GRR Reviews Rebellion by Aidy Award

NOTE: This is a continuation to Rebound

With help of her bodyguard/lover, Grayson, Angelina has learned how to love her BBW body and her kink. But Gray will only watch, and never participate. Angelina has had enough. If he won't touch her, she'll find someone who does, and embrace her inner diva and dominatrix... // Gray knew that Angelina's taste of kink is just that... a taste. She doesn't know true submission, and Gray knew if he ever goes full out, he will break her. So he stayed away. But now that she's trying to run from him, he will have to save her... from herself, by having someone teaching her submission...

Very good kink, sexy, sensual, without too much of the mindset and verbiage, but mostly about the lust. 4.5/5

GRR Reviews Rebound by Aidy Award

Warning: HFN ending, sort of a cliffhanger, 3-book series

Angelina hates being a doormat, and finding her fiancee cheating, then being called chubby was the last straw, no matter what her parents say. The only one who seems to understand her is Grayson, her bodyguard. Yes, she has one. She really REALLY want to seduce him, after getting a hint that his tastes run toward the darker side... but for revenge sex? Angelina will get her freak on by finding two hot guys and getting some menage a troi... // Gray knew what Angel wanted, but what he wanted from her will break her, because he's already broken, and he won't be her rebound. But he'll protect her... He'll vet the men she invited into her bed, he'll control the action, and he'll save her from herself... and himself...

Very interesting take on the kink lifestyle. The mythical "gentle dom" and the slow introduction of an ingenue into the kink lifestyle certainly takes a couple interesting twists here. Gray doesn't participate except spectate, yet there's no denying he's the dom, yes, over the guys too. There's certainly some MFM action, and quite a bit of sex. The series continues in Rebellion and Reignite.  If you like the sex, this is 5/5, lots of "reluctant lover" stuff.

GRR Reveiws Something Borrowed by Eve Dangerfield

Elle hated weddings, esp. destination weddings. (She also hated to fly.) But for her best friend, she can make one exception... Until she found herself seated next to none other than her nemesis, Jackson... // Jackson was a douche, and he knew it. Emphasis on "was". He wants to prove he's reformed to Elle, but he can't think of how, esp. when Elle doesn't even want to be next to him. When he noticed something about Elle... He decided to take the gamble... One week of submission to Elle... any orders (short of illegal or dangerous stuff, of course) to him will be followed... EXCEPT getting himself off. Yes, that. He will go blue balls for a week. And if she STILL hated him by the end of the week, he'll leave her alone forever. Unable to resist, they get involved, and their relationship turned VERY complicated indeed... She found he had indeed changed, but is it for the better? And he found her domineering attitude in the bedroom refreshing... and he liked it... But will they really resolve their differences before the wedding?

Oooh... Femdom kink, albeit in such a delightful way that you almost don't realize you're reading D/s. Yes, Jackson tried to top from the bottom, but Elle put an end to that quickly. This may be the best "fun" intro to D/s relationship romance I've found so far. 5/5

GRR Reviews Men of Inked (3-book collection) by Chelle Bliss

NOTE: This is a 3-book collection, it'll be rated separately, and there's an overall rating.

Throttle Me -- Suzy had mapped out her life: work hard, get her own career established, find a stable man, get married, live happily ever after. Unfortunately, her plan got derailed when "City", a tattooed Harley rider who works in a tattoo shop, came into her life, by rescuing her one night. They had chemistry together, but City had his heart broken at college and is now a rake and a commitment-phobe. But their relationship had both of them question everything they thought they knew about what they wanted... and City is keeping a secret...

Not bad, different worlds novel is pretty obvious, and scars are pretty trope, but there's some good polish on it and multiple layers of tropes, like biker, Italian, and even a bit of disguise. 4/5

Hook me -- Michael Gallo is the MMA fighter who enjoys the physical domination of his opponent, but a fight ended up with him in the ER, and met Dr. Mia Greco. Mia is having nightmares about all the people she can't save in the ER, and she prefers running the neighborhood free clinic. Michael, who's actually quite smart, wanted to woo Mia, and they have chemistry together, but Mia can't reconcile the fighter who damages people with the caring and sensitive man Michael seems to be...

