Reviewed for THC ReviewsBig Guns Out of Uniform is an anthology of three contemporary borderline erotic novellas featuring heroes in law enforcement.BAD to the BoneBAD to the Bone was a pure fantasy that was very fun and enjoyable to read. I thought that the beginning and ending of the story could have benefited from a bit more clarity and tighter plotting, but the rest of the story really helped to make up for these deficiencies. The premise of a woman living out her romance novel fantasies in real life with a hunky hero was very entertaining. I especially liked that Kyle actually read Marianne's favorite book and was trying to make it all come to life for her. It just made him seem so caring and thoughtful.I found both characters to be likable, relatable, and well-drawn. Marianne, as an average, ordinary woman, just couldn't have been sweeter, yet she was passionate and adventurous enough to step outside her comfort zone. Kyle was a tough guy with a tortured past, yet he accepted Marianne's tenderness toward him as something that was missing from his life instead of being suspicious or shutting down emotionally. In fact, she was able to fulfill his fantasies every bit as much as he fulfilled hers. I loved the way the author built a beautiful relationship between these two characters in such a short time mainly with the use of communication, a seeming rarity in romance novels. This made for some extremely sexy and sensuous love scenes that were still very sweet and romantic. Overall, I found this novella to be a delightful read that even showcased a little humor, a great story for anyone looking for a bit of escapism.BAD to the Bone along with its two companion novellas in the Born to Be BAD anthology are something of a prequel to the main B.A.D. Agency series. It was first published in Big Guns Out of Uniform, and was later reprinted in Born to Be BAD. This was my first read by Sherrilyn Kenyon, but it certainly won't be my last. I am looking forward to continuing the B.A.D. series as well as exploring her other books. Rating: ****Let's Talk About SexI think it can be difficult for an author to write a short story that is still satisfying, but in Let's Talk About Sex, Liz Carlyle has, in my opinion, put together a tale that has both tight plotting and good character development. The narrative flowed smoothly, and I thought it was the perfect length. Rather than being left with that "I-wish-there-were-more-to-the-story" feeling when it ended, I felt like Goldilocks, that it was "just right".As the title might imply, the main focus was on the sex, but emotions got tangled up in the mix pretty quickly. The love scenes were both creative and scorching hot and there were plenty of them too, but there were also some romantic moments as well. I haven't seen many real proposals in the romances I've read, so I thought the proposal scene was a particularly nice touch. I also thought that the author progressing the narrative through a few months time, made this scenario more believable.I found both the hero and heroine to be very likable, and neither one was bringing a ton of baggage into the relationship. Sometimes it's just refreshing to read a story about relatively normal people with normal problems. I thought it was sweet that Delia dealt with the topic of sex every day in her work, but in real life was still slightly repressed. Nick was a hot, sexy guy (not to mention an animal lover, which I find hard to resist), who was also a patient and accomplished lover. He knew exactly how to rebuild Delia's self-confidence and release her inner sex kitten to make her purr.While the story did not contain many of the getting-to-know-you moments that I love and that really help to build a more believable relationship, I found Let's Talk About Sex to be a fun, enjoyable romp. Readers who like lust turned to love or love at first sight stories should appreciate this one, and while those are not my favorite plot lines, Ms. Carlyle's writing was strong enough to make me overlook that. Liz Carlyle has been one of my favorite authors of historical romance for a while, and even though Let's Talk About Sex was her first and only foray into contemporary romance to date, I found it to be equally as good. In my opinion, it was the overall best and most well written novella in this anthology, definitely worthy of keeper status. Rating: ****1/2The Nekkid TruthIn my opinion, this novella had a lot of potential that it just didn't quite live up to. I thought the premise of the story was a fascinating one, that of a woman who had lost the ability to recognize faces due to a head injury. I like it when an author can teach me about something I didn't already know or expand on my previous knowledge of a particular subject, and I find things of a medical nature to be especially interesting. While the author did give an overview of what this condition entailed, she never once called it by it's actual name, Prosopagnosia aka Face Blindness. She also did not fully express in any depth what it was like for the heroine to live with this affliction, which I felt would have created a much more compelling story. Instead the author opted to tell the reader more about the heroine's photography endeavors and sexual conquests than about her life and feelings. The cover blurb also implies that the heroine's special condition somehow plays a pivotal role in the criminal investigation, but I never quite saw how that was the case.The Nekkid Truth reminded me in some ways of old black & white detective movies. It is written in first person with a rather dry, "just the facts ma'am" type of presentation. I felt like I was being told the story rather than experiencing it. This writing style made it very difficult to get a good grasp