Tag Archives: PNR

Book Review of Eve Langlais’ Delicate Freak’ Flower

Delicate Freakn' Flower

I grabbed Eve Langlais‘ erotic shifter novel, Delicate Freakn’ Flower from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
Dammit , just how many toes was she going to have to stomp on before people realized she was a delicate freakin’ flower?

Naomi doesn’t want to follow tradition and settle down with a violence-loving, chest thumping shapeshifter. She grew up in a household with five, testosterone laden brothers where none of the dishes ever matched, the ugly-as-sin furniture could withstand any catastrophe, and where crazy glue was bought by the case.

When fate—with a snicker—makes her meet not one, but two mates, Naomi digs her heels in and refuses to do what her wolf—and her body—demands. No way is she voluntarily allowing herself to get hitched to a pair of dumbass—totally hot and muscled—lacrosse players.

Can Ethan, the towering Kodiak bear, and Javier, the sexy, tanned jaguar convince this she-wolf that life with them won’t be all chaos? And can this delicate freakn’ flower unbend her prejudices enough to recognize she needs a pair of men who can handle her thorns—and her passion? 

Warning: this is a hot threesome story where all the focus is on her with pleasurable consequences.

Review:
Delicate Freakn’ Flower is just plain pulp. You can even tell from the sarcastic title that it isn’t going to be anything serious. But if that’s what you’re looking for, it’s all good. There isn’t a lot to the plot, but not much is promised in the description either. You get what’s on the cover in this one.

Naomi’s character is a lot of fun. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a total bitch to almost everyone. But I rather enjoyed the fact that all of the men around her let her be that way, even liked her that way. It’s one of my favourite fictional events when strong men allow a female complete control over them, or cower in the face of her fury. Of course they could stop it. Of course they are only allowing her the control, but I still always get a kick out of it. This book has that in spades. In fact, it’s pretty much the crux of the plot.

On a side note, though subtle, I appreciated that Naomi isn’t described as a twig. She has large breasts and a gently rounded tummy. That tummy is still worshiped by two hot guys. I really liked that she was described this way AND Langlais didn’t make any sort of issue about it. Not once did she call herself fat or appear anything but comfortable in her own body. I may be reading more into it that was intended, but I thought it marvellous. 

The beaus, Ethan and Javier were just as sexy as you would expect. I did have to wonder that their relationship wasn’t explored more. The two of them did everything together even before discovering Naomi, including previous threesomes. They didn’t even blink when they discovered they shared a mate and seemed to be in complete accord about everything. It’s hard for me to not see them as a couple with or without Naomi. This wasn’t even hinted at, of course, but I think the book might have had a little more depth if it had been addressed one way or the other.

While the book was generally well written, there was some unfortunate language use (IMO). Prick, pussy, cleft, cleft, cleft…why does it have to sound like cheap porn to be considered erotic? I haven’t figured that out yet. At least Langlais had the grace to not throw cunt around too. On the same theme I found it disconcerting that when the trio finally made it to the bedroom together Ethan, poor shy, awkward Ethan was the one throwin’ down the dirty talk. It didn’t fit his previous character at all.

In the end the book was utterly ridiculous, but a fun/hot way to pass a couple of hours. Plus, it was a freebie. How could I possibly complain.

Enslaved

Book Review of R.C. Murphy’s Enslaved

Enslaved

I grabbed R.C. Murphy‘s book Enslaved and it’s sexy cover (yum) off of the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
The gods are flawed . . . and they make awful parents.

Deryck knows first-hand the cruelty of the gods. Three thousand years after his birth, he is still trapped, forced to service humans as an Incubus—unable to choose whom he sleeps with, and living a life completely devoid of love. There is no out for him. No hope. Or so he thought.

Shayla McIntire spent five years getting her life back on track after the accident claiming her husband’s life. She is content to a nice, boring, subdued life free of the abuse she suffered before. Her friends are worried. They want her to find the man of her dreams and move on.

Little do they know, the Powers That Be have decided the man of Shayla’s dreams for her. There’s just one hitch, he’s enslaved to the gods and it will take power she doesn’t know she has to free him. Deryck isn’t the only one hoping Shayla will free him, though.

