Review of Kick at the Darkness (Kick at Darkness #1) by Keira Andrews

  by Keira Andrews

5 stars

To live through the zombie apocalypse they have to survive each other first.

College freshman Parker Osborne is having the worst day ever. He humiliated himself trying to pick up a cute guy, he hasn’t made any friends at school, and his stupidly hot jerk of a TA gave him a crappy grade on his paper. He’s going to drop Adam Hawkins’ film class and start fresh tomorrow after he’s had a good sulk.

But Parker’s about to find out what a bad day really looks like—if he can survive the night.

A virus is unleashed, transforming infected people into zombie-like killers. After these quick and deadly creepers swarm campus, Parker only escapes thanks to Adam swooping him onto the back of his trusty motorcycle. Now they're on the run—and stuck with each other.

When they’re not bickering, they’re fighting off the infected in a bloody battle for survival. Their only hope is to head east to Parker's family, but orphaned Adam has a secret he’s not sure Parker will accept: he’s a werewolf. Can they trust each other enough to find some light in these dark days?

Riley Hart again nails a sexy enemies-to-lover romance in Depth of Field. She creates to main characters both hiding in their own ways who find that they fit so good together.

There is no hiding it, our absolute love for everything Keira Andrews – no seriously!  We have a crush for everything she writes, and Kick at the Darkness, a paranormal-shifter book (yep, you read that right) is outstanding!!!

We start with a snotty know it all college student, Parker Osborne.  A freshman who has grown up with a silver spoon, I can do nothing wrong attitude.  But College is harder than he thinks; he is struggling with fitting in, making any connections and expectations of his classes.  When his easy-A class get him a crappy grade on a paper he takes it personally and argues his case for a better grade.  But instead of getting his way he comes up against TA Adam Hawkins, a total hard ass. Adam Hawkins has seen Parker’s type before and it’s budging on the grade, and hope that he will drop the class like he said he will.  But, fate has a weird way of getting what it wants.  When a virus is unleashed on the world, Adam and Parker find themselves thrown together, bickering the whole way to survival.

We actually struggled with picking up this book; not really into shifters, zombies, end-of-the-world book, no doom and gloom for us.  But gah – we were so wrong!  Yes, Kick a the Darkness deals with a horrific outbreak, gore, death, but it somewhere in all that horror Parker and Adam find each other.  A werewolf and snotty college student find themselves thrown together to survive and actually find what they have been missing.

So, down to the nitty gritty – what did we love about Kick at the Darkness?  It is romantic, yes, weird to say, as they run for their lives, but it is.  Adam and Parker are clinging to each other, supporting each other and caring for each other, and their sweetness is romantic.  But the story is the real gem here.  So many times we read romance books that don’t have a story, but Kick at the Darkness delivers; it twists, turns and kept us riveted to the edge of our kindle. 

But it isn’t all about running for their lives, these men create some serious heat. Adam is totally the alpha in this relationship but as Parker becomes more comfortable there is a sexy little dirty side that takes over.  So many sweaty, spicy, scalding moments – so good!

Kick at the Darkness is an unexpected gem.  We fell in love with the fast-paced story, the sexy men and it was pretty close to perfection.  Keira Andrews creates stories, not just books; she creates characters that are real and we fall in love with everyone.  Kick at the Darkness of 2 books – and spoiler, we already read the 2^nd and it is better than the first!

Review of Off Campus by Amy Jo Cousins

 Off Campus by Amy Jo Cousins

2.5 stars

With his father’s ponzi scheme assets frozen, Tom Worthington believes finishing college is impossible unless he can pay his own way. After months sleeping in his car and gypsy-cabbing for cash, he’s ready to do just that.

But his new, older-student housing comes with an unapologetically gay roommate. Tom doesn’t ask why Reese Anders has been separated from the rest of the student population. He’s just happy to be sleeping in a bed.

Reese isn’t about to share his brutal story with his gruff new roommate. You’ve seen one homophobic jock, you’ve seen ’em all. He plans to drag every twink on campus into his bed until Tom moves out. But soon it becomes clear Tom isn’t budging.

Tom isn’t going to let some late-night sex noise scare him off, especially when it’s turning him on. But he doesn’t want any drama either. He’ll keep his hands, if not his eyes, to himself. Boundaries have a way of blurring when you start sharing truths, though. And if Tom and Reese cross too many lines, they may need to find out just how far they can bend…before they break.

Let’s start off by saying how much we like college boys, sign.  And this roommates to lovers romance fits the bill, but gets waylaid with too many other storylines.

Tom is a former rich boy whose father is in prison for essentially embezzlement, although all assets are frozen he is working as a cabbie to finish up school.  Assigned to a new roommate he meets up with Reese, who is none too happy about being assigned this former jock.  They both have secrets in their past, and agree that keeping distance from each other is the best way to co-exist.  But Reese really wants a single room and will do almost anything to get Tom to leave.

Fun idea – right?  But a few things get in the way of making this a great read.  Tom is struggling with letting people help him, and is trying to pay his way through college himself.  However even when teachers want to help find him scholarships he pushes everyone away, almost becoming a hermit.  He has run ins with a few other students, and it causes him to pull back further to himself.  I guess it could be believable, but thinking that Tom really wants to accomplish his degree would he not be looking for help? 

And Reese, we struggled with his character.  Reese was raped a college a year ago, and now brings everyone and anyone home.  Trying to get Tom to move out, he resorts to bringing home twinks, and starts this voyeur thing between Tom and himself.  We lived in Rez and ewww, this turned us off, a roommate having sex 10 feet away, no, nope, no way.  We really expected more the the raped storyline to come through, yes, it explains why Reese always wants control, but I was expecting more.

The story is a long one and the back and forth between Tom and Reese makes it drag.  Tom isn’t sure if he is comfortable being open or out with Reese, he doesn’t want to bring more attention to himself. Reese isn’t sure he wants to be Tom’s dirty little secret.  Back and forth, back and forth.  But, not that they are celibate during this time, nope, these are some horny bunnies.  There is lots of sex in this book, and it was hard in the beginning to see Reese, one of the main characters, sleeping with others.

So all in all, a great idea for a story, but just didn’t pan out for us.  Off Campus felt like a circle of a story that never quite found it’s groove.