Lorelei JamesCritiques

re-read 6/11/13

man, I just cannot finish this book. I tried, really. It is so boring.

re-read 6/11/13

too many asshole characters in this book.

re-read 6/12/13: I stay with my initial assessment of this book.

I know we're dealing with the effed up and insecure branch of the McKay family and there is bound to be serious issues in these books but I feel like all the characters are terrible people with terrible problems and nothing gets resolved.

best thing about this was the baby.

good!

re-read 6/9/13

reallyboring

Re-read 6/9/13 and I finally finished it.

I love love love this book.

I liked this whole book, until the end. The brothers' attitude ruined this for me.

This was good and funny. The characters were fantastic.

I'm more interested in the dynamics of three people in love. This really didn't have that.

This book is indeed, a very rough ride. Everything I've ever wanted and more to push the boundaries of sexual experimentation. This book does it. Yet, all this was accomplished in a week?!! Bloody amazing.

Roped In
3 Stars

After a life-threatening injury, bulldogger Sutton Grant knows that his career is over, but his horse, Dial, is another matter. The only one who can help the stubborn gelding is premier horse trainer, London Gradsky. Unfortunately, Sutton and London have a problematic past, but she is willing to put aside their conflict if he does her a little favor - pretend to her ex-boyfriend that she and Sutton are now a couple.

Series note: This novella is part of the 1001 Nights project and can be read as a standalone within the Blacktop Cowboys series.

Sutton and London's "pretend relationship" agreement has potential, but London's reasons for wanting it are childish and even idiotic. Sutton, on the other hand, is a charming hero, and his obvious respect for women in general, and London in particular is a huge turn-on. They have a strong emotional and physical connection despite some questionable dialogue - "lurve", really?

The horse training elements could have been more developed, but this is a novella and there is only so much page space.

Overall, a light and entertaining read despite the somewhat immature heroine and silly dialogue.

Lainie (short for Melanie) Capshaw is a physio who fixes cowboys on the rodeo circuit. She's fiercely independent but finds herself swept up by two sweet-talking, confident cowboys, Hank Lawson and Kyle Gilchrist. She finds out in an awkward moment that they are best friends. Fireworks follow, in more ways than one.

Lainie is the commitment phobe in this story, and we are left wondering why she's sees no future with one or both of these guys ... until the very end - hence it took me a while to warm to her. The guys are more interesting, and I trust that there will be another Blacktop Cowboys novel devoted to Kyle.

I see someone below has mentioned that the Blacktop Cowboys series (I've now read 3) is nothing like the Rough Riders series (I've read 5). This series has a lighter touch, is more humorous - perhaps more playful is a better description. Obviously, I was drawn to the Rough Riders, but I'm glad to see James has taken this new tack.

Lorelei James has the steamy cowboy novel down pat. I love the way she reels us in to feeling these characters. The love affairs are sexy and sweet, private and passionate. The protagonists find themselves in their headlong crash into the one person who does it for them - how romantic is that?!

Bran is quickly besotted with 6 time beauty queen Harper. It sounds trite, but somehow, as James writes it, it isn't. Every time I heard Bran's shortened name (from Branford), I thought of the health food! and with Harper, I thought of a country singer or actor. And yet both names are great - fit the characters perfectly.

Saddled and Spurred is read by Scarlett Chase - she is good, though her country twang for Harper is almost too much for my taste, and she doesn't attempt to make the male voice low, but her tone is so right, it makes it a mute point.

The title of the book is slightly off - it's clever and somewhat true but underrepresents the heart-and-soul connection the characters form. Not good form!½

This is a sweet romance, and a good read for anyone who prefers a closed bedroom door, ie not sexually explicit. Unlike the author's more famous Rough Riders Series, about modern day cowboys, which is electric!

Lennox (like the crockery) is a 'wild child' who is starting over as an office worker. She meets Brady and the story looks like it is going to slip into one of those billionaire boss subgenres.

But really, the money doesn't intrude too much - the lifestyle spills over but isn't the gist of the story.

The book was published in January 2016 - I found it hard to tell if it was brand new (published in 2022) except there was one allusion to technology that jarred and revealed it wasn't current. It is superficial to make this point, but I think this is one of the first times I've noticed such a thing in my reading.

It shows how intensely I was listening! as this is hot storytelling without the sex. It reminded me of Happiness for Beginners.

Both narrators are great: Lidia Dornet, and Roger Wayne. I've heard Lidia Dornet before and she was a good pick for Lennox. Dornet also reads Kelly Rimmer and Lynda Archer.

But Roger Wayne, not known to me, has read a lot more - Heather Graham, Drew Hayes, lots of non-fiction, but there's no denying he has the right voice for romantic leads if his performance here is anything to go by.

