Bonus Stories, The Death Nell For A Book (My Rant to Romance Publishers)

*I actually started this post quite some time ago, but I wasn't able to finish it then, and I', just getting aback around to it. The thought is just as relevant today as it was then, so I decided to get back into it*

I don't even know where to begin with this post. I am so disgusted right now! For the last 4 days, I've been trying to find a good steamy romance to sink my teeth into, but my search had been a BUST! Usually my Kindle App will do it's shuffle thing and produce a selection that yields at least one book that's appealing. I've stumbled across so many great authors through random searches that never in my wildest dreams would I think that I would come across one the worst books that I've ever tried to read. I try to live by the motto, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Which is why, I won't publish the name of this particular book. Truth be told, this isn't the first time this has happened to be, this is just the first time that I decided to vent about it.

So here's how it went. I did the Kindle Shuffle, and I see a book that I think looks pretty good, it was free with my Kindle Unlimited subscription, so what the heck. (The cover art was suspect...I should have known!) Anyway, I get the book and start reading...it took me 20 minutes to read the title story just to find out that the 90% of the book was comprised of some of the THE MOST TERRIBLE bonus stories that I have every read! There were like 30 of them!.... If I had paid money for this book, I would have had to call Amazon Customer Service and ask for my money back!


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Part of me gets it. Publishers are trying to take a bunch of really short works and pack them in behind the title story, hoping that if you read them, you'll like them and purchase more stories from the author. This might work if it's one or two novellas tucked in after the main story, but if there's more that that, I guarantee you they're going to SUCK!

I don't begrudge any writer from trying to get their stories published, but DAMN, can publishers please put a warning label on these books and say, "Beware going forward! Reading this book bay cause you to want to slap somebody."



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So publishers, if any of you happen to read this, please for the love of Almighty God stop this practice. We just really, really great reads, long, short, it doesn't matter as long as their good. Thank you for your time.

And thank all of you for listening to my rant. This will be the last one for a while, I promise *fingers crossed behind my back*

Much Love,

Pandora

BBW Romance Is What You GET What You SEE?

Hola to all my beautiful bibliophiles! As of this writing, I'm currently reading a BBW romance and so far so great! With just one draw back, the  cover art would never give away that it was a BBW story. Why is that anyway?

When this random book came up on my suggestions from Kindle. I looked at the title and the cover art and thought, "This looks like a good one!" The cover art is of a beautiful, sexy couple in a passionate embrace.The leading man is a Michael Angelo work come to life and the woman looks like she was created from stardust and desire, of course she's the standard model build. The problem came in when I start reading the story. From the very first description of the leading lady, the reader knows that she's a BBW.

The name of the book shall remain anonymous because I'm really vibing with the story thus far; but I would have never been able to guess from the cover art that this was a BBW romance; the cover art and the story just didn't go together. So why doesn't the cover art reflect what the story's about.

I started thinking back on all the other romance's I've read that were supposed to be from this same genre, and I realized that they all had the same short coming. I'm going to be transparent with you, I myself am an AA/BBW. I'm not going to say that I don't struggle with self image from time to time, more often that I would actually like; however, how cool would it be to see a BBW represented by the cover art on the very genre that bears her name?

Is it that publishers think that BBW don't want to see a realistic representation of themselves on their covers? Well, in my opinion as a BBW I think their wrong! Do publishers even know WHY BBW read this genre? Because they want to read about women finding love that they can identify with.

In a world that's obsessed with the notion that all women should look like they just stepped off the runway of Fashion Week, there are so many women that struggle with seeing themselves as desirable. BBW are strong, beautiful, sensual, and sexual beings. We're not just relegated to being the side-kick BFF.

To all of the authors of BBW romance, please do your demographic a favor, insist that the cover model reflects the leading lady in your book. Hopefully you decided to write this genre because you saw a need. Part of filling that need is making sure that the cover reflects what's inside.

With all that being said, the next time I pick up a story that's supposed to be from the BBW genre I hope and pray that I see a BBW on the cover along with her Cover Hottie Man! Thank you in advance for talking the time to listen to my rant.

Much Love ~

Pandora

Guajira Gurl For Life! Chayanne Fangirling (Again!!)

Good sunny afternoon from Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Love! What brings me to you today? One word.......Chayanne!

It's been a really long time since I've written about Papi Chulo, but I just had to write this one! If you've been keeping up with "Mr. Sexy Fine" himself, you know that he not too long ago dropped a new song and video Qué Me Has Hecho ft. Wisin. Which is POPPIN'! (I'll leave the video embedded in the post down below). But what made me dust off my Pandora's Caja Chayanne skills was his recent feature in Mexico's Moi Magazine.

#Repost @revistamoi ・・・ Nos metimos a la cama con @chayanne (casi) al desnudo, para hablar de relaciones duraderas: #MoiOctubre

A post shared by Chayanne™ (@chayanne) on Sep 29, 2017 at 9:26am PDT

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OMG!!!!! Chayanne shared pics on Instagram...

all I could say was DAMN! This perfect specimen of  an erotic dream turned flesh, just keeps getting better and better!!

Celia Aaron Acquisition Series - The Best Dark Romance That You're Not Going To Want To Read

Today wasn't the best of day for me, (courtesy of seasonal allergies) but I couldn't let the day come to and end without getting through this book review. My last review touched on book one of this series, Counselor, but now I've finished the entire series and it's without a doubt been one of the toughest reads that I've had in a very, very long time; but not for the reasons that you might think.

