Great intro to a genre I'd always wanted to check out, though these are not traditional settings.

via Instagram http://ift.tt/152SmeZ

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Sorry.  No bare-chested man-hunk on the cover of this book.  Carrie seems to have corned the TFA market on testosterone for the month, so I went ahead with another genre.  I know, I know...but this book DOES have quite an array of covers.  See?  


Adding to the colorful cover choices is a lovely cast of characters, headlined by Don Tillman.  Don is a brilliant but socially awkward genetics professor who sets out to find a mate by creating a 16 page survey to administer to prospective candidates.   The search leads him to Rosie (she fails the survey miserably) which leads to a very unlikely friendship.  Don and Rosie team up to find Rosie's biological dad, but also find themselves falling for each other.   This book is sweet, tender and a bit sad.  Don's never had a second date (most likely because he's a 40-year-old man with autism), Rosie is harboring some major anger toward her stepfather (leading her to want to find her biological father) and Don's only go-to-friends for advice are a loveless couple in an open marriage.  Yikes.

The Rosie Project is a story about love where you least expect it; love in seemingly all the wrong places.  It's also story about acceptance and change, which never gets old in my book.  Throw in some science geekiness and a bit of humor and it works.  The Rosie Project isn't a bare-chested man-hunk steamy type of read, but it is worthwhile just the same.

Beyond Possession by Kit Rocha

This ARC came my way via NetGalley.
I love ARCs. I'm too impatient to wait for release days.

Once upon a time, Tatiana Stone was a fairy tale princess.
And now she lives sexily ever after with her guy, Zan.

Which makes Beyond Possession a fairy tale.

Kinda.

If, when you last read fairy tales, you read about gang leaders.
And dystopian worlds.
And the daughters of deceased gang leaders who are forced to bust their tails crafting soaps and lotions and shampoos in order to care for themselves and their sisters.
And ripped, cage-fighting, heavily tattooed enforcers from the O'Kane gang that displaced the old corrupt and violent rulers.
And lots of steamy, sweaty, dirty sex.

Hmm.  Perhaps Beyond Possession is a different kind of bedtime story than you last read.*

But Beyond Possession is very nice bedtime story.
(Again, if when you read the word nice, you imagined hot, naughty, good times and true love in a world of O'Kane whiskey smugglers. Nice. Right?)

Beyond Possession is a novella.  It's story 5.5 in the Beyond series by Kit Rocha.

The series is a full-on, no apologies, no-holds-barred, erotic and romantic trip through Sector Four--an area outside the city of Eden where every day life is a struggle. In Sector Four, the tattoos are plenty, the woman are as tough as the men, good days are celebrated with cage fighting and sexy parties, and true love is strong enough for partners who accept each other as they are.  O'Kanes don't need to force each other in molds that don't fit.

I'm completely addicted to this series, and my only complaint about Beyond Possession is that, as a novella, it's too short.  As with the other Sector Four stories, I love the characters.  Kit Rocha writes great romance, but she also writes great friendships.  (And, I did mention the sexy times, right?  Those are great, too.)

If you want some heat with your romance, and you're open to reading some non-conventional situations, you should start the Beyond series.  I'll promise you you'll enjoy reading your way through to Beyond Possession.

* And perhaps this is a good time for me to pretend that my mom and her friends don't read these reviews.  Hi, Mom. Sorry.