Headed to the Beach!

Well ladies and gents it’s that time of year once again where I need to get the hell out of dodge, and head to the sun and surf of the beach. Not gonna lie, I am in absolute desperate need of a vacation! I’m headed to Florida for a whole week, and I couldn’t be more excited.

It’s simply been too long since I’ve had a proper beach holiday, and by God I’m planning on enjoying every second of it. My Kindle is loaded, my audiobooks queued up, and my work email is ready to be ignored. Oh, I also plan on consuming more seafood and delectable desserts than any human probably should in a given week.

But don’t worry, I didn’t forget about all of you! I have some reviews all lined up and ready to post in my absence. Enjoy!

Where do you Want to Go?

Have you ever been reading a novel, romance or otherwise, and find that the setting is described in such amazingly fluid detail that you wish you could go there yourself? If you have, believe me you’re not alone. And if you haven’t, what the heck are you reading?

I believe that sometimes the setting of a novel can almost be like another character. A truly talented author can make a particular place or location come alive. There are a few different locales I’ve come across in my romance novel reading that sound so amazing, I find myself itching to find out how much it would cost to go there. I thought it would be fun to share a few of those locations that have somehow ended up on my travel bucket list. Feel free to share your own in the comment section, whether they be romantic getaways, places bustling with fun activities, fictional locations that only exist on paper, or post-apocalyptic destinations where you feel the urge to show off your terminator destruction skills. I want to hear them all!

Scotland

Whether it be the Scottish Highlands, or the capital city of Edinburgh, I wanna go! This is a place that pre-romance novel me never really had a strong desire to visit. I mean, sure, if I had the opportunity to go I probably would have jumped at the chance, but it has now become a place that I long to see for myself. And there are two main novels which I can point to for stoking my flames of travel desire.

The first is extremely obvious: Outlander. I know, I know, I’m such a cliché. But you know what, I don’t really care. This was really the first novel I can remember which made me want to see the green rolling hills of the Highlands. It also made me appreciate men who wear kilts. Although, I may have the TV show to thank for that one. I’m sure a lot of us Outlander fans have that same mental picture in our mind of riding horseback through a sea of endless green with a hunky Highlander either right next to or behind us. In reality, I’m sure it’s cold and rainy for most of the time, and I’d probably be too cheap to actually go horseback riding for a day. However, I think I could get my castle touring groove on to have a good time.

The second novel that made me more interested in seeing the modern-day, bustling city of Edinburgh was On Dublin Street. For those of you who don’t know, this novel is set in Edinburgh, not Ireland, in spite of the title having “Dublin” in it. I feel like all I’d really need to do to have a good time would be to sit in a restaurant/bar, and just eavesdrop on other people having conversations in one of the sexiest of sexy accents. Oh my, it’s getting a little hot in here. But seriously, in this book the city really does come alive with all of it’s history, and I think it’d be a neat place to visit one day.

Wyoming

Now, I know what most of you are probably thinking. Wyoming? Seriously? Yeah, I know, it seems a little out there, but I’ve come to love whenever there is a romance novel set in this state. It always seems so peaceful to me. Secluded ranches surrounded by beautiful open countryside, with mountains in the distance. Seems like the perfect place to curl up with a good book, a cup of hot cocoa, and a sexy ass cowboy building a fire. Is Wyoming actually like this in real life? I have absolutely no idea. I’m guessing no? Even if it was I’m sure I’d get bored in about a day, but it seems like there might be enough beautiful scenery to warrant a visit.

Any East Coast Sea-Side Town

Damn you Nicholas Sparks! He is simply a magician at making these sleepy towns seem like the perfect place to live. Again, I’m sure I’d get bored in about a nanosecond. What can I say? I’m a big city girl through and through. However, I’ll admit that whenever I read a romance by someone like RaeAnne Thayne set in one of these quiet towns where everyone knows everyone, I do get an urge to see if it lives up to the hype.

Maybe I just need a vacation where I can rent a little beach house for a week or two, and sit with my Kindle all day long in pure relaxation. Ahhh, such bliss. Oh, and a hunk like Noah to row me around in a boat during the afternoon would be much appreciated as well.

Beach Vacation!!

