Master of Dragons, by Angela Knight

This is my entry for July’s TBR Challenge, and I’m making it fit in a very idiosyncratic way: I was aiming for any unread print book in my house, published at least 20 years ago (VINTAGE, get it?). Of course, I couldn’t find even one (watch me find a dozen as soon as the review is up). So I moved my goal to “oldest paper ARC in my possession”, and…look, I’ve had it for over fifteen years, I’m going with it (not taking bets on how many I’ve actually have had for longer, or how soon after posting I’ll find at least three).

It’s been a minute since I’ve read any of Ms Knight’s work, and this is the fifth novel (and eighth overall installment) in the Mageverse series, so please do take that into account when reading this review.

Opening Up, by Lauren Dane

I am generally a fan of Ms Dane’s work, with the Federation Chronicles, and their spinoff, the Phantom Corps novels, being my favorites by her.

However, what with my TBR taking over my house (yes, I have a problem, but admitting it hasn’t helped me any–and no, thanks, I don’t want help with this particular problem), I had not read anything new by her in a while. Then I realized that Falling Under was coming out this month, and since–thanks to Sela Carsen–I seem to be finally getting over the reading slump from hell, I decided to start the series at the beginning, so I treated myself to this book.

Usual warning: this is an erotic romance, with graphic language and graphic sex. If you object to either, do us both a favor, and skip this one.

Opening Up, by Lauren Dane

This is the first in the Ink and Chrome series, about a group (three?) friends who co-own a “hot rod and motorcycle shop”–whatever that actually means.¹

At any rate, Asa is an ex-Marine, with a love for cars and motorcycles, a need for adrenaline, and little compunction to engage in the occasional bout of recreational violence (he and his partner belong to a bare-knuckle Fight Club, among other things). PJ is the youngest daughter of the CEO of Colman Tires, a family business started by her paternal grandfather, a former race driver.

Shared interests and a common language set the stage for their relationship, even though there’s some early (and rather inconsequential) angst about their age difference.

Here’s the blurb from the author’s website:

One Night of Scandal, by Elle Kennedy

I am finally getting around to posting my review to the middle book in Ms Kennedy’s After Hours trilogy.

This is, by my reckoning, only the second time I post reviews of series or trilogies out of order, even though I read the books in order.¹ Since I know I was planning on reviewing all three, because I like them all, I can’t for the life of me figure out how I skipped the middle one.

At any rate, here it is.

Usual warning: this is an erotic romance, so there’s plenty of sex written graphically. The adult people depicted speak the way most adult people do–expect curses and other crude language.

One Night of Scandal, by Elle Kennedy

Even though this is the second in a trilogy, I think it can be easily read as a stand alone, as there is enough background information to bring readers up to speed, without a lot of info dumping.

The story centers around one of the three owners of Sin, a fairly popular Boston nightclub, and his crush on one the (now ex) girlfriend of one of his two closest friends. These three guys have been friends for a good long time, and all three fought successfully in the Boston MMA circuit. Long enough and successfully enough to be able to open a high scale nightclub and have it in the black within a few years of opening night.

Here’s the blurb from the author’s website:

Committed, by Sidney Bristol

I bought this book when it was posted as a sale over at the SmartBitches the other day. There was no actual recommendation, only a mention that while the plot was somewhat thin, it’s an interracial erotic romantic suspense.

The cover hits all my good buttons for erotic romance, so I read the sample over at amazon and one-clicked it.

I don’t recommend anyone else do the same, though YMMV, as always.

Be aware that there is plenty of graphic sex, a lot of talk about power exchange and kink, and general cursing. There is also graphic violence, some of it against the heroine. If any of these offend or otherwise upset you, you may want to click away now.

Committed, by Sidney Bristol¹

This is the first in a series, and I could guess at least one of the next couples after reading about twenty percent of the story. This isn’t always a bad thing, though, and there were other things going on that I liked, so I kept going.

There were some good things going on, though I confess that I had expected to have my socks blown off, because of what happens during the main characters very first conversation. But hey, one never knows, all the good stuff could happen after the abrupt interruption mentioned in the blurb, so I kept reading.

And then a character is introduced and I got very angry.

After I calmed down I read on, and then on top of getting angry again, I started to feel sort of cheated, and after that it got kinda messy. Let me ‘splain.

First, the blurb, from amazon: