Tag: Jennifer Bene Dark Romance

Claire Marta-Sandman

We have another release from Claire. This one is part of the Ceasefire universe. Sandman is not the continuation of the last book but takes place at the same time. It is also an extended version of a story that appeared in an anthology.

We have Morpheus, who is drunk pretty much out of his mind when he isn’t stoned. He remembers his family being killed, and the drugs are the only things that keep him from feeling pain. He just wants to be left alone with his drugs and his horror filled past, but of course, it’s not that easy. One night, a lost girl runs into his house. She doesn’t know who she is, where she is, or how she got there. She doesn’t even know where there is. But Morpheus feels some kind of way about her, even if he really doesn’t want to.

Robin is our lost girl. She’s a member of Gabriel’s team, taking over Mavi’s spot, not that she knows that right now. All she knows is that she has ended up on this island with a beautiful and troubled man. Well, she’s about to find out that it isn’t just one man. There are actually 3 men on the island, Morpheus, Illusions, and Nightmares. Nightmares stays locked in a dungeon, which Morpheus throws Robin into. And he lives up to his name, but there’s something about her that atttacts him to her, so Nightmares covers Robin in his blood and she isn’t scared of him anymore. Illusions does what his name says, but he creates an illusion that nearly kills Robin. She just has some problems with the guys at first. But Robin decides that they need to actually be a family, and she does what she can to bring the boys together, until all of a sudden, she’s just not there anymore.

The book takes place in different dimensions, just like any other Ceasefire book does. We get to see some of our old friends, including Thanatos, who is a cowboy in this world, which I think is awesome. I wonder if his horse is pale or has no name. I kind of see Thanatos like Sam Elliot in some Western. (yummmmm… Sam Elliot)

I love Robin. She has such a beautiful heart. She just has so much compassion and empathy for everyone, and she really wants to have people be the best them that they can be. You can see that in the way that she tries to bring Morpheus and his brothers together. With her there or when they are doing what she suggests, they work better, as a more cohesive unit. She also can talk to the dead, which is why she’s on Gabriel’s team. I do kind of feel sorry for her, since she can’t really get rid of the dead. I just really like her.

Now, Morpheus. Back in the late 80s and early 90s, I read comics. One of the comics I read was Sandman by Neil Gaiman. If you haven’t read it, go do that. But that comic really formed my inner version of Morpheus when I read this book. Of course, that’s not how Claire described him, but I have 30+ years of seeing him as this character, so, you know, there you go. I really like Claire’s version of Morpheus. I felt bad for him too, because he was so torn apart inside. all he wanted was to forget and not to feel his pain again, not that it was going to actually happen. Then he has his brothers, Nightmares and Illusions, which he kind of hates and does what he can to keep them away from him, at least until Robin comes around. I think that he is actually pretty brave, at least when he starts doing things. I’m never going to think he wasn’t brave, but you don’t see it at first.

I can’t wait for the second installment of Cassandra’s story, so hopefully Claire won’t keep us waiting too long for that.

I worry about Cupid. I mean, really.

OK, that’s all on this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Jennifer Bene-Redemption

Redemption is the last book in the Fragile Ties series with David and Lianna. Jennifer really put them through it and gave us a book that really fit in with the rest of the series. It has an HEA, I think? But it isn’t an easy one. It hurts. It’s incredibly hard-fought for everyone involved. When you read it, make sure that you read the bonus chapter at the end.

Warning before I get into things, there are likely to be spoilers for the first two books, so if you haven’t read them yet, go read them and come back. If you read past this point and are spoiled, well, you only have yourself to blame.

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So, we left off with Lianna learning about her family and that her father kept so much from her. Her uncle, Jean-Luc, (not Picard) has invited her to come to France, which there is a lot of conflict about. She wants to know more about her family, and meet them. After all, she’s been completely isolated from everyone by her asshole father. But David, he hates the Faure family, and he really doesn’t want to go. But he also knows that if he doesn’t go with her, that there is a chance that Jean-Luc (still not Picard) will manage to somehow seduce her into staying in France, and David will lose her altogether.

Off they go to France, with David tense AF. And when they land, the entire family is there to overwhelm them. Then they get to the house in Provence, and it doesn’t get any better. Of course, David is worried and tense, while Lianna is actually reveling in having a family, and not just having a family, but having one that seems to like her. There are bumps and potholes along the way because of course there are, but there are also good times, even for David.