I've learned that Lorelei James is guaranteed to be a good read since I took up Romance a few years ago, but I hadn't realised I'd consumed about a dozen of her audiobooks.

i liked the storyline and the characters. Easy to read and wel written

This has been my favorite so far in the series. I like the way that others in the family and friends have stories going on in these books so that we are interested and ready when the books about those people arrive. In this one though, the author concentrated on just one couple which make the book infinitely better. You really got to know the two main characters. The romance here was hot and sweet at the same time. I appreciated the fact that the author stayed true to her set up. The heroine was a virgin who had asked the older hero to show her all about sex. Of course we know she was really in love with him and hoping that something more would come of it. Anyway the hero, while he was pretty dominate and rough sexually, without being in anyway a Dom, was always aware of her heroine's lack of experience. And the heroine was written realistically as an adventurous girl but one who was still a bit hesitant. The sex scenes seemed realistic in that sense and they didn't do stuff that a young girl just learning about sex would be unsure of.

I loved the ending when the hero was wooing her after he realizes he wants more.

On to the next one.

I had high hopes for this one. It had the older woman younger man trope with cowboys and Indians added in. And it was nice, don't get me wrong. It just lacked a depth of emotion I guess. There were two complete romances going on in this one. I felt that neither romance was given justice. I liked everyone. I just wished that this had been two books instead of being crammed into one. While we knew the characters, we didn't get very deep into anyone's thoughts. Still it was an enjoyable read and I'm going to keep on with the series.

I felt like this was a better written book than the other two in this series that I've read. More attention was paid to the actual story rather than just the sex. Don't get me wrong, there was plenty of sex. These people had some serious issues to work out and there was a reasonable solution reached after sufficient thought and talking and trial. There was really only one aspect that I found a bit of a stretch. Chassie and Eduardo fell in love with each other very fast. I have no problem with them loving each other. I just felt it was forced here and didn't seem very realistic. I would have been more accepting if it had been left that they really liked each other and felt that love would grow. May just be me.

All that being said, I still prefer M/F books. MM is just not for me. Mostly I assume because I like to identify with the heroine and her experience falling in love with her hot guy and I don't like anything taking away from that dynamic.

3.5 stars I liked this better than I thought I was going to. I expected it to be mostly sex and there was plenty of that. But I was really more interested in the developing relationship and kept reading to see where that was going. I was also invested in the the bi/gay relationship of 2 secondary characters and I typically like my romances straight. I guess because I like to identify with one of the characters in a romantic relationship and that's hard if one of them is not a female 'cuz hey, I'm a girl.

The horse/rodeo bit was well done. I'm picky about authors making mistakes with horse stuff since I always notice and get disgusted. I suppose that ballerinas get disgusted when authors make dancing/ballet mistakes too. My sister, a former sailor, gets disgusted when authors make mistakes about Navy stuff. So that element didn't raise any flags for me.

There was one sex scene where I felt the author could have done a better job. If you're going to make a big deal out of someone's first time doing backdoor sex, when the characters get around to it, it should be shown from the POV of the character experiencing it for the first time. It's old hat for Colby. We don't care what he's thinking. Show us what newbie Channing is thinking and feeling. This is something that I always object to in books and I'm not just talking sex scenes here. A main/first time event that the author has built up tension for should always be shown in the POV of person most affected and experiencing it for the first time.

So I think I'll try to read the rest of this series based on how I liked this book.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. Much more plot than the only other one I tried by this author. I liked the heroine. She was well written and interesting. The hero was okay but could have been more fully developed. The sex was pretty explicit without being totally over the top. I like the dominant man in bed thing without having to have the whole 'I'm a BDSM Dom' thing. I much prefer that over the "dom" thing as I can buy the romance a bit better. Anyhoo, I might try the next in the series.

This is the story of August Fletcher, known as Fletch. The pic on this version of the book is him - better than on the cover on the version I read from the library. His father was Scottish, him mother was American Indian.

He is an accomplished vet and his business is going great. He's all-round a great catch, but Tanna isn't easily caught. She's a free spirit who has lost her confidence in more ways than one. But the power is in his unwavering attention - it's spellbinding. It's intelligently worshipful, if I can get away with such an excessive description.

She's the party girl who indulges in frequent sex like seeking to savour great food. She calls nibbling kisses "sugar bites". Yet he is the one who comes up with some new seduction time and again. If he isn't her perfect partner who is? yet he has to work hard to penetrate her armadillo shell, even well after they know they love each other. Is this the modern way of things - love in the 21C? If it is, it's hard going for the participants!

I've read a few Lorelei James but none in this series, which I see is extensive with well over a dozen books. I'll be reading more.