Manning Up by JT Steele

 

Manning Up didn't work for me. The prose was awkward, the characters didn't have much depth, the "magic" wasn't explained and didn't feel plausible, and the outside conflicts weren't things I wanted to have intrude upon my entertainment time. Also, I felt as if it were billed as a BDSM story, but it wasn't. There was some kink, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it BDSM.

Here is the blurb:

Elijah Kerrigan is gay with two big strikes against him: his father is a preacher and he himself is a professional baseball player. Divorced from a sexless marriage, he feels that coming out of the closet would destroy his life and, worse, hurt his parents whom he deeply loves. He plans on being alone for the rest of his life, but he doesn’t count on meeting Wesley Grayson.

Wesley Grayson is a tall, handsome young artist and the son of a famous rock star. The moment he lays eyes on Elijah, he knows the two of them are destined to be together. Wesley's developing psychic powers leave him so drawn to the handsome ballplayer that he is certain he’s found his eternal soulmate. Out of the closet and comfortable in his skin, Wesley introduces Elijah to hot, kinky gay sex and a leather club that melts his boy in his arms. But that doesn't make the relationship easy; Elijah's still deeply in the closet.

Two homophobic thugs team up with a female tabloid writer and threaten to expose Elijah's secret. Will he have to abandon the best thing he’s ever had to keep his family and his career? Wesley has no intention of letting go of him, but, in the end, unless Elijah mans up, it may not be his choice.

The "magic" was supposed to make us think they knew they were destined to be together forever within hours, but I wasn't convinced. Also, we were supposed to believe that Wesley miraculously healed because he had sex with his soul mate. I love a good urban fantasy story, but I need to be convinced. I need to have the world explained to me.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: There are two play pretend punishment spankings, so I'll give it a 1 of 3.
• Dominance and Submission: 0 of 3.
• Sadism and Masochism: 0 of 3 
• Extra Point: No

As for the writing elements: The plot didn't work for me, pacing had issues, prose and dialogue didn't flow smoothly,  the characters were not fully developed, and world-building was practically non-existent. 

• Book Rating: Manning Up: 4 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 1 of 10
• Heat Level: 1 of 5

I hate writing what amounts to a bad review. Unfortunately, this story just didn't work for me.

Corporate Desires by Bridget Midway

 

Corporate Desires follows a few years after the events of Corporate Seduction. Edna Zulma, formerly known as Madame Z, is living with her mother after spending a few years in prison. She's broke, she has a jerk of a parole officer, and she ends up with a job working for a... well, here's the blurb:

Fresh from her recent incarceration, Edna "Madame Z." Zulma wants a normal life. Unfortunately between her new boss and her parole officer, she's finding it hard to be plain ol' Edna. Throw in the very sexy office manager, Burton McCutcheon, and Edna is starting to think about the BDSM lifestyle again. Burton's goal of staying focused as he tries to start his own business is affected as soon as Edna Zulma arrives. When he discovers her BDSM past, he decides to fulfill her fantasies...and his.

There were multiple problems with the plot for me, but the biggest was why Edna spent time in prison at all. Supposedly it was for tax evasion, but we are also told that she donated every bit of the income generated to charity - not just the profits, but every bit of money given to her... and she was operating the business on money willed to her. There would be no tax evasion there. None. At all. She wouldn't owe taxes on any of that money.

That wasn't the only issue for me - supposedly the state took all of her money away from her and that's how she went from multi-millionaire to flat broke. That doesn't happen, either.

And then the radical personality change from Mistress Z to Edna Zulma... it just didn't work for me. I didn't feel that the story explained the personality change - the Madame Z from Corporate Seduction would not have done so many of the things that Edna Zulma did in Corporate Desires.

As for the BDSM portion, we end up seeing Edna topping one boss and submitting to the other.  It physically nauseates her to top her boss, and that whole story line just didn't work for me. The author didn't make me understand why it bothered her so much - this was something she enjoyed doing for so many years, why is it suddenly something she isn't capable of doing?


BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: Yes, but it's kind of stumbled through, it's not really done as something that is supposed to turn you on. 1 of 3
• Dominance and Submission: Again, it's there but it's all jumbled up. 1 of 3.
• Sadism and Masochism: The masochism is certainly there for one individual, but it's not treated with respect. The masochist is ridiculed by the author, the way his needs are handled within the story bothered me a great deal.  
• Extra Point: No

As for the writing elements, I had a whole lot of major issues with the plot. Pacing was rough. Prose and dialogue were mostly okay.  Character development tried, but because the main character was such a drastically different person in this book than she was in the previous book, I can't say it was very good.

• Book Rating: Corporate Desires: 4 of 10
• BDSM Intensity Level: 2 of 10
• Heat Level: 0 of 5

Again I will say that for people in the BDSM lifestyle, it bothers us to have someone's needs be ridiculed. I had a lot of problems with the plot and with the drastic change in characterization of Madame Z / Edna Zulma - but my biggest problems involved the lies that were told, the flimsy blackmail (Madame Z would have never agreed to be blackmailed into topping someone, especially with no legal standing for any of it), and the way the biggest submissive in the story had his needs put down and ridiculed by the author.

