Review of No Filter (No Shame #1) by Nora Phoenix

 by Nora Phoenix

3.5 Stars

Indy will do anything to prevent his mobster ex from finding him. Their last encounter left Indy recovering for months in the hospital, and ever since he’s become an expert at hiding in plain sight. Determined to stay under the radar, he takes on a new identity and moves from place to place. His life has no room for friendships, let alone love, so he keeps his heart firmly closed. After all, he has nothing to offer but a damaged body and a broken soul. Plus, he’s so done with men. Until he meets the man who breaks through all his defenses.

Former Army Medic Noah came back damaged from his last tour—in more than one way. Between supporting his best friend-with-benefits Josh who’s struggling with PTSD, dealing with his own issues, and the stress of his job as a physician assistant, rebuilding his life seems impossible. There's little time for what Noah needs, let alone for what he wants. When he meets Indy, Noah discovers what he wants more than anything: for Indy to stay. But how will a relationship with Indy work when Noah needs Josh as well?

Indy never expected the strong, confident Noah to be as damaged and broken as himself. But what will happen if he starts letting Noah in? Indy knows he should run to protect Noah and Josh.

Noah needs Indy to stay more than anything. But will what little he has to offer be enough to make Indy trust him and stay?

No Filter is book #1 in the No Shame series by Nora Phoenix.  It is an interesting story of 3 very broken men finding comfort in each other – a ménage book?  Yes, and well, no.

What did we love?

-          The Characters: We fell in love with all 3 men, Indy, Josh and Noah.  They are all broken and trying to heal in their own way, and their struggles really spoke to us. 

-          Interesting Story:  Nora Phoenix weaves a really fascinating story, and with 3 very different men we get a glimpse into each of their lives.  It is well written, and easy to follow, even with 3 very strong characters. The first chapter grabbed us into the story, and riveted us.  Did the whole book keep our attention…..meh.

-          The sex:  This is a good and bad.  There is lots of sex, lots and lots and lots.  But the ‘sex-for-love’ sex is hot, steamy and sizzling, it creates a good connection between the characters and you can see the bond between them growing.

What left us scratching our heads:

-          The sex: So so so much sex, it became a little much, like every other page and we ended up flipping a bit.  I am unsure if Nora Phoenix really meant this story to end up as the sex-fest it did, but it slipped to far into erotica for our taste.

-          Sex for pain relief: A bit like above, we are unsure if this was necessary.  Specifically sex for pain relief, I think if it was packaged  as sex for comfort to help soothe pain it might have not felt so in our face.

-          The ménage: We are still confused – this is and isn’t a ménage story.  Indy/Josh, Josh/Noah, Indy/Noah, wha???  No Filter starts to clear up the issue of who is with who towards the end of the book, but left a huge chunk in the middle when we were wondering where the ménage wanted to go.  And honestly, this feeling on confusion just took away from our reading experience.

No Filter, an almost-ménage book, an interesting read that left us confused but still wanted to read the next book.  Even with the muddle of bed-partners, No filter sets us up for romance in the second book, and we are hoping that these 3 men get their happy endings (mind out of the gutter, we meant their happy-ever-afters!)

Review of The Boyfriend Recipe by Alex Miska

 by Alex Miska

2 stars

What would you do if you humiliated yourself in front of a Naked Kitchen Adonis… and then he appeared in your bakery months later?

DAVID
I watched in horror as my sister shattered yet another poor guy’s heart… only this time, I can’t get sweet, sexy, straight Hunter out of my head. My daily latte runs to Moore Delicious, the bakery where he works, aren’t helping. And now I’m in a bind: my favorite cousin insists that I attend her wedding. With a date. So she whips up a half-baked scheme that will piss off the family that disowned me and secure an ally by my side: ask my sister’s ex to pretend to be my boyfriend. The question is, will Hunter agree to play along?

HUNTER
Six months ago, I walked into my apartment to find a gorgeous man standing in my kitchen, wearing only a towel and a smile. And what did I do? Instead of saying hello and joining him in nudity, I stormed into the bedroom and accused my girlfriend of sleeping with her brother. To be fair, I didn’t know he was her brother at the time, and she really was cheating on me (just not with him). So I hide in the back every time the Naked Kitchen Adonis visits Moore Delicious… until the day he asks for more than his usual coffee, cookie, and suggestively-shaped banana. His proposal is intriguing. I like it. And him. A weekend spent serving up a little revenge while cozying up to the N.K.A. is more than tempting. The lengths we’ll have to go to make it believable definitely won’t be a hardship… but if things heat up, David will be the first man I’ve ever slept with.

We love short stories, love little snippets of how people fall in love, and The Boyfriend Recipe is one our favorite ideas, the fake-relationship.  Although this book has all the right ingredients (see what we did there – Boyfriend ‘RECIPE’) it didn’t work for us. 

Hunter is a Bi man, very recently broken up with his girlfriend Tonya after finding a naked man in their apartment.  The man is actually her brother David.  On chance David happens into the bakery where  

The number one reason that we aren’t super-fans is that we got a bit confused with the POV.  Yes, the chapters are labeled of who is speaking, but maybe there isn’t enough distinctions between their voices.  We actually had to flip back a few times to remind ourselves who was speaking. 

We aren’t big fans of romance with a side of angst, and Boyfriend Recipe doesn’t have a lot, but it never really fulfils its big issues.  David’s parents think he can choose to be gay, and there is great workup from David, but at the wedding there really isn’t much of a confrontation, it fizzles. 

And finally the sex.  Yes in 103 pages there is some heat between David and Hunter, but once Hunter reveals he is a man/man virgin and refers to it as his ‘precious flower’, we almost DNF.  But, then even after his weird outburst, that the wedding party and other refer to the next day, he goes ahead and jumps between the sheets with David, someone he is playing at a fake-relationship.  Ugh, it just didn’t work.

So, all in all, this was not our cup of tea, and thankfully at 103 pages it was a quick read.