ARC REVIEW: Far from Perfect by Barbara Longley

Up and coming author Barbara Longley introduces us to Perfect, Indiana in the first book of her Love from the Heartland Series.  Watch for the release in October! 

Author:  Barbara Longley

Publisher:  Montlake Romance

What does the author say?

Noah Langford narrowly survived the roadside bombing in Iraq that killed five of his men and took his leg, leaving him haunted by flashbacks and riddled with guilt. When his stepbrother Matt dies in a car accident, the loss feels like the final blow to Noah’s shattered soul. But then he learns about the girlfriend and baby Matt abandoned years earlier, and suddenly Noah has a new mission…

 

Ceejay Lovejoy was nineteen and pregnant when her boyfriend walked out, disappearing from her life just like her parents had. Since that day, Ceejay has devoted herself to giving her daughter a better life, avoiding any man who could threaten that security—until the day Noah Langford shows up on her doorstep. His gentle spirit has an unexpected effect on Ceejay’s guarded heart, tempting her to take one last chance on love. But when a painful secret comes to light, it threatens to break the fragile bond growing between them…and to destroy a love powerful enough to heal them both.

 

My review:

First off, this review is an admitted step away from my normal reads that tend to be on the racy side (AKA Sexy Romance and Erotic Romance not to be confused with Erotica or Porn).  Barbara Longley is an up and coming author that has introduced me to Scotland with a paranormal twist and now to Perfect Indiana in her new contemporary romance.  The first book in Longley's Love from the Heartland series leads us to the peaceful residence in the town of Perfect, Indiana - the idyllic post-civil war town nestled on the banks of the Ohio River. 

What's not to love about the slow pace of small town country living besides everyone knowing your life history.  Add to that fact, your family was a founding family so you can't turn around without bumping into your relations.  That is exactly the way Ceejay Lovejoy sees her life -- stuck, belonging nowhere, going nowhere and alone.  She has spent her life working to get out.

Then Noah Langford enters the picture.  A former soldier who has commanded troops, watched his men die and come home with more than a wounded spirit who is unsure of his life only to have his younger stepbrother die a senseless death - killed by a drunk driver.  It's Noah's job to pick up the pieces for his stepmother and go through Matt's condo.  Noah had no idea that he truly would be sorting out the pieces of his somewhat forlorn stepbrother's life.  He's headed to Perfect, Indiana to see how bad his stepbrother messed up and maybe, just maybe, put things to right.

Ceejay and Noah have sparks...not always positive.  What are they to do when they don't realize they need each other to heal.  Ceejay offers solitude and understanding for Noah's PTSD.  While Noah offers strength and support for Ceejay to face what she's spent a lifetime runnning from -- her life, her family.  We watch them both take mis-steps and do the inevitable open mouth and insert foot.  You cringe because you know what was meant but it just didn't come out right for these two.  You just yearn to step in and help them out...exactly what more than one person in Perfect would like to do for them both!  What's not to love as you watch their story unfold.

Barbara Longley not only creates a happily ever after in this contemporary romance with Ceejay and Noah but provides us with amazing supporting characters that provide both depth and purpose.  Not a single character is introduced in a "mere throw-away" manner.  You truly get to know the entire town.   

My one wish for future books in the series?  A deeper look into the effects of our veteran's coming home to deal with PTSD.  We get a quick introduction but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will get to hear more about the steps Noah took in the VA BEFORE he came home and started his journey to find Ceejay.  This issue is prevalent now than ever before and every author that tackles this issue as soldiers move into personal relationships should be thanked for their efforts to get misperceptions and real life experiences out in the open.

Disclosure: This book was advance reader copy from the author. No other payment, beyond receipt of the ARC, was recieved by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligations to write a positive review. All opinions expressed herein are the blog authors.  These opinions may not necessarily agree with the author, publisher, publicists or other readers of this blog.  This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Chains by Shiloh Walker

quick weekend read in the sun & by the pool...Shiloh Walker's "Chains".  Not quite what I was expecting but still a nice leisure read packed with some tantilizing sexy romance to go along with a mystery.  Just what I needed to kill the time.  Thinking not a pre-requisite.