I honestly don't feel the conflict other than she can't see past his gruff tattoed exterior. 3/5

Resist me -- Isabelle "Izzie" Gallo is the baby of the family, and even though she trash-talks just like her brothers, in secret she loves a man who can dominate her, which can be difficult when no one dare get close with so many brothers around. She got one great night with an undercover cop handler James, who was alpha enough for her... But she figured it's one-night, and she snuck off. Later, she went off with one guy "Flash" for a MC weekend in Daytona, and ended up in a MC club, where she was almost claimed by the MC VP... until a disciple stepped in... It was her older brother Thomas, in deep undercover. And Thomas had to call in James to rescue her. She's just too much sass... and he's just too much alpha. But he needs to watch out for her brother Thomas, and she has her own life...

A bit too much sex, as things got a bit kinkier, but other than initial chemistry, and basic inadequacy issues, there isn't much threat to the relationship. 3/5

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 3/5  (average of all 3 ratings)

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

GRR Reviews Forbidden Passion by Melissa Devenport and Camielle Crosby

Charlene just buried her father when Clayton reappeared in her life. Clayton was once her father's best friend, and Charlene's crush at 16. Then Clayton disappeared from her life... ten years ago. Now he's back... And now finally, Charlene understood why her father made that decision to end the friendship... Clayton is a kinkster, and if Charlene wants him, she'll have to learn her own desires... But when someone else wanted Clayton and is willing to do some evil things to get him, what will happen to their relationship?

Didn't feel much for this one. It's swinger's party and similar kinks. It's basically sex, sex, and more sex.

Category: Contemporary / Erotic

Primary Plot: Woman found the man she once wanted is back... and he's into kinky sex. Does she still want him?

Overall Rating: 2/5

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

GRR Reviews Hero by Julia Sykes

Hero managed to properly portray a kink relationship (who'd knew FBI is full of kinksters?) but a reporter who can't speak up about her own abuse just left me scratching my head...

Chloe is a reporter working on the story about the Latin Kings gang infiltrating New York and has special permission to interview some FBI agents on the case. She fled from an abusive husband a while back and is also secretly a romance author writing about BDSM, even though she doesn't partake in the lifestyle herself. Her last sexual experience was her husband raping her, and she left that night to start over. She can't allow anyone close enough to hurt her... Until Dex, the FBI agent assigned to her. Dex lost his heart to a sub a while back. He was her best friend and her lover, but he didn't collar her (claim her as his) and someone else "stole" her from him. He moved away from Chicago, hoping to escape the torment of seeing her with someone else. Getting close to Chloe was not possible; he has no heart to give. But his instinct to protect her is strong, even as Chloe fights her attraction to Dex and was repelled by his Dom personality... it just feels so close to abuse... When Chloe's ex husband made an appearance, will Chloe be pushed into Dex's arms... or run for her life again?

The ending twist was way too convenient and not quite satisfying. I like the way the SM relationship developed though.

Category: Contemporary/ Suspsense

Primary Plot: Dom FBI agent assigned for a reporter to shadow must protect her from gangs and her evil ex-husband who's stalking her

Overall Rating:

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

GRR Reviews Saved (Honor Bound) by Angel Payne

Saved left me conflicted. While the kink aspects seem to be properly written, the premise, about human traffickers going after military women didn't make sense.

Garrett, a special forces soldier, no longer care whether he lived or died. The love of his life, Sage Weston, was MIA, presumed dead when her medical unit was ambushed in Africa. But one mission in Thailand, where the unit was tasked with the rescue of American women kidnapped by human traffickers lead him to shock of his life: Sage is still alive and rescued. But Garrett is no longer the same. In the dark hours of his soul, he had taken to a BDSM lifestyle that he cannot possibly spoil Sage with, not after her ordeal. But when the human trafficking boss came after Sage and her fellow rescuees again, intending to get revenge, Garrett will discover a new side of Sage that he must take to full advantage to eliminate the threat once and for all.

The kink was properly written, and the military details have no obvious holes in it. The problem is the setup didn't make sense. How did Sage got from Africa all the way over to Thailand? Who pronounced them dead? Why military women who are at least trained with guns and some martial arts, even if they are not soldiers? And how did Garrett and his buddies got so much time off to run off saving Sage again?

Category: Contemporary / Military

Primary Plot: Military woman kidnapped by human traffickers was rescued by her love, but the trafficker's boss came after her again...

