Innocents by Cathy Coote (Autumn Taboo Review)

Buy this book:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository


Connect with the author:
Facebook

Genre:
contemporary, realistic fiction, dark, new adult

BOOK SUMMARY:

Written when Cathy Coote was nineteen, Innocents is a taut, wickedly clever descent into the anatomy of an obsession, the debut of a precociously assured and provocative young literary voice. Forcing someone vulnerable and naive into a sexual relationship to satisfy a twisted desire is perverted, even evil.
But when the perpetrator is a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl, is she culpable?
And if the victim is her thirty-four-year-old teacher, shouldn't he have known better?
When the nameless young narrator of Innocents decides to seduce her teacher, she immediately realizes that the power of her sexuality is greater than she ever imagined.
She leaves the aunt and uncle who are her guardians and moves in with her teacher; 

together, they quickly embark on a journey into their darkest desires.
Unforgettable, disturbing, and morally complex, Innocents permanently unsettles our notions of innocence, experience, and power, and suggests that we all are culpable.

RATING:

MY REVIEW:

"My darling, all of this is my fault.
I know you think your to blame for what happened.
You’re wrong, my love.
I’ve been guilty all along..."

SHE is a 16 year old manipulative, cold, calculating and sadistic control freak and she is aggressor here. This Lolita , seed of evil, who's also the protagonist isn't even likable. She lives with her aunt and uncle who "don't understand her", and spends time drawing pornographic and sadistic sketches where she is the one in control and inflicting pain and humiliation on her female school friends.
This book is written in the form of a letter that this girl is writing to her ex-lover, teacher, to explain her side of things...

"I wasn´t born innocent.
My instincts were vicious, predatory, from the start.
When I met you, I had been a voyeur as long as I´d had eyes.
My very reflexes were sadistic.
The ascent of my reason from the animal ways of infanthood served only to give a form to my state,
as a painter gives shape to a colour.
It seemed I learned to think in order to fantasise."

HE is the 34-year-old teacher and he begins by worshipping this girl from afar because he knows how morally wrong it would be for him to act upon his desire. He puts her on her a pedestal and becomes obsessed with her, but from afar.
She initiates everything, she manipulates him and seduces and controls. She is really topping him from below.
But...she teased and pushed and pushed "her darling" (the teacher) until his untamed sexual beast was unleashed and he hurt her in the unforgivable way. She awakened something violent and kinky in this poor guy and she is devastated just because that one time she wasn´t in control...

WHO IS GUILTY HERE?

In this extraoridinarily dark psihosexual book they are both innocents: 

she´s inexperienced but manipulative aggressor, and he is naive but experienced victim.

"I understood that there is another path of innocence: that it can be attained like wisdom.
I knew that I am a kind of Holy Innocent, after all. One of God´s special cases.
Blundering around inside my own instincts, handicapped.
I´m like a Holy Idiot; a retarded child who is closer to Heaven because of his disability.
A kind of holy pervert, who struggles every day to be good"

It´s extraoridinary that author Cathy Coote was only 19 years old when she wrote this extremely complex book. Whole the time I was wondering where were aunt and uncle all this time and why they never done anything to stop her from running away from home. I thought that this was some plot hole. But, later I found out that in Australia, where this story takes place, the age of consent is 16.

BE AWARE: This IS NOT a romatic love story!

Sexual scenes are too graphic and obscene. They were detailed, but I didn't think they were horrific.

 I can't recommend this as a general read, but for those interested in the subject matter of Lolita Complex or student-teacher relationship.

Until next time,

stay naughty...

Boy Toy by Barry Lyga (Autumn Taboo Review)

 Buy this book:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository


Connect with the author:
Goodreads / Website / Twitter

Genre:
contemporary, realistic fiction

BOOK SUMMARY:

Josh Mendel has a secret. Unfortunately, everyone knows what it is.
Five years ago, Josh’s life changed.

 Drastically.
And everyone in his school, his town—seems like the world—thinks they understand.
But they don’t—they can’t.
And now, about to graduate from high school, Josh is still trying to sort through the pieces.
First there’s Rachel, the girl he thought he’d lost years ago.
She’s back, and she’s determined to be part of his life, whether he wants her there or not.
Then there are college decisions to make, and the toughest baseball game of his life coming up,
and a coach who won’t stop pushing Josh all the way to the brink.
And then there’s Eve. 

