CBR18 Book 43: "Prince of Storms" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 400 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Thank you to Montlake and NetGalley for this ARC. This book is on sale now.

Naia, Einar and Aleksi return to the ice queen's island to figure out who tried to kidnap them and are soon joined by all the other deities of the High Court of the Sheltered Lands, concerned about them and wondering exactly who is behind this most recent plot. As Naia's powers keep growing and she needs to use them to protect the innocent residents of the island from dangers, it becomes clear that she is, in fact, the ancient goddess of Rahvekya reborn. She can remember an entirely different lifetime, as well as her relationship with the first Kraken.

However, Einar doesn't seem to remember his former life, and Aleksi sees the closeness between the other two and grows concerned about a future where he must let his lovers go, for their own good. Because of dangers from old foes arriving on the island, bent on revenge, Aleksi may not have long to worry about the future of himself or his lovers. The Betrayer wants the power of Rahvekya for himself and to kill Aleksi and now he may have the chance to achieve both. 

I tried to read this so I could finish and review it before the release date, but since NetGalley would only allow me to read the ARC in their own app, which doesn't save your progress, as well as forces me to read on my phone (something I only do in utmost emergencies, if I am stuck without one of my two e-readers or a physical book. It doesn't happen often). So in the end, I waited to start it until after release day, when my pre-ordered digital copy was available to download on my Kindle. Based on how uncomfortable it was to read in the NetGalley app, I may reject any future ARCs that are only available to read in that format. 

I read for pleasure, and for escapism, and I don't like when books feel like homework. Unfortunately, since I really do try to read all the ARCs I am granted and leave honest reviews for them, I had to get through this, but it took me far longer than it should have for a book this length. While I pretty much devoured books in the Bound to Fire and Steel duology in no time at all, this felt like a slog for the first two thirds of the book, and I for a lot of it, I was pretty much reading it out of obligation, not because I was particularly enjoying it.

The action does pick up in the last third, because that's when it basically becomes one very long action sequence, with SOO many different battles and near death-experiences for our heroes. Before that, the plot is very slow, and can't seem to move away from Aleksi worrying that the other two are better off without him, while they keep trying to reassure him that no, they aren't and they don't want him to nobly slink off somewhere to nurse his heartbreak for centuries. There's also the whole Naia and Einar are the reincarnated versions of Rahveyka's goddess and her lover, the god of Storms. I found it very hard to care about any of it. Things did get cooler when both Naia and Einar were fully able to embrace their new powers and truly kick the asses of their supernatural enemies. But with the first two thirds of the book being so boring, I cannot in good conscience rate this higher than 3.5 stars. 

Under the circumstances, though, considering the dystopian hellscape the authors who make up Kit Rocha live under, and the strides they've made to fundraise for democracy and help Americans offer resistance, it's laudable that they were able to finish this novel at all. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

CBR18 Book 40: "Daugther of Tides" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 320 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Defeat the Goblin TBR: has a dark/stormy vibe

Naia is a very young water nymph, born directly from the Dreaming, but she has the memories and experiences of so many who have lived before her who had any connection to the sea. Einar was once a mortal man before he became the immortal pirate lord known as the Kraken, tied to his magical ship and his equally immortal crew. Aleksi is the most charming and beloved of all the gods; he is literally The Lover. After the events in Queen of Dreams (a book I read and very much enjoyed, but apparently didn't have the energy to fully review, Aleksi is feeling strange and unsettled. He keeps having strange visions, he doesn't instantly heal when he is injured, and he's started to worry that he is dying.

These three individuals are sent on a diplomatic mission to an icy kingdom, trying to broker a peace with Gwynira, the Ice Queen, who was previously one of the now imprisoned Sorin the Betrayer's allies. Einar has secrets he's keeping from the other two about his connection to the icy island kingdom they find themselves in, Naia is welcomed as a reborn version of the old goddess of the natives there, while Aleksi just wants to enjoy himself for as long as possible by hiding his impending death from the other two. 

I loved both the books in the Bound to Fire and Steel duology. I loved the world-building, I loved the pantheon of interesting deities (of which Aleksi and Einar both belong), and I found the tension between Ash, Sachielle and Zanya both interesting and sexy. Since I knew this was going to be a duology, I held off on reading this until close to the release date of the sequel, Prince of Storms (I have an ARC and need to read and review it by the end of this week). Unfortunately, whatever magic made the first two books in this world so incredibly appealing and immersive to me seems to have faded. I found this book slow to start, I found it difficult to really care about the characters or the mission they have been sent on. In addition, I found myself rather exhausted by how horny the three protagonists constantly are for each other. Maybe it would have been more exciting if they actually acted on their feelings until pretty much the very end of the book. Instead, it just felt annoying. 

