Tag: Evangeline Anderson

Guest Review: Buck Naked by Evangeline Anderson

Posted April 6, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: Buck Naked by Evangeline AndersonReviewer: Tracy
Buck Naked by Evangeline Anderson
Series: Cougarville Series #1
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, Swerve
Publication Date: April 4th, 2017
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Sadie Becker is not herself. A 40-year-old, divorced mother of two, Sadie wakes up one morning and realizes that she looks and feels like she did in her twenties. Suddenly she’s unable to walk around in her new town of Cougarville without men falling at her feet. Confused and alone, Sadie isn’t sure who to turn to…except answers to her problems might reside with her broodingly handsome reclusive neighbor, Mathis.

An alpha shifter, Mathis lost the love of his life, and he knows he’ll never find another mate. But his innocent new neighbor clearly doesn’t know the danger she’s in, and he's the only one who can save her.

But when the attraction pulls too strong, will Mathis’ animal nature be unleashed and claim Sadie for his own?

Sadie wakes up on her 40th birthday, looks in the mirror, and can’t believe how she looks.  She looks about 20 years younger and she’s a bit freaked out by it.  She starting a new job so she has to get to town.  She’s just got divorced from her cheating husband and moved to a cabin in a town fondly called Cougarville by its residents.  Her mother left the cabin to her after she died but neither Sadie nor her twin, Samantha, knew anything about it.

Her first day in town doesn’t go exactly as she thought it would.  No one will serve her, they keep calling her “Juvie,” they act like she’s got leprosy and they keep kicking her out of her businesses.  Someone even slashes her tires!  When she ends up crying on her hot neighbor’s porch he eventually explains that everyone is calling her “Juvie” because she’s got a shifter gene in her that makes her someone who rejuvenates when they hit anywhere from 40-50 years old.  They are the only ones that can breed new shifters and they’re very rare.  Apparently her mother was one as well and now all the men want her and all the women hate her because they’re not a juvie as well.  Sadie is stunned by this news but soon handles it with aplomb – probably because she gets to get naked with her hot neighbor, Mathis.  Unfortunately the mayor of Cougarville, Liam Keller, wants Sadie for himself and he’s not afraid to play dirty to get her.

Buck Naked was a cute erotic PNR.  Anderson put a nice twist on the whole shifter/mating thing which made things a little more interesting.  What also made things different in this story was the fact that all of the shifters in Cougarville shifted into animals from the Paleolithic era (yes, the Stone Age).  We only got to read about Mathis’s Irish Elk and Keller’s cougar which was more like a saber-tooth tiger.  I’m sure there were other animals in town but I have no idea what they were.

Sadie was a sweet woman but was more than clueless when it came to the town.  I wouldn’t have put up with the town’s shit they were shoveling out but she just kind of ran instead of getting answers.  Mathis was great to her and I loved how he cared for her when she needed him.

Mathis was a good man.  He had been married before and loved his wife.  He has sworn to after she died that he would never take another mate and hadn’t been with a woman in 20 years.  He tried his best to stay away from Sadie but found himself falling in love with her.  It happened quickly but it was still cute.

Overall a good start to a paranormal series. Of course there is A LOT of sex in the story because it was an erotic romance.  Anderson always writes good sex scenes, that’s for sure.  If you want a quick, sexy read then grab this one.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Totally apart from the story…what is up with the guy on the cover of this book? I can’t stop laughing! Is that supposed to be a sexy smirk? Fail. He looks like he’s trying to get something out of his teeth. And his eyes…he’s not cross-eyed but the way he’s looking to the side certainly makes it look that way. Weird.

three-half-stars

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Review: Scarlet Heat by Evangeline Anderson

Posted July 1, 2015 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: Scarlet Heat by Evangeline AndersonReviewer: Holly
Scarlet Heat by Evangeline Anderson
Series: Born to Darkness #2
Publisher: Self-Published
Publication Date: 04/16/2013
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal Romance
Pages: 365
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

Scarlet Heat is a plus length novel, over 100,000 words long about vampires, werewolves, and witches. Not to mention sex. Lots and lots of steamy sex. It also contains chapter two of Shadowed, Brides of the Kindred 8 coming soon.

Taylor is a vampire—but she doesn’t want to be. Turned against her will by her sadistic mistress, Celeste, she has been living a miserable life of bondage and abuse for the past six years. Finally, through the help of her best friend Addison, Taylor is rescued but she can’t relax for long. In order to save her from an even worse fate, she is married off to Victor—a very reluctant groom who just happens to be a werewolf.

Victor doesn’t want to be responsible for the fledgling vampire, no matter how beautiful she is. Especially when he finds out he is the only one he can drink from. But aside from the strange arousal that overtakes him every time she sinks her dainty fangs into his throat, he has other problems to deal with…and a very big secret to hide.