Overall Rating: 3/5

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

GRR Reviews Changing Her Mind (The O'Malleys Book by Stevie MacFarlane

Changing Her Mind didn't come across to me as "romantic", though there's definitely some unrequited lust and stuff.

Rebecca lost her family early on and grew up with the O'Malleys. She wanted Mason O'Malley for a VERY long time, but he's always treated her as the surrogate little sister. But Becca is all grown up now, and she's determined to put her... womanly gifts to full use. But Mason will not accept one-night stands. he wanted forever, i.e. marriage and all that. And that, Becca is not ready for. But with a few spankings (Mason rather enjoys throwing Becca over his knees...) perhaps Mason can change Becca's mind...

Uh... I don't get this at all. The ending was a sudden shift to a sick/comfort scenario, and the whole idea of using erotic spanking as persuasion is just a bit morally ambiguous, but then he's already morally ambiguous. There's also a secondary plot between Mason's brother Nick, and a different girl, Maggie that didn't mix well with the primary plot. While I like the push-pull, the other elements left me with "WTF?!" feeling.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Can the adoptive little sister have the brother she always wanted when he wanted forever? Would a little kink help?

Overall Rating: 2/5

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

GRR Reviews The MacKenzies: Omnibus Books 1-5 by Liliana Hart

The McKenzies omnibus is a collection of five novellas in the series that are somewhat uneven, but not too bad.

Dane: Bad boy Dane is back in town. He left behind Charlotte Munroe to make a name for himself. He's back to claim her. But Charlie has no intention to take him back... His prior betrayal cut too deep... and she has a reminder every day... their son. She was sure Dane is going to leave again... But their attraction to each other can't be denied...

Angst-y, but the secret baby trope can only carry the story so far. 3/5

Thomas: Doctor Thomas Mackenzie had rescued damsels in distress before, but usually not right in front of his family farm, when a car, dodging a cow, smashed right through the fence his brothers had just fixed. The woman's hurt, and bleeding from a gunshot wound. Who's she, and how did she get here? Thomas knew this is the woman for him, but will she accept that? Esp. when it's clear she's keeping secrets?

It's a bit of insta-lust here, the attraction isn't that well explained. 3/5

Riley: Maggie is in trouble. Her boyfriend sent her an artifact, then disappeared off the face of the Earth. He told her to go find Riley MacKenzie, an Egyptologist, and the artifact, allegedly cursed, has people all over the world fighting, and perhaps, killing for it. Maggie saw Riley, and he's everything she'd dreamed of in a man. And a snowstorm will test their resolve... but when bad guys close in, they'll see what they're truly made of...

Good twist on the romantic suspense short 4/5

Cooper: Sheriff Cooper Mackenzie is also a BDSM player. He was surprised to see Claire, 10 years his junior, in a BDSM club he was doing a stake-out, sitting on a mobster's lap. Claire wanted Cooper for a very long time, and being a librarian, she researched the subject extensively before embarking on his attempt to seduce Cooper... by becoming his perfect sub... And Cooper has no choice but to claim her for his own... if only to keep her out of trouble...

As a BDSM novel, it's actually not bad, but nothing that special either. 4/5

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: N/A -- collection

Overall Rating: 4/5  (rounded up)

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

GRR Reviews YIELD - Emily & Damon (Fettered) by Lilia Moon

Yield managed to capture the excitement and sensual feel of kink while understanding the lifestyle, even though the premise, upon reflection, is trope as heck. It is, however, very well polished and enjoyable.

Emily is Seattle's best wedding planner with the superpower to handle all details and not leaving out a single one. When one of her clients wanted a wedding in a BDSM club, she didn't bat an eye, even though she never been in one. Her preparations lead her to Club Fettered, owned by Damon Black, the most "notorious" dom in Seattle. Damon knew Emily was way too innocent to play in his world, he hoped he can scare her away with a demonstration... 24 hours with him, as sorta BDSM for Dummies. But she didn't react the way he thought she would. Now he can't stay away...

This is about the sensual way to do BDSM, just light spanking and some toys. Though it's basically a fantasy... an experienced dom somehow found a noob that turned out to be an ideal sub after ONE encounter and gently groomed her. But it is quite titillating and enjoyable.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Can a wedding planner who had never done BDSM as a sub fall for the city's most notorious dom after just 24 hours?

