Liz Loves Books
I love to read and to talk about books. I review many of the books I read. I do not accept any author/publisher submissions for reviews. I do not read or review ARCs. I do not enter any giveaways or contests. I obtain the books I review by purchasing them at the same price they are offered to the general public at the time of purchase. My reviews are intended for the use of my fellow readers. They are not advertising or promotion. They are not beta reads or constructive criticism or editing or advice to the author. My only obligation to the author is to pay the price charged for the book at the time of purchase. My reviews are sometimes critical and I will not stop posting critical reviews just to spare delicate authors' feelings. I am happy to make new friends, but friend requests from authors or promoters who have few or no books (and/or friends) in common with me and write or promote categories I do not read (especially new adult) will be ignored. I used to read more self-published books. After recent meltdowns by self-published authors, I now only read self-published authors I've previously read or who have been recommended to me by fellow readers I trust. I also used to read young adult/new adult books but rarely do so now.
Their Virgin's Secret, Masters of Ménage, Book 2
I'm enjoying this series and I enjoyed this second book in it. Their Virgin's Secret has a pretty good suspense story mixed with menage erotic romance though it is darker than the first book in the series. It switches from past (approximately a year prior) and present and does this fairly often which I found distracting. The suspense plot plays out fairly well and the romance gets to its HEA believably (or at least as believably as any romantic suspense menage story can - there are hundreds of thousands of former navy SEALs saving innocents in the Romancelandia version of Texas). Much of the story takes place in Dallas and I still think these two authors write a very generic depiction of Dallas. I'm hyper sensitive to it because it is my home. I admit that. But I've been to both Alaska and New York City which play important parts in books one and two respectively and both those locations felt like they had fully developed personalities to me. Their Dallas on the other hand could be any city anywhere. I can overlook that if the story and character are well written and they are here. But it does seem odd to me since Ms. Blake should know the area fairly well. Maybe this is being done on purpose? The heroes are typical alpha warriors which I do have thing for and they spend a good part of the book trying to make up for a wrong they committed due to being misled. There are a lot of apologies and they show a lot of determination. One of the heroes does do that "I'm not good enough! I'll go away and wallow in my misery" thing I'm getting so darned tired of. The heroine, rather than being a doormat sticks to her guns about not taking them back for a good while and it is not the magic mighty wangs that change her mind. She may even have been a little too resolved but she is still a likeable, relatable heroine. There are few secondary characters - the protagonists from the first book appear a few times and there is of course the big bad villain. The heroes of book 3 are mentioned often and show up briefly. And the heroes' Assistant also appears. The secondary characters are not particularly well fleshed out (except those who have their own books and are fleshed out elsewhere). And with so few of them and so much taking place in hotel rooms this book feels somewhat insular.The love scenes are plentiful, explicit and very mildly bdsmish. They are of course menage and there is rear door action throughout this series. If you got this far, though, you are probably at least okay with that. I liked the way the brothers worked together and communicated silently. It added a little something to the love scenes.Overall I thought this was a good, sexy romantic suspense story and I am looking forward to reading book 3.Little spoiler: I believe there are allusions to Jack Cole of Ms. Black's Wicked Ties. It made me want to start that series up again.