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4 stars

The Lust Boat by Roz Lee

By

ISBN: 978-1603105958
Publisher: Red Sage Publishing
Release: Jan 2011
Source: I received a copy of this ebook to read and review for The Romance Reviews.

This isn’t your grandparent’s cruise ship!

When her fiancé called off the wedding and told her he’d had better sex with a blow up doll, Candace traded in her honeymoon cruise for a week on the Lothario, the most notorious ship to ever sail the high seas. Little does she know that Ryan, the sexy passenger who offered to be her escort as she samples all the ship has to offer, is really Ryan Callahan, the ship’s playboy owner.

Ryan Callahan is single, rich, and considered quite the catch. Two years ago he and his business partner launched the Lothario, a floating den of iniquity where passengers can indulge their every sexual fantasy, but since the ship docked following its maiden cruise, Ryan has been so scarce he’s earned the nickname, Monk, until sweet, naïve Candace coaxes him out of his tower, heats his blood, and steals his heart. But will she still want him when she finds out who he really is?

Take a cruise ship, a millionaire playboy, a woman on the rebound, lots of sex and you have this outstanding work by debut author Roz Lee.  The pages sizzle and your heart melts as this book heats up your nights.

Remember that show from the 80s, The Love Boat?  Well, this story isn’t about that cruise ship! On this one, the passengers and crew are mostly naked, all the activities are about sex.  As the blurb says – this isn’t your grandparent’s cruise ship!

Ryan Callahan and his business partner Richard Wolfe took money they made in a dating program and started up “The Lothario”.  This cruise ship provides a one of a kind, sex-focused cruise.  The passengers are provided with a sarong to wear, and as many condoms and sex toys as they can use.  All of the activities focus around sex.  You can take a class in oral sex, bondage or participate in various stamina contests.

Ryan Callahan discovered after the maiden voyage that he wasn’t really interested in no-strings sex, but the cruise boat was making money hand over fist.  He keeps himself busy running the ship from his office and managing their money, but rarely comes out of his suite.  He is immediately attracted to Candace as soon as he sees her boarding the ship, and sets out to show her that he is the only man for her.

Candace is on this cruise because her fiance said she was frigid when he broke up with her.  She’s a duck out of water, and is grateful for Ryan’s escort.  Her education starts right away, and she soon comes to realize how wrong her fiance was!

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  The sex is hot and the chemistry between Ryan and Candace sets the pages on fire.  What caught me by surprise was the depth of the story crammed into 175 pages!  The reader is taken along to watch the development of Ryan and Candace’s relationship and the bolstering of Candace’s confidence that occurs along the way.  What started as possibly a huge mistake for Candace turned into the best thing she could have done!

This author writes in such a vivid fashion that the reader has no problem visualizing the story as it unfolds.  The Lust Boat is an interesting premise for a story, and one that has the reader laughing, sighing, cringing and wiping the steam from their glasses!

An absolutely outstanding book for a debut author.  This one belongs on the keeper shelf.  Pick up a copy today!

Uniform Behaviour by Lucy Felthouse

By

ISBN:B004DI7PQM
Publisher: Andrews UK
Release: Nov 22, 2010
Source:I received a copy of this book from TRR to read and review.  If you head HERE, you can see my review on The Romance Reviews and you can enter to win a copy of this ebook!

Do you get all weak-kneed at the sight of a grubby fireman or a hunky soldier? Perhaps immaculately-dressed waiting-on staff get you feeling frisky? If so, you’ve come to the right place. Uniform Behaviour contains sixteen smutty stories about firemen, soldiers, sailors, police, security guards and even waiters, priests and cleaners! Delve into this anthology and enjoy steamy stories from established erotica authors including Justine Elyot, Craig J Sorensen, Victoria Blisse, Shermaine Williams, Elizabeth Coldwell and Lucy Felthouse. Uniform Behaviour also proudly introduces some exciting debut authors. So remember, you saw them here first! As well as being written and compiled for your titillation, this anthology is also designed to do good. A portion of the proceeds from Uniform Behaviour will be donated to UK charity Help for Heroes, which helps those wounded in current conflict. The stories in this anthology have been hand-picked by a uniform aficionado, so you can rest assured that only the sexiest erotic fiction lies in this eBook.