Their marriage of convenience is only supposed to last for three months but Victor and Taylor finds themselves drawn together by more than the vows they took. But as their attraction grows, so does something else. Inside Taylor, something is changing. She begins to have physical cravings she has never had before, insatiable appetites that only Victor can satisfy.

Will she succumb to the madness growing within her or can Victor save her from the Scarlet Heat?

I’ve read several of Anderson’s books in the past. She has some writing quirks that really frustrate me, but I generally enjoy the premise and meat of her stories. I didn’t love Crimson Debt, the first book in this series, but I was curious enough about the heroine of this book to continue reading the series. Anderson is good at dropping just enough hints to make the next book almost impossible to ignore.

We met Taylor in Crimson Heat. She was turned into a vampire against her will and has spent the past 7 years living in absolute hell. As a made vampire, she’s forced to serve her maker in whatever way she’s told. Celeste, her maker, is a sadistic bitch who forces her to have sex, degrades her and physically and mentally abuses her. When a vampire even older and more cruel than her maker comes to town and Celeste gives Taylor to him, her best friend seeks the help of another master vampire to protect her and Taylor ends up blood bonded to Victor, an alpha shifter and lone wolf.

At first Taylor is terrified she’s traded one bad situation for another, but it isn’t long before she realizes Victor is a really good guy. He promises not to touch her or hurt her in any way, and he keeps that promise. Though Taylor doesn’t think she’ll ever be able to stand to have sex again, she eventually comes to trust Victor and craves a real marriage from him, not just the three months they have to remain together to get her permanently out of the reach of her maker.

Victor, too, comes to enjoy Taylor and wants to make their bonding permanent. Unfortunately he’s keeping a big secret from Taylor..he’s cursed. There’s a beast (aside from his shifter animal) inside him that he can’t control. He’s afraid he’ll end up inadvertently hurting Taylor if he loses control.

Of the three books in the series, this is my favorite. I really liked both Taylor and Victor. There are a a lot of silly misunderstandings that could have been cleared up with some simple communication, but when they were together I really enjoyed their romance.

What this book (and really, all her books) need is the services of a good editor. The writing is often choppy, there are continuity and consistency errors and masses of spelling and grammatical errors.

3.25 out of 5

three-stars

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What I Read Last Week

Posted May 20, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 4 Comments

Hey there!

Hope you all had a nice weekend.  Mine was…interesting. Let me explain.  My youngest joined a tumbling class at a dance studio about 6 months ago.  The studio is right next to her Taekwondo studio so it’s convenient.  Anyway, never in a million years would I have imagined a tumbling class going to a dance competition but yet, there I was on Saturday doing dance make-up (OMG you should have seen me, I had no effin clue what I was doing!) and getting her to the comp in Pasadena.  They did really well and got 1st platinum in their category but what a day!  I was exhausted by the time we got home and just the thought of doing another one this next Saturday (which we have to do!) is making me shudder.  lol  Of course my little one loved it. 🙂  Here she is when we first got to the competition and then with one of her best friends with the trophy.  There are about 15 girls in the group and I wish I could have taken pictures and video but they didn’t allow it and I was being good so I conformed. 🙂  Hopefully I’ll be able to this next weekend.

I have no idea why this pic looks so distorted.  It doesn’t look that way in my photo editor so IDK.  Whatever. lol

Yesterday was just a cleaning and recovery day with a nasty ass migraine.  I’ve still got it and am home today.  Staring at this screen isn’t doing me any favors but I needed to get this done.  I also completely skimped on the post last week so I can’t do that again! lol

On to what I read:

I started off the week with Tessa Dare’s Any Duchess Will Do.  I absolutely loved this book.  It had a man agreeing to his mother’s scheme to turn anyone he picks from Spindle Cove into a duchess – his duchess.  He doesn’t want to get married so picks the serving girl, Pauline, from the Bull and Blossom. She only agrees to go with him for a week and only cuz he’s paying her $1,000.00 pounds to screw up and thwart his mother’s plans.  They didn’t plan on falling in love.  The book was lovely and I’m truly loving this series.  I’ll post my review for this one this week. 4.75 out of 5

My next read was a very short book called Claiming Lauren by Emily Ryan-Davis.  The book showed us a wife of 5 years who lived in the states while her hubby lived in Europe.  The marriage was in name only.  She had been having an internet relationship with a guy for 2 years and she was finally going to go meet him and get her BDSM on for the first time.  The hubby shows up after she gets home and suddenly wants a relationship.  There was more to the relationship with the hubby that I can’t say without spoilers but the book was odd.  We never got any back story as to why the marriage was in name only – why the hubby had virtually ignored his wife for 5 years – how they came to be married in the first place.  The sex was well written but the lack of any depth to the story really turned me off of this one. 2 out of 5

