Review: Comprehensive Review
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 7, 2014
Initially I had rated this set five stars based on the three stories that I read, but now that I've read all of them I am giving a more comprehensive rating. At one point or other, I have read and enjoyed stories by all of the authors in this set. This rating is based SOLELY on the stories included here.I would rate the entire box set at 3.5*DNF = Did not finish-------------------------------------RALLENTI - Sienna Mynx - (Kindle location - 69 - 0%)This was classic Battaglia fare. Sienna really outdid herself here. Renaldo was everything I wanted in an enforcer. The scene where he handled his business with Kyra's ex...yes!!! He and Kyra sizzled!  Those sex scenes - that is passion done right, people. I literally felt like my hair was frying.  There were things that could have been cliche', eg Renaldo's nick of time rescue, that weren't. It was all just top notch story telling. LOVED Jamie, and Kyra's loyalty to her.  Appearances by Domi, lawd that man does things to me; I'm so happy Catalina has grown into a woman worthy of him. I had one WTH moment when the Waldorf staff just handed over a key card to Kyra, giving her access to a heavily guarded, private floor with such elite guests. I suspended disbelief and rolled with it. LOVED Renaldo, loved his quiet alphaness and his skill in the bedroom. Makes me just want to board a plane to Italy, but alas I know that men like that are few and far between. Kyra took a little while to grow on me. I didn't really hate her but I was happy when she finally grew up a bit.  As per the usual for Sienna, editing was very well done, only one or two small errors. Nothing to write home about. 4.5 stars!----------------------------RAW EXPOSURE - Aliyah Burke -Affrica is the sister of a Navy Seal and Reeve is a spoiled playboy, living in the shadow of his older Navy Seal brother.  Reeve was billed as the rude, misunderstood, trouble-making guy with a good heart, but I really didn't find him likeable. I couldn't empathize with him. Having money and being rude for no reason does not make you an alpha male. Affrica going from thinking he was a jerk to fighting her attraction to him in the same sentence, didn't flow smoothly somehow. Still I plugged along, hoping I would start to connect with them.  That was thwarted by Affrica's Irish brogue and the fact that she seemed to forget she had it half the time. I was later told that she only used it when she was upset or emotional.  I don't recall that but, if that's the angle the author wanted to go with, it might have helped to explain that early on.  Affrica would literally go from paragraph upon paragraph of 'American' speech to, seemingly out of nowhere, 'dinna' this and 'mah' that. It was making my scalp shrink. I stuck with it through her foray into the jungle and then I realized that I 'dinna' like either of the characters and in order to keep 'mah' sanity, I needed to abandon ship. DNF. Sorry.-----------------------------------------EVERYTHING IS EVERYTHING - Pepper Pace (Kindle Location - 4894 - 22%)I will agree with others that this isn't a 'Scandalous' story, but this story is the truth! The first thing you need to know is that this story is LONNGGGGGG.It is a love story that is built brick by brick, actually you have to wait till they bake the bricks first, because this story is food for the soul on slow broil. It takes us on the journey of Vanessa and Scotty from their childhood in the ghetto, through diverging life paths and their reunion years later as teenagers. This is a solid story, true love in its purest form. When Scotty finally broke down and professed his love to Vanessa, I wanted to cry. You could feel his love for her with every fibre of your being.  There is no over the top drama, no sizzling sex (not yet) but just a feel good, curl your toes and sink your teeth in, lovestory. It's very much an ensemble piece and I loved all the characters. Pepper masterfully wove her tale. When I can just lose myself in a story, without having to think 'this makes no kind of sense' I can fully enjoy it and boy, did I!  Was totally immersed right down to the epilogue and preview for Chapter 2, when YES, we get another revelation. Jesus, take the wheel! I cannot wait to see what happens when Part 2 goes on sale in August. I will be front and center.-----------------------------------------------------VASILY'S REVENGE - Latrivia Nelson (Kindle location - 11355 - 51%)This is really some of Latrivia Nelson's best work. Tight, crisp and bringing the heat. Action packed. Realistic. The different time periods are seamless, the characters three dimensional, the back stories well done. Latrivia really brought her A game here.  Her ability to write mafia romance is virtually peerless, save one.  She and Sienna are my favorite Mafia authors by spades.  I love that they write different nationalities so I can have the best of both worlds.Vasily is danger and sexiness combined and I loved the family feel of the book without losing the edginess that I like with my mafia men. Dmitry is...Dmitry lol and I love the sometimes contentious relationship between Anatoly and Gabriel. Gabriel and Briggy, whoa. LOVED Dylan and the way Vasily is with him. I look forward to their 'talk'.  