Scan barcode
angie_stl's review
4.0
I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review from Selena Kitt.
3 1/2 STARS
Club Alpha
Claiming His Tease by Amy Valenti 4 1/2 Stars
A surprisingly gentle and loving story, if you take the spanking out of it. Josh shows how gentle he could be before and after the scene he and Lena played out. Even when he did a scene with a friend, he was kind to her also. When Lena Dommed a friend, she also took care of her sub, making sure she was okay after the scene. Though the story is about the romance and rising tension between Lena and Josh, it also shows that BDSM isn't always about sex. Great story and great introduction to this book.
Breaking Boundaries by Sienna Stapleton 3 1/2 Stars
This is a story of a woman overcoming her upbringing, that made sex taboo and gave her serious body image issues because she's bigger than average. She and her live in boyfriend sign up for a weekend retreat at a place that they both assume is more talk therapy than sex therapy. They assumed wrong. Her boyfriend has to go a day or two early to learn how to become her 'Master'. I'll let you make your own conclusions from there. It was a pretty decent story, though not really my cup of tea.
The Billionaires' Club: Deceiving Him by Terry Towers 4 1/4 Stars
This was pretty short or just a fast read. In it, a journalist tries to get a promotion at her news paper by doing a story about the Billionaire's Club, a BDSM club for billionaires. She's in for a huge surprise when one of the billionaires decides he wants her for the night, maybe longer and for more than just sex.
Club Soria by Emilia Kincade 1 star
This was well written but not my cup of tea.
The Sybian Club by Selena Kitt 2 1/2 stars
This story is representative of Ms Kitt's work. It is very well written and the characters are believable. I have found that I love some of her stories and others are just okay for me, but that's all about personal preference. This one was one of the okay ones for me.
His Desire, Her Surrender by Malia Mallory 4 1/2 Stars
This is well written and full of intrigue. It's the second part of a four part series, the first one is currently free on ebook. The third and fourth parts, are not so cheap, but I'll probably find out soon enough if they are worth it. I enjoyed this enough to buy all the others in this series. Though the plot wasn't necessarily original, especially as a friend pointed out in this post-50 Shades era, but it's done in a way that it is worth the time and money for at least the first two parts, if you buy Club Alpha.
Escape by PJ Adams 3 Stars
This has not been my favorite of the book, but it's not been my least favorite either. It was worth my time to read, as that the club in it was a little different than most clubs that have been featured in the previous stories. If nothing else, I enjoy learning all the different aspects of a lifestyle that I know very little about. Of course, having spoken to people that do live this lifestyle, I always take books with a pinch of skepticism. In this book, Julie's interactions with her sister seemed to take it into a slightly less exciting place that where it could have gone, but I understand why the author did it this way.
Pavlov by Arden Aoide 3 1/2 Stars
This story is a bit different, a Dom trying to find a suitable sub, but finding only self-sabotaging tendencies. On the advice of a friend, he goes to the personal ads to looks, rather than place one. Which works out better than he ever could have imagined. This was well written and fun to read, especially the humiliation scene he did with a known crazy from the Club. Not a really dark story, as some of the others are, but well worth the time to read it.
Control: Masters of the Sanctuary by Elsa Day 4 Stars
Though the beginning plot of this story is similar to another in this book, it quickly moves away from that other story. This was well written and gave just enough mystery to keep the story going through a fictional week. I'll most likely be checking out the next book in this series!