Her return brings with it all the memories of Josh’s past.
It’s time for Josh to face the truth about what happened.
If only he knew what the truth was . . .

RATING:

MY REVIEW:

"I was molested. When I was twelwe.
And everyone in the world knew it except for me."

I am left speechless.
This story is real and unforgettable.
It isn't a story about the forbidden teacher/student love that many fantisize about, this story is the realism behind what actually goes into the waters of female teacher to male student molestation, down the path of paedophilia.
Writing is so realistic that sometimes I had a feeling that I was in the room with Mrs. Sherman and Josh.

This is the story of seduction and the life afterwards told by Josh Mendel,
the victim who takes full responsibility for what an adult did to him when he was twelve years old.
As a 12 year old boy he, like the every other boy in his class, had a crush on his history teacher,
Mrs Evelyn Sherman a.k.a. Eve.
Soon, he was sucked into a very adult and inappropriate relationship with her.
The truth emerges when Josh attends a birthday party for one of his friends, Rachel,
and a game of spin the bottle gets out of hand...
Five years later, he´s a high school graduate without ever having a normal, healthy relationship,
especially not one with a girl his own age.
He is angry and hostile, and he fights his own inner feelings about Eve,
even while battling a growing attraction with a Rachel, his old friend who revealed his affair long time ago...

Although he´s some kind of sport and math genius, Josh is traumatized and he feels permanently damaged.
His family is dysfunctional and he gots these flickers from the past all the time:

"-there, yes, THERE-
-God oh God oh God-
-stop teasing me, you naughty...oh God yesss-"

 "Lying there, I´ve figured out what the flickers are.
 They´re my punishment.
 It´s no coincidence that they started that day that I stood in Eve´s bedroom,
 taking my first stepstoward her, toward my sin, my downfall.
 The flickers are my past, constantly reignited, hammering at me from below and beneath and behind."

 Was it an excellent book? Unquestionably!

 Why I gave it 4 (4,5) stars? Because it was too much baseball stuff in it.

My favorite quote:
 

"See, forgiveness doesn´t happen all at once.
It´s not an event- it´s a process.
Forgiveness happens while you´re asleep, while you´re dreaming, while you´re in line at the coffee shop, while you´re showering, eating, farting, jerking off.
It happens in the back of your mind, and then one day you realize that you don´t hate the person anymore, that your anger has gone away somewhere.
And you understand. You´ve forgiven them.
You don´t know how or why. It sneaked up on you. It happened in the small spaces between thoughts and in the seconds between ideas and blinks.
That´s where forgiveness happens.
Because anger and hatred, when left unfed, bleed away like air from a punctured tire, over time and days and years.
Forgiveness is stealth.
At least, that´s what I hope."

Until next time,

stay naughty...

 

Drowning Instinct by Ilsa J. Bick

Buy The Book:

AMAZON / BARNES&NOBLE / BOOK DEPOSITORY / BETTER WORLD BOOKS

Author's Page:

Goodreads / Twitter  / Blog

Genre:

Contemporary/ Realistic Fiction

SUMMARY ON  GOODREADS:

There are stories where the girl gets her prince, and they live happily ever after. (This is not one of those stories.)

Jenna Lord’s first sixteen years were not exactly a fairytale. Her father is a controlling psycho and her mother is a drunk. She used to count on her older brother—until he shipped off to Afghanistan. And then, of course, there was the time she almost died in a fire. 

There are stories where the monster gets the girl, and we all shed tears for his innocent victim. (This is not one of those stories either.)

Mitch Anderson is many things: A dedicated teacher and coach. A caring husband. A man with a certain... magnetism. 

And there are stories where it’s hard to be sure who’s a prince and who’s a monster, who is a victim and who should live happily ever after. (These are the most interesting stories of all.)

Drowning Instinct is a novel of pain, deception, desperation, and love against the odds—and the rules.

RATING:

MY REVIEW:

This book just blew me away!

This book has stolen my attention right from its very first line.
It´s stunning, scary, unpredictable and beautiful. 
This book is a definite MUST HAVE!

