Review: With Visions of Red (Broken Bonds #1)

 

With Visions of Red (Broken Bonds #1) by Trisha Wolfe

Release Date: May 3, 2015

Genres: Erotica, BDSM, Mystery

Pages: 268

Source: E-Book Freebie

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Goodreads Description:

Passion and lust ignite. Dark and light battle. This explosive first installment of the Broken Bonds series sets the exhilarating pace for a cat and mouse game where no one knows who’s really pulling the strings.

Criminal profiler Sadie Bonds knows blood. Her affair with the gruesome, dark world of killers began long before she started applying her analytical skills to investigate gory crime scenes. She gets inside the killers’ heads, breaks them down, relates to them on an arcane level. She prefers it this way—because it’s safer to ally herself with the villain than the victim. At least, that’s how she’s coped ever since she was abducted and tortured as a teen.

She will never be a victim again.

Now, she’s honed her skills in order to bring justice to these ritualistic offenders. Working alongside her colleagues, armed with sharp wit and a SIG, Sadie always catches her sadist. Until one ruthless serial killer gets inside Sadie’s head, turning the tables. He knows her secrets. Her obsessions. The darkest, most deviant part of her soul.

When she meets Colton Reed, dangerous stakes are raised as he threatens to unravel her control and reveal her darkest fantasies. The sexy-as-sin bondage rigger at an exclusive BDSM club pushes her boundaries, forcing her to acknowledge that side of herself she fears. Plunged into a realm of torture and suffering, pain and pleasure, Sadie balances on the razor-sharp edge of two intersecting worlds threatening to swallow her.

Notes about the book:

I know not everyone enjoys reading erotica or bdsm. So if this isn't your cup of tea, please just skip this review and come back tomorrow when I'll review another book. I only occasionally read erotica.

As I'm writing this review (Tuesday), this book is currently free on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Book Quote:

"I didn’t start out this way… I was made. Fashioned into an untouchable creature out of horror and pain."

My Review

This was a different sort of erotica book than I've ever read. A lot of the erotica that you read are written to put the lifestyle out there. This seemed to me to be written with the mystery as the story first and then erotica was added as a part of the characters background.

I love a good mystery/crime-solving book. This book definitely keeps you thinking about who could have done it. Plus there's some background with the main character Sadie that we only get glimpses of. I really enjoyed watching Sadie work and hearing her thought processes on figuring out what the killer's motive and next moves were. At first her partner Detective Quinn seems like a real prick. But then you get to see his devotion to his job and even to his partner I think.

The erotica in the book was very steamy, but it wasn't too much. Most of the book is the crime that needs to be solved.

I was shocked when the book ended suddenly. I was figuring the crime would be solved in this book, but it wasn't. I will more than likely continue the series because I will have to know who did it.

Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble

Review: Collide by Shelly Crane

Collide (Collide #1) by Shelly Crane

Release Date: June 12, 2011

Genres: Paranormal, New Adult, Romance

Pages:360

Source: E-Book

My Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 Stars

Goodreads Description:

Sherry has always known there was something out there. She's eighteen, works for a tabloid newspaper in Chicago and has a brother, Danny who is a lazy mooch. They live a pretty normal dull life with hippie parents and a normal existence. Then the moon disappears and people start to go missing only to reappear later, but different. Sherry has an abusive ex-boyfriend who shows up and claims to be one of these beings that have been showing up around the world. He's no longer the same person in that body. He tells her he has come to protect her and her brother and takes her underground, against her will to save her, where they meet others like them. She begins to unravel the truth about Merrick, about what he's really doing here, about the way he looks at her, about the crazy dangerous world they live in. Can he convince her that he's here to help? Will she like what she finds when she opens up to the truth? Will he be the one to love her when everyone else has failed her? Will he be able to protect her?

Notes about the book:

This is the first book in a four-book series. 

This book contains humans and non-humans. The non-humans are named (Keepers, Lighters), but are never right out called Aliens. So at this point I'd say the interpretation is up  to the reader.

This books  does contain sex, but it is only discussed in the vaguest terms and I don't believe the word "sex" is even mentioned in the book.

Book Quote:

The one quote from Merrick that I love would give away spoilers. So instead I'll share two lines from the book that I loved.

"We’re not fighting each other. We’re fighting... extinction."

"We may live forever, but what’s the point if you don’t actually live?"

My Review

This book was Shelly Crane’s first published book. It contains things that I’ve liked about her Significance series, but I could definitely tell it was her first book. One thing I like about the Significance series, which this one also contains, is the fact that at every turn there’s something new that the characters are learning they can do (or it's just being revealed) - some new ability. I really like books where the characters have other-worldly abilities that no normal human should be able to do. I’m not sure why, but I do. I especially like it when the love interest characters are able to communicate with each other in their heads. We don’t get the full mind communication in this book, but Merrick is able to speak to Sherry in her mind.

I have to admit that I liked Merrick better than I liked Sherry. Sherry was constantly doing things that I knew wouldn’t be good for her or for the people around her. But she did have several redeeming qualities. When she loved someone, she loved them with all her heart. She was a very giving and caring person. Sometimes I think she was too nice for her own good as she seemed to attract all the bad seeds. I enjoyed the chapters that were told from Merrick’s point of view.

I actually think that the story had too much going on. I tended to get confused easily with terminology (Keepers/Lighters) and I think maybe this was because there was so much introduced in this book. The story also seemed to drag on a bit too much.

Overall, I liked the idea of this book and will probably continue the series because there is so much left to find out. It will be interesting to see if the writing gets better because I know Ms. Crane can write. I absolutely LOVE her Significance series! I’m slowly making my way through that one.