Monday, November 21, 2016

Review: Naughty or Nice by Jessie Logan

This is a sizzling little collection of stories that straddles the line between romantic erotica and erotic romance. Every tale in the bunch delivers a flame-broiled, mouth-watering feast of sensuality wrapped in cunningly conceived plot, with the overall balance between those two elements tipped faintly toward the heart or head in some cases ... and toward the more southerly organs in others.

Throughout the volume, author Jessie Logan spins up enticing situations, distinctive characters, and huge heapings of contagious lust, then brings things to both kinds of satisfying climax. For me, the most enjoyable three were the title story and two Santa-themed tales, "Just Like Santa," and "Secret Santa." All three had excellent story payoff without sacrificing any libidinous heat.

Two other stories intrigued me for more cerebral reasons. "Home For Christmas" receives most of its drive from a raw appreciation of masculinity that registered with me abstractly but not instinctually. "The Mysteries of Faith," meanwhile, targets the bond between lifelong female friends in a way that I as a man may be under-equipped to respond to. I'd be really interested to know whether these two stories resonate more powerfully with female readers than they did with me.

"Baby, It's Cold Outside" struck me as just a bit of good, clean (dirty) fun, perhaps the most straightforward and least ambitious in storytelling terms but very pure in its eroticism as a result.

Overall: if you're looking for some holiday-themed sauciness, check this one out. Logan definitely has the writing chops to deliver.

Naughty or NiceNaughty or Nice
by Jessie Logan
Genre: Erotic Romance
Age category: Adult
Release Date: November 5, 2016
Satisfy your cravings with these 6 flirty, dirty, and decadently more-ish short Holiday treats.

Naughty or Nice (M/F)
When twelve days of Christmas giving doesn't help Lily gain her co-worker's attention, maybe an outrageously sexy gift will.

Just Like Santa (F/F)
A school teacher finds some scandalous holiday satisfaction with her student's aunt and her willing friends.

Baby, It's Cold Outside (M/F)
Stranded in a blizzard with a younger man, what's a red-blooded woman to do except turn up the heat?

Home For Christmas (M/F)
A poignant reunion between husband and wife with a surprise in store...

The Mysteries of Faith (F/F)
What happens when your best friend marries the man of her dreams, when only days ago she was in your bed?

Secret Santa (M/F)
Sophie's Secret Santa gift has some unexpected and exciting consequences ... the type of delicious consequences that'd see a girl permanently on Santa's naughty list.
You can find Naughty or Nice on Goodreads

You can buy Naughty or Nice here:
- Amazon
- Amazon UK
This book is in Kindle Unlimited

Jessie LoganAbout the Author:
Jessie Logan is the pen name of a USA Today bestselling romance author. She adores writing dirty, flirty stories with a touch of humor and heart. Romance is her way to blow off steam and escape for a little while with a scorching-hot hero.

You can find and contact Jessie here:
- Website
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Goodreads
- Amazon
- Newsletter

Saturday, November 19, 2016

Big Flipping Deal Winners!

The Big Flipping Deal Rafflecopter giveaway is now a done deal! Nicole O. is the grand prize winner who scores copies of all four of my books in print, and runners-up Meredith M. and Esperanza G. each receive Big Flipping Deal in paperback. Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to all who entered!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Friday, November 11, 2016

Today's Star Trek Heroine: Doctor Helen Noel

I know I said no more Trek posts for a while ... but I'm kind of wishing I was on another planet right now. So ...
This morning, I watched "Dagger of the Mind" -- a pretty damn good episode with a pretty terrific female guest star.

The episode opens with the Enterprise orbiting a penal colony (no puns about that, I promise), to which they beam down some supplies and from which they beam up a box sized suspiciously like it was intended to hold an escaping prisoner. With our intrepid transporter-room technician immersed in some sort of technical check that requires his full attention to be focused on the back wall, the lid of the box opens and out pops a sweaty, wild-eyed fellow who proceeds to sneak up on the tech, incapacitate him, and take his uniform. Long story short, it turns out this isn't a prisoner, but an assistant of the psychiatrist who runs the penal colony (still no puns, trust me). Once he's captured, communications with the psychiatrist, Dr. Adams, reveal that the assistant was experimenting with a mental therapy device and drove himself crazy.

Kirk and Dr. McCoy get in a bit of a tiff about whether there's something suspicious going on, with Kirk expressing complete faith in the famous Dr. Adams. But Bones pulls some bureaucratic shenanigans that force Kirk's hand, and the captain concedes that he's got to investigate. He asks McCoy to assign someone from the medical staff to help him, someone with psychiatric experience.

And now we return to the transporter room, where Kirk walks in with Spock and does a double-take upon seeing who it is that Bones has assigned him. "Oh, great," I'm thinking, "here's where it surprises Kirk that his requested psychiatrist is a woman. Gasp! A woman doctor? Thank you, 1966."