The book picks up in the second half, but I never got the feeling of not wanting to stop reading, which was frequently the case with the first two books in this world. Maybe it's just that it was hard for me to feel any worry about Aleksi, since it's incredibly obvious that he's not actually going to die. He's part of the triad at the centre of this duology, which is a romance first and foremost, and the next book won't end with him actually dying and leaving the other two to grieve. While the various stakes were really high in the previous two books, I find it hard to get particularly invested this time around. It made me very sad, because I really had been looking forward to revisiting this world. 

I'm crossing my fingers that the sequel, which I will be starting soon, is better and that the duology as a whole works better for me once it's been completed. 

Judging a book by its cover:

We've got the churning sea, we've got a whole lot of tentacles. They seem to belong to more than one creature, so maybe the cover designer thought Einar had a bunch of friends to help him when he goes all Kraken-y?

CBR15 Book 81: "Consort of Fire" by Kit Rocha

Page count: 398 pages

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer! This was an ARC from Netgalley (but I have also paid to buy the book myself, after reading it). My opinions are my own.

Every one hundred years, the king of the Sheltered Lands has to send one heir to serve as consort to the ancient dragon god who acts as its protector and guardian. The previous consort went mad with fear not long after bonding with the Dragon, and Ash, the Dragon, worries that history will repeat itself. Ash has lived for over three thousand years, and even with successful unions, his consorts, being mere mortals, grow old and die. Yet the tradition must continue or the protective spells on the land can't be renewed.

The consort is obviously supposed to be of royal blood, but this time, the king has sent an impostor. Sachielle and her handmaiden Zenya were orphans, adopted, and trained to be the perfect weapons. Sachi has been trained to seduce and beguile, Zenya to be a ruthless and highly efficient assassin. Both young women have faced a very harsh and torturous upbringing, with the safety of the other used to keep them under control during training. Their secret mission is to murder the Dragon when he is most vulnerable, and they have only five weeks to complete their task. If they fail, the king's high priest has placed a curse on Sachi. She will die painfully and her soul will be consumed. Zenya has never known love in her life, except from Sachi, and will do anything and everything to keep her safe - even something as impossible as murdering a living god.

Of course, Ash turns out to be nothing like what the young women have been led to expect, nor are the other living gods of the pantheon, all of whom do their best to make the young women feel welcome. The Dragon is not the ruthless tyrant that they feared, he is beloved of his followers and treats both of them with kindness and solicitude. Nor is he even vaguely threatened when he discovers that his bonded bride and her handmaiden are lovers - he just becomes determined to seduce both of them. The more time they spend together, the more willing Sachi is to just give up on the assassination plot, but Zenya isn't going to let her beloved be consumed by the curse, no matter how charming and hot the Dragon is.

I've only read one previous book by Kit Rocha, and while it was entertaining, it was nothing like this. The Mercenary Librarians is a post-apocalyptic urban fantasy, this is pure fantasy. I found the world-building intriguing and loved pretty much all the characters (except the dastardly high priest - but he was clearly supposed to be pond scum). All the living gods were once mortals who did something great and self-sacrificing to protect the land and/or their people, and now they're like a big, vaguely incestuous family who tease each other and hang out at each other's palaces. The other gods are all aware of Ash's melancholy and worries about his new union. Sachi and Zenya are not the first to try to assassinate him either, so none of them are too worried until it becomes clear that if she gets her hands on the right weapon, Zenya could actually present a real threat.

If you are a fan of clean romance, this is not the book for you. This book is so steamy that it should possibly be kept in the freezer when you're not reading it. So many sex scenes, including an actual orgy at one point. Yet as is the case with good writers, every sex scene also furthers the plot in some way.

I wasn't expecting to be so completely engrossed by this. The second I finished the book, I went online to order the sequel, which sadly isn't out until August. I think the series was originally going to be a trilogy, now it looks like it may just be a duology. I'm not complaining, as long as I get more smexy fantasy in this world. I would love sequels featuring others in the pantheon as well. 

Judging a book by its cover: As covers go, there is little here to suggest how steamy (and fun) the contents are. The hourglass with the red sand is very central to the plot, however. Each moment of Sachi's remaining life until the curse takes her is shown in a magical hourglass that Sachi and Zenya carry with them. Sachi prefers not to look at it too often, Zenya is almost obsessed with it. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR12 Books 13-15: "The Redhead trilogy" by Alice Clayton

Combined page count: 960 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Grace Sheridan is 33. She's an aspiring actress who completely failed to make any kind of impression her first go-around in Hollywood. After a few years away from the limelight, when she went a bit reclusive and gained far too much weight, she's now healthy and happy and back in Los Angeles, temporarily living with her BFF Holly, who also happens to be a very successful talent agent, while waiting for her new house to be redone. Grace isn't really looking to date anyone, but when she meets Jack Sheridan, she's very quickly swept off her feet.

