Absolute crap
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Nothing Special Series (Books #1-5) by A.E. Via
There was a special offer on this box-set, and since you can’t enter an MM book forum without being drowned by gushes of A.E. Via praise, I decided to take a chance. That’s despite me reading His Hart’s Command (Nothing Special #6) a while back and not being even remotely impressed. But I’m sad to say this purchase was a complete dud. And the series is – unfortunately – quite aptly named. There’s truly nothing special about these stories. Well, not in the positive sense anyway. These books each follow a different couple. It’s the guys in a special narcotics task force in Atlanta who all meet their very special…
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Rome and Jules by Tara Lain
Sooo. This story was an unusual one. At least for me. It’s an M/M shifter story, which isn’t the unusual part, but it’s actually a re-telling of Romeo and Juliet. Meaning it’s an enemies-to-lovers, secret marriage, and rival families kind of story, all wrapped up in some … fur. Synopsis: This is the story of Rome and Jules, both sons to their respective pack’s Alphas. Rome is the golden boy, his father’s hope for a worthy heir. He’s also secretly gay, hiding that fact because of the bigotry of his pack. Jules, on the other hand is out. And about to be married off to an unsavory character in exchange…
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Love Bites (Thicker Than Water #1) by Ann-Katrin Byrde
This book started out alright. I had hopes it would be one of those quick, juicy stories that might not be particularly well written but would make up for it with copious amounts of smut and a clichĂ©d but highly entertaining storyline. That’s not what I got though. Well, apart from the poor writing that is. I did finish the book however, but in retrospect I’m not sure why. Synopsis: Collin, who’s been trained by his adopted father to kill vampires, decides to revolt and goes drinking at a bar he’s been warned not to visit. He runs into a vampire, Talon. Collin is mighty fascinated and after a bunch…
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Manfax (Winter Brothers #2) by Jacob Chance
I’ve got to stop reading Jacob Chance. I’m lured in like a sucker by delicious cover pictures of abs. Every single time. Granted, I also found the premise for Manfax quite promising. Unfortunately though, none of my hopes for this read were realized. Synopsis: Roxanne runs a company named Manfax that specializes in investigating the romantic history of prospective dates/partners/lovers. After having four women requesting a Manfax for the same man – Adam Winter – during a short period of time, Roxanne gets curious. And when she discovers that Mr. Manfax is actually the brother of her best friend’s fiancĂ©, she doesn’t know how to act. Adam is obviously a…
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Cold Hard Cash (Cold Hard Cash #1) by K.L. Hiers
So here’s an interesting book. It’s rated at 4.4 on Amazon, 4.15 on Goodreads and a whopping 4.8 on Bookbub. And yet, this is terrible storytelling. Awful really. It’s labelled as a dark, mafia romance. It’s about a young bisexual man who – not so wisely – borrows a quarter of a million dollars from the mob to pay for a lawyer to get his wrongfully sentenced father out of jail. Then, when not being able to pay his debt, he offers himself up as payment to the gay, mafia kingpin – Boss Cold. Yes it’s an incredibly cheezy plot-line. But no matter the story, talented writers can pull that…
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Dire Warning (Blackwood Pack #1) by Mary Rundle
This is the second book in a row that I didn’t finish. So it’s safe to say that Dire Warning was a disappointment. I was intrigued by the blurb, as the M/M, wolf-shifter fan that I am. But the writing was so poor I couldn’t make myself continue. So, why review a bad read? Well, to warn off others of course. This book has a 4.2 star rating on Amazon, 4.5 stars on Bookbub and 3.9 on Goodreads. And that’s just not right. The storyline as such was alright, the cover pic was fun and hot. But the writing was a total mess. And when I – someone with English…
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Black Balled (Black Balle #1) by Andrea Smith & Eva LeNoir
I decided to give this book a try after it was highly recommended in one of my reader-groups. Usually, I stay clear of books featuring authors as a main character. In my experience, writers writing about a writer is more often than not an indication of one of three things; either the writer in question lacks in imagination, is a really poor writer or has an inflated ego. Sometimes, even all three applies. As I started in on Black Balled, I thought the writing itself was pretty good. No worries on that account. However, one of the main characters, the reviewer called Babu, was such a despicable douchebag I couldn’t…
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Double Teamed by Van Cole
Double Teamed is a train wreck. And that’s putting it mildly. All I wanted was some juicy smut. Lots of explicit nooky and hot guys. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. So a short story with an MMM mĂ©nage? Sign me up! But my god! This was crap straight through. Is it mean of me to be so blunt? Maybe. But this is another one of those books getting ridiculously inflated ratings on Amazon. I just want to save people from reading this disaster. It’s a story about a guy named Adam who meets up with his old bestie from High School. A bestie he also had…
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Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 5, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
This is an anthology with bite-sized erotic stories meant for women, set to be released in December this year. The stories are all very well written and there’s a vast array of erotic tastes represented. Which is perhaps the problem. I enjoyed less than half of the stories. And some of them I found even nasty. But I suppose that’s the trouble with trying to please everyone. In doing so, nobody gets what they want. I don’t consider my taste in erotica to be vanilla. But even so, there were several off-putting stories. From this collection, I’ve learned that I don’t like men wearing lingerie, I don’t find lesbian encounters…
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Slashes in the Snow by M. Never
This is poor, poor writing. And I’m sorely disappointed. I was convinced to read Slashes in the Snow by lots of amazing reviews and the fact that one of my favourite authors promoted this book. I absolutely see how authors promoting each others work benefits them, but this sucky read has most definitely affected how I view said author. Slashes in the Snow is about Ky and Kira. They’re technically step-siblings but live in entirely different worlds. Ky’s the badass biker with a gigantic chip on his shoulder and Kira is the supposedly spoilt little rich girl that needs his help. Kira is convinced that someone’s stalking her and she…