Monthly Archives: March 2014

Book Spotlight: Love Like the Movies by Victoria Van Tiem

Promo,

Love Like the Movies 7
Title: Love Like the Movies
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Author: Victoria Van Tiem
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Format: eBook

Purchase at AMAZON

A contemporary romantic comedy
from Simon & Schuster’s Pocket Star
by Victoria Van Tiem.

 

In this irresistible romantic romp, movie fanatic, Kensington Shaw is thrown into love Hollywood-style–when her gorgeous ex presents a big screen challenge to win back her heart. What girl wouldn’t want to experience the Pretty Woman shopping scene? It’s number two on the list. Or, try the lift from Dirty Dancing? It’s number five. One list, ten romantic movie moments, and a handful of shenanigans later, Kenzi has to wonder…should he marry the man her family loves, or risk everything for a love like the movies?

Victoria Van Tiem

About the Author

Victoria Van Tiem is an artist, black belt, mom of two, wife of one, and resident caretaker of the family zoo—including her beloved, pot-bellied pig, Pobby. When she’s not writing, Victoria indulges in her two favorite pastimes: a good book and a romantic movie. She is represented by Jenny Bent of The Bent Agency

Review: Deceptive Innocence Part 3 by Kyra Davis

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Deceptive Innocence: Part 3 (Pure Sin, #3)Deceptive Innocence: Part 3 by Kyra Davis

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Romancing Rakes for the Love of Romance.

Finally — Part 3 is here! The good news is that Bellona has managed to survive her not-quite-a kidnapping by Micah, the Russian mobster who had been her most recent protector. The bad news is that he has made it crystal clear that whatever her plan of revenge, she will be held accountable for anything which causes him to lose the money he may have already “invested” in the Gable family’s fortunes. Bellona knows she won’t get a second warning; she also knows that she can’t let even Micah’s unsubtle threats deter her from what she needs to do. But what of Lander Gable, the man whose feelings for her pose the greatest danger of all? What follows in this final installment is nothing and everything I might have expected, including an ending that should have infuriated me, but instead made me happy that their story won’t end here.

In Deceptive Innocence Part 3, we finally get the missing details about how Bellona’s mother had gotten involved with the man whose murder would be pinned on her so neatly that even Bellona had been convinced of her guilt. But we also see Bellona plunge even deeper in her new symbiotic connection with both Lander’s repulsive brother and tragic sister-in-law, and what happens between them provides Bellona with even more reasons why she both should and should not trust Lander. By the time we reach the final confrontation between Bellona and Lander at the end of this book (but not the end of their story), all the questions between them are answered, and the stage is set for what will follow. Kyra Davis is still one of the very few writers I’ll trust with a multi-part serial, and the way she managed to end Deceptive Innocence without making me angry is a big reason why. However, I’m still relieved that her next entry in the Pure Sin series will be a full-length book, and I can only hope she won’t make us wait too long to read it.

Favorite Quote:
I have to believe that I can have my justice and still find a way to be with him. I have to have this.
Prince Charming may not be forgiving . . . but he doesn’t necessarily have to know that there’s anything to forgive either. I must make this work.

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Review: Marked by Lauren Dane, Vivian Arend, Kit Rocha

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Marked (Beyond, #3.5; Thompson & Sons)Title: Marked
Author: Lauren Dane, Vivian Arend, Kit Rocha
Series: Metamorphosis #1, Thompson & Sons #1, Beyond #3.5
Genre: erotic romance anthology
Publisher: self-published
Format: ebook
Release Date: February 10, 2014

A copy of this book was provided by the authors for an honest review.

Publisher Summary:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Lauren Dane takes you into a brand new world in ALL THAT REMAINS. Summer Killian falls fast and hard when Charlie arrives in Paradise Village. But the heat turns all the way up when she learns Charlie is also with Hatch – the man she loved three years before. While she’s not sure she’s cut out for a triad, neither man is going to give her up.

