Karin Tabke, $1.99, ISBN 978-1-4524-1835-3
Contemporary Erotica, 2011

Bad to the Bone is a bit of a dichotomy. The sex is hot, and some of the sexual fantasies spun here are just the stuff that beautiful smut is made of. On the other hand, the heroine Olivia Connor comes off like a hysterical fruit loop while the cop hero Vaden Holbrook comes off like a disturbing stalker.

The story starts out really well with a delicious set-up for the admittedly overdone “Help! I’ve been pulled over by a hot cop who begins to manhandle me… oh!” premise. This scene really demonstrates the author’s talent for getting down and dirty, and I have to admit that I am especially intrigued by Darth Vaden’s threat to shag Olivia in front of his cop buddies. There is nothing like wholesome voyeuristic sex to kick start the day, after all. Unfortunately, the heroine eventually gets hysterical, ruining the whole fantasy and setting the pattern for the rest of the story.

Olivia, you see, is a widow and she has issues about sleeping with Darth Vaden. Apparently she feels guilty and disturbed by his virile mojo, that silly girl. Instead of spending the whole story abusing that hot cop until he can’t walk straight anymore, she tries to move on to other guys. In the process, she brings out the stalking creep in Darth Vaden, who starts looming over her as she is about to have sex with some other bloke and more. The whole story takes a turn for the most disturbing – the hysterical wretch and the creep who stalks her – when I’d have preferred to read a no-nonsense hot smutty story. The author’s attempts to introduce emotions into the story fall flat, almost ruining the deliciously erotic scenes that make up the rest of the story. Almost, that is.

Bad to the Bone would have been so much better off adhering to the less talk, more smut principle.