Review: A Dash of Kink for the Spooky Season
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 23, 2012
Nothing Else Matters by Megan HartFive Chapters - an outbreak of a strange virus consumes the world in a zombie apocalypse. Lira, for some miraculous reason, is immune to the spore that causes the disease, so it's up to her to go out into the plagued world to find supplies for their small, rag tag group of survivors.  Lira is a machine, a woman who does what she has to in order to survive, and physical contact with other humans has more meaning to her than much else.It's really damn near impossible to read anything by Megan Hart and not be moved. I wasn't quite sure where this story was going, in terms of a happy ending, and I know that Hart has a tendency to rip the carpet out from underneath you yet miraculously leaving you wanting more. So...I kept myself guarded for the ending, and when it came...it wasn't quite what I was expecting. And I was totally okay with that. It was a resolution, yet not. And really, Hart is one of the few authors that can pull this off effectively.Rating: B-Romance: 3/5  Raunch: 5/5Pick Me Up by Lauren HawkeyeFour Chapters - a woman who discovers her fiance has been bringing other women (and men) into her own bed, takes it onto herself to take back her helplessness. On a dark and stormy night, Holly dresses provocatively and nearly crashes into a man driving along the deserted road. The car goes into a ditch, and Holly accepts refuge in the man's, Brody's, car until AAA can come. Holly makes up a story about her past, assuming the role of a stripper and sets out to seduce Brody, a geeky yet kind optometrist who has no idea what he's stumbled on to. Things take a turn, though, when Brody twists the rules, and Holly and Brody end up having a crazy hot interlude on the side of the road.This, by far, was my favorite of the three in this anthology. Holly is an emotional hot mess, and while I didn't necessarily agree with what she was doing, I understood it. And Brody...poor, unassuming Brody...A seduction goes awry in the most blissful way possible, and it's fantastic.  Loved this story.Rating: ARomance: 2/5  Raunch: 5/5Little Red's Big Bad by Saranna DeWyldeSeven Chapters - Federal marshall takes it upon herself to track down an escaped psychotic serial killer who believes himself to be a werewolf.  When an FBI agent Aden Brewster insists on teaming up with Marshall Miranda Garrick, she's initially put off. But Adan gradually wins her over. It kinda sorta also helps that he's drop dead gorgeous. Things get tricky, though, when Miranda beings to notice odd occurrences around Aden that begin to make her uneasy, and she's forced to start considering that the whole "werewolf" thing might be more than fantasy.This as probably my least favorite of the three, though I still enjoyed the story. I think what turned me off was Miranda's behavior toward Aden after she started to suspect the worse of him. It's kind of one of those things where I understood why she did it, but I didn't necessarily "get it" at the same time, you know? Eh. Well. Werewolves really aren't my thing anyhow, but I give this story props for it's imagination.Rating: CRomance: 2/5  Raunch: 4/5