Indie Wednesday Spotlight Review: Coach by Alexa Riley

Coach 
by Alexa Riley
Series:  Breeding #1
Pub. Date:  Sept. 9, 2015
Publisher:  Self-Pub
Pages:  117
Format:  eBook
Source:  Kindle Unlimited
Challenges:  Pervy Girl, New to You, KU


My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

Retiring from the NFL was the right decision, and at thirty years old, I've done things most people could only dream of. After all I've accomplished, coaching high school football should be easy...but when you've got a distraction in the form of a nerdy girl with curves, things can get complicated. 

She's a student, she's barely legal, and she's my best friend’s daughter. 

I didn't know what desire was until Megan. I had no idea obsession could drive someone insane, until I saw her. I wasn't prepared for the fact that once I laid eyes on Megan my life would really begin. 

I have to have her, no matter what the cost. I have to breed her and bind her to me so tightly she can't ever get away. She'll be mine, even if I have to take her. 

Warning: this book is ridiculous, over the top, completely unbelievable, and pretty much just about breeding the heroine. If you're okay with that, welcome to my dirty, dirty book! Just remember, I warned you.

O-M-G. What did I just read??? Lemme 'splain.  See, I really wanted to read Mechanic because I am totally lusting over the cover.  But right before I started it today, I noticed on Goodreads that it was actually second in a series. Well, of course my OCD had to kick in and would not let me start in the middle.  

So I went on my little one-clicking trip to find the first book, which turns out to be Coach. And I have to admit - Alexa Riley does fantastic covers. Seriously - holy hot hairy guy! I am not usually one for an abundance of body hair, but even I cannot deny that dude on the cover looks very, erm, tasty. Well, as long as you don't mind picking hairs out of your teeth. He just looks like a man's man, be still my smutty heart.

But I read the blurb for this one and I was like... um, I'm not sure this book is for me. It sounds a little squicky.  I mean, I am now thinking of my gym coach from school, and my softball and baseball coaches, and I am not seeing good things. I can honestly say that there were no hot teachers or coaches at my schools that had teen girls giggling and swooning over their hair shirts.  We were more likely to be laughing and pointing at their furry shoulders or something. So, no.  Then to pile it on, this book is about BREEDING.  What IS that?  I have certainly never heard of a freaking breeding fetish.  That's seriously a thing?  Hmmm... this got my curiosity going.  What IS it? I just had to know. And - now I do. And it was kind of fascinating, in a weird way of course.

This is the range of faces I was making as I read this book.

So the authors warn you right in the blurb that this book was ridiculous and over the top, which I totally respect. Because then I know what to expect going in.  Nothing worse than starting a book and getting blindsided with weirdness. The warning for this book definitely rings true. I kept saying OMG, EW! and No Way!  But I also couldn't stop turning the page in wide-eyed wonder and bewilderment and morbid fascination.  Then I would show a passage to my bud, Deanna, and make her commiserate with me. I kid you knot, at one point the words "poop juice" came out of her mouth. Ugh. You can guess which face that was above.

As you can imagine, this book is sex over substance. And when I say sex, it's of the shocking smutty filthy dirty sort. Was it entertaining?  Yes. I have to say so.  Will I read the other books in the series? I think so - but I probably won't read them all together.  I think that much breeding would shock my system.  Or worse, it could desensitize me to this stuff and make me think it was (((shudder))) normal!  So I am giving this one 3 shocking stars... not regular stars. These are 3 stars on the smutty smut smut scale. Maybe those stars should be a different color... they need to be a bit tarnished I think.

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About the Author

Alexa Riley is two sassy friends who got together and wrote some dirty books. They are both married moms of two who love football, donuts, and obsessed book heroes.

They specialize in insta-love, over-the-top, sweet, and cheesy love stories that don’t take all year to read. If you want something SAFE, short, and always with a happily ever after, then Alexa Riley is for you!

Website / Twitter / Twitter / Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads

Breeding Series

Review: Pretty When You Cry by Skye Warren

Pretty When You Cry 
by Skye Warren
Series:  Stripped #4
Pub. Date:  Oct. 20, 2015
Publisher:  Self-Pub
Pages:  ~190
Format:  eARC
Source:  Author


My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

A new dark romance novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Wanderlust and Prisoner…

I came from a place of dirt floors and holy scriptures. They told me the world outside was full of sin, and the first night I escape, I find out it’s true. Ivan saves me, but he does more than that. He takes me. He makes me his own girl.

My conditioning runs too deep. Ivan sees what I am.

That’s the thing about showing a mouse to a cat. He wants to play. And it’s terrifying, even for me. Because the only thing darker than my past is his.

This is my first read from Skye Warren. I have a bunch of her books, I tend to pick them up whenever they go on sale. But for whatever (silly) reason I had not picked one out of my TBR pile before now. I have to say that she writes very well; the story was paced nicely and the plot was very interesting. It was a bit more than interesting actually - it was morbidly fascinating! I am certainly not into the daddy/daughter kink whatsoever, so those parts were a bit squicky... but the rest of the storyline was great.