Next up was The Temporary Wife by Jeannie Moon.  The story is about a couple who dies and leaves their daughter to the wife’s best friend to keep her away from the wife’s parents who weren’t parents at all and are mean and vindictive.  The parent’s try to get their granddaughter away from the best friend but their son steps in to help the best friend out – just temporarily.  The story was very cute and I enjoyed the book.  I’ll post my review for this one this week as well. 3.5 out of 5

It Had To Be You by Jill Shalvis is the next book in the Lucky Harbor series and it was really good.  The story is about a girl who’s down and out and is helped by a vacationing copy who is in Lucky Harbor for some quiet time.  He doesn’t exactly get it. I’ll post my review for this story next week.  4 out of 5

Next up was Remembering Love by Nadine Christian which is a story about a woman who finds out that her parents lived on a remote island and that her father killed her mother and then himself when she was 5.  The girl goes back to try and find answers and meets up with her childhood friend.  I really liked a lot about this story but there were some issues I had with it as well. 3.5 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Masks by Evangaline Anderson is the story about a girl who’s twin asks her to take her place with a client cuz she hurt her ankle.  Chloe had no idea that her twin is a dominatrix and fails miserably at the job.  The “client” ends up taking over and Chloe has the best night of her life – until she finds out some truths about the client and her sister.  This was a very cute story and pretty hot as well.  Anderson always is good at the erotic, that’s for sure.  3 out of 5

Last for the week was Knight Errant by KD Sarge.  This is a sci-fi/space opera about a 15/16 year old brother of a spaceship captain.  He is all about pleasing his sister but this means hiding the fact that he’s gay as well as other things.  She wants him to go to college – he doesn’t want to.  She wants him to be the captain of his own ship – he doesn’t want to.  He tells her none of this…until he meets Rafe Ballard who is a joy-boy, and falls in love with him.  Taro has to come clean about a lot of things, but not before he and Rafe get into a boat load of trouble.  I’ve had this one for quite a while and for some reason never read it.  It was really good and I definitely recommend it. 4.5 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
crickets

Happy Reading!

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Claimed by Evangeline Anderson

Posted April 8, 2011 by Tracy in Reviews | 5 Comments

Olivia Waterhouse has just graduated from nursing school and has her whole life ahead of her-until she gets drafted. Problem is, she isn’t being forced into the Army, she’s been chosen as a Kindred bride.

The Kindred are huge alien warriors-a race of genetic traders whose population is ninety-five percent male. After saving Earth from the threat of invasion they demand a reward-the right to find brides among the population. The chances of being chosen are about the same as those of winning the lottery-guess it’s just Liv’s lucky day.

Baird is a Beast Kindred who recently escaped imprisonment and torture at the hands of the malevolent Scourge. Through the torment and pain only one thing kept him sane-the thought of finding and claiming his bride-Olivia. His need to possess her is a burning intensity that threatens to consume them both.

Angry at having her future and her family taken away from her, Liv vows to fight back the only way she can-by resisting. She has one month on the Kindred Mothership with Baird-their claiming period. If she can keep from having bonding sex with him during that time, she can go home and get on with her life on Earth.

But Baird isn’t going to make it easy for her. Every week he is allowed to touch Liv more and more intimately and according to the contract she signed, she has to let him. She’s determined to resist him but his touch sets her on fire. And just as she thinks she knows what she wants, a twist of fate and an attack by the faceless Scourge AllFather changes everything…
I really liked this story but I did have some issues with it.
What I liked:
1. I liked Baird first and foremost. He really made the whole story for me – if he hadn’t been the kind, patient and loyal man he was I probably wouldn’t have liked the book too much. He loved Olivia and wanted nothing but to please her. The great part about that is that he didn’t change who he was to do that. He didn’t become some mush-mouthed, google-eyed, lovesick man who would do anything for his woman. It was all within reason and because he stood up for who he was and didn’t take too much crap from Olivia I liked him all the more.
2. The world of the Kindred was pretty cool. They had traded info and technology with other worlds and because of this they had invented some items that I wish we had on Earth now. Like the TakeMe which is an animal with two heads (one on either side of its body) that can grow or decrease in size. It is kind of like a transport system around Baird’s ship and can even eventually know its “riders” thoughts. There were other cool gadgets as well but you’ll have to discover
3. The other Kindred who all seem to be huge warriors but with good hearts and souls…for aliens. 🙂
What I didn’t care for:
1. Olivia. I understood her desire to stay on Earth and continue in her chosen field (she had just graduated from nursing school) and to stay with her friends and her twin sister, but when push came to shove and she started to give in to Baird sexually, she blamed him. Ok, yes, if it wasn’t for Baird she wouldn’t be his “bride” at all but when she begged him to fulfill her needs she didn’t get mad at herself for almost giving in, she blamed him like it was his fault she couldn’t control herself. I understand being a strong woman but the blame throwing really got to me after a while. The first couple of times I could deal with but after that? Not so much.
2. The length of the book. It was quite long with parts of the book that didn’t really seem to take the story further in the long run.
3. As much as I liked Baird and the story did tell us that he had learned English and Earth slang I still found it quite amazing that he sounded so un-alien like to me. It sounded to me like he’d been born and raised in Southern California.
Overall, a pretty good book. I will definitely be reading the next book in the Kindred series. 
Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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What I Read Last Week

Posted April 4, 2011 by Tracy in Features | 9 Comments

Happy Monday!
My kids are off for spring break this week. I have to say I LOVE it when I don’t have to get up and worry about getting kids off to school and lunches and blah, blah. lol Of course it makes it more difficult to get out of bed in the mornings as I just want to stay home and play with them. 🙂
The end of this week should be fun as I’m heading down to RT in LA on Friday night and staying til Sunday (with Lori, Nikki & Holly). I’ll head to the public signing on Saturday and then we’ll have So Cal blogger meet up in the lobby bar that evening – should be fun. If you’re going to be there let me know – I’d love to meet you!
Now on to the books I read last week:
I started off the week with Dreams of a Dark Warrior (IAD #11) by Kresley Cole. It was another great book in this series. Although it took me a darned long while to like the hero in this book, Declan grew on me. I loved that he, who was the reincarnation of Regin’s love (whether she wanted to call it love or not), didn’t just go with what Regin was telling him and was strong enough to be his own person. Good story with Cole’s wonderful writing. 4.5 out of 5
Next was Never a Gentleman by Eileen Dreyer. (A Book Binge read) I really liked the first book in this series but this one was definitely a difficult read for me and one I didn’t end up finishing. I read 266 of the 400 pages and just couldn’t read any longer. I disliked the hero and then lost respect for the heroine – just not good. You can read my DNF review here if you’re interested DNF
Shady Lady (Corine Solomon #3) by Ann Aguirre was my next read and it was really good! I love Aguirre’s writing and her stories are such that I just never want to put the book down once I start reading. This had Corine fighting to stay alive when a drug lord decided she had to die. I read this one for The Book Binge so I’ll let you know when my review posts. 4.5 out of 5

With Abandon by JL Langley was next. This was the story of Aubrey (who is Keaton’s brother from book 1 in the series) who is gay but in the closet – like so far in the closet he’s not seeing the light of day. Enter Matt from New Mexico who is staying with Aubrey while he goes to college and oh, look at that, they’re mates. Aubrey wants to have a relationship with Matt but he never plans on coming out to anyone, including his family due to what he thinks are expectations for his future. I liked this one but I had some issues with Aubrey. 3.75 out of 5

My Tracy’s TBR Challenge read for the week was Lime Green: Margarita Mondays by TC Blue. This was the story of Troy who always has Margarita Mondays at his house. When there is a noise complaint Jeremy and his partner, who are security guards, head over to take care of things. Troy and Jeremy meet and eventually start a relationship. It was pretty intense between the two of them and I really loved that intensity. I had a couple of issues with the writing style but otherwise a good read. 3.5 out of 5
Next up was Claimed by Evangeline Anderson. This is book 1 in a new series about the Kindred. Kindred are from other planets who have helped save Earth from certain destruction by The Scourge. In exchange the Kindred try to seek their “brides” (mates) from earthlings. Baird finds his bride, Olivia, on earth and takes her back to the mothership (that sounds funny but it wasn’t when I was reading) but Olivia just wants to be back with her twin sister on earth and her job. While he’s trying to bond with her she’s trying everything in her power to avoid the bond. While I liked the story and will be reading the next in this series I got seriously annoyed at Olivia. Baird was a wonderful being. He was kind and considerate, thoughtful, he tried his damndest to make Olivia feel at home – just a great guy. Olivia felt the growing bond between them but when she would start to give in she wouldn’t berate herself or tell herself she would try harder to resist Baird’s charms – she would get mad at Baird. Now I understand it was easier to yell at him than take responsibility but it just got old after a while. 3.5 out of 5
And last on the list was Captured by A Rogue Lord by Katharine Ashe. This is book 2 in the Rogues of the Sea series. I have book 1 that I bought recently but haven’t read it yet. I absolutely adored the novella that Ms. Ashe did in between the 2 novels so wanted to read the other books. While I really liked this one I had issues with a few things. I’ll be posting my review this week so I’ll tell you more then. 3.5 out of 5
My Book Binge reviews that posted this past week:
Happy Reading!

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