Take a sexy as all get out female spy who wears sharp heeled shoes, is very deadly with any weapon and her hands, and not a slouch in the brain department either. Then add the guy who is a brilliant former football scientist with integrity, a nosy family that want grandkids, Black Ops, stolen classified high tech plans that could kill people, kidnapping, and enough sex to rival The Joy Of Sex book on ideas, and you have The Spy Who Wants Me .

Elle Gray and Dr. Beau Ruston can barely control lust from when they first lay eyes on one another. Both are telling lies to do their job, and finally give in to lust, lots of lust. Assuring one another, "It's just sex" between two gun shy folks here. Then there is sex between Elle Gray's brother and his paramour from ten years ago.

Now a book with so much going on can work. Unfortunately in this one, I found myself distracted and tired while reading it, keeping track of all the things and divergent paths the story was taking. The characters were in some ways too pat perfect and flat for me to relate to. The best scenes were when Elle Gray was relating to her blusterous nosy family. That brought out the most touchable side of Elle Gray. Dr. Beau Ruston tended to come off as a horny Apollo hunk of a man, and while everyone talked about his brilliance, I did not see any evidence of it – unless his ability in bed was to show that?

I love a quickie as much as the next girl, so I’m constantly on the prowl for some hard, fast erotica to fill the time before bed. Rhian Cahill’s new story, One Night in Bankok definitely fits the bill.

Beth Martin has just gotten out of a bad relationship and is in the process of moving to a new job in a new country. She doesn’t realize how much she had tamed her true self while engaged to Alexander, but now she knew it was time to come out of her shell and be herself again.

When a dark, sexy man sends her a drink, Beth finds herself quickly thrust back into the game of boy-meets-girl. Though when Tom sits down at her table, she realizes this is no boy, this is a man. A hot-blooded, melt your panties and take you on the kitchen table kind of man.

After all the time she’d spent being Alexander’s plaything, could she really do this? Could she throw her cares aside for a one-night stand with a man this forward, this hot, this desirable, this wanting? Of course she could!

Rhian Cahill has crafted a genuinely enjoyable erotic quickie. There isn’t much here in the way of plot, but then again, there really isn’t supposed to be. What you will find is hot, sweaty action between a man and woman who have only one night together and want to make the most of it.

When I was a child, my cousins and I used to pretend we were gypsies, dressing up in bright clothes and travelling to unknown lands. When I come across a book with gypsies now, I almost always pick it up to reminiscence about those times so I was quite glad I came across this one.

A Gypsy’s Vow is author Bonnie Dee’s newest historical romance. She is a talented author who has releases out in multiple genres. I have had the opportunity to read several of her works and didn’t want to pass this one up.

Twenty-three year old Bess Andrews is the innkeeper’s daughter, practically a spinster for her time period. She has been managing the Thorn and Thistle Inn and taking care of her drunken father since her mother passed away five years ago. Bess is proposed to by Lord Wallace. Normally one would be thrilled to be able to raise their social status and procure a more stable position in society, but she knows he is only interested in the successful inn’s income.

Soon she meets handsome Alexi Cosmescu, a self-assured gypsy passing through town. At first, she is shy and cautious, but soon warms to his charms. She longs to see the world as he does, but is frightened to leave behind what is familiar. She is unprepared at the powerful connection that she and Alexi share so quickly. Bess will have to start making choices quickly, either giving up what she has known for a chance at love, or denying happiness and doing what is expected.

"Urban fantasy" has developed into a popular subgenre, one in which traditional mythic monsters (and heroes) are given natural origins and a mix of extra strengths and weaknesses. Savage Retribution, by Lexxie Couper, is an urban fantasy, with werewolves establishing themselves in modern Australia.
Couper stays fairly close to folklore with her werewolves showing heightened agility, strength and the ability to heal quickly. Her werewolves are not the result of being bitten by a mad, isolated individual. They are a separate subspecies, kissing cousins of Homo sapiens, attracted to, and able to interbreed with, humans. Couper emphasizes the duel nature, as well as form, of werewolves. Like wolves, they live in hierarchical groups dominated by an Alpha Wolf.
Regan, animal activist by night, animal physiotherapist by day, breaks into the Epoc Industries' Scientific Division to release laboratory animals. In a very powerfully written first chapter, she realizes that most of the animals in the lab are too damaged to rescue. She starts with a German Shepherd, using bolt cutters to open the cage. The dog is in great pain, and she injects it with a powerful anesthetic. Despite what the dog has suffered, it is still willing to trust her and gives a feeble wag of its tail.

