Freebie smut by Kendall Ryan and Kiki Burrell

Dirty Little Secret by Kendall Ryan

I can’t decide if this is the epitome of romance novel silliness or if it’s actually the ultimate romance. Either way, it’s pretty juicy. And chock-full of clichés, to the point where I was practically rolling my eyes (even though that makes reading quite difficult). The juicy-ness however makes it worth it. Maybe.

This is a story about Emma the librarian who – on the side – starts working as an escort for the company owned by a guy she’s been stalking and fantasizing about for a year. Gavin, Emma’s new boss and stalking-victim, owns this high-end escort-company together with his two brothers. And not only does the lines between work and play get seriously blurred, there’s also some sort of weird seduction game going on with Gavin and one of his brothers competing about getting into Emma’s knickers.

Pros: This is a very well-written story which is absolutely interesting and entertaining. There’s also quite a bit of smut if you’re so inclined.

Cons: This is fiction, I get it. But I have certain expectations of contemporary romance. One of them being some sort of plausibility to the story and also that it won’t be day-time soap-opera material. However, the clichés in this read negates both of those requirements: There’s the filthy rich and sexy alpha-male with Casanovian sexual experience who acts like an insensitive jerk most of the time. There’s the sheltered, beautiful and sexy (but unaware of that fact) good-girl who gets super infatuated in said jerk. There are encounters where just a look from the stud makes the heroine sopping wet. There’s sex where the guy knows more about what the woman enjoys than she does herself. Of course, since I couldn’t bring myself to care about either Emma or Gavin, it’s hard for me to appreciate the story. I wasn’t convinced by their supposed obsession with each other, I perceived Emma as meek, without a back-bone, and Gavin as an overbearing asshole. No wonder I couldn’t see past the abundance of clichés. And oh, it’s also a cliff-hanger.

Smut-factor: If you don’t require actual emotion involved in the narrative, the smut’s actually pretty good.

 

Finding Finn by Kiki Burrelli

This is an M/M wolf-shifter romance. And, unfortunately, a pretty average one. There are a few things that stand out though. One of them is that the main character, Finn, isn’t a shifter but a human. Only the hunky Luke, an alpha without a pack, can wolf out for real. So it’s a matter of wolf finds mate, mate is unaware of that fact but sexytimes still ensue. And, well, then there’s all kinds of unexpected things happening. Or maybe not so unexpected, the read is labeled an mpreg after all. Naturally, there’s also a bad guy threatening both Finn and Luke, which is as it should. You can’t have a lovestory without a threat to the happily ever after.

However, there’s a massive trigger warning. An attempted suicide is pretty prominent in the story so potential readers should be aware.

Pros: Having some humans being aware of the existence of shifters adds a new dynamic to the story. It’s a fresh angle that I liked quite a bit. Also, Finn’s vulnerability and past brought a depth to the read that was also a win.

Cons: The author seems to have trouble combining the plot with the romance-side of things. And the storytelling as such is very unevenly paced, there are too long segments of nothing of consequence happening to rushed narratives of more crucial events. That includes the big show-down in the end which was anticlimactic to say the least.

Smut-factor: Low quantity but high quality.