Review of almost too adorable Modern Romance Dom Com by Adriana Anders

 

 

Dom Com by Adriana Anders starts with all good things.  Heroine Rae wants to explore her submissive side.  She is so nervous that she can barely bring herself to enter the BDSM club, but after some encouragement from the lovely bouncer she drags herself in.  The club is perfect.  They're doing a very safe and comfortable Dom/sub speed dating thing which is, it turns out, more business networking than sexy. But luckily club owner and incredibly hot dom Grant is on the premises.  Although Grant is not looking for a long-term sub, he is drawn to Rae and their kinks match up perfectly.  Incredibly hot sex between very experienced Grant and very willing Rae ensues.  

But: on Monday morning, Rae returns to in-person work for the first time since the pandemic, in a new office building.  And guess what?  The office is upstairs from the club.  And Grant owns the entire building.  And he's been hired as a consultant for Rae's company to root out someone who is doing . . . something nefarious.  And he and Rae are sharing an office.  A little far-fetched, sure, but more very sexy times ensue, so all is good.

The sexy times go on a bit long and start to outweigh the plot, but I'm okay with this because Rae is so sweet and Grant is so hot.

I didn't get truly irritated with the book  until the end, when everything wraps up way, way too neatly and easily.  SPOILERS:  Rae has learned from Grant not to be such a pushover and not to let her entire family rely on her for everything from doing their laundry (her younger but adult sister) to constantly monitoring their blood pressure (her father).  Luckily, just as she learns that lesson her family members have independently come to the conclusion that they have been taking advantage of Rae and they don't want to do that any more.  No confrontations or hurt feelings, everyone wants the same thing.  

And, Rae quits her job to pursue her passion (other than hot sex with Grant), which is to make bookcase nooks, which are little dollhouses with scenes from her life.  Her business immediately takes off and she is making more money than she made as an HR professional.  Everything falls into place.  Anyone can start what is essentially an Etsy store and get rich doing it!  Life is great!  

This ending was too saccharine for me but I would come back for the old-fashioned sugar of the sexy times.  

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

 

 

Modern romance If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia made me very, very unhappy

 

From the beginning I had a pretty bad attitude towards modern romance If It Makes You Happy by Julie Olivia.  This was not entirely the fault of Olivia.  I am just so, so sick of the amount of pop culture that features single dads whose baby mamas walked out on their children so that they can find themselves.  

I was also annoyed by the cover, which depicts our hero, Cliff, and heroine, Michelle, as high school students rather than the grown-ass adults they are.  And the reader constantly being informed that Cliff is sarcastic when we never see him being sarcastic -- to the point that I wondered whether Olivia knows what the word means.  And the constant reminders that THIS BOOK IS SET IN THE 90's.  I get it.  90's tech.  90's fashion.  90's music.  I don't care.  

I understood that these were quibbles.  But then -- then -- then -- I can't even.

When Cliff was in high school he knocked up his girlfriend.  They got married and raised the baby and then another daughter, until the wife decided she -- you guessed it -- needed to find herself and went off to the big city (leaving Cliff with a stepmommy-sized hole in his heart for career-woman Michelle to step right into).  

Okay, whatever.  But when Cliff and Michelle have sex for this first time, they don't discuss birth control until they are actually having intercourse.  Cliff is going to pull out -- yeah, how did that work out for you in high school, Cliffie? when Michelle tells him she is on the pill so all is good.  

No wonder (spoiler) Cliff's teenage daughter has a pregnancy scare even though he spends the entire book worrying that she's going to get pregnant.  Maybe a little less worrying, Cliff, and a little more making sure she goes to Planned Parenthood.   

Also, let us hearken back to the 90's and what was going on then.  Remember a little thing called AIDS? That was then a death sentence? Not to mention all the other STD's.  We know that Michelle's ex-husband cheated on her, and she was with him pretty recently.  Has she been tested?  Has Cliff?  The failure to have this conversation is not romantic; it is appalling.  

 Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

 

 

 

If my smutty dystopian novel about naked sex slaves were instead about an opium addict in Victorian England, it would be Alexis Hall's new novel Never After

 

Yes, this is my second Alexis Hall book review in a row on this blog, which I suppose is bad form, but I had so many thoughts about Never After that I could not wait.   

SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW FOR BOTH NEVER AFTER AND MY NAKED SEX SLAVE NOVEL MINDGAMES

For much of the time that I was reading Never After I was like, wait, this is the plot of my smutty novel, Mindgames, except that instead of being a dark romance about a naked sex slave in a dystopian future, it's a dark romance about an opium addict in Victorian England.  

Point by point:

In Mindgames, a healer named Gabriel rescues a naked sex slave named Mariah who is close to death, and nurses her back to health.  In Never After, a minister named Thomas rescues an opium addict named Michael who is close to death, and nurses him back to health.

In Mindgames, Mariah is incapable of trusting Gabriel and is incredibly obnoxious to him and everyone else.  In Never After, Michael is incapable of trusting Thomas and is incredibly obnoxious to him and everyone else.

In Mindgames, Mariah's life has forced her to view sex as a commodity.  In Never After, Michael's life has forced him to view sex as a commodity.

In Mindgames, Gabriel has friends who understand the worldviews of both Mariah and Gabriel and help mediate the differences between them.  In Never After, Thomas has a housekeeper who understands the worldviews of both Michael and Thomas and help mediate the differences between them. 

In Mindgames, as Mariah recovers she slowly starts to trust Gabriel but it's always two steps forward, one step back.  In Never After, as Michael recovers he slowly starts to trust Thomas but it's always two steps forward, one step back.   

In Mindgames, Mariah clings to the secrets of her past as her best protection against being hurt by Gabriel.  In Never After, Michael clings to the secrets of his past as his best protection against being hurt by Thomas.

I like to think that maybe, maybe, maybe Hall read Mindgames and took inspiration from it.  I realize the more likely scenario is that the plot of Mindgames is maybe the teensiest bit cliched, so that Hall came up with a similar plot completely independently -- but a girl can dream.

The endings of the two books are not at all the same.  Mindgames has a mostly unambiguous happily ever after.  Although Hall has written many wonderful and boisterous historical novels in which queer people live in their time mostly out and mostly proud, Never After is much more realistic.  There is a happily ever after, but only of a sort.  It is Hall's darkest work, and one of his best.  

 

Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited  and in paperback.  Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.