Tag: Maren Smith

Anthology-Christmas at the Club

Merry Kinkmas! Today we have an anthology written by 17 authors that take place in several different worlds, and involve 17 different kink clubs. We have established groupings, new couples, Doms and Dommes, Littles and subbies, and good, clean, kinky, dirty fun. Christmas at the Club includes stories from Alta Hensley, Jennifer Bene, Samantha Cole, Pepper North, and Linzi Basset. As with any anthology that is this long, and it is long, I’m only going to mention a few. If you want to see what I thought about all the stories, you can check out my GR review.

Jennifer Bene A Not So Silent Night

This one includes the Infamous trio of Emma, Chase, and Jaxon. Chase doms Emma, and Jax doms them both. They weren’t the first MMf trio I read, but they are still my favorite. the Infamous trio is the basis of the entire Black Light series. Generally, they are written by Livia Grant, but Jennifer wrote this one, mostly because Livia has another story in here. Anyway, I was really glad to see these guys because they are always so hot. On top of being hot, we also get the real life issues of trying to be parents, trying to spend time with in laws, and trying to be the kinky fuckers that you are. I really loved the juxtaposition.

Livia Grant A Kinky Crossover

This is Livia’s story. It takes place in her Punishment Pit world, which appears to be in the same world as Black Light, as Jax has called Lukas to ask if they can come to Lukas’ Christmas party. Because of that phone call, we get to see another little bit of the trio, as well as getting to see Lukas and Tiffany. I love Tiffany’s spunk and the fact that she hasn’t lost that in the year of being married to Lukas. She also has some of my favorite lines in the entire anthology, including her answer to why she’s being punished. She tells the person asking that she’s pretty sure that the reason that she’s getting punished this time is because she married Lukas. Her entire thought stream about her clit at this point is fucking hilarious too.

Alta Hensley Villains and Champagne

This takes place in Alta’s Top Shelf series. Harley is my absolute favorite of all the Domes in that world. In fact, I need to go reread his book sometime in the very near future. I was just so happy to see him again. In this one, there’s going to be a party at the club. Harley just wants to go home to see his sub, Marlowe. Except Marlowe has just walked into the club. She really wants to go to the party. I love all the machinations that go into this story.

Maren Smith Keeping Kaylee

This takes place in Maren’s Castle world. Kaylee is the primary female character in the story, but it really involves all the Ladies of the Castle. They all have plans, because they all feel some kind of way right now. But Kaylee is the driving force. I have to admit that I really felt for Kaylee. It’s easy to end up feeling like you are the last priority on everyone’s list. It’s a really hurtful, sad, and lonely place. I don’t blame her for her plan to get Marshall to pay more attention to her.

Golden Angel A Sassy Christmas

This one takes place in Golden’s Stronghold world. We get to see Adam and Angel struggling to keep their kinky marriage kinky or even sexy after being parents for a year. Now, if you have been a mother, you totally get Angel in this story. I’m not dissing Adam, because parents are going to get him too, and he is doing the best he can, and he does pretty good. But for me, it’s all about Angel and how she feels. I remember feeling that same way when my now very adult son was a baby. I didn’t understand why I wasn’t ready to jump back into sex at 6 weeks, and I hated being touched for a long while. I nursed a very clingy baby, for a year. I almost never had any time when people weren’t touching me, so I totally felt Angel in this one.

There are a lot of other really good stories in here. The nice thing about an anthology is that there is a little something for everyone. Some of the stories are pretty short, but some of them are longer. If you want something that you can read in a few minutes before bed, you can find one with no problem.

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

Maren Smith: Ray

Ray is the third book in the Dad Bod Doms, and is Maren’s offering to the series. We got a hint of his story in the end of Raisa’s Henry.

Ray decided that part of his problem was that his dad bod was a little too dad and not quite enough bod. So, he’s going to go home and start working out so that he can get back into the same shape he was in when he and his wife Ally got married. He had been in the Army, and had really stopped running the day after his discharge, but he’s bound and dtermined to start it back up, with a 10 mile run. And seriously, who goes straight from not jogging to a 10 mile run immediately? Then again, I’ve never run 10 continuous miles in my entire life, so there’s that. And, well, Ray does get some inspiration while he’s out on his jog, so that probably helped.

Meanwhile, his lovely wife Ally wakes up to get her day started, and notices that he’s not in bed, but that could just be that he’s already awake, it happens sometimes. But when she gets down to the kitchen, she notices that the coffee hasn’t been started. And that’s weird. As Ally continues her morning, she’s worried about her husband, but then he comes into the house, huffing and puffing, red in the face, looking like he died 3 days ago, and told her he was jogging. Ally is concerned about why he would be jogging, and running through a series of ideas, she decides that he’s having an affair.

I think that Ray and Ally aren’t are distant as other couples are, but there is some distance there. Part of it is just the fact that being parents sometimes makes it really hard to have time to talk about anything outside of the kid and having 3 young kids makes it really hard to have the time to do just about anything. On top of that, there is a lot of pressure put on women to be the perfect wife and mother, and I think that Ally has a huge dose of that going on. I really relate to Ally because she feels all that pressure and stress and her brain goes to the anxiety place, and that’s where my brain goes too.

