Review: Quickies by Ollie Levy (Short Story Collection)

In this collection we meet a wide variety of people from all walks of life….some are married, single, engaged…..some have high flyer careers, and some are average Joe’s, but they all have one thing in common….they all love a good quickie.

Why fuss with a marathon love making session when a quickie will get the job done? That’s the question that Ollie Levy explores in her series of short stories appropriately titled Quickies.

What I loved about this collection was each randevú was short and sweet. There wasn’t a lot of back story and the characters literally got right down to business. It made for a fast and steamy read. It wasn’t overly graphic and the sex scenes were all tastefully done.

Sex scenes are always difficult to write….too much one way and they are raunchy, too much the other way and they are cheesy…Levy got it right in this story collection. They were all written with a practiced hand that shows erotica at it’s finest.

Continue reading “Review: Quickies by Ollie Levy (Short Story Collection)”

Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

Will Traynor has everything going for him–he’s rich, good looking, powerful, adventurous, cultured, vibrant, and successful.

Until one day, a tragic accident takes all of that away leaving him with nothing but memories of  a previous life. Will is now a quadriplegic who must rely on others to fulfill his basic needs.

Naturally he is depressed and hates that his once fulfilling, active life is now nothing but a series of doctor appointments and catheter changes. He simply wants to die.

After the accident, Will moved from his posh London residence to his parents house near Stortfold Castle in the English country side. He is miserable.

Louisa “Lou” Clark has known nothing but the small town surrounding Stortfold Castle her whole life. Her life is simple and uncomplicated until she loses her job. Some wouldn’t think of waitressing as a fun job, but Lou likes it. She gets to meets lots of different people and basically live vicariously through them.

Continue reading “Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes”

Review: On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Is age really just a number? Does true love transcend all things? Even through extreme, desperate situations? Even through a large age gap? Does wanting different things or being in a different spot matter when love is involved?

Thirty year old Anna is an English teach. She needs time to think about her life. She has been with her boyfriend of eight years and they still aren’t married. She feels like she is just waiting and waiting for a life that isn’t going t happen. So when the opportunity to get away comes….she takes it.

TJ is a sixteen and recovering from cancer. His parents want to take a celebratory vacation in the Maldives where he can both recover and study. TJ’s parents hired Anna as his tutor for the summer.

Anna and TJ board a seaplane bound for a remote island in the Maldives when suddenly their pilot has a heart attack and dies. The plane goes down somewhere in the ocean. When they wash ashore on a deserted island, they think it’s only a matter of time before a search party discovers them.

Three and a half years go by.

Continue reading “Review: On the Island by Tracey Garvis-Graves”

Review: The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5) by Lauren Willig

The exotic scent of night blooming jasmine fills the pages of Lauren Willig’s latest Pink Carnation series installment, The Temptation of the Night Jasmine.

Robert, the entailed Duke of Dovedale, has  returned to England after being abroad in India for 12 years. Though it’s not his nostalgia that draws him home….it’s revenge.

There is one debutant that threatens to derail Robert’s revenge….his distant, twice removed ‘cousin’ Charlotte. Charlotte is the granddaughter of the Dowager Duchess of Dovedale–think Maggie Smith from Downton Abbey :).

The Duchess rules her family and relations with an iron fist–a duchess to the core. She is strong, ruthless, and stubborn to a fault….Charlotte on the other hand is innocent and bookish, a far cry from her ancestors. Her whole life has been spent in a fairy tale world. Her reality has been filled with tales of courtly love and romance found in her favorite novels.

Charlotte has carried a torch for Robert since childhood and when he returns…the trumpts blow and her knight and shining armor dismounts his white horse burlesquely to plan a kiss on the fair maiden’s hand as she tosses him her handkerchief…or so the scene goes in her mind LOL :). Continue reading “Review: The Temptation of the Night Jasmine (Pink Carnation #5) by Lauren Willig”

Review: The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3) by Lauren Willig

Letty Alsworthy has an appalling nasty habit of being whisked way by seemingly innocent carriages! What was it about her that made everyone within grabbing distance want to and act upon the sudden urge to toss her an anything with wheels, one would be abductor in particular–Lord Geoffrey Pinchingdale Snipe.

In Lauren Willig’s latest Pink Carnation romantic spy thriller series, The Deception of the Emerald Ring, Letty Alsworthy finds herself in a precarious situation…her sister Mary is secretly engaged to Lord Pinchingdale and plotting to elope with him.

Letty discovers the plot moments before Mary literally flies out the window right along with her reputation….Letty manages to get to Lord Pinchingdale’s carriage before Mary does and to her satisfaction prevents their elopement but before she can gloat too much, Letty finds herself in the compromised position–NOT Mary.

When the coach delivers Lord Pinchingdale’s bride to him, before he can confirm the identity of his beloved, he finds himself swept up in a moment of passion only to reveal he is snogging the WRONG sister! With Letty’s reputation at stake, Lord Pinchingdale does what any English gentleman would do–he marries Letty. Continue reading “Review: The Deception of the Emerald Ring (Pink Carnation #3) by Lauren Willig”