on any of the characters, particularly the hero about whom readers are only given tidbits of information, most of which doesn't come out until toward the end. I am not opposed to the first person perspective, but I think it can be very challenging for an author using this writing style to convey the feelings and emotions of other characters in the story unless they are very deft at their craft.The love scenes showed some creativity and with a little more tenderness and less matter-of-fact attitude, could have been truly romantic and steamy, but without the incorporation of emotions, came off as being little more than a string of sexual encounters that lacked any real spark and to me felt very crude. I'm afraid that certain aspects of the heroine's photography, as well as a rather hedonistic attitude from her and other characters, only lent to this atmosphere. I also found my eyebrows shooting up at a couple of unrealistic descriptions of the size of the male anatomy (not the hero's) which simply added more fuel to the fire.As far as the heroine's work, I have no issue with nude art and in fact have found many pieces to be quite beautiful, so I had no real problem with her specializing in nude photography. What did bother me however, was her penchant for wallpapering her studio with nude photos and even more so, her seeming obsession with taking photographs of that certain part of the male anatomy and then meticulously filing them away. Apparently, this all had something to do with her face blindness, and at one point she tried to explain this all to the hero, but it still just never made much sense to me. In general, there simply wasn't enough depth of emotion to be found in this story to really draw me into the characters lives and make me truly care about them or believe in their love for each other and a lasting happily-ever-after ending.Though not incredibly compelling, I thought Ms. Camden did do well with the mystery element. This part of the narrative was fed to the reader bit by bit, so that the solution to the puzzle was not really discernible until the reveal. Although there was room for improvement in this area as well, I did find it to be interesting. In my opinion, she also did a good job with keeping the plot tight and the story moving along at a steady pace.The Nekkid Truth was the only novella in this anthology which featured a hero and heroine who had know each other for a while before becoming intimately involved which was an aspect of the story I could appreciate, but again, with the lack of emotion, I still found the other two novellas to be much more compelling and believable. Usually anthologies group together stories with similar themes and styles, and while the cop hero theme was there, the writing style of The Nekkid Truth was very different from the other two, making it seem somewhat out of place in this grouping. This appears to be Ms. Camden's first and only published work, so I am willing to allow that with some sharpening of her writing skills and/or perhaps a switch to a mystery or edgy chic-lit genre, she could have potential. Rating: ****Review updated: 11/3/10
BAD to the Bone (B.A.D., 0.2)This is an anthology of stories about men in uniform and mildly erotic.The StoriesSherrilyn Kenyon's BAD to the Bone uses the Fantasy Island backdrop for this story about a Midwestern schoolteacher winning this month's "live out your fantasy from a book" contest. It's so cute [& homey!] how Kenyon creates an everyday woman who gets to live out her fantasy AND meet the love of her life. This one involves Kyle recuperating on the B.A.D. side of the island recovering from five or six gunshots—there's some dispute between the docs as to just how many. Marianne Webernec is the thirty-ish schoolteacher. Short, plain, a bit overweight and she's won the chance to play out one of her favorite scenes! --Ooh, baby, I wanna know how she managed to winnow it down to just one!Lily Carlyle's Let's Talk About Sex is sooo cute! I just love this one. Dr. Delia Sydney has her fingers in all sorts of…pies. And Sgt. Nick Woodruff knows at least her voice from her radio show, Let's Talk About Sex.Nicole Camden's Nekkid Truth is a half-and-half for me. The story itself is great but Deborah Valley's handicap is so depressing. I think it hits a little too close to home for me. Anyway, Deb started making a living by shooting crime scenes for the cops and, through her handicap, became interested in shooting body parts. She became good enough that her photos of how she sees the human body are in gallery showings and she's made herself a nice reputation. It's not enough of course. What Deb really wants is a chance with Detective Scott. She's already thrown herself at him once and been shot down. She is not going to open herself up like that again…The CoverThe cover is cute with the tight backside of a man half in uniform, gun on his right, another case on his back left hip obviously with his arms around a woman. The same woman with her arms casually around his neck, one hand clasping the brim of his policeman's hat.The title certainly is appropriate for each hero seems to carry a Big Gun when he's Out of Uniform.
What do You think about Big Guns Out Of Uniform (2005)?
Seriously, you have to know Sherrilyn Kenyon is a great author, period. I don't see how you can't be satisfied if what you are looking for, in this series, is action and great sex. Not just that because I always need more I ask for more. That characters have to seem real enough to care for, or care for each other to some degree, be it they have an intense attractive within mometns of meeting. Just make me feel/believe it and I get carried away. I love reading authors that pull me into thier world and Kenyon does just that.
