Daring Desires Books 1- 5
Are you looking for a dashing new book boyfriend? Indulge in five of them with Daring Desires.
Daring the Neighbor: After daydreaming about him from afar, Sabrina is finally ready to act on her fantasies with her super-sexy neighbor, Ethan. Will one sizzling night be enough, or will it ignite the burning flames of desire she has kept deeply buried for so long?
Daring his Passion: Reed saw Cassie first. He wanted her first. He ached for her first. But his best friend claimed her first. When Reed finally gets the chance for a night of scorching passion in the arms of the woman he loves, will it quench his thirst or leave him yearning for more?
Daring Rescue: Cade owes Becca. She needs him. He'll save her... no matter what. What happens when the rescuer needs to be rescued? Will Cade and Becca be able to save each other in this suspenseful tale of robbery versus romance?
Daring her Captor: Wyatt is the last man Belle should want. Will they be able to resist the lure of a sexy enemies-to-lovers romance? Even if they give in to their cravings, will they ever be able to move beyond their roles as captor and prisoner?
Daring the Judge: One night of sizzling passion in each other's arms threatens to ruin both of their lives. Sienna and Jake can't get what they want without destroying each other. Who will come out on top?
Fans of Sylvia Day, Ruth Cardello, and Helen Hardt are sure to enjoy reading this steamy contemporary romance collection of standalones.
Ethan, Reed, Cade, Wyatt, and Jake are sexy heroes who are talented at smudging their ladies' lipstick, not their mascara. Meet them NOW in The Daring Desires Complete Collection.
My Review:
Daring the Neighbor This review should probably be considered as containing spoilers, (consider yourself warned,) but since the plot is so predictable, I’m not really sure if it spoils anything. I HATE cheaters! Have the courage to exit the relationship you’re done with before starting another. Having been the one cheated on, I personally believe there’s a special hell for people who have affairs and those who enable them. At the beginning of the book I really respected Sabrina because even though her marriage wasn’t working any more, she honored her vows enough not to start an affair. That respect went right out the window when she proceeded to have that affair I was so proud she wasn’t having, no matter how much her horrible friend was encouraging her. I appreciated that she chose to take the subsequent relationship with Ethan slower than it started, but it was far too little too late for me. The characters are cardboard caricatures of the people they’re supposed to be, and the story was almost all “tell” and very little “show”. I think I could see the ghost-image of the mentally and emotionally abusive man the author was trying to make Sabrina’s husband. But, for what we actually saw of their interactions, I’m not sure I can blame him for his reactions considering the affair she was already starting with their neighbor. And I didn’t find her sudden terror of her eventually-to-be-ex-husband at the end of the book to be the least bit believable in light of the way he’d been portrayed up to that point. I loathed her best friend. I’m completely on Mick’s side in his opinion of Carla. (See above for my theory of the special hell for affair enablers.) To the author’s credit, the writing is very well done. I likely wouldn’t be having this reaction to the story if it weren’t so well written. Daring His Passion What a bunch of self-absorbed narcissists! There are ways this storyline could have been done that would have had me invested in Cassie, Reed, and even Dirk rather than being disgusted by their actions. As with the previous book, I have serious issues with the relationship boundaries this story crosses. I HATE cheaters! I honestly believe that if you want to start another one, then you need to fully exit the relationship you’re currently in first. To me, Reed came across as a spineless sap who has an unhealthy obsession with a woman he really doesn’t know. He has zero ability to stand up for himself. It really bugged me that he could just abandon the company he’s a founding partner of without a single care or concern. Cassie wasn’t much better, she might even have been worse. Not only does she apparently not have the ability to think for herself, she’s manipulative too. Dirk may have been a thoroughly vile human being, but at least he displayed some backbone. It might be because of the length of the story, but the characters felt very flat. I thought Reed forgave Cassie far too easily. And I was utterly incensed by his line ‘I suddenly realized that I had been completely selfish in my reaction to this situation. I had failed to think about it all from her perspective.’ Excuse me?! He’s worried that he hurt the feelings of the woman who lied to, manipulated, and seduced him? Nope. Not happening in my universe. I also would have killed for a little bit more detail about what happened to bring about the epilogue. It’s a very sweet ending, but there’s a whole lot of water under that bridge that I needed to know more about. I’ve read books from further on in the series and I mostly enjoyed them. Other than the author’s skill with the English language, I’m having difficulties reconciling that these are part of the same series. Daring Rescue It’s cute and fun and not the least bit believable. I was able to suspend my disbelief for long enough to finish the book, but it was a near thing on several occasions. Other than the complete implausibility of it, the thing that frustrated me the most were the time gaps in the story. There were several places where the plot would jump forward beyond a pivotal event and then we’d witness that event in a flashback. I found it quite irritating when I spent several chapters going “Wait! What did I just miss?” Then going back to re-read a chapter to try and figure it out where I got lost, only to give up and finally find out what had happened a chapter or so later. I almost hate to admit it, but after the previous two books, I think my favorite part of this one was that no existing relationships were violated during it. Daring her Captor This is perhaps the most unconventional ‘meet cute’ I’ve ever read. By the same token, can it even be considered a ‘meet cute’ when it happens because the hero kidnaps the heroine? I’m going to go with “yes” since this fun little story is also a Beauty and the Beast retelling, which kind of requires a bit of captivity. Wyatt is the perfectly charming protective alpha. Belle’s feisty and stubborn and pushes the poor man to his limits. Her family are a special kind of crazy. Daring the Judge I love that the heroine is the judge in the title; it defies our usual expectations. I loved the zany antics of the kitten. I even loved most of the best friend’s questionable choices. I also enjoyed the naughty taboo nature of the illegal sex club. I’m just not sure I can suspend my disbelief as far as this story asked me to. I fully believe in both lust and love at first sight, so the chemistry between Sienna and Jake was perfect. And I know first hand that those out of control brain chemicals can make otherwise sane people do some things that seem contrary to their usual natures. I’m just not buying that a strong independent woman would hand over the protection of her career to another person this easily. I know that real life is stranger than fiction. There’re just too many outlandish ideas in this story for it to sit comfortably with me. If there had only been a couple, I probably would have just rolled with it and had fun, ‘cause the story itself is fun; the romance is cute and cheeky. However, the plot falls firmly into Red Queens’s “impossible things” to believe in. But despite the heroes admirable love of bacon, I’m not reading this before breakfast, so that just didn’t happen for me. I received a complimentary copy of this book through Booksprout.
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