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Jacqueline C. Thomas - Romance Novelist

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Erotica

Hot Romance Book Summer!

July 8, 2021 by jackiecthomas Leave a Comment

Floating in the pool with a book in my hands, aka a Jackie spotted in her natural summer habitat.

I read all year, mostly fiction, and primarily romance. Summer is peak reading time for me. I don’t know why I seem to read more in the summer, I’ve always been that way. By far my most favorite thing to do is to float around in my pool with a good book in my hand. I literally chew through a novel or two a week. I don’t get to float around in my pool everyday, but I try to carve out fifteen minutes on my daily lunch break and about thirty minutes before bed each night to read. Weekends, those are reserved for my pool and a good book.

Over the past few years, I’ve read through a couple of romance series, and found some absolute treasures in romance and erotica during my summer reading sprints. A few years back I did a post about my favorite beach reads. I wanted to revamp this list a and share some candidates for Hot Romance Book Summer:

Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon

Okay, so historical romance is not normally my cup of tea. I found this gem of a book in a funny way. I bought a Kindle a few years back, especially for pool reading after I had a few sunken book mishaps. One night I grabbed a couple of samples and this one piqued my interest. I read a few pages and decided to read something else instead, after all I don’t really read historical romance, but the thing was, I literally could not stop thinking about those few pages. Long story short, I went back and bought the book, and holy cow, I am so glad I did.

The story opens in 1853 with a wagon train headed West from Missouri to California. Naomi May, is a young widow travelling with her family for a new life out West. Her family buys a few mules from trader in Missouri and she meets John Lowry, the shopkeeper’s son. John Lowry is half native-American, rugged and damn handsome. As the train moves West a love story develops over the rough terrain between Naomi and John. It is at time passionate and intense, and soft and nuanced. I literally could not put this book down. The ending to this book left me speechless, and I will never forget it. This was an incredible read!

Under Her Skin by Adriana Anders

I found this book over at Love’s Sweet Arrow a Romance only book store in Tinley Park, IL. I recognized the author from the book Whiteout (epicly good btw!). I didn’t realize Ms. Ander’s has written quite a few romance novels, and I adore when I find a new author who I can read through their catalogue of work. I picked up this title, a little unsure if I’d like but, I thought why not give it a shot.

From the first page I could not put this book down, it just kept getting better and better. This book tells the love story of Uma, a woman who is fleeing an abusive relationship, and Ive, a man with a past. Uma, take a job as a caretaker for a cantankerous old woman in a small town where a tattoo removal clinic helps women with a history of domestic abuse remove them free of charge.

Ive, the old woman’s neighbor, is big, tattooed and would scare most away, and yet for Uma, the man is butter inside. This book is a scorcher as well! I only read Ander’s Whiteout prior to picking this up so I didn’t realize that the woman can write intimacy, boy can she write intimate scenes. In both of her books that I’ve read so far, the hottest, and I mean 4-alarm hottest, scenes have been when one or both of the characters are still dressed! I am not kidding! This is a masterclass in writing sex.

All of the sexiness aside, the story was complex, layered and kept me on the edge of my seat. I read this book so fast, that I had to remind myself to read more slowly and savor the book. Afterall, you only get to read a book for the first time, once. Do yourself a favor, grab a copy of this one, (or Whiteout!) you will not be dissapointed.

Follow Me Darkly By Helen Hardt

Falling squarely in the erotic section section of my summer reading que, Follow Me Darkly by Helen Hardt was a steamy affair. I spent the last two summers reading though her Steel Brothers Saga (also incredibly good.. but MAJOR TRIGGER WARNINGS on that series!) so, I thought it might be fun to pick up a newer work of hers.

The story opens on the main character Skye Manning, a receptionist to Instagram influencer Addie Acres. She is the quintessential assistant, and has aspirations of one day being a world famous photographer. She meets the infamous Braden Black, bachelor, and Boston playboy one day by chance in Addie’s office.

Hardt wastes no time in cranking up the heat between the two characters. I liked the story and while it tells a love story, it’s all about the sex. Having read a lot of Hardt’s other work, I know that she primarily writes about power, and dominance in her sex scenes. This book is no exception. Braden Black sizzles as the hunky domineering alpha-male in this book.

I liked the book, I really did but, I think stories where one partner must fully submit to the other, even as a willing partner is no longer entertaining for me to read. Braden’s command is that he will give the climax-challenged Sky orgasms galore, as long as she willingly gives up all control to Braden in the bedroom. At no point does Braden, coax, manipulate or abuse Skye, but I just don’t think this genre meshes with who I am as a person. That being said, the book is hot, steamy, and a great summer read.

The Last Chance Rescue Series by Christy Reece

So I picked up the entire Last Chance Rescue series at my favorite second-hand bookshop in Michigan. This series is the penultimate summer book series, they’re full of action, a great love story and their steamy! I’ve read books 1-4 at this point and I have to say, they are so much fun to read. I highly recommend picking up the series, for a summer of romantic adventure.

To Be Read Titles This Summer:

With all of the awesome books already listed, I have a literal stack in my to be read pile. These are the titles that next up for my hot book summer.

