Kiss Me & I’ll Kill You Back…

Title: Kiss At Your Own Risk

Author: Stephanie Rowe

Sub genre: Paranormal

Passion level: 2

*Passion is ranked on a scale from 1 to 5. 1= prudish; 5= might as well rent an adult movie.

Overall Rating: 2

*Overall rating is ranked on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) is based on character development, plot development, quality of writing, and our desire to finish the book.

Publication Month: January 2011

Publisher: Sourcebooks www.sourcebooks.com

Trinity Harpswell has a big problem. She is basically a good person but she is a Black Widow, and will kill any man she falls in love with. Talk about a girl with serious commitment issues. But if she lasts 5 years without killing anyone, she will be free of her Black Widow curse and live a normal life.

Blaine Underhill has just escaped from a crazy witch's den where she tortures her sex slaves. Here is a guy with some serious hang-ups about women and physical intimacy. If he can find a way to kill the evil witch and save his enslaved friend, he can find a good therapist and live a normal life.

Seven days before Trinity is free from her curse her father is framed for murder and sentenced to death; and the evil underworld people are blackmailing her to find and kill a monster before her fathers execution is carried out. Then Blaine breaks into her home while she is in the bathtub (seriously I can't make this stuff up) and tries to kidnap her and force her to come with him to kill the evil witch. So now I have just summed – up the first 7 chapters of this very slow read for you.

After chapter 7 the book gets pretty good, but it is not a romance novel. It is more of a paranormal action novel with a bit of sex thrown in at random times. Kinda like a guy action flick on cable. There is a bunch of cool fighting and things blowing-up and muscle bound shirtless men with cheesy dialogue; then out of nowhere two people start kissing. Uhh… huh? What?

My problem is that I like violent action movies with shirtless men, cheesy dialogue, and random sex thrown in. So I enjoyed the book. You will have to read it and judge for yourself.

Kaye Gives the Classic Romance Formula a Refreshing Twist!

Title: Yours For The Taking

Author: Robin Kaye

Sub genre: Contemporary

Passion level: 3

*Passion is ranked on a scale from 1 to 5. 1= prudish; 5= might as well rent an adult movie.

Overall Rating: 5

*Overall rating is ranked on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) is based on character development, plot development, quality of writing, and our desire to finish the book.

Publication Month: January 2011

Publisher: Sourcebooks www.sourcebooks.com

It starts with the classic formula. A filthy rich handsome single guy is being pressured by his parent figure to get married. So said filthy rich handsome guy doesn't want to be married at all, let alone to a gold-digger. So what does he do? He pays a smart pretty lady to marry him on a temporary basis. The smart pretty lady (who is not a gold-digger of course) has some righteous self-less reason to accept the money and the marriage proposal.

I would be so sick of this story line if this spin on the story wasn't so cute! First of all Gina thinks Ben is gay! So why not marry the handsome gay man for his money. Ben who is very much heterosexual and attracted to Gina, actually lets her believe he is gay. This results in him trying very hard to hide some very obvious heterosexual male reactions whenever she was around.

Okay Torrid Booklovers get your minds out of the bedroom for a minute; there are other male reactions a guy has towards his woman. Like jealously, possessiveness, over protectiveness and extreme bossiness. (Of course this only occurs in romance novels. I am sure all you Torrid Booklovers have your men perfectly trained to never be bossy. J )

And poor Gina is starting to have feelings for her gay husband. What a dilemma! All eye candy and no indulgence makes for a very frustrated couple and a very funny read. I recommended it just to see who gives into frustration (or is it temptation) first.

Wolf Fever by Terry Spear

Title: Wolf Fever (part of a series)
Author: Terry Spear
Sub genre: Paranormal
Passion level: 3
*Passion is ranked on a scale from 1 to 5. 1= prudish; 5= might as well rent an adult movie.
Overall Rating: 3
*Overall rating is ranked on a scale from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) is based on character development, plot development, quality of writing, and our desire to finish the book.
Publication Month: December 2010
Publisher: Sourcebooks www.sourcebooks.com


I have to admit I don't get the point of paranormal romance. The Team Edward vs. Team Jacob debate has me totally confused. I don't find anything fascinating about choosing between a corpse and a canine for my lifelong mate. So reading Wolf Fever I was a bit apprehensive. Thankfully there are other Torrid Booklovers who feel differently and read this sub genre with reckless abandon. With their encouragement I gave the book a try.

I became interested in the story once I realized the herione is not a pathetic woman with such bad luck in the romance department with human guys; she has no choice but to date real dogs. In fact, Carol Woods was living her life minding her own business when in the first book of this series some crazy circumstances caused her to be turned into a werewolf. What happened exactly I won't tell you, because it will spoil the story.

We meet up with Carol in this story as a new werewolf and seasoned psychic, and she is not happy about her current circumstances. Her new "Pack Leader" (because she is s wild dog after all) wants her to get paired to with a mate (from her own pack)as soon as possible. But she has the hots for Ryan McKinley, a werewolf and Pack Leader from another town. Ryan is totally hot for Carol, but doesn't believe she is psychic. Somehow these circumstances cause a bit of friction in their should be budding relationship.

The story reads quickly, is entertaining, and according to those who are experts in werewolves, the story follows the traditional rules of the werewolf. (I have no idea what that means)


If you are a fan of paranormal romance, or werewolves in general you will love this book. Well worth the $4.99 investment.

Why "Torrid"?

Why Torrid?

To be honest, it's catchy! I am ripping the idea off of a popular plus-sized clothing store named Torrid. www.torrid.com. When I first saw the store in my local mall I got really excited. Judging from the window displays I assumed I was going to visit a plus-sized Fredericks of Hollywood http://www.fredericks.com. I was pleasantly disappointed to see that Torrid was not a lingerie boutique, but a plus-sized ladies clothing store with something for everyone and its own fashion point of view.

The romance genre is exactly the same way. The cover art and titles of the books range from really mild, to silly, to racy. Some cover art and titles are so scandalous you might be more comfortable going behind the black curtain at your local video store and renting a movie instead of purchasing one of the books at an open counter.

But reading the stories behind the covers and you will see that most of the stories are not so racy. The racy pictures are purely for marketing purposes. I'll admit some romantic parts of the stories are... shall we say descriptive... and are definitely adult only reading material. However violence is minimal, drug use is almost non-existent, and overall you are reading about generally normal heterosexual couples looking for love in some interesting situations.

The Romance genre is its own and like the Torrid store should not be confused with Fredricks of Hollywood Romance is it's own genre to to be confused with Erotica or Urban Lit, two genres which are very adult orientated.

Erotica is very adult reading. The sex scenes in these books are so racy you can skip it and just get go behind the the black curtain at the local video store. Surprisingly you will also find some of the most popular Erotic novels in Target or Walmart displayed next to the bibles.

Urban lit is a common African American genre with heavy crime, violence, and drug use. Usually the protagonist are living on the unfavorable side of the law. Urban Lit has romantic aspects but it is not the romance genre. These books are usually displayed in Walmart next to the book titled: How to get a Job After Being Released From Prison.

So what is romance? You will have to read them to find out. Or at least settle for reading this blog.

I want to invite you to read a romance book with the members of the Torrid Booklovers.

Welcome

Members of the Torrid Booklovers Club are shameless, confident, and even a bit proud to admit we read paperback romance novels. We are passionate (no pun intended) about the genre and enjoy reviewing and promoting the literature.

Books lovers will read the advanced copies of popular authors latest works and give you lucky readers completely biased reviews (we have yet to find a romance book we didn't love) of soon to be mass published romance paperbacks.

Enjoy!