Four Stars for Hidden Heat!

This review made my day – four stars for Hidden Heat from Guilty Pleasures:

What a ride! I had no clue what to expect when I started this story but was quickly sucked in to the plot. I have never seen a story with this type of futuristic take on sex and found myself wondering what people would do if it came down to suppressing professionals so that they could focus on their work. The idea that people would be put to death because they are sexually active professionals is a new twist on the idea of getting a thrill from doing the forbidden. Scott and Holly are electric when they are together and their chemistry is addicting. What I love even more, is that Scott is open minded and is more than happy to share that with his male roommate as well as Holly…

You can read the full review at Guilty Pleasures. This review makes me happy on so many levels, because Hidden Heat is the book I put a ton of thought into, but that not many people seem to have read. It’s great to know it’s been received well by a reviewer.

Must continue work on the sequel, Holo Betrayal, as soon as I’ve finished with Hot, Rich and Dominant 3! ^_^

Did Somebody Say ‘Five Star Reviews’? :D

Yes! The Switch anthology is going down a storm amongst the erotic romance reviewing crowd – we’ve got not one, but two five-star reviews  for the anthology as a whole so far!

You can find the full reviews at the links provided, but they had this to say about Switching Off:

…as with anything I have ever read by this author, it gets right into hot sex scenes and some pretty interesting predicaments. Management is stressful. No doubt about it. How wonderful that our heroine Nina has a Dom in the closet friend in Jon who can help her with her little problem. And take her in hand he does. Nina was a bit of a pill at first, but as Jon works her into submission, I found myself sighing contentedly wishing I could borrow him for awhile. ~ Long and Short Reviews

****

Switching Off was a fantastic read with a delightful insight to what many may feel about themselves and doubts they may have about how they live their lives. Well expressed and fun reading all the way through and most definitely a good way to switch off and realign a much needed part of life for most all of us.  I realize this does not work for all but under the right circumstances could be fantastic. The wit and saucy undercurrents made the story so realistic that you could just see it unfolding all around you. Loved it.

First off, I just want to say that if I had a friend like Jon…well. Ummm. Yummy. What are friends for if not to spank you when you need a reality check and give you some quality time devoted to stress relief. Nina was a little cranky, but she warms up quick to some of the tricks Jon has up his Dominant and oh so sexy sleeve. This story gives new meaning to the term friends with benefits. ~ Erzabet’s Enchantments

****

Last but definitely not least, one of my fellow TEB authors, Donna Gallagher, had this five-star review to add to the mix!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Switching Off. I believed Nina’s personality and attitude, most likely caused by her demanding workload, one that would be easy for other women in similar positions to relate to. Jon, I fell in love with from the onset, if only we could all have a calm and confident friend like him. The BDSM scenes, and there was a fair amount of spanking going on, did not detract from my enjoyment of the story, like other books I’ve read have, because Nina’s thoughts and her reasons for becoming a submissive were so skilfully relayed to me by the author. For me there were no “as if” moments but plenty of “Mmmm! that could work” thoughts. I loved it. ~ Donna Gallagher on Goodreads

Preorder Hidden Heat, 4-Star Review for Little Tease, and More!

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, on the whole. I’ve got a lot of projects on the go, but I seem to be stalling on most of them!

Anyway, here’s a post with all my news and plans…

Preorder Hidden Heat Now!

Hidden Heat, my dystopian erotica novella, is out on Monday, and you can preorder it now from Total-E-Bound’s website. It won’t be on Amazon or anywhere else for three months, but you can grab it at TEB now! I hope you do, cause I really enjoyed writing it.

I’ve also started writing its sequel, tentatively titled Holo Betrayal (yes, I’ve been taking bad pun lessons from my friend Fleur T. Reid), which looks like it’s going to be full of twists and turns. Writing about corrupt governments and covert sex is so much fun… plus, the characters have kind of seized control of the whole thing. Don’t you just love it when that happens?

Little Tease gets four stars from The Romance Reviews!

Hot on the heels of Dominance and Deception‘s nomination for Best Erotic BDSM Romance 2011 (please go and vote!), The Romance Reviews has given Little Tease, the first book in the Rack and Ruin series, a four-star rating – which is pretty damn fine with me! Here’s an excerpt from the review:

I really thought that LITTLE TEASE was cute. Cute?? Yeah, cute, you read that right. I know BDSM romance isn’t normally considered cute, but the BDSM stuff really wasn’t the main focus of the story in my opinion. Yeah, there was some D/s power exchange, bondage and spanking, but that was about the extent of it. Most of the book really focused on the interaction between Josh and Lena outside of the D/s boundaries, and I loved that. [...] My only complaint was that I wanted more. More of Josh and Lena, more of the club members…just more!

You can read the full review at the TRR website. Thanks, Rho!

What’s Next?

The next couple of weeks will be release weeks – Hidden Heat is out on Monday 26th March, and on Monday 2nd April my erotic horror collaboration with Fleur T. Reid, Smoke and Mirrors, will be released.

Having said that, all the work is done from my perspective, really. It has been for a few weeks – it’s over to my publisher now. So I get to sit back and watch… no, wait. That’s a huge lie!

Yep, I have a sequel to Hidden Heat to write. In addition to that, Rack and Ruin 2, Smurfette’s book, is still in its infancy, and I’m impatient to get that written so I can start squeeing over Izzy’s book, the third in the series (which is already written).

I also have a submission to Total-E-Bound’s Switch anthology to finish, and once that’s done I want to start a Gothic ghost story. My plate is well and truly full at the moment, and that’s not even counting my day job. Things might be slow in coming together, but bear with me – I’m still writing!

5 Stars for ‘Dominance and Deception’!

This amazing five-star review landed in my inbox today – I’m so flattered and pleased!