Take a crisp uniform or two, some explosive chemistry and you have a sexy anthology filled with lots of uniform fantasy stories. Uniform Behaviour has something to appeal to everyone; a must buy.

Uniform Behaviour is an anthology of 16 short spicy little stories all involving uniforms. There are police officers, firemen, military officers and even waiters heating up the pages. As a result this book contains a hot story for every taste. I’ll highlight a few of those stories.

Just Couldn’t Wait by Lucy Felthouse is about Carla – a freelance journalist attending a PR launch party. The party sucked and she was standing back, observing the activity around her. An gorgeous waiter with a tray of glasses of champagne catches her attention. She decides right then that waiter’s outfits are hot! Carla decides that his proper uniform is quite proper and needs to be messed up. Sam is definitely up for a bit of messing!

Ms. Felthouse manages in a few pages to sketch out believable characters, thoroughly describe the scene and the reason for Carla’s boredom, and has the characters get busy. What results is a great little short story.

The Weight of Duty by Madeline Elayne takes on the military in her story about Lisa, a drummer with the St Andrews Pipes and Drums meeting up with Gunner, a member of the Canadian military, who is having a bad day. He responsible for putting up equipment that will be used in the Nova Scotia International Tattoo. His partner has wandered off and he’s frustrated trying to get his work done. The sight of Lisa watching him distracts him and they start up a conversation. They arrange to go out for dinner and of course end up back at his hotel room.

Ms. Elayne, in about 10 short pages, creates well developed characters with a bit of history and combustive chemistry. The sex is graphic but the caring between the two main characters is touching. Together they work through what’s causing his bad day, and repetitively steam up the bathroom mirror!

Taken With Consent by Lexie Bay is about poor Maddy who seems to spend every Saturday night in the local police station waiting to bail out Dave, her aggressive drunk of a brother. It seems that Dave is in the habit of getting into drunken fights. This week, Dave gets arrested earlier in the evening, so instead of Maddy showing up at the police station half asleep, she is dressed up and on her way out on a date. Finally, the cute officer that runs the front desk is noticing her! Because her brother head butted the Duty Sargeant when being released, Maddy has hours to admire the look of “Sexy Desk Guy” in his regulation blue trousers and his arms straining against his crisp white shirt! After wondering for quite some time what it would be like to be hand-cuffed by this stud, he offers to buy her a coffee. Although they don’t actually end up drinking coffee, they make good use of Callum’s break.

Ms Bay, puts together a collection of characters and a believable story line that sizzles up the pages. Perfect for anyone that has finds cops in those starched blue uniforms hot.

This anthology has a story to appeal to everyone. Some of the stories I found to be outstanding, others not as good, but Ms. Felthouse has combined experienced writers as well as a handful of debut authors for this excellent little ebook. Lucy Felthouse is donating a portion of the proceeds towards a charity that helps wounded members of the military.

Twice Tempted by a Rogue by Tessa Dare

By

ISBN: 978-0-345-51887-3

Release: June 22, 2010
Publisher: Ballantine/DelRay

Source: I purchased this book to read and review

How long could she resist him?

Luck is a double-edged sword for brooding war hero Rhys St. Maur. His death wish went unanswered on the battlefield, while fate allowed the murder of his friend in the elite gentlemen’s society known as the Stud Club. Out of options, Rhys returns to his ancestral home on the moors of Devonshire, expecting anything but a chance at redemption in the arms of a beautiful innkeeper, who dares him to take on the demons of his past — and the sweet temptation of a woman’s love.

