Bea Reviews Curved Lines by Jodi Redford, Merryn Dexter, et al

Publisher: Jodi Redford
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: July 22, 2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | ARe* |  iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Get k(ink)y with ten sizzling hot book boyfriends! These sexy, curve-loving, tattooed bad boys will steal your hearts and more in this all-new novella collection brought to you by USA Today and bestselling authors.

Acquired Taste – Dee Carney
When celebrity chef August Jaeger mixes it up with a curvy food blogger, they both realize what they want isn’t on any menu.

Dirty Deeds – Allie Cooke
Four days, a million dollars, the performance of a lifetime…but what happens when they stop faking it? Dirty Deeds ain't always dirt cheap.

Scorched Desire -- Lexxie Couper
When a Harley-riding hunk literally sweeps her off her feet, Jilly Parker finds herself transported to a world of dragon shifters,
carnal lust, and fated love.

Pretty In Ink – Merryn Dexter
Sexy, sweet Aubrey Jensen is everything a semi-reformed bad boy could want – but sometimes getting what you want doesn’t give you what you need.

Hot Tamale – Tilly Greene
Derek Schrizer is a retired Marine looking to get a new tattoo, not reconnect with his first love, the curvy sexy Cat.

Waking Up – Kathryn Lively
A chance encounter forces a plus-sized woman with dormant dreams to wake up and find her own Happily Ever After.

Marked By Ice – Dawn Montgomery
His only job is to protect her at all costs, but who will protect the big bad wolf’s heart once he gets a taste of her sweet lips?

Like a Boss – Quinn
Proving she’s more than a smart mouth and sexy curves would be a hell of a lot easier if she wasn’t so distracted by her sexy new boss.

Kinky Curves – Jodi Redford
The queen of dirty talk. The king of grind. Love is about to get real filthy.

Another Man’s Treasure – Dee Tenorio
A widowed actor and single dad pulls out all the stops to show a single mom just how well a woman can be treasured.

Bea's Thoughts:

The book is over 800 pages so I'm doing two stories for now, "Pretty In Ink" by Merryn Dexter and "Kinky Curves" by Jodi Redford. As I make my way through the book, I'l add reviews for the other stories on goodreads.

K(ink)y Curves – Jodi Redford

Set in the world of Redford's Kinky series, this works as a stand-alone. Redford has her usual blend of serious issues, humor, and steamy sex scenes. I'd have liked to see both Grady and Charlie fleshed out a bit more but they're pretty well developed given the constraints of the story length. Their problems were not insurmountable and were realistic, no big miscommunication, just the ups and downs and insecurities of real life.

One huge flaw in the story was the poor proofing. This has been a chronic problem in Redford's work since she switched to self-publishing and it's not getting any better. My favorite error was this unfortunate sentence:

 A family throbbing sensation pulsed in his cock and he sent the tented front of his sweatpants a stern look.

There were other instances of the wrong word being used, as well as missing or incorrect punctuation, and random words being capitalized. It seriously detracted from the story, which was unfortunate as it was a sweet and steamy story with interesting characters. 

Pretty In Ink – Merryn Dexter 

Happily, this story did not suffer from a lack of proofreading or copy editing; it was clean and readable. 

"Pretty In Ink" was a hot yet sweet story of two people from different classes who come together, fall in love, and work out their problems like adults. Oh, there's one instance of not communicating, and flouncing off in a huff, but it doesn't last long and they work it out. Both Aubrey and Garrett are funny, smart, and sassy. Neither one is a doormat and both have had to fight for what they want and to live on their terms. Her family is a PITA and moderately dysfunctional. His family is fun and much more supportive. While we don't get to know any of them well, I liked what I saw of Garrett's family and would love to see more stories about them. I enjoyed this story, which like Redford's story also touched on some serious issues, and look forward to reading some of Dexter's other works.