1. Damaged Goods (Talia Hibbert) ★★★★★☆☆
published in 2018 – Kindle e-book (150 pages)
I quite enjoyed this. Laura, the main character, is pregnant and escaping an emotionally abusive marriage. She meets Samir, the first boy she loved at fifteen. I like the second-chance romance trope and it was executed pretty well here. Samir was very sweet, but I never quite felt I got to know him very well in this novel. Laura was much more in depth but even there I would have liked a bit more. This was only 150 pages and I wonder whether it would have been a stronger book if had been fleshed out a bit more. I did like the lovestory though and the ending was just perfect. I would like to read more by this author.
2. So Sweet (Rebekah Weatherspoon) ★★★★☆☆☆
published in 2015 – Kindle e-book (100 pages)
There was nothing necessarily wrong with this. It was pretty much a feel-good story. It was kind of cute, despite the age gap – did I mention this is age gap romance? Well, I have now. There was little conflict and the relationship was pretty straight forward. These characters actually communicate, people! However, it needed a bit of extra oomph and I feel like there was just not enough here to make it compelling. The emotional relationship moved too quickly here! In the end, it was fine. I enjoyed it well enough.
3. From Scratch (Katrina Jackson) ★★☆☆☆☆☆
published in 2017 – Kindle e-book (122 pages)
This had elements of a good story, but it failed to really build on those for me. It definitely just felt like a rather rushed story about a polyamorous relationship, which mainly revolved around sex. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problems with polyamoury in books when it is done well, but I just did not find the relationships believable enough and even in smutty books I need to actually feel some chemistry! I rolled my eyes a few times, which is never a good sign.
A bonus point for diverse characters, but for me this really was smut without depth, which apparently is not my thing.
*
CONCLUSION
I am not sure short romance/sexy stories are for me. I find I simply need a bit of depth in my books, even smutty ones! It is hard for a novella to provide that. I may have a couple more hiding on my Kindle somewhere, but I think for now I will be staying away from these types of short romance stories.
Having said that, I am likely to read more by Talia Hibbert in the future. There was just something there I did like.
Oh, and on a side note, words to add to the unsexy list: pumping, humping, ramming… 😂😂
Lola Et La Vie 