Tag: romance

09

Special Forces: Soldiers (Director’s Cut) – Aleksandr Voinov

Special Forces: Soldiers (Director's Cut)Title: Special Forces: Soldiers (Director’s Cut)
Author: Aleksandr Voinov
Publisher: Aleksandr Voinov (online only)
URL: http://www.aleksandrvoinov.com/special-forces.html
Reviewer: Jane

I’m not even sure how to begin describing this book, except to say that it is brutal. You pick it up, you’re entering a warzone – both literally and figuratively.

It’s the 80s and the Cold War is still in full swing. The Russians are in Afghanistan. The Brits are there, too. Unofficially. An August night in Kabul and an SAS solider is raped by a member of the Red Army. This single violent and awful act sets in motion a story of revenge, friendship and love between two men that spans, in this particular instalment of Voinov’s Special Forces saga, nearly a decade.

Special Forces: Soldiers came to my attention through the BDSM Buddy Read feature on Goodreads. From the comments of those who had already started it, I knew it was going to be full-on but I have to admit I was totally unprepared for the level of intensity I encountered. Just a few pages in and I was at once shocked, appalled, and totally hooked, as evidenced by my Soldiers Buddy Read ‘in progress’ status update: Continue reading →

12

Hunted – Zeke Connor

Title: Hunted
Author: Zeke Connor
Publisher: Excessica Publishing (06 October 2008)
ISBN: 2940000149157

‘Suzanne never believed that she was the type of woman who would allow herself to be dominated by a man, even if he was as strong-willed and intense as she was …’

Have you ever thought that Behind Enemy Lines would have been way cooler if Gene Hackman’s character weren’t in it, Owen Wilson’s part was played by a girl, and she was actually captured? Welcome to Hunted.

Suzanne is a women on a mission. Go in, meet up with her contact and take out the bad guys. One guy in particular on her list is a notorious torturer named Aleksandr. Continue reading →

23

On Dublin Street – Samantha Young

Title: On Dublin Street
Author: Samantha Young
Publisher: Samantha Young (31 August 2012), Penguin (17 January 2013)
ASIN: B0094J01VG
ISBN: 978-1405912983

On Dublin Street has been gathering some serious, serious momentum since its release in August of this year. Originally self-published by its author, Samantha Young, in less than three months it’s been picked up for re-release by Penguin, has over 16,000 Goodreads reader ratings (most four stars and above), and made it into the final round of the latter’s Choice Awards for 2012. That’s pretty damn impressive.

Jocelyn Butler (Joss) is hiding from the life she once knew. Having lost her immediate family in a tragic accident at the age of fourteen, she has spent her adulthood getting as far away from her past as possible. Quite literally, by packing up her entire life and escaping to her mother’s country of birth, Scotland. Emotionally shuttered and unwilling to properly deal with the deaths of parents and sister, Joss is living in a self-imposed bubble, existing without actually living.

Enter Braden Carmichael, a stubborn, sexy and irreverent Scotsman who refuses to let her lock herself away – physically or emotionally. Continue reading →

25

Sweet Persuasion – Maya Banks

Title: Sweet Persuasion
Author: Maya Banks
Publisher: Berkley (02 June 2009)
ISBN: 978-0425227701

This isn’t the first book in the Sweet erotic romance series by the ever-popular Maya Banks, but, in my opinion, it is the standout title in the line-up. In other words, if you’re going to pick one, this is the one to go for. Sweet Persuasion is a cracking, singe your fingers read. Put the cat out, dim the lights, grab a friend (breathing or battery operated) hot.

Serena is in the business of making dreams and wishes come true for other people. She spends her days fulfilling fantasies and making others happy, but what she really wants is to indulge in a secret fantasy of her own. Serena wants to be a sex slave. To give up complete control to a man, temporarily, and then return to her normal life once her slavery is complete. Continue reading →

22

Alert Me: hilarious sex toy adverts, a big dil-don’t, and Avon’s DRM experiment

In this week’s Alert Me: YouTube funnies (NSFW), dildo use gone horribly (horribly) wrong, and a good news for Avon readers.

