1990s – The Smut Report

Rant, Dueling Review, Back to Old School

Back to Old School: It Was Contemporary Week

September 30, 2022 smutreportteam

Night Whispers by Judith McNaught (1998)

Heat Factor: No foreplay.

Character Chemistry: Sex so good you’ll forget all of your police training. (But they’re definitely gonna get divorced.)

Plot: Cop goes undercover to investigate her estranged family.

Overall: That’s a nope.

versus

Sea Swept by Nora Roberts (1998)

Heat Factor: Fighting is foreplay.

Character Chemistry: Sex so good you’ll forget the ethics of your very sensitive job.

Plot: Three brothers have to honor their father’s last wish by rearranging their lives and taking care of their newly adopted ten-year-old brother. And the social worker is really hot.

Overall: Rough seas ahead.

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Rant, Review

Review: Jewels of the Sun by Nora Roberts (1999)

October 15, 2020April 13, 2021 Holly

Gallaghers of Ardmore, Book 1

Heat Factor: It’s very poetical.

Character Chemistry: Some of their interactions made me uncomfortable.

Plot: Woman goes to Ireland to Find Herself. Succeeds, and finds love as well. Plus she meets the King of the Fairies.

Overall: A disconcerting reading experience: even though it’s a contemporary, it reads like a historical.

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Review

Review: What’s in a Name? by Angela Breen (2020)

October 4, 2020April 9, 2021 Erin

Department of Second Chances, Book 1

Heat Factor: Just when I was beginning to suspect it would be no sex… BAM

Character Chemistry: There was so much going on in the suspense plot, the relationship between the protagonists was relatively superficial

Plot: FBI agent + attractive single mother + serial killer

Overall: I’m not entirely sure how to reconcile my feelings about the first half of the book (chilling serial killer drama) with my feelings about the second half of the book (why are these characters so frustrating?)

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