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Polar Heat
By Mary Winter
Christmas romance - erotic quickie
40 pages
Ellora's Cave Publishing, Inc.
ISBN: 1-4199-0830-8
3 out of 5 Artic caves

        Aud Myrhe has had a fascination for polar bears since childhood. In order to save them from extinction, she's become the team leader of an Artic research expedition. She's sacrificing Christmas with her family to research and complete an article that will secure additional funding for her team. It's just her and her temptingly seductive colleague Svein Eide left at base camp.

        Svein is an expert on polar bears. He has a secret knowledge source that he'll never reveal. Until he and Aud are trapped in a cave by a blizzard. When hot sex alone can't keep them warm he's forced to reveal his shapeshifting abilities. Can a polar bear and a mortal woman find love together?

The Artic Circle in darkest December, a howling snow storm and two people trapped in a cave. What a setting! And who doesn't love polar bears? Saving them was a great story slant that could have been used to better advantage.

Neither Aud or Svein really came alive for me. The sex scenes were graphic and plentiful but I didn’t find them arousing. It could be my inexperience with the genre but I felt some of the explicit words were too repetitive giving the scenes a ho hum feeling-graphic rather than hot. But that is just my opinion. You may not agree.

Sandra Paquet

gottawritenetwork.com reviewer

June 24, 2007

New York Moment
By Diana Hunter
Erotic Quickie
31 pages
Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc.
ISBN: 9781419907289
5 out of 5 sex slaves

Aidan Quincy is a powerful man who expects absolute obedience, especially during sex. When his current sex slave's malleability bores him, the challenge of completely dominating the prim and proper Penny is simply too exciting to ignore.

Controlled and efficient Penny Templeton barely acknowledges her secret sexual fantasies until Aidan tempts her with her forbidden desires. But Penny doesn't intend to become another notch on Aidan's ropes.

Until he lures her into his limo and it's just the two of them and their dark needs.

"One hour. Be naked and in position." The opening definitely grabbed my interest. And I formed a quick opinion of Aidan-male chauvinist pig. But curiosity drew me into the story-an interesting and well-written story, by the way-and gave me a glimpse of sexual desires totally alien to me.

Curiosity and superb story weaving kept me reading. While dominance and submission doesn't appeal to me, I believed that for Aidan and Penny it gave the ultimate sexual pleasure. And as their desires and vulnerabilities were revealed, I began to wonder just who really held the power.

A perfect tale for the adventurous reader. Well done, Ms Hunter.

Husband Hunting
By Kate Adair
117 pages
Contemporary romance
Hard Shell Word Factory
3 'how-to's out of 5

Taylor Moore fell in love with Drew Garrick when she was five-year's-old but her feelings have never been reciprocated. Now she's all grown up and determined to win Drew's love with a bit of help from her seventeen "how to get your man" books. When the book on positive visualization fails to achieve results, she decides to use the more direct tactics described in "Harnessing the Green-Eyed Monster: How to Drive Him Wild with Sexual Jealousy."

Drew is attracted to Taylor but he doesn't want to become involved with her because he believes she's as unethical as her brother, Brian. Drew is strong on ethics and justice and isn’t going to fall in love with a woman like Taylor whom he can't be 100% proud of loving. But the night he sees her cuddled up on the dance floor with Randy the Sleaze, jealousy makes him forget his reasons for staying away from her.

Taylor's sexual jealousy book is so successful that Drew's hot mouth and talented hands make her forget about following the book's directions. She's sunk. They did too much too soon. Afraid she will lose him if she doesn't do this right, she decides to try the tactics from a different book - "Playing Hard to Get: How to Run Away Until You Catch Him."

Meanwhile, Drew's sister, Morgan, is in a custody fight with Taylor's sleazy brother, Brian. Taylor surprises Drew when, rather than supporting her brother, she offers to testify on Morgan's behalf and he begins to think that he may have misjudged her. But if so, why does Taylor's PR firm handle damage control for Brian's cannery when his unethical business practices endanger the lives of his employees?

I don't think Husband Hunting lived up to its potential. The how-to books were an intriguing idea that didn't quite work. And rather than delving into the interestingly tangled relationships between the characters, Kate Adair chose to dwell on the lust factor leaving Husband Hunting a little light on plot and populated with characters that failed to achieve enough depth to grab me until well into the book. Ms Adair does have the talent to become a good writer.

(c) Sandra Paquet, gottawritenetwork.com reviewer
March 7, 2007

In the Spirit
By Shannon Stacey
Christmas Paranormal Quickie
41 pages
Samhain Publishing Ltd.
ISBN: 1-59998-386-9
5 out of 5 Ghosts of Christmas Overkill

Jessica Newton and her bah-humbug attitude are spending Christmas at an isolated cabin well away from the holiday festivities and well meaning friends. But apparently she's not isolated enough. Her first morning, she wakes up to "Christmas chaos."

Zach Roberts, the resident ghost who loves Christmas, spent the night draping the cabin in decorations. Zach is a fully functioning ghost hoping for some horizontal ho ho hoing with the unhappy Jessica. And he knows the value of the barter system-for a kiss, he'll put one decoration away. One kiss leads to another and another and the horizontal ho ho hoing begins.

Will Jessica be able to find her Christmas spirit before Santa takes flight and can she figure out how to have a future with her sexy Ghost of Christmas Overkill?

This is a funny and entertaining Christmas tale that's well…both spicy and sweet. Jessica and Zach are intriguing, witty characters whom you'll love. What fun to see them exchanging kisses and more for decoration removal and replacement. It's enough to make one laugh out loud. While the story is cute, it has both steamy and sentimental moments. I highly recommend it for a hot and fuzzy Christmas read.

gottawritenetwork.com reviewer

August 2, 2007