Customer Reviews

Skin on Skin

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Purchased this kinda by accident. Unusual that I would like more than one story in an anthology (so I avoid them), but two of the three here were actually very good.

Tempted by Jami Alden. A story of best friends & co-workers becoming more. The characters and plot were fun, engaging and believable. Good Well done and very enjoyable read, I will be watching for more from this talented author.

Hot Wired by Valerie Martinez. What to say...hummm. Propogates racial stereotyping, and would be a scandal if written by an author from a different race than the heroine. If there was any indication of an HEA, I missed it, the story ends..."It hadn't been love between us, but rather pure lust." The characters are all loosers, the plot has heroine more sexually involved with a different looser than the hero, nothing uplifting or happy here. Seriously, when viewing a mans chest tatooed with multiple x-girlfriends...what woman fantasizes seeing their own likeness & name tatooed there? Not an author I will read again.

China Doll by Sunny. Typical of this author if you have read her before. Well written & engaging. Although a little choppy in places, pulls reader into the story. Very enjoyable.

The book warning "This is a REALLY HOT book, sexually explicit" is true...have fun with this one!

"China Doll" by Sunny. In Indonesia, Rand and Anna meet for the first time with both sharing in common a need to get past their respective pasts. Both desires a one night stand that they each believe will allow them to move on. Neither anticipated the desire for much more.

"Tempted" by Jami Alden. Coworkers Lauren and Tony have been best friends for years, but both hide their desire for much more from the other out of fear the relationship would die. However, an out of town weekend gala leaves them sharing a room in which the temptation proves stronger than the trepidation.

"Hot Wired" by Valerie Martinez. Lola visits San Francisco for a last summer fling before starting her career. However, she was unprepared for the hunk owner of a fiery red pickup that is his truck as much as his body. This is turning out to be the most wonderful summer of her life.

These three well written erotic romantic novellas star interesting protagonists who though they spend a preponderance of the story line (defined as pages) in bed have enough down time to make them seem genuine and their relationships real. SKIN ON SKIN is hot fun in the summertime.

Harriet Klausner

Dr. Anna Huang is in Indonesia helping with tsunami efforts and relief. Finally throwing caution to the wind after 20 years of celibacy, she craves the touch of a man. Not just any man will do. She wants a man who will be gentle, yet forceful. Loving but willing to settle for just one night. She finds such a man in Rand, a bearded giant who comes to her rescue as she is swarmed by men all wanting something from her; something that she is unsure she will be able to give.
Rand Weatherby aches to feel the touch of a woman. Years of honoring vows to a wife now deceased, he wants to lose himself inside of a woman to alleviate the ghosts that haunt him. Past decisions have influenced Rand's life and he vows that they will not influence him on this. Looking for and waiting on the perfect woman to walk through the door of the bar in which he sits, he has almost given up hope. Until she walks in. Five feet two inches of pure and snow white innocence. When she is surrounded by men immediately, Rand decides then and there that she is his to save. And so the seduction begins.

Great things do come in small packages! Anna Huang was tiny, angelic and a complete surprise to me. Past hurts kept her from reaching out to men and I could sense her vulnerability. When she and Rand came together they were passionate, loving and I felt their connection to each other right down to my toes. The fact that Rand was so honorable just kept me spellbound wanting to find out his story. He was tenacious and I became entranced by his unwillingness to give up on Anna.

China Doll is a tantalizing tale set in the humidity of Indonesia. I could feel the sweat of the two characters and could envision their complete abandon with each other. As I read the last word, I just sat and thought about this book. How one author could make something so real that I felt the touches, I smelled the scents and have my heart pounding in tune with the characters. Steamy and sultry romance at its best, China Doll is a perfect addition to any bookshelf.

Talia
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I liked the stories by Jami Alden and Sunny. I've never read anything by Sunny, but I am going to look her up. The story by Valerie Martinez did get my attention at first, but the story didn't keep my attention. For me, the story was all over the place. The Jami Alden story is the 4th story in the Donovan brother series, and it was really good.

It isn't Jami Alden's "Tempted". While the couple attracted to each other but hiding it because they are certain their attraction isn't reciprocated is arguably one of the oldest love story plot complications, I can't recall when I've seen it better done.

