Reviews for Bad love

The average rating for Bad love based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2008-03-13 00:00:00 Edward Harris Reviewed for THC Reviews Fuzzy Logic by Erin McCarthy - Fuzzy Logic was another cute, sexy, romantic short story from Erin McCarthy. Ms. McCarthy's full-length novels have been hit and miss with me, but her novellas almost never fail to satisfy. Lucas was another of her adorable, geeky, beta heroes. It was so sweet that he'd been in love with Ashley since they were kids but hadn't pursued her because he was afraid of loosing their friendship and because Ashley had never showed any interest in him as anything more than her little brother's best friend. I love how he's so curious, wanting to know how everything works. His scientific mind could go into overdrive, but when it came to exploring Ashley's "romance enhancers" and her body, his analytic nature came in handy by helping him learn how to pleasure her. Lucas was definitely the kind of hero who could get my motor humming.;-) Ashley is a fun, outgoing shopaholic. She decided to become a Pleasure Party consultant to pay off her mounting credit card debt. Everyone seems to think of Ashley as a dumb blonde until she has decided that she's not all that smart either. No one but Lucas seems to realize that she has a lot to offer, and I appreciated him being insightful as well as her vulnerability in that area. I will admit that Ashely fell for Lucas a little to quickly to be totally believable, but I was willing to buy into it because I could see how she might have been harboring a subconscious attraction for him all along. The fact that she wasn't the type to sleep around and he was able to turn her on so easily might suggest that. I guess the super-fast marriage proposal pushed the bounds of credibility too, but again, I was willing to give them a pass, because they had know each other for so long. I also enjoyed that Ashley was a few years older than Lucas. Overall, I thought that these two were a good fit and that they made a really cute couple. Fuzzy Logic is the second novella in Erin McCarthy's Bowling Friends series. Kindra (Hard Drive from Bad Boys Online) and Ashley's other two best friends, Violet and Trish attended Ashley's Pleasure Party. Violet is a bit of a geek herself, so I'm really looking forward to reading her story, The Lady of the Lake, which is the next in the series. Overall, Fuzzy Logic was a sweet, fun and very steamy read that I really enjoyed. Star Rating: ****1/2 The Cupid Curse by Jen Nicholas - The Cupid Curse was a cute romance novella about a young woman who has been unlucky in love, so she asks Cupid for help with finding Mr. Right. Unfortunately, the Cupid she gets accidentally shoots himself with his own arrow, leading to an awkward situation but eventual love. Gideon was adorable. He's trying so hard to pass his Cupid exams to become a full-fledged Cupid. He's very eager to take on Val's case, but feels terrible when he botches it up. He then spends the rest of the story trying to convince Val that he loves her and that they would make a great couple. It was very sweet that he was a 132 year old virgin, but with great sensual instincts. Valentine was a nice heroine with strong family ties. She feels the clock ticking away and desperately wants to have a man in her life and to get married. Valentine and Gideon are a cute couple but they spent a large part of the novella feeling very uncomfortable with each other. They are both quite attracted to one another, but Val goes back and forth between that attraction and being angry with Gideon for messing up her chance with Mr. Right. Of course, Gideon feel terribly guilty about that. By the end, they give into that attraction, and their one love scene was pretty sensuous. Still, I can't quite say that I truly felt the love connection between them, and it seems to me that if Cupid's magic was working on both of them, they should have been unmistakably and passionately in love. The story was a bit narrative heavy too. If it had been any longer than it was, it probably would have gotten bogged down. In spite of my criticisms though, I still have to give the author some extra points for originality and creativity. The Cupid Curse was certainly not like any other romances I've read before which made it pretty entertaining. This was my first read by Jen Nicholas, and although it appears she only has two other published works, I would be open to trying them sometime. Star Rating: **** Mesmerized by Jordan Summers - Mesmerized was my least favorite of the three novellas in this anthology. This was mainly because I had a hard time buying into the premise and the idea of the hero and heroine falling in love so quickly. However, I also have to admit that I wasn't overly enamored with the main characters themselves. Amanda was a very experienced hypnotist who had put people in trances for