Mr Beautiful - R K Lilley

Oh I waited so long for this book to come out and it did not disappoint,

There were snip bits of everyone's lives: Frankie & Estella, Lana & Akira, Stephan & Javier

It filled on so many blanks. Like where Frankie met Estella, how Stephan and javier became closer, all the little tidbits that were missed because you were so engrossed by James & Bianc. But it also gave us more insight into James' Point of view and how he felt and explained his actions.

Amazing book by an amazing author.

Unwound - Lorelei James - the Mastered Series

page contents So after being left at a cliffhanger a la 50 shades, I had to pick up Unwound to find out what happened.

It took me a long time to read this because it just didn't hold my interest. I wasn't motivated to keep reading. 

I love Lorelei James' cowboy books. There is a strong storyline and amazing intense characters. This book had no real storyline. No real transformation of characters. Yes. Amery becomes a bit more open minded and stands up for herself but seriously she needed to do that a long time ago.  Ronin also became a little Less hard-headed. 

This really lacked a storyline. Lots of surprises and rope bondage, which wasn't really my thing, 

I would have liked to have read more about Shiori and the family but that may come in future books. It felt unfinished and like the author suddenly realised in the last few chapters that she had spent so much time on the bondage scenes that she needed to suddenly tie up all the other loose ends. 

Drawn Together - Lauren Dane - Brown family

So I think I should have read the spin-off series before reading Drawn Together. It's moved on a bit from Never Enough and there were lots of characters that had been skimmed over in Never Enough. 

You can also see a growth in the writer that is fantastic. 

This is the mysterious Raven's story. She is a beautiful wild child who has no roots and doesn't want to settle. She comes across as a straight talking notch but deep down she has a horrible scarred past.  Erin and Brody see the fragile person she is and protect her as much as they can. 

Raven meets Jonah, a successful lawyer from a wealthy family and agrees to give him a large tattoo of a wolf on his back. 

Jonah is a divorced single father who has a dominant side which brings out Raven's submissiveness. He fights to get her to open up and she grows with him. There is high society name calling with the ex and a messed up wife of one of Jonah's brothers. There is also some family drama that Raven deals with amazingly since she considers herself feral. We see a lot of growth and maturity in Raven and we find out about her messed up past and what makes her the way she is. We see her soft side and Jonah's good heart that protects her when she needs it. 

Definitely a good read. 

Unconditional - Lexi Blake - Masters and Mercenaries

Im a big fan of the Masters and Mercenaries series by Lexi Blake. I also have a goldfish memory! So I can't remember what happened in the last books hence the reason behind this blog.

Unconditional is about Ashley - Jillian's younger sister. She is a teen mom who finds herself pregnant thanks to her first boyfriend. Ashley and Jill are from the poor side of town and are brought up by their single mom after their dad walks out on them.  Ashley works at Sanctum, the BDSM club run by Ian Taggart. The Taggarts become Ashley's BDSM parents and push her into a contract to learn about submission with Jillian's husband's investor friend, Keith. Keith is an emotionally closed off Dom who has a secret and devastating past. 

A couple of hot scenes and a scary stalker Private Investigator result in a happily very after where the Dom finally opens up his heart to love again. 

Bound - Lorelei James - new Mastered series

I love Lorelei James. Her Rough Riders series is one of my favourites. All those brothers and their cowboy ways. Tough but soft and the way they treat their women... Swoon...

So I was looking forward to rich characters and lots of emotion like those cowboys.  A little tying up thrown in and a little control. All good. But I'm sad thatBound  just didn't leave me happy. I was thrown at the end that this was a 2-part with no HEA and that I was left in suspense at the end. It's not Lorelei James' usual style.  I didn't fall in love with either main characters. They just felt a little emotionally-lacking. The tough rich Dojo master felt cold. It felt like Amery needed to get over herself a bit. I almost wanted to shake her and say "come on".  The twist in the end came at an odd point - almost like it was meant to drag the story out. The dark side of Ronin and his past/family drama just seemed off. Is he a murderer? Does he deal drugs? It's intriguing but not in an "OMG I need to know kind of way".  The sex is almost off the charts and I liked the BDSM side but it also felt like Amery trusted Ronin a bit too fast and there are too many doubts in her head. Also, what shitty friends she has. It's a unique storyline, Sensei meets average girl. But she seems a little too naive and he felt like a bad guy.  He seems to overpower her and she knows nothing about him.  He seems manipulative and it feels like she shouldn't trust him but she does.  The Dojo posse also feel awkward. Like a secret cult.  Amery seems to grow in the duration of the story but not enough. 

I will read the next part in the series and hope the characters grow more. I hope Lorelei can pull the story together too.

To preorder Unbound, part 2 of the mastered Series, see link below.