Review: Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl

Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl

Jane Morgan’s life is a sham. Prim and proper, she breezes through her days at the office with a calm, collected demeanor. She’s the epitome of order, a paragon of controlled behavior; the poster child for assuming a new identity and attempting to move forward. She even makes it a point to only date men who fit snugly in to the socially acceptable category as to not draw unwanted attention. But Jane has a problem, because deep down…she likes it dirty. She craves the dark eyes, rough hands, and hard body of a bad boy. She needs a man who’ll give her one night of hot meaningless sex then walk away without looking back. But what scares her even more than her past finally catching up with her present – is realizing her chosen bad boy might just turn out to be a good man.

William Chase considers himself a pretty normal guy, but when he’s flat out propositioned by an uptight secretary, the same secretary who emphatically denied his request for dinner earlier that day, even he has to mentally check himself. He doesn’t necessarily mind being Jane Morgan’s slightly unorthodox birthday present, that is…until he wakes up to find her missing from his bed. Chase doesn’t understand why Jane keeps running from him, but the more he chases her - the more he realizes she’s not the cold, distant woman she pretends to be. All he has to do now is find a way to convince her that she isn’t as bad as she thinks she is…and neither is he.

Lead Me On stands as a testament to the notion that less is always more. Victoria Dahl has taken a very simple, somewhat traditional storyline, and made it great by filling it with a cast of memorable characters. Characters who are flawed, who have made mistakes and suffered the consequences, and are continually fighting to move forward. The sex scenes between Jane and Chase are sizzling hot, and while they happen early and often, they’re just frequent enough to add to the story but not long enough to bog it down. I also think Ms. Dahl should be given an award for writing believable dialogue, because it’s not often I come across a book where the characters actually speak like real people. Lead Me On has that specific quality in spades, which helps pull you into the characters and makes the story a very easy, fast and enjoyable read.

My complaints about Lead Me On are minimal and, if anything, pretty much fall into line with what I consider to be the standard pitfalls of the contemporary romance genre as a whole. The story is fairly predictable, and at times rather repetitive in terms of Jane’s internal rehashing of why she needs to live her life a certain way, until she finally has the “epiphany moment” and decides life would be better if she was just herself. There were also a few times when smacking Jane for ignoring the obvious climbed to the top of my to-do list, but in most cases I understood why she was having so much trouble believing what was in front of her, so I let it slide. :)

Overall, Lead Me On was a great book. It was funny, entertaining, and the secondary characters were just as much a part of the story as the main characters. I loved Jane’s Dad and her Grandma, and really hope they show up in books to come! I should also say that after reading Lead Me On, I went and bought the Kindle versions of Talk Me Down and Start Me Up, the first two books in the Tumble Creek series.

P.S. Stilted and woody dialogue is one of my biggest pet peeves as a reader, so when I find an author who writes realistic dialogue as well as Victoria Dahl, they automatically go on my buy list and perhaps even my Keeper Shelf! :)
 

Review by Jamie

Click HERE to buy Lead Me On from Amazon in print & Kindle formats.

Click HERE to buy Lead Me On from B&N in print & nook formats.

Click HERE to buy Lead Me On from Powell's in print format.

Click HERE to buy Lead Me On from All Romance in various e-book formats.

Click HERE to visit Victoria Dahl's website.

Vital stats:

Title: Lead Me On

Author: Victoria Dahl

Series: Tumble Creek

Publisher: HQN Books (Harlequin)

Print ISBN: 978-0373774340

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Heat Level: Sensual / Hot

Length: Novel, 352 pages

Formats: Print & various e-book formats

Price: Ranges from $5.76 to $7.99 depending on format.

Reviewed by and Rated: Jamie - 4 Panties

Apparently I need more than Teflon panties...

