SLOW SURRENDER by Cecilia Tan

PUBLISHER: Forever, 8/2013
GENRE: Contemporary Erotica
SETTING: New York, USA
SERIES: Struck by Lightening, #1
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: F

SYNOPSIS: From the moment waitress Karina meets him in a New York bar, she knows James is different. Daring. Dominating. Though he hides his true identity from her, the mysterious, wealthy businessman anticipates her every desire and fulfills her secret fantasies. Awakened by his touch, Karina discovers a wild side she hadn't known existed and nothing is off limits.


What begins as an erotic game soon escalates to a power play that blurs the line between pleasure and pain. Even as she capitulates to James's sensual demands, Karina craves more. She wants his heart, his soul. She wants his love . . . and she'll break all the rules to get it.

MY THOUGHTS: Awful. Truly Awful. I honestly forced myself to finish this. There's not one part of this story that I liked. James is a mysterious stranger who is instantly attracted to 26 year old grad student Karina Casper. They meet at a bar, where she's filling in for a friend. At first she thought he was 40ish, then 34, but his age wasn't given. He's got blond hair and green eyes. They begin a sexual affair that night that consists mostly of dildos and him preforming oral sex on her, often in the back of a limo. There's only one scene of actual penile/vaginal penetration.

James tells her who he really is, James Byron LeStrange, a famous reclusive artist who goes by the name J.B. Lester, and the real BS comes at the end when Karina finds out he's also another famous person, a singer who her roommate Becky just happens to have a crush on. I'd guessed that before Karina did. Could a story get anymore absurd than this?! Though there's this mystique surrounding James I just found him to be bland. He ran off crying at the end and it was the biggest WTF moment of the book.

Karina and her 26 year old roommate are both annoying and seem immature to me. Becky calls her Rina and Karina calls her Becks. Both are always saying, 'Oh, jeez' and the Asian-American Becky is always eating rice (she was two out of three times.) Karina is the type of woman I can't stand- one who blabs all of her personal sexual business to her friends and she told Becky everything at the end. Another thing that bugged the crap out of me about Karina is this- Stefan is a foreign man who drives her around everywhere in a limo or some other type of car, at James' request. She becomes friends with him, wonders about his accent yet never once asks the man where he's from. I just can't understand that. Karina has a horrible habit of ending some of her answers with a question mark. Example: James asks her why she wants to take the dildo home with her. She replies, 'Um, because I miss you when we're apart and it'll make me feel like I have a piece of you with me?'.

I don't understand why this is called Slow Surrender. No one was slow to surrender anything. The story spanned three or four weeks.

I didn't care a thing for either James or Karina. Though the sex was graphic it did nothing for me, this coming from someone who loves filth and porn. There's not one interesting sex scene. Because I strongly dislike Karina I couldn't like this book and I won't be reading the sequel nor will I read anything from this author again.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

NEVER TRUST A PIRATE by Anne Stuart

PUBLISHER: Montlake Romance, 12/2013
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1869
SERIES: Scandal at the House of Russell, #2
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: C

SYNOPSIS: Madeleine Russell, the beautiful daughter of a shipping magnate, counted on marrying a wealthy husband. Then her father’s disgrace and death left her with no dowry and no suitor. But Maddy and her sisters fully intend to restore their good name. Their first step: find the villain who framed their family. One of her father’s captains, a notorious former pirate, becomes a prime suspect. When Maddy joins the captain’s household disguised as his newest servant, her dark-eyed, charismatic employer soon develops his own agenda: seduction…

Captain Thomas Morgan spent most of his life amassing vast riches and respectability…and keeping his gypsy roots a secret. Now, he just needs to marry his prim, polished fiancée…and resist his intriguing new housemaid. A pirate never falls in love, he reminds himself. As mutual deception leads Maddy and the captain into uncharted territory, the truth could anchor them to terrible heartache…or to passion beyond their wildest dreams.