 

Soft Core: Why Do Sex Toy Makers Have Such Horrible Videos?
Source: http://techcrunch.com/

If you’re having a bad day, I guarantee this link will cheer you up. The title of Jordan Crook’s article is pretty self-explanatory; YouTube promo videos from various sex toy manufacturers looked over with a blunt, comedic eye.

From Vibease’s Personal Massager (for God’s sake, call it what it is, people – a vibrator!) that runs off your Android phone, to the JimmyJane Form 6 (which is waved around like a mime prop by a pair of creepy white gloves), this Tech Crunch offering made my morning. And for all those fans of air guitar, get ready to rock out with OhMiBod’s one-woman vibrator rock-concert.

On a slightly more serious note, this article touches on the growing number of Bluetooth enabled sex toys. I’ve got my eye on this trend … Continue reading →

12

Alert me: love and text, penis pump theft, and a S.E.C.R.E.T. society

Once again, my link round-up (which I’ve now decided to call ‘Alert Me’) schedule is a bit out of whack. Sorry about that. But I have finally managed to filter through the Google nuggets I’ve received this week and pull out the ones I think are most amusing and interesting: SMS love, penis pumps, and the ‘Canadian Fifty Shades of Grey’. Enjoy.

 

Modern romance for Generation Text, showcased on HeTexted.com
Source: www.guardian.co.uk

 

‘ … we should probably be grateful that John Donne didn’t have BlackBerry Messenger back in 1600. Would our great romantic poets have troubled themselves with erotic odes of seduction if they had SMS or Twitter to hand? In Donne’s case I suspect probably he would, whereas, much as I revere him, I have a strong feeling that Robert Burns would have simply sent a photo of his penis instead … ’

 

So it seems that the finger (rather than the pen) is the sword of modern romance. This article by Ally Fogg of guardian.co.uk takes a humorous look at the culture of text messaging and its role in confusing those embarking (or not embarking, as the case me be) on fledgling relationships. Included, an excellent reference to Robbie Burns’ bawdy poem Nine Inch will Please a Lady and a discourse on the website HeTexted.com, whose aim is to ‘decode’ text messages sent to women by guys who may or may not be interested in them. Warning: difficult to stop yourself looking at the HeTexted.com text messages once you start! Continue reading →

11

Polo – Jilly Cooper

Title: Polo (Rutshire Chronicles)
Author: Jilly Cooper
Publisher: Corgi; New edition (07 May 2007)
ISBN: 978-0552156165

Horses, bad behaviour, and lots of orgasms. Polo is the third book in Jilly Cooper’s Rutshire Chronicles series and is, hands-down, my absolute favourite of the – currently – nine-book line-up. (I may be a bit biased, though, as this was the first Jilly Cooper I ever read and the sex scenes it contains have been indelibly burned into what was my (somewhat) innocent teenage brain. In fact, Polo was my introduction to the concept that more than one orifice could be utilised during intercourse …)

Polo was originally published in 1991 but re-reading it over twenty years after it first hit the shelves hasn’t resulted in any loss of enjoyment. The characters still feel over-blown and awesome, their carry-on both awful and wonderful, and their sexual shenanigans fun, hot and captivating.

Although Rupert Campbell-Black, the bad boy of Riders and Rivals, continues to make his presence felt in Polo, the stage belongs to ‘moody, macho, and magnificent’ Ricky France-Lynch (a nine-goal polo player suffering through personal tragedy) and fourteen-year-old, polo-mad Perdita MacLeod (who wants nothing more than to get Ricky into bed). A brilliant cast of charismatic supporting characters push the pair through the story, their actions outweighed only by their outstanding names (who wouldn’t want to jump in the sack with someone called ‘Red’, ‘Angel’, ‘Dancer’ or ‘Jesus’?). Continue reading →

24

Scarlet – A.C. Gaughen

Title: Scarlet
Author: A.C. Gaughen
Publisher: Bloomsbury (07 June 2012)
ISBN: 978-1408819760

This fresh and clever re-telling of the Robin Hood legend, is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. I stumbled upon Scarlet quite by accident – it came up as part of a random search I was doing on Goodreads – and the stylish jacket and high reader ratings were enough to make me buy it on the spot.

