Thursday, March 22, 2012

Last Call Kamakaze by Moira Rogers


As I mentioned in my last post, I am striving to expand my reading habits a bit with this revamp of WWR.  I read my first graphic novel. I am listening to an audio book written by two authors I have yet to read (a non-romance that I will review when I am done.... squeee! SO GOOD!)  

I have stuck pretty much with romance and UF for a long time.  They tend to hit all the right buttons with me.  I decided to stretch a little farther in the hat and steamy direction and downloaded an erotic romance. (I think that is what it qualifies as, but I am fuzzy on where some of the lines are defining these sub-genres.)

Title: Last Call Kamikaze
Author: Moira Rogers
Genre: Erotic Romance(?)
Format: ebook
Series: book 1 in the Last Call series



Synopsis: Zoe Bennett is an inexperienced werewolf in the grip of her mating cycle. With no pack and no mate, Zoe must brave the supernatural crowds of Last Call, the bar where your drink order tells everyone what you need.

Kamikaze: Werewolf in heat, looking for a temporary mate

The chase is on, and security specialist Connor O'Malley intends to win, if only because the sweet young woman at the bar looks unprepared for what the night might bring, in and out of the bedroom. Little does he know that, when he catches her, he may not be satisfied being just a temporary mate.


Hoo, boy!  Steamy is a good word to describe this story.  There is no question that this book crosses into the erotic zone.  The main objective of the story is the sex, however, Ms. Rogers (or the two women who form the author "Moira Rogers") builds into the story a fantastic connection between the two characters.  I have tried reading erotica in the past and just couldn't get into it. Sex scenes are great, but if there is no depth to the characters or I don't sense a connection developing, I just can't buy in.  In Kamikaze I was completely sold. Yes it gets hot FAST. Yes, there is some smexing in there that does not regularly appear in the romances I read. I didn't care. The scenes were well written, the two characters actually talked to one another between bouts of incredibly hot sex, and there was world building. I was impressed by this. The story was short and focused on the physical, but Ms. Rogers laid enough of a foundation that you can begin to see the world in which Last Call exists.  The bar itself, Last Call, is an incredibly clever vehicle for the sexy romps. A bar catering to Others where the drink menu includes, not just specialty drinks, but the message said drinks delivers to the crowd.  You order up an encounter along with your alcohol. 

The other thing I liked about Kamikaze was the characters.  Zoe and Connor are both werewolves, which help the reader believe they could form an attachment so quickly.  "Sensing you mate" won't forgive bad writing, but it can give good writing a boost so that suspension of dibelief can move you forward more quickly.  Both of the characters were smart, geeky, quirky individuals. I loved this.  Neither of them was your typical hot, sexy paranormal being. Hell, Connor convinced Zoe he was the male she should spend the night with by telling her that with him she would at least be with someone who understood her incredibly geeky t-shirt (computer tech humor.)  This charmed me. I had enough computer engineering friends in college to appreciate this, and to have it endear the book to me.

I really enjoyed this book.  Short, hot, and with a sweetness to it that will let you finish with a sappy smile on your face.  In fact, I enjoyed it so much I just loaded up the next book in the series. Oh yeah, to make this even better?  Kamikaze is a free ebook.  The others in the series are just $.99  A cheap good time? You can't beat that!

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Thanks to those of you who stop by here at WWR.  I know I was absentee for a long time.  I appreciate you heading over this way again! I feel as though I am still getting back into the groove of reviewing.  My reviews seem to end up shorter than average compared to others of you out there in the blogosphere. Let me know if there are any particular types of details you would like me to expand on in the future when reviewing.  Thanks again!


ETA:  ARGH!!! I can not for the life of me figure out what is wrong with the formatting on here.    Sorry about the oddly highlighted white section. IT WAS NOT INTENDED!  (Ironic that the characters in the story I reviewed are computer techies and I am having technical difficulties. Grr!)

3 comments:

nath said...

I was wondering about the white highlight. Did you try to check the "edit html" section in blogger instead of compose? You'll probably see a code like: span style="background-color: white;". Delete that along with /span and you should be fine. Don't forget the <> (I couldn't put them up there, because it wouldn't allow me to post the comment ^_^;

If you copy pasted the blurb from somewhere, that could be the reason :)

When it comes to erotica, I find it really depends on what you're looking. And it also comes down to style and writing you click with :) I've heard a lot of good Moira Rogers. I didn't realize it was two authors teaming up together. I've been meaning to try the Southern Arcane series and now, to see that you enjoyed this book, I'll have to check it out :)

Shannon said...

Thanks, Nath. I will check out the html and see if that is the problem. It just looks weird.

I figure that erotica is like ice cream, everyone has their favorite flavor and it often depends on the mood you are in.

I read the second book last night. It was ok. Not as good. I think I kept expecting more. It ended and I thought, "Wait, that's it?" Ah, well. It was still sweet.

Nicola O. said...

I hear you on the formatting issues. Tweaking the blog CSS is such a sinkhole. Mine is kind of plain but it's been very stable and I haven't messed with it in a long time.

You might also have something weird in the html for quotation defaults.