MY THOUGHTS: This review contains spoilers. I was disappointed in this. It's too similar to the first in the series. Heroine gets a job in the home of the hero, whom she suspects of being her father's murderer, hero discovers who she really is but doesn't let her know, hero makes advances toward heroine which she rebuffs over and over again, ect. Same premise as book one.

Maddy is a twenty-two year old nonvirgin and the hero, Luca, aka Thomas Morgan, is half Romany, half English and is twenty-nine. I didn't like their unlikely first meeting on the street. I didn't like that Maddy was being abused a bit by the housekeeper and never told Luca. There was no reason for her not to have told him. I don't like that he has a huge tattoo down his left side, beginning on his shoulder. Yes, I know people had tattoos back then but please leave them out of historicals.

There's another bad character in this story too. They're out to kill Maddy. They sneak aboard the ship that she and Luca are on and almost succeeds in throwing her overboard but Luca comes on the rescue just in time...of course. Him sneaking aboard ship is something I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have done himself. Like previously, he'd have hired someone to do the murder for him. Him throwing her over his shoulder and walking toward the side of the ship where he could be seen by multiple people makes no sense. He brought a bag to put her body in it, should he need to do it, so he should have killed her in the ship's cabin first, put her body in the bag then thrown the bag overboard. Another problem I have is with Maddy coming to the conclusion after her murder attempt that that person is also the one who murdered her father. Where'd that revelation come from?

The thing that bothers me most is Luca basically grew up on the streets. To make money he and his friend were pickpockets who also prostituted themselves. I wanted to know more about that. I wanted to know what Luca thought of having to do it and how it may have effected him as an adult. It was mentioned and that was it. I feel his character was underdeveloped. Him living on the street and prostituting himself is very interesting to me and I want to know more.

This story only spans about a month or so. I don't believe their love is genuine. They hardly know each other yet are in love and get married within a really short time? I don't think so.

I like both Maddy and Luca but the bad outweigh the good in this story. There's to be one more in this series and hopefully it'll be better than this one.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

THE BUGHOUSE AFFAIR by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini

PUBLISHER: Forge, January/November 2013
GENRE: Historical Mystery
SETTING: California, USA, 1894
SERIES: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery, book 1
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: B

SYNOPSIS: In The Bughouse Affair, the first of a new series of lighthearted historical mysteries set in 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and her detective partner, ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon, undertake what initially appear to be two unrelated investigations. Sabina's case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady "dip" who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places.

Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate's lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee. The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes.

MY THOUGHTS: This was a quick, decent read. I like that there were two mysteries going on that turned out to be connected and John and Sabina each got to work on one and came together at the end to compare notes. Both mysteries were interesting to me and it was a surprise to me who the real killer(s) was/were.

John's a bit arrogant and normally I like that in the male lead but I didn't like it in him. He was clearly jealous of Mr. Holmes' superior detective skills. I'm not sure how I feel about Sabina. With no backstory on them I feel as if I don't 'know' them and feel like I accidentally skipped the first few chapters of the book or something. Hardly any backstory was given on them other than they've known each other for three years and that she's a widow. I need to know all about lead characters. I like that both of them weren't above illegal activities by breaking into homes to look for clues. It seemed a bit out of character for Sabina to do that.

As for the Sherlock Holmes impostor, I don't like that the authors added a famous fictional character to their own story. I do like the idea of a meddling detective sticking his nose in their business but they should have created their own original character. Seems like he was in a race with John to solve the murders. John met him at someone's home. He doesn't know him at all yet proceeds to tell him all about his findings as an investigator, tells him what he's learned about the burglar. That's unprofessional and doesn't make sense to me. The impostor could have been the culprit for all John knew. That's like a police detective telling strangers about a case he's working on or other nondetectives involved in the same case.

