Tag Archives: Novella

Review: Protecting Fate by Katee Robert

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
Review: Protecting Fate by Katee RobertProtecting Fate (Entangled Brazen) by Katee Robert
Published by Macmillan on March 17th 2015
Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, General, Romance
Pages: 189
Format: eARC
Goodreads
four-stars
A sexy category romance from Entangled's Brazen imprint...Her body was his to protect. And to own...Fixer Sara Reaver is furious when she discovers that she's not only been exiled to the country for her own safety, but she's been assigned a bodyguard. Zebadiah?"Z" Loreto may be her brother's best friend, but he's also one big, bad, and very sexy wolf of a man...and Sara's determined to make him come out and play. And oh, Z wants to play. But Sara Reaver is definitely off-limits and Z promised himself never to unleash his dark desires ever again. Still, he can see that she craves the harsh and sensual hand of control. It will mean crossing professional and personal boundaries. Breaking their own rules. And they'll both discover just what happens-for good or bad-when they relinquish complete control...

I’m a fan of Katee Robert’s romances but hadn’t read this particular series before reading the PROTECTING FATE novella. The good news is that it works well as a standalone without leaving the reader clueless or dumping unnecessary background information. It’s quickly obvious how the hero and heroine know of each other without having had the opportunity to spark any relationship before this moment.

Sara Reaver is still feeling the pain of her parents’ divorce and is trying not to resent her siblings for succumbing to marriage when they’ve all seen how bad it can be. Now that her own reckless actions have forced her into hiding with her brother’s best friend Zebadiah “Z” Loreto as protection, her deliberate avoidance of any emotional entanglements will be tested to the limit.

Z trusted a woman he loved, and nearly lost everything as a result. Sara needs him to be safe, but when he realizes there’s something more between them, it will take more than just their sexual connection to lead them to the happy ending neither thought could ever happen.

Although I would expect a reader familiar with the series to enjoy this story more than I did, there was plenty of romance to get me involved with the characters and root for them to succeed. The couples from the previous books work well as secondary characters here, and the initial danger to the heroine is resolved realistically, if somewhat preemptively. I was also gratified that the heroine didn’t just swoon into agreeing to marriage after her vehement objections to it for so many years. PROTECTING FATE is an intense and entertaining short read that I enjoyed enough to want to read all the previous books in the Serve series.

View all my reviews

four-stars

Review: Illicit Activity by J.R. Gray

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

Illicit Activity (Bound #3)Illicit Activity by J.R. Gray
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This review contains spoilers for BREACH OF CONTRACT, the second book in J.R. Gray’s BOUND series. If you haven’t read that book, don’t read this.

ILLICIT ACTIVITY is a fast but fierce novella that takes place during the time between the nominal end of BREACH OF CONTRACT and its explosive epilogue. It provides examples of just how painful the forced separation of Jesse and George has been for both of them, and how the actions of the vengeful blackmailer in that story are still causing reverberations in their community after his capture. There are several scenes with many of the characters from the two previous books, and more of the wonderfully intense BDSM encounters that have made the BOUND series such a compelling read for me. If you’re a fan of this series, ILLICIT ACTIVITY is a must read.

View all my reviews

Review by Sharon: Dare to Surrender by Carly Phillips

Reviews, , , , ,

Dare to Surrender (Dare to Love, #3)Dare to Surrender by Carly Phillips

Sharon’s rating: 3 of 5 stars

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

As a preface to this review, I have to say that I haven’t read any of the other Invitation to Eden novels. That said, I did enjoyed this novel without having to know who the other characters were. Gabe and Isabelle steamed up the pages together. It was a really enjoyable book, yet somewhat predictable.

