GRR Reviews Beauty and the Geek (Gone Geek) by Sidney Bristol

Professor Steven "Steve" Kipper is used to the stares... He has a birthmark covering most of his face, which made his dating life non-existent. This pushed him to excel in robotics and made him even more of a loner. Then he found her in a chatroom. She's like the perfect fit for him. She gets his humor, his tech, and they even have cybersex, but they never exchanged names, and they've never seen each other's faces. How can he convince her to take this relationship offline to RL (real life)? // Tamara works in the geek and gaming industry, where there are plenty of misogynistic a-holes. When a co-star on a Youtube show pitched a fit because she won't put out, she was let go, and her only solace, besides her besties, is her cyber-lover. However, when the cyberlover pitched his "let's meet in real life" to the wrong woman in her group, she had to leave her comfort zone and meet him face-to-face to salvage her friendship... and see if her feelings to this man are real... or just something virtual.

Not bad, the gaming culture is appropriately presented, with no obvious holes in the narrative vs. reality. The a-hole is just that, but this girl can take care of herself.  It's beauty-and-the-beast. The lead up to darkest hour and grand gesture seems a bit off though, didn't quite sustain the momentum.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Beauty must meet the anon beast to salvage her friendship, even though she knew "beast" may the the man for him... but only in cyberspace

Overall Rating: 4/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Review Dangerous Attraction by Sidney Bristol

Dangerous Attraction is a story about Travis, the ex-SEAL investigating a serial killer; Bliss, the intended victim's sister; Daniel, the killer, and Wendy, the intended victim. As this is a romance, most of the story is about Travis and Bliss, as Daniel wanted Wendy for his dastardly purposes, but Travis was very good at hunting him down, except Bliss keeps getting in his way. In fact, this book was filled with too-stupid-to-live moments that are positively cringe-worthy.

Exhibit 1: Travis told Bliss "stay in the car, I'm going to check out the house". Guess what Bliss does? Yep, when her panic sets in, she drives up to the house, goes in alone.

Exhibit 2: Wendy was told NEVER go outside without an escort. Her housekeeper arrived and she went outside to help with groceries, only to find housekeeper's husband in the trunk and Daniel waiting for her. (Yep, Daniel got to her housekeeper the night before)

Exhibit 3: Bliss, revealed to Daniel, the killer, that Wendy he had abducted earlier was wearing a tracking device, so that police will not show up so that he will not kill everybody just out of spite (really,? You trust the words of a serial killer?)

Exhibit 4: Bliss had both a tazer and a pistol on her. Except apparently either her Tazer is really a stun gun, for she can only use it in contact mode. She dropped it, pulled out the pistol, except it was never cocked (or safety still on), so it wouldn't fire. (Why take a pistol or tazer if you don't know how to use them?)

These kinds of "characters doing the idiot dance" plot make the book hard to recommend. I'm giving this 2/5 instead of just 1 because I feel there are **some** parts of the book that are actually not bad. But I still don't recommend it.

Category: romantic suspense

Primary Plot: serial killer wants woman, hero wants to stop serial killer, woman's sister keep getting in the way of the hero and hero falls for the klutz

Tropes: stalker, SEAL, law enforcement

Overall Rating:  2/5