But the first words out of Dr. Helen Noel's mouth are, "Doctor Helen Noel, Captain. We've met. Don't you remember the science lab Christmas party?" And it quickly becomes obvious through the dialogue that not only is Kirk aware that women can be doctors, but that his double-take was one of dismay because he somehow embarrassed himself at that Christmas party. Score one for Helen Noel, who looks pleased with herself over the captain's discomfiture.

Once on the planet, Dr. Noel does a bit of sensitive-female-psychiatrist shilly-shallying along the lines of, "Surely, you don't think Dr. Adams could be doing anything troublesome, Captain." But Kirk himself had done the same thing in response to McCoy's suspicions, so she can hardly be blamed.

And then, of course, the shit starts to go down.

And when the shit goes down, the ever-capable Captain Kirk heroically ... gets himself semi-brainwashed and imprisoned. Still, before they take him for the full "neural neutraliser" treatment, he orders Helen into the air-conditioning ducts with a mission to find and disable the force field that keeps the Enterprise from beaming anyone down to help. Despite admittedly having no training in force-field electronics -- which Kirk assures her are absolutely deadly if you make one false move -- Dr. Noel gamely hops into the ducts, follows them to the maintenance area, and gets to work.

Naturally, a guard finds her and pulls her away from the machinery, throwing her to the ground where she appears helpless.

Except that the helplessness is an act, meant to lure the guard in close so that she can kick him with both feet into the power junction, frying both it and him. Then she grabs up his fallen phaser and high-tails it back into the vents with the obvious intention of finding and rescuing Kirk.

Objectifying, impractical miniskirt uniform or not, this woman kicks ass. Kirk comes up with the plan and has to endure Dr. Adams' mind-control torture machine, but Dr. Noel takes on all the physical danger and does all the heavy lifting, never once faltering or shrinking from her task. Several times, she debates Kirk as an equal, and in every scene reliant on male-female dynamics, she comes out on top rather than succumbing to Kirk's usual Casanova charm.

Oh, hell ... tee-hee! Penal colony!

Dammit.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Big Flipping Deal ... Now Available on Kindle and in Print!

I've had a couple of bumps along the way, but Big Flipping Deal is now live on Amazon! And for those who like their books to have concrete physical reality, print copies can be found on Createspace!

If you need your appetite whetted, here's a little taste ...

Lindsey had the tiramisu, and I had the dark-chocolate-marbled cheesecake, and before she’d made it three bites in, she pointed her fork at her dessert and said, “Damn, we should have had Gus and Wendy order theirs before they left so we could double up. Is your cheesecake as good as this is?”

“You want to try it?” I asked, cutting a bite loose with my fork and holding it her direction. She glanced around, then said, “Sure.”

Parting those glossy red lips, she leaned slightly forward, and I raised the fork, edged it carefully nearer and nearer her mouth until she opened wide and let the bite pass her teeth – her eyes on mine the whole time. Closing, she slid her mouth back off the fork and chewed.

“Mmm,” she said, nodding and creasing her eyebrows. “Mm, yeah, that’s good. I don’t know if it’s as good as mine, but I admit I have a big coffee bias.”

I waited to see if she would offer me a bite in exchange. Instead, she put her cheek in one palm, elbow on the table, regarding me.

“Nick,” she said, “when Sam told me you were straight earlier, I shrugged and said we were just friends, so I didn’t know why it mattered. You know what he told me?”

I shook my head.

“He said, ‘That’s not how I heard it.’ What do you think he meant by that, Nick?”

With my face rapidly heating up, I decided to just go with the truth. “The other day, he was pestering me to come tonight, and he tried to bait the hook by telling me about all the hot bridesmaids. So I said something about having someone I was already interested in. I thought it might get him to stop bugging me.”

“That’s all?” she asked, cheek still resting on her hand.

“That’s all,” I said. Her lower lip moved in a way I couldn’t quite read. So I went on. “I mean, that’s the only reason I told him. I don’t mean it wasn’t true.”
Rush right over to Amazon to check out the rest!

Monday, November 7, 2016

Big Flipping Deal Cover Reveal!

Here it is! In glorious full color! The cover for my imminently impending new release, Big Flipping Deal!


What's it all about?

When the sweet little old lady down the road dies and leaves Nick half ownership of her house, he really has no idea what he’s getting into. His co-owner, Lindsey, gives every appearance of being Nick’s dream girl ... smart, talented, funny, and drop-dead gorgeous.

But Lindsey has a secret.

And when Nick finds out, his fantasies of dream-girl romance get turned upside-down.

He’s already signed on to remodel the house with Lindsey and flip it for a big profit. They’re going to be in constant, almost daily contact. She’s absolutely perfect in every way but one. Only that one is a doozy.

Will Nick be able to make things work with a woman whose equipment isn’t what he expected?

Will Lindsey open up after a lifetime of misunderstandings and bigotry?

Is this house flip headed for a happy ending ... or a wrecking ball?