Take a ROCKY RIDE with New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Vivian Arend as she leads you back to the Six Pack Ranch. Anna Coleman might be the law around Rocky Mountain House, but bad boy Mitch Thompson knows that under the stiff RCMP uniform is a woman with a passion for speed and pleasure that matches his own, and he’s not giving up until she’s his.

Kit Rocha returns to Sector Four in BEYOND TEMPTATION. A promise to a dying friend backfires when Noah Lennox finds that the girl he was supposed to rescue is all grown up–and wearing O’Kane ink. He wants to protect her from the secrets of their past, but she wants him. And an O’Kane woman always gets what she wants.

My Review:

I’m usually wary about reading anthologies for review, since I’ve often found them to be more work than pleasure, but when I heard MARKED included another visit to Kit Rocha’s Beyond series, I knew I had to have it. It also helped to have only three longer novellas included, instead of a dozen or more shorter stories. Although the stories take place in different authors’ book series, each ties into the motif implied by the anthology name by including at least one or more scenes regarding tattoos and the meaning they have for the characters in that world.

BEYOND TEMPTATION is the first novella in MARKED, and if any story belongs in an anthology about the meaning of tattoos, it’s one featuring the O’Kanes and their infamous ink. I’m not sure, though, if a new reader to the Beyond series would be able to get into it as quickly as someone more familiar with that world. (I actually went back and read the first three books again first, just to be sure, and let me tell you, those books more than hold up to a second read.)

We met Noah and Emma briefly back in BEYOND PAIN, when he was the only one with the technical savvy and connection to get vital data back to the O’Kanes from the other sectors not under the gang’s control. At that time, it was obvious that the history he and she had shared in Sector 5 went deeper than just his friendship with her now-late brother. But it’s only BEYOND TEMPTATION that we eventually learn what had brought them together before and what threatened to keep them permanently apart. Emma’s brother had been trapped by his own addictions fed by the evil in Sector 5, and that legacy lurks behind every moment of sorrow for Noah and Emma. But as a newly inked O’Kane woman, Emma has the strength and security to go after what she wants, and she won’t let the mistakes of the past keep her from the man she’s meant to be with. It may be shorter than the usual Kit Rocha story, but the extensive world-building already established in the previous Beyond books helps make BEYOND TEMPTATION a thoroughly enjoyable read and an essential installment in the series. 4.5 stars

After experiencing the joy of being back in Sector Four, I was a little concerned that the rest of MARKED couldn’t possibly live up to my now-lofty expectations. Little did I realize that the second story, ROCKY RIDE, would be just as good, if not a tiny bit better. This was my first Vivian Arend story, and it began with a (somewhat literal) bang. In that opening scene, Constable Anna Coleman meets up with her secret boyfriend and local biker dude Mitch Thompson, out on an isolated country road for some incredibly hot and heavy sexual fantasy fulfillment. When their amazing sex is over, Anna retreats behind her policewoman persona once again, leaving Mitch to wonder how a girl like her will ever be brave enough to go public with a guy like him. But as Vivian Arend then so perfectly shows, the two of them aren’t that different after all, when the facades (and clothing) are all stripped away. Even when it seems like they can’t make a real go of it, especially when so many other people are against them based on their prejudice against him, true motives and true love ultimately win out, making their reconciliation all the sweeter. ROCKY RIDE not only made me want to continue Vivian Arend’s new Thompson & Sons series, but to go back and check out her Rocky Mountain Heat series which preceded it. 5 stars 