Jack Sheridan is 24 and very likely to become a massive movie star once the time travel adventure movie based on a series of sexy romance short stories is released. Jack plays the Super Sexy Scientist Guy who travels through time, romancing women in each time period and the movie is one of the most anticipated properties in Hollywood. He's tall, gorgeous, smart, funny, has an incredible English accent and already a considerable fan base. He's instantly smitten with Grace and determined that they have a 'tryst', but no matter how off the charts the chemistry between Grace and him is, publicity-wise, it would be best if Super Sexy Scientist Guy remains single and available in the eyes of his adoring public. Dating a woman nearly a decade older than him would certainly not be advisable. Any romancing would, therefore, have to take place away from the prying eyes of the paparazzi and celebrity journalists.

I'm reviewing this trilogy of contemporary romances as one because I'm not entirely sure I agree that there is enough story or character development to have these extended into three whole books. There is maximum two books worth of story here, probably more like one and a half. The rest is sex scenes. So many sex scenes. By the middle of the second book, I was skimming these scenes, because they were all much of a muchness and really didn't add anything to the further development between the characters. If Alice Clayton had cut about 80% of the extensive and after a while, really rather repetitive sex scenes, and streamlined a bit more of the rest of the plot (there didn't exactly need to be quite so much behind the scenes in show business stuff), this could easily have been one or two books, which would still be a lot more steamy than your regular contemporary romance.

I'm also reviewing the whole trilogy as one because it's now been about a month and a half since I finished the books, and I no longer remember which events happened in which books, they all blur together into one big whole.

What I liked about the books:
- Grace is a fun heroine. She doesn't really want to become huge and she certainly doesn't want to be a favoured target of the paparazzi and gossip press. Once it becomes clear that she and Jack are actually an item, she faces all sorts of crap because of her age (clearly at past thirty she's nearly a crone), her general looks and especially her body size. I liked that after a certain point, Grace refused to give in to the pressure and stood up to the body shamers publically.
- I liked the friendships Grace has. She's extremely close with her agent, and later also becomes close with an old college friend, who writes the off-Broadway production that brings Grace a relative level of fame once it gets picked up as a TV show.
- A lot of the early romance between Grace and Jack is very sweet.

What I didn't like so much:
- I've already mentioned that the books are way too long and feature a frankly ridiculous amount of love scenes. There's not enough plot to sustain three whole books, and padding them out with chapter upon chapter of smexy times doesn't good storytelling make.
- The love triangle that is introduced between Grace, Jack and Grace's old college friend, who she once had a massive crush on.
- Grace's crazy insecurities ruining Jack's opening night and the drama both leading up to and following on from that event.
- The whole storyline where Jack's fame goes to his head and he goes off the rails, drinking and partying and being led astray by douche-canoes. It goes on for too long, and I did not feel Jack necessarily groveled enough to get Grace's forgiveness. It's not a very good romance when I feel the heroine may be better off with someone else.

These books were a fun read, but I had to skim a lot more of books two and three than I entirely liked. Alice Clayton's Hudson Valley series feature books that are a lot better paced.

Judging the books by its cover: The covers are quite cute, with the pretty, redheaded cover model partially visible in each of them. They convey a playful tone, which fits well with the books. The plain, white backgrounds of books 1 and 2 could have been more exciting, though.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR8 Book 112: "How Not to Fall" by Emily Foster

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Annabelle "Annie" Coffey is writing her final thesis and with only a few weeks left of term, she propositions her adviser, the postdoctoral fellow at her lab, Dr. Charles Douglas, because she believes they have "A Thing". In a truly embarrassing and painfully awkward scene, handsome British guy Charles gently turns her down, because he is her boss and it would be massively inappropriate for him to sleep with her. Annie is convinced she's not wrong about the chemistry between them, and that she's not misreading the signals between them. She's hoping that were she no longer Charles' student, the situation would be different. So she refuses to give up hope entirely. She will have a month after she graduates, before she goes off to New York to go to medical school and she's determined to spend them with Charles.

Charles agrees, so long as Annie is well and truly no longer his student, they can explore their "Thing". He's initially a bit daunted by the prospect that Annie's a virgin, and a very inexperienced one (in practise, not in theory) at that. With the understanding that their affair is only to last a month and with the goal that when they go their separate ways, they will remain friends, Charles and Annie begin to explore their attraction to one another. Because Annie has never had any sort of sexual encounter with another person before, Charles insists on them spending a whole day on each of the four "bases", before they do the deed, so to speak. He takes his responsibilities as Annie's first lover very seriously, making sure to teach her everything she wants to know about sex, while still being careful to respect her boundaries, even when she's sometimes eager to push them further than before.

Their affair becomes more than a meeting of bodies, it also becomes a meeting of minds, with the two of them being entirely honest about their interests, hopes and fears. That is, Annie is completely truthful and open as a book. As the weeks pass, and Annie grows more attached with every hour spent in Charles' company, it becomes clear that he has not revealed everything about himself and that there is darkness in his past that looks likely to create major hurdles for their joint future.