I think that Ray is a really good man that really wants to do the best for his wife and family. He works hard at his job, and he loves his family. I think that he misreads Ally’s concerns, and he tries to fix the things as he sees them, which is really all he can do. When Ally does what she does, he really feels blindsided. They both thought that they were talking to each other, but they were really not, which is why Ally is just convinced he’s having an affair.

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

Maren Smith-Black Light: Brave

While the Black Light books are generally standalones in the world, with a few character who may show up in various books, Brave isn’t quite a standalone. It follows a storyline that started in Roulette Redux, and then went on with Fearless. They are all related, and you don’t *have* to read the others to enjoy Brave, but you will enjoy it a lot more. There is enough of the back story that you will get the basics, but really, you should read the other two. The story in Redux is Shameless, by Maren, if that helps.

Anyway, here’s our story. We have Puppy and Pony. They are the only two left from Ethan’s Menagerie. Piggy and Kitty both managed to escape, and Ethan is in jail. At least for a little while longer. Puppy and Pony are living with Puppy’s mother, and neither are doing all that well. Puppy can’t hold a job, and Pony can’t do anything without Ethan. They go and visit him in jail, and he punishes Pony, even when Puppy screws up. One night, it gets way too much and Puppy just has to escape. She manages to get to Black Light, the exclusive BDSM club where she used to be a member, as part of Ethan’s Menagerie. She manages to walk in and sit down across from a Dom, for about a minute, before she runs far away.

Carlson, who works for Black Light, is surprised when this stranger dressed in things that no one would be seen in a kink club in just sits down at the table next to him. When she runs away, he feels like he needs to follow her because there’s just something about her.

Before we talk about Puppy and Carlson, I just want to say that Pony just makes my heart break. She is so profoundly broken. We don’t get anything from her POV, we’re just seeing her through Puppy’s POV and a little from Carlson’s, and yeah, she’s hurting so badly. Even with as broken as she is, I don’t particularly like her a lot of the time. I don’t know if the things I don’t like are part of her original personality, a reaction to her time spent under Ethan’s “care”, or the fact that she’s been abandoned by him. It could be a combination of all of the above. I don’t know if Maren is going to write a book for her, since the tag for this one is that the story ends with Puppy, so I think we’ll just have to wait and see.

And Ethan. I HATE Ethan. I hate him with the heat of 1000000 white hot suns. This book did nothing to make me like him more. In fact, it did a whole lot to make me like him even less.

I can’t miss talking about Spencer, since he does show up in here a couple of times, and we have a couple of chapters from his POV. He’s never been one of my favorite characters, at all. I understand his feelings and actions in this one, and I think that he may have made it hard for me to not like him a little more than I have in the past.

Now let’s talk about Puppy and Carlson.

Puppy, I have to give her all kinds of kudos for even making the attempt to have any kind of life after Ethan, especially since she was dealing with all kinds of things she was dealing with. I don’t think anyone was ever trying to help her after she left the hospital when she was freed from Ethan. I want to totally blame that on her mother, but that could be because I don’t like her mother, so I really want to blame all the things on her. But, Puppy has a lot of strength and a lot of bravery to even walk out of the house, I think. I mean, she knows that monsters exist in a much more visceral way than most people will ever know. I have to say that I’m really proud of her.

And on to Carlson. I mostly like him. Most of the time. I think that he is really patient with Puppy, and lets her get through things that she wouldn’t have been able to handle before. I think that there are a few times when he doesn’t handle everything as well as he could’ve, but Puppy is really a landmine, and she doesn’t even have the map for all the traps that Ethan planted in her. And Carlson, for as patient as he is, and as Dom-ly as he is, isn’t a mindreader or a psychologist, so it’s not a huge surprise that he stumbles sometimes. I think that even a trained professional would have problems with things too.

bookshelf-1082309_1920

Ha. Ethan can suck it.

OK, that’s all for today. I heartily recommend all of the Black Light books. Happy reading!

Anthology-Dirty Daddies

So, last year, a bunch of Daddy authors got together and started a party room on FB. There’s a lot of parties, jokes, posts, and so forth in there. There’s also a pretty damn awesome anthology that came out of it. And I was the lucky one to get a full ARC of the whole Dirty Daddies anthology. Rayanna Jamison asked me if I wanted it, which I feel like was some kind of test, because, like I’m going to say no?

There are 12 stories in here by 13 authors, since Rayanna and Allysa teamed up on their story. All of the authors have written Daddy stories before, and I had read all but two of them, and they were both on my TBR. But, shall we talk about what my TBR looks like on any given day?

There are a lot of reasons that I like to read anthologies like this. One is that you get a lot of takes on the theme, and there is quite a range in here. Another is that you can get a good flavor of authors you aren’t familiar with, which in my case was Laylah Roberts and J.M. Dabney. Some of the stories in here, like Golden Angel’s Little Leigh, Pepper North’s Sylvie, and Katie Douglas’ Daddy’s Precious Little Girl belong in established worlds, while others are new stories in new worlds. And then you get Brianna Hale, who got her inspiration from a thread on FB. And Brianna? I think I read that thread too. I probably said that it would be the only way that I would exercise too. LOL.

