Hello there, lovely ladies 🤗
Let me kick off by saying a hearty Happy Thanksgiving to all the US readers. I hope you had a precious day feeling grateful for the gifts life brings, not least of which are gripping books. Yay! ❤️
As far as the movie is concerned, rumour has it that hottie, Lenny Kravitz, may be writing the soundtrack for Darker. Seems fitting, huh? See the Daily Mail for more.
I found this cute little meme on Facebook. Darker: doggy-style…
LOL! 😂
While we all love a good book, especially when they drip with panty melting lemons, not all love scenes are created equally. Susan shared this laugh-out-loud article from Buzzfeed featuring the Bad Sex Fiction Awards. You might still need to change your knickers after reading these, but only because you tinkled from laughing so hard. This is my favourite, terrible scene:
WTF?? LOL! 😂😂
Then, how is this for a dream getaway? Sharon sent me this author’s cruise ad run by 1001 Dark Nights…
Wow!!! Imagine spending some quality holiday time with your favourite writers? Feel free to invite me along 😉
This week I read:
Managed by Kristen Callihan, book two in the VIP series, was delightful. We met Gabriel in book one where he came across as a hard-nosed control freak, but WOW! The way she set this up, the depth of his character, and how he bloomed in this book, was nothing short of gobsmacking. I loved the roller coaster read of him falling hard for love, the tension-wrought build-up between him and Soph, and then the inevitable snap of his steely control. Good stuff! Here’s a little visual of how Gabriel became putty in Sophie’s hands…
*sigh* 😍
Breathe by C. D. Reiss, book ten in the Songs of Submission series was the one novella I still needed to read to complete the round number. What can I say about this range that I haven’t already? Exceptional writing, white-hot loving, and complex, interesting characters. I STILL love this whole series.
Currently I’m reading:
Her Naughty Holiday by Tiffany Reisz, book two in the Men at Work series.
As you know, I usually adore getting my Goodreads email touting the new books we’ll see in the coming month, but the December new releases seem a little thin. 😳 Nevertheless, here they are:
Please note: these are screenshots taken from my Goodreads page, thus voiding the links.
The truth about going for drinks – at least for me…
LOL! 😉
Have a beautiful weekend, girls. See ya’ soon!
fifty shades of grey and more 
Love the dogs lol
LikeLike
Thank you, Patricia. I thought that was quite cute! 😉
LikeLike
Lol for the Bad Sex Fiction Awards 😂 didn’t understand most of it, my boobs barrel roll quite often lol I thought that was hilarious!
I really wish I knew about that cruise before I booked mine, sounds fabulous!
I haven’t had much time to read this week, been xmas shopping and wrapping but thats me done so happy, bring it on 🎄🎄🎄
I started reading Idol about 70% in and i’m really enjoying it, just love Killian & Libby.
Been looking at the new releases on Amazon nothing is jumping out at me atm 😩
Have a great week everyone x
LikeLike
IKR? I laughed so hard trying to figure out some of the moves in those quotes!!! And where the hell is most of the punctuation?? Did you notice, all but one of the writers are men!! Too funny. I’m curious to hear Lissa’s thoughts on these entertaining bloopers.
Wow! Done with your Chrissie shopping! That’s fantastic, Katherine. I’ve only just started. 😝
I ADORED Killian and Libby, so you must know how much I enjoyed Managed. Kristen in definitely in my top 10 authors list.
And the cruise!! Oh my!!! Imagine!!! But would you do it with your hubby? Though I’d love to drag my man on a cruise with me, in this particular instance, I think it would be crazy fun to enjoy with a like-minded girlfriend! 😉 Happy reading, Kath 😘
LikeLike
I agree with you on the cruise but whilst hubby doesn’t mind when I go away with the girls I think a cruise would raise a few eyebrows if I ever suggested it lol.
I hate shopping Monique so the thought of fighting my way through the crazies in December is enough to give me palpitations lol so I make a list of pressies and spend 1 day getting them, I’ll do the food shopping nearer the time but it is always a midnight visit to the supermarket.
I’m looking forward to Lissa’s thoughts as well 😁😁
LikeLike
LOL! I think you might be right on the eyebrows hitting the hairline re the cruise! But damn, it would be F.U.N!
I think your Christmas strategy is an excellent one. I’d do the exact same thing if I had a solid list already. So hard to find something for my hubs though!!! #ManWhoHasEverything 😂😂
LikeLike
OMG…I.m honored…a requested post!!!
