Of Yesterday by Alta Hensley

Available: Now Amazon/B&N

Type: Erotic Romance

Pubisher: LazyDay 

My Copy: Sent

Reviewer: Nikki

Trying to bring back the morals of yesterday, Jason Winters is determined to build a new society. Everything is going as planned until he meets the fiery, Taylor McKnight. Now, he questions if he is trying to build happiness…when what he really needs to do, is find happiness.

Taylor McKnight’s entire life is about to change with one single proposition. She is willing to take on the adventure, but is she willing to take on the man? The bigger question: could she fall in love with a man, while bent over his knee?

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Alta Hensley returns to her world of domestic discipline with Of Yesterday which is set in todays world but in a commune like setting where the people live without modern conveniences.

Taylor has been living her life the best way she knows how, by selling herbs and potions under the guise that she is a witch  When she is confronted by a clients angry older brother she is taken aback by his vehemence that she is robbing people and praying on their innocence. With her fiery temper she bursts into his house when he sets out to sue her and take away the only livelihood she has. She’s shocked and slightly outraged when he suggests moving in with him as his sisters keeper at his new commune where they will live like the late 1800′s.

Jason and Taylor together left me feeling conflicted. In Hensley’s past domestic discipline books I found myself intrigued by the world in which these characters live. In Of Yesterday I found myself constantly annoyed by Jason and his high handed behavior to the point where I wanted to close the book and walk away. The man was the most hard headed man I’ve read in a LONG time. His rigidness was outright ridiculous at time. When a barn fire threatens their livestock, Taylor rushes in fearing for the animals and not knowing where Jason was at the time. He punishes her afterward for endangering herself. REALLY? I understood his fear for her, but she only ran in to look for him and to save their horses, it seemed mean to punish her for it.

Then there was the figging. Don’t know what that is? It’s a process that stems from horse owners in the Victorian era in which an owner of a horse that may not have been performing well has a ginger root shoved up their ass. The root causes the horse discomfort in the form of a burning sensation. The horse perks up long enough to be sold and then is no longer the problem of the owner. It was outlawed. Jason uses this process on Taylor as punishment which causes pain but eventually turns her on. I was left feeling slightly squicked out. I didn’t find it hot at all, in fact it edged toward cruel for me.

I enjoyed the simplicity of the life Jason was trying to build even if it completely felt like a religious commune you might see raided on the news. Had I liked him more I think I would have been more on board with what he was trying to do but his obstinence and high handedness just took most of the enjoyment out of it for me. Taylor was a strong heroine and I wanted her to be happy and at times I thought she degraded herself a bit just to make him happy. I liked when she stood up for herself and finally told him to stop and to take a look around and see what was happening. I’m not sure if spanking her will ever stop her displays of temper though.

I only had one other gripe. Jason’s sister, who is supposedly locked in a childs mind because the trauma of her parents death when she was 10 was just to much for her to handle. She sees everything through a childs happy go lucky eyes and Jason takes his role as her protector extremely seriously. Up until the last part of the book she is portrayed as being mentally handicapped in a way. Unable to function as an adult and forever a child trapped in an adult body. She meets a man and very quickly the tables are turned and she’s re-emerging as someone who has the capacity to become someones lover. Um no. You can’t portray a character as being handicapped and then tell me it magically starts going away when she meets a man. That just doesn’t happen. Either more needed to be seen through her eyes to make the reader understand she wasn’t as bad off as her brother thought or she needed to just be, no man.

While I have enjoyed past books by Hensely, this one failed to pull me in and often left me wanting to smack the hero upside the head. While the actual sex scenes, minus the figging, were hot and well wrote the connection between the characters was missing for me which made the book merely a surface read. I loved Taylor and her outrageous personality and that alone kept me reading.

I give Of Yesterday by Alta Hensley 3 stars!