All 12 stories are good stories and I like them all. And I would really like to have any one of these 12 Daddies, because they are so yummy and Daddy-licious. But, like with any anthology, there are going to be stories that I like more than others. Because that’s just how it is.

If you have read my blog, you can probably guess that Lindsay’s Secret by Emily Tilton is one of my favorites, because yeeeeeaahhhhh. We all know how I feel about Emily and the way that she writes about erotic humiliation, because it’s just so dirty the way that she does it. I mean the language around it. I know, I know, every time I talk about Emily, I say that, but that’s because every time I read her books, I’m struck by it. The only way for it to get hotter is to listen to an audiobook. I can’t listen to her audiobooks while I’m driving. It’s a rule. But, I liked watching Lindsay and Rick figuring things out.

J.M. Dabney’s An Odd Little Girl is another one of my favorites. They wrote a fun little story about a Daddy finding his little girl, and a little girl finding the Daddy she’s always needed, but never knew she needed. I really like Via because she really just exudes sweetness and light, and I could totally feel that. I like how Donavan accepts everything about Via, including the rest of her family. And frankly, I think her family is just ridiculously wonderful.

Aubrey Cara’s Cry for Daddy is another favorite of mine. It’s darker than the rest of the stories, but it’s not totally dark, just darker than the others. Her story is about Lily and Maximus, and how they fit together in each other’s lives and with the world in general. I felt sorry for Lily, but also I felt like she kept a core essential of who she was hidden. Maximus wasn’t the entire hardass that he wants to believe he was. Not to say he isn’t a hardass badass, but he has a soft marshmallowy center.

OK, if you want 12 smoking hot Daddies, then this is definitely the anthology that you need to get. Of course, I’m willing to fight you for several of the Daddies, and spoiler, I fight dirty. I enjoyed each and every story, and I will definitely reread the stories when I need a quick Daddy pick up.

family-1469130_1920

Anthology-Super Daddies

So, 8 Daddy authors got together to write 7 super stories. We have Super Daddies, naughty heroines, little villains, and a Daddy Shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo. Shall we dig into our stories, then?

Stella Moore-Weathering Lainey

Donovan is a Variant who has stayed under the radar, then he saves a woman from the bad guys, and ends up having to keep Lainey. He won’t tell her his name, only that she can call him Daddy. And he enforces it with his firm right hand. He tells Lainey she’s a Variant too.

I really enjoyed this story and how Lainey’s power works. I’ve always wanted to have that power myself. I thought that she and Donovan were really cute together, and I’m pretty sure I’ll never look at a rainbow the same way.

Golden Angel-Little Villain

Chaotica wants a Daddy. She thought she found one in the villain Big Daddy. Only, she found out that he really didn’t want to be her daddy when he left her for the hero Pluto. But Pluto, when he captures Chaotica, sees something in her, and he wants to see what he could find out about it.

Oh, Chaotica is just super cute. I think that she’s a total Little, from morning to night, with no ifs, ands, or buts. I mean, the first time we see her, she’s all excited about sparklies. Which, you know what, I kinda don’t blame her, sparklies are pretty awesome. And she has a stuffie collection. She should pretty much just wear a nametag that says Hi, I’m a Little. And it totally fits her, and I think that of all the Littles in this book, she’s my favorite. The name Chaotica really suits her, but in a good way.

The Dynamic Duo-Super Daddy

Angela gets rescued by a mysterious caped figure, just as people are trying to break into her pawnshop. He flies her off to a safe house, and leaves, just in time for the baddies to break in and try to kill Angela again. So, he decides that he will take her to his house. Brian and his house, Marshall, are bound and determined to keep her safe.

Brian was a side character in one of Ally and Ray’s other books, one in the Fantastical Daddies series. You’ll have to go read the books to see if you can find it, because yes, I am that mean. I love the whole snarky smart house in here. Marshall is a total PITA, but in a funny way.

Adaline Raine-Daddy’s Sassy Little Superhero

Caitlyn works two jobs, and still barely scrapes buy. When her boss sends her out to the worst place in town so that she can deliver a pizza, she ends up meeting the nasty mob boss and discovers that she has super strength. Then she passes out, and wakes up in a strange man’s house. Kade rescued Caitlyn, brought her to his house, and now he’s going to take care of her, whether or not she likes it.

I liked Caitlyn’s spunk. I thought that she had a lot of spirit and I think that it’s perfect for Kade. I have to admit that I really love Kade’s sister. She knew what he needed, whether it’s what he particularly wanted. I think that they are a cute couple, and I love the way that their names fit together.

Maren Smith-Daddy Shark

Doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Ommin has a secret. If he gets hit with saltwater, he gets all sharky. This becomes public knowledge when he jumps off the Golden Gate Bridge to save a jumper, and he hits the Bay. Turns out, he does that a lot. Not necessarily jumping into the Bay, but trying to save people on the bridge. Ommin is a pretty nice guy. He offers a brand new journalist an exclusive and is intrigued about her tattoo that says “Daddy’s Little”. So he goes to do some research.

This was a fun story. I mean, not only do we have a Daddy Shark, we have Liquidman, who literally turns into water. And Ommin accidentally eats one of his toes. Ooops. I like the way that Ommin takes control of the whole situation. It was pretty sweet. I also laughed about it.