—Miss
I won this book through the Goodreads giveaways.This book contained three separate stories. BAD TO THE BONE by Sherrilyn KenyonI really liked this stories. Very humorous.LET'S TALK ABOUT SEX by Liz CarlyleI liked this story the least out of the three. A sex therapist who blushes every time the guy mentions sex. Really? The female lead just came off as too prudish and naive, and ended up just being overall irritating. THE NEKKID TRUTH by Nicole CamdenThe storyline was enjoyable with an interesting twist in the fact that the female lead has a very odd disability. It worked for the story though, and it was interesting to see how the two main characters dealt with it.
—Jennifer
This anthology is worth a buy (at a discounted price) just for Nicole Camden's story. It's the only one worth reading in it but it is so different and wonderfully written that I wish S&S would release it separately. I've copied the review for The Naked Truth I wrote for DA in its entirety:This anthology contribution, THE NEKKID TRUTH, is one of the best that I have read. The story is narrated by Debbie Valley, a photographer who does crime scene photos on the side. She suffers from a disease called prosopagnosia, a type of face recognition amnesia, which resulted from brain trauma incurred during a car accident. She cannot recognize anyone���s face. Not her mother, her father or even a lover. It drove her slightly crazy when she first realized she had the problem but Debbie is the kind of person who is able to recognize the value of just being alive, particularly each time she take a crime scene photo.After the accident, Debbie became fascinated with bodies because she couldn���t recognize faces anymore. Much of her work is of nudes which garners three reactions: ���shock, disgust, or rapture���. But to Debbie, it���s her way of surviving, of living. ���I can���t help but feel that if it���s my destiny to live life without ever again knowing the relief and joy of seeing a familiar face, then at the very least I can enjoy what I do without shame and sometimes with a great deal of pleasure.���The real problem is that Debbie is in love with Detective Marshall Scott. Scott and Debbie have a complicated history since it was Scott���s partner who caused the accident leading to Debbie���s disability. Debbie doesn���t hold it against Scott, but Scott holds it against himself and despite his attraction toward Debbie, has never taken any action. He also recognized that she was a mess, emotionally, following the car accident. Everyone seems to know that the two of them are hot for one another but until his birthday party, they���ve been circling like wary beasts in a cage. And the man himself, where���s he at?��� I was starting to calm down, though if I had to move off this stool I was going to lose it again. ���He���s over at the other end of the bar,��� he said gently, pointing, and I jerked to attention. A dark-haired man with a stubbled jaw and a dress shirt opened to reveal a tanned throat sat almost directly across from me, surrounded by men and women vying for his attention. He would say something occasionally, but mostly he just stared at me, and I supposed it must be Detective Scott. God, he was hot.Debbie, for all her pluckiness, is still suffering from her disability. ���Since I���d gotten hurt, I had doubted, often, whether I was capable of loving anyone anymore. How could I? I wouldn���t recognize Mel Gibson if he walked through the door, much less someone I loved.��� But Scott realizes that he and Debbie belong together and act on his long time feelings and her long time invitation. The sensuality of the book was increased because Debbie���s narration, her focus on the other senses, on the beauty of the body, the sweet musky smell of man, sex, and lust all created a visceral image for the reader. ���It felt as if he did me for hours, so tirelessly, so carefully did he work me.���While the relationship is tender and sweet and joyous to read, it is because the reader falls so hard for Debbie that the story has so much appeal. This is one of my favorite passages from the book: When I woke from the coma they���d kept me in to keep the swelling in my brain under control, the first thing I���d seen was a tiny blond woman with blue eyes looking down at me. She was crying and laughing at the same time and calling me her baby. It took me a minute to recognize her voice, and when I did I became even more frightened than before. I didn���t recognize her. This stranger had my mother���s voice. I panicked and jerked away, screaming, and the doctors came in and sedated me. It took days to sort out what was wrong with me, and I cried every time I looked at my mother and didn���t see the woman I loved more than my own heart. I remembered learning in college that when a baby first looks into its mothers face, there is an instant connection. Something about the mother being a mirror of that child���s self, and that mirror in some way defines what it means to exist. I would argue that it also first defines what it means to love. I think that was the hardest part for me, losing that connection, and it wasn���t till I looked down at her hand clasped in mine weeks later that I found a measure of peace. They were my mother���s hands, wrinkled and tiny, filled with love.The remarkable thing about this story is how much emotion and depth the relationship is given despite just the one narrator. I never felt as if the hero was a mystery. Debbie���s struggle to come to grips with taking the chance of loving someone, despite her disability, was a tender and meaingful. The A- is because the suspense thread was weakly inserted and unnecessary in this short story space.
—Jane