It’s a rare anthology where every reader loves every story, and Lauren Dane’s ALL THAT REMAINS was that one story in MARKED I did not love. It takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of Earth where a devastating virus has killed most of the women, and resulted in the birth of fewer female children being born to those who survived. This has resulted in a dramatically different society in which more people are in committed triads instead of couples, and where women and their sexuality are celebrated and protected from both censure and physical harm. Summer is a young woman living in Paradise Village somewhere in what sounds like it used to the northwest part of the United States. She has settled there in support of her sister Dulce, who lost her own two husbands and their shared children in a tragic train crash years earlier, and has never completely recovered from the loss. Summer has enjoyed intimate relationships with other men, but never been interested anything long term until she meets Charlie, a stranger to the area, and finds herself immediately attracted to him  Charlie is looking for a woman to complete his own triad, and much to Summer’s surprise, the second man in the relationship turns out to be Hatch, the man who was Summer’s first true love and who broke her heart when he left her behind several years ago. Now he’s back and wants to her to join her and his beloved Charlie in a permanent commitment, but there can be only sex between them until Summer can learn to forgive and Hatch can learn to leave his itch for wandering behind.

It was difficult for me to connect with ALL THAT REMAINS, most likely due to it not having enough pages to contain all the back story details. In a full-length book, I could have discovered for myself what life was like for Summer when she was growing up on the New Earth commune and falling in love with Hatch. and what happened to Hatch when he was traveling west to follow her after she’d moved to Portland with her family. But because ALL THAT REMAINS is a novella, all of that was told instead of shown, and it left me searching for an emotional grounding that all the beautifully written sex scenes simply couldn’t provide. 3 stars.

Review: The Other Other Woman by Mallory Lockhart

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The Other Other WomanTitle: The Other Other Woman
Author: Mallory Lockhart
Genre: contemporary women’s erotic fiction
Publisher: self-published
Format: ebook
Release Date: January 6, 2014

A copy of this book was provided by the author for an honest review.

Publisher Summary:

What was the worst that could happen with just one kiss?

Mallory was just a mom. An exhausted mother of two, teetering on the edge of a midlife crisis. She was especially tired of having a husband who acted more like a child than a partner. But she wasn’t looking for anyone else. She was done with men; they were all the same. She didn’t need another one.
Matt was just a friend. Located in another state, he was an older, wiser co-worker she could confide in. So what if he was gorgeous, charming, and perfect for her in every way? So what if he saw that, buried underneath her worn down exterior, she was one of the most witty, attractive, and intelligent women he had ever met? He had a wife. He didn’t need another one.

So what if, after meeting each other in person for the first time, there was an instant physical attraction between them? Would a little kiss between friends be so bad? It wouldn’t go any further; Mallory wasn’t interested in being anyone’s other woman. Who could have known that a fleeting pass across the lips would be the passionate taste test that would leave them both starving for more? That one kiss could ignite a raging fire of sex and desire that would burn them both and lead them to destroy each other’s lives.

This book is intended for mature audiences only (18 and over) due to language and sexual situations.

My Review:

UPDATE 3/10/2014: I received an email from the author tonight letting me know that she had unpublished this book “due to a job conflict” and that a review was not expected. However, since I’ve already spent the time reading it and writing the review, this post will remain as is.

*****************************

Rarely do I have such mixed feelings about a book I’ve agreed to review as I had with The Other Other Woman. On the one hand, the plot and the dialogue and the heroine were so over the top that I felt compelled to read parts aloud to my husband until finally he begged me to stop. On the other hand, I did get hooked into it enough to read all the way to the bitter (and unsatisfying) end. But I can’t give extra credit for not being a DNF.

Our purported heroine, Mallory Lockhart (see what the author did there?), is drifting in an unhappy marriage to a man who never picked up a check in his life. When a work conference introduces her to a co-worker from another location, his fine features and flirty personality get her immediately interested in more. Sure she’s married, sure he’s married, but maybe just one kiss will get this Matt guy out of her system. But then there wouldn’t be a book, would there? And yet, after finishing The Other Other Woman, I can’t help thinking it would have been for the best if that had been the case.

Because this Matt guy is an A-Number-One make-no-mistake-about-it Player with a capital P. Even though Mallory’s brain knows this from the get-go, it’s her body and her heart which lead her all the way down to crazy town, where she becomes what she herself refers to as a Stage 5 Clinger. But we ladies know that the more you cling, the more he pulls back, and it’s only when you make weak attempts to recover your sanity by breaking away from him that he will suck you back in for another vicious cycle.

