Review - Laid Bare

Title: Laid Bare
Author: Lauren Dane
Publishing Date: 2009
Genre: Contemporary/Erotic
Rating: B-
Sensuality: Burning
Book Disclosure: I received a free copy from this year's RT Book Convention.

Laid Bare is the first book in Lauren Dane's Brown Sibling series. Erin Brown a wild, free-spirit rocker chic and Todd Keenan straight laced, very conservative cop had a fling which didn't work out. Ten years later, things have changed. Todd has accepted himself and all his kinks but Erin has had an extremely unfortunate life changing event. Todd and Erin meet up back in Seattle and resume their relationship, however things are more complicated.

With Laid Bare I had mixed feelings. On the one hand, the book had certain components that I enjoy: lots of dialogue, unique characters and plenty of action to move the plot along. On the other hand there were things that I am not such a fan of, such as a heroine that is hard for me to relate to and an alternative lifestyle for the characters that seemed out of place or fast paced. Erin was not a typical heroine and she was quite unique in her make-up. This could be good or bad depending on your point of view. If you are a very conservative person, she is going to be difficult to relate too. I typically don't relate well to these types of heroines, but because Erin wasn't overly aggressive, I found her appealing. I really liked her directness. It was refreshing when so many heroines are wishy-washy with what they want.

As far as Todd went, I found him much more my speed. He is a man's man, but needs to come to terms with who he is and what he is willing to accept about his own sexuality. I have to admit that while I found the change in him believable, I did have trouble at the speed with which he accepted things. It seemed like his changes were too abrupt for my taste. Also, there were certain aspects of the threesome lifestyle that seemed a little "too good to be true". Hey, this is a romance, so I am not overly complaining. However, if you are looking for a more realistic approach you will need to give this book a little bit of open-mindedness when you read it.

Taking Care of Business

Title: Taking Care of Business
Author: Lauren Dane and Megan Hart
Publishing Date: April 2009
Genre: Contemporary/Erotic
Rating: B
Sensuality: Hot
Book Disclosure: I purchased this book new.


Taking Care of Business is one story with two heroines. Leah and Kathrine are two women who have been friends since they were young girls. Over the years they have gone their separate ways but have managed to maintain their friendship. They are attending a business conference. Leah has just broken up with her boyfriend and finds herself drawn to the hotel manager, who happens to be younger than her. She begins to explore new facets of her sexuality by dominating him. Katherine is a lawyer who has been having a secret affair with Dix who works at the company which she is providing legal advice. She has recently moved from the West coast to the East coast bringing her much closer to Dix. She is worried by moving closer she might push him farther away.

Both relationships get equal time on the page and blend together seamlessly. I found myself more interested in Katherine and Dix's relationship. Dix is an appealing hero in that whenever Katherine would push him, instead of withdrawing he would push back. I love it when couples work through their problems and don't run away.

I am not a big fan of women playing the dominant role in the sexual relationship, nor do I tend to like older women with younger men. It's my own personal bias. However, Leah and Brandon's relationship was a pleasant surprise. At first it was slow moving, but in the middle it heated up quite nicely.

I was hoping for more relationship building between the two women. According to the back story they had been friends forever. But they didn't have a lot of bonding going on during the story between them. Nothing really stood out about their friendship. I guess I was expecting more girl time with laughs and fun conversation, but it was notably lacking. I don't know if it was more evident because I read this right after I read Vision in White by Nora Roberts which had it in spades. Who knows? I try not to be biased, but this is my review site and I can do what I want!

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Review - Undercover

Title: Undercover
Author: Lauren Dane
Publishing Date: December 2008
Genre: Futuristic (Erotic)
Rating: C+
Sensuality: Burning

Sera Ayers walks into her commanding officer's office only to be confronted with a man she vowed to forget, Ash Walker. Their love affair ended abruptly after she found out he was engaged to be married and he wanted to set her up as his mistress. See in this Universe, Ash is from one of the founding families and as one of the first sons he is expected to marry for political ties. Keeping a mistress or two on the side is perfectly acceptable by society's standards. Only Sera has more pride than that and was unable to accept the arrangement. Now ten years later she finds that Ash wants to use her in an undercover operation. She with Ash and his partner Brandt are to infiltrate the Imperialists in an attempt to find a traitor, by posing as two wastrel playboys and their concubine. What first begins as a ploy to fool others turns out to be the real thing between Ash, Brandt and Sera.

As I was reading the first chapter of Undercover, I got a little worried about the heroine of the story. When she makes her first appearance it's a violent and explosive one and these are not characteristics which I find appealing. She is bitter and accusatory towards Ash and with good reason, yet I was praying she wouldn't continue to act this way through the whole story. Fortunately, Sera is one of those characters that once she has expressed her opinion she is able to move on and make the best of a bad situation and so my opinion of her went up several notches.

Usually, a certain amount of disbelief is required when reading a romance between two men and one woman. I felt that Ms. Dane did a good job at explaining why and how the emotional pull between Ash, Brandt and Sera worked. Brandt was needed to sort of smooth out the conflict between Ash and Sera and was the glue that helped hold it all together. However, I do feel that much of the emotional development especially between Brandt and Sera was rushed or happened much to quickly.

While I enjoyed the story and the characters, I felt that the reader was only exposed to it at a superficial level. I wasn't as emotionally connected to the characters as I could have been. The world building itself had lots of potential, but for the most part only scratched the surface. More depth from both the characters and the world building would have made an enjoyable book an outstanding book. I would recommend this book for those readers who enjoy a book more focused on the characters instead of the world building.

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This book can be purchased in print and kindle format from Amazon.