All You Have to Do is Ask by Kathryn Scannell

ch-allyouhavetodoisask185Title: All You Have to Do is Ask

Series: Conversation Hearts Anthology

Author: Kathryn Scannell

Genre: Contemporary Romance / Valentine’s Day

Length: Short Story (24 pages)

ASIN: B00IDX4WQE (anthology_

Publisher: Torquere Press, Inc. (February 11th, 2014)

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5~3Hearts

Reviewer: Thommie

Blurb:Greg and Paolo are celebrating Valentine’s Day with their first private play date, after months of playing in public at a club. Greg expects more of the same kinds of bondage and pain play, topped off with sex. Paolo has other ideas. He wants to see if Greg understands that being a sub is truly about submitting to the Dom, not just being tied up and flogged.

Greg isn’t at all sure he likes Paolo’s plan, but it’s very definitely hot. Things are going smoothly until they get into the bedroom and Paolo asks the wrong question about Greg’s past. Greg thinks it will be the end of the relationship. Is he right, or will Paolo defy his expectations again?

Purchase Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=96&products_id=4126

Review: This was fun! How very deliciously kinky and what a sweet frustration. I think I found my perfect kinky Valentine’s fantasy.

This story starts with a very nice invitation from Paolo to Greg for Valentine’s Day. Greg has been playing with Poaly for a couple of months now, but always in public at their private club. This time Paolo means to spend the day alone with Greg at his house. Fear follows with this invitation and a great deal of nerves that are quickly assuaged by Paolo’s politeness and caring, and in the end after both men relaxed with their evening the game beings. It is frustrating (for Greg), it is fun to read, and it is delicious as most of the foreplay happens during dinner. Let me tell you, this story certainly game me ideas for kinky celebrations and spicy dinners. Loved it!

The scene however is somewhat ruined when they hit the bedroom. There his Dom demands certain answers that Greg is not willing to give for fear that this will be the end of their relationship, as casual as it is. He’s in for a surprise though, one that never once entered his mind.

Everything was going fine until this point for me, but somewhere, somehow, this story lost me. One moment I’m thinking what a fun read, the next I feel like what I’m reading went too bland, too cliché… The final scene, after all was said and done, it felt too detached somehow. All the chemistry gained through the story lost and I was left wondering, “was that it?” I can’t pinpoint it really; were the dialogues the reason for cooling me off? Or perhaps the sex scene that was not what I expected after all that prelude… I don’t know, but in the end, I was left wanting a bit more or something else.

Nevertheless, this story is quite charming and playful, with a side of spicy that manages to make a difference in the classic Valentine’s reads. Recommended!

 

A Hidden Battle by Kathryn Scannell

18518351Title: A Hidden Battle

Author: Kathryn Scannell

Genre: Historical Paranormal Fiction

Length: Short Story (24 pages)

Publisher: Torquere Press (September 18th, 2013)

Heat Level: Moderate

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5 Hearts

Reviewer: ♥♥♥Thommie

Blurb: Drafted into a secret British unit dedicated to defeating Hitler’s occult forces, American GI’s Sam Rutherford and Charlie Watson have found comfort in each other’s arms. But will their love endure past the end of the war that brought them together? Charlie wants it to, but Sam isn’t so sure. It may not even matter, because Charlie is a marked man. He learned dangerous Nazi secrets on a scouting mission, and now they’re just waiting to get a shot at him.

Product Link: http://www.torquerebooks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=79_111&products_id=4009

Review: Part of the Charity Sip Blitz package.

This story while it enticed me terribly with the psychic characters set in the WWII era also left me unsatisfied with its end.

Honestly I loved it all, Sam and Charlie, the Circle, the idea of blending WWII with paranormal activity. It was all so enticing, had me wrapped in its web instantly. But the fact that it was too short for this sort of plot, the fact that there was a great need for space and more development for the story to have a full impact on you, and the end that was so abrupt that left a hole in my feeling of this book, made me rate it so low.

I would have loved this idea to have been told in a full novel, or at least a novella. As it was it simply left me hollow, an emotion I don’t really appreciate after a read.