Reviewer Top Pick: Spirals by Beth D. Carter

PAGAN & PEN REVIEW

Title:  Spirals

Author:  Beth D. Carter 

Author Site

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Publisher:  Loose Id LLC

Genre: Futuristic/Multicultural/Menage/Erotica/Romance

Length: 133 pages

Other:  M/F, Menage (M/F/M)

Pagan & Pagan Elements: Yes/ No

Reviewed by:  Kim Earley

About The Book:  Kaori Carnelian was only sixteen when Los Angeles was hit by an
earthquake that devastated it. With the world trying to recover from a plague that has wiped out half of the population, she learns how to survive by her wits and a great ability to hide, scavenging through what is left of LA. Years later, the government sends in recon  men, Sergeants Tobias Noble and Orion West to find any survivors before another earthquake destroys everything. They find her pleasuring herself and instantly both want her. Her world spirals out of control in a very delicious way. But when the men have to go find two others in their regiment that are missing, Kaori has to decide if her love outweighs her instinct for surviving.

The Review:   I had not previously read Beth D. Carter's work, but her believable (and sexy) writing has put her on my favorites list. She paints a picture of a life very different from ours today, and makes you feel as if you're there. The characters pull you in, as Kaori did when she shows you how she survived for so many years, and as Noble and Orion did when they teach her what love is about. The love the characters feel is pure, unmarred by jealousy in a believable way, and the sex is hot, hot, hot. The story moves quickly as the men work to save as many people as they can, and protect Kaori at the same time. The only thing I didn't like about this book was that it ended. I wanted to read more!  This book is a must-read, and a Top Reviewers Pick for me. 

Pagan Elements:   None.

Cover (Rated 1-10): 9.  The cover effectively shows us what LA looks like in the book, as well as gives us a picture of the three main characters in the book. It's also kid-friendly, if the book happens to be lying on the coffee table.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & the Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

Reviewer Top Pick: Lush Velvet Nights by Tina Donahue

PAGAN & PEN REVIEW

Title:  Lush Velvet Nights

Author:  Tina Donahue

Author Site

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Publisher:  Ellora's Cave

Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance

Length: 135 pgs.

Other:  M/F/Spanking/Voyeurism/Bondage

Pagan & Pagan Elements:  No/ No

Reviewed by:  Kim Earley

About The Book:  During the day, Adriana's a lonely corporate heiress, helming a supermarket empire. At night, she hires escorts, scripting provocative fantasies of kidnapping, lust, submission and endless longing. It's all she has to excite her until she meets Nathan Wynn. Tall, blond and muscular―like a modern-day Viking―Nathan's a labor relations attorney representing Adriana's union employees. His imposing presence intensifies her basest desires. When he protects her from an escort he believes is an attacker, she knows he's wonderfully dominant and unrestrained. Fascinated by Adriana's underlying sensuality, Nathan brings her to his secluded mountain estate, determined she submit fully to his hunger. At a gentleman's club, he makes certain she denies him nothing. Engaging in a seductive sexual journey, Nathan's caught off-guard by his stunning need for Adriana. An attraction he fears because of past events in his life. A growing emotional connection she will not let him deny.

The Review:   When I see a title from Ellora's Cave, it doesn't take much thought to snatch it up.  I've never read anything by Tina Donahue before, but after reading Lush Velvet Nights, she'll be on the top of my must read list! 

The characters jump off the page and straight into your heart, and the story line is romantic, pulling you in from the first page.  Adriana is an heiress, but far from spoiled.  Tired of dealing with men that want her for her money, she makes a first attempt at hiring an escort service to fulfill a kidnapping fantasy.  Nathan unknowingly rescues her from her would-be attacker, and instead of being repulsed by her hiring the escort service, he finds his attraction to her such that he decides to step into the kidnapper's place, and takes her to his mountain estate. 

Adriana is flawed, she's strong, and she believes wholeheartedly in the love she's found with Nathan.  Nathan is a hedonist, fearful of any sort of commitment.  His words tell her from the first moment that this is a non-relationship, that it's no strings.  She agrees, but longs (at one point weeps, saying to her father figure, “I lied, I want strings.”) for Nathan to return her love.  Will Adriana change Nathan's mind about love, and reach his heart?

Lush Velvet Nights has made it to my Reviewers Top Picks and is likely to stay there for quite some time.  Steamy sex, fantasy pleasures, and characters that pull you into their lives and their hearts will have you reaching for Lush Velvet Nights again and again.  This one is a must-read!

