The Luckiest, by Piper Vaughn and MJ O'Shea

The Luckiest (Lucky Moon #2)

by Piper Vaughn and MJ O'Shea

Published by Loose-ID

Word Count: 91.000

Blurb:

Rock star Nick Ventura has finally hit rock bottom. Jealous of his brother’s new love, he starts overindulging in his usual vices and winds up crashing his car into a department store in a drunken haze. Publicly humiliated and on the verge of jail time, he enters into a court-ordered rehabilitation program.

Nutritionist Luka Novak is flamboyant, effeminate, the type of gay man that bisexual Nick would normally sneer at. His sunny nature hides a deep hurt from a previous relationship. Luka knows he should be wary of Nick’s reputation, but he’s drawn to Nick despite himself. Their tentative friendship turns into romance, but Luka soon comes to realize that Nick's fear of losing his bad boy reputation means he'll probably never go public with their relationship.

Nick never thought he needed anyone, until Luka Novak came into his life. Now he has to reconcile his carefree past with the future he suddenly wants more than anything. And the first lesson he has to learn is how to become the man that both he and Luka need him to be, rather than stay the boy he always was. Alone.

The beginning was just continuous cussing and ramblings of Nicky and I thought I'd never get through it. I've become a fan of Piper Vaughn and MJ O'Shea, so I pushed through, and I didn't regret it. While Nick's grumpily adjusting to rehab life, he's sat in a room where he has to answer questions about himself. Those answers were very funny.

Review:

My first five star review at Gayrotic Reviews!

I loved the first Lucky Moon book, Moonlight Becomes You, but this one was even better. I struggled through the beginning, because Nicky was very grumpy and cursed in every single sentence (it seemed). It went on and on, but I pushed on and I'm glad I did.

Nick behaved like a spoiled brat throughout the book, but the reason for this character trait becomes obvious. Nick was practically raised by his brother, who is only a couple of years older, and grew up in an abusive household. At 30, it was time for him to grow up. I didn't really think he grew up by the end of the book, but he stopped behaving like the jerk he was at the beginning.

Luca was a very realistic character and there's nothing about that man I didn't love. His friend Jeana was also great and their friendship was realistic. Luca was very patient with Nick, but also showed "correct" behavior whenever Nick hurt him with his immaturity.

I loved the interactions between Nick and Luca after Nick got out of rehab. They were sweet and fun. They were also hot, but it wasn't all about the sex. The authors did a great job of building the romance. It wasn't all bubbles and hearts either, because there were many small conflicts in between.

The pace was good. I did think the book was a little too long and there were bits that seemed to stretch on a little without much happening, but it was okay. The plot was very nicely done. If there was one thing that baffled me about the subplot was what happened at Jeana's birthday party. I would have liked to know who mixed that drink that Luca drank (don't want to spoil things here), because something like that is a huge deal and shouldn't have been dismissed that easily. I'm not saying that Luca should have spent emotional drama on it, just that I think it should have been mentioned who mixed that drink and if the person had been caught or not. It wasn't clear if that drink was intended for Luca, though I suspect it was...but then why wasn't the person there when he drank it? Luca's ex, Brent, also just disappeared.

The writing was superb as always. The voice is strong and consistent, and different between the two characters. There's nice and slow character development and the main characters have beautiful and heart wrenching moments together. I think this book is safe for anyone to read and I don't think many would regret reading it.

Writing/Voice: 5/5
Characters/Development: 5/5
Plot/Pace: 5/4
Heat: 5 (Perfect, just the right amount)

Stars: 5

Scales and a Tail, by Stormy Glenn

Scales and a Tail (Midnight Matings #2)

by Stormy Glenn

Published by Siren Publishing

Word Count: 42.000

Blurb:

The paranormal world is in chaos. The elders are tired of their younger people playing the field, causing trouble, and fighting with each other. Everyone who attends the UPAC Conference now has twenty-four hours to claim a mate of a different species. If they don't, they will never have a mate. The spell is cast. There is no escaping the Midnight Matings.

Beauregard Stratford is a bunny shifter. Simple enough, right? Unfortunately, he is the only white bunny shifter in existence. He also is cursed with violet eyes, hyperactivity, a strong weakness for anything shiny, and a penchant for leaving bubble gum everywhere. When he finds himself mated to Sebastian Drakus, a dragon shifter and prince of his kind, Beauregard can't seem to make himself behave no matter how hard he tries. He wants to be good, to make Sebastian proud of him, really he does, but things just keep happening to him? Bubble gum mishaps, getting drunk, not to mention that fact that he is a true bunny and constantly horny. Nothing seems to go right. Can he convince Sebastian he's worth the trouble, or will the dragon prince wash his hands of the whole bunny fiasco?

Review:

Sounds cute, right? I thought so.

I liked the story and the characters, but I had a big problem with the writing and editing. There were numerous repetitions in the text, both things we'd already been told before (sometimes twice), and words repetitions. In one place, for example, six paragraphs in a row start with "Sebastian". There were also a lot of typos that bothered me. I don't mind some, but I get annoyed when there are too many. The writing itself also bothered me. It was very "telling" with very little "showing". This is my first read by Stormy Glenn, but I'm hoping this isn't the best example of her writing style. I'm surprised Siren Publishing didn't do a better job of editing. This is also my first Siren Publishing read.

