A bunch of book reviews | Jessa Kane, JE Parker, Cassie Cole, Cindy Gerard

Hello! Hello! I'm home. I'm trying to get back on track on the blogging front, trying being the operative word because, lordy, I am too old for all this traveling, living off caffeine, and then driving all day to get home. I have been so tired since getting home. But there I am, trying to get back on track. So, how about a bunch of book reviews? A few quick and easy ones since I realise I have not been posting as many book reviews and this is an easy way to do them.


Here are a few books that I've enjoyed (or not!) recently. The reviews are a little raw and I bang them out pretty quickly from my iPad. I am loving the feature where the review prompt pops up at the end of a book in the Kindle app, and I can quickly plonk out a short, one paragraph review for Amazon that gets posted almost right away. Sometimes it takes a few days, if Amazon takes their sweet time to approve them, but at least, I've done the review. Here goes...

When The Farmer Met The City Girl by Jessa Kane
5 stars, 5 flames
Lordy! 🔥🔥🔥🌶️🌶️🌶️
I’ve been saving this book to read because well, I didn’t want it to be over too fast. It’s typical Jessa Kane. Hot. Desperate. Intense. Did I mention hot? And no one does desperation like Ms Kane. The “I’d stop breathing if I can’t have you” kind of desperation. I love the way she infuses all that emotion into her words. And Dusty. Lordy! I love Dusty. Between that sweet, shy farmer and the beast of a man. That man sure knows how to rock it. Hooo… keep an fan and some ice water handy. This is going on the reread list.

Every Wrong You Right by JE Parker
DNF
I came across this book in a book group. It was requested as someone was looking for the book and the way they described it sounded good. The heroine is deaf and the hero apparently learns sign language to communicate with her, which is a trope I like. But what it doesn’t tell you, nor does the blurb is that the hero is severely 🍆🍆🍆 abused by his horrible father from the age of twelve as he tries to protect his baby brother from him. This is in the opening prologue and while it’s not exactly on-page stuff, you can read between the lines and it’s pretty nasty. It’s also not my thing at all and it’s the kind of stuff that colors a person and it’s the stuff that the hero carries into adulthood. It gives him a reputation of being a bad boy since he had issues while growing up because of it. So the prologue is heavy and uncomfortable. Then it opens with some serious nastiness of someone from the hero’s past confronting him for being a bully in high school. More ugliness. And the next chapter, the heroine assaults the hero and breaks his nose though unintentionally because she didn’t know it was him behind her, so she attacked first. It’s all pretty violent and ugly right from the start and it’s not my type of book. Also, how did she talk and yell right from the start, if she’s deaf and he has to learn sign language to communicate with her? I should have stopped after the prologue, but I thought it would improve. It didn’t. At least not for me. I haven’t read other reviews for the book and maybe I should have, but the whole thing seems to be filled with not necessarily darkness, but certainly ugliness and drama. I think this would be great for people who like this sort of thing, but it’s not my jam. Also, in case you’re worried about spoilers, this was literally within the first 5% of the book. I would recommend checking out the Look Inside feature of this book if you are anything like me and prefer your romance to be lighter and brighter.

Bosses With Benefits by Cassie Cole
4 stars, 5 flames
Actual rating: 3.5 stars
😳😳😳🌶️🌶️🌶️🔥🔥🔥🎥🎥🎥
Holy moly hotness!!! I love how Ms Cole always seems to be on top of the trends when it comes to the tropes that she uses in her books. I am completely gobsmacked by this particular trope. It’s so bold and so current at the same time I was having lunch with friends recently, and the entire plot of this book was pretty much a large part of our conversation. We were talking about people who had set up OnlyFans pages as a side hustle, and here we are, entire a story about the exact thing. The 🍆🍆🍆 times were very 🌶️🌶️🌶️ and very 🔥🔥🔥. Ms Cole certainly knows how to turn up the heat. While I enjoyed the hot stuff in Ms Cole’s books, what I enjoyed most is the fact that her books always seem to be very well researched when it comes to the backstory and the background information and setting around her characters. This makes the books a lot more enjoyable and believable. Take away the excellent character of development and the plot and the backstory and the setting, all you really have is just a whole bunch of 🍆🍆🍆💦💦💦. I like that her books are more than just a bunch of people bonking their brains out. Kai, August, and Michael were unique and distinct individuals. Ginny’s parents were interesting secondary characters, and the way Ginny’s mother kept pressuring her to get a boyfriend made me really sympathise with Ginny. Gosh, I could feel the cringe factor in that one particular scene in the clinic. This was a fun book and the whole OnlyFans angle pushed me out of my comfort zone. Good stuff.

Show No Mercy by Cindy Gerard
Audiobook narrated by JF Harding
5 stars, 3 flames
Actual rating: 4.5 stars
This is a long one. Soz!
This is a reread of the book though I'm listening to it on audio and it's also been 11 years since I first read it, so it might as well be a fresh read because I do not remember anything. I remember enjoying the book when I read it the first time, but that was back when I didn't write reviews and only rated the book. I have no recollection of any details or even the reasons why I enjoyed it but never read more than the first book in the series. I've recently gotten into listening to audiobooks while getting ready in the morning and it's been a tremendously pleasurable experience.
    First of all, the narration. I enjoyed the narrator, JF Harding a great deal. I'm partial to a particular style of male voice when it comes to enjoying audiobooks and Mr Harding fits the bill for me...mostly. There are certain things he doesn't quite pull off the way I like, but overall, I enjoyed his narration and will listen to more books he's narrated.
    When it comes to listening and enjoying an audiobook, I have a certain set of criteria. I must enjoy the narrator (and I'm ridiculously fussy about what I enjoy), and the story needs to be good and compelling. I've tried audiobooks by some of my all-time favorite narrators, but (for me) even the best narrators cannot save a poorly written book. I can't do a great book with a poor narrator, nor can I do a poor book with a great narrator. Fussy, fussy, I know. Fortunately, Ms Gerard tells a good story, and I like Mr Harding's voice.
    On to the story, let's talk about Gabe. Well, there's a man with a whole heap of baggage, yeah? So much pain, trauma, and guilt in his past. He's completely closed himself off to feelings, love and relationships. He's got good reason, but he wears his pain like a shield. And he uses it a lot on Jenna by giving her all sorts of reasons why he isn't the right man for her. I like that Jenna eventually calls him out on it.
    You'd think I wouldn't like Jenna with her being a reporter, but she barely gets to flex her investigative muscles before all hell breaks loose. She's recovering from trauma too, but she's brave enough to take the bull by the horns and face her fears. That gets her into a boatload of trouble and a reconnection with Gabe. The past bleeds into the present for the both of them as they fight for their lives and those they care about, not knowing where this unseen enemy is coming from or why.
    I love when the story sucks me in, and I love it more when I want to keep listening when it's an audiobook. This book did that to me. I looked forward to every opportunity I had to listen to it, and I didn't have many, so I savored each time I could put it on. Usually when I'm getting dressed in the morning, and maybe I took an extra five minutes at my dressing table just to listen to a little bit more.
    I'm definitely going to be listening to more from this series. I'm looking forward to the experience.
    PS. I have not read the book in the Bodyguard series which other reviews refer to that has Gabe's backstory. I don't think I lost anything in the story and understanding Gabe not having done that, because Ms Gerard does a great job of providing detail into Gabe's past. That said, I might have anticipated Gabe's story more if I had read/listened to that book, but maybe not. I will never know now. I expect I will get to that other book at some point.


I hope you enjoy these short form reviews. If you do, I'll keep doing them. It means I can share more reviews, more frequently. Let me know.


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