RJ Gray-Daddy’s Justice

Morrigan is a forensic investigator who has been working on a serial killer case. A serial killer case in which she meets the exact victim profile. Tall, long pale blonde hair, incredibly blue eyes, athletic build. One afternoon, as she’s indulging in her favorite Daddy books, up comes a giant and two women, one of whom looks almost like her. Turns out that they are two valkyries and the Norse God Forseti, and they are going to take her with them.

I like Morrigan a lot. I like Forseti too. I don’t like Odin very much in this because he is kind of a prick about certain things in this one. I kind of felt like Morrigan never got any kind of choice on her own, but more that she got forced into choices and she just had to deal with them, like them or not. But not by Forseti, just by everyone else.

Emily Tilton-Ultragirl Powers Up

Eighteen-year-old Susan has just discovered her superpowers. She has used them to save a cute little doggie from Charlatan’s flame cycle. She’s also discovered that she is an alien, and her powers are powered by, well, sex, fucking, orgasms, and arousal. But, she’s a good, modest girl, who would never do anything wrong. Then she meets Bob, Nightprince, a member of the CPE, a superhero organization. And he discovers her secret, mostly by catching her masturbating and oh, you know, shaking the entire building as she does it, you know, as one does.

I think that Emily leveled up when she wrote this. She went from the Queen of Filth to the Empress of the Filth Galaxy. You get Emily’s delicate touch with erotic humiliation in here, which is OMFG so filthy hot. One of the hottest scenes in this entire book, hands down, is in this particular story. One a scale of 1-10, it was a 69.

This anthology was a lot of fun to read. There were just so many, many fun things about it, and so many, many filthy things about it. I  mean, what more could you want?

kapow-1601675_1920

Maren Smith-Her Consort

Her Consort is a super short story from the gifted mind of Maren Smith. This story originally appeared in an anthology, so if you read that anthology, you might recognize Piper and Kogan, but revisiting them is perfectly awesome.

Piper is a human salvage operator. She keeps the spaceways clear and open and makes a little bit of money on the side. One day, one of her pieces of space flotsam was a pod with Kogan Pulgoy Vovlov the Third, envoy of his home world Hogluopraeswyria, Consort-in-waiting to Her Royal Ambassador, Agi Oof’Thal, currently assigned to Earth. Only, when Piper picked him up, he wasn’t headed to Earth, he was headed away from Earth. Now, she’s been stuck with him for 2 very long years. They have spent those 2 years on a small ship picking and poking at each other, and doing everything they can do to annoy the living fuck out of each other.

When they run into a ship that needs to be salvaged, it turns into a huge thing in between the two of them. And since they have spent 2 years annoying each other, they really know to keep doing it.

This really is a quickie to read. There is a lot of tension in between Kogan and Piper, and considering there are only 2 characters, the book needs to have that tension. Maren really did well to maintain all that tension between the two of them, no matter what’s happening. There are a lot of levels going on in this story when it comes to the tension between Kogan and Piper. There is also a lot of humor, especially when Piper keeps calling Kogan an asshat, and halfway through, Kogan tells Piper that he realized that it meant that she wanted to wear his genitals on her face. It was fucking hilarious.

I love Maren’s books, and this was no different. It was a lot of fun to read, and I really liked Kogan and Piper.

dead vines on wall

Anthology-Black Light: Celebrity Roulette

It’s Valentine’s Day again, which means it’s the start of the 3rd season of Black Light, and as usual, we are starting it off with a Roulette anthology. This one is a little different though. Instead of being at Black Light East, we’re in LA, and instead of random drawings to match Doms and subs, we have a celebrity auction. A number of celebrities, both dominant and submissive types, put their name into the ring, and members got to bid for them. Once they get to the event and all the celebs find out who has purchased them for the night, then the subs roll for the activity. The rules of Celebrity Roulette say that they have to do the rolled activity for at least 30 minutes, and they are welcome to roll for something else after that. If they finish the night, they get a free month, if someone calls Red, everything is done. And oh yeah, no staff gets involved this year, or else. So, without further ado, let’s spin the wheel and find out where we end up, shall we?

As always, since this is an anthology, and there are 9 stories, plus the beginning and end bumpers, you are just going to get my basic impressions and feelings about each story, otherwise I’d be writing for the next 3 days, and I’d like to sleep sometime. Probably.

Guarded by Renee Rose

Scarlett A is a rock star. She’s also a sub. Once upon a time, she had a bodyguard named Lincoln, but a year ago, he ended fired. In that time, he’s learned a whole lot of new tricks, and he’s just waiting to show Scarlett. There is a lot of connection there between them, but of course, they have history. I think that Lincoln makes a great Dom for so many reasons, but one of them is that he really pays attention to Scarlett, and he has for a while. He might not say a lot, but it’s obvious how he feels about her from the very start.

Hooked by Jennifer Bene

By day a principal ballerina, by night a sub, Vanessa is the one who Wyatt really wants to win. He’s obsessed with her, but in a good way. There’s the typical Jennifer heat, but it’s not your typical Jennifer story. It’s sweet and light. It’s just so beautiful. There’s something about the way that these two connect and interact. They fit each other’s weird edges, and it’s perfect. Plus? I’m totally never going to be able to look at the ballet the same way again, because who knew toe shoes and tutus were sexy AF? The barre was just inspired.

