Read and Review #28 - Unravel Me (Tori St. Claire)

Title: Unravel Me

Author: Tori St. Claire

Publication date: 24 February 2014
Publisher: Entangled Publishing — Brazen

Get a copy! Amazon | Google Play Store | Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

Letting go might be the key that unlocks her pleasure…

Attorney Cassie Blaire has spent most of her life living by rules. Rules that keep her life sensible, and on the right path. But five years after losing her husband, Cassie is saying sayonara to “sensible.” And it starts now—with indulging a need she’s long denied.

When he arrives in Colorado, all Brad Steele wants is a scotch before he has to play nice in the first face-to-face meeting with his co-counsel in an ugly divorce case. But instead, he finds her—a lush, inviting stranger whose dark eyes invite him to sin...and thirst turns into a raw, undeniable hunger.

Now Cassie is initiated into a world that has nothing to do with being sensible, and everything to do with sensuality. Under Brad’s guiding touch, she’s receiving an education in desire—one that breaks all of the old rules, and explores tantalizing new ones. And once she learns that her naughty one-nighter is her arrogant co-counsel, all of her objections will be sustained...

My rating:
2 / 5

My review:
"ARC generously provided by the publishers via Netgalley in exchange for an honest opinion"

The first few chapters of the book is great. Until I get to the rest of the book. 

I'm all in for people who meet and part after a one night stand. A very hot one night stand. Cassie and Brad's encounter was refreshing and a good opening to the story in my opinion. Strangers meet, have sex then leave. No name, no info, no expectations. I didn't expect anything and that's why it was great. And then came the post one night stand.

It left a bad taste in my mouth because after reading the chapters after, it's like reading about two completely different people. Who is this woman claiming to want to break out of submission? Who is this man trying to be a dominant wannabe? It's hard to process their relationship because while I get that the author wants them to be two different people by day and night, it just didn't work out. 

I gave it a 2 rating out of 5 because of the first few chapters. If only it stopped there.

Read and Review #18 - The Do-Over (M.K. Schiller)

Title: The Do-Over

Author: M.K. Schiller
Publication date: 7 October 2013
Publisher: Loose Id
Get a copy! Barnes & Noble

Synopsis:

Arrogant womanizer Kyle Manchester hates blind dates; however, when best friend, Brad calls in a favor, insisting Kyle take out his girlfriend’s sister, Kyle reluctantly agrees. Attorney Lanie Carmichael’s appearance is no surprise. She is dowdy, awkward, and dressed in so many layers she resembles a wedding cake, but not in an edible way. Her brazen attitude though, astonishes him, especially when she explains she has no interest in gorgeous Kyle. Lanie Carmichael is in love with Brad, and wants Kyle’s assistance in winning his best friend’s heart.

Kyle gradually accepts, justifying that the mystery of Lanie has sparked his natural, thirsty curiosity. As an ambitious journalist, he also can’t resist the Pulitzer worthy scoop she offers him. However, as Lanie sheds more layers, both emotionally and physically, Kyle begins to examine his life choices, and his true feelings for this enigmatic girl. With Kyle’s support, Lanie begins to unravel the secrets of her past, and the deep pain that has quietly defined her life. As they each learn more about themselves and each other, both question how a relationship built on fraudulent lies between two broken people could ever survive.

My rating:

5 / 5

My review:

My first erotica of the year! And it's fantabulous!

I was expecting tons of kinky sex with mediocre emotional attachment but this book has more emotional attachment than sex scenes. I immediately fell for Kyle despite his arrogance and shallow thinking of women. I mean, he's the typical arrogant, womanizing hero. But Lanie, now she's one of those rare heroines. She didn't fall for Kyle immediately. She didn't even try to act all pretentious around him. Their first encounter spoke nothing but intelligence and I am glad to have read that so early on in the book. No 'He's so fucking hot' and 'His biceps are amazing and his eyes are a beautiful shade of the fucking ocean'. I am so done with those shit. Best of all? No beating around the bush. No sugarcoating anything. 

At first, I didn't understand the way Lanie kept hiding herself under thick layer of clothings and became such a pushover around others except for Kyle. She was a fierce woman who knows what she wants and wouldn't hesitate to ask for it. And she wanted Brad. Brad, her colleague, a nice, charming guy and also, her sister Cassie's boyfriend. And to get Brad, she needed Kyle's help.

Now, having read tons of books like this I already expected what's going to happen and I thought, 'Well here goes the same ol' story again'. And I wasn't wrong. However, I was expecting it to be accompanied by hot sex and all that kinky-ness. 

But each sex scenes were so tender and full of emotion, mainly in Kyle's part. I mean, the man told her that they would be friends with benefits but it seems that he had been too involved earlier than her. Lanie kept her distance although I have an idea when she actually fell for him. Took him a while to coax her out of her shell that was built from self-preservation.

They have similar reasons for acting the way they did and as their secrets were unravelled, I began to understand them more. I like Lanie who was fierce without being annoying or bossy and Kyle, whose faux arrogance hid a sweet, sensitive guy.

You know who I definitely despise though? Cassie and her mother. They were so pretentious and the way they treated Lanie as if she's a disappointment made me want to punch some sense into them. I get the reason why but they were so enmeshed with their past and really, they don't deserve Lanie's love for them. When Lanie had enough of them and decided to cut them loose, I felt like it wasn't satisfying enough. I just wished someone punched Cassie at least. (I do realize that my name is also Casey))

Great read. I can't believe I finished it in one sitting. I always thought that erotica had this bunch of sex scenes in various positions, involving toys and maybe a little BDSM but this is definitely just purely emotional sex. If there are erotica written this way, I wouldn't mind venturing into this genre more.