There were problems with the characters, but they weren't as big as the writing. The Wolf shifter at the beginning - the one chasing Beauregard - sounds so simple minded with his limited vocab. He kept repeating the same lines over and over. It wasn't the effects of the spell, because Sebastian was thinking clearly enough. Appart from that, I did like how Sebastian and Beauregard met and the mating ceremony was hillarious.

The interactions between the main characters were sweet most of the time. I kept waiting to see that first kiss though, but it never happened. I felt it was missing. It also bothered me how Sebastian kept calling Beauregard "bunny" in almost every sentence he uttered. It was cute at first and would have been fine, if it hadn't been so often.

I'm not a big fan of easy acceptances, and there were quite a few in this story. I felt that Beauregard should have been more bothered that Sebastian had slept around before their mating, since Beauregard was raised with high values of waiting before being mated. Beauregard just shrugged it off. I also felt that Sebastian was too quick to realize that he'd been a scum to Beauregard toward the end. It was like someone pushed a button and Sebastian suddenly saw the light. I wish he'd come to the realization more gradually.

Despite the problems I had with the writing and story, I did enjoy it. It was cute, funny, and heartwrenching. I liked the part where Sebastian was in the dog house. I would have given this book two stars if Beauregard had accepted Sebastian too easily (I half expected he would, but was glad that he didn't). The pace was also decent and I never got bored.

Writing/Voice: 2/3
Characters/Development: 4/2
Plot/Pace: 4/5
Heat: 3 (Okay sex)
Stars: 3.5

Turning Idolator, by Edward C. Patterson

Turning Idolator

by Edward C. Patterson

Published by Smashwords

Word Count: 89.000

Blurb:

Philip Flaxen, who strips past his jockstrap on the Internet for manluv.com, acquires a rare gift — a book that transforms his life. With it, he sparks with a famous author, whittles away at a new craft, swims with an odd circle of new acquaintances and is swept up in mayhem. Philip leaves the world of The Porn Nazi and enters the realm of crisp possibilities.


Review:

Oh what can I say...I literally had to drag myself through most of this book.

Okay, first, it's a literary book, which means fancy prose. It's beautiful, but soooo slow. Serious pacing issues. The blurb doesn't indicate this writing style and neither does the topic (an online stripper).

Second, the descriptions were way, waaay too long at points. It really slowed down the reading and I think it could have gone without a lot of it. Especially at the beginning of part two, where it goes pages and pages in the point of view of a seagull, then a whale, then a cat, and finally a dog before we get to the humans. Wow, I didn't see the purpose of it and found myself skimming through most of it. A content editor would have quickly yanked that out. There are actually quite a few places in this book where I would have stopped reading, because the pace just died, if I hadn't been forced to continue for the challenge I read this for.

Third, I'm giving this story 3.5 stars despite the above faults. The main reason is that it was a beautiful story between Philip and his love interest - and by beautiful, I mean epic. I may have had to drag myself through the first 70%, but the last 30% I read with frevor, being moved by the emotions and desperate to know about those killings. The characters were deep, the plot was nicely woven, and I think this story will stay with me forever. I'm glad I dragged myself past the first 70%. With proper content editing, this would be a solid 5 star book for me.

Writing/Voice: 4/3
Characters/Development: 4/4
Plot/Pace: 4/1
Heat: 1 (No sex. Would have loved some)
Stars: 3.5

An Uncommon Whore, by Belinda McBride

An Uncommon Whore (An Uncommon Whore)

by Belinda McBride

Published by Loose Id, LLC

Word Count: 42.000

Blurb:

Pasha is a slave, whoring for travelers at the most dangerous bar on Warlan. He has no memory, no future of his own, yet deep inside Pasha knows that that he is meant for better things. The day that Pasha spots the dangerous pirate in the bar, he knows that he mustn't let the stranger slip away, regardless of what he must do to attract his attention.

Captain Griffin Hawke spent the greater part of a decade searching for his lost king, only to find Helios Dayspring crouched between his knees, swathed in the robes and shackles of a whore. Though he is appalled by the downfall of his king, the hardened officer finds himself falling for the allure of the sensual creature who has taken his place. Returning Helios to his position on the throne is the only right thing to do, yet Griffin knows that in doing so, he risks losing his lover forever.


Reivew:

This story had me from the get go. The first scenes really grabbed me...but then it tilted downwards. I'm not saying it was bad from there on out, it just lacked that intriguing explosiveness it had at the beginning. I felt Helios's original character didn't get to shine through after he was told about his past. The sex scenes sometimes felt like they were put here and there just for the sake of having sex scenes (they were beautifully written though).

Although the beginning was like an explosion, the end was like a burnt match. It felt too cut-off, almost as if the first book and second were originally one long book, but the editor decided it would be better to make them into two books. Everything felt too good in the end and it seemed a bit unrealistic. Helios also didn't seem too bothered at having been subjected to whoredom for a few years. One would think he would have been traumatized by it, or it should have at least made some profound impact on his character (I couldn't see that it had). I would have liked to see him struggle with it more.

But I liked the story, and the world, and the characters. I want to read the second book to find out things that were left hanging in this one. The writing is great and I had a hard time putting it down.

In Short:
Writing/Voice: 5/3
Characters/Development: 4/3
Plot/Pace: 5/3
Heat: 3 (Hot scenes, a little too much in the end)
Stars: 3.5