Traditional Terms by Alta Hensley (Traditional Love #2)

Available: Now Amazon/B&N

Type: Erotic Novella

Publisher: LazyDay Publishing

My Copy: Sent

She can submit to the man. But can she submit to the love?

Being an erotica author, Coley could turn words into a lusty scene in seconds. She could write about sex, but was finding it difficult to write about love. She just couldn’t find the hero for her book…or in real life, for that matter. She needed to find the passion to write again. She needed to find passion…period.
With one kiss, Coley soon discovers that a long time friend may be the man she had always been looking for. Vance was strong, sexy, loving and extremely alpha. Coley also knew he lived a lifestyle of Domestic Discipline. He loved, he led and he spanked his women.
Had she found her real life hero? Could Coley surrender to his love? Could she truly submit to his Traditional Terms?

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Coley knows what Domestic Discipline is because it’s the lifestyle her brother and fiance live daily but she doesn’t think she could ever submit to a spanking and do it seriously. She is just way to headstrong, way too in control of herself to ever hand over the reigns to a man. Coley is lonely though and yearns for the love and stability of a man. When her brothers best friend, Vance shows some interest in her, Coley decides to give this spanking thing a try. She may not be able to be what Vance needs, but she’s willing to give it a shot. Little does she know that along with allowing herself to be spanked, she’s also allowing her heart to love.

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Alta Hensley is an author I have just discovered recently and I must say, I am glad that I did! Traditional Terms is a novella length jewel in the erotic romance genre that kept me interested in this lifestyle of Domestic Discipline that I had never heard of before. Sure I’ve heard of spanking used in the bedroom, I’m no prude and you can find that scenario throughout many erotic romances…even some contemporary romances. However, I had never heard of Domestic Discipline. The act of spanking or the use of threatening punishment in the bedroom while you are in public. Of course these “punishments” may be uncomfortable at first but will end in you begging for more. To be spanked harder. To use other props in the submission process.

I found that myself and Coley were a lot alike. She is completely headstrong and the thought of being spanked or controlled by any man in public turned her off. Yet in a strange way, turned her on too. Sure, she understood it but she didn’t necessarily want to live it either.  Vance is a dominant man and even though she is willing to give his lifestyle a try she isn’t sure she can ever fully submit to him. Coley doesn’t want to be humiliated in public and told what she can or can’t say. I totally understood her balking at the control idea. I would feel the same way. Yet it’s the thrilling aspect that giving up the control gives me that I think Coley felt too. The sensual aspect that if Coley acts out Vance is sure to punish her behavior later. Which is, of course, what Coley does. It’s the excitement factor. She pushes his boundaries and tests her limits. Subconsciously knowing that if he let’s her off the hook that she will lose all respect for his lifestyle but at the same time dreading the punishment sure to follow her behavior.

I found the entire thing HOT! The push and pull of Coley and Vance was spot on and made me feel invested in their budding relationship as well as excited by it. I have not read the first book in the series, Traditional Love, but the characters of Caine and Neely play central characters again in this one. Along with the incredible BITCH, Sara, who apparently lives to start trouble and cause chaos. I wanted to jump into the book and pimp slap her with the back of my hand and then smash her face into the nearest wall. Yea, she affected me that much, lol. I kept muttering under my breath nasty things I wanted to say to the conniving trouble maker.

I am now totally in the, I *heart* Alta Hensley fan club! If you like erotic romance heavy on the dominance and don’t mind a bit of public displays and the threat for spankings, then you will love Traditional Terms! Full of sexy situations that are sure to set your pulse pounding then calm you down with the slow precision in which Vance works Coley and teaches her about love.

I give Traditional Terms by Alta Hensley 4.50 stars!