Switched by Livia Grant

This is a first for Black Light. We have a Domme, Mistress Ice. Then there’s Nolan, the Dom who wants her, so he buys her and will submit to her for a night. I don’t know that there are a lot of Doms out there who would submit like that, even for 3 hours. Of course, I don’t know that many in person, so who knows. It was a really interesting dynamic to watch. I’ve read other Domme/sub books, and I’m pretty sure that this one was slightly unhealthy. But, Livia is mean. She’s a meanie meanie head. I need more. I need to know what the past holds.

Determined by Maren Smith

This is one that I really hope that Maren expands, because it really seems like there could be more to the story. So Maren, if you’re reading, take mercy on me and let me out of my suffering sometime in the nearish future, please and thank you? Out of a book full of some seriously hot scenes, I think that the scene between Claire and Adam is really the totally hottest one in the book. It’s just wow. I’m surprised my Kindle didn’t melt down. I figured it would’ve. I love the power struggle that goes on between Claire and Adam, which just makes the whole thing even hotter.

Pressure by Measha Stone

Michele thought about signing up for Celebrity Roulette. She had everything ready to go, but then stopped. Of course, she has that well-meaning friend who decided to submit her application for her and just not tell her. That’s how Michele ends up with Egan for the night. I felt sorry for Michele because she has such a hard time letting go and she has to try to stop her brain from thinking and worrying about if she’s doing the right thing. I can totally get that. I have the same problem, but no Egan to help me.

Savor by Maggie Ryan

Carnegie ends up with Ronan, a celebrity chef. I love her name, BTW, it’s just an awesome story behind it. They have a really sensual scene in here, and one that is really different to anything else we’ve ever seen in any of the Black Light stories. In fact, I think it’s the first scene like it I’ve seen in any BDSM book. It was hot but in a more lowkey kind of way. And fan paintbrushes? I will never look at them the same way again.

Cherished by Sue Lyndon

Once upon a time, Serena met Trenton right after she dumped her boyfriend. He held her during the countdown for NYE and kissed her on her forehead. Now she gets to bid on him. Sue gets a first for the Black Light books too. I’m not saying what it is, because I don’t want to spoil it. But it’s a great scene, and Serena really gets into it. I wonder how much she’s role-playing and how much she’s actually into the scene. Either way, I think it works perfectly. And I saw Trenton as Jason Statham the whole time in my head.

Jazzed by Lesley Clark

I think that this is Lesley’s first Black Light story, but I hope it won’t be her last. And it’s another one that I would love to see expanded out. Jazz is a rock star and Michael is a psychiatrist. Together, they are going to go back to school. The picture that she would’ve presented while she was sitting at a school desk was ridiculously sexy. Their whole story was really connected and really lovely.

Control by Dani Rene

Kaelin’s father, who seems like a super-prick, just sayin’, is Jed’s agent, so Jed feels that she’s off limits. She’s pretty sure that he hates her. But, when they get together, it’s definitely a match in S&M heaven. I love the chemistry that they have together. Of course, they have years of history behind them so it’s no wonder they have such a connection and such chemistry. They are another one that I would like to have more of.

And of course, as always, we have the bumpers about planning the event and the conclusion of the event, written by Livia and Jennifer. We get a little look at Emma, Chase, and Jaxon, which is always nice. I love them so much. We also get to see Madison volunteer to be the MC. And if you haven’t read a Valley Girl MCing at a bondage club auction, you are like totally missing something. I have a feeling that we will be seeing more of Madison in the future.

OK, that’s all I have to say on this one. The nice thing about short stories is that you can work them in whenever you have time, so go check it out. Happy reading!

tumblr_lx5hhzbf1M1r5elnjo1_500

Maren Smith-Black Light: Fearless

There are a lot of reasons why I love the Black Light universe. I mean, hot and sexy adult quality time, great storylines, and a whole lot of authors who are writing in a shared world. Maren Smith is the latest author to give us a full-length novel in the BL world, with Fearless. This book is the 10th novel in the Black Light ‘verse, in about 18 months or so.

Fearless comes out of this year’s Roulette Redux. Kitty, the heroine of this story, wasn’t the main character in Maren’s story, but she was a good friend of Hadlee. The way that this one goes is that it picks up on that Valentine’s Day night, after Ethan and his Menagerie were ejected from Black Light.

Kitty and Hadlee, who was once called Piggy-girl, were both “owned” by Ethan. He’s one of those faux “doms” who think that they are gods. Basically, he was really charismatic, got the subs hooked on him, then he started fucking with their minds to turn them into his perfect little pets. Hadlee managed to escape some time ago, and decided to sign up for Roulette. She drew Noah’s name from the draw. Noah is an Aussie who is a champion whip master. He found that Gareth was into her and she was into Gareth, and well, go read the story.