Before you read any further, it is important that I mention that this book ends on a cliffhanger! There is NO Happily Ever After at the closing of this book. There is a second part, How Not to Let Go coming out in December, and on her blog as Emily Foster, the author suggests that if waiting is a problem, you wait to read the duology until both parts are out. Ms Foster, who also writes non-fiction scientific books under the name Emily Nagoski. She explains on her science blog that she wrote these novels as a response to reading (and being deeply disappointed) by 50 Shades of Grey. She loves romance because it's pro-woman, pro-sex, pro-pleasure and full of happy endings. Ms Foster/Nagoski felt that E.L. James' book failed at all of those things and really felt betrayed by it.

As a result, Ms. Nagoski set out to write a romance with a virgin college senior (she's 22) experiencing her sexual awakening with an older (he's 26), more experienced, powerful man who treats her with dignity, respect and affection. She calls it a feminist, sex-positive, science-driven erotic romance. Because she normally writes science non-fiction, she was unsure whether she needed a different agent to represent her, but she got the books sold under the name Emily Foster and How Not to Fall is the first part.

There is really a lot of sex in this book. This is very much on the erotica scale of romance, where there are a lot of smexy times, described in a LOT of detail. There are BDSM elements, but I think, as far as these things go, they are fairly light (I have not read a lot of that sub-genre of romance). I still felt that there was a good portion of the book with the characters getting to know each other, and where the reader got to know each of the protagonists, seeing how they could work as a couple.

Both Annie and Charles are huge nerds and there is a fair amount of the book devoted to science and the pursuit thereof. As opposed to a lot of romance, where the prose is very purple, all the body parts are referred to in very scientific names, which I thought made a nice change. I know very little about the field that Annie and Charles are working in, but didn't feel that the scientific parts detracted from the steamy smexy times. Annie is a wonderful narrator, and frequently says and does embarrassing things. To me, she seems extremely open-minded and adventurous in the bedroom, considering she's a virgin, Charles is always the one putting on the breaks. Of course, I have no idea what college era women get up to these days, based on a lot of New Adult, they are certainly getting a lot more action than I ever did.

About two thirds of the way through, the book changes in tone, and becomes a lot darker and more serious, as the secrets of Charles' past are uncovered and it becomes clear that the couple are in for a hard time before they (hopefully, I'll be cranky otherwise) reach their HEA at the end of the next book. Again, because the author seems to have a scientific basis behind the angsty reasons that Charles and Annie will not just have sunshine, puppies and rainbows in their lives, it felt a lot less bothersome to me than in a lot of these novels. There was a very believable theoretical explanation for his behaviour, and I'm looking forward to how the author is going to solve the problems she has thrown in the couple's way.

I liked this a lot, and as it's already October, I'm not too annoyed about the wait for the next book. If cliffhanger endings are a problem for you - wait another few months and read both books at the same time. I will be eagerly awaiting the second instalment.

Judging a book by its cover: A couple kissing passionately in the rain. A perfectly good cover for a romance - except for that pesky (but oh so common) fact that at no point does this scene feature in the novel. I know I'm picky and that it's a silly thing to get annoyed about, but I still am. Annoyed, that it. There are lots of delightful scenes to choose from. Quite a few that don't even involve smexy times. Why not pick one of those?

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR8 Book 30: "Beautiful Player" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 432 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Hanna Bergstrom is a science nerd of the highest order, quite content to eschew most human interaction and just potter about in her lab. Her older brother is worried about her and makes her promise that she's not just going to devote herself to work. He wants her to go out, meet new people, socialise a bit. He suggests she give his best friend, Will Sumner, venture capitalist and fellow scientist. Hanna doubts that her brother would suggest that she call Will if he knew she's had a crush on him since she was barely a teen, but she's also curious and can't resist the temptation to see Will again.

Will is surprised to see that Ziggy (as her family calls her), the girl he first met when she was twelve and he was nineteen has blossomed into quite an intriguing young woman. Quite happy with his carefree ways (he has two different women he engages in very no strings attached sex with weekly), he's amused by Hanna's brother's suggestion that he take her under his wings and help her get out more. He nonetheless agrees to meet her for jogging in the park now and then and his friends Sara and Chloe are delighted to take her shopping and give her a makeover. He does his very best not to lust after his friend's little sister, but the more time they spend together, the more difficult it gets. Hanna seems immune to his charms and even jokes about his playboy tendencies. She expects him to help her with advice for how to flirt with and ask out other guys, when all Will really wants to do is take her to bed himself.

As my esteemed partner in romance reviewing, Mrs. Julien, has already pointed out in her review of this book, Beautiful Player is a modern twist on the historical trope of the rake and the wallflower. While Bennett of Beautiful Bastard is an alphahole of the highest order, Will is quite a good guy. He's rich, successful, handsome and charming and never misleads any of the many women he's romancing about his motives or expects anything long term. Of course, having pretty much every business deal he engages in turn to gold and every woman he meets fall gratefully into his bed, he's quite bored with his charmed existence. He's looking for something new, something different, and while it takes him a while to recognise it, he's just as ready to settle down as his friends (in the earlier books).