I’m thrilled with Ms. Valenti’s characters because none of the BDSM people are in the lifestyle due to some messed up abuse from their past [...] Instead, they are everyday normal people who love to get the kink on. Oh boy, is the kink hot.

This D/s relationship, which also included a very hot ménage with Faye subbing for two men, made me want to jump my spouse [...] Her techniques are pure D/s with some great mind fucking. [...] Going back to basics is pretty hot [...]

While it’s easy to categorize this book as a BDSM book, it’s more than just a sex book. The plot development was tightly written, detailing the work life of people in law enforcement. The twists and turns in the story kept me constantly guessing and wanting to know what was next. I loved how her story surprised me at each turn. There were no predictable scenarios and outcomes. It is so refreshing to read a romance story where the couple didn’t immediately move in with each other and profess their undying love within weeks of meeting. The book takes us through two years of loving and growth between Zack and Faye. Watching them grow closer together and the ups and downs in their relationship brought a smile to my face.

Happiness and joy!

You can read the full review at The Romance Reviews, where it’s classed as a Top Pick. *squee*

5-Star Review for Battle of Thrills!

Christmas has come early for me!

Night Owl Reviews has given Battle of Thrills a glowing five-star review!

Ooh, Battle of Thrills is a smokin’ hot read! It’s a hugely erotic romance and the sexual tension couldn’t possibly get any more extreme! Ms. Valenti writes with a sexual intensity that will make you feel very much in the moment. I enjoyed Battle of Thrills so much my only wish is that it could have been longer. Of course, I just may not have survived reading about any more of that incredible sex, it was that hot! I kind of feel cheated…do they really make men like that? Battle of Thrills is a very yummy read and you’ll be mad at yourself if you miss this one!

Nerves

So, on Monday Battle of Thrills shows up on the Total-E-Bound website as ‘coming soon’, closely followed by a preorder link. This is exciting, and it’s the first of the big milestones I’ve been so impatiently waiting for. *insert happy dance here*

I’m also extremely nervous. This is what I now see as my first release – okay, there was the original release of Shocked, but that was only available for four months. TEB have a two-year minimum contract for my stuff, and they seem pretty reliable, so I’m kind of rebooting my debut-publication-nerves to this point, if that makes any kind of sense!

I could focus on my total terror that Battle and D&D will just sink without a ripple, but I’m not even going to think about it. Instead, I’m going to list the text reviews I got on Barnes and Noble for my extremely silly shifter-parody short, Cursed and Compelled.

Focusing on something positive is always a good thing, after all! And at the time of writing, I haven’t omitted any negative reviews – this is the lot!

***

Very, very silly, in a good way

If you take your paranormal romance seriously, you may be annoyed by this very short story, which parodies the genre. Also, there’s no HEA. Shocking! But it stuck a big, stupid grin on my face, which for a free Smashwords read is a remarkably good outcome. It actually made me want to read more by this author.

Oh my…

Literally LOL’d!

a reviewer

Very unexpected but i couldnt help but giggle out loud.

^_^

This has plastered the goofiest grin on my face, love it!

short, silly, but cute

I got a good chuckle at the end. This story is not what you expect

***

This makes me happy, because none of the above came from people I know – that I know of, anyway. Okay, I know a lot of people read the story and go, ‘What the hell?! Screw that!’ and click the ‘one-star’ button (hence the low overall rating) but since I wrote it as a parody of the stories they love, without any kind of happily-ever-after ending, I pretty much expected that. ;D

Reviews and Thank Yous…

To all of the people who have downloaded my free reads (and reviewed them, positively or not!) – thank you. It’s so interesting to see what people think. I’ve only previously had that feedback from fan fiction, so it’s great to have that same communication from original fiction readers (if on a lesser scale – fangirls are much more rabid with their fanfic love!).

At the time of writing, Lipstick is at 4.50/5 from 2 reviews, and Cursed and Compelled is on 3.43/5 from 7 reviews. Happily, the latter has two 5-star and two 4-star reviews, so I’m not going to spiral into a total pit of depression from the 1-star, 2-star and 3-star that make up the rest.

Getting the comments is kind of like playing a videogame. Get a good one – yay! Mental Xbox achievement points! Get a bad one – ouch… mistimed that jump, fell into a ravine, let’s reload and try again. I’m not going to bother editing Cursed and Compelled, but I can definitely see the points of my detractors, and now I know what not to write.

It’s kind of addictive seeing how many people have downloaded the freebies. I’m like, ‘Oooh, five hundred? Sweet!’ Once I get to a thousand, I might treat myself to some form of cake. *grin*

And having self-published freebies, I think I can understand the self-publishing bug a little more than I used to. It’s nice to have my own schedule – I’m so impatient that waiting on publishers makes me aaaaargh. See previous posts for details.

But any stuff I write that’s over a couple of thousand words will be sent off to publishers-who-are-not-me. I prefer having the ego boost of knowing that someone else has chosen to publish me… and I freely admit to the ‘ego’ part.

It Finally Happened!

Maybe this is going to come across as too much self-justification, and I’m aware of that.

I expected from the moment I uploaded Cursed and Compelled that someone would read it and hate me for making it a parody. It starts out pretty standard for an archetypal paranormal romance, and then takes a pretty sharp downturn for the ridiculous toward the end.

Today I got the review I’d been expecting from the start. Basically: ‘the ending sucked.’

I’m actually not going to argue with that. If you download something to read and expect hot shapeshifter sex, you’re going to be a little bit annoyed by what I did in the story. I apologise for the cock-block… but it was listed in the comedy section, and tagged with the word ‘parody’.

I’m not going to be crying into my pillow over this one, I don’t think. I haven’t had anyone lay into Shocked yet… When someone does, I’ll probably have a bit of a sniffle over that!