Big Flipping Deal is a highly charged erotic romance full of humor, heart, and the opening of minds. The story is intended for adult audiences only.

You can find Big Flipping Deal on Goodreads:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32730933-big- flipping-deal

There's also a Rafflecopter giveaway! Win copies of all of my books! Real, hold-in-your-hands ones!


a Rafflecopter giveaway
And if you're seeing info about this all over the blog-o-sphere, it's thanks to the wonderful and clever Lola at
http://www.lolasblogtours.net/

Saturday, November 5, 2016

Free Erotica! Big Flipping Deal Cover Reveal!

Monday is the big cover reveal day for Big Flipping Deal, and to coincide with the event, I've set up a Rafflecopter giveaway!

You could win print editions of all four of my books if you hit the grand prize, or a hard copy of Big Flipping Deal if you're a runner-up!

Check back Monday!

Mudd's Women: One Last Star Trek Review (at least for now!)

I swear I'm not turning this into a Star Trek blog. Just one more Trek entry and I'll get back to other topics, promise.

When last we left our intrepid twenty-first century feminist, Ian Saul Whitcomb, he'd gone through five episodes of the original Star Trek and been dismayed by its paternalism toward women. Dauntingly, he knew the next episode he faced would be "Mudd's Women," a tale of mail-order brides gussied-up by a beauty-inducing drug and taken to a mining colony as goods of commerce. Would the show's woefully dated attitudes make this the most uncomfortable episode yet?

Surprisingly, and to my great relief, no. In fact, the episode stood in stark contrast to its predecessors as the first genuine example of Star Trek as morality play, commenting on the social order of its time and suggesting that things ought to change.

(At this point, I'll give an obligatory spoiler warning, in case you haven't ever in the last fifty years watched this episode ...)

Where previous installments of the series showed the male officers of the Enterprise occasionally comparing notes on the attractiveness of female crew members, the Venus Drug of "Mudd's Women" turns them into gawking idiots, rendered incompetent by their baser instincts. Captain Kirk largely resists -- by taking his awareness of the women's hypnotic effect and making a determined effort to treat them like people and maintain his professionalism. When one of the women, Eve McHuron, complains about the eyes of all the crewmen following her, Kirk apologizes, saying, "They're not usually like that."

So despite the archaic plot device of mail-order marriage (and numerous "ooh-la-la" musical cues as the women slink and sway around), the episode carries a clear anti-ogling message throughout.

More importantly, in the climactic scenes, Eve McHuron chooses certain death over continuing to play the role society has foisted on her. She survives, demonstrating in the process a genuine character and intelligence that sets Kirk up to deliver the episode's crowning message: that there's only one kind of person -- "You either believe in yourself, or you don't."

Finally, six episodes in, I've found the Star Trek that forcefully helped make me the person I am today.

Ahead, warp factor one.

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Tonight on Star Trek ...

Yikes!

So, I remembered thinking "The Enemy Within" was kind of dumb from the last time I watched it, probably a good 10 years ago or more. It's the one where they glued some fake horns on a Pomeranian to make an alien critter for a transporter accident that splits creatures into good and evil twins. (The transporter also later renders some thermal heating units useless by splitting them in two, which maybe explains why the units are both "thermal" and "heating," although the consequence that neither a good nor an evil thermal heating unit would be functional is beyond my comprehension.)

What I didn't remember was the super-creepy attempted rape of Yeoman Janice Rand by Evil Kirk. Though scene made me pretty darn uncomfortable right from its opening moments, I told myself it could be excused as an entirely logical consequence of the episode's concept, and handled correctly would constitute legitimate drama. And the scene itself did play out in a more or less appropriate fashion -- clearly portraying Evil Kirk's behavior as horrific and very traumatic for Yeoman Rand, though she escapes before Evil Kirk takes things very far.

But then ...

At the end of the episode ...

Mister Spock kids Yeoman Rand about it.

I shit you not.

Now, this too could be viewed as logical within the context of the show, given Spock's detached curiosity about human emotions and his calculated analysis that Kirk's hostile, aggressive side is intrinsically necessary for his success as a commander. But the logic goes out the window after that point, because instead of being hurt or appalled, Yeoman Rand responds to the joke as if it's just another of Spock's ironic "oh, you humans" jibes.

And yet, while my jaw absolutely dropped that anyone would consider that joke okay, I came away from the episode with a sense of the positive.

All too often, I look around at the world and think, Good lord. We're getting nowhere. In fact, if anything, things are getting worse and worse. But the fact of the matter is, fifty years ago, a television show could portray the near rape of a female character as an acceptable springboard for humor -- and still be the most forward-looking thing on TV.

We are getting somewhere. Maybe not as fast as we should maybe not at warp speed, but we're making progress.

Cross your fingers for me, though. The next episode in the sequence is "Mudd's Women," and I see great potential for it to go wildly awry in comparison to my childhood memories of it ...