Hanna is a great heroine, if somewhat inexperienced in various kinds of social interaction. The great thing is that she knows this and she understands that her brother is just looking out for her when he wants her to escape the lab and meet people and go out on a few dates. She's seen Will's effect on women since she was prepubescent (he once hooked up with her older sister in the garden shed) and is completely aware of what sort of a man he is. Her almost rude honesty when speaking to him leaves him flummoxed and once he realises that she feels the best way to learn what she's wondering about sex is to have it with someone who excels it (namely him), he's briefly resistant (worried about how her family, all of whom he loves as his own) but can't help himself.

This is the first of the Beautiful books that I mostly enjoyed without any misgivings. I liked both halves of the couple and could still have done without some of the faffing about in the last third of the book (this seems to be my common complaint with Christina Lauren's books - great fun, can't quite stick the run-up to landing, so to speak). I liked the previous books' characters showing up as supporting characters more than I liked them in their own books, to be honest. Now I just need to decide if I'm going to keep going with these books or quit while I'm ahead.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

#CBR8 Book 28: "Beautiful Stranger" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 3.5 stars

Sara Dillon, Chloe Mills' best friend, dumps her cheating fiancee and relocates to New York when her BFF and her Beautiful Bastard of a boyfriend open a new set of offices there. Out celebrating Chloe's engagement, Sara meets a tall, sexy stranger in a nightclub and ends up hooking up with him, without even exchanging names. Turns out her sexy f*ck buddy is an old friend of Bennet's, Max Stella, and he can't get the alluring lady from the nightclub out of his mind. While Sara is actively avoiding a new relationship, she can't deny her strong attraction to Max and with every new meeting, she discovers new things about herself and what she gets off on (hint - it's mainly mild forms of exhibitionism, the thrill of nearly getting caught).

While Max has a past as a playboy of note, he's tantalised by Sara, especially her initial plan that they see each other just once a week, and then only for sex. He wants to take their relationship to the next level much quicker than her, but once he realises why she's so wary about long-term commitment, he's content to wait for her to return his feelings.

In this second book in the Beautiful series, you can already see Christina Lauren getting more skilled at writing, and including more to the story than just people yelling at each other or tearing each other's clothes off. I found the first book sadly lacking in most of the plot and character development, and Bennett and Chloe's hook-up MO didn't really thrill me all that much. There is more back story given to both Sara and Max in this book, and the reader is given an explanation as to why Sara might want to let herself go and have a purely physical relationship for a while, having been with the same man (who treated her badly) for far too long and finally breaking free.

Max is the contemporary romance version of a rake who's ready to be redeemed and he's all about respecting his lady love's wants and wishes. Even though he's emotionally at a place where he's ready to settle down, he's ready to wait until Sara returns his feelings. Of course, towards the end of the book, there is a big misunderstanding and some added complications thrown in the way of our lovers. It's one of my least favourite plot tropes (along with "I must push the people I love away from me to protect them!") and it is pretty much just a frustrating way for the authors to pad out the story for a bit until the couple can move on to their HEA.

In conclusion - Beautiful Stranger is better than the first book in the series (and the novella following it), but still not up to the quality of either of the four books in the Wild Seasons series, where I would suggest readers begin if they're interested in the work of Christina Lauren.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR8 Books 26 and 27: "Beautiful Bastard" and Beautiful Bitch" by Christina Lauren

Total page count: 480 pages
Beautiful Bastard: 2.5 stars
Beautiful Bitch: 3.5 stars
Combined rating: 3 stars

Chloe Mills only has a few months left of studying for her MBA, working as an intern for perfectionist business prodigy Bennett Ryan. She gets along famously with his father, the founder of the company and his older brother, but she pretty much detests her boss and he seems to delight in finding fault with everything she does and says, demanding almost impossible things from her. But behind their seemingly mutual loathing, there is also explosive attraction as they start hate-f*cking in the board room in between yelling furiously at each other.

Neither can stop thinking of the other, and even though they can't seem to say a civil thing to one another, they keep tearing each other's clothes off every chance they get. Should Chloe really be risking her career by having a love affair with her boss? Can their angry hook-ups develop into anything more or will their furious passion burn itself out eventually?

Having just finished the final book in Christina Lauren's Wild Seasons series, which I thought got better with each successive book in the series, I decided to check out the book that started their romance writing career. I am very glad this wasn't my first experience with their writing, because it didn't really work well for me. In her review for the entire Beautiful series so far, Mrs. Julien mentions that the border between romance and erotica is a flimsy one. I would probably classify at least the first of these books as straight up erotica, as there is a whole load of smexy times from (to me at least) surprisingly early on (especially as I was given absolutely NO indication that the characters did anything but hate each other before they're suddenly getting it on on a conference table and against a window). For the first two thirds of the book, there is barely any character development, just a lot of sex (and the wanton destruction of a lot of ludicrously expensive, but flimsy undergarments) and neither character seems like they are in control of the situation - as with most Christina Lauren books, the hero and heroine has alternate POV chapters throughout the book.