An older man and a teenage girl. Bittersweet romance. Your first thought must be Lolita? High school teacher and troubled student. Sounds like a recipe for disaster or at least some jail time. But, although situations like this would ordinarily cause me to cringe because I´m a school teacher, I actually felt... hope for these two tragically broken people... This is a taboo romance story with student-teacher relationship in which there are no stereotypical predators or victims. These people are damaged, but are they monsters in this book? No, they just made some bad decisions and this sure is their complicated love story. Monsters are some other characters who ruined their lives in the start. 

The story is told in Jenna's voice as she "confesses" the truth of an incident into a policeman's tape recorder. Her family is dysfunctional (Psycho dad/cheater, alchocolic mother, grandfather- pedophile, a brother away at war...) and she finds escape in delusions and pain (selfharm). She is a cutter and she spend some time in Psycho ward. 

Then she moves to a new school and meets Mr. Anderson. He becomes the only one who sees her and brings her to the truth, but he is just as broken as she is...

" I´d never heard a man cry before, Bob, but...it´s awful. (...) I think some man aren´t used to it and don´t know what to do with all that feeling. Their emotions are hexane ignited in their chests and rips them apart, and then they feel like they´re going to die-just as something was dying, at that moment in Mitch." 

 Two of them pull strength from each other's tragedies... but, at the same time, they destroy each other and themselves. 

“They call it the drowning instinct. It´s when drowning doesn´t look like drowning. In real life, if the water´s very cold, a person can´t help but gasp. It´s reflex. The thing is as soon as water hits your lungs, your throat closes off, even it the water´s warm. Your body´s trying to protect itself, and the reality is that a lot more people suffocate than truly drown. Regardless, to people on land, especially when you´re really close to the end, you don´t look like you´re in trouble. You don´t scream, but that´s because you can ´t, and you don´t wave your arms either or expend a lot of energy flailing. You´re just there. So people don´t notice that you´re drowning.

That´s me. I think I´ve been drowning all this time and doing it so quietly, even I didn´t know it.” 

My favorite part is the ending:

"You probably want me to regret Mitch. You want me to see that he lied, was some kind of predator; that I´m the victim, like you said. But Mitch was broken, too, in his way and just as much a hostage to his past and his mistakes. Maybe by trying to fix me, he was also healing himself in the only way he knew how.

Oh, I can just hear you now. You and every therapist who ever lived will say that I´m rationalizing, that I´ve identified with a monster, just like those kids do who are kidnapped and live in a cage for twenty years. You´ll want to see me as damaged somehow, and then you´ll try to cure me. Well, I got news for you, Bobby-o.

Cured is just synonym for coming around to your way of thinking.

Cured is the word you use when I finally agree.

But here´s the problem with that, Bobby-o. You and the therapists can yammer until you´re blue in the face, but I just can´t agree with you and probably never will.

Because Mitch gave me love. He handed me back my life and that doesn´t make me a victim." 

Ilsa J. Bick has a way with words. This is possibly one of the most emotionally intense books I have ever read. This story has a bittersweet romance and a plot that leads you on an emotional roller coaster.

I recommend it to anyone who wants to read something that is neither black nor white, but just like the real life, very very grey.

Until next time,

stay naughty...

Autumn Taboo: Student&Teacher Affairs

Hello our lovely, way too hot people!
We are gathered her today to..... talk about our new feature on Way Too Hot Books.
Every season has it-topic and this year it looks like taboo fantasy of every high school girl is coming true! Well, at least in books.
 We decided to join the hype, so welcome to our
Autumn Taboo!

What does that mean?

Considering that all of us girls gathered around Way Too Hot Books are in one way or another involved in school or teaching, for us love affairs between students and teachers is greatest taboo of them all. 

What will we do?

Read.

 As you can see, we found some books that are talking about this topic. If you know for book that fits to what we're looking for, don't be shy and tell us. If you're author and you have book that talks about student/teacher relationship and you'd like to be part of this, contact us. If you're fellow blogger and you like this idea, join the fun. Just as a sign of your support, link us up in your posts and leave comment here. We would love to hear your thoughts and read your reviews.

How long will this last?

We do not have strict timelines, but we're hoping that we'll manage wrap up everything until the end of November.