Sorry for the silence as of late, but I was lovingly gifted a case of the flu for Christmas...and I still haven't fully recovered. Is it just me or does it take longer to get better the older you get? If my suspicions are correct, I shudder to think what the flu will be like when I'm 60... :(

But just so you know I'm not completely slacking - I'm currently working on a slew of reviews I've been too tired to write for the last 2 weeks. I hope to start posting again on Monday the 18th so I can get this blog back on the track to Romanceville where it belongs!

Here's a list of the reviews you can look forward to next week:

• Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl
• Entwined by Fate by S.A. Price
• Cat's Curse, Book One of the Dark Goddess Trilogy by Kelly Heckart
• What God and Cats Know by Sheryl Nantus
• Red Rio Blue by Marianna Lauren
• Never Too Old For The Game Of Love by Fiona McGier
• and last but certainly not least... Proof by Seduction by Courtney Milan

I'll also be announcing all the details for a month long contest that features a prize basket with over 25 books inside, as well as a few boxes of chocolate and some other fun stuff! So check back with TeflonPanties next Monday and revel with me in what will hopefully be some non-flu happiness!

Have a great week!

Seasons Greetings!

Merry Christmas to you and your family!

Just a quick FYI - I'll be back on January 4, 2010 to begin a whole new year of reviews and general madness.

Thanks for reading the blog and have a great New Year! :)

Review: Maison Domine by Skylar Kade

Maison Domine by Skylar Kade

Reviewer Note: Maison Domine is only available in e-book format at the moment, and is part of the Binding Ties Anthology with authors Jenna Ives and Natasha Moore.

Lara Brunner spends most of her waking hours at work, and has even been known to sleep at her desk on occasion. As an Organic Chemist, she relies strictly on facts, using logic and order to conduct complicated scientific experiments, many of which have garnered her great respect and renown in her chosen field of study. But, unfortunately for Lara, logic doesn’t factor into the steamy fantasies she’s been having about her co-worker and rival, Professor Jaxon Greene, nor does it stop her best friend, Samantha, from essentially blackmailing her into spending a weekend at a secret mountain retreat where she can finally work through some of her pent up frustrations and relinquish a little control.

Not only is Jaxon Greene a professor, a successful author, and a soon-to-be affluent screenwriter, but he’s also a regular Dom at a local BDSM retreat. And while he’s been part of the underground culture for quite some time, five years ago an accident made him realize he could never have a long lasting relationship with a submissive woman again. At least, he didn’t think he could, until he’s asked to indoctrinate a newcomer to the lifestyle and finds himself face to face with Lara, a woman he never expected to find in his bed, let alone fall in love with.

I’d like to start out by saying that from what I can tell after visiting her website and sleuthing the internet, Maison Domine is Skylar Kade’s debut in the publishing world. And while I understand most readers expect a debut story to be just as good as a one written by a veteran author, I, personally, tend to be a little more forgiving when I know I’m reading an author’s first work. So, with that in mind, I intend to focus on the positives before I delve into the areas that didn’t work for me.

First and foremost, at its core Maison Domine is a well constructed story. Skylar Kade has a good command of the basic elements necessary to bring a romance full circle, and she accomplishes that task within the confines of this story. She also seems to have a good understanding of the BDSM genre, and at no point over the course of the novella did I feel like I was being read a beginner’s guide to BDSM, which is good. She integrates the distinctive components of the BDSM lifestyle into the story fairly seamlessly, and in turn, her knowledge lends a believable quality to her characters while they’re engaged in intimate acts. So for her ability to subtly help the reader understand the underlying reasons why someone might choose to explore BDSM, I tip my hat to Ms. Kade. Even though some readers might still consider BDSM a taboo subject, I think stories along the lines of Maison Domine will go a long way in helping to dispel some of the misconceptions about the genre.

Where this particular story fell apart for me was in character depth and continuity. And in my world, both problems stem from the fact that Maison Domine is a novella. Neither Lara nor Jaxon are even remotely close to being fleshed-out by the end of the story, and in the end, that single issue pulled down what could have otherwise been a great novella. In her defense, I think Ms. Kade tried to drop bits and pieces of character background as the novella progressed, but in my opinion, those tidbits of info came at the wrong times.

Example: Having Lara distress over not being a size 2 once she’s already on her way to the retreat seemed a little misplaced, considering not a page before she was sitting with her best friend trying to explain why she wasn’t comfortable going and never even eluded to that concern.

Also, during the first half of the story Lara recognizes why she is, and even internally refers to herself as a submissive, but seems to have major issues accepting it later on. I’m all for self discovery and the inherent conflicts it can pose for a character, but when I’m painted a picture of a very independent, controlled and logical female scientist, who strives to break problems down in formulaic ways, I expect her to see irrefutable proof for what it is. Irrefutable, also known as – fact. I also expect a renowned Organic Chemist to pay close attention to detail. After all, isn’t that what science is all about? So when the conflict appeared late in the story and Lara completely threw common sense out the window…well, I don’t want to give too much away, but there is a very specific sequence of words that Jaxon uses to describe Lara, which he even says to her out loud in one scene. And mind you, these three words are so odd when combined that you can’t help but to remember them. So how she completely ignores hearing them later is so far beyond me that it shaved a half a point off my final rating of this book.

As for Jaxon’s character, well, there isn’t a whole lot to him. And he lost continuity for me when at the beginning of the story, in his own point of view (POV) no less, he acts all shocked and dismayed by how attracted to Lara he is, but then comes out near the end of the story and explains how he’s always wanted her. As a reader, if I’m in his POV when the two first meet at the BDSM retreat, I should know right away that he’s always been attracted to her. I mean, if you’ve liked someone for a year and you unexpectedly run into said person somewhere, you aren’t suddenly shocked or surprised that you find them attractive. I don’t know if this was just an unfortunate editing mistake or if it was intentionally written so it could be used later to drive the plot forward, but it didn’t make sense to me.

In closing up my review, when I finished reading Maison Domine I couldn’t help but wonder if at one time the story had been a lot longer and perhaps Ms. Kade’s editor tried too hard to cut it down to fit the length requirements of a novella. Plainly put – the story doesn’t flow well. It feels as though entire chunks of the book are missing, and to make up for it a few necessary character background snippets have been randomly inserted to fill in the blanks. At this point, I’m more inclined to point fingers at the editor than I am the author. However, complaints aside, I still thought at its core Maison Domine was a good story with a lot of potential, even if the execution left a little to be desired. And, for the record, I would be more than willing to give Skylar Kade’s next release a chance, because technically speaking, her writing is very good and her style is definitely evocative.

Review by Jamie aka the Teflon Mistress

Click HERE to buy Maison Domine from My Bookstore & More in various e-book formats.

Click HERE to buy Maison Domine from Amazon in Kindle format.

Click HERE to buy Maison Domine from B&N in nook and various e-book formats.

Click HERE to buy Maison Domine from Powell's in various e-book formats.

Click HERE to buy Maison Domine from All Romance in various e-book formats.

Click HERE to visit Skylar Kade's website.

Vital stats:

Title: Maison Domine
Author: Skylar Kade
Series: Binding Ties Anthology
Publisher: Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
Digital ISBN: 978-1605047607
Genre: Erotic / BDSM
Heat Level: Erotic / Red Hot
Length: Novella
Formats: Various e-book formats
Price: Ranges from $2.80 to $3.50 depending on format.
Reviewed by and Rated: Jamie - 3 Panties

Winners: Congrats goes out to...

*Drumroll Please*

The two lucky winners who get to choose an e-book from Dee Tenorio's back list, which can be found HERE, are...

Anna (s7anna) and Tracey D (booklover0226)!

Congratulations, Anna & Tracey! Please take a moment to look over Dee's back list then drop an e-mail to teflonpanties@yahoo.com with the title of the book you've chosen. Once I receive your emails, I'll forward them to Dee and she'll get your prizes sent out ASAP!

Thanks to everyone who entered!  Good luck next week!