Isabelle is on the run from her crappy fiance, Lance, and through a series of unfortunate (or fortunate in Gabe’s case) events lands in the lap of Gabriel Dare who has desired her for a while. She’s out of options and he gives her a way out. She takes it and the sparks fly between them. But, suddenly, Isabelle feels like she needs to make it on her own. She strikes back out into the world and without the help of Gabe, she finds her place. In the end, their reconciliation is oh so sweet. Gabe and Isabelle reunite and it is a wonder why they ever parted. I love happy endings in romance books and this one ends on a delightful note.

Although I’m happy to have read this book, there were several problems I had along the way.

Jumping from first person to third depending on the chapter: All the Isabelle chapters are in first person. All the rest are in third. It was jarring for me sometimes. I also don’t care for first person storytelling but that is just a personal opinion.

Too much telling and not showing: Gabe’s sister, Lucy, comes into their lives and all of a sudden she and Isabelle are BFFs. In my opinion, there just wasn’t enough interaction between the two of them to warrant this kind of friendship.

Time jumps: They happen in the story. Sometimes they’re explained. Sometimes it’s just BAM “later”. It made me feel lost a few times.

Isabelle’s lack of development: Ok, Izzy is in a tough spot and she has to turn to Gabriel for help. Sure, fine. But then she suddenly decides she needs to be independent of him and make her own way in the world? Okay, I’ll go with it. But she ends up in just another situation where she doesn’t really have any hardships to work through. She’s suddenly got a great apartment and job. Yay? Ultimately, Isabelle never developed very well as a character for me.

Having said that, there were still also plenty of good parts. The sex scenes between the hero and heroine were great. Hot. Gabe is a sweet alpha who wants Izzy to submit in the bedroom. He wants to possess her and I love that about him. He wants to provide and care for her in every way. They’re wonderful together.

DARE TO SURRENDER was a very satisfying short read for me. It hit all my happy buttons for a non-alphahole male and a compliant but spunky female. Was it groundbreaking? No. But it was a great, relaxing read nonetheless.

View all Sharon’s reviews

Review: The Chalet by Tara Sue Me

Reviews, , , , , , , , , , ,

The Chalet (The Submissive Trilogy, #3.5)The Chalet by Tara Sue Me

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This review may contain spoilers for the first three books in the Submissive trilogy. You could try to read The Chalet as a standalone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

After all the angst and drama in the romance between Abby King and Nathaniel West, it was almost a relief to have this new novella providing a lighter side of their love now that their happy ending was upon them after all that had gone before. THE CHALET begins just after Abby accepted Nathaniel’s marriage proposal and continues through their steamy honeymoon spent at the title location. Here we get to see an easier rapport between the hero and heroine, one where their D/s relationship becomes a more intrinsic part of their marriage even as they work towards less formality in how they interact on that level.

For me, THE CHALET worked quite well as a snapshot of both pre- and post-married bliss for these two characters who have already been through so much already, There wasn’t any real suspense involved, other than whether they could handle not having any sex before their wedding night, and whether impending bad weather would keep them from being able to get to the Swiss chalet for their long-awaited honeymoon. But that was fine by me, and I appreciated this brief but intimate look at how they were able to just relax and enjoy each other without having to worry about some other obstacle threatening their happiness. If you’re a fan of Tara Sue Me’s Submissive trilogy, then THE CHALET is definitely a must read.

View all my reviews

Release Week: First Match by Lynne Silver

Promo, , , , , , , ,

I’m pleased to welcome Lynne Silver here today to tell us about First Match, the new prequel novella in her long-running Coded For Love series about genetically enhanced soldiers and the women who love them.

First Match is a prequel in the Coded for Love series. If you haven’t read any of the series, here’s a quick highlight on what is Coded for Love:

Engineered with superior strength, agility and acumen, the genetically enhanced soldiers of the top-secret Program do the dangerous assignments no one else can. Now they’re tasked with one additional job. Breed.

But finding and convincing their perfect DNA match they are the right men for the job may be their most dangerous mission to date. And the hottest. Good thing they’re Coded for Love.