I understand why David feels the way he does. It’s a whole combination of things, including the fact that his father pretty much brainwashed him into hating the Faures. Look, I’m not saying that they were the good guys, but they definitely weren’t the worst guys, and David was not willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, no matter what. Then there’s the fact that Lianna is really the love of his life, and nearly the only good thing that has ever happened, and you are going to get tense and antsy when you run into something that might risk that good thing. He’s also very protective of her. There’s only one person allowed to hurt her, and that’s him. (Consensually, of course, and no more than she can handle.) There’s also the fact that the Faure family has more money than Scrooge McDuck, and David just doesn’t. That’s hard to deal with. So, there’s all those things that go into his feelings, and all those things push him hard and make him act like more of an asshole than he really is.

Then we have Lianna. She’s conflicted too, but less so than David, I think. She is happy to have found a family. She loves David, and doesn’t want to lose him, and she knows how much he hates being there, and she appreciates his sacrifice to be there. Of course, that doesn’t mean that she’s happy when he acts like an asshole, which, being David, he does. They do fuss at each other over stuff going on there, and it isn’t easy on either of them. I do love it when Lianna stands up for herself against whoever she needs to. She does what she feels is right and protects those she feels need her protection.

I like the Faures. Jean-Luc (again, not Picard) and his wife are just so much in love. I loved how he digs the holes in the garden for her because he has a black thumb. There are questions behind him and what he is or isn’t doing. And he makes some choices in this that I knew were mistakes as soon as he made them, but that’s what people do.

When it comes to the title of the book, there are a lot of people who get redemption in this story, so it’s hard to tell precisely who is getting their redemption in this, or if it is even just one person. I like how it’s up to the reader to decide who is being redeemed.

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Really, don’t miss the bonus chapter at the end. You will kick yourself if you do. It really just destroyed me.

OK, that’s all for this one. Go check it out! Happy reading!

Cassandra Faye-Hunted

I have a very embarrassing confession to make. My husband is a huge Robin Hood fan. And by huge, I mean he has like 6 different Robin Hood movies, including the Disney animated one, and a couple of series. I don’t know how many different Robin Hood books he has. That’s not the embarrassing part. The embarrassing part is that it took me forfuckingever to realize that Hunted was a Robin Hood story. In my rather pathetic defense, the prologue made me think Pandora, sooo… I mean, the name Loxley did tickle at my brain a bit, but it still took me way too long.

Harper and Jared have been in a relationship for a long time, and now it’s time for Jared to do something really important. So he’s decided that he’ll bring Harper up to the Loxley family cabin. Only male Loxley family members generally come up to the cabin, so it’s something really special and sacred to Jared. He has a whole huge plan of how it’s going to go. He’ going to hunt a deer on the family land, take a hike up to a special area with a fantastic view, ask her to marry him, and then cook her a romantic venison dinner. He’s been planning this for a while, so he’s really excited. He also acted a tiny bit squirrely ahead of time, so Harper is a little bit nervous but also really looking forward to the trip.

At first, everything is great. Harper and Jared have no problem properly christening the cabin, and enjoying themselves, all happy and in love. But then, things change. Because this is a Cassandra Faye/Jennifer Bene story, of course, things change, and not necessarily for the good.

Jared is honestly a sweet man who really cares a whole lot about Harper. It’s so obvious that he really loves her. He has put so much thought into making this whole trip so special. He’s a good man too, I think. I mean, his family’s whole view on hunting is one I can agree with, you eat what kill, you don’t hunt for trophies. OK, that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s a good man, but it is one thing that proves my point, I think.

I think that Harper is the stronger one in this couple. I’m not saying that Jared is weak in any way, because he’s not. I just think that Harper has more emotional strength than Jared does. I think that it makes them a great complement to each other. I also think that without her emotional strength things would’ve turned out quite badly for everyone involved.

I really, really want to know what all the rules of being a Loxley are, and I think it was a good idea of Harper’s. I would really love to see more in this world.

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I think that Jared should’ve listened to Harper much sooner.

OK, that’s all I have to say on this one, go check it out! Happy reading!

Jennifer Bene & Shane Starrett-Jasmine

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

No really, this fucking book. Jennifer and Shane did something special with Jasmine, and I don’t think I will recover. Shane can insist that this is a good, clean, Christian love story all he wants to, and I won’t call him a liar, but I will say that I think that those words don’t necessarily mean what he thinks they mean. This is dark, intense, even darker than that, definitely more intense than you might think, and oh holy fuck, what the fuck did I just read?

This is Shane’s second book, and I honestly wouldn’t know if I didn’t already know. He and Jennifer wrote a tight book that drowned me in its darkness and damn near killed me in its intensity.

So, here’s our story. Her was abducted by Him. Him calls Her his wife, named Jasmine. He has to teach her how to be a good and godly wife, which means when she tries to escape, he drags her into the barn, and punishes her. By shoving a stick where sticks don’t go and belting the living fuck out her. But then, he tells her that he loves her, and that all is now forgiven between them and between her and God. Her is always telling Him that she isn’t Jasmine, but no matter what he is positive that she is. She is sure that Jasmine is already dead and that she’s going to be next, and after all the time that she’s been trapped by Him, she’s just ready for it to happen. If she can’t escape one way, she’ll do it another.