Grown Ups By Marian Keyes

The Bollywood Bride by Sonali Dev

Faker by Sarah Smith

Neon Gods by Katee Robert

The Invisible Husband of Fisk Island by Colleen Oakley

Filed Under: Book Stores, Erotica, Romance, Uncategorized, What I am Reading

Book Review Time

March 9, 2020 by jackiecthomas Leave a Comment

I love to read but it feels like a guilty pleasure when I actually get to do it with Grad School wrapping up. I had the pleasure of reading two extraordinary books recently, as well as re-reading my first book as a result of #KissPitch and being the worst beta reader ever for my dear sister who has written the most amazing collection of travel stories. It may not seem like a lot but it actually is a lot of reading. So, check out what this romance author has been reading.

 

Three Women by Lisa Taddeo

I received this book as a birthday present from my husband. He saw the British press had not stopped raving about it since its release, and thought it would interest me. He was not wrong. Three Women is a work of non-fiction. Taddeo follows three American women and their journies with sexuality, a woman who has an affair, to another woman who is in an open marriage, to the teenager who has a sexual relationship with her high school teacher. As a romance author, what induces love, sexuality and lust is always of interest to me. I picked up this book as a character study but soon realized I would be selling it desperately short to approach it that way.

From the first page, with its gripping honesty, I could not pully myself away. The stories are heartbreaking and TRUE. Each story is unique and thought-provoking but the one story that particularly resonated with me was the story of Lena, a married mother, who had an affair with a high school fling. Her first sexual experience is heartbreaking, and she marries a man who doesn’t seem interested in physical affection. Despite her best efforts, to entice her husband, he is simply unwilling- even repulsed by the idea. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had his own traumatic sexual backstory. (I am not saying that those who are asexual have trauma).

Lena talks about craving a man’s touch, and she finds it in the arms of a high school boyfriend, who is married as well. I found myself rooting for them, even though they were both married. It is heartbreaking and beautiful to see Lena’s struggle.

With so much amazing work out there to read and our non-stop news cycle, it seems that not much sticks with us for very long, but this book will stick with me forever. The brutal, beautiful, heartbreaking honesty in which these women tell their stories is incredible. I literally could not put this book down!

 

American Queen by Sierra Simone

 

While out in Los Angeles last month I made sure to stop in The Ripped Bodice in Studio City, California, a romance bookstore. While I was there the cashier highly recommend this book to me, making sure to inform me that this one is more erotica than romance. I like a good steamy read every now and then so I purchased it. The premise of this work of fiction, follows Greer, the privileged granddaughter of a former Vice President, her love interest Maxen Colchester and his best friend, and current VP Embry Moore. I’ve never read a book by Simone so I wasn’t sure what to expect. The opening two paragraphs of this book are a master class on how to start a book. I was hooked from the start!

I started reading this one on the flight home from L.A., a red-eye flight, where the two travellers on either side of me slept. I am not ashamed that I read romance and erotica, but let me tell you, this one made me blush! At one point during the flight, I had to put the book down, it was that steamy- my eyes had third-degree burns! From start to finish the sex scenes in this book, leave NOTHING to the imagination. It left me, who is not prudish at all, slightly uncomfortable.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!     

Greer falls for Ash or Maxen and they begin a sub/ dom relationship. I have read several books with this sort of sexual play and my normal reaction is like, “eh, okay.” The relationship in this book bothered me more than most of the other books in the genre that I have read. Greer is sexually inexperienced and is suddenly eager to please Ash at his beck and call. I just don’t get it. I am not passing judgement on sexual interests in any way! The whole sub/ dom thing is so not my jam. At one point Ash whips Greer with a belt and she talks about how it hurts so good. All I could think to myself was, “if someone hits me with a belt, I am going to grab it from them and hit them with it!” Yes, I know I am missing the point here. I just find myself asking, where is the line between violence and sexuality?

Then, we find out that Greer looses her virginity to Embry, who is Ash’s best friend after Ash breaks her heart one night. The whole scene where she loses her virginity is hot- unrealistic, but hot. So now we have a perfect love triangle between Ash, Greer and Embry. I really wondered where Simone was going with it. Later on in the book, Greer finds out that Ash and Embry have a sexual relationship too! Woah, everyone is sleeping with each other! Greer finds this out in the most awkward way too. The book culminates on Ash and Greer’s wedding night, where they invite Embry in to essentially be a thruple.

A few years ago I had an interesting conversation with a therapist about different types of relationships. At the time this therapist was treating a woman who was in a relationship with two men. Together, the two men and she had made a thruple or a couple of three. The therapist told me about some of the research they had done on the topic and the one thing that came up time and again- it never works out in the long run. All I could think to myself was that their relationship will never work! Sure it might be hot, and convenient for now, but down the road, things are going to get messy.

The last scene in the book, the wedding night, I found more thought-provoking than sexy. Greer asks her new husband and his best friend, Embry to sleep together in front of her before they turn their attentions to her. The culmination of this wedding night ends with the two men making a Greer sandwich. This made me wonder, would anyone want a wedding night like this? Am I a square? I don’t know. Again, I am not judging as long as all involved parties are consenting adults.

I think for me as a romance writer, the set up was there for a sexy, heartfelt love story between Ash and Greer, but somewhere it jumped the rails. There is so much with this book, incest, threesomes, sub-dom, gay sex, you name it. If you rated hotness on a scale, this book would be nuclear, but I would argue at the expense of what could have been a great love story.

Filed Under: Book Stores, Erotica, Romance, What I am Reading Tagged With: Book Stores, Plot, reading, Romance, Sex

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