Their relationship seemed badly dysfunctional, not to mention highly inappropriate, considering Bennett is Chloe's boss, who should not be making the moves on his intern, no matter how attractive she is. There was rather a lot of tell, don't show, about how physically attractive Bennett is or how everyone in the Ryan family loves Chloe and can't understand why Bennett is so mean to her all the time, but really not very much character development. The couple keep calling each other absolutely horrible names and seem to get off on it (a lot and frequently), but never calm down and speak civilly until they go to a conference towards the last third of the book, where suddenly their emotions seem to have engaged (not sure when in between the name calling and angry sex that happened) and they want to make a go of it. Of course Bennett does something unbelievably douchy that makes Chloe cut all ties for a while, but after a few months apart, they are reconciled.

Because I love it to pieces and it so excellently and expertly analyses the rather common romance trope of the alphahole, I wanted to take the opportunity to link to the article written by my favourite author team (sorry Christina Lauren) Ilona Andrews. Bennett Ryan is an alphahole of the first order:
- He is extremely good at his job and excels in everything he does.
- He has a terrible temper and such exacting standards that he is feared by pretty much all the interns of the company and when Chloe goes away, can't keep an assistant for more than a day or two.
- He loves his family, but is otherwise known to have had a string of female conquests with no apparent need to settle down before he suddenly initiates a sexual relationship with Chloe.
- There is a distinct lack in status between Bennett and Chloe: he is her boss, she is his intern. They can at a future point be equals, but are not at present.

While Bennett may seem to have all the power, from the very beginning, Chloe gives as good as she gets, and frequently has the emotional upper hand. Because we get to see whole chapters from Bennett's POV, it's clear that he's never really been in love before and is deeply confused (and therefore angered) by his new and baffling emotions and keeps saying and doing the wrong thing and then patching over it with more smexy times. 

Beautiful Bitch is a novella set about a year after Chloe and Bennett made up and the couple barely have time to see each other anymore because of their busy schedules (although they still seem to manage to have some hanky panky in Bennett's office now and then) and they are about to start a new office in New York and have a million things to deal with. Bennett decides they need a vacation and they are set to go to France, but they are separated by flight delays for several days and re-assess their thoughts about their feelings for one another and the future of their relationship while they have some time apart.

While this story had a lot of *insert funky bass-line here* and the protagonists still seem to use personal insults in lieu of endearments (to each their own), there was a lot frank communication and actual character development. In fact, in flash back, the readers are shown what happened after the grand gesture reconciliation bit, where the two actually speak about their emotions clearly for the first time (why couldn't this have been in the first book in the first place?) and while I still found both of the characters rather exhausting and a bit abrasive, I at least believed that there was more to their relationship than being very cut-throat and driven in business and quite aggressive  in the bedroom. The authors almost made me believe the couple might have a future together after all.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 90: "Dirty Rowdy Thing" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 352 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Like their friends Mia and Ansel, Harlow Vega and Finn Roberts had a wild, unforgettable night together in Vegas, where they drunkenly got married. Unlike their friends, Harlow and Finn got an annulment the very next morning. While the sex was amazing, neither of them are entirely sure they even like each other. With the exception of a brief impulsive weekend, when Harlow turned up at Finn's house in Canada wearing nothing but a trench coat, where they spent their whole time together hooking up, they've barely seen each other.

Now their friend Oliver is fulfilling his dream of opening a comic book store, and Finn and Harlow find themselves in each other's company a lot more often. Harlow, who is normally the one who takes care of everyone and everything, solving and fixing any problem thrown at her, has received some very bad news about a family member and is in a new and vulnerable place because of it. Finn, who has been running his family's fishing business since he was a teenager is in California to talk to some investors, as he and his brothers may be unable to run their business successfully without help anymore. Both are used to being in control and the new state of affairs is deeply unsettling to them. What starts out as casual hook-ups to blow off some steam quickly evolves into something a lot more significant.

As far as I can tell, in most of Christina Lauren's books, there is alternating narration from the hero and heroine. Sweet Filthy Boy, the first book in the series, only had Mia's POV throughout the book, this one changes between Harlow and Finn. I liked that a lot more, because seeing both sides of a romance as its developing always feels more satisfying. On the surface, Finn and Harlow could not be more different. Finn is from a small town in Canada, having helped out with or personally run his family's fishing business since he was a boy. He's big and very strong, and not the most emotionally forthcoming, having been surrounded only by men since his mother died when he was a young teen. Harlow is the beautiful eldest daughter of a famous movie star and a successful cinematographer. She works as an unpaid intern about twelve hours a week and thanks to a very generous trust fund, doesn't really need to work at all if she doesn't want to. While Finn initially sees her as a vapid socialite, he quickly discovers that there are a lot more layers to Harlow when he actually spends some time with her.