If you haven’t read any of the books in the series you won’t know that Shep, AKA Commander Peter Shepard, is the mysterious hard-ass in charge of all the younger soldiers. He acts as a father figure to many of the soldiers and is also their strategic planner. It’s also very briefly mentioned in Book 1, Heated Match, that Shep was the very first genetically enhanced soldier.

So for the prequel, I thought it would be fun to go back to 1980 and tell Shep’s story of what it was like being the first genetically enhanced soldier who’s never before been allowed off campus (Virgin Hero alert!) and how he meets the girl who eventually becomes his match.

My favorite parts about the novella are that he’s a virgin (I love virgin heroes), it’s set in 1980. (Like, totally radical dude), and there’s sex, drugs and rock & roll!

Here’s a taste of First Match:

Peter leaned in until their faces were inches apart. “I am nothing like the other guys you know. If my life were my own, I’d buy you a house in the suburbs and marry you and make babies. But I don’t have that to offer you, and, trust me, you don’t want what I have to offer.”

“Marriage? Babies? We’ve known each other two days. And I’m going to—”

“New York. I know,” he said almost bitterly. “You’re going to be the next Blondie, and I will not stand in your way.”

“Then what do we have?”

“This,” he said, and leaned in to find her mouth and take her in a deep kiss. As soon as his lips touched hers, all her fear and anger morphed quickly into passion, and she tugged him down to deepen the kiss. Just like at the concert, their passion exploded into an inferno. His large body pushed her willingly back into her mattress, and the comforter crushed up between them as an unwanted barrier.

She couldn’t get enough of his mouth and ached for more. “Get under here,” she ordered and tugged the blanket out from between their bodies. She heard him kicking off his boots and she sat up to yank her extra-large T-shirt over her head. Her panties were next. Peter stood next to the bed, ripping off his clothes silently and quickly.

cover

Allison Macclesfield wants—no, needs—to be a rock star, and what better decade to do it in than the ‘80s? Music is her passion. She’s got her future mapped out. Move to New York, find a job, audition to be lead singer in a band.

Plans don’t include giving it all up for Peter Shepard, the sexiest guy she’s ever met. He’s nothing like the guys she’s known. Peter’s life is full of mystery, and though they believe they’re a perfect match, she can have him or her rock star dreams. But not both.

This is a Coded for Love Prequel

C4L_logo_Reverse

Lynne

About the Author:

Romance author, Lynne Silver, writes the popular Coded for Love series and other hot contemporary romance novels, such as Love, Technically. Before writing romance, she wrote fiction of a different sort, drafting press releases for technology corporations. Washington DC is her home (non) state, where she resides with her husband and two sons. She is represented by literary agent, Jessica Alvarez of Bookends LLC.

Buy Link:  Amazon

Stalker Links:
Website
Newsletter
Facebook
Twitter: @LynneSilver

Review: Hard To Hold On To by Laura Kaye

Reviews, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hard to Hold on To (Hard Ink, #2.5)Hard to Hold on To by Laura Kaye

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at The Romance Evangelist.

HARD TO HOLD ON TO continues the story of a group of men once proud to be a part of their country’s Special Forces who were forced out under a cloud of suspicion thanks to betrayal by their own company commander. Now they are trying to clear their names while under siege by a powerful street gang determined to stop their efforts and silence them for good. Each installment in this HARD INK series advances the overall story arc while providing a romance and HEA for each member of the group. And although this particular story is much shorter than those which have preceded it, Easy and Jenna’s romance still packs an emotional punch as they discover both love and solace within each other’s arms.

Easy may have been Edward Cantrell’s nickname, but his life so far had been anything but that. The Army helped him escape the mean streets of his childhood, but when that was taken away from him the hard way, all he had left was the Ravens motorcycle club and survivor’s guilt bordering on suicidal. When he helped rescue Sara’s sister Jenna from where the Church gang had held her prisoner, he never expected it to mean more to him than helping out the woman of his good friend, Shane. But now that Jenna needs him, Easy might finally have a reason to live again, and find the love he never thought he’d deserve.