Author:  Shiloh Walker

Publisher:  The Penguin Group, Berkeley Publishing Group

　

What does the author say?

They weren’t friends. They weren’t enemies. The only thing the three girls had in common was the high school they went to in Madison, Ohio—until one tragic night. Now, fifteen years later, they’re returning home where passion—and danger—await…

Renee Lincoln was the homecoming queen—with the perfect boyfriend and the perfect life. After that horrible night, she rebelled the only way she knew how: by submitting to her wildest fantasies…

Tall, blonde, and athletic, Lacey Talbot was a golden girl with a bright future. She’s found success as a photographer, but no man has ever been able to satisfy her. No man but the bad boy she left behind…

Sherra Salinger has always looked like a princess out of some fairy tale. The books she writes, though, stem from the nightmare of that one night. And she shrinks from any man’s attention—especially the one stalking her…

They’re coming back to Madison—and it won’t be happy reunion. There are three men, all dangerous in a different way. And when each of them surrender their bodies to the heat, when they succumb to desire, they’ll find the safety they desperately need…

My review:

One backstory told from three points of view that brings the three heroine’s back to Madison, OH.  Shiloh Walker gives us a little BDSM erotic romance and then two sexy vanilla romance stories that build upon each other in order to solve a mystery.  Shiloh Walker takes care in making sure her main characters are well supported and given some depth, even though each of the short stories comes in around 100 pages.  Although 15 years are between the connecting backstory and where the characters re-surface no time is lost and we learn exactly what has shaped the heroine’s as well as their true loves.

This is a great read if you can just let yourself go and fall into their world putting aside the whirlwind romances that encompass the three women.  I had expected a bit more spice under the description “erotic suspence”; however, I do love a good mystery filled with unlimited sexual tension that culminates into some very sexy and sex descriptive scenes.

Disclosure: This book was self purchased in hard cover. No payment was recieved by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligations to write a positive review. All opinions expressed herein are the blog authors.  These opinions may not necessarily agree with the author, publisher, publicists or other readers of this blog.  This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Fifty Shades of Grey

Author:  E.L. James

Publisher:  The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House (2011)

What does the author say?

When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana’s quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too—but on his own terms.

Shocked yet thrilled by Grey’s singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success—his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family—Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey’s secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Erotic, amusing, and deeply moving, the Fifty Shades Trilogy is a tale that will obsess you, possess you, and stay with you forever.

My review:

In the first book of the trilogy, EL James, has taken her fan fiction from Twilight and created an easy read that has been coined “mommy porn” by some agencies.  Since I enjoy all types of romance, including the Twilight series, I picked the trilogy up for a quick weekend read.  I was not looking for any semblance of literary genius.  I was looking for the quick read equivalent to watching an afternoon of the Soap Opera Channel.  Taking that into account, EL James delivered just that to readers. 

Calibers of romance stories vary for all readers, even in this trilogy.  Many women look at the storyline to take them away to fantasy land.  Yet others, myself included, blush with the knowledge that yes there are really men that exude the dominance of Christian Grey (albeit without the bankroll) and women who are the young, inexperienced ingenue that have a flair of dominant personality but prefer to be bedroom a submissive that smiles inwardly when she pleases her man. 

E.L. James has created two main characters you nearly hate to actually love. Christian Grey is our dominant hero with a tortured past.  He strives for perfection in all he does and wants to control everything he touches in order to keep the order (“ala perfection”).  Anastasia Steele gets us to commiserate back to times when we were young and didn’t know the power a woman can actually hold over a man’s emotions and desires.  She makes us laugh as she wonders in amazement how she can change the palm twitching Christian with her innocence. 