Pagan Elements:   None

Cover (Rated 1-10): 9-The cover is super sexy, and leaves no question as to the heat you'll find inside.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & the Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

Sophie's Pleasure by Patricia Pellicane

PAGAN & PEN REVIEW

Title:  SOPHIE’S PLEASURE

Author:  Patricia Pellicane 

Author Site

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Publisher:  Total-E-Bound Publishing

Genre: Contemporary Erotica; Paranormal and Psychic Activity; Woman’s Sexuality; Young Adult Relationships

Length: 43 Pages

Other:  M/F 

Pagan & Pagan Elements: Paranormal Activity

Reviewed by: Russ Allen

About The Book: With her psychic abilities, Sophie occasionally helps the police on cases that appear to dead end. Joe Palermo is a Suffolk County detective and Sophie’s brother-in-law’s partner. Sophie and Joe dated briefly when she was a teenager. Joe, upon seeing her again, is very interested in taking up where he once left off. He can’t imagine why he let a woman who looks like her get away.

Sophie is adamant and tells him straight out, she wants no relationship with him. Still a woman doesn’t have to have a relationship to sleep with a man, does she? She was too young the first time around, but Sophie is a woman now. A woman who knows exactly what she wants.

The Review:  While for the most part I liked this book, some elements could have been more developed. Sophie’s paranormal help given to the police on two occasions is mentioned, and its positive results are highlighted, but sufficient details regarding those instances aren't included. Sophie exhibits a reluctance to resume her relationship with a former boyfriend Joe, but gives no reason other than that she distrusts cops, also unexplained, despite the fact that her brother-in-law Jake and the others included in her circle of friends, about which little more is said, are police. A light-hearted moment occurs when Sophie uses her psychic ability to put Andy, another police officer, in his place. The use of this gift becomes more serious when, having to decide whether to reconnect with Joe, she changes her initial rejection in response to a reading he insists she give him.  However, one is left with an incomplete sense of these elements of Sophie’s personality and story, or what they mean for her and the larger details of her life.

The depth and quality of the author’s writing style really comes through in her two significant accounts of sexual activity between Sophie and Joe. These erotic episodes draw the reader in while avoiding the boring graphic descriptions and repetition of pornography. Still, there is an acrobatic dimension to their sex, and the number of continuous orgasms involved stretches credulity.

Their first sexual episode is clearly recreational, and for the most part Sophie is in charge of what happens with one exception: when Joe insists they have intercourse on the stairs leading to the bedroom. For Joe the encounter reawakens his earlier feelings about Sophie, a relationship she has no interest in resuming. However, his insistence and what she discovers in the reading he demands, convinces her to give it another try, leading to their second sexual encounter, much the same as the first though this time relational rather than recreational.

Unfortunately, Joe comes across as a hormone driven sex machine who wants Sophie primarily for her physical beauty and energetic sex, which fact neither resolves her issue about having a relationship with a police officer, supports her willingness to give their relationship another try based only on her good feelings about him engendered by the psychic reading [and the good sex that follows], nor offers a sound foundation for their future together. Sophie, on the other hand, presents herself as a strong woman with a real gift, in control, and with a sense of her value as a human being. She is also highly driven sexually, but seemingly, more in control of it than Joe is, even willing to mock him about his desires.

In the absence of information about their prior failed relationship, her reluctance to get involved with a policeman, her long term hopes and goals, and whatever lies below the surface defined by his and her sexual needs, it is hard to see where Sophie and Joe might end up, especially when they are no longer able to have that level of sex.

Pagan Elements: Sophie is a paranormal who uses her power to assist police, esp. in locating missing children.  She also uses it to put a pompous friend in his place. 

Cover (Rated 1-10): 4 The cover is typical for this genre, but really does not reflect the story.  It shows a gym-perfected male torso, but the book is really about a strong woman.  If seen on the bookshelf I would probably pass it by.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & the Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

Angel and the Unforgiven by Melissa Blue

PAGAN & PEN REVIEW

Title:  Angel and the Unforgiven

Author:  Melissa Blue  

Author Site

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Publisher:  Champagne Books

Genre: Historical Romance

Length:  243 pgs.

Other: M/F

Pagan & Pagan Elements: n/n

Reviewed by: Violet Harper

About The Book: When murder suspect Cadence Jamison disguises herself as a boy and stows away aboard the Heavenly Mistress, Captain Curtis Langston may find his two past occasions for rescuing her more than he bargained for.
Bitter and cynical after service in the Confederate Army, Curtis believes himself no more deserving of another's love than capable of returning it. Content to drift through life free of emotional and romantic complications, the once carefree and mischievous rogue may be forever gone. But when Cadence appears in his life, Curtis finds himself smiling, dreaming, and feeling more like himself than he has in five years. Drawn to the sweet and innocent goodness Cadence offers, Curtis struggles to resist the pull of what a life with her could be like.
Can Cadence show this wounded soul how to love again? Or is he doomed to be forever unforgiven, haunted by the ghosts of his past?