1. Corporate Desires  
2. Corporate Seduction
3. Corporate Needs


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Puppy Love 3: Reawakening by Jeff Erno

 

I reviewed Puppy Love and Puppy Love 2 at my Book Series Review blog, but I'm going to review the third book over here.

I said that the story in the first two books had a good story, but the writing needed a lot of help. Unfortunately, the third book needs major writing help, and the story isn't as good. My biggest issue with the writing is the telling and retelling (and retelling) of things. It's like a sports commentator, you watch it happen and then the commentator tells you what happened. No, that's not quite right. Perhaps more like a political debate - you watch the debate and then the commentators tell you what was said again and add in their own explanations of the meaning behind what was said. It's almost like the author is writing a book to try to convince you why a Master/slave relationship is okay, he keeps explaining and convincing, but if you've made it to the third book then my guess is that you're already mostly okay with that kind of relationship and don't need the constant convincing that the relationship is not wrong.

I was happy to see the relationship between Matt and Petey growing and the parties becoming more mature. I was sad to see the intensity of the relationship go away, but I realize that's how it works when you move in with each other -- you have to merge the fantasy in with real life and find a way to make it work. When you only see each other a few times a week it's not so hard to keep the intensity up... but when you wake up with the person every morning, it's impossible to keep the intensity going 24/7. People have good days and bad days, sick days and tired days. Life happens. It's okay that the intensity wasn't the same. Jeff Erno is trying to show a realistic relationship, and I think he mostly did what he set out to do.

BDSM elements:

• Bondage and Discipline: There are times when Petey would have been disciplined in earlier books that nothing happened in book 3. I think there is only one actual punishment, and it's pretty anticlimactic. There is a scene punishment, but even that gets cut short. There is very little bondage.
• Dominance and Submission: Yes, Matt is still Dom and Petey is still submissive. They are working towards how to balance that with the everyday, and there is a good bit of time where the D/s fades into the background - it's still there, but not front and center.
• Sadism and Masochism: None between Matt and Petey. There is a little S&M (very, very little), and that's all I can say about it without spoilers.

As for the writing elements - let me first say, again, that the writing here is very amateurish. I'm trying very hard to say this without being mean. The story is good, but you need to have a certain level of writing skill in order to get the story across. When you purchase a book you expect the writer to have worked on their craft. Yes, even for erotica.

There is no one single plot - other than the continuation of the relationship. Some plots from earlier books get handled: the situation with Matt's parents and the legal stuff with Ryan are probably the two biggest threads, but there are some others here and there. It's not a great plot, but it's still a decent story. So, I won't say the plot is bad, just that there isn't a single large plot as the focus, other than the growth of the relationship. One of the plot resolutions was very fantastical to me, and that bothered me.

There were serious pacing issues this time. I skimmed large portions of the book, especially the parts where he's just telling us (again) what just happened, even though we just read what happened. There are also a lot of info dumps, and a ton of "telling not showing". Pacing was bad.

Prose was also bad, but dialogue was mostly okay. I rated character development as excellent in the previous books (that's what carried the story, to be honest), but I have to say it's just good in the third book, not excellent.

The sex smoked in the first two books, it was mostly okay in the third book.

Book Rating: Puppy Love 3: 4 of 10
Heat Level: Puppy Love 3:  3 of 5

The focus of Puppy Love 3 is more on relationships, not on sex. There are a few sex scenes, and one really really hot scene. Thus the Heat Level of 3, when the first two books were a 5 of 5. There are also no watersports in the third book - has Matt decided to stop that? If so, there needed to be an explanation of why it was stopped. If it wasn't stopped, then why wasn't it mentioned as still happening? That was a large part of the earlier books, and a huge part of Petey's journey into submission. If Matt decided to stop it for health reasons it should have been explained, and if it was still going on then that should have been part of the book. Didn't have to be a major part of it, could have just been a mention when it happened, but you can't just stop doing something that major without mentioning why.

Jeff Erno's site does not say whether there will be a Puppy Love 4 or not. I do not believe I'll read it, if there is one. I like Matt and Petey, and I appreciate their relationship, but the writing needs serious help. As I said before, Jeff Erno tells a good story, and he's got a good understanding of both the emotions and the physical stuff - many authors either get the physical stuff mostly okay but blow it on the emotions... or get the emotions right but blow it on the physical stuff. Jeff Erno gets both, but... again, I'm really trying very hard to say this nicely... but he needs to work on the craft. Writing is an art form -- coming up with the stories and the characters is a huge part of it, but having the skill to weave it into a story is also a huge part of it.


1. Puppy Love
2. Puppy Love 2: Building a Family
3. Puppy Love 3: Reawakening