I look forward to reading the next in the series, The Spook Lights Affair, and seeing if Sabina ever gives in to John's advances toward her. It would be nice if this series turns into historical romantic suspense.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

AUTUMN RAIN by Anita Mills

PUBLISHER: Onyx, 2/1993
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1807-1814
SERIES: Rakes, #1
AUTHOR BIO: link
PURCHASE: link
MY GRADE: B-

FROM PUBLISHER: When Elinor Ashton's debt-ridden father forces her into a loveless marriage with the elderly but enormously wealthy Lord Kingsley, she becomes the unhappiest bride of London society... and the property of a man whose jealousy leads him to concoct an unspeakable scheme.

Lucien de Clare is Regency England's handsomest and most brazen lord, a man whose scandalous behavior had closed the doors of polite society against him, making him the perfect pawn in Kingsley's despicable plot to secure an heir. But the scenario for deceitful seduction yields to true desire, as Lucien is overcome by Elinor's beauty and charm... and as Elinor opened her innocent heart to Lucien's demanding passion, releasing a rush of excitement, terror, and longing. And not even treacherous intrigue and vengeful deeds can temper the power of their hungry kisses... or dampen the fire that makes their love glow...

MY THOUGHTS: This review contains spoilers. Lucien is a hard, unhappy man. He's got black hair and brown eyes. He's ten years older than Elinor. He hated his cheating father and has a bit of hatred for his mother, who killed herself when he was younger. He and Elinor have a brief run-in with each other near the beginning of the story and he's been attracted to her ever since.

Elinor was sold, basically, to Arthur Kingsley when she was 15 by her gambling-addicted father. She's got red hair and golden eyes. Arthur is 61 and very controlling. He beat her with his cane several times. He even dumped their baby out of her crib once, right onto the bedroom floor. He's very jealous of her friendship with his grandson Charles, who's just a few months older than Elinor. Charles ends up falling in love with her and tells her so but she doesn't feel the same for him. She loves him like a brother.

This book is from 1993 but is more like one from the 70's and 80's. I love that about it. It's aggravating that the hero and heroine don't become a couple until the very end. This story could have been so much better had they begun their affair sooner. The story sort of drags on and I wish it had been shorter. One thing that irritated me was once before Elinor and Lucien got together she was thinking to herself that she may be in love with him. Up until that point the reader was given absolutely no indication that she felt that way. She seemed to not be able to stand him and now she's in love with him? I'm not buying it. Later on when they begin a relationship together so that she can get pregnant and give the now 65 year old Arthur his heir, I can see how she's developed feelings for him and has fallen in love with him.

NEVER KISS A RAKE by Anne Stuart

PUBLISHER: Montlake Romance, 8/2013
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1869
SERIES: Scandal at the House of Russell, book 1
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: A

SYNOPSIS: Bryony Russell and her two sisters are left destitute by the disgrace and unexpected death of their father, a wealthy shipping magnate. He left a cryptic note, and Bryony is determined to find the real villain and clear her father’s name. In disguise as a servant, Bryony infiltrates the home of her father’s business partner to find proof of his guilt…or innocence. It’s not just clues that Bryony finds, but temptation too…

Adrian Bruton, Earl of Kilmartyn, immediately suspects there is something not quite right about his new housekeeper. The brooding, irresistible rake plays along because he has his own guilty secrets, and his venal, scheming wife holds the key to them, trapping him in a hate-filled marriage. But against his will he’s fascinated by Bryony, seeing past the scars on her face to show her the beauty she never knew she had. Bryony must uncover the truth and attempt to preserve her father’s legacy, before things go too far and she falls in love with a man who might very well be her worst enemy.

MY THOUGHTS: This is the first book in a trilogy involving the three Russell sisters. All three books are connected by them trying to find out all the facts about their father's murder and who stole his money. I don't see this as straight up historical romance but more as romantic suspense.