And that, in a nutshell, is the entire plot of The Other Other Woman: Mallory falls for Matt, Matt keeps her on a string until she says she’s out, then he pulls her back in, and so forth. Oh, and the texts. Lots and lots and lots of texts. If this story was based in reality, these two would have everyone else in their lives noticing how they both are always typing on their phones, because there weren’t enough hours in the day to cover the huge amount of texts between them.

I nearly gave up on this book more than once. But I wanted to see how it would end. And what happened is something I can’t ignore, but I can put it behind a spoiler tag.

View Spoiler »

If you’re just looking for a book that works primarily as a conveyance for some super smutty sex scenes (and there’s nothing wrong with that; I like my smut as much as anybody), then The Other Other Woman might be for you. But I needed more, and that’s why it didn’t work for me. 2 stars

Review: The Dark Affair by Maire Claremont

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The Dark Affair (Mad Passions, #3)The Dark Affair by Maire Claremont

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Seductive Musings.

This review contains spoilers for THE LADY IN RED, book 2 in the Mad Passions series. You could try to read THE DARK AFFAIR as a stand-alone book, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

When I read THE LADY IN RED last fall, Maire Claremont was a new author for me, and I hadn’t known what to expect. Its whirlwind plot and profound emotions were almost too much for me to handle (but in a good way). I actually had to force myself to put it down more than a few times, because I was so worried about what would happen to not only its hero and heroine, but the hero’s friend Viscount Powers, whose help was essential in their plan to save the heroine from her villainous father.

Powers – a tortured and brooding man who refused to answer to any other name – shared the same brutal need for opiates that plagued the heroine of THE LADY IN RED. While her addiction had been induced during her forced captivity in a madhouse, his was entirely self-inflicted after the untimely death of his wife and child. By the end of the previous book, the heroine and hero are both safe and happy in marriage together, but meanwhile Powers has given himself over entirely to his addiction. Months later, when we first see him in THE DARK AFFAIR, he has himself been involuntarily committed to a madhouse.

Margaret Cassidy was a titled lady back in Ireland, but that couldn’t protect her from the harsh realities of famine and poverty, nor from the ongoing violence as those who starved fought back against the cruelty of their English overlords. Her gift for healing has brought her to England, where she is tasked by the Earl of Carlyle to bring his son Powers back from the brink of insanity. Back when Margaret was still in Ireland and her father was still alive, Powers had sent a letter and funds to assist those in dire need of help, asking for nothing in return. Rescuing him now from his addiction is her opportunity to repay that act of kindness, even as her attachment to him quickly moves in a more personal direction. It will take all of Margaret’s talents and indomitable will to bring Powers back not only to sanity, but to a life where he can grieve properly for what he’s lost without sacrificing himself again. But when the violence she left behind in Ireland comes to call at her front door, what ends up being at stake isn’t just their shared happiness, but their very lives.

Once again, Maire Claremont has written a story that transported me into a world more darkly intense than most historical romances, with characters I couldn’t help but root for as they were forced to trust in each other even as they should rightfully be mortal enemies. The depth of Powers’s sorrow had only been hinted at in the previous book, but here it is front and center with everything you might expect, and worse. He has abused his mind and body for so long in self-imposed guilt for the death of his wife and child that his recovery is never really certain, even as the story moves toward that conclusion. And when we find out just how they died…well, it’s definitely understandable why he has suffered so greatly, even though it’s just as obvious to us, if not to him, that their deaths should not be on his head.

It’s also clear that only someone like Margaret would even have a chance to break through the wall of anger and opiates that Powers has built all around him, and not just because of her beauty and determination. Only Margaret has the ability to focus his attention beyond his own pain and outside the bubble of privilege in which he has lived his whole life as a member of the English nobility. But it will take more than that for them to move forward with a life together, and their Happily Ever After will be won only after those who seek to defeat them are confronted one last time.

