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.

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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.

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Review: Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1) by Jamie McGuire

You don’t know what power is until you hold someones future in the palm of your hand. Abby Abernathy knows that feeling. This sweet, good girl from Kansas controls every aspect of campus bad boy, Travis Maddox’s life without even knowing it.

Abby meets Travis at a campus underground fight night. She knows his reputation and what everyone calls him….the walking one night stand. Man whore. Bad boy. There is no way she is ever going to fall for his antics….ever, she’s too smart for that. She is repulsed by him but yet oddly intrigued.

Every girl on campus thinks they are going to be the one to tame Travis. The one that will make him change his ways. The one Travis will fall in love with.

When his eyes lock on Abby, Travis sees no one but her. She doesn’t swoon when he walks by or flip her hair flirtatiously to get his attention. She doesn’t put up with his shit. She puts him in his place. She is different. When he tries to flirt with her, she shuts him down. No girl has ever denied Travis Maddox.

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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.

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Review: The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry

They say a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, in the case of Rhonda her single step leads here on a transcendental journey into Mexico.

Mary Pauline Lowry’s debut novel, The Earthquake Machine, tells the story of 14 year old Rhonda whose life has been turned upside down. Rhonda’s mother is the typical ‘desperate housewife’, in a loveless marriage more about convenience and comfort than love. Rhonda’s father (a pharmacist) supplies her unstable mother with prescription drugs to keep her in line while he is out having an affair.

They live in a ticky tacky house on the hillside where all the houses look just the same….but thanks to the family gardener Jesus, color and life continues to reside in the taupe colored, mundane suburban nightmare that Rhonda calls home. Continue reading “Review: The Earthquake Machine by Mary Pauline Lowry”