Review: Taking Stock by Barbara Elsborg

"Her last days on Earth could be out of this world."

Zoe has accepted that a brain tumor will make this Christmas her last. She plans to spend it in the Caribbean, hoping some gorgeous guy will scoop her off the beach for a passionate affair, a one-night stand anything just to be held and wanted.

When she discovers horror of horrors she has no unread books for the plane trip, she heads out for an early-hours run to good old 24/7 Supa-Mart.

Rowe's and Kai's lives are so regulated by their home planet's equivalent of Big Brother they even have to hide their thoughts. Not easy when a secret attraction exists between them. When they're chosen for an off-world reality show involving unsuspecting humans, they jump at this no-rules chance to open their hearts.

When the giant store's exits clang shut, trapping Zoe and several others inside including two impossibly sexy guys Zoe figures she won't need a beach for a no-strings romance. But it doesn't take long for her to realize she could be facing the end of her short future sooner than she expected.

Warning: This book contains two hot aliens with interesting anatomy, one lucky human heroine, zero-gravity menage sex, male-male tongue worship, and all the toys one super store can provide.

 

Okay, okay I know what you’re thinking.  You saw the blurb where the first word is “her”.  Yes, you read that right so I’m just gonna go ahead and warn you now.

There are girl parts in this book.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let me tell you about this book.  

Have you ever been shopping at your local Wal-Mart and thought, “You know, one could actually live in this store.”?  Yeah?  Well so did a bunch of aliens from another planet.  So much so they decided to create a reality television show based on this very thing.

Our first MC, Zoe is a 27 year old schoolteacher who has only three months to live.  You see, she found out recently she has an inoperable brain tumor.  Zoe, being one who never gets into trouble, never takes risks or strays outside the norm, decides to have one last hurrah and books a trip to a tropical paradise for Christmas.  She plans to relax on the beach, soak up some sun and possibly have one last fling before she dies.  Finding at the last minute that she doesn’t have anything to read on the plane she runs out to her local Supa-Mart to pick up a trashy romance novel at three o’clock in the morning.  Just a quick in and out and she’ll be back at home ready to leave for her trip.   

Yeah, right.

Enter Kai and Rowe. They’ve been best friends since they were kids.  Consummate party boys.  Rowe is a big wig and Kai is his right hand man.  Oh, and they’re also aliens.  They’ve been sent by their producer to ‘play human’ in the newest reality show that has been sweeping their planet.  But they have each been harboring a secret love for the other.  Will Kai ever tell Rowe that he secretly wants in his pants but was afraid he was beneath Rowe’s station so he never tried?  Will Rowe ever tell Kai that he’s been secretly in love with him since they were just boys?  Stay tuned to find out.

This book was chock full of delightful surprises.  Seeing as how I’ve loved other books by Ms. Elsborg I expected to enjoy this one as well.  What I didn’t expect to get was a book that might as well have been titled ‘Written Exclusively for Jenni Lea’.  It had everything I like in a book.  EVERYTHING.  I had such a huge grin on my face the entire time I was reading - even during the girl parts!  Because let me just tell you, even though I had to endure reading about girly bits Ms. Elsborg more than made up for it with the anatomy lessons.  I mean, the things those aliens can do with their cocks… MA GAWD!

This is such a fun story!  It’s an easy and enjoyable read.  There’s action, adventure, and quite a bit of humor as well.  It also has the most creative form of ‘knotting’ I’ve ever read.  Plus!  It has the one thing I love more than knotting.  Can you guess what that is?

For those of you who are worried this is not a true MMF, worry no more.  While it is quite heavy on the female parts, there’s tons of hot man on man lovin’.  Barbara did not disappoint!  

So, take a chance on this one.  Don’t let those girl parts scare you off.  You’ll miss out on a fun and exciting story if you do.

Highly recommend.