We are given a strong dose of their meeting and first four weeks of courtship.  We are reminded of the “don’t” of first relationships.  We are reminded of our first time…and don’t we all wish it could be as good as Ana’s.  Christian is our Bill Gate’s billionaire with a pension to share his wealth with others less fortunate – his pay it forward for what was given to him from age four.

The support characters are incredible touches that only add to the storyline.  Each support character has substance and meaning, they aren’t just on the pages for background.  We get to meet them and enjoy their individual personalities even if only for a page or two.  EL James is even able to create connections with characters who we never actually meet – some we hear only one side of the conversation with a name attached.  Not one character is introduced without a positive purpose in mind.  If not for use in this first book, but to appear once again later in the trilogy and fulfill the purpose.

I’m amazed at the readers that fail to acknowledge that yes everything that does happen in this story (sexually) is possible and does occur for those in the lifestyle on a regular basis.  The fact that a de facto unenforceable contract exists as well as non-disclosure agreements and unstable personalities introduced such as Leila is nothing new for society.  We are introduced close up and personal to the inner workings of Ana’s mind, just as we were introduced to Bella’s thoughts/images in Twilight.  The thoughts may be immature and ungrounded – but keep in mind she is only 21 years old to his 27 years old.  He’s a Harvard drop out that grew up fast with memories of caring for himself and protecting himself at the age of 4.  For a reader to deny Christian his bossy nature and self-preservation techniques he’s created for coping would be against human nature in the real world.

On the downside, I will admit that the missed editorial edits for grammar/punctuation did get a bit distracting.  It is easy to see why this book has shot to the top of the best seller list and why the series will remain on the list as a whole – EL James ends her story immediately leaving us with a need.  Her ending was equivalent to waiting for the season opener of Dallas after JR was shot.  Even if you hated the story, you just can’t help but want to find out what happens after the belt came out.

Spoilers …

Yes, filling the book with eight hot and steamy sex scenes might be a bit much but when you consider the time frame and the sexual tension that is created from page one it is amazing Ana and Christian ever get out of bed.  I’d like to point out that a good spanking can be more than delicious when coming from a man you love, being flogged on a cross or the crop passing over your little bits is even hotter.  Ana even has the patented lower lip bite down to a science and will melt many a Dominant’s heart to nibble away…but having a man that is willing to take his time and listen to your wants and needs is even better.  Ultimately, he does provide what an ideal Dominant is yearned to provide – guidance, self-assurance and the ability to just plain take control but will bend if that bending enhances his submissive’s life.  The only scene downfall was letting Ana leave after the spanking with the belt.  I was able to truly understand her despair - she was trying to please the man she loved with complicit silence.  She was lost within her mind.  What happened is truly possible - leaving her alone to think might have looked normal and good but anyone in a D/s relationship knows the possibility of losing your ability to safeword and the horrible sub-space drop following anything so intense especially for someone with so little experience such as Ana.  Shame on Christian.  So I guess these really aren’t spoilers, more so a comparison and contrast with some real life scenarios.  Feel free to tell me how you feel or if you think this is all dreamland.

Disclosure: This book was self purchased. No payment was received by me in exchange for this review. There was no obligations to write a positive review. All opinions expressed herein are the blog authors.  These opinions may not necessarily agree with the author, publisher, publicists or other readers of this blog.  This disclosure is in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255, Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Back at it...

It has been an up and down year...from kinky to vanilla and everything in between.  Having a job, losing a job, being self employed, employed by multiple employers and now back to a single employer...now it's time to get back to what I truly enjoy.  Reading and telling people what I enjoy reading...and of course, my heart's desire is smut, romance, general kinkiness and more.

Rom Con Reviews...

Finished fan read judging two books for Rom Com...good stuff.

Doris O'Connor's Scandanavian Scandal earns an average score of 8.1 (but I'm admittedly harder on anything labeled erotica - must be SPICY)

Claire Ashgrove's Immortal Hope (first book in a new series) gets 186/200 or score avg of 9.3 and checking for book 2 on her webpage!