The leading female in this story is Candace, and we first meet her as she has just escaped a crazy cult where she has spent most of her childhood. In the cult, everyone has to follow/worship/revere Leader Allen - and you can imagine that this reverence is of a dark and twisted nature. Candace has just escaped with a little help from her mother and ends up in Tanglewood. This situation was a very unique storyline - I can't think of another book that had similar circumstances. It was very interesting to see what effect the cult upbringing had on Candace once she was on the outside.

Candace is surrounded by some unsavory characters in Tanglewood and is rescued (kind of) by Ivan, owner of The Grand strip club. Ivan is dark and broody and somewhat depraved, but he has his own tortured past as much as Candace does. I would have loved to see more from Ivan - he seemed to be so stoic and unfeeling that I wanted to get in his head. I was really hoping for a glimpse, so it would have been great to have an alternating POV here.

The proclivities of Ivan and Candace seemed on the extreme side of taboo to me - I cringed several times when they were in the daddy/little one roles. Candace speaking in the childish manner was particularly difficult to take. It would have been interesting to expound upon why/how Candace and Ivan's backgrounds influenced this particular kink. But even though this is not my thing, I am of the "whatever floats you boat" mindset. The story was good enough for me to overlook this part that didn't interest me.

I received an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I have not read the previous books in the series, and I wasn't too lost. I know there was a lot of character crossover, but it was not overwhelming to the point where I felt I absolutely had to read the earlier books (but I certainly will go back and read them now). 

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Stripped Series

Stepbrother Love: Sexy or Squicky?

Hello bambinas!

Welcome to this special feature post about stepbrother love!  My friend Deanna (from Deanna's World) and I have been discussing this huge uptick in stepbrother romance books that have been appearing on Amazon lately.  This taboo trope is trending to the tune of more than 1,400 books on Amazon.  Check out Deanna's introductory post with some background on the stepbrother surge, and let us know what you think!

Now - what do I think about stepbrother romance?  Well, I can honestly say I had never considered it before all of these books started being released.  So I had to do some research of course.  I set out to read a few of the stepbrother romances, but I quickly realized that many of them feature very young characters.  And, I guess this is what makes them popular: the younger the characters - the more taboo the story.  I am 35 years old, and I consider myself to be mature for the most part.  So I can't deal with reading with teenage relationship drama anymore.  I'm afraid my eyes will roll out of my head if I do that.  But I toughed through it and read the 4 books below.  See my final verdict after the jump!

Prick by Sabrina Paige
My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

I think this book was well-written and will appeal to the younger crowd (18-22ish). It was full of 18 y/o angst so I couldn't really connect with the characters. I felt like I was an observer of the story instead of trying to read from the main character's POV.

This is not a taboo read, even though its labeled a stepbrother romance. The characters are legal age, and they get together before their parents marriage. 

The Cruise by Claudia Fox
Stepbrother Affairs 
My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

I was not impressed with this one.  The characters were young... still in high school.  The parents were only recently married, so they didn't grow up together.  So I didn't have that squicky feeling that they were like siblings. However, their purposeful unprotected sex - a huge no no. I mean, WTF? Totally irresponsible. And that's all I have to say about that.

Forbidden Game by Claudia Fox
Stepbrother Affairs, Book 2
My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

Yikes! This one definitely falls on the squicky side as the step siblings grew up together like regular siblings. These characters were still in high school as well. And the girl was stoked about the unprotected sex and that the stepbrother impregnated her. Um, no. Squicky squicky squicky.

Taken by my Shifter Billionaire Stepbrother and his Motorcycle Club (of Vampires) (BBW Shifter Orgy Romance) by Stikki Minaj

My Rating:  
Sultry Scale:

This is one of those books that I am embarrassed that I read... and even more embarrassed that I didn't hate it!!! 

I saw this book and laughed out loud at the title, so I couldn't pass it up. I mean how many tropes can you pack into one tiny short story? Shifters, vampires, billionaire, stepbrother, bikers, witches, BBW and pregnancy! It's an amalgamation of every storyline that has been popular over the past year. Honestly, there wasn't much story to it because it was so short... it's paranormal erotica that was so ridiculously bad that it was funny. That's why I didn't hate it. It was an eyerolling good time.

My final verdict:  Stepbrother romances are probably not for me.  I don't like the young characters... and the sibling love gives me that squicky feeling if they have grown up together.  I'm not gonna say that I will NEVER read one.  If the characters are a tad older and didn't grow up together, then I might give it a shot.  But I am not likely to pick one up if either character is under 22 years old.

What about you - do you like stepbrother romance?  Be honest, Bambi doesn't judge what anyone reads.  And to show you proof of that, this week Thrifty Thursday is going to be all about Stepbrother Love.

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