I need to take a minute to tell you a little about about me in order for you to get the jist of where I'm going to go with this review. I'm the kind of person that loves to ride the highest, fasted roller-coaster that you have, but I'm going to scream the entire time. I love suspense films, but I'm going to cover my eyes and the intense parts. I've even been known to hit pause on a film just to take a smoke break to calm my nerves down! With that said, Celia Aaron's Acquisition Series was better that any roller coaster that I've ever been on!


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Ready to Light Some Fall Fires! Rebekah Weatherspoon, Celia Aaron, Brittany Adams

The last official holiday of the summer has come and gone, the first day of fall rapidly approaching. This is the time of year that makes you want to pull out your favorite throw blanket, change your adult beverage of choice from wine to something that provides a bit more bite. You want to fire up by the fireplace and curl up with a few reads that will get those internal thermostats rising. This is where I come in. I have three excellent reads for you to add to your Fall TBR List.

We're going to start with my top pick for your list, Rebekah Weatherspoon's Sanctuary. This is book two in her Beards & Bondage Series (Book one is titled Haven). If you've been reading my reviews you'll know that I am a HUGE fan of this young lady. In my opinion she's a rising star in the romance genre. Her Beards & Bondage series is a really beautiful expansion of her already dynamic story telling abilities.

This series is a slightly darker turn from earlier works that I've read of hers. The moments of humor that are a hallmark in my eyes for Rebekah, are at times replaced with s slightly cruel irony that you find yourself smiling at any way. I also have to take just a sec to add that WHOEVER she gets to designs her covers deserves some kind of  award! There's got to be one out there somewhere, because DAMN! Now I shall digress.

This is a series that you can read as "stand alone", but my suggestion is that you read it as intended. It will make your journey that much sweeter.

Summer's Coming To A Close, But The Hot Reads Keep Coming! Heather Killough-Walden, LaShawn Vasser, and Chevelle Allen

Shout out to all my bibliophiles out there! It's time for me to catch you up on what I've been reading and my picks for I really, really think should be added to the infamous #TBRL. So here we go! Let's start off with some Heather Killough-Walden.

A few days I got the shock of my life! I was sitting on my porch reading my most recent Kindle eBook, and out of the blue the name Heather Killough-Walden came to mind. Heather is the writer of one of my favorite paranormal romance series, the "King Series". I had read up to book 5 and much to my chagrin, what I thought was book 7 was really book 8! I had totally missed several installations on the series and now a new was had just been released. I automatically warmed up my Amazon One Click finger and purchased book 7, 9, 10, and 11. Then it was time to get to work!

I wish I had time to walk you through all of the books that I just read, but that would be a bit much; however I am going to talk about The Nightmare King, book 11 in the series.

First, let me start by saying that if you're a series kinds of reader, then Killough-Walden is an author that you need to keep in serious rotation. One of the things that I enjoy about her series is that each book can be read as a stand alone. The min characters story lines are complete, even though there is a cliff hanger that leads you into the next book in the series. From the first book she tells us that there will be 13 Kings and Queens, but trust me when I say that each story is a fresh look at so many of the types of characters that you may come across is the realm of the paranormal. I'm not going to give away any spoilers, but if the Nightmare King as as Killough-Walden has created Him then bring on the Nightmares!!

Susannah Sandlin's Penton Legacy - Giving The Black Dagger Brotherhood A Run For It's Money

Listen, you know I have this thing going on with my Kindle where I submit a query, it spins its little Kindle wheels and spits out choices for me. Once again I put in a search for interracial paranormal and one of the titles that it gave me was Absolution by Susannah Sandlin. I was riveted from page one!! This is one of the first PnR that I've ever read that I think is on par with J.R. Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood and that's saying something.

For those of you that don't know me, you wouldn't know that J.R. Ward was one of the first PnR writers that I got into. In my opinion she sets the standard for PnR writers. You know have some frame of reference for the gravitas of me saying that Susannah Sandlin's Penton Legacy is on par with J.R. Ward's BDB.

Anyhoo!! My only problem was that Absolution is book two in the Penton Legacy series. So as soon as I finished with book two, I had to turn around and grab book one Redemption. Again, I was not disappointed. Reading book one let me know that Susannah was not just a "One and Done", she's the real deal. And yes I have already downloaded book three in the now five book series, Omega.

So what is it about these books that I enjoyed so much? I enjoyed that they are a fully thought out, well crafted series of stories that only leave you wanting where the author wants to leave you wanting. This PnR has all the steamy "Good Good" that we've come to associate with the romance genre, but the "paranormal part of it is written so beautifully that we forget that it's "para" and it just feels "normal".

Do yourself a HUGE favor and start reading this series if you haven't already. Here's and excerpt from all of the books in the series.

Susannah, thank you for this series! I just downloaded book three and I'm over the moon to see what's going to happen next!! P.S.  - this is purely personal, I have fallen in love with this series, but...could you please put an Africa American female as the love interest in one of them? Please! Please!

Happy Reading All!

Much Love!

PENTON LEGACY #1 REDEMPTION

For vampire Aidan Murphy, life has never been so desperate. The vaccine used to treat a global pandemic has rendered human blood deadly to his kind, leaving them on the brink of starvation and civil war.

In tiny Penton, Alabama, Aidan establishes a peaceful community of vampires and unvaccinated human donors. He dares to hope they can survive—until his estranged brother descends upon Penton and begins killing the humans. Determined to save his town, Aidan kidnaps an unsuspecting human doctor—and finds himself falling in love for the first time in nearly four centuries.

Dr. Krystal Harris thought she was coming to Penton for a job interview, but Aidan Murphy has other plans. Infuriated by his high-handed scheme to imprison her in the small town, Krys can't ignore the attraction between them. But is it love? Or does her dangerous, charismatic captor want only to bend her to his will?