Bad Boys Next Exit By Shannon McKenna, Donna Kauffman, Edna Sheedy

Summary

Meltdown by Shannon McKenna - “Meltdown” is the story of a headhunter masquerading as a magazine writer in an attempt to get a meeting with a hotel manager who she wants to try to lure away from his current position to work for her client. At the last minute, she’s set up by the receptionist to meet with the CEO instead. After seeing how beautiful she is, he’s more than happy to take her on a private tour of one of their luxury suites that includes far more than just looking around. They spend an incredibly steamy night together, during which they discover that their chemistry is off the charts, but when morning comes, they have to decide if that’s enough to base a long-term relationship upon.

Jane tends to be rather shy and reserved, but during her youth, she discovered a passion for acting. Unfortunately, though, an abusive theater professor in college ruined both her life and her aspirations. Now she works as a headhunter, which pays the bills while allowing her to employ some of her acting skills, and in her spare time, she directs a community theater program for at-risk youth. Under pressure from her boss to close an account, Jane goes to the hotel seeking out the manager, intending to do whatever it takes to poach him, but she ends up meeting Mac, the CEO, instead. He’s an incredibly dynamic man who attracts her from the start, but she still has some reservations regarding his overt sexuality. In some ways, I could relate to Jane, or at least to her shyness. I liked that she doesn’t entirely let Mac get the upper hand, but after putting up a little token resistance, she almost always ends up capitulating to his wishes anyway. For this reason, I had a hard time fully respecting her, and I didn’t really understand her attraction to Mac, but she was a decent heroine despite my issues with her.

Mac, on the other hand, was not my kind of hero. I’ve read two other novellas by Shannon McKenna, and between those and things I’ve heard about her work, I don’t think she knows how to write any other kind of hero besides uber-alphas, which are not my cup of tea. After his dad died and his mom left, Mac learned to be the head of the family at a very young age. He runs the hotel chain with some help from his younger brother and sister. Everything about him is on overdrive and he does everything with an intensity that’s simply a little over the top to my way of thinking. He’s pretty egotistical and arrogant and doesn’t take no for an answer. In fact, he behaves much like a predator. Through Jane, the author tries to tell us that Mac is actually sweet underneath all the bluster, but other than perhaps his grand gesture at the end, I just didn’t see it. This is mainly because he doesn’t really exhibit much in the way of vulnerability to make me genuinely like him.

This novella is pretty much all about the sex, which in and of itself didn’t bother me, but the way in which it all went down did. Jane and Mac engage in sexual contact within mere minutes of meeting that would have gone much further right then and there if not for them being interrupted. So they continue it later that evening in the guise of a date that turns into a steamy all-night sex-fest. In spite of the rapid progression, this might not have been an issue for me except that numerous times throughout their encounters, Jane says things like, “No,” “Stop,” “Slow down,” etc., but Mac never does. Instead he keeps pushing and insisting that he knows better than she what she really wants, which I thought was the pinnacle of arrogance. This all made me pretty uncomfortable, because IMHO, unless you’re in a situation where safe words are being used (and they weren’t here), whenever a woman says “No” it means NO. I don’t care where a couple is in the love-making process, if a woman begins to express any kind of doubts, the man should back off immediately. Of course, like any good little bodice ripper heroine, Jane eats up Mac’s dominant behavior and ends up loving it, but the way I saw it, what happened between them was at best forced seduction, which I don’t care for in my romances. Several times, Mac seems to have regrets about his behavior, too, but it doesn’t stop him from continuing. He doesn’t really make apologies for it either. Also he can really dish out the dominant behavior, but when Jane employs her acting talents to get her own dominatrix on, he can’t take it. On top of my issues with the sexual content, the idea that two people would be willing to make a life-time commitment after less than twenty-four hours together was definitely pushing the bounds of credibility as well.

