Ann Jacobs (1)

I posted my rating for Entrapped by Ann Jacobs on it's main GR page.

The review below is for Entangled by Carroll Mavis-Raine

(Originally published via Ellora’s Cave in the Captured anthology. The characters names seemed to have changed from the blurb above with the copy I have. This story is now out of print, from what I can find.)
Laura Danville, an American novelist, has been exchanging letters with an Irish prisoner for the past ten months. She’s fallen head over heels for the charming, show more poetic man she’s gotten to know in their letters, and she moves to Dublin, Ireland to do further research on IRA prisoners. After she meets Declan in person at the prison, their attraction is instant. Even though she knows he’s a dangerous man, she’s infatuated with him and can see the man beneath the IRA terrorist label. After Declan escapes from prison and winds up at her flat, shot and bleeding, she takes him in and nurses him back to health. She quickly falls under his thumb and finds herself trapped in the seedy world of the IRA.
Declan Fagan has spent the last seven years in prison for arms dealing, but after he escapes and meets up with Laura, he rejoins the local IRA faction and brings Laura along with him. He’s determined to see Ireland united and to drive out the English, and he believes violence is the only way to achieve this. After he and his friends kidnap a child, an English prince, he forces Laura to baby-sit the boy, putting his strained relationship with Laura through the ultimate test.
I really enjoyed this story and the complex characters, but I found the H/h’s actions hard to handle. The book is predominantly told from Laura’s POV, so I understood the intense love she felt for Declan and the passion between them, but for her to condone her lover’s role in the kidnapping and to accept the way he threatened the child was too much. Though Declan never hurt Laura or the prince, she feared him and what he would do in the name of his country. He was often cold to her when his friends were around, and he used sex and her feelings for him to manipulate her, and she let him even though she knew what they were doing was wrong. I expected the twist at the end—Declan couldn’t really be a bad guy in a romance book—but the climax still kept me on the edge of my seat.
The sex scenes were plentiful and super hot. There are some unanswered questions but nothing that affected the overall plot. I wish there would’ve been more scenes in Declan’s POV (there was only one), but then the reader would’ve known his secrets too soon. Anyway, I loved the danger and excitement, and I would definitely recommend this story for a reader who wants something different from mainstream romantic-suspense.
4.5 Stars show less

Love Slave by Ann Jacobs

I’ve had this book and a few others in the erotic Black Gold series for several years and, after trying to find it on Amazon, I’ve realized the series is no longer available to be sold. Instead, it's been revised and edited and is now called the Oil Baron series.
Anyway, my reviews will be for the Black Gold series.
Love Slave is book one. Shana is a senior in college from Houston, Texas and comes from an oil tycoon family. Her little brother, Jake, is a freshman show more at the same college and ends up hurt during a football game. Shana meets Bear—his real name is Dahoud—the star line quarterback, when he comes to the hospital to check on Jake whom he hit too hard during the game. Like Shana, Bear comes from an oil tycoon family in Kuwait but was raised with both Western and Eastern values.
Shana has this extreme sexual fantasy about being kidnapped by a sheik and used as a love slave in his harem. Shana and Bear develop a friendship over the next few months and they plan to enact her fantasy together, though neither of them expected love to blossom. After all, she’s Jewish, he’s Muslim, and they come from completely different societies and customs. They don’t think a real relationship would ever work out.
This story takes place in 1990, predominately in Kuwait, right before the beginning of the Gulf War. Shana and Bear fall in love, they have a dom/sub relationship in the bedroom, but they’re equals in everyday life. The reader can feel the love and desire they have for one another. The sex between them is amazing! It’s very graphic and detailed, but full of emotion and tenderness.
There are a few grammar issues, like missing commas to offset important words, but nothing too major to confuse the reader. There are POV shifts without proper scene or chapter breaks but the author does them in a way that the reader knows who’s talking and when. I didn’t have to re-read to find out who said what.
This isn’t just an erotic love story, however. The author added details about Kuwait’s ongoing conflict with Iraq, Saddam Hussein’s cruelty, and Muslim culture and attitude toward women and outsiders.
I absolutely love this book and, if you can find it, I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants something a little different.
5 Stars

Disclaimer – I bought this book for my own enjoyment. I am a reader. I am not paid or compensated in any way, shape or form for this honest review. I will not change or alter this review for any reason unless at my discretion. show less