her show many times before, so it just seemed odd to me that she wouldn't start to suspect something when she wasn't able to "wake" Derek after several days. Even her assistant suspected he was faking right after the show. I also wasn't thrilled with her making love to Derek when she thought he was still in a trance. Of course, he wasn't, but she didn't know that which from her perspective should have made it a non-consensual act. She at least had the decency to feel badly about it, but I would have preferred that she simply take the high road and not do it at all until she knew he was fully conscious. Derek wasn't much better, because he had attended Amanda's show and agreed to be put in a trance under false pretenses. Then he pretended that he wasn't coming out of the trance just to get her to take him home, so he could get the scoop on her for his magazine story. In the end, he realizes that Amanda means more to him than the story, but his deceptions had already put a bad taste in my mouth. As a couple, I just didn't feel the love connection between Amanda and Derek. They both had the hots for one another right from the minute they see each other, and they shared a couple of pretty steamy love scenes, but without those loving emotions, it was little more than a casual fling to me. They seemed to fall in love just because they had great sex which is something I simply couldn't buy. It was also hard to believe that Amanda would forgive Derek so easily after finding out that he was only pretending to get his story, especially after her father's life had been ruined by a reporter. Mesmerized wasn't a terrible story, but it was just OK. This was my first read by Jordan Summers, and I can say that the actual writing is fairly strong and quite readable. I just felt like there were some big holes in the plotting and characterizations. If those weaknesses had been shored up or the narrative had been a little longer to flesh out those details, I thought it could have been a very good novella. Star Rating: ***

Review # 2 was written on 2019-04-02 00:00:00 Jesse Carpenter Fuzzy Logic - Erin McCarthy - 2.5 / 5 - Ashley Andrews has started selling sex toys through Pleasure Parties to make some money. When her downstairs neighbor, landlord and her genius baby brother's equally genius best friend, Lucas, mistakenly receives a box of pink dildoes he goes upstairs to investigate. He's been in love with Ashley since he was a teenager but she's never seen him as anything but her brother's pesky friend. But surrounded by all these sex toys and face to face with sexy Ashley, he throws caution to the wind and decides to test some of them out on her. When she seems to return his interest he goes all out seduction. Ashley is conflicted about wanting Lucas, but she thinks she might be able to return his feelings. So this is a kinda cute little romp through a friends-to-lovers experience...nothing angsty or anything and it's pretty sweet. I liked that the hero fell first (I always do for some reason). I also think I like that the majority of the sex did not involve experiments with all the different sex toys and stayed only between them. The relationship itself is on super fast-forward with Lucas (rather awkwardly) kissing and touching her before he's even judged that she's interested (or asking her permission). Then, he admits his love before they even orgasm and Ashley, who has never felt anything for Lucas before, decides she loves him too. Then he's proposing and she's accepting, which is a bit ridiculous since it's not like they were really friends or anything. They hardly know each other. But that's kind of the typical novella experience. Call me crazy, but what actually bugged me about this story was how Ashley got treated because she wasn't "intelligent." She calls herself brainless. Lucas responds by telling her she's not brainless. Then goes on to say she's fun, exciting, beautiful and interesting. Umm...nothing there ramp up her confidence in her intelligence there. He says she's not brainless, not that she's not stupid. And aside from interesting, these aren't exactly traits that require much depth or hard work, but even that's up for debate. They're actually pretty superficial compliments, especially from the guy who loves her. Even worse, after her brother is taken to task for always ribbing her for her intelligence, he defends himself by saying that he's proud of her because she's gorgeous and classy. How is this complimentary when you're trying to convince a person that she is more than just a pretty face? He compliments her for being popular, but better would have been to say she's great at connecting with people...because then at least it's about HER instead of other people liking her (for whatever reason...her beauty perhaps?) And for that matter, exactly why did Lucas supposedly love Ashley so much? Other than her sexiness, what did he see in her? I