The sex writing…. well, yeh… what’s the common denominator? They’re all men except Erica Jong….. what do men know? Most of them have never been able to find what’s under the hood
But I read Fear of Dying. It was very good… but written more for those of us for whom Fear of Flying was such a seminal (couldn’t avoid the accurate but punny word) book in our feminist sexual awakening. I still dream of the storied zipless fuck. Like the Holy Grail or the unicorn…. who knows if it occurs or if it could?
LikeLike
LOL! 😂😂 See? I knew you’d have some interesting tidbit to add to that! Yeah, I noticed, all males but one. And that last one!!! I wish I could manage to picture what is going on there! Too funny. I guess it was use-as-many-adjectives-as-you-can Day! And I’m with you on the mythical in our genre in general. 🦄 It always tickles me pink when I get a reader who complains about some “fact” they beleive I got wrong, but never, ever have I had a reader tell me that all the nookie with the multiple orgasms, and the never-ending stiffies, and the gymnastic positions are the stuff of fantasy. Oh well. I guess they pick their fights! LOL! 😉
LikeLike
Love the pups….especially Elena! Valentines Day is going to be such fun! I read Tiffany Reisz’s fave holiday read, A Christmas Promise. I probably enjoyed 20% of it. Very light on the hot stuff, but the primary reason I didn’t enjoy it was that I don’t care for historicals. So that was a concern going into it, but had to give it a try. Admired the research, but not for me. Tiffany also enjoys theology studies, which would instantly put me to sleep. Explains a lot of the depth in her writing. So I will continue to adore Tiffany….but no urge to raid her bookshelves! I’ve bought Managed, sounds like I need to read Idol first? Currently reading Deja Vu by Sosie Frost….and probably a good read for some, just not my cup of tea. It’s an amnesia story, which I usually like, but half of the story is about baby care….which a little goes a long way for me.
Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!!!
LikeLike
The bad sex writing excerpts are actually rather amazing…..beyond anything I could create!! The visualization is a bit scary….
LikeLike
IKR???? But so funny! What were they thinking?? 😂😂
LikeLike
LOL! That’s funny, Sharon. Interesting what makes a good book from a writer’s POV. I don’t mind the period books, I adore a few of Sylvia Day’s historicals, especially Seven Years To Sin, but I don’t think I could handle it regularly. I’m not surprised that Tiffany has varied book tastes, it definitely reflects in her writing. And I hear you on cutting short the baby rearing deets. LOL! Sometimes less in more. 😝 You don’t HAVE to read Idol before Managed, but if you’re going to invest in the series you may as well read them in sequence. Idol is lovely. If you use the search function on my blog and type in “Idol by Kristen Callihan” you can read my original review. I’m hooked on the series. I’m hoping commitment-phobe Jax will fall next 😍 And YES, hells YES! V-Day can’t come soon enough. Have a good week! 🤗
LikeLike
LOL!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So glad you loved Gabriel equally as well… And I loved the little caricature picture.
I went onto ” Over the Edge” from Meredith. Touted as a menage. I guess if I thought long enough and “hard” enoug I could see it as such but it is a stretch for me. Yeah there were 3 people but they never really had a background for connection it was like two couples but wi the same woman…which sounds odd as I write it but in the panty-melting menage this one does not take off. At least for me. So many good stories she could develop in the book but she flies over each character and never really does their depth any justice. I like to have the fundamental connection. Will and Ian are “friends who share woman” they fall in love, albeit after one night of sex, with Olivia. But they are not together at all. So they have separate lives as couples with one night of 3 way sex. She does tie all the characters together as friends but I was actually interested in a couple other characters more than the “3 stars” of the story. That is not good. I am not an expert, but ladies we have read a shit load of books together, not all can be shining stars as Monique says but I think this writer can do better.
Going back to pick up “Idol” or maybe the novella you just read.
Anybody read Mr. President??
((Hugs)) MAC 💋
LikeLike
Hi Mac, I read Mr President and loved it looking forward to Commander In Chief in Jan x
LikeLike
Oh yes! Me too, Katherine. I’m currently (re)listening to Real and Mine and enjoying them A LOT! I hope she stays in track with this series.
LikeLike
Thanks Katherine. I think I will go with that then. 💋
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hey girlfriend! 🤗 I think you’ll like Mr President. Katy reconnects with that yearning burn she wrote so well between Remy and Brooke. I really enjoyed it. 😉
Aww, pity about the menage that was not. 😝 I LOVE a good 3-way book but so few do it well and plausibly. And you are sooo right about the connection between characters. Shallow sucks donkey balls. Let’s hope you’re on to bigger, better, and hotter things this week. Have a good one, my friend! 😘
LikeLike
Howdy…. well into month of traveling and trying to get all reading done both genre and my other stuff.
