Promises Keep (Promises, #2) in Alpha Heroes & Spitfire Heroines

Dec 05, 2008 Eastofoz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: e-book, western-frontier, erotica

~~Smokin鈥� hot~~, um no wait that鈥檚 not quite it, Smokin鈥� hot, still not good, a SMOKIN鈥� HOT read that鈥檒l sear your finger tips off as you whip through the pages oblivious to the microscopic print and two ton weight of this baby! Wow what a fantastic book! Not only is the sex red, blue and blistering white hot in this western but there鈥檚 even a multifaceted story to boot 鈥搘hat more could a reader ask for?! Yes maybe a less nasty cover but this book brilliantly illustrates why you should never jud ~~Smokin鈥� hot~~, um no wait that鈥檚 not quite it, Smokin鈥� hot, still not good, a SMOKIN鈥� HOT read that鈥檒l sear your finger tips off as you whip through the pages oblivious to the microscopic print and two ton weight of this baby! Wow what a fantastic book! Not only is the sex red, blue and blistering white hot in this western but there鈥檚 even a multifaceted story to boot 鈥搘hat more could a reader ask for?! Yes maybe a less nasty cover but this book brilliantly illustrates why you should never judge a book by its cover in the first place ;)

Cougar, is the protector kind of hero but he鈥檚 also like a little boy who fears being abandoned by someone he loves so he鈥檒l stop at nothing to hold on to what鈥檚 his. He is such a gentle person underneath it all but look out if you cross him or just happen to look at his wife the wrong way! Scary stuff from this guy. Then there鈥檚 Mara who gradually blossoms into an amazing heroine. She鈥檚 timid and horribly self-conscious about everything but as the story unfolds she develops into this dynamo of a woman providing a perfect foil to Cougar鈥檚 control freakishness. Boy does she ever get him to his knees ;)

Asa and Elizabeth from book 1 pop up which was nice to see. Asa is too funny trying to be all careful around his wife but keeps getting shot down no matter what he does. Then there鈥檚 the Reverend Brad who is apparently this beautiful male specimen that all the ladies fawn over and all the gents secretly hate. This guy does everything to get under the gents鈥� skin especially Cougar. Excellent comic relief in what鈥檚 otherwise a very harsh environment. Great wit and repartee smattered throughout the story. McCarty has an exceptional talent for making you feel like you鈥檙e in the Old West. The snappy dialog and the narrative passages all take on the same tone making you believe that you can hear the characters speaking in their cowboy drawls. There鈥檚 also an intro to the suffragist movement which was a nice touch. Some horrible things happen throughout the story all done to keep the reader on their toes.

The opening scenes in this book are so well done that you can鈥檛 even guess that there鈥檚 a second story taking shape. The author does an incredible job of mixing the scorcher sex while adding to the development of the story and the ick-factor is nearly nil here 鈥搕his is quite a feat when you get to some of those sex scenes (!) A bit too much detail on the fellatio scenes for me but everything else made up for that. If it weren鈥檛 for the weird genital slapping every so often this book would鈥檝e been a hands down favourite for me.

If you want a period piece with great sex and story, a protective hero who knows what he wants and a heroine who slowly but surely comes into her own to be on equal footing with her man, then this story has your name on it :D

**Little FYI: Keep significant other close by, read in a well-ventilated room in case you can't seem to breathe normally and avoid reading it in public if you can ( smokin鈥檒y smokin鈥� hot I鈥檓 telling ya!)
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Apr 29, 2009 jenjn79 rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-romance-erotic-historical, 2009, reviewed, info-full, status-borrowed, series-promises, published-2004, stars-4

Whew! I'm lucky this book didn't singe off my fingertips as I was reading! Because this one is seriously smoking hot. I mean, damn...some of the scenes in this book...well, let's just say that McCarty definitely knows how to write a super sizzling hot sex scene. And aside from that, this was a pretty enjoyable book. It had some interesting story elements.

Promises Keep is the second book in the Promises frontier western erotic romance series. Though this book could be read on it's own, I'd person Whew! I'm lucky this book didn't singe off my fingertips as I was reading! Because this one is seriously smoking hot. I mean, damn...some of the scenes in this book...well, let's just say that McCarty definitely knows how to write a super sizzling hot sex scene. And aside from that, this was a pretty enjoyable book. It had some interesting story elements.

