Romance Book Review: Susan Arden's Alpha Speed Dating

Author: Susan Arden

Series Connection: Rocky Mountain Shifter 

ISBN: N/A

Genre: Shifter romance, Werewolves, Erotic, Paranormal

Publisher: Sweet-N-Spicy Tales

Purchase Link: Amazon 

Reporter Mari has just been fired from her job after she presents a story to her editor that tells the true story about a famous shifter and future Earl who has been making the tabloids lately. While she's excited that she found the truth, she quickly finds out that she is mixed up in a family game where she comes out the loser. 

She gets a chance to still make her rent this month by working for the evening in an exclusive club just for shifters. All she needs to do is be an organizer, and oh yeah find a costume for the evening that doesn't show off too much of her behind. The evening is going well so far when who walks in other than the future Earl himself and he's instantly attracted to Mari and if she doesn't watch out her whole life could change in an instant. 

This book promotes itself as just a one night story from the "Den", but still I was a little disappointed because I would have liked to have seen it past the one night stage and move into a full novel. It would have been interesting to see where the couple's life moved on from here. Otherwise it was a good story, even if at times the dialog did get a little sappy. 

Description:

When a rich playboy's out of control life causes a reporter to get fired for doing her job, their meeting at the Den is about to get crazy-hot fast. 

As the next Earl of Essex, Conrad Fisher’s reckless life resembles a hurricane, wreaking havoc on Mari Dunhill’s career. A reporter at the Denver Times, Mari was fired for her attempt to set the record straight about Conrad’s recent tabloid fiasco.

They meet by chance at the Downtown Den during a round of speed dating. Suddenly, Mari is thrust onto a collision course about to implode thanks to one commanding English playboy.

Running on empty, Conrad refuses join the almighty Wolf News media conglomerate owned by his family’s powerful pack. Without a mate, his parents are playing hardball to get him to fall in line. Conrad marches to a lone alpha wolf drum fused with a fiery temper until he encounters an alluring she-wolf. Driven to the brink by the curvaceous and lush Mari, Conrad refuses to back away when Mari attempts to shut him down.

Now the chase is on. One night and Conrad won’t stop until she is upstairs and under him.

COME SPEND A NIGHT AT THE DEN ~ Novellas encompassing one night chance encounters within the exclusive shifter club, the Downtown Den.

What would you do if in the future sex was outlawed?

Sex: Outlawed!
Series Connection: Sex: Outlawed
ISBN: 978-1-9068-1195-2
Genre: Futuristic Erotica

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Description:
In an effort to help free mankind from a Totalitarian regime, two sexy doctors seduce gardening expert Anica Maine into a secret world of forbidden pleasure and sizzling sexual experiments.

Pollution and environmental contamination have made most of the world virtually unliveable. The sick soon outnumber the healthy. Hospitals become overwhelmed. Economies collapse. Governments combine to form a one world power called the “Order of Authority”(OA).

In order to save the human race the OA builds “biospheres” - large bubbles enclosing self-sustainable cities. Only the few healthy are allowed inside. Everyone else is left to die in the polluted Outer World.

To control the biosphere’s populations each human is embedded with a Blocker device, microchips suppressing the human’s urge to mate. Doctors are trained to adjust the Blocker enabling a woman to be artificially or naturally impregnated under the strictest conditions. Sex has effectively been outlawed!

Centuries later a rebel group of Doctors have tampered with their Blockers and begin to experiment with sex. Now they search for allies who can help them with their cause – to eventually free mankind.

Recruited to help free humans from a Totalitarian regime, two sexy doctors seduce gardening expert Anica Maine into a secret world of forbidden pleasure and sizzling sexual experiments.

My View:
This is the first book in Jan's new series, named the same as the first book. The premise behind this series is similar to her Outlaw Lovers series. True to form the author has started off this series in a novella version to introduce the series. This first book give an overview of what the new world has become. It describes a world where people are taught from birth to keep control of all of their emotions and has a chip implanted to keep from wanting to have sex or mate. A rebellion has started to change this. In this story a woman, Anica, who has to show up for her designated time to have a baby, waits too much to the last minute and has to go to a doctor to be impregnated the old fashioned way, by having sex.

When she steps into her new doctors office she meets Zach, her baby doctor who is part of the rebellion. I was pretty much okay with the story at this point. I realize this is a short book and we have to get right to the point, but I ran into a little problem when we meet the next doctor, Noah, and she has to have sex with him too.

Actually the premise of the story is interesting and the new series should prove to be really good once she gets going on it. I really enjoyed the authors Outlaw Lovers series. It too takes place in the future where the world has gone to war when a bio-virus is released and many woman are killed leaving the ratio of men to woman 5 to 1. This causes officials to make a claiming law where each woman must tie herself to five men. The women also has to take a special drug to keep them alive. So far there are four books to that series. The last one Tyler's Woman released last October. All of the books can be found on e-book through Ellora's Cave.
Romance book review.

Triple the love

Be With Me
Author: Maya Banks
eISBN: 978-1-440-60213-9

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Description:
Three men. One woman.

Hutch Bishop, Cam Douglas, and Sawyer Pritchard were juvenile delinquents with a reckless and wildly sexy side. But they had more in common than that. They had Regina Fallon, a wealthy but lonely girl from the right side of the tracks who formed an unusual friendship with the boys. She felt protected. She felt needed. She felt loved… for the first time in her life. By all three.

So much closer than just friends.

Today, she’s a police officer, dedicated to her badge, and wary of reuniting her relationship with the hot trio after one night of passion left her confused—and stunned—by what they wanted from her. But when a mysterious attempt is made on her life, Hutch, Cam, and Sawyer jump in to protect her again. Now, Regina and her three lovers are forming an all-new bond. It’s more exciting, more intense, and—as a killer looms in the shadows—more dangerous than ever before.

My View:
I've read many of Maya Banks books and I have to say she is one of the stars of erotic romance. For me there are thee kinds of erotic novels. The one that dives into sex in the first few pages and leaves your pulse racing throughout the book, the book that just throws in sex for the sake of sex and the novel that tells a story and include scenes of erotic romance throughout a story.

In this sensual suspense, Maya takes a little time out for the reader to get to know the characters. It would be easy to throw these four individuals into a room and say go ahead and get to the sex part. Let's face it what woman wouldn't fantasize about having three sexy, strong men devote their lives, love and sex life to you, but when it comes down to it in real life these things just don't happen. It takes some time for Reggie to come to grips with it. Maya does a great job in playing out those scenes. At times Reggie seems a bit to stubborn, but really how many women would be so easy to accept this situations and the changes it would bring to her life.

As far as the suspense part of the story. There I was a little disappointed. I liked the story line, but thought the cops were a bit on the hick side. I mean come on, most readers would have figured out the end of the book in the first two chapters and yet the cops didn't even ask the proper questions. With working so hard to establish the characters in the story, it would have been in line to at least make the cops have some depth in the story, as well.