Hockey Hop

Toni Aleo a wife, mother of two and a bulldog, and also a hopeless romantic is the author of the fabulous Assassins Hockey Series — Join us for the celebration of the re-release of The Assassins Hockey Series including: Taking Shots; Trying to Score and Empty Net – on sale 4/23/13:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Heart of Palm

Heart of Palm
by Laura Lee Smith
496 pages
Published by Grove Press
Genre: literature
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
4 / 5 cupcakes


Utina, Florida, sounds like one big, sweaty armpit. If nothing else, it appears to be the place you go when your dreams die.

For the Bravo family, it's the place where most everything dies. Frank Bravo, the middle son, would rather stick his toes in a cool mountain lake, but there he is, sweating it out in Utina, working in the family bar. His mother, Arla, lives in the family home with his older sister, Sophia. The two are at constant odds, usually over trivial matters, as Frank attempts to run interference.

Thanks to its location, Utina is ripe for development, and soon the Bravos are pursued by a real estate broker wishing to buy their property. Frank resists, as does his mother. Older brother Carson, however, would like to make this deal. Carson has an urgent financial need to make money, and he is not bothered in the slightest by his brother's reluctance to do so. Frank is a mere annoyance for Carson.

The two boys share more than DNA: both love the same woman, with Carson being the one to marry her. Elizabeth soon leaves Carson, moving in with Arla and Sophia, as the potential development deal comes to a head, caused in large part by the return of Dean Bravo, Arla's estranged husband and the father of her children.

While this could be the story of small town USA versus big money developers, it's really about family and all that it entails. Sure, there is love between the Bravos - even between Frank and Carson. We spend more time in Frank's head than any other character, and it's hard not to like him. His intentions are usually honorable, even when Elizabeth is involved. And Carson is a bit of a pig, so it makes it easy to side with Frank. Sophia's fragility concerns us. Can she be happy? And what about Arla? And what about Dean? Daddy comes home at last?

This is a slow, evocative book, one in which the setting is as dominant a character as the humans. Utina feels oppressive with its heat and stickiness. You can't seem to defeat either, and sweat permeates everything. It makes for a striking symbol, one we can't avoid considering when we think about the characters.

Lest this seem like too much of a Tennessee Williams play, you should know that there is a lot of humor at play here. Laura Lee Smith writes with great affection for her characters, and the playful scenes are timed perfectly.

Read it, and come back and tell me what you thought, especially about the ending. And tell me if you were impervious to Frank Bravo. I sure wasn't.

Making It

Making It
by Helen Klein Ross
Published by Pocket Star
300 pages
Genre: women's lit
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
4 / 5


Sometimes you read a book and discover that there is no one worth rooting for in the tome. None of the characters are even all that likable.

Such is the case with Making It.

Audrey is a fortysomething woman caught in the throes of a staid, predictable life. She has spent twenty-two years as the breadwinner for her husband, teenage son, and herself, working as an ad woman for a New York agency. Due to a computer snafu, Audrey believes she has been fired. She spends the ensuing hours imagining what her life will become, what will become of her son and husband as well, all while hosting her husband's birthday party.

But then it turns out she wasn't fired after all. So all of that ruminating - all of those "this is what I will change" thoughts - for nothing, because Audrey proceeds to change absolutely zilch about her life. She heads right back to work, makes no effort to spend more time with her son, and falls back into the same routines with her husband.

And so it would go for her, except that her firm is sold to a larger one, and her predictable life finally begins to change. Audrey soon begins working closely with her new Indian boss, the exotic Kabal Prakesh, to whom she finds herself quite attracted. Perhaps Audrey's life will take an even more interesting turn.

Unfortunately, by the time this happens, you might not care.

Audrey seemingly is incapable of learning anything, and is apparently devoid of any self-introspection whatsoever. What's worse is that she knows she needs to make changes in her life; she sees that she should spend more time with her son, who is about to head off to college. She realizes that she is not a good wife to her husband. But yet all of that self-knowledge is very much on the surface. It's as if she thinks she deserves commendation for recognizing her foibles, even if she refuses to do anything about them.

Kabal supposedly represents the Audrey that Could Have Been. Will she give in and sleep with him? What if she does? Will anything change in her life? We know her well enough at this point to predict that nothing would. In fact, her dithering about whether she should or should not is frustrating, to say the least.

It isn't as if her husband is any more likable. He's just as dull and uninspiring as she is. If we are meant to feel sympathy for Kabal, with his arranged marriage wife back in India, that doesn't happen either. Kabal is a bit of a rhymes-with-tick. He knows it, Audrey knows it, and everyone associated with him knows it. Like Audrey, he doesn't seem to be in any hurry to improve upon his weaknesses.

So why read this book? Because it's good. Helen Klein Ross knows how to tell a story, and if her characters are not quite people you would want as friends, it makes her story all the more believable. Audrey certainly is not too good to be true, and her perfect-on-the-outside life is relatable. How many of us don't have problems we know need addressing, but we are too content with how predictable our lives are to change anything? Yep. I thought so. Me too.

Along Came Trouble

Along Came Trouble
by Ruthie Knox
Published by Loveswept
Genre: romance
Thanks to NetGalley for the preview
3.5 / 5

It's one thing to have a famous brother, one known as much for his good looks and womanizing than any discernible talent. It's something else entirely when your famous brother falls in love with your pregnant neighbor, dumps her, and then leaves you and the ex-girlfriend to manage the horde of paparazzi that descends on your otherwise quaint little burb.