Promises Keep is the second book in the Promises frontier western erotic romance series. Though this book could be read on it's own, I'd personally recommend reading the first one first. But then I generally always recommend reading a series in order ;)

Cougar McKinnely was introduced in the first book in the series and had been getting involved with a prissy young woman named Emily. As this book begins, we learn that Emily and Cougar had a fight one day when Cougar let her know what he wanted from her in bed. Emily fled and ended up drowning in a flash flood. Since that time, Cougar has been unable to perform in bed. So he goes to a brothel hoping to find something of his interest. The owner, seeing Cougar's size and Native American heritage, decides to use him as part of her revenge. She offers him a new working girl, someone she says will do just the trick. Cougar relents and goes to the woman...and is instantly smitten. His body rises to the occasion and he set about, err, joining, with the young woman.

But it isn't long before Cougar realizes something is very, very wrong. He finds out the woman isn't willingly at the brothel and that she'd been drugged while he "slept" with her. Cougar helps her escape and promises her that he will protect her from then on.

As time passes young Mara remembers little of what happened that night, only that she'd been raped and forced to kill the brothel owner. She knows that whether she wanted the sex or not, she'll be forever branded as a whore by everyone who knows. So she doesn't understand why Cougar is so interested in her. He pushes and pushes until she agrees to marry him. But Cougar will have to work to get her past the events of that terrible night, and to help her regain some self confidence. And when she learns what really happened...well, he'll doesn't expect that she'll ever forgive him.

I have to admit that the first chunk of this book put me off a little bit. Though Cougar doesn't exactly rape Mara, it's not consensual either and I didn't really like the fact that that was going to be the building point of their relationship. Then you learn that Mara doesn't remember Cougar's exact actions that night and all I could think was, oh great, now we get to read the rest of the book waiting for the big bomb to drop. I just didn't find that whole deal very appealing.

The book does win me over, though, as it progresses. As mentioned in the first part of this review, there's some seriously hot sex in this book. Some of those scenes will leave you squirming in your seat ;) Cougar is for the most part very patient with Mara sexually, helping her get past what happened. He was very reassuring to her and her growing sexuality. The slight D/S vibe is a little weird because of what Mara went through, but hey, whatever floats her boat.

Beyond the rampant sexuality of the book, there are also some deeper issues. They weren't necessarily as prominent as they could have been...the sex does dominate the story a little bit...but they gave the book some depth and kept the story from being too light.

There's the fact that Mara has to deal with the reputation she now has. Even though she was kidnapped into it, people now see her as a whore. Then there's her fear of sex. There's also a bit of a gender battle where Cougar just wants to protect her and Mara wants to be an equal. McCarty even brings the suffrage movement into the storyline. It made things interesting.

So I have to say I enjoyed this book a lot. I'm glad I was able to read it in paperback instead of at my comp as an ebook because it's a long one and much easier to read without having to sit at my desk staring at the monitor for hours. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

WARNING, this book contains: lots and lots of explicit sex and language, oral sex/"mouth fucking"/deep throating, anal sex, rimming, spanking, bondage, shaving, rough sex, and a non-consensual sex scene (see review for more info on that one) ...more

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Apr 10, 2009 Dina rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-romance, erotica-romantica, to-blog

OMG, this book had me reaching for a fan and a bucket of ice right from the start! Cougar and Mara really knew how to set the sheets, the kitchen table, the couch, the vanity, everything on fire! It was HOT, no doubt about it, but I admit I got a bit tired of it and skimmed through a couple of the sex scenes. Maybe I麓ll get back to them someday, to fully "appreciate" them... ;)

The "rape" thing was a little annoying and, quite frankly, didn麓t make sense to me. I mean, I don麓t see what Cougar did ...more

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Jun 15, 2008 Julianna rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-romance, erotic-romance, read-2014

Reviewed for
Promises Linger, the first book of Sarah McCarty's Promises series, was so incredibly good, I was really looking forward to reading Promises Keep. While Promises Keep was a reasonably entertaining book in and of itself, by comparison to the previous book, it was something of a letdown. For me, Sarah McCarty is an author who vacillates between being totally spot-on fantastic or phoning it in. Promises Keep wasn't quite as frustrating as another of her books I read a while ...more

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