Marked
I'm rounding up the average score to 3.5 stars for overall steam factors.Anthologies are hard to rate. Sometimes the range is wide, and the stories hit me at all different levels. That's very much the case with this one, and so I've averaged the score and given individual breakdowns...
BEYOND TEMPTATION - 4 stars
Noah and Emma have a deep and somewhat tragic history. I'm not sure if you can fully appreciate it or the O'Kane world if TEMPTATION is your first venture into Sector 4. It feels like much of the setup for this duo came before. Regardless, this is full of HAWT sexy times.
As for the overall story arc, this is a nice bridge to pull Noah into the O'Kane team. I really enjoyed this short.
ROCKY RIDE - 3 stars
This story is my first by Vivian Arend, and I think my ignorance hampered some of it. I was confused by acronyms and timelines until I realized the story is set in Canada. I *didn't* realize that until the mention of Calgary. If I'm being honest, I still don't know what RCMP stands for.
That said, Anna and Mitch are an interesting couple. I had a few issues with them individually. They each tell the reader how skittish Anna has been about moving beyond a just sex arrangement. Then Mitch brings it up, and, BAM, she's all in. Well...ok then. And Mitch. He's supposed to be some sort of bad@$$...because he has tattoos and a bike? He's also part of a loving and concerned family and works at the family business. I'm confused again. Where is the badassery?
There's also one other (probably just me) irksome detail. There's a new tattoo, and it's placement is a matter of some discussion as it's meant to be ""private"". Based on the detailed description, I don't see ANY way that it could be hidden.
Don't get me wrong; this book is hot. And Mitch and Anna are super sweet together.
ALL THAT REMAINS - 2 stars
Lauren Dane wrote my all-time favorite trio relationship in LAID BARE. That said, this world of triads is a bit of a mess for me. The premise here is that most of the world's population was killed off, leaving a disproportionate number of males to females. As a result, all of the men are partnering up and looking for a female to round out their triad. So the decimation of the population has led to all men becoming gay/bisexual? Um. Ok. Then we have Summer. She's a liberated female who enjoys lots of f*cking. We know this, because she tells us. Repeatedly. At times, these statements sound defensive. In a society where public sex is the norm, how is defensive declarations about enjoying sex even a thing? This world isn't quite meshing in my brain.
And then there's the writing...Holy head-jump, Batman! When Summer, Hatch, and Charlie were together, my mind was spinning trying to figure out who was thinking/feeling what. There were also some page breaks built in to switch POV, but they honestly almost added to the confusion. In addition, there was some misuse of pronouns and general grammar errors with sentences. It could have used some extra editing.
The heat between Summer, Hatch, and Charlie is undeniable. The sexy times were as hot here as other parts of this anthology.
This ARC was provided by the authors in exchange for a fair and honest review.