This is book 4 in the Black Gold series. It's been renamed and revised, and is now part of the Oil Barons series.
Jamil’s fighter jet was shot down about eleven years during the Gulf War and he’s been a POW ever since at an Iraqi oil field/prison. He’s suffered horrible torture: beatings, rapes, starvation, threats of dismemberment and castration, watching his countrymen be tortured and die, etc. This poor man has suffered through hell, but his comrade and friend, Asad, was not so show more lucky.
Leila lost her husband and was horribly disfigured during the war (she hides her face behind a hijab—a traditional Arab hair and face covering), and she blames the Kuwaitis and the Americans for killing her husband and almost killing her by dropping bombs on Baghdad where they'd lived. She now lives at the oil field with her deceased husband’s sister and the woman's vicious husband, who is the lead officer and warden of the prison.
Rape is mentioned often in this book (male on male), but it’s not shown. What is shown, however, and could be construed as rape by some readers is the first time Leila and Jamil have sex. Basically, he’s tied down, she arouses and forces him, and his body betrays him in order for him to perform. In my opinion, this is forced seduction—not gritty or violent—and it was nice to see a woman in charge of the situation instead of a man initiating unwelcome contact with a woman.
This book showed the horrors of war, no matter what side you’re on, and that no one really wins. Jamil’s pain, humiliation and suffering wasn’t breezed over, and Leila, who was full of hatred, found redemption in Jamil’s arms and in the freedom they soon found together.
We meet Brian in this book, an American Air Force pilot and a fellow eleven-year long POW. He was a great side character, and I wish I could've learned more about him and his wife, Diane.
Bear, Shana, Jake, and Kate return in this book, and it’s always great to revisit past couples to see how their lives have turned out.
Even though I enjoyed the story, it was repetitive at times with some grammar issues. I had to re-read various paragraphs to figure out what happened and who was talking because of POV shifts.
Jamil was the perfect tortured hero with a soft side. I liked Leila for the most part and I definitely felt sorry for her, but she was always so concerned with her scars that it grew a little tiresome.
The book was darker and grittier than the other books, which I really liked. Overall, it's a good addition to the series.
3.5 Stars show less

Wow. I can’t believe I’ve had this book on my Kindle for so long. The copy I read “Another Love” has been re-released under the title “The Closer We Get” in the Oil Barons series, and I don’t know if any edits have been made. So my review is for the older edition.
After the loss of her husband, Erin Winters lives her life taking care of her injured son, Timmy, and she’s in desperate need of money to provide for Timmy’s surgeries and physical therapy, not to mention everyday show more bills. When she agrees to be a surrogate mother for the Tanners, a wealthy couple who cannot have children, in exchange for fifty thousand dollars, she thinks her money problems will finally be over, at least for a while, even though it devastates her knowing she’ll have to give up her newborn baby. Then Glenna Tanner dies in a horrific shooting and her heartbroken husband, Blake, doesn’t want anything to do with the baby.
With his beloved wife dead, Blake falls into a deep depression, but he feels responsible for Erin and the baby she’s carrying, especially since she won’t have an abortion. He brings Erin and her son into his home, determined to give the unborn baby a two-parent family. Though he quickly falls head over heels for Timmy, he keeps a respectful distance from Erin and proposes a marriage of convenience. After all, Blake needs a mother for his child, and Erin needs Blake’s money for Timmy’s ongoing therapy. Though Blake and Erin become friends, his grief over his wife is a constant barrier for them. Neither of them expects their friendship to bloom into heart stopping love.
This story is probably one of the most heartfelt tearjerkers I’ve read in a long time. Be sure to have your tissues handy! Erin and Blake have lived through horrible tragedies and loss. They’re both strong, courageous people doing what they must in order to survive. Blake is so desperately in love with Glenna. The reader can feel his pain, grief, and guilt, especially as his sexual needs and unwanted feelings for Erin bring him and Erin closer together. Blake is a such a great father figure to the brave little Timmy, and it’s no wonder Erin quickly fell in love with him, even though she doubted Blake would ever love her in return.
I think my favorite character is Glenna. She comes back as a ghost to help Blake and Erin find happiness together.
There’s a side plot to the story that I equally enjoyed. Blake’s friend Greg, and Erin’s sister Sandy, are engaged and in love, but they have their own problems to work out, namely Greg’s bratty teen daughter. So, basically, there are two love stories to focus on.
Anyway, I absolutely loved this book, and I definitely recommend it.
5 Stars show less