Meanwhile, Ethan managed to get himself kicked out of the club because he was being Captain Douchebag, along with Kitty-girl, Pony-girl, and Puppy-girl. Kitty, being friends with Hadlee, knew that she was about to end up paying for the fact that Hadlee escaped. And she did. He beat the fucking shit out of her and then raped her. Then he left her outside, stark ass naked, after being beat the fuck up, in the middle of February outside of DC. After Kitty managed to drag herself inside, she decided that she was going to be like Hadlee, and escape. It took her a lot of work in her head to manage it, mostly to pysch herself up to it, but she ran. She ran to a phone booth and managed to call Hadlee and beg for help. Hadlee and Gareth came, picked her up, and took her into their home.

After a few weeks in which Ethan ruins Kitty’s life even more than he already had, Gareth decides that he needs to do whatever he can to help Kitty and to get her away from Ethan. So, he calls up his bud Noah, down in Australia, and asks if he can send this poor abused and traumatized woman his way. Noah says of course. He’ll see Ethan coming from miles away, so Kitty’ll be perfectly safe.

When Kitty finally gets to Australia, after like 27 hours of flying, Aus tries to kill her for the first time, but luckily, Noah is there to save her. Then he takes her out to his ranch, which is isolated and far from neighbors, and Kitty just assumes that he’s Australia’s version of Ethan wanting something from her.

After Maren’s story in Redux, I didn’t think that I could dislike Ethan any more than I already did, and we didn’t know much about him at that point. But then, Maren decided we needed to know more. And guess what? I found out that I really could hate him more. Maren created a completely unlikable and easily hatable character. I mean, I wanted to go kick him in the nuts so hard that he could wear them as earmuffs.

I felt so sorry for Kitty. She really broke my heart. I mean, Ethan did a helluva job on her, and it is hard to break out of that kind of gaslighting and brainfuckery. I mean, Ethan had rules and if she didn’t follow them, his punishment was harsh, and his rewards were few. When you know that you are going to get punished so harshly for any kind of fuckup, you work really, really hard to make the person in charge happy. And that’s exactly what Kitty did. You internalize those rules and even when you get to a safe place, you have a hard time getting away from them, because they were the only way you knew how to stay safe, so you are going to keep going back to those rules. There’s something I’ve heard over the years. That’s that it’s perfectly sane to be insane in an insane situation. And again, that’s so hard to deal with when you are out of the situation.

I really like Noah, a lot. He gets handed a terribly damaged woman and subbie. He could have just jumped in and tried to Dom her immediately or he could’ve completely ignored that part of her, but he spent time trying to think about what was best for Kitty and how he could help her. He didn’t just jump to immediately trying to stick his dick in her.

animals-cute-koala-bear-85678

OK, is Noah making new kitty stuff for Kitty not the sweetest thing ever? I love that he helps her recapture that part of herself. I also love that he fucking punches Ethan. I hope the cops do terrible things to Ethan.

OK, go check out this one and all the Black Light stories. Happy reading!

Anthology-Ladder 54

So, you want some really hot firefighters that are also seriously Domly types? Yeah, me too. I’m always ready for hot, Domly firefighters. Well, Maren Smith, Raisa Greywood, Adaline Raine, Isabella Laase, and Felicity Brandon certainly are too. In fact, they are so ready for them, that they decided that they would share the boys of Ladder 54 with us.

Here’s the setup for the story. In the little town of Big Banks, Montana, there is an exclusive BDSM club called the Crystal Cabin Club. The Cabin is run by Walt and Sophie. Walt also happens to be the fire chief of the little fire department of Big Banks. But he’s just been diagnosed with cancer, and the insurance won’t cover all the bills, especially things like transportation, hotel bills, because the hospital isn’t in Big Banks, and other such things. So to handle that, Sophie organized a fundraiser at the CCC. They are doing several things. One is that they are going to have a $200/head dinner. Then there are the auctions. One is a silent auction for things like a fancy Camaro, kinky photo shoots, and other nifty things. The other auction is for 5 Doms who are all part of the fire department. The lucky winner gets to have 24 hours with the Dom of her choice. And so here we go.

Maren Smith-The Dance Card

Rylee has been a member of the CCC for a while, but she’s also a wallflower, she’s never scened, but she will sit in the dark corners and watch what’s going on. When she finds out about the auction, she knows that there is one person that she really, really wants to bid on, Walker. And she’s willing to do just about anything to get him. Just ask Tammi Lou. Although, Walker isn’t unhappy that Tammi Lou isn’t the one who won him. No one likes her very much. But at the end of the auction, instead of talking to Walker, she rushes out and doesn’t answer his calls or texts. You see, Rylee is painfully shy and awkward, plus she feels really guilty about what she did to Tammi Lou.

I felt sorry for Rylee, well, maybe not sorry, but definitely sympathetic, because I’ve been the person who had a hard time talking to someone I liked, and I’ve been on Walker’s side of the equation too. It’s hard on both people. I like Walker, and I think he’ll be so good for her.

Raisa Greywood-Light Me Up

Selene isn’t a resident of Big Banks. She is a resident of Chicago, and grew up in Greektown. She had a crush on an older boy named Theo. A year ago, their mothers set them up for a date, only he decided to not go, but everyone else knew that before she did. Now, she has to go to a client meeting in Big Banks and she knows that Theo is a firefighter there. When she gets there, she finds out about the auction, so she decides to go, after Sophie invites her. Selene’s plan is to win Theo, show him what he missed, and then leave. She doesn’t need him at all. And oh yeah, she wants the tricked out 1968 Chevy Camaro too. If she wins that one, she’s planning on taking that one with her. Theo, she’s perfectly happy to leave in Big Banks, sucking her exhaust.