At the Billionaire's Command by Juliette Jaye 2 1/2 Stars
I'm not exactly sure what I thought of this story. There were certainly elements that I loved, such as the subplot on corporate espionage of a sort, but there were other things that drove me crazy. The repetitiveness of explaining what was going on with their relationship being a big one. If this was cut down into serials, I could see the need for this, but all in the same body of work it gets tiresome. (A little spoilers for a second, but nothing major) The use of the remote egg vibe was repetitive and made no sense the second time, when she said she had no idea what it was. I'm pretty sure after you've used one of those once, you'll know what it is for the rest of your days. The d/s side of things, again I am not nor have I ever been in the lifestyle, but even I could see some glaring errors. A safeword was NEVER discussed, and I can't imagine a Dom doing what happened in the last scene to someone that's only been doing the sub thing for less than a year. I'm sorry, if you don't know the lifestyle, then write about something slightly different, as Ms Kitt did. I can't see myself reading this again or recommending this to anyone I know. Which is sad, because the whole corporate betrayal was a brilliant piece of work, mixed in with subpar bdsm play. I even liked the sweet country girl catching the billionaire, which is being overdone to death right now, but since I don't read a lot of those, that element worked well for me. What I'm trying to say in a very round about way is that it was a good story mixed with some bad elements that were enough to turn me off of the whole thing.
Rough Edges by Adriana Hunter & Catherine Cross 2 1/2 Stars
This story was not my cup of tea either, but I'm not sure where exactly it went wrong for me. As that I was reading an Advanced Readers' Copy, I can really hope this was thrown through some type of editor before the release date. I also think part of the problem for me was that the main female character internalized her musings way too much. There was quite a bit of action between the two main characters, but I have to agree with the female's best friend and say that I don't think I could hook up with a guy that saves me from a roofy only to turn around and give me a different kind. But maybe that's just me.
Club Red by Sophie Sawyer 3 1/2 Stars
This was a little bit of a darker story, but mostly because of the main characters' pasts. There were a few spots that his darkness came through, but for the most part it was almost a BDSM lite story. A decent story to take up an hour or so.
Precious Pet by Candy Quinn 3 1/2 Stars
Is there such a thing as New Adult erotica? Because that's kind of what this felt like. Not to mention a bit of a throwback from 50 Shades, with the super rich domineering guy and the sweet small town girl practically fresh of the turnip truck. That's not to say it was a bad read, it was pretty decent if you could get past those two things. Since I read an advanced copy, I must say I really hope this went through another level of editing before release though. Nothing major or difficult to puzzle out, but it would have brought the professionalism of the piece up quite a bit. There's definitely a market for stories like this one, so with a little spit and polish, it could do well on its own even.
3 1/2 STARS
Club Alpha
Claiming His Tease by Amy Valenti 4 1/2 Stars
A surprisingly gentle and loving story, if you take the spanking out of it. Josh shows how gentle he could be before and after the scene he and Lena played out. Even when he did a scene with a friend, he was kind to her also. When Lena Dommed a friend, she also took care of her sub, making sure she was okay after the scene. Though the story is about the romance and rising tension between Lena and Josh, it also shows that BDSM isn't always about sex. Great story and great introduction to this book.
Breaking Boundaries by Sienna Stapleton 3 1/2 Stars
This is a story of a woman overcoming her upbringing, that made sex taboo and gave her serious body image issues because she's bigger than average. She and her live in boyfriend sign up for a weekend retreat at a place that they both assume is more talk therapy than sex therapy. They assumed wrong. Her boyfriend has to go a day or two early to learn how to become her 'Master'. I'll let you make your own conclusions from there. It was a pretty decent story, though not really my cup of tea.
The Billionaires' Club: Deceiving Him by Terry Towers 4 1/4 Stars
This was pretty short or just a fast read. In it, a journalist tries to get a promotion at her news paper by doing a story about the Billionaire's Club, a BDSM club for billionaires. She's in for a huge surprise when one of the billionaires decides he wants her for the night, maybe longer and for more than just sex.
Club Soria by Emilia Kincade 1 star
This was well written but not my cup of tea.
The Sybian Club by Selena Kitt 2 1/2 stars
This story is representative of Ms Kitt's work. It is very well written and the characters are believable. I have found that I love some of her stories and others are just okay for me, but that's all about personal preference. This one was one of the okay ones for me.
His Desire, Her Surrender by Malia Mallory 4 1/2 Stars
This is well written and full of intrigue. It's the second part of a four part series, the first one is currently free on ebook. The third and fourth parts, are not so cheap, but I'll probably find out soon enough if they are worth it. I enjoyed this enough to buy all the others in this series. Though the plot wasn't necessarily original, especially as a friend pointed out in this post-50 Shades era, but it's done in a way that it is worth the time and money for at least the first two parts, if you buy Club Alpha.
Escape by PJ Adams 3 Stars
This has not been my favorite of the book, but it's not been my least favorite either. It was worth my time to read, as that the club in it was a little different than most clubs that have been featured in the previous stories. If nothing else, I enjoy learning all the different aspects of a lifestyle that I know very little about. Of course, having spoken to people that do live this lifestyle, I always take books with a pinch of skepticism. In this book, Julie's interactions with her sister seemed to take it into a slightly less exciting place that where it could have gone, but I understand why the author did it this way.
Pavlov by Arden Aoide 3 1/2 Stars
This story is a bit different, a Dom trying to find a suitable sub, but finding only self-sabotaging tendencies. On the advice of a friend, he goes to the personal ads to looks, rather than place one. Which works out better than he ever could have imagined. This was well written and fun to read, especially the humiliation scene he did with a known crazy from the Club. Not a really dark story, as some of the others are, but well worth the time to read it.
Control: Masters of the Sanctuary by Elsa Day 4 Stars
Though the beginning plot of this story is similar to another in this book, it quickly moves away from that other story. This was well written and gave just enough mystery to keep the story going through a fictional week. I'll most likely be checking out the next book in this series!
At the Billionaire's Command by Juliette Jaye 2 1/2 Stars
I'm not exactly sure what I thought of this story. There were certainly elements that I loved, such as the subplot on corporate espionage of a sort, but there were other things that drove me crazy. The repetitiveness of explaining what was going on with their relationship being a big one. If this was cut down into serials, I could see the need for this, but all in the same body of work it gets tiresome. (A little spoilers for a second, but nothing major) The use of the remote egg vibe was repetitive and made no sense the second time, when she said she had no idea what it was. I'm pretty sure after you've used one of those once, you'll know what it is for the rest of your days. The d/s side of things, again I am not nor have I ever been in the lifestyle, but even I could see some glaring errors. A safeword was NEVER discussed, and I can't imagine a Dom doing what happened in the last scene to someone that's only been doing the sub thing for less than a year. I'm sorry, if you don't know the lifestyle, then write about something slightly different, as Ms Kitt did. I can't see myself reading this again or recommending this to anyone I know. Which is sad, because the whole corporate betrayal was a brilliant piece of work, mixed in with subpar bdsm play. I even liked the sweet country girl catching the billionaire, which is being overdone to death right now, but since I don't read a lot of those, that element worked well for me. What I'm trying to say in a very round about way is that it was a good story mixed with some bad elements that were enough to turn me off of the whole thing.
Rough Edges by Adriana Hunter & Catherine Cross 2 1/2 Stars
This story was not my cup of tea either, but I'm not sure where exactly it went wrong for me. As that I was reading an Advanced Readers' Copy, I can really hope this was thrown through some type of editor before the release date. I also think part of the problem for me was that the main female character internalized her musings way too much. There was quite a bit of action between the two main characters, but I have to agree with the female's best friend and say that I don't think I could hook up with a guy that saves me from a roofy only to turn around and give me a different kind. But maybe that's just me.
Club Red by Sophie Sawyer 3 1/2 Stars
This was a little bit of a darker story, but mostly because of the main characters' pasts. There were a few spots that his darkness came through, but for the most part it was almost a BDSM lite story. A decent story to take up an hour or so.
Precious Pet by Candy Quinn 3 1/2 Stars
Is there such a thing as New Adult erotica? Because that's kind of what this felt like. Not to mention a bit of a throwback from 50 Shades, with the super rich domineering guy and the sweet small town girl practically fresh of the turnip truck. That's not to say it was a bad read, it was pretty decent if you could get past those two things. Since I read an advanced copy, I must say I really hope this went through another level of editing before release though. Nothing major or difficult to puzzle out, but it would have brought the professionalism of the piece up quite a bit. There's definitely a market for stories like this one, so with a little spit and polish, it could do well on its own even.
More...