The Review:

Curtis is a man tortured by his past and searching for forgiveness. Cadence is a woman on the run for a crime she didn’t commit. Melissa Blue set up a conflict ripe for some brilliant lines that brought humor and heart-wrenching emotion to the scene. Although the head-hopping and vacillating emotions got to be a bit much sometimes, the characters were complex and likable. I found myself rooting for Cadence and marveling at the patience and perseverance that helped her heal the soul of a man broken by the horrors of war.

Some of the plot elements were weak—he stared at her for fifteen pages and then he didn’t recognize her onboard his ship—and some of the action elements were told in retrospect and through dialogue rather than bringing the reader into the tense situations. The speech patterns of the characters this historical (post-Civil War) romance tended to be modern, but that did not interfere with my enjoyment of the novel. The writing style was friendly and warm, inviting the reader closer to the hearts of Cadence and Curtis, and the realistic characterization is really what makes Angel and the Unforgiven interesting.

Pagan Elements: Brief discussion of shipboard superstitions.

Cover (Rated 1-10): 6--Clean lines and bold colors always catch my attention, though I would have liked to see faces, especially Cadence’s violet eyes that so captivated Curtis. 

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & the Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

The Curse of the Pharaoh's Manicurist by Angelia Sparrow & Naomi Brooks

PAGAN & PEN REVIEW

Title:  The Curse of the Pharaoh’s Manicurists
Author:  Angelia Sparrow & Naomi Brooks

Author Site: Click author name 

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Publisher:  Amber Allure/Amber Quill Press, LLC

Genre: Adventure/Historical Fantasy/Paranormal/GLBT/Menage

Length: 196 pages

Other:  M/F/M * M/M 

Pagan & Pagan Elements: No/yes

Reviewed by: Keri Stratton Alley

About The Book: Charles Doyle, fresh out of journalism school, signs on to be the secretary for suave, debonair adventurer Edward Kilsby, the Lord of Withycombe. Placed in a competition against Edwards’ rival and former fiancé, the two men must conquer the wilds of Egypt, defend themselves from mummies, appease Anubis, and realize their love for each other.

The Review: In a good romance novel, ambiguities in background details can be forgiven because the reader is so in love with the main characters that the rest of the story is mere framing. Angelia and Naomi--I forgive you. 

Edward is the epitome of a romance novel hero. He’s rakishly handsome, adventurous, brave, experienced and underneath his sophisticated veneer he’s a big softie. He just needs someone to take care of him. Enter Charles Doyle. He’s a city boy, longing to move to Paris to write a novel. He’s naïve, innocent, and adorably romantic; he even drags his giant typewriter through the deserts of Egypt. Though he’s never been with a man or woman, his attraction to Edward, a popular war hero, is undeniable. Reading their love story is a delightful romp through the emotional and physical pleasures associated with a new romance.

The background story is a charming adventure that combines a bit of history with some paranormal interactions with Egyptian deities. Edward and Charlie must race Edward’s ex-fiancé, a sadistically cruel woman named Sarah, to find out what happened to an archeologist gone missing during an Egyptian dig. Once in the tomb, they are possessed by the ghosts of the Pharoah’s manicurists, who also happen to be lovers. Charlie is shot by a member of Sarah’s team and must face Osiris and Anubis in order to be returned to his lover. However, once he returns to life, Edward and Charlie discover that they have incurred the wrath of Anubis who refuses to be denied the souls due to him. Fending off attacks from mummies, they battle their way back to England and perform a poignant and endearingly funny sacrifice to appease the Egyptian God of the Dead.

The beginning is a bit difficult to get into; the scene changes are a bit abrupt and could use additional explanation so the reader isn’t lost. But once you’re into the story, there’s no getting out. Each chapter opens with an excerpt from Charlie’s journal that invariably had me laughing out loud and eagerly anticipating the next chapter. The love scenes are both steamy and romantic, with just enough detail to spice it up, but enough subtlety to leave the best parts to the imagination. I loved the way in which the authors concluded the story, and how they interpreted the necessary sacrifice at the end. I grew to hate Sarah as much as the main characters and would have felt a smidge more satisfied to read a “just desserts” style of ending, though. One simple sentence showing a bit of mummy rot on Nigel’s arm would have left me satisfied by a turn of the karmic cycle. With only a vague mention of an illness, the lack of conclusion on that portion of the story line was the only sticking point for me during the ending.

Pagan Elements: possession by spirits, being weighed and measured after death by Osiris, sacrificing to Anubis,

Cover (Rated 1-10): 5

The cover meant so much more after I had read the book, so it is a good depiction of what will be found inside.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.