I’m sad to see the Mad Passions series come to an end but I’m looking forward to seeing what Maire Claremont comes up with next. THE LADY IN RED vaulted her into my list of favorite historical romance writers, and now THE DARK AFFAIR has firmly established her place near the very top.

Ratings:

Overall: 4.5 stars
Sensuality level: 3.5

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Review: Theirs to Cherish by Shayla Black

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Theirs to Cherish (Wicked Lovers, #8)Theirs to Cherish by Shayla Black

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Seductive Musings.

Callie Ward has been in love with Mitchell Thorpe ever since she found his BDSM club to be the perfect hiding place from the people who killed her family and framed her for their murders. Even though his feelings match hers, Thorpe is convinced that their age difference is too great to overcome, and has removed his protection so that another Dom – Sean Kirkpatrick – can claim her instead. The new Dom is closer to Callie’s age than Thorpe, and seems to be the perfect balm for Callie’s bruised heart. But when he starts to get too close to the reasons why she ended up there in the first place, the only thing Callie can do is go on the run again. And when the two Doms who love her follow in pursuit, the battle for her heart might have to take a back seat to just keeping them all alive.

We first met Mitchell Thorpe, Master of Club Dominion, back in BELONG TO ME, book 5 of Shayla Black’s Wicked Lovers series. As the series has progressed, we’ve seen Callie and Thorpe make it obvious to everyone who sees them that they love each other, yet Thorpe continues to pull back while Callie does everything she can to force his hand. It’s only when Thorpe is witness to Callie and Sean’s most intense scene ever that he realizes how foolish he’s been to push her away for so long. It’s that same scene that convinces Callie it’s finally time to move on, as her years on the run have taught her to leave before anyone she cares about could be endangered by her presence. But this time is different, because now she has the love of two men who would rather die themselves than let her leave without them.

Callie and Thorpe’s story has been a long time coming in Shayla Black’s Wicked Lovers series, and it was just as satisfying as I had anticipated, even with the added complication of another Dom in the mix. It wasn’t until the previous book – OURS TO LOVE – that we got a hint that their romance might not be limited to just the two of them. That book featured a M/F/M menage with two brothers and their secretary who becomes their shared submissive, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise (especially with the title!) that THEIRS TO CHERISH would play out along the same lines. I’m a big fan of well-written menage romances, and this book did not disappoint in that regard. Neither Thorpe nor Sean go after Callie with the intent of sharing her, but as we learn why Thorpe could never commit to Callie (or any other submissive) and why Sean was at Club Dominion in the first place, we see how a menage relationship makes the most sense for everyone.

One of the things I enjoy most about this series is how the suspense not only propels the overall plot but also the actual romance itself. So many romantic suspense novels get so caught up in the parts where the lovers are in danger that they forget the part where we are supposed to be seeing them fall in love, but that is never a problem with Shayla Black. Every scene in THEIRS TO CHERISH was there to get us to their shared Happily Ever After, and that’s what made it such a wonderful romantic read.

With THEIRS TO CHERISH, Shayla Black has delivered yet another a smart and sexy romantic suspense story in the Wicked Lovers series that lives up to all the books that came before it. It will be great to see where this successful long-running series will take us next.

Ratings:

Overall: 4 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (BDSM, menage)

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Book Blast: Requested Surrender by Riley Murphy

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Requested Surrender

Book Blurb

She knows he’s dangerous for a woman like her.

He knows she’s perfect for a man like him.

From their first meeting, David Hollan is intrigued because Lacy Pembrook is
subconsciously hiding someone. Herself. And David wants to know why. He’s patient at
first. Willing to give her space, but when she breaks the rules they’ve set between them,
he’s ready to hold her accountable. One way or another, he’s going to find the piece of
her that’s yet to be uncovered. And when he does? He intends to own it.

Given an ultimatum after she got caught coloring outsides the lines of their “trial”
relationship, Lacy decides to fall in with David’s plans. She’ll cancel her trip and spend
her vacation time at his house making up for her transgression. No sweat, right? Wrong.