Now to the ending, I'm feeling some type of way about it. The book was flawless right up until that and it kind of spoiled things for me because Lilly's actions defy logic. Try as I might, I can't understand why she would do what she does at the end. I get that she wants to protect her son but it just kind of came out of left field and it's actions like these that make me not really care if some heroines in mafia books catch a bullet. Yes, yes, I know they won't but maybe just a flesh wound to knock some sense into their silly selves? No? Alright, fine! LOL I'll just settle for going with 4.25 stars. As much as the ending annoyed me, I loved the rest of it too much to take it down to 4. Guess I'll wait to see how it all ends in Part 2. -Editing was good, there were some errors but much less than previous books - 4.25------------------------------DOUBLE TROUBLE - Erosa Knowles -I have LOVED many of the books in the 3XCONStruction series. This author knows how to write her alpha males; Smoke and Frank come to mind, off the top of my head. In theory, this story should have been FIRE. It checked all my boxes. Interracial, check. Threesome, check. With twins, double check. BDSM - check, mate and where's my ice cream? I should have been a quivering mess by the time I was done.  Instead, it just didn't come together for me. It did too much and too little at the same time. There were parts of the story that I loved. The boys' developing relationships with their dads were very well done. I loved the Mama O'Connor.  That is a matriarch!  The family dinner where she lays it all on the table made me teary-eyed.  I also loved the entire family feel of the book, and how tight knit the O'Connors are. But, the main characters didn't work for me. There was nothing really alpha about the twins, and Belinda trying to tell them 'they seemed so authoritative now' as a segue so they could introduce her to the lifestyle was blatantly transparent.  Belinda being with two brothers, individually, (as in not in a threesome originally) is whatever - I'm no stranger to taboo - but her having to factor that into a paternity conversation with her teenaged sons, veered into the icky, especially when one of them kept insisting on details! LOL. The BDSM fell flat and felt forced.  By the time Belinda started asking about spankings, I was too embarrassed for the characters to continue. DNF.--------------------THE WRATH OF MICHAEL - Serenity King -This story was entertaining in parts. Kendra was the typical 'sassy' black woman, and Michael (a self proclaimed bachelor who had no intention of ever getting married) was....dominant...even though some of his 'Come and kiss me' or 'Sit on my lap' felt a bit weird. I enjoyed Michael's cousin the most. I forget his name but he was married to Kendra's sister (Piero?). Now, HE was a true Alpha male. Him and Sal. The main problem that I had with this story was the pacing. Michael and Kendra meet at her sister's house. They then meet again, due to an incident at a bar, and Kendra stays at Michael's house for a few days. A FEW DAYS..this is key. They flirt with each other, with Michael making 'You know we want each other' statements, which normal people would just classify as flirting, not a prelude to a commitment. Then Kendra decides she wants Chinese food. Michael has to go pick it up. He demands a kiss (their first) and goes to get the food. The next thing I know he's all 'We're already in a relationship' and talking about how committed he is to her and that she should be the same to him.  I almost got whiplash. I literally went back on my Kindle to see if I'd missed a few chapters. Nope. Few days. One kiss. No talk of relationship. Then, 'relationship'. I LOVE a Dominant man, but that was just ummkkk. I kept waiting for the punchline. Nothing. They were actually serious.  All I could think for pages and pages afterwards was 'What the hell happened at the damn Chinese restaurant??!!' Maybe he drank that homemade ice tea that they make in a bucket with water from a garden hose. I don't know! Something happened! LOL Either way, I couldn't take them seriously after that. I just went along for entertainment purposes. They were cute in parts. Like I said, Michael's brother and cousins interested me more than he did. The sex scenes were mediocre, with Michael a supposed bachelor / playboy being 'astonished' (Where did you learn to do that??) at Kendra's basic moves. Pfft.  I would read the story about the troublesome brother, but I'm not interested in any further developments with this couple - 2.5*-----------------------------LAST CALL - Bridget Midway - TBA----------------------------SIEGED BY RYM - Yvette HinesLOVED this story! Krysteena lives on a female dominated planet that kidnaps males for breeding and mating purposes and Rym is captured for her. Because he refuses to marry Krysteena, her mother - the queen, banishes them to Earth to live in cat form, but not as majestic beasts, as house cats...and Rym is a fat one LOL.  Loved the characters, individually and as a couple. At the end of their banishment they are returned to their human form and goodness, Rym was such an alpha male. His natural form is as a huge cat (think panther and the like) and in both forms he is just OMG, ALPHA. An alpha male doesn't have to overdo. He just IS.  Perfectly written. The humor at the beginning was awesome. I still smile at the thought of Rym running into the room when the Queen visited and skidding into the wall because of his weight. Krysteena's struggle with her conventional upbringing and her heart's (and body's) desire to submit to Rym is realistic and very well done. Is submitting to a man who is more alpha than you are, a sign of weakness? She had to go against everything she was raised to believe, to find out.  Krysteena was clearly an alpha female but she had met her match, and then some, in Rym. When he whisperingly called her Krys, *I* melted.  Loved everything about this story. I'm not a huge fan of SciFi, but this was a pleasant surprise. The editing was superb, the best of the set. 5*. Well deserved!-------------------------All of the authors are clearly very talented and I appreciate what they have done in this boxed set. For 99cents, it's still a huge bargain. Like I said, I have enjoyed many of the authors' other books, and will continue to do so. It's just that some of these particular stories were a miss for me.