R. Brennan

The Exhibition by London Saint James

A great story. I love the “crush on best friend’s brother” trope, especially if said crush is a Dom. And being the art junkie that I am, I love it even more that the setting is around an artist and his art exhibit. Bianca wasn’t a prude, but she was a little on the shy side, especially whenever Slater was nearby. She’d always found him attractive, but his womanizing ways and the fact that she never felt as if she ever registered on his radar were enough to make her keep her distance.

There wasn’t a whole lot to her character except that she came out of her shell once Slater made it very clear that he did indeed “see” her. Slater was what I expected him to be, a hot Dom. He commanded the pages with his wicked and titillating words. The story moves quickly with Bianca willing to lose herself in Slater’s promises of a good time, for however long he’ll have her. Their first sexual encounter was off the charts hot! However, I am a stickler for details, and two things about the scene pulled me out of the moment.
1. Since Slater drove like a bat out of hell, I have to assume his engine got very hot, perhaps too hot to cut the engine and sprawl Bianca out on the hood.

2. For their first time having anal sex, I doubt her juices and a little spit were enough to prepare her to take him. I get not wanting to go into detail with the preparations, but I just felt a little squeamish.

Amazing Maisie by Raven McAllan

Very sweet and spicy. I loved the way this couple tried to navigate around the one thing standing in their way of a relationship. Instead of a BDSM 101 plot, the way that Rob tried to help Maisie understand his lifestyle was rather romantic. He may not have been physically present for the most part, but their connection via email and his gift of the journal always kept him in the picture. This story could have gone awry with awkward phone sex or Skype sessions, but the way the author laid this out felt much more intimate. My favorite aspect of BDSM has always been the psychology behind it, and by having Maisie open up through writing was a great way for her to give voice to her thoughts without feeling ashamed or embarrassed. When they did finally came together, it was very sexy and a great ending that suited them.

Liberating Lua by Elyzabeth M. VaLey

I loved this story. It had a good flow, a very sexy plot, and I really enjoyed this couple. While the story was told mostly from Jürgen’s POV, we got Lua’s POV during two key scenes. Given her husband’s other activities, I felt it was important to see how she fared with her discovery. The beginning painted Jürgen in a bit of a bad light, but considering the era, his way of dealing with his problems weren’t unheard of He took to pursuing his kinks with the maid. He spanked her, but he never had sexual intercourse with her. He was faithful to his wife although some may still view his actions as (emotional) cheating.. I loved that Lua took the initiative to change their strained marriage. The way that he spoke to her and how he expressed his love for her was positively swoon-worthy, and their D/s scene was so sexy. I hope to find more stories like this by Ms. VaLey.

Taboo by Doris O’Connor

A steamy story with an older hero and a much younger heroine. Joshua has known Lucy for twenty years. Now that she's all grown up, he can't help but notice, but she's also totally off limits. During a visit to a BDSM club, he steps in to save a sub from a scene going wrong. Imagine his shock when he sees who the sub is. Maybe it came across as forced to have him discover her that way, but it did cut to the chase and helped him see her in a different light. I liked that she was a confident character, for someone freshly graduated from college. Their relationship also developed off the pages over the course of eight weeks, but I did believe that they were committed to one another. The drama portion of the story wasn't over the top, and I appreciated that the two stood their ground and fought for each other.

Lock, Stock, and Spank Her by R. Brennan

Beth and Alexander are afraid of commitment for different reasons, but somewhere in the span of a few hours, they make a connection that leads to a night of passion and domination. The two characters suited each other, however the chemistry was a little lacking; probably because they were practically strangers before and after their one night together. The ending felt a little rushed, but I thought Alexander’s grand gesture was quite meaningful. While it was a sweet story with a very steamy scene, I would have liked to have had a bit more interaction or communication between them to give them more depth and make their connection more authentic.

The Cowboy and the Schoolmarm by Nikki Prince

A really good story about second chances and reunited lovers. The story didn’t paint Melanie is a very good light in the beginning. As an eighteen year old she thrived on the attention she was getting from two men ten years her senior. When her childish games backfired she had to deal with the consequences of living in an unhappy marriage and losing the man she really loved. Both older and wiser, I liked the maturity they displayed, especially Shiloh's bluntness with her. The absence of unnecessary drama in favor of making up for lost time was welcome. Their night together was a scorcher, both in deed and with his words.

Overall, I'd say this was one of my favorite Evernight anthologies that I've read. Some stories were more memorable than others, but they were all red hot reads with a nice diversity of characters and settings. The stand outs for me were The Exhibition by London Saint James and Liberating Lua by Elyzabeth M. VaLey. Be advised that this anthology is an erotic romance with graphic sex, and some stories include anal sex.

My rating: 4.5 rounded up to 5

Disclaimer: I received a review copy from the authors for the purpose of an honest review.… (mehr)

This review can also be found on my blog.

Well this was different, and actually a little refreshing considering the genre. This short story made me think of the Twilight Zone with a dark erotic twist. Remember those short episodes, and you didn’t know if the main character was going to have a happy ending or suffer some horrific consequence? This story had that feel to it. And then there’s the climax of the story when the “veil” falls away – the scene made me think of two of my favorite fantasy artists. In particular these two paintings: Boris Vallejo and Luis Royo.

This is definitely not something for the faint of heart, but I enjoyed it a lot. Miss Brennan has a wicked mind!

I’ve read one other short story by this author – Faith’s Gift. It can be found in the [b:Vanilla-Free Christmas|16134315|Vanilla-Free Christmas|Doris O'Connor|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1352266223s/16134315.jpg|21961586] Anthology. You can read my review here. It’s Story #8.

Disclaimer: I received a review copy from the author. A review in exchange was not promised.… (mehr)