Romance-A-Thon

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I have way too many free romance novels in my digital collection. Some are probably good, but others are free for a reason. This challenge is exclusively reading and unhauling the digital romances I collected and might be afraid to pick up. Let's see how many of them are smut and how many have a plot. Let's dive in.


I thought this would at least be a laugh. Frankly, I'm pretty sure I picked up some smut by accident. Today I'm telling you what is worth reading and what is not worth picking up. Let's wade into dangerous waters together and see what is good, bad, and just plain wrong. 

I'm giving the spice rating in a 1-10 range, 1 being the suggestion of sex or less, 5 being a few sex scenes, and anything above 7 being mostly spice. 5 is the average Bridgerton and 1 is Christian romance, if that helps you understand my system. 

The Agreement by S E Lund

It starts with a young woman going to a fundraiser with a friend, who styled her to be a little sexy. In conversation, we hear talk about Dr. Delish and how he's a bad boy. "Uh-oh", says my brain, "here comes future smut and the inevitable sex scene. I sure hope she has intelligence when he inevitably greets the pair of women at the bar." I mean, this character is literally holding a martini with a few buttons undone on his shirt. James Bond as a surgeon is what the description says to me. I could see the smut coming. 

Unfortunately, the passing comment on BDSM was not a red herring. It was a warning shot and Dr. Morgan from before shows up in this context. After skipping over some words that made me want to throw up, I decided two chapters was far enough. I didn't get to the sex, and I don't want to. The letters were bad enough. This was an 8 on the spice rating, due to BDSM being heavily featured. I could see the signs of her getting with Dr. Morgan - in ways involving leather - and I decided to bail. What was past-me thinking when she picked up this free romance? I truly don't know. 



Love Bats Last by Pamela Aares



This is a Tavonesi Series romance. Like the book above, it says it is a bestseller. Three chapters later, I'm bored. This is a book that was rather innocent in comparison to The Agreement. I was not lured in by characters and personalities. Ten percent in was three chapters, so I went one more. It features a baseball player and a marine biology vet. 

I don't know what else to say, except that I was not invested in our two main characters and I didn't reach a sex scene (a good thing when I'm only three chapters in). It had the innocent vibe, unless you count one time of an "alpha male" line. That's really it. I just wasn't into it. 

 

Her Treasure Hunter Ex by Zara Keane


I got this one because it had an entertaining title. It turned out to be a good one, about a four star read. Spice level of 6 on this one, so beware the three sex scenes that go into a bit more detail than I would have liked. The plot of this one centers on two divers that previously had a relationship. These divers were recruited to dive into a wreck and grab a case of jewels with a larger team. The two treasure-hunting divers get back together. Eventually, you figure out what is going on. This is a suspense romance. It kept my attention for the entire book. The characters even had a healthy relationship and talked out issues. 

I endured the sex scenes because I cared about the plot and characters. Did I appreciate the oral sex scenes and the fact that they were inspired to have sex by a shower bench? No, but I didn't decide to drop the book, either. The suspense plot had my attention from the start. I wanted to know what was going on. This is the case with many romantic suspense novels. I have to be invested in the plot or the romance doesn't matter. This was a surprise four-star novel. 


Overall Thoughts

I thought I'd DNF three, but I only DNFed two. That was a pleasant surprise. This was three different genres of romance, one of them repulsive and another boring. The suspense was nice. The point of this blog was to get more content up until I could finish Villette, which is taking a while. I also need to actually read what I own, which means tackling romances I got for free. This was fun. I'll do it again someday. 


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Morrow is released! This novella is the story of two women writing a family history for the Morrow family. They find a nasty secret while researching. Will they survive their internship? 

Sign up for my newsletter at this link to get a free first chapter when it comes out, or if you want an email the day it releases. All you need to plug in is your email. You'll also get a free first chapter of Wrenville, my first novel. 

 



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