Mating Season

Mating Season by Allie Ritch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In the introduction Allie Ritch writes: This is one for all the people who have ever struggled to fit in. It describes the main male character Koll well as he's a bear of a man towering over all others in his small village, but despite his stature he has a centre soft like that of a teddy bear.
His size intimidates the men and women around him, making it near impossible for him to find a mate and not just out of his village but also in the villages around his. On his way back from another failed visit to a neighbouring village he encounter an exhausted woman in the middle of the wilderness and takes her home with him to recover, but who is she and what were she doing there?

The Mating Season is an Erotic Sci-Fi book taking place on the frozen and inhospitable planet Jensen. The warmth in the story comes from the characters and their bonds.

What impressed me the most with the story is the strength of the female main character Shila that doesn't fold to the strength of Koll, but even challenge it and in particular during the sex scenes show her own hunger and initiative. It's refreshing to find a story that embraces and affirms the female sexuality. In most other erotic stories with a strong female she falls on her back and spreads her legs as soon as it comes to sex, but not here. in Mating Season they face each other on equal terms.

I would have liked to have seen the suspense/action part of the story expanded to a more full story, but understand that the scope was reduced to fit in with the short story format.

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The Baumgartners Plus One

The Baumgartners Plus One by Selena Kitt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I liked the book, but it failed to woo me in the way Babysitting the Baumgartners did.
The book takes on the tough subject of an unsuccessful marriage and domestic abuse, but in my opinion doesn't make it dark enough to allow me to sympathise enough with Danielle.
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This despite that the author adds that they had a stillborn child.
When Dani drifts astray and ends up cheating on her husband (that has moved out of their home) I can't feel for her enough not to see her as an adulteress and subsequently the Baumgartners as home-wreckers.
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I acknowledge that Selena set up a very tough challenge to try and convince the readers that Dani's involvement with the Baumgartner was acceptable, but in my opinion failed to pull it off.

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An amazing BDSM Erotica with well researched historic undertones

Rough Surrender by Cari Silverwood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Rosebud's Review described the premise of the book very well, so if you haven't read it go read it first and then come back here because there are a couple of personal reflections I would like add to what she had to say.

Let's start off with the bad stuff (and as you can see from my rating they aren't significant to really take anything away from the book); I would have like a bit more "warm-up" with Faith's character to identify her as the free spirit that she's later discovered to be. As it is now she doesn't immediately seem true the time period.
I would also had liked to get her flight from her perspective, to hear her revel in the freedom.. and compare it to freedom of Leonhardt's restraints.
To me there were a slight disconnect when the erotic novel became a suspense novel.
Lastly there were my personal pet-peeve that when she had the chance to take charge and be the dominant one.. she gave it up without hesitation. I know that's probably what the wast majority (the women) wants to hear, but I'm still allowed to raise my voice in complaint... as that seems to always be the case.

Okay, enough with what I hope is some constructive criticism and on to some more positive points; the interaction verbal and otherwise between the two main characters Faith and Leonhardt is what makes this story great and just that would earn this book four stars, but there's more.
I don't object to reading a porn story with just hot sex and I've ready plenty of books without any sexual content, but to me a truly great Erotic story needs to have both, and preferably in a story where both feels like natural part of the complete story like it does in Rough Surrender.
What makes this story magical is Cari Silverwood's ability to use language and words to help build the atmosphere without having to use a lot of description. She placed her cutlery on her plate. is one example of how she uses time typical and today dated words to instil her story with a time typical 'air', which seems effortless but has likely taken quite a bit of work. This is brilliant use of language!
After this I'll definitely have to find more of Cari's books to enjoy.

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Nine & A Half Weeks by Elizabeth McNeill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Some books are just off the scale, not necessarily better or worse than all the other books you've read before - but so fundamentally different that it doesn't quite compare to anything else. For me this was such a book.
The main way this book is different is its sheer elegance. The story that takes place over two months time is caught in moments; Polaroids casually tossed, one after another into a building pile on a scuffed table. It’s a decadent, voyeuristic experience to have the sexual relationship between the woman and the man unfold in snapshots. Each image slightly askew, altered from the previous one and slowly showing the woman loosing herself, bit by bit yet gaining pleasures unknown.

This book isn’t for the faint of heart or sensitive of mind, but everyone else will like the woman in the story emerge on the other side, both the same and yet slightly altered.

The book is fairly short, just over 100 pages, and like a hard candy it can either be made to last or consumed in a few flavourful bites. Either way enjoy!

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Found in Bliss by Sophie Oak
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sophie Oak is a great writer and this is an enjoyable read, but the menage set-up seems even more unnatural than in Lost in Bliss. I love her ability to create interesting and lovable characters, but I would much rather have read the story of how Holly was driven into taking charge of Dr Burke and dominating him into a BDSM relationship where she could have helped him heal.

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One to Keep by Sophie Oak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another great story in the Nights in Bliss series. The community and the characters are still well written and with respect for the character of Stefan Talbot it's not another manage story. Instead it lets Stefan's controlling nature come through and his need to be in charge, it's only natural that it's a BDSM story.
Sophie Oak manages well to describe Stefan's journey where he truly discovers who Jennifer is. Her strength is unsettling to him and their conflicting personalities makes for an interesting read.

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Two to Love by Sophie Oak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Much like Sophie Oak's first book in this series Three to Ride this novel has a full set of lovable and interesting characters that makes this a joy to read.
The quirky characters in the small community of Bliss doesn't make the love triangle/manage set up seem that strange, but it's also not as natural as it was in the first novel.
The side story is however somewhat more well thought through and creates a necessary balance to the love story that is obviously at centre of the novel.

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