A WOMAN OF EXPERIENCE - Paris Rivera

In general, I thought the writing quality was quite poor.  I'm taking a wild guess that the author doesn't speak/read/write English as a first language. However, I did like the stories - the concepts, the characters, their motives, and the sexual scenes.  It's just too bad that the actual writing wasn't better - this could have been a really powerful collection of stories.

Right off the bat, "Strangers on a Train: When Hiroko Met Sally" sets the tone. The temptation was excellent and the concern about potentially getting caught in public was well established. And with the second story, "If You Say SO, Professor,"  I noted - "A really hot story - too bad the dialog and set-up was so amateurish."

Likewise, with the next story, ""Sweet-Talking Her Professor: How Tessa Seduced her Sexy Professor," I wrote the comment: "Dialog simple, almost childlike. The story went on too long."

 However, with "Gym Crush" I only noted: "This was hot!" I also quite liked "Big City Massage."

I think this is pretty typical for self-published work ... some good ideas and moments of hot or interesting, but generally poor writing.

3-1/2 Guilty Pleasure stars 

 

XANTHE'S CHEATING WIFE CONFESSIONS - Dilana Rose

Xanthe cheated on her husband, Jack, with her husband's best friend. But Jack still has the hots for Xanthe and gets turned on knowing that his friend had her sexually. She still thinks about sex with her husband.

Mostly I found the relationship between these two people really confusing.  It's only 42 pages and I understand the setup is super simple, but it has to make sense, and this doesn't.

The sex is "eh".

2 Guilty Pleasure stars
 

BETTER OFF DEAD - Alice Bello

Lucy Hart, an eighteen year old cheerleader had it all - money, status, and the respect (or at least fear) of the students at school - but loses everything when her father is arrested for tax evasion and human trafficking. Now working in a burger joint, which is definitely beneath her, Lucy finds a way to blackmail her father's shyster lawyer and the lawyer learns of a way that Lucy can earn some good money, fast. All she needs to do is pretend to be a rich man's fiancée. Seems simple enough.

But when she actually falls in love with Gabriel, simple turns into complicated. And complicated becomes dangerous when she learns that Gabriel is actually a werewolf, and his real fiancée is a vampire who's ready to kill Lucy for moving in on Gabriel.

There was definitely a lot more story in this than most erotica that I've read, but sometimes things move really quickly and you wonder how the characters made the leap from point A to point B and other times we get long, pointless narration. It felt like this started to be one book and then the author changed her mind.

The writing was fine and I'm mildly interested in reading more.

4 Guilty Pleasure stars
 

PURITY - Skyler Mason

 Oh my gosh this was awful. 

 A young woman was raised in a religious, purity culture. But she is just realizing that she really wants to have sex and that Jesus won't hate her if she does. She wants Cole Walker - who has been her friend for as long as she can remember - to be the one to take her virginity. But she's been super religious all her life and he can't believe she really wants to have sex. Meanwhile, her friends promise to take her out to get drunk so she can pick up some hot guy.

Over and over again I couldn't shake the feeling that the author was just venting about her own upbringing. She really hits the reader over the head with the character thinking out loud or telling anyone who'd listen, that you can be religious and have sex. It got so annoying.

I cannot believe this has almost 17,000  ratings on goodreads! I didn't find anything here other than a Mary Sue.

2 Guilty Pleasure stars 

TEMPTED BY A VAMPIRE - Susan Griscom

 This was decent but underwhelming paranormal romance.

Cian DeMaro and his brothers are musicians who play some of the better clubs in the Bay Area. They are also vampires. But they are vampires with a conscience and don't hunt to kill. At the moment their lives seem content - they play music at night and drink just enough blood to stay alive. Cian never thought he was missing something until he met Magdalena De la Rosa.

Of course the feelings are mutual and all they want is to have savage sex with each other. But when she learns that he's actually a vampire she is ... (check one: X revolted and wants nothing more to do with him; X more turned on than ever). If she can convince him to turn her into a vampire they could be together forever!

Every part of this- the writing, the romance, the sex - just starts to get good and then it relapses before it can get to a climax. It got frustrating and made it boring.

Like many books of this type, it's written in 1st person but it alternates between her POV and then his POV.  Cian's point of view really didn't work for me at all.

3-1/2 Guilty Pleasure stars (rounded down) 

ACQUIRING BESS - Dolly Sinclaire

 This is a very short erotica story set in the U.S. wild west.  A woman is preparing to set up her own group of saloon girls and treats a wealthy, local man to what will be in store, to establish some good will and to help spread the word.

I wasn't expecting too much from this, especially given how short the book is, but I really liked this. For something so short, the characters (two of them at least) were really well defined and the sex was really well written.

I'm a convert ... I'll be looking for more books by author Dolly Sinclaire - especially any more in the 'Bonanza Saloon Girls' series.

4-1/2 stars 

CARRIE'S GAP YEAR PART 1: THAILAND - Lucy Xane

 Carrie is a young co-ed on her gap year from uni and she's exploring.  Exploring countries. Exploring sex. She's down for anything and tries everything.

This is pure porn with a very simple concept (gap year) to get our leading character from one place to another to meet new people.

It's pretty amazing how everyone she meets (her age, male and female) are all as open sexually as she is.  She tends to observe other people having sex (no one seems to mind) and then when they notice her they invite her to join. That's the basic concept.

As porn, this was pretty good, though it got to be a little too much of the same thing after a bit.  This could actually be a shorter book (I know - it's already pretty short) so that there's not so much repetition.

Also, I know it's a cultural thing, but as a U.S. reader, the word "knickers" is not very sexy. Carrie (or others) is constantly taking off her knickers. You could just as well say she's taking off her granny panties - it sounds so UNsexy.

Would I read others in the series? Yes. Am I anxious to buy them all? No.

4 Guilty Pleasure stars