Way Too Hot Books is part of Rachael Wade's new book blog tour and you'll get a chance to win e-books of her Preservation series. Leah Reader and Evan Revees will answer some of our questions ( if you want us to ask them something specific, let us now). We'll try to get more goodies for you.:) 
Also, If I Stay by Evan Reeves is featured tomorrow here, so stay tuned. 

We really hope that this will work out and that you'll join our conversations. 
Much love,
Glass & Iva & Purple & Red

Beyond Control (Beyond, #2) by Kit Rocha

Buy The Book:

AMAZON

About The Author:

K. Rocha Official / Goodreads / Facebook

Genre:

Adult Fiction/ Erotica

Summary on GOODREADS:

She refuses to be owned.
Alexa Parrino escaped a life of servitude and survived danger on the streets to become one of the most trusted, influential people in Sector Four, where the O’Kanes rule with a hedonistic but iron fist. Lex has been at the top for years, and there’s almost nothing she wouldn’t do for the gang…and for its leader. Lie, steal, kill—but she bows to no one, not even Dallas O’Kane.

He’ll settle for nothing less.

Dallas fought long and hard to carve a slice of order out of the chaos of the sectors. Dangers both large and small threaten his people, but it’s nothing he can’t handle. His liquor business is flourishing, and new opportunities fuel his ambition. Lex could help him expand his empire, something he wants almost as much as he wants her. And no one says no to the king of Sector Four.

Falling into bed is easy, but their sexual games are anything but casual. Attraction quickly turns to obsession, and their careful dance of heady dominance and sweet submission uncovers a need so deep, so strong, it could crush them both.

***REVIEW***

Guess I'm the only one out of us four that was really blown away by this book. Since they were introduced, Dallas and Lex became a fascinating duo for me. The most feared but respected leader of Sector Four, a chaotic gang place; and Lex Parrino, the bad-ass, fierce queen that looks after everyone and learned how to keep the gang together and running, a sort of mother hen.

Together they held a good order in the Sector, but their personal relationship was always wild, delicate and full of danger. A woman who couldn't bring herself to let go of the tight control she has over herself. She was very tempting for a very dominating man as a true leader should be, such as Dallas. But..

"Control. Oh how she’d hungered to let go for a while, to have Dallas hold it all, but the way he spoke proved he didn’t know. Maybe not how much, or maybe not at all."

They developed very strong feelings for each other but never dared to give in. It was a play of dominance and submission and for Lex and Dallas it was the most important one. Their situation was so interesting to me. Yes, I know - there was too much sex in this book, I didn't like that, but I loved this book mainly because of those two. A clash of such strong personalities - it got me high. I think that Dallas was the most interesting one - all his life he fought to keep control and have the right decisions, he was so careful that he was afraid that his love for Lex will make him weak. But it actually made him stronger. Together they were stronger. When they slowly, tip-toeing, managed to get close, I just... It was amazing!

"I can't do this without you. I can't be Dallas without Lex...I've always loved you." A shudder worked through him, and he pulled her closer. "I've always wanted you. They don't have a word for how much I need you. Everything good I am, everything good I've ever done...it's all you. You make me a king. Without you, I'm just another psychotic thug."

And yeah, there were a lot of issues that came up through the book, but I expected that with these too. It's never easy for them.

5/5 stars !!!

**********************************

          

Sex. Sex. Sex. Sex everywhere.
Sex on the floor. Sex on the table. Sex against the wall.
Sex in the shower. Sex in front of everyone. Sex with everyone.

That pretty much sums up the plot of this book. What's weird is that I actually liked more those rare parts of the book where they actually talked and where we found out more about the politics of the Sectors and their leaders. Don't get me wrong, the sex scenes were hot, a bit over-exaggerated, but hot no matter, BUT after the first half of the book I was like: dude, not again!-.- Dallas and Lex were one of my favorite characters in the 1st book, so I was looking forward to reading this book, and I thought that it would definitely be better than Noelle's and Jas' story, but in the end all the cheesy lines, sex all over the place, Lex showing more of her submissive side and Dallas being overpossessive jackass kind of ruined it for me. IMO the author should focus more on developing the story in the next book and reduce the sex scenes, because no matter how hot they are, after awhile they get boring. My favorite characters in this one were Bren & Six, their book is next and I hope the it won't disappoint.