Like in the previous book, the relationship between the protagonists starts out as purely physical, with Harlow and Finn finding release from their worries in each other. My major complaint with Sweet Filthy Boy was that I felt cheated out of the emotional development between the characters, because all that was described, not just mentioned in passing, was the sex. Possibly because we get the story from both Harlow and Finn's POVs, more time is also spent on their feelings, which gradually change as they keep seeking each other out. In this book, the final quarter, where the big misunderstanding is introduced, is less well handled than in the previous book, but overall, I think I still prefer this one. Not enough to give it another half a star, but possibly quarter of one (I'm not going to start doing quarter stars, that way madness lies).

While Harlow was a secondary character who mainly talked to Mia on the phone in the previous book, although her impulsive visit to Canada was mentioned, there is more time spent in this book on the setup for the next one. Mia and Harlow's third friend, Lola, who also got married in Vegas, but never so much as kissed her husband, Oliver, is spending a lot of time in his comic book store and it's quite clear that while they may just have spent their night in Vegas talking, he is head over heels in love with his ex-wife, patiently waiting for her to notice him, while supporting her in her increasingly successful career as a comic book artist. Just the fact that the next book is going to be about a hot Australian bespectacled, blond guy who runs a comic book store (I'm basically picturing Chris Hemsworth in that photo from the new Ghostbusters movie) and a female comic book artist fills me with so much glee. Their book is out shortly, and I can't wait to read it.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR7 Book 89: "Sweet Filthy Boy" by Christina Lauren

Page count: 416 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Mia Holland goes to Las Vegas with her two best friends to celebrate her college graduation. Mia's dream was once to become a dancer, but a nasty car accident put a stop to that dream and now she's on track to fulfil her father's dream for her, which is fast track through a prestigious business school in Boston. He's even offered to help pay for her apartment there. This Vegas weekend is Mia's last chance to cut loose, and she sure does.

Mia is shy, almost painfully so, and after her accident, she barely spoke at all for a long time. Her two besties have learned to interpret her silences and body language, but are shocked to see that when Mia is with Ansel, the hot French attorney from the suite across from theirs, she opens up, flirting and becoming a regular chatter box. That Ansel has two good looking friends that Mia's two BFFs can hook up with is a pleasant bonus. Mia has one weekend to go wild, and Ansel was only supposed to be a one night stand. But when Mia wakes up the next morning, only barely able to walk from her truly epic night, to discover a wedding band on her finger, she's not sure what to do. Ansel hands her a letter over breakfast, a letter she wrote to herself the night before. Mia wrote herself a letter once before, after her accident, and it's one of the things that gave her the strength to go on. In her drunken letter from the night before, she confesses that she's the one who proposed and that she really wants to give the marriage a try. Ansel claims he promised he wouldn't agree to annul the marriage until after the summer and wants Mia to come back to Paris with him.

Harlow and Lola, Mia's friends, also got married and have no hesitations about getting annulments. Mia thinks going to Paris is completely crazy, but after returning home, and facing a whole summer living in the presence of her disapproving father, she decides to extend her wild weekend to a wild summer, takes the plunge and goes with Ansel. Of course, she gets her period on the plane, while wearing white jeans. Then she's struck down with a horrible flu, meaning her new husband has to hold her hair back while she's sick all over his fancy Paris apartment and spoon feed her until she regains her health. Finally waking up after a week of illness, Mia is struck by that fact that she married a complete stranger. Now she's far away from everyone she's ever known, trying to see if absolutely mind-blowing sex can be the beginning of a stable relationship.

At the end of July, NPR published their list of 100 swoon-worthy romances. Sweet Filthy Boy was included among the contemporary romances. It also made it to the final eight books of Dear Author and Smart Bitches, Trashy Books' March Madness tournament, which is where I first heard of the books. Along came my key word challenge for August, where this book fit right in. I was pretty much hooked from the get go.

I really liked Mia, and related to her shyness and insecurities. All her dreams were crushed along with her leg in that car accident and now she doesn't actually know what she wants with her life. Going to business school to please her father is clearly something she's deeply ambivalent about, but at least then he'll look at her with something other than disappointment. She's so clearly the sort of person who rarely, if ever, does something without considering all the alternatives first. So hooking up with Ansel, getting married and then deciding to stay married to him, following him to Paris to actually try to make the relationship worked was clearly going so completely out of her comfort zone, she might as well have left the galaxy. I loved her friendship with Harlow and Lola, who are clearly important supportive characters in her life and that even though they could have just been mentioned briefly as shameless sequel fodder, they are actualised characters, for all that they mainly speak to Mia over the phone for much of the book.

Ansel seemed to me to be a Greek god physically speaking and a bit like an adolescent puppy dog in personality at times. He's clearly extremely attractive, and being in his presence makes Mia feel enough at ease that she can really be herself. Unfortunately, since Mia isn't entirely sure yet who her real self is after the accident, having never taken the time to really settle down and think what she wants to do with herself, their time together isn't always smooth sailing. Extremely impulsive, Ansel pretty much just liked the idea of having Mia around when he got home in the evenings, ready and willing in his bed (or anywhere else in the apartment, they really don't seem to limit themselves to just the bedroom), not really considering how much time Mia has to spend alone when he's busy working. Up over his ears in a high-profile, extremely demanding lawsuit, Ansel spends a lot of time away from Mia, whose left to explore one of the most romantic cities in the world on her own.

