Maren Smith

What to say about this one? It's domestic discipline which is not really in my comfort zone at all but I gave this a go. I have to say that I laughed pretty much throughout and not in a bad way. The writing was just fresh and amusing.

The story was well written in pretty much all aspects. There was some spanking of the domestic discipline kind. But I didn't feel like he was just beating on her for no reason or that the author came up with random crap the heroine did to get a spanking. It felt more like he was just some throw back to the 1950s kind of guy when spanking was more accepted. Just consider all the the spanking in John Wayne movies for example. Keep in mind that this is not something I can speak from authority about not being in the lifestyle but rather a layman's take on it. She basically got spankings for calling him names, putting herself down or running away and causing him worry. They didn't seem so severe as to be considered BDSM I don't think. There was one erotic spanking and a couple of love scenes which were not too explicit.

As to the humor, the hero was the star of this story. He's a hard ass business man who needs a wife to close a business deal so he proposes to a janitor in his building. She's a single mom who has leanings towards wanting erotic spankings already. The hero has a reputation as a gruff cranky guy but he really has an off beat humor and I giggled quite a bit. For example the first time he held the heroine's daughter:

Gingerly, Travis lay Megan to his shoulder the way he'd seen Jamie do. His eyebrows arched. “All right. This isn't so bad. I can do this.”

“But it's pretty easy right now,” Jamie said with a smile. “Megan isn't crying, the phone isn't ringing, no one's knocking at the door, the washing machine isn't walking across the floor because the load's unbalanced, and dinner isn't burning in the oven. When all that happens and you can still smile and say, 'This isn't so bad, I can do this,' then I'll be impressed.”

“My, my.” Travis drawled, “We really are hard to please, aren't we? All right.” He turned and headed for the door.

“Where are you going?”

“Downstairs,” he tossed back over his shoulder. “I'm going to call a judge to marry us, and hope someone comes knocking on my door as I'm doing it. I'm not entirely sure where my washing machine is located, or if I even have one, but I'm almost certain I can burn something in the oven.”

I would happily read more of this author just for the humor and I'd love to see her do some more mainstream romance as I think she'd appeal to a broader audience.… (mais)