New Review! Hot Dirty Love by Sybilla Matilde, 3.5 Cranky Stars

Hot Dirty Love by Sibylla Matilde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars



*** 3.5 Cranky Stars ***

This one goes from a very long (and well written) Letters to Penthouse submission to very cliched romance novel with a bit of kinky drama thrown in.



It is a bit all over the board with what it wants to be, toying with rockstar romance, professor/student, M/M/F and second chance. I think my biggest issue with it was that I just couldn't make a connection with the characters.



I wanted to like Rain, I truly did, but she just never actually came off the page to me as at least one character has to to be a 5 star read for me. Just felt even less real to me.



As I mention the first 2/3 to 3/4 of the book felt more like a very long letter sent to a girly magazine, full of all the over the top scenarios that no one ever believes are real, but can be fun to read if you are in the right mood. There is no lack of 18+ action here, and very few, if any, inhibitions.



When the erotic portions lull for a couple of pages, it brings what felt like a very forced storyline with a bit too much personality change too quickly. Then there is the confrontation with the person who had stirred the drama pot....it really did not work for me, but thankfully, like most of the plot line peaks into this one was short lived so we could get back to the steamy parts.



One of my book groups was recently discussing erotica in general, and the almost universal response was that the group members all required a deeper storyline than what you would get in a triple x rated movie. I have to say this one fell a bit short of that mark for me. However, when I realized this was the 5th book in a series about the band members, I did find myself seriously considering at least reading the first one. I will say that the parts of the book I enjoyed the most were the ones that involved the other members of the band and their women.



I am struggling with this review and the number of stars, as I appreciate that it was well written and well edited (something that I greatly appreciate after countless reads I have highlighted with yellow out of habit (with the exception of a couple of continuity issues, pretty much all surrounding the length of semesters/school year.)) The sensual scenes are very well written no matter what combination of people are involved.



As I have mentioned, it simply did not come together for me. The last chapter or two and the epilogue came closer than any other part of the book, but by the time I got there I was past even trying to connect. I have a bit of a rockstar obsession, but that was not much more than an occasional mention and some banter between his band brothers and himself.



But after a more negative review than I like to admit, I will say that I am off to at least look at the other books in this series, so there is something here drawing me in.

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