In this case, judging the book by its cover was entirely appropriate. Scarlet has all the things I would expect in an action-based romance – a great plot, a terrific hero, a horrid villain, moments of suspense – but what makes this book really stand out is the author’s unexpected twist on the character of Will Scarlet, who, as you may have gathered from the book’s title, appears in the staring role. A.C. Gaughen, quite uniquely, makes Will a ‘she’ rather than a ‘he’. Continue reading →

01

Tied Up, Tied Down – Lorelei James

Title: Tied Up, Tied Down (Rough Riders)
Author: Lorelei James
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (July 2008)
ISBN: 9781605040646

What is it about men who work the land, round up cattle, and ride horses? Cowboys, in a word. Why is it that they’re so compelling? Is it because they seem capable? In touch with nature? Able to withstand the elements and whatever other hardships are thrown at them? Whatever the source of their appeal, Lorelei James captures the essence of the modern cowboy in her Rough Riders series and Tied Up, Tied Down features one of my absolute favourite Rough Riders characters, Kade McKay.

A brief synopsis … Skylar Ellison is a transplant from California, having moved to Wyoming to start a skincare manufacturing business on land left to her by her maternal grandmother. Bright and savvy, she’s determined to make a go of things despite having suffered recent traumas in her personal life, including the breakup of her marriage and the death of her mother and grandmother. But an encounter in a carpark with local cowboy Kade McKay leaves her with a baby to manage as well as a company, and when she can’t find Kade to tell him she’s expecting, she resigns herself to raising the child on her own. Continue reading →

25

Defy the Eagle – Lynn Bartlett

Title: Defy the Eagle
Author: Lynn Bartlett
ISBN: 978-0263850765
Publisher: Mills & Boon (19 May 2006) – re-issue. (Originally published by Worldwide Library (1986))

It’s not an erotic novel per se, but if you have a bit of a thing for capture/slave fantasies and enjoy historicals, I think it’s highly likely that you’ll enjoy this book.

Defy the Eagle wasn’t the first romance I ever read but it’s most definitely the one that’s stuck in my head over the years and set the standard for all that have followed. Highly implausible plot? Check. Uber Alpha hero bordering on total wanker? Check. Cover art embarrassing enough in execution to make me hide behind a crate of avocados in order to read it (more on that later)? Check.

The official synopsis from the 2006 edition:

62AD

And Britannia is at war…

Queen Boadicea and her fearless Iceni troops face the disciplined Roman Empire and her sworn enemy Emperor Nero in their fight for freedom. The battle begins in the town of Venta Icenorum, where the beautiful and rebellious Jilana waits to be married and fulfil her duties as an honourable Roman wife and daughter.

Everything changes when Jilana meets Caddaric, an Iceni warrior, who takes her as his slave. Separated by their blood allegiances but brought together through their mutual desire, Jilana and Caddaric are unwittingly caught in a battle of their own.

As Boadicea’s army rages through Londinium and finally on towards Rome, politics and passion collide as Jilana and Caddaric race to stay together and survive the ever increasing threat of the Roman army.

My 14-year-old self stumbled across this doorstop of a novel whilst staying with my dad during the summer holidays. He was renting a furnished flat at the time and Defy the Eagle was languishing on a bookshelf, hidden amidst a seemingly endless row of The Reader’s Digest. Unable to stomach the latter (pun intended), I did what any self-respecting adolescent girl would do: I grabbed the book with the cover that featured a red-haired woman in a ‘toga’ – read: pink mini dress that wouldn’t have been out of place in an Ann Summers catalogue – languishing in the arms of a guy whose stomach appeared to be stuffed with paint rollers. (Interestingly, he also seemed to have had a run-in with a vat of St Tropez, although, I’ll hazard that as advanced as the Romans were, they hadn’t discovered the joys of fake tan.) Continue reading →