There is so much darkness in here that I can’t even describe all of it. I can’t even put this in as a capture fantasy, because, well, it just ain’t. Like I said earlier, dark and intense, and I’m still trying to figure out what the fuck I read, because damn. I don’t want to describe it any more than that, because I don’t want to spoil any of it for anyone who reads this. In fact, I’ve already gone back and rewritten paragraphs to make sure that I’m not spoiling anything. And I may take out another one. I haven’t decided yet.

I like the female main character. I think that she is stronger than she really has any right to be. She has dealt with all kinds of things that would break most people. I love that the first time we see her, she’s trying really hard to escape. I love that we get the dual POVs, so we get a good look into the minds of both Her and Him. And I really love that’s how the chapters are headed, so that we know whose POV we’re looking at. It really helps to add to the whole tone of the book.

I really dislike Him. I mean, truly dislike him. But, that being said, I’m not sure how much he is in his right mind. Or even his left mind. Not that it excuses anything that he does, and I’m really not trying to do that, but his plane of reality and our plane of reality don’t touch at any significant point. They aren’t even in nearby dimensions of reality.

If you like dark, and I mean really dark, then this is definitely something that you should take a look at. I would love to see Shane and Jennifer team up again, because what they have written is excellent.

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I have to say, as much as I dislike Him, he’s not the one I hate the most in this book. There is another character who I really hate so very much more. Soooo, very much more.

OK, that’s all for today. Go check it out. Happy reading?

Jennifer Bene-Inheritance

After a long wait, we finally have the next book in Jennifer’s Fragile Ties book, Inheritance. The first book in the series is Destruction. (my review here) And Jennifer, since I know that you are going to be reading this, I’m not complaining about the wait. It was worth every single second because OMG, it was good. As I was reading this dark romance, I was thinking that we need to have a new category of dark romance. It needs to be Jennifer Bene dark. I’m not trying to slight any other dark romance authors, since we all know that’s totally my jam, but Jennifer has her own particular je ne sais quoi. I really can’t describe it, but there is something that is very uniquely hers and it’s one of those things that lets you know it her book even if you didn’t see her name on the book.

Before we even get started talking about the book, there’s one little bit of business we have to take care of. We have to congratulate Miss Jennifer because she is now a full-time author! So everyone say congrats!

Anyway, on to David and Lianna. They are now several months out from the end of Destruction and the nightmare that came out of that. Lianna is now under investigation from the FBI, all her assets are frozen, and she’s about to have to move out of her beloved apartment, which was the one thing she did on her own, that her father didn’t touch. It has a view that she loves. The new place she has to move doesn’t have a view, is smaller, but she can afford it. That doesn’t mean that she’s all that fucking happy about it. She feels like she’s falling apart and she doesn’t know who she is anymore. She’s flailing. But she has David there, who will help her.

Meanwhile, David is doing everything he can to keep her safe, including talking with some bad people to track her father’s family, the Faures. Because her father was who he was, Lianna hasn’t had anything to do with her father’s family, and David wants to keep it that way, because they are some very, very bad people. Like international criminals kind of bad people. David’s dad brought him up to hate the Faures, and so he’s going to hate them. And he makes Lianna promise to stay away from them. But, you know that this is a Jennifer Bene book, so what do you figure the odds of the Faures staying out of this book are?

The sex in this one is seriously dark, hot, twisted, and oh my very fucking god good. Of course, if you read Destruction, you know what David and Lianna are like. If you haven’t read it, then you need to read it, because then you will understand what the word zipper means. But here’s the thing when it comes to David and Lianna and their sex life, it works for them. You might not like to be chased and then have your ass whipped with a belt, or be the one doing the action, but it works for them, and the scene is really hot. But what makes the whole thing hotter and the whole connection between David and Lianna so visceral is that there is so much passion in between the two of them. Jennifer is really good at writing those connections and relationships and giving you something that you can really feel. She’s also really good at ripping you apart and putting you back together again, which is what she does here. I had a hard time catching my breath sometimes, because this was so intense. But it wasn’t the same level intense all the way through. It was nicely balanced so there are those places where you can catch your breath.

Anyway, there’s another book to read in this series, and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next.

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I just got to wonder what Jean-Luc’s overall plan is. There is something behind everything that he’s done in this book. And damn, does it appear that he did a lot. I think appears to have done is all we have at this point.

OK, that’s all for this one. I can’t recommend Jennifer’s books enough, ever. Her books have done all kinds of things to me over the years. So, go check this one and all of them out. Happy reading!

And because I know Jennifer read all the way down here, I love you!

 

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