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tjlovestoread

TJlovestoread. Romance Reviews & More

There are many things we have in common, every day very real things like the fact we are wives, mothers, some of us have a job or several. We are friends who enjoy each other’s company while having coffee or playing cards. But what brought us together here is our passion for books, our weakness for hot alpha males and our love for a good story that we’ll take with us for a long, long time, especially when it makes us cry.

This blog was an inevitable, unavoidable, natural evolution to our book buddy friendship. We are still having hard time figure things out like what happens when we read the same book and have very distinct opinions about it (we’re just posting one review, first one who finishes has dibs). Our schedules are at ends and we do this because we need an outlet for our book infatuation, but it’s also done during our “free” time. So please bare with us and hopefully we’ll have a great blog for you to love to visit.

We’re Ceci, Dali and Ingri (sorry chickie, I needed to make that rhyme), and this is us.

Ceci (a.k.a. Ces BookGeek)

I am a hyperactive wife, mother, lawyer, teacher, daughter, sister and friend. My passion for reading started at an early age; it was fed by an unforgettable literature teacher in junior high and high school, and then it remained somewhat dormant during my new adult years (yeah!book lingo and all). Maybe having to read so much in law school made me lazy; I also got bored of all the “intellectual” books that were pushed down my throat by friends. Anyway, I grew up reading 80’s young adult novels like the Heartbreak Café and Sweet Valley High. Then one day, in my late twenties a book called Twilight was published, and just like that, my curiosity and my love for books was revived! Reading that book was a trigger and it helped me find great treasures and new friends.

My first reads were entirely based on Paranormal Romance, either YA or Adult. Of course, after finding the “adult” books, I now stay away from YA unless it is a recommendation from someone I know or, it’s a book with high ratings. Nowadays I read contemporary romance, new adult books, erotica with a plot and I’m still faithful to PNR.

What I don’t like in a book: Unnecessary drama. Stupid heroes/heroines who make harsh decisions without asking first. Porn on paper. Unbelievable insta-love (this always takes one star away from my ratings. I only believe in insta-love in paranormal or fantasy. Real life not so much, the author has to sell it really good for me to buy). Incessant self-loading and insecurities from a character. Horrible editing. Cliffhangers when the next book is going to take more than six months to come out (if that is the case, I wait for the whole series to be published). A book with no HEA (which never happens in romance so…. Any other genre I don’t mind). First person POV’s have to be real, if I am diving into the head of “regular” person, then such person should think like a real person; people don’t think in metaphors and analogies all the time, if writers want to be overly lyrical they should stay away from first person POV.

Aside from the above, I am very easy to please. I love alpha male heroes, but you can throw a sweet beta male my way and won’t complain. I love books that make you swoon and forget about real life drama and real life relationships (aka real men).  Moreover, if you want my heart forever, throw me a book with spy/assassins/conspiracy/action/forbidden romance. I will dive into it right away. Why? Well if you want to know, I am a hard-core fan of La Femme Nikita, for me there is no other couple that equals Michael Samuel and Nikita, even if they never got their real HEA; therefore I’m a sucker for these plots.

oh and did I mention I am a Video Game geek ohh yeaahh!! RPG’s rule

Dali (a.k.a. The Star Wars and Star Trek Geek)

A friend suggested that instead of using my name I should call myself something “mean and scary” like the book bitch. He’s obviously never read my reviews because if he had, he would know I’m fairly easy to please. As long as I get my happy ending and there are no incessant inner whiny monologues from ANY character and we can avoid the wishy-washy heroines and steer clear of dumb decision making, you know the kind where the worst assumptions are made, no one asks what really happened, no one considers intervening to clear up misunderstandings a causing the heroes endless pain, then I’m good.

Ok, so I may be a bit demanding, but I do try to be as honest with the books I read as possible. I love to include quotes to state my case and sometimes just because they’re so swoony they make my insides go all gooey.

I will also take advantage and push eco-friendly advice. Shhh, the gals don’t know about this yet, but I’ll try to sneak those in once in a while.

You can stalk me on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/2209138-dali-from-tjlovestoread

REQUESTS

If you want to request reviews, we will gladly accept, we are not very picky.  Just abstain to request them if your book has more than two of our don’ts. We promise to be objective and to never, ever be mean or disrespect your work. If we don’t like your book for any reason we will, review and provide feedback for such reasons. If for any reason, it becomes a DNF we will not rate, because I truly believe that you cannot rate something you didn’t finish….