Friends as well as coworkers, Lauren and Tony conceal their growing attraction for each other from each other, partly because they don't believe it is mutual and partly because they don't want to screw up their friendship. This situation might have continued indefinitely, but Ms. Alden introduces a classic wacky complication: in order to keep her very odd mother, who has jumped to the ridiculous conclusion that Lauren doesn't have a boyfriend because she's a lesbian, from introducing her to every eligible lesbian woman she knows at an upcoming family event, Lauren asks Tony to come with her and pretend to be her boyfriend, "pretend to be attracted to [her] for just one weekend".

How long can they pretend to be attracted without revealing their attraction? Ms. Alden puts them through the tortures of the damned and several twists before the inevitable HEA.

The story that doesn't belong IMHO is Valerie Martinez' "Hot Wired": drunken sluttery with a side order of racial stereotyping only marginally lifted by mutual lust...

for a fire-engine red 1951 Chevy pickup.

Ms. Martinez does her best to make her heroine, Lola, likable, but it is difficult to like someone who loses so much off her IQ whenever she gets horny, which is pretty often. By the time Lola is spouting what passes for the moral: that lust is the real thing, love the phony imitation, the reader is happy to say adios to the teacher's college graduate no doubt voted most likely to end her teaching career by having an affair with a student.

Finally, in "China Doll", a sequel to her story "Chinatown" in The Hard Stuff, Sunny demonstrates the talent that got Mona Lisa Awakening, Over the Moon, Mona Lisa Blossoming, On the Prowl, Mona Lisa Craving, Mona Lisa Darkening, Lucinda, Darkly, and Lucinda, Dangerously published. In roughly the same number of pages that Jami Alden uses to please and Valerie Martinez uses to disappoint, Sunny stuns in a deeply moving tale of two lonely, hurting people who find comfort (and so much more!) in each other's arms. Though much less bizarre than "Chinatown", "China Doll" still manages to repeatedly surprise.

It is worth the price by itself alone.

...which is really a nice way of saying Explicit!
Surprised that I enjoyed two of the stories: Tempted by Jami Alden and China Doll by Sunny
I had to take off 1 star for Hot Wired, though.

Tempted was enjoyable and I really believed the characters cared about each other. Nicely done!
(Read about the rest of the Tony's brothers in Alden's book A Taste of Honey)

Hot Wired was so crass and off-putting that I couldn't finish it. It felt sleazy and more greasy than Elvis-look-alike's hair. Will not read more by this author (I drink coffee - not motor oil).

China Doll was amazing. The opening love-making chapters flowed so beautifully and left me breathless!
The writing got a teeny bit rough when the characters met up again. I thought the way he wrenched an agreement out of her was a bit out of character.
Really good story.

Tempted was great as usual I really enjoy Jami Aldens books.
Hot Wired I barely got through and then did not enjoy at all. Will not purchase anymore books that are written by this author.
China Doll I really can't say I started it right after wading through Hot Wired and just could not get interested will probably have to go back and try again after getting Hot Wired out of my thoughts.
I read 2-3 books a week and it has been awhile since I have purchased one that I just could not get all the way through.

Two outta three ain't bad...

"China Doll" - Although a little rough in places, the author, Sunny, created engaging characters that pull you into the story. Anna, having been used and abused, was looking for someone to help exorcize the bad memories of her ex. Rand was looking for someone to have some fun with, wanting to pass the time. Rand got more than he bargained for when he fell in love with her, LOL! I've read the author before, and she's really good.

"Tempted" - I've never read Jami Alden before; you can bet I'll be reading her again! Her characters were very believable, some of them even quirky and making you laugh. The plot turned from a simple "I need to bring a date so no one bugs me about being single" to a full blown sexual relationship. I really liked how the characters had already known each other for a while, and how, even after the agreement that everything would go back to normal, there was no going back. Especially when one had the other for the other - and vice versa. A really good read! One teeny-tiny thing that I was disappointed about: They never used anything in the "gift basket" in the hotel room. *frown* Too bad. I was looking forward to that.

"Hot Wired" - I've never read the author before, and I'm not sure if I'll ever read her again. Her story was filled with stereotypes, her characters appear shallow - very much so. And they appeared rather ... high-school'ish. And while, I'll admit, she knows how to write a really hot sex scene, that was about all that was going for the story.

All in all, I'm glad I picked this book up, and encourage you to do the same.

WORD OF CAUTION: Sexually Explicit!!!