Jenna had grown up mostly ignorant of all the terrible sacrifices her sister Sara had made to keep her healthy and safe. But after being held in the same awful place where her sister had been tortured after their father’s death, Jenna isn’t taking anything for granted, especially where it concerns the man she credits for her rescue. Maybe she and Easy aren’t the most likely couple to succeed, but after her near-death experience, Jenna realizes that life’s too short not to take a chance on love.

HARD TO HOLD ON TO upholds the great precedent of the HARD INK series with another well-written romance under pressure, made believable in spite of the otherwise implausible time constraints and reliance on an insta-lust trope. In HARD AS YOU CAN, we saw Jenna learn just how awful her sister’s life had been while she herself had only had to worry about finishing college and keeping her epilepsy under control. So when Jenna turns to Easy for support in the aftermath of her rescue, it makes a strange sort of sense in that Jenna feels like she’s already been too much of a burden for Sara. What nobody counted on, however, was the spectacular sexual chemistry between Jenna and Easy, least of all themselves. And while insta-lust may not be the best reason to pull back from the cliff of self-destruction, Laura Kaye made it work for me, with some scenes so heart-wrenching that I would have allowed the characters anything they wanted just to see them happy again.

As much as I always want more of something good, HARD TO HOLD ON TO works well at novella length, whetting my appetite even more for the next full-length HARD INK story to come. It’s a must-read in the series, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

View all my reviews

Review: Reward of Three by Kelly Jamieson

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

Reward of Three (Rule of Three, #3)Reward of Three by Kelly Jamieson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

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

This review may contain spoilers for RULE OF THREE and RHYTHM OF THREE. It would make absolutely no sense to try to read REWARD OF THREE without reading those two titles first.

Kassidy, Chris, and Dag discovered their mutual love in RULE OF THREE, and learned to live together as a triad in RHYTHM OF THREE, but now it’s time for them to take the next big step in REWARD OF THREE, one that will either cement their relationship for good or split them apart forever. For Kassidy is pregnant, and the resulting upheaval will be the ultimate test of their mutual love. And when things don’t go as planned, each of the three will need to recommit their love and trust in each other, regardless of what might happen next.

What I have loved about the Rule of Three series from the very beginning is how it presents the concept of a true MMF poly relationship in a non-idealized contemporary setting. In each of the stories, these three strong personalities have had to learn to adapt to each other and compromise in ways a mere couple would never have had to face. Yet so many of the issues Kassidy, Chris, and Dag have are all too familiar, especially once Kassidy lets her men know they are going to have a baby together. Chris’s parents have kept their distance ever since they found out Chris and Dag were as sexually bonded with each other as with Kassidy, and their absence is still keenly felt. Dag has no living parents, but his terrible childhood makes him worry that he can’t be a good father. Only Kassidy has the advantage of a family that’s present and loving, but that can only go so far to help her deal with all that happens after she announces her pregnancy.

In the previous two stories, Kassidy was the glue that brought and kept Chris and Dag together with her in love and support, but it made sense here in REWARD OF THREE that this time she was the one with the deep emotional crisis. Although I’ve found Dag to often be the weakest link of the three, it was great to see him figure out his own mistakes proactively instead of having to be dragged into the light yet again. But Chris was the true revelation of all in this story, as Kassidy’s pregnancy provided a bridge back to his parents that allowed them all to start healing the wounds of the past. And as an avowed lover of epilogues, I couldn’t help but enjoy the one here, baby and all. For me, REWARD OF THREE was just as much of a reward as to its main characters, and I’m happy to have had the opportunity to see the three of them settled down at last.

View all my reviews

Release Week Review: Dare To Resist by Laura Kaye

Reviews, , , , , , , , , ,

Dare to Resist (Wedding Dare, #0.5)Dare to Resist by Laura Kaye

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided to me by the publisher for an honest review.