Theo sees a beautiful goddess with the tattoo of a Greek goddess, and he is thrilled when he finally sees her bid on him and win. It’s only when he hears Sophie announce Selene’s name as the winner that he is like oh shit. And then he turns into crazy overbearing Greek man.

I LOVE Selene. Raisa is really writing some great heroines lately. Theo needs a good, swift kick in the butt. Or two, or maybe even 3. But, I’m pretty sure that Selene could handle that, if necessary.

Adaline Raine-Rekindled

Troy is one of our firefighters and was more than happy to help out Walt and Sophie. Then he finds out that the woman who won him is Dakota, his ex-wife. Or, his legally separated wife. She ran out on him years ago, and now, she’s apparently back in town. Yay? There is so much history there that they are going to have to figure out and that could get in there way, but he’s more than happy to spank her since she did win him, and all.

I love a good second chance story, and this is a good one. There is so much in between them, and neither one of them are perfect or blameless. They went through some stuff that’s hard on marriages at the best of times, and I’m pretty sure they didn’t have the best of times.

Isabella Laase-Firehouse 54

Declan has seen 3 of his firefighter brothers go down, and he’ll be damned if he’s going to be number 4. In fact, he is planning on doing the bare minimum when it comes to his “date”. A couple of meals, a couple swats over the clothes, and he’s off to his fishing cabin. In fact, he’s so not into it that he didn’t even meet the woman who won him or look in her file. He just shows up at the Cabin, expecting to have a couple of free hours to look at the file, but then he sees the camper that his date is driving already there.

What Declan doesn’t know is that he doesn’t have A date. He has TWO dates. Claire and Claudia are identical twins. They’ve pulled the old switcharoo more than once in their lives, because no one can tell them apart, and so Claudia figures that they can do it for this too. They will just split the time and no one will be the wiser. But of course, we know that it never works out that way.

I really didn’t like Claudia. I don’t think that she ever really listens to anyone but Claudia. She will definitely need a good Dom to keep her in line. Claire and Declan are pretty sweet together though.

Felicity Brandon-A Hero For Lauren

Lauren is over from England, specifically for this auction. That’s because she has a thing for firefighters. Or rather, for one firefighter. When she was younger, Blake saved her from a fire, before her family moved to England. She’s crushed on him ever since, and now that she took the chance and won him in an auction, she’s finally going to get the chance to actually play with the man that she’s been dreaming and fantasizing about for years. Only she keeps getting phone calls that stress her out while they are supposed to be enjoying themselves.

That’s some serious crush that Lauren has. Not that I blame her. I mean, firefighter. But still, she went to some extremes to get to the auction and to win her dream date. Blake is very sweet to her though. I liked him a lot.

Well, there we go. Five fabulously fiery fapping reads about five fierce firefighters. Go check them out and pick your fave. Happy reading!

backlit-breathing-apparatus-danger-279979

Anthology-Masters of the Castle: Witness Protection Program

Maren Smith has a Castle. And she has packed her Castle full of Doms and subs. And occasionally, other naughty authors. Masters of the Castle: Witness Protection Program is one of those times. There are 8 stories, by 10 authors, including Maren herself. They all happen within the same time frame, all ending with a bang. The set up for this anthology is that the Master Marshall, the owner and Master of Masters of the Castle, a BDSM resort, has a cousin named Grace. Grace witnessed a murder by a creepy-ass mobster. He wants to kill her and she’s refusing to get police protection. So he figures the best way to keep her safe is to bring her to the Castle and protect her there. And now we get 8 stories surrounding the people trying to keep her safe or hunt down Carmen, the creepy-ass mobster.

While there are 8 stories, I only got to read 5 of them early. Gee, I guess that means I’m going to have to go and buy the book so I can read the other stories. Damn, life is hard. Make me read a book. And as I got them as individual ARCs, you’re getting my reviews in the order in which I read them, which may or may not be the order they are in the book.

Golden Angel-Freeing Fawn

Fawn is a cat burglar, and a darn good one, which is good, because she has been doing jobs for the Mob in order to pay off her father’s debt. Now, the Don wants her do to one last job, but it doesn’t involve stealing anything. Unless you call killing someone stealing something. And to do that, she’s going to have to pretend to be a sub.

Dane is a LEO who has been trying to get Carmen for forever. Now he’s at the Castle because he knows that where Grace is, Carmen is going to follow. He’s a Dom, so posing as a Master of the Castle so that he can keep searching shouldn’t be that much of a problem. But then, he gets paired with Fawn.

OK, Fawn is just cute, while she hasn’t tried anything BDSM-ish before, she has at least read some books, looked at some sites, and tried a toy or two. And she and Master D are super hot together. I loved watching them try to do their missions while they were both trying to keep the other safe and from knowing they were sneaking around.

Tabitha Black-Tempting Tasha

All the stories use alliteration in the title, but Tabitha Black has to take a step further, just to add in a little extra alliteration. I bet Tabitha is that one kid at school who always blew the curve too. LOL.

