Sweet Vernal Zephyr

Succinct Book Reviews
(aka Creating & Whit)

Showing posts with label Hart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hart. Show all posts

Physical trauma begets emotional trauma withing the confines of a pseudo-faithful marriage bed.

Broken

by Megan Hart

9 hours & 39 minutes Audiobook
Released May 2007

This month, my name is Mary.

My name is different every month — Brandy, Honey, Amy…sometimes Joe doesn’t even bother to ask — but he never fails to arouse me with his body, his mouth, his touch, no matter what I’m called or where he picks me up.
The sex is always amazing, always leaves me itching for more in those long weeks until I see him again.

My real name is Sadie, and once a month over lunch, Joe tells me about his latest conquest. But what Joe doesn’t know is that, in my mind, I’m the star of every X-Rated one-night stand he has revealed to me, or that I’m practically obsessed with our imaginary sex life.

I know it’s wrong. I know my husband wouldn’t understand. But I can’t stop.

Not yet.
My review guidelines can be found HERE.


COVER ART
• Ties in well with her other erotic novels
• Suggestive without being obscene
• Accurately anonymous models
• Clean & eye catching with the large cover image and simple bold type


NORMALITY
• Marriage


SEXUALITY
• M/F
• Emotional Affair
• Quadriplegic Sex


REVIEW

• It builds upon itself, like good foreplay or a horror movie.

• Joe's lovers evolve as his attitude shifts from playboy to something more.

• Repetition is a whisper of premonition in the ear. "We stay were were are because it is easier than changing." Joe about the women. Ell about being a daughter. Sadie about her life.

• Once I got over the idea of quadriplegic sex, I was fully expecting oral. Huh. Initially, it is presented as simple voyeuristic masturbation on command. Eventually the oral does come, for both.

• Ms. Hart weaves emotions so tight and intricate that you can't help but want to touch them, be a part of the story. And that is when she smacks you in the back of the head. I can't read these books back to back, they are too emotionally roiling. In a good way, but intense for me. I can see real people in her characters and usually end up seeing pieces of me as well.

• Cameos of characters from other books. Gavin and Ell from Dirty stood out to me.

• I loved the punk goth IT chick/lover the best. Perhaps because I resemble her or because as Joe's lovers progress, so does my emotional attachment to him and his well being.

• The descriptions of a woman's first time in a strip club invoked discomfort along with uncertain arousal to culminate in an intensity of passion almost animal in its purpose.

• The orator's accents for each of Joe's one night stands are very well done and do a good job of setting the internal stories apart.

• Once again, Ms. Hart breaks my heart with her promise of redemption so quickly taken away. The guilt eats at the black and white leaving a lace of gray in this real life romance.

• Happily ever after is left up in the air in a classic Ms. Hart ending.


PERSONAL LURES
• Favorite Author
• Rain-soaked passion
• Taboos


WANT MORE?

Read a Tuesday Teaser with out love.

Read an excerpt about a virgin.

I've also reviewed Switch & Naked & This Is What I Want!


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme
Hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading

• Open your current read to a random page
• Share two “teaser” sentences sans spoilers



MY TEASE

I found sanctuary in the dark and quiet, in the one place where I didn’t have to be strong, optimistic, happy, or anything else anyone thought I should be.

Where I couldn’t and didn’t have to pretend I didn’t know the truth.

My husband didn’t love me anymore, and I didn’t know how to make him.

~ audioquote Broken by Megan Hart




Are you feeling teased?

Come back on the 7th for my Review!

It's Contemporary Romance week at SVZ!

"Boring"
"Bland and mushy sweetness."

These phrases used to be uttered by my lips, but NO MORE!

I used to think Contemporary Romance was for the sweet at heart.
The safe vanilla fiction for those girls with sparkly pink lip gloss and pedicures to match.

Color me surprised to find a few of my favored reads taking place in the plain ol' normal world.
No super powers or vampires.
No aliens or space ships.
Just normal.

Don't believe me? Try them for yourself!

I fully expected this to be just another smuttfest to satisfy my literary menage lust. WRONG! Amazing phrasing and unique insight into multiple relationships makes this peek inside the college dorm room more than a fling.

Emotionally intense moving on to deliciously smutty, menage again.

Starts light and morphs into a menage heartbreaker that I keep coming back to.

Hot. Dirty. Powerful. A favorite author of mine and luscious in audiobook format.
(Not menage. Ha! You thought there was a secret pattern. Maybe just a tendency. *wink*)


Happy Reading!

Review of Naked

Posted by Sweet Vernal Zephyr comments (3)

Naked: A realistic modern love story.
Naked
by Megan Hart


No strings. No regrets. And no going back.

I didn’t think he wanted me. And I wasn’t about to get involved with him, not after what I’d heard. Alex Kennedy was tall, dark and unbearably hot, but I’ve been burned before. Maybe it was stupid of me to offer but he needed a place to crash and I needed to pay the rent, but now he’s my tenant…with benefits. And now that we’ve crossed that line, I can’t seem to find my way back.

But I can’t give my heart to a man who’s so…unconventional. His last sexual relationship was with a married couple. It’s enough that my ex-fiancé preferred men, I won’t take that chance again no matter how much my body thrives on Alex’s touch. I can’t risk it, but I can’t resist it, either.

Alex can be very convincing when he wants something.

And he wants me.
My review guidelines can be found HERE.

COVER ART
  • Perfect.
  • Love the Naked typography and the way it mimics the model's hair.

SEXUALITY
  • M/M
  • Voyurism
  • M/F

REVIEW
  • A favored author for me, Ms. Hart always sucks me deep into her stories with her super-erotic tone and characters I can relate to.

  • I find my self thinking about the story in between readings.

  • Addresses quite a few hot button topics: race, sexuality, adoption... and most from a unique view point.

  • Ms. Hart always manages to get the man at the woman's feet, and I love it.

  • All the characters have rich backstories that you only catch glimpses of, just like real life. It sucks you in, and lures you deeper into the story.

  • Patrick starts out endearing but gradually gets more and more selfish. Will his motives be purified in the end?

  • Olivia has a startling relationship with Pippa. And even though her emotions are not the ones I would expect, I think I can understand them.

  • Alex is the bad boy, the sexy unattainable bad boy. He can be an asshole, he can be cold, he can be sexy, he can be endearing, he can be callous. But do all those things add up to someone you can love?

  • Sweeter than what I usually expect from Ms. Hart. This story starts out kinky only to delve into the intricacies of modern relationships.

Interested in some trivia and the soundtrack? Go here.

Read an excerpt HERE.

Did you review this book too?
Comment with your link! (Usually at the top of the post.)

Sweet daydreams...

Rough Love

Posted by Sweet Vernal Zephyr comments (5)

Scratching the surface of love with a twist... BDSM elements in romantic fiction

I'm not a Happily-Ever-After girl.

I like a dramatic exchange of power. Flip, switch.
Who was once on the bottom is suddenly on top.
And just what are they going to do now?
When the big bad boy finally realizes cuttie pattoutie blondie has his/her nails in his heart,
that's when the thrashing begins.

I read romance for the suspense, drama, anticipation.
And there tends to be a lot more when BDSM elements are involved.

BDSM, a short definition (parsed from Wikipedia)

Creed • Safe, Sane, and Consensual
Players • Tops, Bottoms, and Switches
B & D • Bondage and discipline
D & S • Dominance and submission
S & M • Sadism and Masochism


Here are a few stories I've reviewed that are on the lighter side of BDSM:
  • Sugar Rush - D/s; Subtle commands by the hero, but the heroine chooses to obey them.
  • Cowboy Sandwich - D/s; Role playing with an exchange of power within the scene. **
  • This Is What I Want - D/s; A Blogger Mistress and follower subs.


Solid BSDM elements involving previously uninitiated (vanilla) lovers:
  • Cheating Chance - B/D; A Dom introduces his vanilla sub to Japanese Rope Bondage in the midst of a mystery.
  • Sin on Skin - BDSM; A vanilla cougar jumps in to the gentle arms of her Dom and his lifestyle.
  • Switch - D/s; A vanilla switch obeys an unseen Dom in secret via stolen mail.


Hardcore love stories revolving around BDSM elements:
  • Call Me Sir - BDSM: A sub acts rashly after pining for a year over an aloof Dom.
  • My One - BDSM: A pain puppy and her revelation with a new Dom.
  • Taming the Fire - BDSM: A Dom forcing himself to switch for his supernatural spy job.
  • Desire, Oklahoma Series - A town specifically founded for families with alternative lifestyles.
  • Incognito Series - Centers on a high end fetish club and its patrons.


To tie up the loose ends of this post...

A tiny insight into the pleasure of bondage with a quote (of which I can validate and relate):
A woman is being held on a bed, one man at her wrists and another at her ankles.

"He spread my legs, using his hands on my ankles. He spread my legs, wide and wider, while I tried to stop him. It was a game, because we'd all agreed to this... [It] sped my pulse, and made the struggles go from halfhearted to not so halfhearted... The fact that I couldn't [stop him] both scared and excited me."

pg 556, Incubus Dreams by Laurell K. Hamilton

You want more?