Meredith Maddox believes in hard work, not fate, and romance isn’t part of her plan. But when Rhys returns, battle-scarred, world-weary, and more dangerously attractive than ever, the lovely widow is torn between determination and desire. As a deep mystery and dangerous smugglers threaten much more than their passionate reckoning, Meredith discovers that she must trust everything to a wager her heart placed long ago.

Twice Tempted by a Rogue is the second book in new author Tessa Dare’s second trilogy – The Stud Club Trilogy.  The first trilogy was released close together and all books were well received.  I, personally found all books to be delightful and am enjoying her second trilogy.  I find this trilogy darker than the first one.

In Twice Tempted by a Rogue, the story of the “Stud Club” is continued with us finding more out about Rhys St. Maur.  We met him in the first book, One Dance with a Duke, as a big hunk of a man who feels that he can’t be killed.  As the synopsis of the book says, “His death wish went unanswered on the battlefield…”.  He placed himself in the way of death time and again both on the battlefield and in other situations and has come to the conclusion that his destiny is in Fate’s hands.  As his unbelievably abusive father is now dead, and the war is over, he heads home to his burned down wreck of an ancestral home on the moors of Devonshire – a dark and forbidding place.  He doesn’t have a happy welcome – in fact the townspeople try to run him out of town.  Meredith Maddox, the daughter of his father’s groom, is now a widow and the owner of the town’s only inn.  She believes in hard work to get ahead in life – not fate like Rhys does.

Rhys sets himself the task of rebuilding the family home.  He starts out alone, hoping that the townsfolk will come around and agree to some paid work.  His dogged persistence pays off both with the townsfolk and with Meredith.

This book is darker than the rest of the books that Tessa Dare has written.  It seems to match the dark and forbidding countryside.  It’s interesting to see the skill of Tessa Dare come alive as she  writes a compelling romance completely away from the glittering ballrooms typical to many Regency Romance writers.  The people who populate this book are angry, downtrodden and their lives are filled with hard work, suffering and not much hope, yet Ms. Dare has composed an extremely moving story.  Her characters sizzle with passion and their dialogue comes alive on the page!

One passage I bookmarked as it had me on the floor laughing was picked up on by several other reviewers:

“Oh Rhys,” she sighed, tilting her head back.
The way she moaned for him…it made his blood catch fire.
”Oh my God,” she cried, craning her neck a bit more. “Just look at the scrollwork on that ceiling.”
”To hell with the damned ceiling,” he growled…..

RT Book Reviews names Twice Tempted by a Rogue as a Top Pick, giving it 4 and 1/2 stars, saying: “In keeping with the previous book, Dare has written an extremely moving story, replete with deep-seated passions, adventure and characters that are not easily forgotten. It is rare to encounter characters with as much angst, but whose depth of emotions and love is so strong it enables them to overcome any obstacle. This is a great book that deserves a place on your keeper shelf.”

Romance Junkies only gives Twice Tempted by a Rogue 3.5 stars but the review is quite favorable.  They say among other things, “I enjoyed the sizzling chemistry between the main characters too, even as I longed for the action between them to be sped up a bit. Tessa Dare is great at transporting readers into another time and place and that talent shines in this book. Additionally, details of the murder of the founder of the Stud Club are slowly revealed in this second book.”

Smexy Books gave this book a 3.5 rating also and said some very complimentary things about Tessa Dare as an author: “Although Meredith and I didn’t see eye to eye, Tessa Dare still writes wonderful romance. There is a scene with the simple act of Rhys taking off Meredith’s apron that becomes anything but simple. She just adds something special to her romance scenes that make them so rich.”

I agree wholeheartedly.  There is something about Tessa Dare’s writing that just seems to come alive from the paper.  The book is like a movie you are watching as your are reading.  I don’t think that I can describe how she does that, you just have to read her books and see if you feel the same way I and many others do!  This book is destined for my keeper shelf!