On the up side, I can’t deny that “Meltdown” was very well-written. The mechanics of the writing are quite sound, making the novella very readable. I was also surprised by how much character development Ms. McKenna was able to pack into such a short format. The emotional intensity of the love scenes, as well as some of the activities they engage in, were admittedly appealing, and if not for the way in which they were initiated, I would have found them to be quite delicious. Also if not for Mac’s alpha jerk personality and possessive, predatory behavior, I would have very much enjoyed his grand romantic gesture at the end to win Jane over. Bottom line, romance readers who like super-intense alphas heroes and don’t mind dubious consent will probably love this one and I could easily recommend it for that crowd. As for me, there were parts that I kind of enjoyed when I was trying to ignore the consent issues, but there were plenty of other parts that left me squirming with discomfort. So for anyone who’s like me, you’ll probably want to stay away. It appears that the author was setting up Danny and Robin, Mac’s brother and sister, for their own potential stories. She did write Robin’s story in “Anytime, Anywhere,” which can be found in the anthology Baddest Bad Boys, but it doesn’t look like she ever wrote Danny’s. This many years after the fact, it doesn’t seem likely that she will either. However, after three so-so novellas in a row and coming to the realization that I don’t care much for Shannon McKenna’s heroes, I doubt I’ll be picking up that story or any other by this author in the future.

Note: This novella contains explicit language and sexual situations, which may offend some readers, including some mild power play and dominant behavior, as well as dubious consent, which could distress sensitive readers. Star Rating: ***1/2 Sensuality Rating: 4.5

Exposed by Donna Kauffman - “Exposed” is the second novella in Donna Kauffman’s Men of Rogues Hollow series, in which each novella focuses on one of the four Morgan brothers. This story is about Austin, one of the middle brothers. In it, Austin and his heroine, Delilah, are traveling on the same train on Christmas Eve. Austin is heading home for the reading of his father’s will, while Del is heading back home to New York City from a photo-shoot in Atlanta. Both characters are photographers. Her subjects are objects, while his are sexy models, primarily of the female variety. When their train becomes stranded in a blizzard, they have a chance meeting in which they bond over their shared career and end up back in Austin’s private sleeper compartment, where they while away the hours with some sexy fun. But when the train starts moving again, they have a battle within their own minds over whether their connection is enough upon which to base a long-term relationship.

To be quite honest, I only read “Exposed” to complete this anthology. I’ve previously read three other Donna Kauffman novellas, including two in this same series, and not a single one of them even broke into the three-star range for me, which is a pretty dismal track record. Therefore I went into reading “Exposed” with no more than slight hope that it would finally be a story that engaged me, but alas, that wasn’t meant to be. There’s virtually no plot to the story. Austin and Delilah meet, talk, have sex, talk some more, have more sex… rinse, wash, repeat… until they finally part ways over their disagreement regarding whether they should pursue things any further than that one perfect moment out of time. Then the last couple of chapters are about how they reunite with an HFN ending.

I’m sorry to say that the story simply lacked an engaging premise, and the way in which it was written made it drag so that it felt like a much longer tale. There’s a pretty big info dump right at the beginning, and then a couple more of them later on in the novella. There are really long passages of introspection that I felt could have been pared down, and I also felt that all of this could have been integrated better with the action (read love scenes, since that’s the only action there is :-)) and dialogue. The story gets two stars for Austin’s grand romantic gesture at the end, which I thought was sweet, and to a lesser extent, for the hot love scenes, although I have to admit that even those weren’t perfect for me. I’ve never been much of a fan of the instant meeting and mating, although if done well with a strong emotional connection, I can appreciate it. However, here there just wasn’t enough of that all-important connection to make these scene really sizzle for me. I also wasn’t very pleased with the lack of protection, which is a major pet peeve of mine in contemporary romance. I know many authors and readers simply say it’s all about the fantasy, but I don’t find irresponsible behavior like this with no good reason for it to be sexy at all. Anyway, that’s my two cents. If a Donna Kauffman story shows up in a future anthology I’ve picked up for a favorite author who’s in it, I suppose I’ll once again feel obliged to read it. But I most definitely won’t be actively seeking out any more of her work, because it clearly doesn’t resonate with me. Star Rating: ** Sensuality Rating: 4