It seems my schedule just keeps getting busier and busier, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still want to escape with a good book now and then. You know, one of those hot little numbers you can fit in at lunch or just before bedtime? When Kyann Waters’ novella Emerald: Eternal Rapture came my way, I raised my hands in thanks and settled in at my computer for a little diversion.

With her job as an Egyptian artifact appraiser, Selene Farrel had made her share of trips to odd places to view strange things, but the golden phallus she found in Anthony Mager’s collection was a first. Tipped with an exquisite emerald, she couldn’t believe that she actually held in her hands an ancient Egyptian sex toy.

She knew he was watching her as she moved her hands along the golden shaft. It was so hard to concentrate on evaluating the piece when her mind was telling her to turn away from the artifact and begin to handle her host instead! They had never met before, but it was as if she just knew sex between them would be explosive. With her hormones in a bunch, how could she ever concentrate enough to make her appraisal as her contract stipulated? And how could she ever leave this intoxicating man behind without knowing if her instincts were right about their chemistry?

If your underwear flies through the air, you can figure you've got one of three things going on:

1. Way too good of a time last night.
2. Someone that is mad is throwing you your laundry.
3. You have a naughty ghost.

If you guess the story is about the first two, you need to expand your imagination. It is door number three. My Favorite Phantom is about a ghost who throws undies, drops ectoplasm (aka ghost snot) all over, and not in small amounts either, makes it freezing cold on the hottest summer day, and…well, you get the idea. There is Professor Cache who brought this house, who is having a party for the group of people deciding who gets a grant. A ghost popping up dropping undies or slime would not be a good impression. So he hires "Ghost Be Gone."

Only instead of getting the old man he heard on the phone, sexy Kaci Melton shows up. She is part actress, part mechanic, and her secret is that she is terrified of ghosts when her dad is not there. Normally her dad, (the old man) would handle this end of the business, except he has a little problem. He owes money to someone who makes a habit of causing those who don't pay to disappear. So dad is out of state, Kaci is terrified of the ghost, and the professor has a problem with pretty girls--he likes them too much. Of course, there is also the ghost.

Robin Hood took from the rich and gave to the poor. He was the poor man's hero. At the risk of sounding "precious," I have to say that there's something special about the altruistic hero who puts himself in jeopardy for the greater good. Most men may have dreams of being Robin Hood, but when it comes down to it, people--especially
thieving ones--tend to line their own pockets. But then, if you look closer at the Robin Hood legend, you realize that Robin of Loxley had more than goodness on his mind. He was also thinking of revenge. We tend to forget that part.

Like Robin Hood, Marc Gossnor has more than goodness on his mind. But because of the first scene of Lily's Surrender, we are armed to forgive him forever. Picture this: the scene is a store. An eleven year old girl--pretty but poor and probably ragged--is wandering the candy aisle. She picks up a package of candy, and breathes in the scent, savoring it as much as one can without actually opening the cellophane. She can't afford it, she's not stealing it, but her actions draw the attention of Junior, one of store owner's smug sons. Junior focuses his bullying attentions on this poor girl--our heroine Lily--and succeeds in terrifying her. But instead of Lily being humiliated, or being dragged out of the store or worse, a boy stands up for her. This boy, this young Robin Hood in training, is our hero

Reese Gabriel is one of the more responsible D/s authors who manages to come up with an unapologetic Dom who does everything but rape his heroine, while managing to read her mind at every turn as well as give her a safe word. (If only real partners were so insightful.) When you have characters as caught up in chemistry as hers, it is inevitable that they read each others’ signs on some level not available to people not in the loop. However, in this particular story, Scorching Sammie, most of the folks in town seem to be in the loop.

It all begins because Octave Development Corporation is out to open up a resort in a small Florida community, sending up and coming Sammie/Samantha/Red to work on the project in the distant Everglades, far from her NYC stomping ground. The highlight of her arrival in the boonies is not old-timer Toby running off with her designer luggage, being misrouted to the town's abandoned airstrip or being met by "Skeeter." It's the instant animosity/attraction to Sheriff Bill Donovan, whose abrasive attractiveness--not to mention shiny silver handcuffs--sends her mind into a realm of fantasy overload not recommended for people whose real intent is to make business deals. Instead of handling him as a normal entity, she relates to him as the long lost Dom she never had, and in their interactions sounds more like a vexing adolescent than a businesswoman.