Such is the situation for single mother Ellen Callahan, whose quiet Ohio life gets knocked off kilter by her pop star brother's fame, so much so that her brother hires a security guard.

Girls. We should all be so lucky as to need a security guard if they come looking (and acting and thinking and kissing and ... uh ... yeah) like Caleb Clark, an Iraqi war vet. The two aren't exactly smitten at first sight, largely because Ellen is irate that her brother hired a security firm without consulting her first. Worse, Caleb appears inclined toward digging up a beloved tree that Ellen planted.

Ellen happens to like her life with her preschooler son, having made peace with her painful divorce. It isn't that Caleb is wrong for her, either. He's actually exactly what she needs. Only in true romance novel fashion, it takes Ellen a while to figure that out for herself. Meanwhile, her brother and neighbor have to work things out, and then there is the matter of that pesky ex-husband.

Sure, it's predictable. But it's fun, and I'll take fun predictability over dull anything else any day. The love scenes are good - not the hottest I've read, but nonetheless steamy and with just the right amount of detail. After reading them, you will want to clobber Ellen upside the head.

As we enter beach reading season, consider this one a good option. Fun, romantic, and escapist.

Beautiful Bastard

Beautiful Bastard
by Christina Lauren
Published by Gallery Books
320 pages
Genre: erotica
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
3 / 5


What must it be like for Chloe Mills, forced to work for the titular beautiful bastard Bennett Ryan? He's gorgeous, no doubt, and immensely sexually alluring. But he's a bastard. Not in the literal sense, mind you, but more of the "he's an a-hole to work for" variety. With her MBA smarts, Chloe is determined to outlast Bennett, if not outsmart him as well.

But ... there is the matter of him being so hot and all. He might just turn out to be irresistible if, say, he presses her up against the wall, inserts his fingers into her vagina, kisses her breasts, and makes her orgasm on his hands.

Just sayin'.

Bennett and Chloe cannot stand each other. Let's make this perfectly clear: they loathe each other. They may have a modicum of professional respect for one another, but their feelings are not of like or even tolerate. They HATE EACH OTHER. And so we are treated to all manner of hated-fueled sex.

They fight, they have sex. They argue, they have sex. They belittle each other, they have sex. They look at each other with hateful fuming, they have sex. In Bennett's office and elsewhere. They are insatiable for each other, even if they hate themselves afterwards.

There is some corporate intrigue type stuff going on, but that is inconsequential. What we are supposed to care about is Bennett's self-growth. He realizes that he has less than hateful feelings for Chloe, and we're supposed to be impressed by that. We're supposed to think it's lovely that he grows up. For her sake, Chloe is fairly oblivious, convinced that the two merrily continue their hate sex.

I'll be honest: I read the whole thing, and if I was never quite bored, I also was never fully invested. I really could not have cared less if Bennett and Chloe wound up together. In fact, I wanted the two to be torn asunder. I also could not have cared less if they were happy.

Having said that, I must give props for some hot sexy times. There is a lot of sex in this book, and all of it is really, really hot. Hateful, but hot.

So here is what I would do: read it, skimming the "plot" and "character development" (I can't even type that without laughing) and go straight for the sex.

The Fetish Box Part III: What Remains

The Fetish Box Part III: What Remains
by Nicole Camden
Published by Pocket Star
81 pages
Genre: erotica, mystery
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
3 / 5 


The three Fetish Box books are only about 75 pages each, which makes you wonder why they were split up into a trilogy of novellas. That question becomes even more confounding because of the third and (mercifully) last book in the series.

Mary and John continue their relationship, each having fallen in love with the other. Max still circles around, and Mary is still attracted to him. The sex shop remains under siege, and Mary continues to learn about the woman who was her mother.

Our merry trio needs to discover who is behind the attacks on the shop, as John and Mary's feelings for each other continues to grow.

The problem with these three books is that independently, they are so slight as to be dull. You can't find a rhythm reading just one, and the plot is so insignificant as to render it worthless. Together, though, they do make for a more interesting reading experience. That isn't to say that they are all that good; they aren't, really. The sex scenes are nicely written, but the characters don't hold up. There are too many questions, beginning with why Mary is so quick to have sex when she comes to town. Nor do we really get a full picture of Mary's mother.

There are better books out there. Read one of those.

The Fetish Box Part II: What Escapes

The Fetish Box Part II: What Escapes
by Nicole Camden
Published by Pocket Star
75 pages
Genre: erotica
Thanks to edelweiss for the preview
3 / 5



So in Part I, Mary headed to Florida after the death of her mother, whose presence in Mary's life was nonexistent, to take over Mom's sex shop business. Within a matter of hours, virginal Mary rocks the headboard with scarred veteran John (and those scars aren't just on the surface, you know ...) and finds herself wildly attracted to man whore Max.

Part II of the saga picks up moments after Part I ends, and our Mary has unleashed her inner sex tigress. She craves John - and he her. They have some rockin' sex together, but as much as she cares for him, she can't quell her attraction to Max. Given the opportunity to bed him, Mary finds herself powerless to say no. How does this go over with John? You might be surprised.

As Mary discovers her sexuality, she continues to learn tidbits about her mother, and the sex shop continues to be the object of vandalism and violence. Mary falls deeper into an emotional (certainly sexual) relationship with John, yet she fights fear over her business.

Again, we have a mildly entertaining premise peppered with some hot sex. You can finish each of these books in about an hour, so if you have a hankering for juicy sex scenes, these are a decent choice. Just don't look for much more than that.