3/5 stars !!!

*******************************

This book was really good, but...also a little predictable and similar to Noelle´s story, maybe a bit cheesy, but very fun and worthwhile. I honestly had fun reading Beyond Control, but I can't wait for Ace´s book. He´s my favorite guy in this series.

4/5 stars!!!

XOXO
Iva & Purple & Red

Wanderlust by Skye Warren

Buy the book: Amazon /B&N/ Smashwords/ All Romance

Published:  April 14th 2013 by Smashwords

Rating: 4 stars 

Genre: dark erotica

Find Skye Warren: Webpage / Twitter

RATING:

Book summary: 

Can love come from pain?

Evie always dreamed of seeing the world, but her first night at a motel turns into a nightmare. Hunter is a rugged trucker willing to do anything to keep her—including kidnapping. As they cross the country in his rig, Evie plots her escape, but she may find what she's been looking for right beside her.

Wanderlust is a dark erotic novel which explores dubious consent, captivity, and power play. Not intended for those uncomfortable with the subject matter or under eighteen.

My review:

Stolen meets Captive in the Dark meets The Siren= PERFECTION

RECIPE:

1 cup of Stockholm Syndrome
1 innocent girl who was sexually abused as a child
1 sadistic truck driver/priest with troubled past
1 overly protective psiho/schizophrenic mother
1 truck and miles and miles of dirty road
1 dream of Niagara Falls
Add the cruel reality and few cups of bad and selfish people.
Blend it all together and read it for about 3-4 hours and you´ll get this awesomeness.

Wanderlust is the dark, frightening story of a naive young woman, kidnapped and held against her will by damaged man who seeks revenge to society. 
This is a story of survival. It describes two people that have managed to survive injustice and sexual abuse and they still maintained their humanity and a will to escape their circumstances. They are both fighters and they still have a capacity for feeling and emotion, perhaps even love. They still have hope in a better tomorrow.

This book scared me. It´s threatening, challenging and controversial.
I loved Wanderlust because there was something so hauntingly beautiful about this book that captured my attention from the first chapter. I especially liked quotes in the beginning of each chapter from Evie´s book about Niagara Falls.

Ms Skye Warren deserves an applause, so I clap for her!

This definitely will not be the last book I will read of Skye Warren. She has earned herself a new fan.

Warning: This book is not for the faint-hearted readers. If you are not 18 or above or if you simply cannot take tear-jerking books, do not read it.

Until next time,
stay naughty...

Reckless by S.C. Stephens - Epic Buddy Read

Buy the book:

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / The Book Depository

Author's:
Website / Facebook / Twitter

Book summary

"When the band hits it big, Kiera and Kellan must ask themselves: Can their love for each other survive the constant pressures of superstardom? The friendships they've formed, the new family they've found, and the history they've forged will all play a part in helping them navigate the turbulent waters of the band's exploding popularity. A greedy executive hell-bent on success, a declining pop star looking for an edge, and a media circus that twists lies into truths are just some of the obstacles the lovers will have to overcome if they are going to remain together. Fame comes with a price-but will it cost Kiera and Kellan everything?"

Kellan, you are not what you used to be... but we still love you!

     Reading Reckless turned out to be the biggest buddy reading ever: Red, Iva and I from Way Too Hot Books (PurpleBook is kidnapped by sexy Italians, we are still waiting for her to get bored and come back home), our Tanja from sister-blog Ja čitam, a ti?, Zemira from YA Fanatic and, at least, ten other girls we have met on Goodreads. One thing we all agreed about - Kiera is more annoying then ever and Kellan is so not that bad boy we fell in love with.

     How should we do this? Hmmm... Okay, let's start with our status updates.

Status update: 1%

Iva: "Let the onslaught of Reckless status updates on my home page BEGIN!!!! :D"
Glass: "I ordered paperback, but it comes out in April. I can not wait that long - well, hello there, Kindle. Nice to see you, my old friend."

Few minutes later...

Glass:  "Mornin', Mrs. Kyle.
              Aaaaaaaaa, I am going to die over here! :D"

Status update: 2%

Red:  "Well Kiera, if you can´t ask him, I can and I will...:P"

Glass (thinking):  "For fuck sake Kiera, arent you over that fake innocence stuff?!"