Pure Ginger by E. C. Sheedy - “Pure Ginger” is a short, stand-alone novella about a former soap opera star who’s about to open an edgy, new, art-house-style theater in a smallish city. He needs a PR specialist to handle the advertising for the grand opening, but the local woman his assistant finds looks more like a nun than someone who can properly promote his new venture. However, he finds himself strangely attracted to her anyway. As it turns out she’s taking a hiatus from men after a string of relationship fails and has given herself a “make-under” in an effort to say that she’s unavailable, but this new guy sets her on fire from day one and keeps looking better and better all the time.

Ginger is a PR specialist who has a habit of falling for handsome men who turn out to be jerks, so she’s decided to completely remake herself. She’s sworn off sex for two years, and in an effort to not send the wrong message, she’s adopted a very conservative new wardrobe. However, she didn’t expect it to cause her to almost lose a prospective client. Ginger is a smart, feisty, spirited woman, and I had to give her some respect for trying to change her fortune. Overall, I mostly liked her, but where I started to have issues with her is that she’s made a promise to herself not to fall for another handsome face again. Yet she does it anyway with the first hot guy to come along, even though she suspects that he might be like all the others. Although she initially puts up a token resistance to his seduction, she ends up falling for his alpha caveman act pretty quickly. I thought it all made her seem rather lacking in determination and self-control.

Cal is an ex soap star, trying to make a success of his new theater venture, so that he can pay off his greedy brother’s interest in the business. When Ginger comes into his office, her nun-like attire leaves him unconvinced that she can pull off the necessary edgy promotion to reach his goal, but at the same time, he finds himself oddly attracted to her. For the first half of the story, I really didn’t like Cal much at all. For starters, he judges Ginger’s professional abilities based solely on the way she looks and what she’s wearing, without ever seeing any of her work, which is pure, unadulterated sexism. When she presses her case, he mostly just finds her annoying, and gives her the cold shoulder until a Hollywood PR friend he calls in to take over the project convinces Cal to give her a chance (I never quite understood why he would do that when he had a potential client on the hook – friend or not – but I thought he was a very decent guy for doing so.) Anyway, once they’re working together, Cal starts wondering exactly what’s underneath the dowdy clothes. At this point, he turns into a complete jerk in my estimation. Despite Ginger repeatedly saying “No” to his advances, he keeps getting into her personal space, touching and kissing her, and even shows up at her house late one night, flat-out asking for sex. I don’t care that she secretly wanted it; he didn’t know that and should have backed off until she gave him express permission for such intimacies. And don’t even get me started on the way he keeps telling her to do things, rather than asking nicely. Behavior like this might have flown in romance a few decades ago, but in the current #MeToo era, I personally find it completely unacceptable and decidedly unromantic. Cal improved somewhat during the second half of the story and did prove himself to be a good lover, but the damage was already done in my mind, and I just couldn’t really get on board with him as a hero.

While I might not have cared for the hero, I do want to give credit where credit is due. My personal objections aside, I did find “Pure Ginger” to be well-written, which made it an easy read that flowed very well. The love scenes were deliciously steamy, too, and if not for the hero’s boorish behavior, would have been even more so. Perhaps because of the limited length, the conflict is minimal and it’s a little short on the character development, but overall not bad. Readers who are more forgiving of chest-beating alpha males who like to boss the heroine around will probably find this novella very agreeable. In fact, they will probably enjoy this anthology all the way around, since the first story by Shannon McKenna also has a hero who’s cut from the same cloth. As for me, this was my first read by E. C. Sheedy. In fact, before picking up this anthology, I hadn’t even heard of her. The writing was strong enough to leave me open to trying something else of hers in the future, but I probably won’t be in a big hurry to do so out of concern over whether her other books may have similar heroes. Star Rating: ***1/2 Sensuality Rating: 4
Review provided by The Hope Chest Reviews