Announcement: I'm Flying Solo!

I just wanted to take a moment and let everyone know that as of today, I am officially flying solo here at Teflon Panties. When I first started the blog back in November, my friend Kitty signed on as my partner, and we intended to alternate reviews because we have very different tastes when it comes to books. However, over the last month life has gotten very hectic for her family, and she hasn't had time to get as involved with the blog as she originally intended. Hopefully everything will calm down for her soon so she can actually take a breath, but from this point forward I'll primarily be the one posting reviews.

So what does this announcement really change? To be honest, nothing. :) Most of the reviews posted since the site opened are mine anyway, and I still intend to run contests and do interviews with great authors. But I wanted to make it clear that this isn't a multiple reviewer site any longer, in case that info matters to someone out there in Blogland. Don't worry though, I'll still be inviting guest bloggers to share their opinions on books I couldn't finish, and The Teflon Don will still be stopping by every few months to give a male perspective on some of the biggest romance releases of the year. All in all, everything will remain the same, but like I said - I just felt I should let everyone know that the scope of the blog has changed a little!

Thanks for reading and happy Friday!

~ Jamie

Interview & Contest with author Dee Tenorio

Welcome to the first Interview & Contest hosted by Teflon Panties! This week we're featuring Dee Tenorio, whose most recent release is the amazing contemporary romance Burn For Me. Dee will be stopping by here and there throughout the week to chat via the comments, so if you have any questions for her please don't be shy! Dee is also giving away, to two (2) very lucky commenters, your choice of one (1) eBook from any of her back list titles, which you can check out HERE!

Hi, Dee! Thanks for chatting with us today and for being the subject of Teflon Panties first ever Interview & Contest! Let's just jump right in...

Of all the genres out there, what made you decide to write romance?

I'm a romantic, lol. But mostly, I love stories that have the most at stake--the most emotions, the highest costs, the greatest sacrifices. And really, what stories out there don't have at least a smidge of romance? I get challenged often to find the romantic angle in the most obscure stories and have yet to be stumped. :)

What did you do immediately after finding out you’d sold your first manuscript?

I got my first sale in an email from Angela James, actually, and so after blinking about ten times, I went to find my husband--who was getting out of the shower--and just blurted out, "Um...I sold." Kind of ironic, really. I mean, steamy, nekkid men is a romance staple. I had two fantasies at the same time!

There’s a raging debate as to whether or not DRM is the best way to secure e-books because of difficulty for the reader to actually open the file. What’s your opinion as an author? As a reader?

As an author, I must admit, finding my books have sometimes been downloaded on file-sharing sites more often than my sales per month is a lot disturbing. Each one is a dollar or two that's not going toward feeding my kids, which is what all my royalties is for. I'd like to think DRM would help that, but honestly, I've been around the digital block too often not to know that cracking DRM is about as hard for some folks as popping a knuckle. Probably hurts less, too. So all it does is frustrate readers who don't know how to unlock it.

As a reader, I've said my share of swear words when a book won't upload properly to my device, lol, so I can definitely say I like just buying my ebooks and getting right to reading. The less frustration the better. :)

Jump forward 20 years in the future – are paperbacks still leading the market?

I doubt they'll be gone, but probably not leading. Maybe an even 50-50 split. Reason being that eReaders are still cost prohibitive and I don't see that changing for quite a while and folks are really slow to change. At best, ebooks will lead by 75%. :)

How many books do you have planned for the Rancho Del Cielo series?

Well, I have another one that was written a while back, but it needs a lot of editing. More likely that will be a free read--the story of Alice the firefighter and Selvyn, the bad boy, for those who remember them in Betting Hearts. I have another three stories that are in the planning stage, but will be oh so much fun to write. A nerd who grew up to be a heartthrob and the girl who doesn't even remember him; A virgin with six oversize, not necessarily helpful brothers who are trying to marry her off; and a real piece of my heart, an old-fashioned hero who raised his orphaned siblings even though it's made him somewhat a stick in the mud and the newest member of the small town, a divorcee who opens a racy lingerie store right next to him. (I can't BEGIN to tell you how much fun I've had planning that one, lol.) I'm hoping to get those in line for 2011-12.

