J.C Roat and Rick Bremseth, both former SEALs who helped with the research for SEALed with a Promise, might tease Daughtridge about writing mush, but it is mush I definitely like. SEALed is very hero-centric. I closed this book with an urge to call up my best friend to get her dad to find me my very own Do-Lord. In the immortal words of LolCat "I can haz SEAL?" or maybe it was cheezburger, I tend to forget. This book is definitely recommended for the Save the Contemporary project Dear Authors and Smart Bitches are hosting together.
Dry-witted Emmie was a blast. She was smart, intelligent, analytical, observant, goal oriented and true to character. A professor of ecology, Emmie is well read and knowledgeable in many areas. She's the definition of an avid scholar. She dresses down to hide herself and makes it an art form to remain unnoticed, which is why it's so disconcerting that Navy SEAL Caleb "Do-Lord" Delaude does. Emmie is here to support her best friend Pickett in her upcoming nuptials - she is not here looking for a brawny jock, especially the brawny jock who's the best man.
Caleb Delaude is extremely smart. He's down played his intelligence to fit in better amongst his peers. Able to retain facts after reading or glancing at print, he also has an uncanny ability to see things others can't. He's great at picturing layouts from a map, knowing where to place people in any situation and sometimes he gets strange moments of déjà vu where the present and near-future collide. Caleb finds himself fiercely attracted to Emmie and before he knows it he's worming his way into her life... but only because he needs her connections for a revenge plot... right? Strange how the operative changes all because of a slip of a thing!
“Grace Muscat’s totally frigid. I’d be scared my dick would freeze off if I put it in that
icebox of hers.”
Firefighter Don Marshall, the man of Grace’s dreams, just compared her vagina to a freezer in the middle of a bar to his friends unsuspecting of her presence. Ouch! That’s quite a blunder for a hero! I immediately wanted to see if Elle Amery could save him from a fate worse than death…
In order to beat Don Marshall in the game of love Grace turns to Wyatt Bennett, the brother of one of her best friends for sex lessons. He would help her overcome her fear of men and erase all the abuse her husband Duane heaped on her (which is extensive) before he died.
Wyatt Bennett has loved Grace for 10 years, ever since he kissed her when she was fourteen. It’s been two years since she was widowed… if he waits any longer for her to heal, he just might end up losing her again. But when she asks for sex lessons in order to be a good bed partner for the likes of Don Marshall, Wyatt sees red. Eventually he decides to help her out in hopes of making her fall in love with him.
Despite the darker undertones to the story, Grace on Fire is a good read. Not as much sex in it as you would think based on the concept, though there is plenty. There was one instance of the dreaded lathed instead of laved as Smart Bitches has discussed in full. It’s interesting how it ends and took me
Grace on Fire is the second of a trilogy by Elle Amery. You do not need to read them in order, but you appreciate characters and their relationships to each other better by doing so. If I’m right, the trilogy matches three brother/sister pairs which also equals two sets of three best friends (6 people in total).
Sarah from Smart Bitches and Jane from Dear Author are co-hosting another contest. The prizes are pretty sweet and well worth the time to get involved.
First things first, what contemporary romance started this contest?
The answer to that is Victoria Dahl’s debut novel Talk Me Down. The heroine in this novel, Molly Jenkins, is an erotica romance author. She publishes under a pen name, not because she's ashamed of writing erotica, but because she knows how awkward it would be for family and friends. Molly Jenkins leaves city life to return to her small home town after some unpleasant activity with her law enforcer ex-honey/stalker. A small inheritance makes moving back home easy, but Molly is stuck. She's not inspired to write again until running into an old high school hunk, Ben Lawson, now chief of police.
Sarah says this about the sexual interactions within this book: "This, folks, is realistic sex. Gritty sex. Passionate pent-up sex. And most of all? FUN sex." While the Romantic Times reviewer labeled the heroine "as a dog in heat." In response to the RT comment Jane says, "I’m not going to even try to rebut it because that’s one of the things I liked best about this story." Based on these different reviews, the conclusion to be drawn from this is that the sex is frank, up front, and enjoyable if you like your sex in romance novels to be frank and up front.
