I love Anne Calhoun's writing. Ty and Lauren were my favorite of the two novellas in this book. I really loved Ty's struggle and him fighting so hard to resist any connections. I prefer my heroes to be growly and completely insane at the thought of any other man even thinking of touching their woman. But the menage worked for me in Ty and Lauren's story. Sean and Abby on the other hand, I felt like the menage scene was forced and not necessary for the story. I liked both stories very much and loved that the two heroines were strong independent women who matched their Marines in every way. I received this book through the First Reads program. On the one hand, I loved the characters. They were all very strong and I especially loved that Lauren and Abby both owned their sexuality and were unapologetic about it. Both women stood up for what they wanted, and didn't let anyone push them around. As for the guys, Ty in the first novella was definitely an alpha-hole, but you could clearly see through to the wounded warrior beneath the facade. He was drowning and Lauren was like a lifeline thrown out to him. Sean was just lovely, an alpha geek who'd made a mistake the first time around with Abby, and was now trying to salvage the relationship. I love it when it's the guy who is chasing the girl and is wearing his heart on his sleeve rather than the other way around. Both stories were angsty and emotional, just the way I like them.This would have been a four star read for sure, but unfortunately, certain of the sexual elements just didn't work for me. In the first story, Lauren was such a strong woman, who went after Ty without looking for an HEA, yet in the bedroom, in crept the obligatory BDSM, which really took me out of the story. I don't know if it's due to 50 Shades, but why is it that it seems like in every other erotic romance these days, the woman wants to be "mastered" in the bedroom? Sorry, I'm just not buying it. Luckily, there was none of that in Sean and Abby's story, but both stories did include the almost obligatory m/f/m scene, another element that doesn't work well for me, and seemed somewhat gratuitous in both of the novellas.Overall, I loved Anne Calhoun's characters and writing and she is so good at pulling out strong emotions in the reader. I wish the sex scenes worked better for me, but I'm guessing that I'm in the minority with that opinion. They were well-written and very sexy, just unfortunately not my cuppa. I'm still a big fan of hers and will definitely be reading her next one.