DARE TO RESIST is Laura Kaye’s engaging prequel to Entangled Brazen’s upcoming Wedding Dare series. It features the couple whose wedding will be the focal point of the new series and how a sequence of improbable events propels those two people into finally confronting their long-smoldering feelings for each other.

Both Kady and Colton are in the same line of work to provide security services to the US military, albeit with varying degrees of success. Kady has to constantly prove herself to everyone around her, including her own management, just because some people can’t comprehend that a woman can be as good at this stuff as a man. Colton may have the double advantage of being male and the head of his own company, but he knows Kady can more than match him on presentation and execution. So when they are both competing for the same contract, along with a third man whom neither of them respects, the battle is fierce and the outcome could be anyone’s guess. When severe inclement weather strands the three in a marginally acceptable motel on the edge of the desert, it soon becomes obvious that the last thing on either Kady or Colton’s mind is the big military contract which brought them there. For our hero and heroine have a sexual history from which neither has quite recovered, and their undeniable chemistry still continues to conflict with their mistaken assumptions about one another. But when their impromptu sleeping arrangement provides Colton with an unique opportunity to discover Kady’s true desires, at long last they are both freed to admit their feelings for each other and discover their true compatibility in both business and love.

What I loved the most about DARE TO RESIST was how Laura Kaye was able to convey so much essential backstory in a category-length romance. We get a real sense of the inner conflict within our hero and heroine, and how their individual assumptions about their shared past have kept them in an avoidance pattern that required something as dramatic as their weather-induced housing crisis to force its end. The events that ultimately lead to Colton and Kady’s HEA could have seemed like one deus ex machina too many in the hands of a less talented writer, but Laura Kaye was able to sell each one of them to me in turn without much resistance. I especially enjoyed the reason why Colton ended up sharing a single room with Kady instead of double bunking with the other man marooned with them, although some might find it a little too TMI. It’s Kaye’s ability to provide such moments of light humor intertwined with deep emotions and scorching sex scenes that made DARE TO RESIST such an delightful read for me, and it’s successfully set the stage for what looks like another fun Entangled Brazen book series to come.

View all my reviews

Review: Blood Mate by Kitty Thomas

Reviews, , , , , , , , ,

Blood MateBlood Mate by Kitty Thomas

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was purchased by me for my own enjoyment

Kitty Thomas is one of the few authors who can release a new book and I will immediately buy it without a second thought. This trust has been rewarded by her time and again, but never more thoroughly than now with Blood Mate. It made me question what is real and what is delusion, and what love can mean in the face of eternal suffering.

If I sound like I’m wallowing in purple prose, it’s because this book has done such a thorough job of f*cking with my head in the best way possible. Only Kitty Thomas could take a 600 year old vampire looking for the one woman able to resist him so he could make her his own by choice and put a Beauty and the Beast spin on it that compelled me to love and curse him simultaneously. I don’t want to say more about what happens, because you need to read it for yourself. All I can say is that if you love Kitty Thomas, you will love this story. It’s everything you expect and everything you don’t.

View all my reviews

Review: Chance of Rain by Amber Lin

Reviews, , , , , , , , ,

Chance of RainChance of Rain by Amber Lin

My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for an honest review at Night Owl Reviews.

Review Excerpt:

What I love the most about Chance of Rain is how Amber Lin uses every word to build a whole world in the one small Texas town with stories and descriptions that put us there by showing instead of telling. We learn so much about not only our hero and heroine, but also the town, its more colorful members, and the environment which formed Natalie and Sawyer into the adults they have become in the years since they were together back in high school. The actions of the the characters ring true and provide a foundation for a well earned reconciliation by the time we reach their happy ending. A selfish part of me wishes there was more to read, but even if this is the only time we visit Dearling, Chance of Rain will always stand alone as a perfect jewel of romance. I wish more stories of this length were half as good.

View all my reviews