got the impression that even the author couldn't find any worthwhile achievements or character traits in Ashley…other than beauty, sexiness and being fun. The Cupid Curse - Jen Nicholas - 3 /5 - Val Lewis has been a "man-hater" for too long and is ready to have a man of her own. So she makes a heartfelt plea to Cupid for her true love. Gideon is a cupid, a race of immortal beings led by Eros who help mortals find their true love...actually he's a winger, a cupid in training. But he begs for the chance to help Val and he gets it....except he blows it when he shoots himself in the ass with the arrow. Now he and Val are true loves, but Val isn't ready to forgive Gideon for messing up her chance at love with her soul mate. But a little time together and Val realizes that Gideon is actually the one. I vacillated between finding this kind of cute and original and finding it silly. I couldn't figure out if Val really believed and accepted the whole cupid thing when she wrote the letter or if she was just funning. Her reaction when Gideon shows up would suggest she didn't really believe it. So I couldn't figure out if the paranormal aspect of this was meant to be serious or tongue-in-cheek. It was definitely cute and unique though...but I couldn't figure why Gideon was a virgin after 134 years when there was nothing to prevent it (and he knew he couldn't get a girl pregnant without Eros's prior approval, so mechanisms were in place for the likelihood). Still, I liked that he was. But he was something of an "expert" virgin and he didn't even tell the heroine until a month later, nor did we get much of his side of the "first experience" so it was almost pointless to make it part of his character. In the end, most of the falling in love happened off page, and pretty quickly. And on top of that this was quite fluffy, without much angst or anything. So I liked it, but it didn't have most of the characteristics of romance that I love, so it didn't go further than like. Mesmerized - Jordan Summers - 2/5 - Amanda is a hypnotist performer known as the Man Tamer of Manhattan, and also the ice queen, and she's unhappy with the rut her life. Derek Armstrong is a journalist who wants to show New York that Amanda is a fraud and not an ice queen after all - so he pretends to fall into a trance during a show and not wake up from it. In her panic, Amanda takes her home with him to try and figure out how to "wake him." While at her apartment for four days, Derek learns that Amanda isn't who he thought, but he's still focused on the headline. After Amanda and Derek end up having sex he realizes how much she means to him, but when he finds out what he was doing, she's going to be pissed. And she is. But honestly, after reading about all these characters, I have to think that everybody deserved everything they got (except maybe the HEA). Derek first and foremost is a swine who didn't think of Amanda as a person, but even after getting to know her, continually thought about the headline he'd get from her. Then he has the gall to sleep with her, knowing what he'd intended to do all along...and knowing that she believes he's in a trance and not there of his own free will, which means he's been lying to her even more. Even when she finds out and he's begging forgiveness, he points out that he never lied to her….she simply never asked if he was a reporter, so he never told her. But he did lie about being in a trance (which he conveniently forgets to mention). His pointing this out tells me he didn't really grow or learn or own up to his mistakes. He's still a swine. And Amanda totally brushes off what he did as soon as he says he loves her and never once focuses on the question of what kind of guy would manipulate his way into someone's home so he could get a headline that might ruin her and never tell her? Not someone you want to have a romance with that's for sure. But honestly, Amanda wasn't much better. I was absolutely appalled that she had sex with a man that she honestly believed was in a trance and therefore not acting in his own best interest...or at least in a highly suggestible manner. That would be rape right there...and she barely feels any guilt over it (like one shower's worth of guilt and that's it). On top of that, what kind of hypnotist doesn't realize he's not in a trance? I'd think his behavior would have been a bit suspicious over 4 frickin days. Even Wendy, Amanda's assistant, has some seriously questionable morals and definitely needs to be fired, especially since she later admits that SHE knew that Derek was faking (and the hypnotist didn't?) and she still sent him home with Amanda. That's some friend right there...lucky Derek wasn't a rapist or murderer or someone seeking revenge against the Man Tamer of Manhattan. All of these people frustrated me. I will admit that this story had potential and a nice bit of angst, but it didn't save it from the characters.