RATING SYSTEM

Same as GoodReads

SOME TERMINOLOGY

DNF = Did Not Finish

HEA = Happily Ever After (endings)

HFN = Happy For Now (endings)

POV = Point Of View

PNR = Paranormal Romance books

TBR = To Be Read

YA = Young Adult (books about 15 to 18 year olds, no explicit or descriptive sex scenes. Although some portray teen sexual activity)

NA = New Adult (Books about 18 to 25 year olds, usually in College. Books about your very firsts screw ups and achievements as an adult)

SOME EROTICA TERMINOLOGY

BDSM = an acronym used to describe a variety of kinky activities. BD stands for bondage & discipline. DS stands for dominance and submission and SM stands for sadism and masochism.

Dom = shortened version of the word Dominant

Domme = dominatrix or female dominant

Dominant = term for the person who takes control in BDSM play

Limits = these can be hard or soft. A hard limit is a sexual act that a player will absolutely not consider and a soft limit is something they may consider but are unsure of.

Masochism = deriving sexual pleasure from receiving pain

M/F = a male/female heterosexual pairing

PWP = Porn without plot

Safeword = very important in D/s play. A word the submissive can use to slow down or stop a scene if it is becoming too much for them. Can also be used by the top.

S/m = sadomasochism

Sub = shortened form of the word submissive

Submissive = the person giving up control to the dominant

Topping from the Bottom = an expression used to describe the practice of a sub attempting to control the dom and the scene.

Taint, S.L. Jennings Review

Taint - S.L. Jennings

4.5 stars

This book will certainly Taint you with curiosity and then grip you with its sometimes outrageous but mostly lonely, broken and sweet protagonist.

Before I tell you a bit more what I enjoyed and what didn’t do it for me, I would like to remind ourselves that this is an erotic work of fiction romance meant to entertain. It is not a hand book or a self-improvement manual. Although in my opinion it does state some very interesting facts.

“The wife drives the ship. She is the puppet master. But in order to maintain a happy home, you must let the man believe that he calls the shots.”

I mention this because I am a bit late in the reading/reviewing queue and because of it noticed some not great reviews, which is normal, but a lot of controversy as well. Really guys, the blurb not only caught my eye, it left my jaw a bit slack. That in itself is a good enough hint that the story would have more than a few shockers. So please, do your homework and spend your time and money wisely. I’m almost certain that that’s what most authors want, second to sharing with us part of their writing talent.

So, Justice Drake. Brilliant and ingenious entrepreneur or crass, chauvinist asshole? Perhaps a little bit of both, giving us an incredibly handsome on the outside, charming, egotistical and a bit dejected man on the inside. He has the name of a super hero “Never fear! Justice Drake is here… Ready to slay the villains of Scottsdale with double-headed dongs and acid lube lasers.” Mostly I think Justice Drake is an antihero, one of my favorite kind of heroes.

Drake’s chosen and very lucrative profession is to show “Stepford” wives how to sexually satisfy their wealthy but wayward husbands with very “unconventional, seemingly cruel and brash, techniques.” His job description requires a certain level of professionalism but he has also chosen to detach and isolate himself in general. Although that doesn’t stop his “sadistic soul” to rejoice in the discomfort he causes his clients.

Allison Elliot-Carr is one of those clients, but she is also different from all the rest. “She’s just so damn perfectly imperfect that it’s endearing,” with an authenticity that made her not belong there even if circumstance would indicate she does.

Her presence in his Oasis causes him to break all his strict and well defined rules, she has weakened his defenses, forcing him to face his loneliness and self-worth.

S.L. did a great job delivering this story from Drake’s point of view in its entirety. She tempered his crudeness with humor, although sometimes dry and sarcastic, and even further endearing him with his incredibly expressive inner thoughts.

“This is my favorite part of the day—when gravity pulls that scorching, desert sun above, coaxing it into the outstretched, jagged arms of mountains and cacti.”

And when he isn’t battling himself over confusing emotions,

“I’m not even sure what to make of this girl. First she’s calling me an asshole, and now she’s asking me about ice cream flavors.”

“Yeah…even her snorts are adorable. And fuck me. I’m using words like adorable.”

the way he sees Ally is both swoon worthy and heartbreaking all at the same time.

“With eyes the color of the ocean and her halo of fire burning as bright as the desert sun, she speaks to me. And while she is raw and sullied, tainted by this beautiful hell, her words breathe life into the darkest, loneliest parts of me.”

Because he’s not just a lonely man with questionable self-worth. She’s married to another man. A sad and seemingly unsolvable reality.
This love story captivated me with its original and daring plot, and kept me turning page after page interested in wanting to know more of its very complex hero, to read about the sexy attraction between Drake and Ally as well as his sweet and lyrical musings. It made me laugh and then when I was least expecting it, it hit me an OMG and WTF twist I couldn’t have imagined. I loved it and wish I had more.

“Justice + Ally”

One last though about the 4.5 stars. There were a few times when I thought Ally was being too naïve. There was also a particular scene I could’ve done without. Just the implication of what happened would have been enough with no gory details.

For more of my reviews or those of my best book buds visit our blog.