What can I say? I am a sucker for women in strong roles, because then I can pretend it is me having all that fun. Nothing is more romantic and seductive than a woman appearing to be all of 'the weaker' sex only to find she can kick-box you into China's next week.

In Mechanical Rose there is much of machinery written here including the mechanics of sex. Two misfit characters are thrown into a conflict of values. The heroine, Rose, must persuade this absent minded, though brilliant inventor, to cease his creation, or kill him. She's done it before, many times, and as painless as possible. That's the plan until she starts to fall in love with him. Once that happens, her carefully crafted world of lies starts to fall like so many beer-soaked playing cards.

Erotic Romance tends to come in two flavors. Full graphic, slam-bam sexual speed ahead or slow to a boil till you pop. If you are lucky, you even get a good story along the way to spice things up. With paranormal added in, you almost have to have a story or no one is going to know what is going on. Cursed By Moonlight brings together a noble man forced to turn into a werewolf each cycle of the full moon.

Alric, our noble hero and lord, is a cursed man, and Caasi is the enchanting seductress and witch. Godric, an old man, like a father to Alric, is determined to find a cure for the young man who has long since given up any such hope. Against Alric's wishes, he asks Caasi for help, and to her own surprise, she is willing. From then on, the fate of the cards is played out.

Can love conquer all, even death? It is the question that comes to mind when reading Bianca D’Arc’s Sweeter Than Wine.

One of only a few single Vampires left in his tight knit group, Sebastian has bided his time, waiting for the day when the love of his life, Christina, would be free of her tumultuous marriage. When a late night phone call advises him that Christina is dying, beaten beyond repair by her psychopathic husband Jeff, Sebastian knows what he must do to save her life – bring her to the other side.

For Christina it’s been a long battle to be free of her violent husband; a battle that nearly took her life. Now changed by Sebastian to be immortal, she undertakes the chore of learning how to defend herself so she’ll never be afraid again.

Ever find yourself attracted to a particularly scrumptious man? Not that unusual in itself, but you don’t often act on your attraction. What if you did and things didn’t work out as in your well-rehearsed fantasy? Instead, you’d find yourself avoiding the same delightful man that before you took such pleasure in greeting every day. Sound familiar? Maybe you have a great deal in common with Nico, the heroine in Savannah Chase’s newest novel, Bid For Love.

Nico thinks of herself as a modern gal, perhaps a little on the boring side. Maybe that’s why her friends’ constant badgering about Jeff is starting to get on her nerves. Audrey even has the nerve to hint she’ll take the yummy Jeff if Nico never plans to make a move on him. Great---all she needs is man-hungry Audrey gobbling the source of her fantasies. If only she could be more adventurous and take a chance. Besides her hidden tattoo, the most excitement in her life at this point is agreeing to attend the Valentine’s Day Bachelor Auction. She is unsure why she is attending because none of those hot guys would want to go out with her.

What’s an intelligent, educated woman to do when her rich and powerful father insists that she marry someone completely repulsive to her? Author Jaid Black gives us her premise on this scenario with Adam & Evil, one of the White Hot Holiday reads from Ellora’s Cave.

Julia Cameron is ready to marry, but she isn’t interested in the shrewd, bossy man her equally bossy father has chosen for her. Samuel Ian Adam knows his employer wants him to court his daughter but isn’t interested in the overtly business-like woman so different than the submissive type that usually turns him on. But during the Christmas season, Samuel ends up obliged to escort Julia home for the holidays. Their plane crashes and the pair find themselves stranded on a deserted island. Alone together, Julia and Sam discover sensuous passions brew and foment just beneath the surface of their otherwise clashing personalities.

It is a sad thing when a writer creates an estimable character like Doug in Roping His Filly and has him step aside for another hero. What is a writer to do? Leave a good guy in the trash bin with the rest of the edits? Or take advantage of the fact that you've got a fully rounded character, plus a boatload of readers who are mailing you in protest, demanding to know what happens next with him?

You'd think that as a female, I'd know all about females, but being kind of low-key myself, it's not true. I never learned about divas until I had my daughter. Not that she's a diva; but she is very high drama. She's the female equivalent of the little kid who disobeys his coach and deliberately runs through the dirt because it will look like a better play. What I learned is this: some girls just do things the hard way--they just have to have the drama, sometimes in spite of themselves.