What she doesn’t count on when she gets there is him going full-out Dom on her. She
quickly learns why they call him the quiet one. He’s dead sexy, watchful and stern at the
best of times, and now that he has her all to himself, each of those things are magnified
tenfold.

By the time Lacy realizes that he’s completely subjugated her—by way of an emotional
striptease—it’s too late. She’s bared her soul to him, so when he requests her surrender
she has no choice but to give it to him. Or does she?

Click here to find out how you can pick up your copy!

———————–

About the Author

Riley Murphy
Riley Murphy writes sexy, humorous and emotional romance, happy ending guaranteed. An
optimist, she believes life is awesome, people are complicated, but in a good way, and we
should never stop learning. Riley currently resides in Florida with her gorgeous husband.

She has two wonderful kids and one very bossy English Bull terrier she has dubbed ‘The
divine One’. When Riley’s not working she enjoys reading, oil painting and getting to the
Sunday crossword puzzle before anyone else does, so she can fill-in all the easy answers
first. If Riley wasn’t a writer she’d be an international spy with top-level security so
she could have a peek at Area 51 and decide for herself if those green guys are for real.
Failing that she’d probably go with chicken sexer.

Riley loves to hear from readers. To learn more about her or her upcoming releases swing by her website and say hello at:

www.AuthorRileyMurphy.com or connect with her on twitter @Riley__Murphy where she’s always sharing her deep-dark secrets. Her latest book is the erotic romance, Requested Surrender.

Visit her website at www.authorrileymurphy.com or her blog at http://www.badboyscanbefun.com/blog/.

Connect & Socialize with Riley!

TWITTER * FACEBOOK * GOODREADS

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Review: Need You Tonight by Roni Loren

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Need You Tonight (Loving on the Edge, #5)Need You Tonight by Roni Loren

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Seductive Musings.

Although I’ve enjoyed every book in Roni Loren’s Loving On The Edge series so far, NEED YOU TONIGHT is the best one I’ve read since the very first book, CRASH INTO YOU, blew me away and made me an instant Roni Loren fan. It equals that book in both the emotional intensity of the “second chance at love” trope for its hero and heroine, and in the sweetness of its HEA for a couple who could never move completely past the evil which separated them in high school until they were finally able to face it down together.

When Kade Vandergriff catches Tessa McAllen trying to crash a singles cooking class at his restaurant, he has no idea that she’s the one who turned his world upside down so many years ago. All he sees is an incredibly attractive woman whom he wants to feed and bed, and not necessarily in that order. Tessa doesn’t recognize Kade either, but is quickly convinced that one perfect night of no-strings-attached sex is just what she needs after trying to rebuild her life in the wake of her lousy no-good husband’s betrayal. When Tessa’s true identity is revealed, Kade is determined to rewrite their sad shared history into a future where she realizes what a mistake she made by rejecting him for the man who would eventually betray her. But when their ugly past returns to threaten their present happiness, both Tessa and Kade will learn that even the most malevolent evil is no match for the love they never truly lost.

As wonderful as Tessa and Kade’s story is, readers should be aware that there are themes in NEED YOU TONIGHT which are potential triggers for those with special sensitivity to issues such as high school bullying, child abuse, and rape. Both Tessa and Kade suffered brutal childhoods, which helped them bond together at first, but ended up splitting them apart when the friendship threatened their survival. When they find each other again, it’s clear that although they have both grown emotionally, the scars of the past are still as real and raw as though no time had passed at all. But Kade refuses to let his past self define his present, and he will do everything in his power to show Tessa that what they had before was just the beginning, even as the danger to their lives and love is always lurking in the background.

NEED YOU TONIGHT is a beautiful and touching romance, with plenty of the perfectly written and seriously scorching sex scenes which are Roni Loren’s trademark. It’s easily one of the finest books I’ve read this year.

Ratings:

Overall: 5 stars
Sensuality level: 4 (BDSM scenes, domestic violence, rape threats, discussion of previous assault and rape)

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