Indulgence: Tales Of The Cirque Romani – Anthology

Available: Now Amazon/B&N

Type: Paranormal Erotic Short Stories

Publisher: LazyDay

My Copy: Sent

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls…” the Master of Ceremonies echoes every night. These are the words that launch a night full of entertainment, magic, seduction, debauchery and desire.
Cirque Romani was a troupe like no other, a carnival full of true mysticism, power and dark seductive secrets. It travels from town to town, performing to an audience and consisting of a cast of creatures that folklore tales weave stories about.
Cirque Romani is a troupe full of magical, dark and fascinating people that choose to entrance others, rather than hide in the depths of the shadows.
We introduce to you…Indulgence: Tales of The Cirque Romani.
Let the show begin…

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No recap on this one simply because after reading it I honestly don’t know what to say. This book left me with a foreign feeling…dumbfoundedness. I should say that not all of it was like that. There are three short stories that I want to point out in a positive light.

The very first story is Master Of Ceremonies by Alta Hensley. I enjoyed the focus on the head of the Cirque Romani, Valian the vampire, and his wooing of the assistant he saved from certain death years before. Ada only wants to make Valian her very own and is willing to do anything to get him. Even make the ultimate sacrifice.

This was sexy, and the story line made sense without too much over trying because of its length. It was fun and light hearted. I will definitely be looking for more by this author.If her writing spoke to me on a short story level, then I am betting I fall in love with her style if given the chance in a longer work.

I enjoyed Coming Home by Ty Langston. This one gave us a taste of a cat shifter and her human lover who had no idea what she was. Nina is a contortionist with the troop, living her dream..with the exception of having left behind her true love Jon years ago. Now she is back in town and she wants him back. No secrets. The one thing he doesn’t know about her is the only thing that might keep them apart.

Nina and Jon together were extremely hot. I loved their interaction and based on the rest of the short stories in this book…they were pretty believable. I also thought that making Nina a cat shifter, but making her a house cat instead of a big at was inventive. I thought the writing flowed nicely. I will be looking for more from this author for sure!

Lastly I wanted to talk a minute about The Tiger Tamer by A Jeeper Wade. Two tiger shifters and their Jaguar master make for one hot threesome! Demitri has been on the run with his Tigers, Dasha and Petra, for a long time. Hiding among the Cirque Romani had been working but it appears now they had been found. Strange occurrences have been happening and to protect his two girls Demitri is going to have to use all his wiles…..and claws.

I do love a hot threesome occasionally. Wade has definitely written a hot one. Full of a smidge of BDSM and a whole ton of wow, this one had me shifting in my seat a little to often. I enjoyed the connection between characters and Demitris obvious love for the girl. I would have loved this one to be longer!

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Now on to everything else. I am at a loss. I read some things in this book that I thought I’d never ever read. If we were going based simply on that it would be a win. However, things that were written to be hot seriously came off as cheap $1 viewing room fodder. Some of these were so horribly written that I cringed reading them. The dialogue sounded like cheap porn writers took left over pron conversations and just threw them into some short stories. They were completely unbelievable. No one screams “I’m coming” during sex…no one. And if no one says that I don’t think anyone screams “I’m coming AGAIN!, Oh god”. I saw the word pussy, slit, hole, love button and the dreaded “c” word way to many times. At some point it just gets old and redundant.

There is one particular short story that just made me cringe…and honestly I felt a bit dirty reading it. I sincerely hope that wasn’t the intent of the author, but this story involved a midget…and sex…midget sex. Which itself, isn’t what got me. Little people need love too. It was the terminology with getting the male anatomy to sync up with the womans..ummm parts. Adding to this is what they perform for the carnival-insert drumroll here- sword swallowing. So now we have two ladies that can deep throat….swords…*cough cough*.  I. did. not. like. it. at. all.

There was boobie humping, fruit demoralizing and prop usage that I had never read before. I think I could have gone my whole life without reading that. At the end of this book I was left with some ick factors and the thought that I had finally….finally….read it all. I cannot give this book a rating because I did like 3 of the stories out of the 10. It would just be wrong to bring down the score for those 3 stories based on what I thought of the rest. I just…wow…..