Review:
Well, this wasn’t anything like I expected. I really thought it was going to be hot erotica. Let me just clear that misconception right up, in case anyone else thinks a book about incubi would involve sex…apparently not. It wasn’t what I expected but it was still a decent read. Deryck was very sweet. Shayla was witty and her friends were fabulously supportive. If I had to reduce my review of Enslaved to one word it would be Sweet…maybe awkward, but sweet. I don’t mean the writing or anything. The characters were shy and sweetly awkward with one another.

I liked that Shayla was said to be beautiful, but was shown to be something other than a stick. I don’t think her dress size was actually ever given, but she had size D breasts and it was at least suggested that she’s in the double digits size-wise, maybe a ten or twelve. I do wish she hadn’t been so concerned about it, always calling herself a cow and such. But at least it was often countered by her friends. I also liked that she was a woman who ate. There didn’t appear to be anything that a jelly donut and coffee wouldn’t fix. That is a woman I can relate to!

I did think Deryck seemed a little clueless for a 3,000 year old incubus. Surely in a few of those calls to service women in their dreams at least one had wished for the perfect date before all that sex he was having but the reader didn’t see. In fact, it’s apparent Deryck had at least been in restaurants with the women he serviced. So how had he remained so innocent?

The book was a little slow, dragging in the middle a bit and I really would have like a little more back story to flesh the characters and their histories out. But it read well and wrapped up with a syrupy sweet ending. All in all, not what I was expecting but not bad either.

Rise of the Fallen

Book Review of Donya Lynne’s Rise of the Fallen

Rise of the Fallen

I grabbed Donya Lynne‘s PNR Rise of the Fallen from the Amazon KDP list.

Description from Goodreads:
In the streets of Chicago exists an uneasy, centuries-old truce between vampires and their distant cousins, a race of shifters called drecks. Vampire enforcement agency, All the King’s Men (AKM), is charged with maintaining the truce, but when volatile enforcer Micah Black loses his mate and falls into the biological agony that results from the broken bond, he tests the boundaries of the truce by seeking out Apostle, a leader in the dreck community. Micah wants Apostle to kill him, a request Apostle is more than happy to fulfill. 

When ex-Army medic Samantha Garrett inadvertently disrupts the plot and saves Micah’s life, a chain reaction sets Micah’s heart on a collision course with Sam’s, but he will have to protect her from Apostle and her obsessive ex-husband, Steve, if they will have a chance at forever. Can Micah hold his emotions together to keep Sam alive?

Review:
So, I’m not gonna mince words here. This is a Black Dagger Brotherhood knock off. It is. There are a lot of them out there these days. All the King’s Men (AKM), like the Brotherhood is set against another paranormal species in an attempt to protect the human race. Here they may be called Drecks instead of Lessers, but it’s all the same. Unlike in BDB however, AKM don’t seem to actually encounter the Drecks very often. Not once in this whole book did one of the AKM go out to do the job one assumes the AKM was created for–to maintain the truce between the two species. It felt very much like the Drecks only existed in order to provide a reason for the AKM to exist.

The same could be said for Sam’s abusive ex-husband. He was purposeless. He shows up three times in the whole book and played no significant role beyond providing Sam a victimised past to be used to excuse her for being a stripper. I suppose readers are more accepting of a woman who works in the sex trade if she does it reluctantly than just because the money is good, or whatever. I found it unnecessary.

Despite the above complaints I did enjoy the book though. The sex scenes were hot. They incorporated a little bit of male dominance, without making the woman feel abused or overly controlled. That’s a thin and uncomfortable line for me as a reader. Lynne played the card without going over board. Conversely I did feel like Micah’s history as an actual Dom only served to artificially make him feel edgier. Again, it wasn’t needed. It was nothing more than a distraction. (Though I see it comes into play in at least one later book.)

My favourite aspect of the story was the loose adherence to heterosexuality. It’s always seemed to me that if you were a vampire who lived for hundred’s of years there wouldn’t really be much reason to stick strictly to the social mores of the time. Why not open your horizons up? Lynne allowed her characters this. Some are flat out gay, others just aren’t concerned with male/female, a partner is a partner. I liked that.

The series may not be the most original, but it passed an enjoyable couple of hours so I have no real qualms with the book.