Killer Kisses
Paranormal Romance
May 15, 2012
306
Dual Review
Reviewers: She Said – Gloria Lakritz / She Said – Penelope Adams
Killer Kisses is a collection of Sharon Buchbinder’s tales, ranging from contemporary, short and chaste to paranormal, long and spicy.
In A Peck on the Cheek: Hurricane Jason, a female private investigator searches for a two-timing husband, but lands in an hurricane shelter. Does she get her man?
In Cat Nips: Catastrophe, a crazy cat lady is evicted by her drunken landlord and the lives of her cats are at stake. Will she and her rescues wind up on the street? Or will a secret admirer find a better home for everyone?
In Hot Lips: Lake Placid Cure, a woman finds her husband in a compromising position-again. Looking to recover her dignity, she sets out for a medi-spa, encounters a murder mystery and discovers that miracles still happen in Lake Placid.
In French Kiss: Pigmalion, a speech pathology graduate student needs one more subject for her research project to graduate. She runs into a hot guy with a heavy accent and tries to recruit him into her study. Will she teach him the language of love?
In Sizzling Smooch: Bonded for Life, a Mexican artist runs for her life to hide in the little town where she graduated from high school. She’s convinced no one will find her there. But a boy with a high school crush on her grew up to be a hunky cop-and he has her in his cross hairs.
In Delectable and Delicious: An Inn Decent Proposal, a chef and a hotelier join forces at a foreclosure auction on an old inn and outbid a small time hood. The thug doesn’t like being on the losing end of the deal. Things heat up outside and in the bedroom. Can the couple make a go of it? Or will the hood destroy their dream?
In Release Your Inner Wild Women: Kiss of the Silver Wolf, a young woman searches for the truth about her brother’s debilitating disease. An intriguing man with silver hair and a penchant for long night runs insists she’s his life mate. How does this sexy man figure into her family secrets?
Gloria Lakritz – Sr Reviewer and Review Chair for the Paranormal Romance Guild – she said:
The Blurb for these 7 stories read as follows:
Killer Kisses is a collection of Sharon Buchbinder’s tales, ranging from contemporary, short and chaste to paranormal, long and spicy.
I am a LONG Novel type reader. Short stories for me are like a sip of wine, not a glass. But for those of you who enjoy a sip… Killer Kisses will be right up your alley.
A Kiss on the Cheek-Hurricane Jason
Laurel Canyon’s job was getting pictures of a cheater. She arrives in Punta Gorda and was almost hit by a flying lawn chair. She is herded off to the School Gym for safety as she is in the middle of a hurricane. A handsome man sits down next to her. His name is Jason Spode. He has saved her from the Local Shrimpers oolgling her. This so far has great potential, but ended to abruptly for me. Less than a sip… oh my I feel cheated.
Cat Nips- Catastrophe
This is another short story, with Polly Briggs being evicted by an evil landlord because he hated her and her 22 cats. A neighbor Simon tries to intercede. We learn Polly thinks a good deal about Simon. There was so much going on and so little depth I found this was my least favorite.
Hot Lips- The Lake Placid Cure
Sandra Radcliffe married to Lawyer ‘Big’ Jim Radcliffe couldn’t sleep with the big trial they had coming up in the morning. He was defending a man whose wife had been murdered while her young daughter was home. She was fearful the child would fall to pieces during the cross examination and wanted to go over the case one more time. To her shock, she found her cheating husband in his office, wrapped in the arms of a very pregnant young lady. The sensitive story is Sandra saving herself, a young girl, and gaining a new lease on life. I liked this one a lot.
French Kiss- Pigmalion
This is a cute story. Levisa Harris is at college and is an expert on accents. She helps people lose them, yanno those pesky sounds we make y’all in our speech. She meets Sam and insists she can help him lose his Baltimore Pigtown accent claiming, he can get a better job by not having it. She has a Speech – Language Pathology Masters Research Project and has four months to clean up his speech. Found the love story charming.
A Sizzling Smooch- Bonded for Life
This story is where Ms Buchbinder is at her best. Remembering her book Desire and Deception, this has all the elements of a good story. There is intrigue, a mystery woman in Mexico escaping barely with her life, gangsters, drugs, a small town sheriff. I loved this one and wanted more!!!
Delectable and Delicious- An Inn Decent Proposal
This story is the same setting as the last Novella, only a few months before. The class reunion is all that is on the mind of this small town. The (class bully) who is the sheriff, and his real estate wife (the class cheerleader), are in a venture to auction off a run down Inn. The players are a mobster bidding for his Bosses, wanting to make it a casino, A female chef who wants her own kitchen, and a reformed gambler wanting a place in the town he grew up in. Fun story.
Release your Inner Wild Woman- Kiss of the Silver Wolf
This story was left for last, and was the only paranormal romance. The story is about werewolves (of the good kind). Our heroine had so much to overcome; parents death, sick brother and the lure of her inner wild woman. I like it – many twists and left you content.
Penelope Adams – Review for the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team – she said:
Killer Kisses is a collection of seven short stories with one thing in common, you guessed it, killer kisses.
A Kiss On the Cheek: Hurricane Jason
The shortest of all the stories, six pages on my Kindle, this is a story of a hurricane shelter, drunken shrimpers and two people with the same goal. This was my least favorite story, too short with an abrupt ending that caused me to go back twice to double check that I wasn’t missing any pages. I give it 2.5**’Stars.
Cat Nips: Catastrophe
Another quick story, eleven pages on my Kindle, this tells the story of two cat lovers and one cat hating landlord. Another one of my least favorites. There seemed to be unanswered questions in this one that left me a little unfulfilled. I give it 3***Stars.