Raul and Penelope, the couple from Burn For Me, were both flawed in a way that made them completely believable. Do you find it easier or more difficult to build a story around characters who have clearly defined mistakes in their pasts?

I don't know about harder or easier, exactly, but I imagine perfect people have very little to talk about. Flawed people are real people. I just love finding reasons why those flaws are loveable.

Raul was a major heartthrob – did you use someone you know as the model?

Well, I grew up around countless Mexican hot guys, lol, so I just tried to remember what it felt like to have a crush on them and why. Raul is the best--and kind of the worst, lol--of a lot of guys I knew once upon a time.

If you were stuck in the doctor’s office for 6 hours, what book would you want to have with you and why?

Oh, that's a good one. Only ONE? I read pretty fast, so even a single title would only last me two or three hours. I'd bring my Treo (I use it for an ereader) and load it up with the entire Psy/Changeling series. Can never get enough of those... sigh.

Which do you prefer for your man:

Boxers or Briefs? Boxers.

Facial Hair or Clean Shaven? Can I go with "stubble'? If not, clean shaven, definitely. Only certain men can really carry off a beard. :)

Suit or Uniform? Suits are great, but UNIFORM....shudder. (That's a good shudder, btw.)

Blond or Brunette? Brunette, though the occasional blond makes me squee.

Long hair or Short? Short. I have the long hair in my relationships, lol.

Are there any genres you don’t think you could write for? Why or why not?

Historical. Not that I'm not willing to do research, but SO much knowledge is required for a good historical and I don't think I have the patience. Not my skillset, but oh, how I love to read them!

Do you plot out your stories or do you fly by the seat of your pants?

Well, the truth is, in order to sell a book, you have to be able to outline a little. I used to pants it, but that's a luxury I don't have any more. So, I give myself a loose outline and pants my way from necessary point to necessary point, changing things as needed if a plot point needs redirection. I call it plotzing, lol.

If you won a million dollars tomorrow, what would you do with it?

Buy a house, some clothes and any necessary furniture and pay off all my bills. Then I'd pay off my Mom's bills and give something to all of my sisters, to make sure my family was okay. The rest, I'd put away for my kids and my sister's kids and write full time. (Can you tell I've had this planned for a while? LOL)

Anything else you’d like to share with us today? Upcoming releases? Projects you’re excited about?

Next year, I have two releases planned for sure, a linked duo of novels about twin brothers and the mayhem they unleash when they swap dates for the night. The best part is that the books run concurrently, so there are scenes where you'll see the same scene from a very different point of view! The first book, "All Of You" will be out in April and the second book, "All Or Nothing" in the summer.

After that, I'm hoping to release my first paranormal thriller--cross your fingers for me, because I just love that story and the world it's set in! It would also be the start of a series, actually, so I really do have to plan the next two or three years very carefully, lol. Wish me luck!

We wish you all the luck in the world! And I know I'll definitely be waiting for the next book in the Rancho Del Cielo series. Thanks again for chatting with us and for being such a good sport. We're honored to claim you as Teflon Panties' first interview guest!

Now, let the real interrogation begin... ;)

To enter the contest all you have to do is comment with a question for Dee, tell us what you thought of Burn For Me or any of Dee's other wonderful books, or just be creative and tell Dee how much you want to win! The contest ends at 11:59 AM on Saturday morning, December 12th, and is open to readers across the globe. Immediately after the contest closes, two (2) winners will be randomly selected from the commenters, and then announced here on the blog shortly after noon along with instructions on how to claim the fantastic prize.

Thanks for participating in our first Interview & Contest! Good luck to you all!

P.S. You can learn more about Dee and her books at her website: http://www.deetenorio.com

Interview by Jamie - aka the Teflon Mistress