The Irish hero, Adrian, has golden hair and green eyes. Someone's out to frame him for murder and embezzlement. Adrian has been married for almost ten years to Cecily, a woman he despises. He was involved with a bombing that killed people years ago. She knows he's behind it and is using that information against him. Cecily herself is a terrible person, it turns out, and there's a mystery involving her whereabouts. We don't see much of her in the book.

I like Adrian a lot. He's taken a liking to Bryony and let's her know he's interested, even after he discovers who she really is. She wants nothing to do with him in that way since she suspects he's killed her father and has stolen lots of money from his business, Russell Shipping. He tries to seduce her constantly. There are three sex scenes with them. I found the way he kept after her funny and entertaining.

There's a bad male character in this book who's out to murder Bryony for a really stupid reason. He's got a grudge against her because he thinks her father stole his family home, Renwick, when in actuality he won it fair and square. This character's behind a lot of bad happenings. I like him anyway. He's not very bright, lurking around the Bruton home knowing he might be seen by the servants.

I wasn't surprised to find out who was behind the stuff involving her father and the disappearance of Cecily. I wish the author could have been a bit more creative in that regard. I'd have liked to have known more about him and how he met Cecily in the first place.

I don't know Adrian or Bryony's ages and I don't know anything about Adrian's background either. No background information on hero and heroine is a huge no-no!

I enjoyed this book as much as I'd hoped I would and I'm anxious to read the next in the series, Never Trust a Pirate.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

TO CAPTURE A RAKE by Lori Brighton

PUBLISHER: Montlake Romance, 6/2013
GENRE: Historical Romance
SETTING: England, 1869
SERIES: Seduction, book 2
AUTHOR SITE: link
MY GRADE: B

From Publisher: In all his time as a prostitute at Lavender Hills, Gideon Drake has never been hired out, never been allowed to leave the gilded cage in which he pleasures the well-heeled wives of London. So when a young widow convinces Lady Lavender to release her prize stud for a week-long seduction at a country estate, Gideon spies his chance for escape. It is the perfect plan -- until his beautiful client reawakens a passion he thought long dead…

After her husband’s death, Elizabeth Ashton knows she must remarry, but not just any man will do. She must find Lord Ashton’s long-lost bastard nephew and convince him to wed, cementing his claim to the family fortune. Of course, rescuing herself from certain ruin means venturing into Lavender Hills and putting her life into the hands of a dark, handsome rogue as notorious for his cold heart as he is for his sexual expertise. Somehow, Elizabeth must convince him to love her, to marry her, and ultimately to save her.

One touch will ignite the flame of their passion. One kiss will prove this liaison unlike the others. Bound by desire and need, only together are they strong enough to face down their enemies -- and to claim the promise of love.

MY THOUGHTS: Red-haired and green-eyed widowed Elizabeth has ulterior motives for seeking Gideon out. He doesn't know it but she knows who he really is and wants to give him things that belong to him, things regarding her estate. I don't know why she didn't just contact Gideon and explain some things to him right from the start.

I really like Gideon. He's about thirty. He's got a proverbial hard shell built all around him. He's so full of anger towards everyone and is very callous. He's an unhappy prostitute to women and has been for almost fourteen years. I like Elizabeth too. She's a really good person. She's raising her dead sister's children while passing them off as her own. Her staff is all or mostly made up of people who were once in bad situations themselves and she'd do anything for any of them.

I'm really irritated that we're told Lady Lavender, the French owner of the brothel he works at, knows his terrible secret, that's what she's blackmailing him with, but we aren't told how on earth it's possible for her to know. There's no possible way she could know his secret. This doesn't sit well with me at all. An incident happened to her years ago involving his father and she seems to be taking her hatred of his father out on him. But that doesn't explain how she knows his secret.

There's also a mystery going on in this story that was interesting. Someone's out to kill Elizabeth. There was no mention of why they let that person go after they'd murdered a member of their staff and attempted to murder Elizabeth.

Even though there are some things in the story that need explaining and to be expanded upon I did find the whole story interesting.

I received this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.