Status update: 4-8%

Glass:  "Already with drama?!"
Red:  "Jeez, I forgot how dumb she can be!"
Glass:  "Kellan's future children...Oh, my..."
Red:  "Griffin, yay!!!"

Status update: 15-46%

Glass:  "This is kind of... boring.:("
Iva:  ".... *sigh* Do I even have to say that Kiera annoys me??? I'm tired of this."
Red:  ""Rose. Petals. In. The . Shape. Of. Heart. God, this is to much for me..."
Red:  "Now I´m gonna need afternoon delight too..."
Glass:  "I am so freaking jealous...."
Iva:  This Sienna woman is... Is.. I want to.. Aaaarrggghhhh! Shoot her someone!! Shoot her!"
Tanja:  "Oh Kiera if only your brain turned on as easily as other parts of your body it'd be great."

Status update: 60-88%

Red:  "If someone here says ever again: "Will you marry me?" I´m going to scream! XD"
Glass:  "Chill out with all wife/husband stuff..."
Iva:   "Kellan Kyle, Magic Mike style. *faints* Mother. Fucker. I'd cut my own leg to see that!!!!"
Red:  "Kellan striper? I could get used to this!"
Tanja: "I'm not sure about putting Discman and a laptop in the same era!"
Red:  "Kellan goes all Edward Cullen! XD"

In the mean time... Red talking with Glass about Twilight moment via phone. Glass is whining because she has to work.
Later that day...

Glass:  "Red, I've read Cullen saves the day part...hahahahaha"
Red:  " Even I had to admit...I was gorgeous. Goddamn it, Kiera!!!"
Glass:  "Okay, this is maybe a little sappy, but my heart aches while I read about wedding. My parents hate each other that much that they can't even live in the same country, so I don't think I'll ever have that moment in my life."

Status update: 90-100%

Red: "Someone, please shoot me!!!"
Glass: "Why do I have feeling that S.C. Stephens is going to write about Avoiding Redemption next?:DDD"
Iva:  "Now THAT'S what I call a spectacular Grammy's show :DDD And it was a really beautiful wedding before :)"

"Our lives are crazy. When moments to remember happen, you have to pause a second to appreciate them. Otherwise none of this is worth it." 

     As you can see, Reckless didn't quite live up to our expectations, but we still enjoyed reading final story about rock god Kellan and Kiera.

     Red doesn't like sappy love stories (that girl is all about pervy, kinky plots), but she can read contemporary romance novels if they have really good realistic background.  She liked previous books because they made her feel something, like hating Kiera and adoring Kellan, but Reckless even made her like less one of her favorite bad boys. She was so annoyed that she rated Reckless with one star.

Iva and I have basically same problems with this book - there was just too much drama. It reminded us of Spanish or, even worse, Turkish soap operas. We needed cold shower after Kellan's Magic Mike moment and we kind of liked wedding scene. We gave it three stars rating.

     One of our friends told us that whole Kel-Sex drama reminded her of gossip about Gotye and Kimbra ("Somebody I Used to Know"). That made me think about S.C. Stephens. Who is she? Is it possible that there is real-life Kellan and all that stuff in the end about Kiera writing and self-publishing her novels is actually autobiographic? Or was all that just about making people wondering? I'd like to believe it is. 

      What we all had to admit was that writing is much better than in previous books. It is obvious that it went trough some serious editing process. 

       In the end we would like to send two messages.

Dear Kellan, 

     Thank you for making us smile and swoon. Thank you for making us friends - you were one of first boys we all fell in love with and came to understanding that we can share you and still be friends. Thank you for your "Mornin'". We will always think of you when we smell coffee. And we hate you - because there is no boy in real life quite like you.Love,

Iva, Red & Glass

Dear S.C.Stephens,

     We will always be grateful to you for giving us Kellan. Maybe there were things we didn't like, but we hope you'll forgive us. After all, we were one of your biggest fans over years and we did make lot of people read your novels.:) Speaking about that, you should send some special love to our girl Zemira - she is the one who started this whole thing. We wish you many brilliant books. And, please, write the story about Avoiding Redemption! All the best,

Iva, Red & Glass