Overall Rating: 4/5

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

GRR Reviews Mail Order Sass by Alix West

Mail Order Sass is a mail-order bride story that made very little sense. It also quickly veered into a kink fantasy, which is both a bit anachronistic and just plain WEIRD for a virgin.

Will Travis ordered a mail order bride from the east for his ranch life. He wanted someone older, wiser, experienced. What he got was young, pretty, delicate looking, and way too sassy. Charlotte is an orphan looking for a way out, and she'll take her chances to marry a man she'd never seen. Will and Charlotte agreed that they will wait 30 days to consummate their marriage, and Charlotte intends to make full use of those 30 days to win Will's heart, even though Will insisted this marriage was not for love...

An orphan who was probably way too busy working and marry herself out... somehow developed spanking fantasy? By a groom she'd never met? I swear some of these authors use random plot generators or something.  Wait 30 days for what? What about her reputation? The plot is nonsense.

Category: Historical Western

Primary Plot: Mail order bride needs to convince the groom to keep her for love, even though he insists he has no love to give...

Tropes: kink, mail order bride, different worlds, fish out of water, marriage of convenience

Overall Rating:  2/5

GRR Reviews Handling Susannah (Mail-Order Grooms by Amelia Smarts

Handling Susannah is an odd combo... Historical Western Romance with spanking and BDSM. I honestly find the plot absurd, but the setup is interesting.

Adam Harrington was about to lose his family ranch when sheep ranchers basically stole his portion of land with the grass, and his father's deed was never clear on where the dividing line was, and he can't raise cattle on what's left. He liquidated his ranch just as he saw the unusual ad... a woman needs a mail order groom to inherit the ranch she grew up on. Susannah Smith is indeed beautiful, and she invited him to wed. Upon arriving, he found that his bride was actually a conniving fallen woman... Not only did she invite 3 other cowboys as well, she has a son born out of wedlock, and knows almost nothing about being a ranch owner or housewife. She was pretty much a spoiled brat, not that she can wed anyone in town, as nobody with any sense would marry her. Adam was expecting a sweet young virginal bride; Susannah was expecting a husband that can be lead... Neither is what the other expected... but he'll do his darndest to make it work, even if he had to spank some sense into her...

This book left me confused. On one hand, I admire the setup that handcuffed the two opposites together. On the other hand, I don't like how Susannah's "transformation" was handled. Basically, it's exactly as described... he had her over his knees and spanked her, and she enjoyed it, and that basically turned her, kinda, into a proper lady... Uh, sorry, that makes no sense at all. It balanced out to an average score for me.

Category: Historical Western / Kink

Primary Plot: Mail order groom arrived to find the woman concealed a lot about herself and is a spoiled brat; he'll spank some sense into her

Tropes: Alpha male, mail order bride/groom, kink, weird will,

Overall Rating:  3/5

GRR Reviews Secret Lovers (Friendship Chronicles) by Shelley Munro

Secret Lovers was supposed to be a love triangle and a friend into lovers story, but the lameness of the nemesis resulted in a pre-ordained victory instead of a tense competition.

Maggie Drummond has a boyfriend... Greg in her office, but Greg is about as vanilla as they come, and after trying to run her life one too many time, she has had enough. But she had to keep her job. Fortunately, she'll always have Connor as a friend, and her clique of girlfriends. Maggie wanted to try a little kink in her life, a little spanking, and even set up an anon blog to explore her fantasies. But as her imagination blossomed, Greg started to restrict her life more, even as Connor offered to have a fling with her, as he had eyed Maggie for a while and really want to get out of the friend zone. And Maggie never told Connor that her clique had a pact... to NOT date Connor. Now Maggie had to juggle lies and half-truths, as she tried to have Connor as FWB, fend off Greg at work, and lie to all her girls... and she'll be forced to make a choice: abandon her job and her friends to indulge in her fantasy... or is there an HEA with Connor?

This plot included several LAYERS of deception, as Maggie had to juggle lies to her friends, to Greg, to work (about her blog), and so on. And Greg was basically a robot, too one-dimensional, to be taken seriously. The way all the lies coalesced into one big darkest hours, when all the lies came due, was really good, but the ending seems to have dragged on a bit too long. If Greg was more of a real bad guy, this novel would be perfect.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman was being smothered by her boss boyfriend but needed her job; her male friend offered to have a fling; she had to lie...

Tropes: disguise, kink, secret liaisons, evil boss

Overall Rating:  4/5