Luckily, both Ansel and Mia acknowledge that a marriage is going to need work, and it's clear that they do a fair amount of talking and interacting. What I didn't like about the book is that this is just TOLD to me, not shown. Mia and Ansel have a LOT of sex. So much of it. In Las Vegas, in France. There's some awkwardness once Mia gets worried and self-conscious and overthinks things for a while, but they seem to work through that very fast. I get that the physical connection is what pretty much brought them together, and from Mia's internal monologue I understand that she and Ansel spent much of their first night together talking and that this also happens in Paris. It's just that when I'm not privy to the information that's exchanged during said conversations, I don't really see how their connection builds from the spectacular smexy times and I get annoyed and honestly, a bit bored.

I also thought, apart from his massive work load, Ansel seemed just a little bit too perfect. Sure, he's obsessively tidy, but he's also gorgeous, attentive, funny, generous, an amazing lover - you get the gist. Where were his flaws? About two thirds of the way through the book, one pretty major flaw is revealed, however, and it's a pretty impressive dark secret to have been harbouring. I very much admire the way Mia dealt with it, in a way that shows how much she develops over the course of the book and through her time with Ansel. While the ending may have been abrupt, it seemed pretty obvious that while Ansel and Mia's time as main characters is over, their story will continue as they pop up as supporting cast in Harlow and Lola's books. This is my first of Christina Lauren's books. They are apparently best friends who write highly successful romance novels together. Based on Mrs. Julien's reviews of their Beautiful Bastard series, I'm not sure they'll be something that appeals to me, but I will certainly be reading the rest of their Wild Seasons books, because I want to see all the characters get their HEAs.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.

#CBR6 Book 106: "Rock Addiction" by Nalini Singh

Page count: 356 pages
Rating: 2.5 stars

DISCLAIMER! This ARC was given to me through NetGalley in return for a fair and unbiased review.

WARNING. This will be a fairly spoilery review, because I'm sick with a cold and can't be bothered to find a non-spoilery way of describing the plot. 

Molly Harper is a shy and timid librarian present at a glamorous celebrity party because her older half-sister is a hot shot publicist. Present at the party are the members of Schoolboy Choir, one of the hottest rock bands in the world right now. Zachary Fox, the lead singer, has apparently fallen madly for Molly, having seen her from across the room and when she leaves, he follows, propositioning her in the lift. Molly, despite having a number of psychological issues from her teenage years and who's still a virgin, decides to take Fox home for a steamy one night stand.

Fox pretty much immediately decides that Molly is the woman for him and he is ready to settle down now. As Molly has a number of trust issues and is worried about commitment, he decides not to tell her that it took him about 48 hours to decide she was his soul mate. It takes about two weeks of passionate smexy times before Molly realises that the rock god who has women throwing themselves at him all the time is the right guy for her. They move to LA together. They keep having awesome sex. Molly tells Fox about her creepy cheating scumbag of a dad and her alcoholic mother and he helps her deal with her trust issues. There's some complications involving the paparazzi and constantly being in the spotlight. They work past it.

There is no real conflict in this book. Seemingly mousy, but in reality really pretty, librarian meets rock frontman at a party and they more or less find insta-love. In less than a month of hooking up, they are living together. Molly moves from NEW ZEALAND to Los Angeles, quitting her job, abandoning all her friends, for this guy she's known for a few weeks. She's super wary of media attention because of a scandal caused by her father when she was fifteen, yet she happily moves in with a man who the tabloids constantly follow. They keep having great sex. All the minor obstacles thrown in the couple's way are dealt with easily, with no real ramifications.

It's not that Molly and Fox aren't a cute couple. I just wish there had been some buildup to their relationship. Since Molly's sister is Schoolboy Choir's publicist, there could have been some legitimate backstory, where they'd met a few times before - but no. They observe each other across the room at a crowded party, then go home together and that's pretty much it. Soul mates. I don't like it, and kept hoping that the book was going to go somewhere more interesting. But it didn't.

So why have you given it a full 3 stars if there was so much that annoyed you, Malin? Because the supporting cast of characters was great. I loved the female friendships in this book, between Molly and her sister and Molly and her best friend. They felt really believable. I'm also expecting that at some point Nalini Singh will release a book or a novella chronicling the probably extremely hot romance between Molly's BFF and her corporate boss, which is hinted at throughout the book. The friendships between the guys in the band is also really well done. It's not like I didn't like Fox and Molly as characters, I just wanted a plausible explanation for why they they became a couple that didn't amount to: they had great sex when he deflowered her and they keep having great sex. I like a good build up. This book had none.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.