Yesterday, James Buchanan posted a very informative article in reference to this subject.
He speaks with authority and provides a nice selection of links for further research.
(I very much enjoyed Ryan Hunter's Moment of Truth from A Pups Life blog.)
Stop by Reviews By Jessewave to check it out.

I do not claim to be anything near an expert on this subject.
This is a simple sharing of information and opinion.
Please add yours to the comments!

Yours,

REVIEW: This Is What I Want

Posted by Sweet Vernal Zephyr comments (2)

This Is What I Want
by Megan Hart
Audio run time: 1hr 39min
Narrator: Zoe Hunter


By day she was Eve Grant, customer service drone in a drab office cubicle. But at night she became Eris Apparent, sex goddess of the blogosphere, where she could express her true self in sizzling erotic fantasies.

As Eve she entertained aching, unfulfilled fancies about her sexy co-worker. But as Eris Apparent she was outspoken and demanding as she carried on a steamy cyberspace affair with the mysterious Tell_me.
My review guidelines can be found HERE.

COVER ART
  • Links nicely to the story, especially the jeans and belt—though I think the shirt is supposed to be black.

SEXUALITY
  • M/F
  • D/s
  • Anonymity

REVIEW
  • This story is amazingly easy for me to relate to with elements of D/s, Blogging, & a love for paper and ink.

  • I know that feeling, that rush I get when I post a piece of me writing on the blog and wait with baited breath for responses and comments. I can easily become this character.

  • Suspense and anticipate play large roles in the build up of sexual tension, a very good technique.

  • I only wish the culminating scene was hotter and longer, and perhaps delivered in a tone of voice different from the blog posts.

  • The above reviewed erotic short is part of the three story collection Spiced Briefs: Megan Hart Volume I. I enjoyed all three stories as Ms. Hart demands the same things from all her men, "Give me what I want." And they do.

  • Layover is the erotic culmination of a years worth of online longing.

  • Reason Enough explores the desires within marriage.

  • All erotic. All hot. All worth listening to, if you can stave off the blushes.

Read an excerpt HERE.

Listen to a sample

Did you review this book too?
Comment with your link! (at the top of this post)

Sweet daydreams...

Comment link is at the top of the post.

REVIEW: Switch

Posted by Sweet Vernal Zephyr comments (2)

Switch (audiobook)
by Megan Hart


Don't think.

Don't question.

Just do.

The anonymous note wasn't for me.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not in the habit of reading other people's mail, but it was just a piece of paper with a few lines scrawled on it, clearly meant for the apartment upstairs. It looked so innocent, but decidedly— deliciously—it was not.

Before replacing the note—and the ones that followed— in its rightful slot, I devoured its contents: suggestions, instructions, commands. Each was more daring, more intricate and more arousing than the last… and I followed them all to the letter.

Before the notes, if a man had told me what to do, I'd have told him where to go. But submission is an art, and there's something oddly freeing about doing someone's bidding…especially when it feels so very, very good.

But I find that the more I surrender, the more powerful I feel—so it's time to switch up roles.

We play by my rules now.
My review guidelines can be found HERE.

COVER ART
  • Perfect

SEXUALITY
  • D/s
  • M/F
  • Voyeurism/exhibitionism

REVIEW
  • Paige and I share an obsession. I wrote my senior thesis on it, and we both sniff it compulsively, especially when fine ink is involved. And we both have an almost irresistible urge to posses it in its finest forms... paper.*

  • This is a story about finding the strength within ourselves. It speaks further about the strength it takes to be both dominant and submissive. And to try and try again.

  • Switch is a very apt title, as you are led through a series of events... you begin powerless and finish with all the power.

  • The ending kind of took me off guard, but as I look back I can see the path and its natural culmination... But part of me still wanted to explore the alternate ending, or beginning if you prefer.

  • I'm being pretty damn cagey in the above bullet. Guess if you really want to know you'll have to read it... I double dog dare you. Better yet, I shall simply tell you—wear a blue shirt tomorrow and read Switch.

  • *Since this was an audiobook, I desperately hope the printed version is pressed on fine linen that slides beneath the fingertips like a smooth velvet kiss... but I'm pretty sure I will be disappointed. Perhaps the best course of action is to avoid the betrayal altogether and simply purchase a different title authored by Ms. Hart.

Read an excerpt HERE.

Did you review this book too?
Comment with your link! (at the top of this post)

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