Fantasy to the (Hyper) Extreme?

aka a kind of review and a rambling justification for why I like Reaper's Property by Joanna Wylde.

As I start this post, I'm about halfway through the book but I wanted to start getting my thoughts down before they scattered.  Reaper's Property was recommended to me by DA's Jane.  She said it was "hardcore" and "intense and emotional" and she clearly loved it.  Her recommendation was not without caveats however - she noted:  "Anyway, warning warning warning. Know that you are getting an over the top sexist parade of MC full of violence and wrongdoing when you read this book".

There has been comparison with Kristen Ashley's Motorcycle Club (MC) books - I have 1 or 2 on my TBR but haven't read any yet - I keep hearing about engaging stories but also poor grammar and sloppy/no editing and I'm kind of torn about taking the plunge in actually reading them because the latter things mean a lot to me.   This book, a little shorter than a KA book and better edited, lured me because of the promise of engagement and curiosity did the rest.  So I bought it.

I don't usually like my heroes to be less than heroic.  Why then am I enjoying this book, where the hero is named "Horse" (yes, it's after the size of his dick) and is a violent criminal?  It is this question I'm trying to answer and so my rambles begin.

September Reads

on Paper/eBook

**NB this review first appeared in the September ARRA members newsletter and at the ARRA blog on #**

What a Girl Wants by Selena Robins - C- Maddie Saunders is a daredevil travel reporter who decides she needs a “sexual boot camp” and she’s nominated her best friend Alex Donovan to be her “Sergeant”.  Alex is one of those reporters who goes into war zones and writes about the serious issues.  When they are both sent on assignment to Hawaii (I should be so lucky) Maddie decides her time has come. 

I don’t know a lot about reporting but it seemed odd to me that Maddie and Alex were to spend weeks on the (fictional) island of Makana for their story – Alex was to interview reclusive billionaire Maxwell Hollister and Maddie was to take in the tourism spots.  It seemed like a long time spend on an assignment.

I was expecting a fun, flirty, friends-to-lovers story and at the beginning, that’s exactly what it was.  Except that Alex turned Maddie down quite a few times and she came off as desperate and a bit pathetic after a while.  Just when she’d decided to bow out gracefully, Alex decides that resisting temptation isn’t worth it and they begin to steam up the sheets.  I found the sexual euphemisms somewhat surprising, considering this is a book from Samhain, a publisher very comfortable with the erotic.  Would a man really refer to his penis as “my hardness”?  Some of the terminology made me roll my eyes.  I would have preferred the characters “call a spade a spade” but YMMV.

Maddie is also searching for the identity of her father – her mother has never told her who he is so she’s hired a private investigator to find out for her.  For much of the book it appears that the mysterious Maxwell Hollister is Maddie’s father (I won’t spoil it by telling you whether that’s true or not).  There’s also Maddie’s attempt to reconnect with her flighty mother, her relationship with Alex and something about a former IRA getaway driver.  If that’s not busy enough, add in that Alex has accepted a position in London (and wants Maddie to move with him), an ex-girlfriend with a grudge and a BMX accident for good measure.

I did like that Maddie had very good reasons for not wanting to drop everything and follow Alex to London and the way it was eventually resolved. 

Alex and Maddie certainly had chemistry but I was ultimately a little confused about what the book was trying to be – chick lit or a sexy contemporary romance.  But, if you like contemporaries with a hearty dash of women’s fiction, this might be a book for you.

Master Class by Rachel Haimowitz - C After a smallish cameo by Devon and Nicky in Power Play:  Awakening, I was curious to read their story. I already had SUBlime on my TBR having won it in a blog giveaway a while back but I wanted to start at number 1, so I went and bought Master Class.  At only 55 pages, it is a quick read.  Unfortunately, the characterisation you can savor in a 290 page book such as either of the Power Play books cannot be found in anywhere the same degree in a novella.  I found myself dissatisfied because I didn't get to know either character well enough.  I wanted to.  I found both men fascinating and as with the Power Play books,  I liked the writing style.  But it was really just the beginning of their story and there seemed a lot more to tell.  Nicky is a Broadway actor/singer and submissive/masochist who has come from money and feels guilty for things having come so easily to him.  Devon is a big time movie star  and Dom/sadist  but we really learn very little about him.  In fact, I felt I knew them better from their scenes in Power Play. 

SUBlime - Collected Shorts (Master Class #2)  by Rachel Haimowitz - C/C- This is a short (45 pages) collection of even shorter "scenes".  Many of the scenes felt incomplete in that they sometimes stop in the middle of the action.  There were, for me, hints of character growth, but only hints.  While the stories themselves were interesting and well written, they didn't satisfy my craving to get to know these two men better. The grades for these 2 stories reflect that I'm a romance reader first and foremost and the emotional depth was a bit lacking for me here.  I'd happily read a full story about them - I know they are married by the time the events of Power Play occur and I know that they don't live "the lifestyle" 24/7 but I don't know really how that works (at least for them) and I don't know how Nicky's career fits in (in Awakening he said that Devon "let him out" to play occasionally - I thought that meant Nicky doesn't work much?) and I don't know how they came to get married.  I would love to read that story.

Power Play by Rachel Haimowitz & Cat Grant

Why I read it: My very first foray into m/m romance was with Anah Crowe's Uneven, a book recommended by Sarah Frantz, former Dear Author reviewer (and, as it happens, current Riptide Publishing editor who, I understand, had a hand in editing either the second or both of the Power Play books).  Uneven was a book which didn't work for me that well, because I didn't "get" BDSM and especially the pain side of things.  Plus, there was blood.  One MC kept hitting the other and making him bleed and I just didn't understand why that would be fun for anyone. Since then, I've read a bit more and have learned a little more about it, although I can't say that I'm any kind of expert or that I really understand it.  Still, I'm a curious and adventurous reader.  I heard that this book/series "explained" BDSM in a way that made it accessible without being boring.    I downloaded it (as well as Power Play: Awakening) from NetGalley but I'll admit it took me a while to be brave enough to open it, especially after reading the advisory:  

Reader discretion advised. This title contains heavy kink. While consent is clearly established and frequently reaffirmed, some moments in Power Play push hard against the outer edges of consent.

What it's about: (from Goodreads)  Give me six months, and I'll give you the world.

Brandon McKinney has scraped and sacrificed for what little in life he's ever had. Though it's been fifteen years since he escaped his father's abuse, the damage remains. Trust seems as far out of reach as his dream of becoming an architect, and though he's come to accept being gay, he can't deny the shame and confusion he feels at other urges--the deeply repressed desire to submit.