Review:Rogue Desire (A Romance Anthology)

Authors: Adriana Anders, Dakota Gray, Amy Jo Cousins, Emma Barry, Stacey Agdern, Jane Lee Blair, Tamsen Parker, Ainsley Booth
Publisher: self-published
Length: 127K total; 12-18K for each novelette
Release Date: July 20, 2017
Heat Level: varies by story: three are erotic; two are kisses-only; three are sensual but not erotic
Genre: Contemporary Romance 

ROGUE DESIRE

When all else fails, find love.

Eight brand new romances for fans of the West Wing, fired-up #resistance fighters, and everyone who ever had a crush on that guy at a protest...

Buy Links

Amazon  | Apple iBooks  | Barnes & Noble 

Google Play | Kobo

 

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GRASSROOTS by Adriana Anders

Veronica Cruz is in the fight of her life for a seat on the city council. Meeting reclusive finance genius Zach Hubler should be a stroke of good luck—he has the power to sway public opinion. But when Election Day comes around and things don’t go as expected, Veronica has to know: just how shady is the man of her dreams?

DEEP THROAT by Dakota Gray

He's an escort, but that's not his biggest secret. She’s a maid at the hotel he uses “for business.” When their worlds collide, everything is put on the line. But indulging every secret desire comes at a cost, and the sins of the past won't be forgotten.

RESISTANCE by Amy Jo Cousins

All Kaz Shamsi wanted to do was get his college students to and from the DC protest without losing any of them. Getting caught up in the fringes of anarchist violence was not on the agenda. Neither was a motorcycle escape, messing around with a bandanna-masked antifa protestor, or figuring out that guy was one of the students he was supposed to be chaperoning. Now he's got a ten-hour bus ride back to campus ahead of him, with a stupidly cute student who makes terrible decisions trying to talk Kaz into making one more.

KISSING AND OTHER FORMS OF SEDITION by Emma Barry

When a global crisis threatens to go nuclear, the world tips upside down and spills out Graham Wilcox’s unspoken feelings for Cadence Martel. Cadence is equal parts shocked and delighted by his confession, but one night of passion isn’t enough. So the new lovers set out on a road trip to save the world.

TRUTH, LOVE AND SUSHI by Stacey Agdern

When First Daughter Caroline Crosby finds herself in possession of the one document that can bring her father and his administration down, she turns to a real life social justice warrior for help. Max Wilcox isn't sure what to make of Caroline: is this an elaborate hookup or a political conspiracy? But he has to make up his mind fast because the information and their chemistry could change the world—or break their hearts.

MY DELIGHT IS IN HER by Jane Lee Blair

When Leonard West chose the pastorate, his college girlfriend chose a life without him. But not wanting to be a pastor’s wife didn’t mean Kim Jones didn't want to work for the greater good. Now, her resistance work has led her back to Leonard, and they must grapple with their old pain. Can they trust God and each other enough to try again?

PERSONAL DISASTER by Ainsley Booth

Marcus Dane left the tech world and joined the National Park Service a decade ago. Now an intrepid reporter has tracked down the park ranger-who-could-have-been-a-billionaire and, even worse, she has a theory that could blow his quiet life to smithereens. He needs to send her packing. But he’s already tumbled head-over-heels in insta-lust with her flippy ponytail and smart mouth, and he just can't seem to let her go.

LIFE, LIBERTY AND WORSHIP by Tamsen Parker

Paige Robinson has been working out her angst about the new administration in spin class, until a handsome stranger with maddening politics harshes her mellow. Now she’s determined to get even…in the bedroom. Always awkward Carter Cox is shocked when his crush propositions him, but there's no way he's turning her down. Will their filthy assignation provide the catharsis Paige has in mind, or can they truly cross the aisle to find more?

 What I thought about Rogue Desire

There are two things that attract me to an anthology -- authors I know and love and new authors I have yet to discover. This anthology has both. The theme of this anthology -- Resistance -- is a timely topic.  

 Although I didn't read all of the stories in this anthology yet, I'm basing my overall review on these two stories by authors I follow. 

Resistance by Amy Jo Cousins is a fast-paced tale of forbidden lust between a TA and his student. The lines are certainly blurred in this one, with the TA giving in to his feelings during an exciting field trip to a protest. 

 I thought this was a very nice little side story to the Off Campus series. Kaz and Will definitely had some chemistry and the ending was left open for the reader, which was a nice little touch with this story and worked for me. 

  Life, Liberty and Worship by Tamsen Parker is an incredible short story dealing with Paige and Carter, who are seemingly on the opposite sides of the political fence. After a scorching hot (and I mean get out the fan cause you are going to need it..) night together, Paige's judgements about Carter's personal and political affiliations has both of them examining just what is important to each of them.

 I thought this was a terrific short story that dealt with some very interesting political and personal assumptions that people often make and it left me wanting more adventures of Paige and Carter in the bedroom. The anthology is worth the price for this story alone. It's special.

Review:Off Campus by Amy Jo Cousins

Synopsis


Everyone’s got secrets. Some are just harder to hide.

With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.

But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.

Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.

Warning: This book contains cranky roommates who vacillate between lashing out and licking, some male/male voyeurism, emotional baggage that neither guy wants to unpack, and the definitive proof that sound carries in college housing.

 Buy Links

The first of a new LGBTQ series from Samhain Publishing, OFF CAMPUS is available now at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, iBooks, and on the Samhain website.

What I thought about Off Campus

Off Campus is the up close and personal story of Tom Worthington -- how he finds himself and regains his self respect in the aftermath of his father's crimes. All Tom wants to do is work, finish school and make his own way but he doesn't count on his roommate to shake up his life the way Reese Anders does.

After a very contentious start, Tom and Reese develop feelings other than anger toward each other, and I loved that it took a little while before they found their way into bed together. There's an emotional relationship developing here along with a scorching hot physical relationship.

Reese has some things he's dealing with too, and I loved how Tom was incredibly considerate of the things that triggered Reese.  But when Reese wants to take their relationship public, Tom isn't comfortable with that and it threatens their relationship in a big way. I love how Reese knew exactly who he was and what he wanted from this relationship.

For some this book might seem slow, but for me, I loved getting inside Tom's head. It was great to see how he worked through some of his issues, with and without Reese's help. This book was rich in emotions and introspection, and I liked that very much about this story.  Even though Tom's reactions were sometimes hard to take, it was evident that he had some things to work through on his own.

There were a few technical issues that kept me from rating this higher.  I don't like when one character poses a question and then the other goes into pages of internal monologue before answering the question.  This takes me out of the story and I often have to go back to see what the question was when it finally gets answered. Some of the transitions between scenes weren't as smooth or easily identified as different scenes and that too took me out of the story a bit.

Overall, I really liked this story and give it a solid 4 star rating. It's not just a coming-out sort of story, but a story of determining what you are really made of.  When all was said and done in the book, I loved Tom's journey and I'm looking forward to reading more from this author.


About the Author

Amy Jo Cousins writes contemporary romance and erotica about smart people finding their own best kind of smexy. She lives in Chicago with her son, where she tweets too much, sometimes runs really far, and waits for the Cubs to win the World Series.

https://twitter.com/_AJCousins

https://www.facebook.com/AmyJoCousins

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/259275.Amy_Jo_Cousins

http://amyjocousins.com/