✰ Bianca ✰ Janeane ✰ 
KARINA HALLE - SMUT
• release date: 16 May 2016
• standalone Romantic Comedy
• standalone Romantic Comedy
★★★★★
4.75 Stars
4.75 Stars
What happens when the kink between the pages leads to heat between the sheets?
All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.
What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for their final project but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a pushy asshole (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick up her ass (though it’s brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they discover they write well together. They also might find each other really attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.
When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership together using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot but at least there’s make-up sex now.
But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed or are happily-ever-afters just a work of fiction?
All Blake Crawford wants is to pass his creative writing course, get his university degree and take over his dad’s ailing family business. What Amanda Newland wants is to graduate at the top of her class, as well as finally finish her novel and prove to her family that writing is a respectful career.
What Blake and Amanda don’t want is to be paired up with each other for their final project but that’s exactly what they both get when they’re forced to collaborate on a writing piece. Since Amanda thinks Blake is a pushy asshole (with a panty-melting smirk and British accent) and Blake thinks Amanda has a stick up her ass (though it’s brilliant ass), they fight tooth and nail until they discover they write well together. They also might find each other really attractive, but that’s neither here nor there.
When their writing project turns out to be a success, the two of them decide to start up a secret partnership together using a pen name, infiltrating the self-publishing market in the lucrative genre of erotica. Naturally, with so much heat and passion between the pages, it’s not long before their dirty words become a dirty reality. Sure, they still fight a lot but at least there’s make-up sex now.
But even as they start to fall hard for each other, will their burgeoning relationship survive if their scandalous secret is exposed or are happily-ever-afters just a work of fiction?
Three months ago Amanda broke up with her boyfriend of four years - Alan.
It was a pretty .... spectacular break-up.
Vomit might have been involved.
She's always done what was expected of her, but she just couldn't marry Alan. She's only 21 - she wants to be free for once in her life before she can even think of getting married.
Her parents didn't like the break-up all that much. They also don't like that she's going to college to become a writer. Not a respectable profession in their eyes.
Now her favorite writing professor is handing out a new assignment: to get over your fears as an aspiring writer, you have to do something you would usually be afraid to do.... Co-write a novella with a class-mate.
And who does Amanda get??? BLAKE!!!!
Fuckboy. Manwhore. Jackass.
Cocky - arrogant, and one hell of an ego!
Blake Crawford.
Heir to the famous but flailing Victoria bookstore by the same name.
Blake wants to be a writer too, but his dad needs him to graduate with a business degree so that he can take over and save the family business.
And now his final grade is half in the hands of Amanda??
The girl with a stick up her (beautiful) ass? Who hates him for whatever reason??
Great!
But as they soon find out.... they're both really serious about their writing and working with the other is not as bad as they first thought it would be.
WHAT WiLL HAPPEN TO AMANDA & BLAKE???
WiLL THERE BE A HEA???
OR WiLL THERE BE A CLiFFHANGER???
Nope, not telling you ☺
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Once in a while this perfect little kindle thingy arrives on your doorstep.
And SMUT was exactly such a thing!
I LOVED THIS STORY!!!
I was really looking forward to reading this book, but as is often the case, when you're looking forward to something too much, you might be disappointed.
I expected some funny, sexy, easy entertainment hours.
And I got those.
But I got so much more too.
I just adored Amanda - her whole nerdy, crazy, being.
And Blake?
Phew. Such a nice guy. A good guy. Amanda just sees the manwhore in the beginning, but we see so much more. The hurt, brokenhearted, cheated on boy who loves his step-brother and wants to be there for his dad.
Ugh, I just loved those two together. Even if it takes them a while to really GET together. ☺ A tiny little bit too long in my opinion. I expected a bit more sexiness. Nothing remotely sexy even happens in the first half of the book. The blurb and title kind of made me expect a LOT more smut! But the first half of the book is just a funny story. A story that does not really fit the blurb. What is described in the blurb only starts in the second half of the book. I still loved the story...but I wanted more!
I loved all those crazy supporting cast characters, like Amanda's roommate Ana!
I kinda hated a bit on Blake's 'roommate' Fluffy ☺☺☺ And I mean realllly hated on it/him - ewwwww!
This book has some really erotic scenes... even if most of them only get talked about or written about!
And we have soo many funny and adorable and slightly moving scenes!
I just loved the story.
OK, I'm done here... off to bed to dream about Blake for a bit ☺☺☺
Uhm...Aside from the missing sexiness in the first half, there's another thing that bothered me a bit.
The author, or rather her character Amanda, totally hates on the poor romance genre authors, like EL James, Sylvia Day and all those money-making indie erotica authors! The way she so hatefully writes it into this story, multiple times, I don't think that's a nice thing to do. Those authors get enough hate in real life, I don't need them to be made the bad guys in a great romance! Could be I'm just a bit stupid here and didn't get the joke about the whole thing... so maybe it's just my personal thing. But I didn't like it. It felt unprofessional and purposely mean in my opinion. A little like the writings of a jealous person. BUT - that's only my humble opinion! ☺
Another thing, for us non-LARPing non-nerds, I just didn't get some of the Harry Potter or whatnot references. There was a bit too much geekness for my tastes. But it didn't bother me all that much.
Oh, I also loved the location of this story. Victoria, Vancouver Island. I love that place. I've been there for a few days 20 years ago. Beautiful!