I’m going to the beach, to the beach, no worries! Sorry, I have Meghan Trainor’s “All About the Bass” stuck in my head. Anywho, by the time you read this I will be in sunny Florida for a week long beach vacation, which I am in desperate need of. My daily plans will consist of consuming large amounts of food, and dragging my lounge chair down to the beach to read nothing but romance novels for about 8 hours straight. I can’t really think of a better way to employ my time.

I’m also hoping to put a huge dent in my TBR list because I’ve only read 44 books so far this year. Such a slacker! I do have some posts scheduled for next week, so you should all remain mildly entertained during my absence, but I’ll probably be pretty unresponsive as far as liking comments, and all that. But don’t worry, I’ll be back in a week! Hopefully with an amazing tan and a huge inventory of book notes for future posts.

PS: Today is my sister’s birthday, so happy birthday sis! Maybe by the time you read this I will also be indulging in birthday cake.

To Meet Her Needs by Khul Waters

Holy shit this book has a lot of sex! The last book I read had absolutely zero smut, so I was in the mood for something a little steamier, but my God I guess I wasn’t fully prepared for what I was getting myself into. I’ll admit the extremely descriptive sex scenes were a bit of a shock at first, even for me. Consider yourself warned that To Meet Her Needs definitely falls into the erotic romance category. I’m talking an R rating here, not just PG-13. The main character likes to have beach sex though, and finds the ocean to be quite arousing, so it was therefore a necessary read to feature on my blog.

Mark is going through a divorce. He also really enjoys sex. Honestly, for the first quarter of this book or so I had no idea where it was going plot-wise. In the beginning Mark has a sexual partner, Sue, who he seems to be very close with, but the two know that they won’t be together forever. They get along very well and are able to comfort each other as they both go through a difficult time of separating from their respective significant others. Kids today would probably say that they are f*@k buddies. But then Sue’s husband comes back into the picture which means that she and Mark can no longer play hide the pickle, if you know what I mean. Hint hint, wink wink. So then Mark gets a little depressed, has some financial issues with his ex-wife, has sex with a random stranger or two, etc. I was like, how is this a romance novel? Then he meets Ingrid and that’s when the story really picks up some steam, as the two basically fall in love at first sight. They also have sex wherever and whenever possible.

If there is one thing that this book taught me it’s that I need to visit the beaches in Australia immediately because they are practically deserted. How do I know this you ask? Because Mark has sex all over them! Multiple times! And yet he isn’t arrested once for indecent exposure. Hell, even when people are there it doesn’t stop him from engaging in some unapproved underwater activities with the ladies. These various sexual beach scenes raise two very important questions, 1) how do these girls not lose their bikini bottoms for all eternity to the vast waves of the ocean, and 2) wouldn’t sand get everywhere?!? I mean, I have difficulties just sunbathing at the beach because sand seems to get all over me, even though I’m just sitting there. Can you imagine rolling around in the stuff? Naked?! I feel like you’d be finding sand in every crack and crevice of your body for about a month. All kidding aside though, the sex scenes which took place in the ocean were probably the most descriptive and beautiful of the entire book. The author was able to exquisitely describe the combined movements of the waves with those of the lovers which provided a depiction of something more substantial than just a dirty sex scene. Still though, sand everywhere!

To Meet Her Needs is presented as an exploration of the start of a dominant and submissive relationship between Mark and Ingrid. I realized after reading this book that I have absolutely no idea what that entails. When I first read the blurb of this book, and saw the words dom and sub I immediately thought, “Oh God, here we go again with another Fifty Shades of sexual pain/pleasure book”. I prepared myself to have to read about spankings, whips, toys, blindfolds, and possibly a sex dungeon in the basement. Side note: how many real estate agents do you think have come across a house with a sex cave? Can you imagine? Observe the granite counter tops in the kitchen, the crown-molding throughout the living and dining rooms, and a very sturdy ceiling in the bedroom should you ever want to hang a sex swing. Talk about awkward! Ok, side note complete. Although Mark did spank one lover, and tie up another, he never did it more than once, and never really employed any other implements of pain to get off. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t disappointed that those weren’t present! However, I feel that most books about domination and submission do have an element of pain involved, whereas To Meet Her Needs presents it more as the dominant as being whoever takes the lead during sex. Yeah, he tells her what he wants to do to her, and what she should do to him, but isn’t that just dirty talk? Is that really all that’s involved in order for it to be classified as a relationship with domination and submission? If so, then practically every contemporary romance novel I’ve ever read can be categorized as such. I wish a little more information was provided as to what really makes a relationship one of domination and submission, but I can tell you that there is no way in hell I’m gonna try and research that on my computer. I don’t even wanna think about what a Google search would produce.

This book was very interesting in that the lead character was a man rather than a woman. Not very common in the romance novel world. Mark is definitely a very active sexual being, and my God is he a boob man. After a while it was like, “Dude! There are other body parts on a woman. You don’t have to spend so much time with the nipples, man!” There was one aspect of Mark’s character that I didn’t particularly appreciate though. Towards the end of the book, he and Ingrid are talking about money because it turns out Ingrid has a ton of it. They then discuss how money isn’t important to Mark, and it never has been. Objection your honor! I would like to present evidence to the fact that towards the beginning of the book Mark realizes he will have to give his ex-wife a very large portion of his income in the divorce, so he tries to kill himself! He swims out in the ocean with no intention of ever coming back. Obviously money was important to him at one point if he tried to end his life over it!! Then he meets Ingrid, and pretty much forgets about the whole trying to kill himself incident. Can anybody say mood swing?

*A copy of this book was provided for an honest review*

Series: Nope

Should you read it? This book is really raunchy, so if you’re in the mood for something steamy and descriptive, feel free to give it a go.

Smut Level: At first, it seems like this would be a great beach read because of all the beach sex, but the scenes are so unbelievably hot that I feel you might spontaneously combust if you read it at the beach.

Get it on Amazon: Click Here

Headed to the Beach!

Honestly, I’ve been slacking a bit this week. I only posted one new book review, and then I re-posted an older one. I hang my head in shame 😦 So what’s been up you ask? Well, I’ve been busy dammit! You see, I have this job, and it requires me to travel a ridiculous amount in the fall. Basically from now until Thanksgiving I’m driving and flying all over the country. This week alone I’ve been to 4 different cities, and even another country! Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m still reading a ton of smut. What else am I supposed to do at the airport? I think I’ve finished about 4 books in the last 4 days. However, finding the time to sit down and write a fun and witty review has been difficult. For example, the other day I drove about 6 hours from Montreal to Maine, and by the time I got to my hotel I just wanted to collapse and watch some bad TV. Which I did. Whilst eating Thai food. Mmmm, thai food.

Although I’ve been absolutely exhausted this past week, there are some definite perks to this job. Today I get to travel to Florida, which means this romance4thebeach blog writer is headed to the beach with her romance novels! I’ve got my Kindle prepped and loaded, and I intend to sit on the beach and do nothing but read for the next 48 hours, give or take a few hours to eat and sleep. Hopefully I’ll also be able to find some time in there to sit and write an actual review post. It’s kind of funny though, the last time I was at the beach was when I first started toying with the idea of creating this blog. I’m looking forward to getting back to what this blog is all about- reading romance novels on the beach! Have a great weekend everybody, and I hope you all get a chance to relax and read some in the next few days. Even if it’s not a romance novel, just be sure to read something!

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello fellow romance readers! I discovered on a recent vacation to the Caribbean that there is nothing quite like reading a great book of smut on the beach. But there are so many sexy books out there to choose from how do you know which ones you should try out, or download to your Kindle? To help you in your possible smut selection dilemma I decided to start a blog containing my reviews of some of the best, and worst, romance novels out there. But don’t feel limited to just reading these on the beach, take ’em anywhere!

So what types of books will I review? Consider yourself warned that most of these novels will probably include sex of some kind. These aren’t your average young adult reads. I’m talking alpha males and dirty talkers here. That being said, I also won’t include books which are too outrageous or violent, and if they are I will probably give them a lower rating because of it. Sorry, but that’s just not my cup of tea. Most of the books I review will be part of a series, but some stand-alone novels will be included as well.

I hope you enjoy my blog, and feel free to provide suggestions of some sexy books you’ve enjoyed. I’ll try to keep my reviews brief so that you can start reading the good stuff!