Weekly Reading Recap (9/9/12)

Whoops, I forgot another book last time.  Luckily, I tackled a large book this week so the quantity is less than usual.  Fun smut, far more man-on-man action than normal, and 80's craziness ensues...

The Best...

Feeling Hot - Elle Kennedy

So, remember when I got excited last week when I read an erotic short where two straight dudes didn't freak out about touching each other in a threesome situation?  Boy did this take that to another level.  An awesome level.

Perviness aside, this was a really great romance.  The two main characters are a Navy Seal just home from a long deployment and the sister of his C.O. who is dealing with a creepy stalker ex-boyfriend situation.  The two are great together.  They have great chemistry, get along well, and really compliment and support each other.  I didn't think the erotic bits were the least bit superfluous, but without them, this still would have been a very solid contemporary romance.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Collision Course - K.A. Mitchell

M/M romance is not a genre that I read extensively in.  When I do, I don't really care if the stories are tame or of a more explicitly sexual nature (as this one definitely is) but I do require them to be emotionally gripping.  This novel more than fits that bill.

Joey is an incredibly adorable social worker who is used to batting his puppy-dog eyes and/or manipulating with kindness to get his way.  Aaron is an anal retentive paramedic who just wants to get laid without forming any pesky attachments or being forced to talk about his goddamn feelings.  Neither gets what they think they want.  Nor do they put up tirelessly with the other's shit.  This book was so gripping.  I loved it. 

Mr. Imperfect by Karina Bliss

I love Karina Bliss.  She's a New Zealand writer whose books make me both laugh and cry on a frequent basis.  I acquired her whole backlist a while back but have been hording them like a mad squirrel.  This is her oldest backlist title and I really enjoyed it.

Young lovers Kezia and Christian parted abruptly sixteen years past without any satisfying closure. But Kezia's interfering yet well-intentioned grandmother dies and leaves behind a will that forces the two into close quarters (and discourages legal shenanigans by cashing in on an old IOU).  Both characters have been in an emotional holding pattern since their parting and they both have secrets they've been keeping close to the chest that they need to let go of in order to move on.

The plotting in this book was a little choppy at times but I was so invested in the characters and wanted so badly for them to heal and be happy that I plowed right through it.  I'm going to try very hard to break my hoarding habits and read the rest of this series.


The Rest...

A Rose In Winter - Kathleen E. Woodiwiss: This will teach me to impulse buy.  I glanced over a review of this book a few months ago and impulsively hit the buy button without getting a good look at what I was buying.  What did I get?  A five-hundred-page cah-razy 80's historical romance featuring a heroine who seriously needed a big human-sized hamster ball to keep her safe and a husband who spends a large portion of the novel hiding his skin by wearing a leather ski mask and gloves.  Also, the husband spends more time ogling his wife's boobs than I have ever previously encountered in a romance novel.  Seriously.  It was like every five pages.  I really haven't read much in the way of crazy old school romance novels, so this one cracked me up.  I really can't recommend it to others, but I also can't say I didn't get any enjoyment out of it.

Virgin Daiquiri (Last Call #5) by Moira Rogers:  A psychic who needs to lose her virginity before her family of evil witches sacrifice her in a dark rite and the 7000 yr-old demon who decides to help her out.  Not one of my favorites in this series but I'm not sure why.  It might possibly have something to do with a lack of werewolves.


Next Up: Oh, Loretta Chase, why are you so damn awesome?  Also, the e-reader purging continues.