SMUT was an amazingly funny & adorable enemies to friends to lovers romance! Blake is just phew! Run to your nearest amazon and buy yourselves some SMUT!!!☺
ARC received for an honest review
I wasn't sure what to expect with Smut, so I went into this one completely blind.
And what I got was a sweet, geeky rom com of a story that, while it took me a while to get into it (don't get me wrong the first scenes were quite funny, but then it dragged a bit for me, but this could have just been me). Don't get me wrong, it was good, but it just seemed to take a while to get a roll on.
Amanda and Blake's story is like a rom com movie - a real hate/love relationship that you know where it is going to end up, but you don't know how it will get there.
I loved Amanda's geekiness, the LARPing (though I don't get the Benedict Cumberbatch obsession - don't understand that obsesssion at all). I loved her kinda-sorta awkwardness.
And oh Blake - I loved that boy, from his smirk to his snarky comments to the tips of his toes. I loved his banter with Amanda, I loved how much he cared for his little brother, and I loved how he was with his "houseguest" Fluffy - this made me laugh out loud more than once.
One thing that did irk me a little though was Amanda's aversion to romance books and the romance/erotica genre in general. The romance community feels like they are berated, made to feel less of writers enough as it is, and I didn't need to have it in my books as well - but again, this could just be my feelings.
Smut was a fun, eventually smutty story that I read in one sitting. Now Ms Halle, what will you bring us next?
↓ LiNKS TO THE BOOK & AUTHOR ↓
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EXCERPT:
She holds my gaze for a moment and something passes over her. Regret, maybe. Then she nods. “Sit down. Let’s work.”
And so we do. And for the first time in a long time, it’s strained. I’m about to suggest maybe we need the Estonian vodka anyway when she lets out an exasperated sigh over something she’s reading. It happens to be something I wrote.
“What?” I ask, wondering what I did wrong.
She gives me the are you kidding me? look. “Okay, I was ignoring it earlier but I think you need to get a grip on some of this shit. This simply does not happen.”
“Explain, please.”
“I just think it’s unrealistic for there to be so much talking, let alone the fact that the first time they do it it’s in a public place.”
“Too much talking?”
“Yeah.” she scans over the document. “You know, give me your cock, oh you feel so good, harder, harder, you’re so big, fuck me harder big boy.”
“Have you even had good sex?” I ask incredulously.
She flinches. “Of course I have. And it’s none of your business.”
“We’re writing about sex. It’s completely my business. I’m not letting you interject your edits based on your personal experiences about sex because believe me, if the sex is good, you’re moaning my name.”
She raises her chin. “Maybe all those girls were faking it.”
Oh, brilliant.
“Excuse me?” I say, hands pressed against the table, nearly getting out of my chair. “You have no idea. I pride myself in giving a girl as many bloody orgasms as she can handle.”
“Bloody orgasms don’t sound like fun,” she jokes softly.
“They can be if you’re into knife play,” I tell her, even though that’s not exactly what I meant. Still, she scrunches up her nose. “Don’t knock it until you try it, but that’s neither here nor there. When you were with Alan, he must have made you come at least a few times.”
If he didn’t, I feel like finding the guy and showing him a thing or two for wasting four years of her life.
“Yeah,” she says flatly.
“And in the middle of that orgasm, didn’t you want to yell a few things?”
“Sometimes.”
“And why didn’t you?”
She looks at her nails as if they’re suddenly fascinating. “It didn’t seem right. It was…too intimate. I would have felt dumb. He didn’t like any of that stuff.”
The plot thickens. “Any of what stuff?”
“Sex that didn’t involve the missionary position or the bed.”
My mouth drops open. My brain and penis can’t compute this. “I feel so sorry for you.”
We must remedy this. She glares at me. “It’s not like I didn’t want to do it. I did. And he did try it. Most of it. But it always went back to the same old.”
I knew it. She’s a nerd on the streets and a freak in the sheets.
“I don’t mean to brag,” I tell her in all seriousness. “But you do realize that I could give you an orgasm in thirty seconds.”
Her eyes widen. I can’t tell if she’s horrified or intrigued. “I don’t believe you and I don’t want you to try.”
She’s not getting it. I frown, trying to explain. “If you’re having good sex and it’s with someone you’re comfortable with, you won’t worry about holding back. You’ll cry out all the nonsense you want, you’ll make noises like a pig and scream like you’re on fire because you truly can’t have a good orgasm unless you’re letting go on all accounts.” I lean back in my chair and study her, running my fingers along my jaw. “I would venture that every time you came with your ex, you were only experiencing half of what you should have been. How is it with your vibrators?”
I expect her to tell me to fuck off, that I’m getting too personal but to my surprise she gives me a small smile. “It’s better. But I do have a roommate with exceptionally good hearing.” She clears her throat.
“Anyway, so I guess I’m wrong. The heroine can make all the noise she wants.”
“And have first time sex in public.”
“I don’t know…”
“Believe me, when you finally get a chance to fuck, you don’t care where it is. That’s why I always have a condom in my pocket. And the more public the sex, the sneakier you have to be, the hotter it is.”
“But in the book you would never get caught.”
“You don’t always get caught in real life too.”
I can see she wants to ask me where I’ve done it but she loses her nerve. “Okay.” She looks back to the document. “I accept defeat.”
But I don’t want her to. I want to prove to her I’m right and not have her take my word.
Is there a non-creepy way to show her just how amazing good sex can feel? I’m thinking not.
Or…maybe there is.
STALK KARINA ON:
