty eight cents on the subject.

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Here is what I will rave to you about this book: it is HOT! The sex in this book is HOT! The sexual tension in this book is HOT! Dante and Griff’s chemistry is HOT! Damon Suede delivers a steamy read in Hot Head.

Here’s what I won’t rave to you about this book: it’s ability to completely engage me. Suede does the scenes between Griff and Dante so well, they were all I was interested in reading in this book. The secondary characters, the setting, the muddy plot I found to be unengaging distractions that, eventually, I preferred to skim. Didn’t have a care in the world for Dante’s stereotyped siblings, their alpha masculine co-workers or their homophobic Brooklyn neighborhood. I understood that the secondary characters and atmosphere were all necessary to establish that the Anastagio’s were a classic, if not stereotyped, caring, Italian, Brooklyn family and that the environment that Griff and Dante lived in could be “unwelcoming,“ to say the least, if you were a homosexual. But I felt Suede spent too much time delivering these messages. I got so much of the messages that I began to skim through them. That being said - Dante and Griff - OMG, so HOT together!

Suede’s writing was very passable, not exceptional, but above mediocre. However, I could have done without the number of flashbacks in this book and would have preferred a straight forward timeline - except obviously with any flashbacks to 10 years previous. No present day flashbacks to the night before necessary. Just tell me what happened that night and then move on to the morning after. I was especially disappointed that Dante and Griff’s first joint adventure with Alek is glazed over and conveyed in bits of flashback - that would have been exactly the content I wanted to read, not a whole chapter dedicated to Loretta’s problems.

Oddly enough, the Russian proprietor of HotHead.com, Alek, is the smartly written character of the secondary lot. Unexpectedly polite and likeable, he humanizes his seedy profession. Treating our heroes fairly and even providing some sage advice, Suede makes what should have been a very black and white character, pleasantly gray. And besides, Alek is somewhat of a catalyst in bringing Dante and Griff “together” and wow, are they HOT together.

Griff is lovable, Dante is charismatic and the unspoken chemistry between them is well developed. Yet, as soon as it is spoken and the “I love you’s” are said bringing this read to it‘s climax, it turned just too sappy and clichéd for me. I figured the tension in the book would be maintained with societal obstacles the couple would have to overcome - from Griff’s father, their co-workers, people at the Stone Bone and their neighborhood, maybe even some of Dante’s family. Instead we were treated to more dull interaction with secondary characters who assist in an easy glide to an HEA.

For me this was a book of whirlwinds and lulls. A pairing I couldn’t get enough of with secondary characters I would have been fine passing on the street. It read like a book that should have just been fun smut, but was trying for more - and in the end it over tried. But still tried. And yet, I fully recommend, because Dante plus Griff equals HOT!

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Not knowing much about this “Love Has No Boundaries” event, I grabbed this short based on enjoying A Thread of Deepest Black”, also by Marlowe. And the kink was certainly cranked up in this one.

Not an outstanding read, but acceptable, and I believe it fulfilled what it was meant to for this event (and for a couple of my evening hours). I am not into lingerie on men and cringed at this detail, but it was easily overlooked for the hot quickie and the free price tag. The characters have some depth for an 81 page short story and Marlowe was able to develop a sufficiently taut tension between the two with in the confines of brevity. The “Does he like me? Does he like me not?” monologue that ran in both the MC’s heads added a sweetness factor.

As He Watches is not going to make you think. But that is not what you are reading it for, is it? However, for the reason you are reading it, it delivers.

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