My Weekly Reading (Playing Catch-Up: Part 1)

I am so far behind.  Here's me playing catch-up for a while:

The Best:

Captives Of The Night - Loretta Chase

This is a Loretta Chase that's been sitting on my ereader for ages and, since it's an older novel of hers, I expected it to be a bit rusty.  Yeah, no.  I really loved this one.  It's bent a little more to mystery than romance in tone and plot.  Mysteries aren't my favorite genre but I loved this one because it's atypical  in that the villain of the story, really, is the murder victim and the two leads aren't trying to bring his killer to justice so much as they were just trying to get some closure on a sticky situation.

The murder mystery may have been the main plot but I thought the romance was really strong as well.  The heroine, Leila, is not your average romance heroine.  She can be tempermental and closed off and when she flies into a rage, she's a force to be recconed with.  Luckilly, her hero's a reformed villain and he has no problem keeping up with her incredibly perceptive mind, cutting insights, and blinding rages. In fact, he finds her downright captivating.  I loved them together. Another great one by Loretta Chase.

On Dublin Street - Samantha Young

Pheww, this one's a doozy.  I have a weakness for difficult, tortured heroines and Joss definitely fits that bill.  She is very young but oh so very damaged.  She is also a powerhouse of strength and determination and I loved her like mad and rooted so heavilly for her to mend and heal and get to good place.  Her love interest, Braden was hot as hell.  I loved their interplay.  He could be very dominant and overprotective and sometimes unreasonably controlling but Joss could be equally immovable and closed off and reticent.  They pushed eachothers bounds in a great way.  This book was so damn angsty but in the best possible way.



The Rest:

Shadowland Masters #1-4 by Cherise Sinclair: I had seen these books recommended a number of times when Fifty Shades Of Grey hit it big and people suggested alternatives that were still erotic but featured a healthier and more realistic BDSM lifestyle.  Well, I found myself completely incapacitated by the flu and thought "let's do this thing," dove on in, and devoured the first four books in this series all at once.

They all take place in a private Tampa BDSM club and feature male leads who are experienced, strong, and effortlessly confident Doms with female leads who are all Subs with various degrees of experience, but none of it extensive.

The first book was my least favorite because I could not connect with the heroine at all.  She just annoyed the piss out of me and, in fact, continues to annoy me when she pops up in every subsequent books.  However, I really enjoyed the other three books in the series.  My favorite of the bunch was probably the third, Breaking Free.  The heroine in that one had been a victim of serious abuse and I found the relationship that forms between herself and the Dom who is able see to her needs and help her heal and move on to be really effective and moving.

I'm definitely continuing to read more Cherise Sinclair though I really wish she'd throw in a heroine who isn't a novice every once in a while.


Up Next: Author Kristen Ashley kills me with crazy.  Seriously, her books are nuts.  And ridiculously addictive.  I was warned.  I succumbed anyway.