Hot Lips: The Lake Placid Cure
Slightly longer than the first two, twenty-five pages on my Kindle, this is a story of one woman’s attempt at an escape from a marriage gone wrong, and how she cures not only herself but a damaged young girl and a hunky sheriff. This story touches on some sensitive issues such as mental illness and marital affairs. I give it 3.5***’Stars.
French Kiss: Pigmalion
Again a mid-length story, twenty-seven pages on my Kindle, the title of this story pretty much says it all. This is a cute twist on the oldPygmalion story with the twist of the professor being played by a woman, the student a man and with the addition of a truly hateful villain. I could have done without the story line involving the villain, but I did enjoy this story. I give it 3.5***’Stars
A Sizzling Smooch: Bonded for Life
This one has some meat on it, fifty-one pages on my Kindle; there was just enough going on to keep one interested. There are all the elements of a good tale here, a beautiful Latin woman, a hunky law enforcement officer, drug cartels, high school reunions, the high school bully and his cheerleader wife with just a tad of humor thrown in for good measure. This may have been my favorite story; I actually would have liked to have seen it beefed up with one after it for a full length book. I give it 4.5****’Stars.
Delectable and Delicious: An Inn Decent Proposal
Set in the same place and (I think) a little before the previous story, this is almost a novelette length, sixty eight pages on my Kindle. While along the same theme as the story before, this one didn’t appeal to me quite as much. It tells the story of a reformed gambler, an up and coming chef, a mobster, and what happens when they all want the same falling down Inn. There were one or two little plot issues that I had with this one that brought it down slightly in my opinion, I still enjoyed it but not as much as the one before. I did think it might have made more sense to put this one first in reading order. I give it 4****Stars
Release Your Inner Wild Woman: Kiss of the Silver Wolf
The longest of all the stories, 82 pages on my Kindle, I believe this one was actually previously released as a novelette of its own. The title pretty much tells you what this story is about, werewolves. Set in a small southern mountain community, there are your usual werewolves but we do get a slight twist in this story – The Others. I won’t give away what they are, but suffice to say, it is different. This story gives us, werewolves, The Others, special government agents and a few hot scenes to tie it all up in a bow. I enjoyed this story and give it 4****Stars.
Now that the reviewers have read each other’s thoughts…
Hi Penny, Good to see you… We are Dualing Killer Kisses by Sharon Buchbinder.
I know the offering was Seven stories, but like some readers dislike cliff hangers, I have issues with Short Stories. They always seen to not quite get to the heart of me.
Of the seven there were a goodly array of Novelettes which did strike my fancy.
I’m with you on the Short Stories, I like to settle in and get involved with my characters and short stories just leave me, shall we say, dissatisfied. There were some good offerings here, we both seemed to like the last three the best, let me go out on a limb here and say because they were the longest. There is a good mixture here though, anywhere from sweet love story, to paranormal, to mystery. I really would have loved to have seen a full length book made out of the two stories set around the class reunion, my little mind was just racing with the possibilities on those.
Yes I agree about Ms. Buchbinder leaving us open to stories about the Inn and about the Cartels… I sure would have loved to be at ‘that” class reunion… But most prevalent in my mind was the last story of the Silver Wolf, where there was sooo much left on the table. The Others, The woman from Homeland Security, The Wolf Clan and the TWINS.
That one was released previously as a stand alone novella, so I’m hoping she plans on giving us a sequel. I’m also hoping if she does, it will be a full length book (hint, hint, Ms. Buchbinder). All in all, I saw lots of openings for future reading pleasure, so thank you Ms. Buchbinder for whetting our appetite, now please don’t leave us hanging.
Good Night Gracie
Yes Ms Buchbinder we have some questions for you… We will be in touch…
Goodnight George
Q&A with Author Sharon Buchbinder
By way of introduction, all of the stories in KILLER KISSES were previously published separately by the Wild Rose Press. When my 2 year contracts for the stories expired recently, I requested my rights back to the stories, so I could publish them all together as an anthology. I was most fortunate to have the very talented Bonnie Lea Elliott work on this book for me. Based on my title, she created the stunning cover art. It was as if she read my mind! And she pulled these seven stories together, a project that took the patience of Job!
- Is there a chance that in the future there would be a full length book?
Yes, there are 3 full length books related to this anthology.
BONDED for LIFE has Isabel Ramirez as Lola Getz’s cousin. She appears off stage. In DESIRE AND DECEPTION (Red Sage), Isabel was a main character.
I have a 3rd book under review with a publisher (fingers crossed). A paranormal romance. In DESIRE AND OBSESSION, a recovering addict must work with a Mexican drug lord to rescue her one-year old son from the clutches of a cult leader who believes the child is the Chosen One.
- Based on the 2 reunion stories – are you going to use them as a basis for another book?
The 2 reunion stories grew out of the genius of Kathy Cottrell, the Senior Editor for the Last Rose of Summer line at the Wild Rose Press. She came up with the Class of ’85 Reunion for Summerville High School and some key characters (e.g., Richard and Elizabeth Heade). The authors then had the pleasure of populating her fictional town with characters and giving them life. The only thing we had to include was the invitation. If you enjoyed BONDED FOR LIFE and AN INN DECENT PROPOSAL, please be sure to check out the other wonderful Class of ’85 stories at the Wild Rose Press.
- The Silver Wolf Novelette opens a wonderful world… Planning to continue?
Yes! I am beginning to write the sequel to KISS OF THE SILVER WOLF.
KISS OF THE VIRGIN QUEEN is the story of the epic romance the Queen of Sheba and King Solomon and the impact of their relationship on their descendant, Eliana Solomon. It will be a paranormal romance.
Thank you for allowing PRG to Dual your stories and for participating in this Q&A!