Finished Roman Crazy. Okay ladies…. Alice Clayton did not wrote this. The co-author did and Alice threw in some of her characteristic turning an adjective into a noun. But then again, it wasn’t a terrible book. The final scene at the Trevi fountain was silly… as if Avery really wouldn’t have been there in the first week of her trip. That’s from the movie Three Coins in the Fountain…. and I was just there in Sept. The names and scenes were nods to many Rome based books and movies. A little Henry James with character name Daisy Miller…. who dies at the end of his book but I predict we’ll be seeing this character in Amsterdam with her mystery man. Scenes straight out of a Sophia Loren movie …with the scarf tie-on… and Roman Holiday. And every movie drive into the country and Shakespeare comedy setting. And Marcello…. need I say more?… Mastroianni
When I got to NY I took out Hardwired. Really enjoying it…. despite the ripped from FSOG phrases and nods.
But also reread a little of CD Reiss’ Secret Sins because trying to remember something from it. Monique…. put it on your list pronto. Is so so so adds to the pleasure of having read the Submission Series.
Lissa
LikeLike
Oh dear. You really did not enjoy Roman Crazy, huh? I liked it for the most part, and I don’t mind the various nods to movies and/or books provided that it’s relatively fresh. Are there any more original stories to tell?? I wonder. I read the Hardwired series. It was okay, like you say, with all the nods to Fifty, but, I think, a book too long. Does Secret Sins have anything to do with Songs of Submission? Or just books in the same vein? Just today I got a very precious gift in the mail, Beg, signed be the writer herself, with a little note written upside down because that’s “how I’ll see it down under”. Cool, huh? I’m a very spoilt, happy girl tonight! 🤗
LikeLike
No…I did enjoy Roman Crazy…. just that it was mostly a bunch of film and book references tied together. I like originality and accuracy. Wallbanger was both. And Roman Crazy didn’t have the Alice Clayton zany-ism. All that was missing was stomping the olives or grapes with their feet on a big tub…. but, oh yeah, she did refer to it.
CD Reiss has several books that have nothing to do with Songs of Submission. But she has three so far that deal with the stories of Jonathan Drazen’s sisters. The stand alone that is Margie’s story is…. awesome… by itself but also because it makes you look at the original Songs of Submission in a different light…. which is why I’ve been tucking in a reread of that series to see it in the context of Secret Sins.
I liked Hardwired because it took me into the world of startups and hacking which gives me a delightful upgrade in my awareness since my hacking exposure and understanding was still at the level of what I learned from War Games. And that’s from…… the ’80’s?? But yes, very derivative… discovered fathers, dead parents, and… how many O’s can a girl have on one page? Lol
LikeLike
LOL! Yes! She did. I remember! 😉
Ah, I see re Secret Sins. Thanks for clearing that up. I’ll start there then, but I think I will be working my way through ALL her books. She’s very quickly become a fav of mine.
Ah yes, the background theme of Hardwired was an interesting one, and you can never go wrong with multiple O’s! Makes my day everyday! LOL! 😂😂
LikeLike
Tiffany Reisz for $500 Alex.
Where does one start in the Original Sinners series? In order? Any to avoid? Start with the first? Just sex or is there kink too?
Lissa
LikeLike
That is indeed the $500 question, Lissa. If it’s all the same to you, I’m going to answer that in a blog post simply because I have better formatting options from there. Look out for it, Lissa 😉 Great sex if not a little scary sometimes because the kink is HARD. 😉 But exceptionally written.
LikeLike
Okay, all done. See my latest post for details.
LikeLike
Many thanks… excellent information. Will have to buy first one because not in library… but that’s exactly what I had to know.
Btw… do you get the TV game show Jeopardy down under? That was the reference of asking for the category for $500
LikeLike
So envious that you get to discover this series for the first time. Enjoy the amazing ride!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes!!! 👍🏻👍🏻
LikeLike
You’re welcome. 😘 LOL! I got the reference only because I’ve seen and heard about the game show on so many American shows and movies. I think I was supposed to answer with a question, right? “What is The Siren, The Angel, The Prince… etc”
LikeLike
OH!! I am doing flippity flops over my read “Vice” by Callie Hart. Holy shit was Cade just the thing I needed. This is book two from Widowmakers Bike Club… The first was up there and this is spec-friggin-tacular!! It is on the dark side with the story taking Cade to Equidor into drug lord country but it is a hot hot read. Every character is well crafted and the Drug Lord, Cade goes after is freakin insane!! Read it in 2 nights. I was a little overwhelmed with the vivid plot she painted but she did it up right. Take a peak.
😎😎
LikeLike
She is an excellent writer, MAC, but yeah, like you say, usually on the dark side. My little heart can only take her in small bites. Good to know this one is so good! Thank you, girlfriend 😉
LikeLike