Tasha’s brother owes Carmen a butt-load of money, because her brother likes to gamble and Carmen is a loan shark. So when her brother disappears, she knows that it’s Carmen’s fault. When she sees him getting on a plane, she buys a ticket and follows him across the country, right to the Castle, where she ends up hired as a Little Maid.

Master Eamon is one of the Dungeon Masters. When the dungeon gets trashed, he needs someone from housekeeping to come clean. Instead, he gets Tasha, as a Little Maid. She pings his radar as a little off, but he’s willing to work with it.

It’s one thing to be a total newbie, it’s a completely different thing to walk into the Castle without even knowing what happens there. I felt a little sorry for Tasha because she wasn’t even a babe in the woods. It’s more like she was a bunny in a lion enclosure, but she doesn’t even know what lions are, so she doesn’t know what could happen.

Allysa Hart & Rayanna Jamison-Taming Teri

Teri and Nick have been partners in the police department. Teri is also part of a K-9 team, with Champ. On top of being partners on the bomb squad, Teri and Nate have also been best friends and lovers, although the intimate part of their relationship is currently not happening.

When their captain tells them that they have to go over to the Castle to help find Carmen, Teri, who is very independent and strong, is ready to Nope the fuck out of going to the fuck fortress. Nick, on the other hand, he’s all over this idea. He’s always wanted to go to the Castle, and now going undercover at the Castle with Teri as his sub? That’s pretty much perfect. She doesn’t know that he’s a Dom, or how he feels about her. That’s OK, he doesn’t really know how she feels about him.

OK, I have to admit that I really didn’t like Teri at the beginning. She’s really judgemental and looks down on anyone who has a kinky bone in or on their body. Even when she discovers that she likes it when Nick spanks her or when she submits, she wants to be judgemental about people who like it. It does get better and I do start to like her. But, if you ask me, Champ is the real star of the story. Puppy! Alright, I guess Teri and Nick aren’t all that bad after all. I will say that I was surprised to not get a Little story out of these two because, well, they are who they are. That’s not a complaint though, I’m happy to get any story out of these two because I love reading their work.

Raisa Greywood-Harboring Holly

Holly knows secrets. Two years ago, she saw Carmen kill her best friend, and she’s been holding that secret for two years. The only reason that she can be safe is that Carmen’s minion, Mario, let her go. Then she ran, she ran so far away. She ran both night and day. And ended up in the Castle. She’s been working there for the past 2 years as a Little Maid and scening with whoever wants her. And now, the Master in charge of the Gorean program wants her to work in that program, which is great. The only problem is that she’s pretty sure that she’s not going to be alive much longer because she saw Carmen and Mario, and now Mario has asked for her to be his kajira.

Flint has been undercover as Mario, Carmen’s right hand man, for too many years. Now he’s following Carmen to the Castle where he’s planning on killing Grace, which may be the thing that will finally let Flint arrest Carmen. Then he sees Holly, who he never thought that he would see again. He’s thought about her every day since he last saw her, and now he gets to actually be around her.

I thought that Holly was pretty amazing. She was more accepting about things, like the fact that she’s pretty sure she’s about to die, than I would’ve been. She’s submissive and she loves it. She very much know who she is and she loves it, especially in the Gorean setting. But Flint, he’s so conflicted about what his duty and what he needs to do, about what’s the right thing to do and what’s the moral thing to do, they aren’t always the same thing.

Katherine Deane and Kate Richards-Guarding Grace

And finally, we get to Grace. Grace is blind, but that hasn’t stopped her from being a witness to a murder. As she points out to Master Stephan, there are more senses than vision. When her favorite cousin, Marshall, finds out that she needs somewhere to be safe, he brings her to the Castle. In order to help keep her safe, he sets her up with a “boyfriend” and a bodyguard. Stephen is supposed to be her boyfriend, but she pretty much squashes him totally flat, and does it so lovely too. Chris, Master Nelson, was supposed to be her shadow and bodyguard, but he takes over as her Dom and “boyfriend”.

Chris was in the military and had a bad war. Now he’s back and working as a Dom at the Castle. He’s the perfect person for Master Marshall to appoint to keep his beloved cousin safe. It doesn’t hurt that she’s smart, witty, beautiful, and strong. He feels strongly protective over her and when she tells him that she’s interested in finding out more about the lifestyle and tells him that she wants him to be the one to teach her, he can’t be happier.

I love Grace. There’s just something so elegant and beautiful about her. She’s so strong and confident and she’s very open-minded, which means she’s not judging anyone for what they like. She just wants to try. Of course, she does have some problems, and Chris does get a little over much sometimes, but that’s Doms for you. It’s a perfect story though, and I loved it.

So, there you have the 5 ARCs I got from this book. Hopefully I’ll be able to get to the rest of them soon. It’s just trying to find some space and time in my TBR list. I need to stop sleeping. If I don’t sleep, I would have more time to read. Of course, I would probably end up psychotic and in a padded room with a jacket that makes me hug myself. Oh wait, that might not be too bad! Maybe they’ll let me listen to audiobooks? Go check out the whole anthology and all the rest of the books in the series. I have a couple in my TBR. Happy reading!

alnwick-castle-architecture-castle-68683

%d bloggers like this: