Spotlight – Beauty and the Boss

23 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour, Contest, Sneak Peek

Tags

Beauty and the Boss, Diane Alberts, Modern Fairytales series

Another Entangled book – if you were here last week you know that I love this publisher and their authors. And based on the below the newest from Diane Alberts is going to be fantastic!

*****

Beauty and the Boss

by Diane Alberts

November 16, 2015

A Modern Fairytales Novel

Entangled Publishing: Indulgence

Blurb:

Beauty is about to tame her beast…

Researcher Maggie Donovan has no luck with men, and it doesn’t help that she can’t keep her eyes off of her sexy boss – the one everyone else in the office calls The Beast. Relationships in the office are forbidden. So no one is more surprised than Maggie when she pretends to be his fiancée to save him during a difficult situation. Not only has she put her job on the line, but the future of the company.

Billionaire Benjamin Gale III doesn’t believe in love or romance, but the look on his mother’s face when Maggie tells her that she’s his fiancée is worth millions. Instead of firing her for her insubordination, he goes along with the ruse. In his arms-and in his bed-she’d be everything he could ever want…which is why he can’t have her.

But if he doesn’t let her go, they’ll lose everything…

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1X0zIbG

B&N: http://bit.ly/1i0Z8Z2

iTunes: http://apple.co/1JXDSuK

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1kybE45

*****

Excerpt:

Mr. Gale, who probably wanted to strangle her, choked and dragged his hands down his face. “Maggie, you don’t—”

“It’s okay. I told you I didn’t want to announce it yet, but I’m ready.” She forced a smile. His mouth opened, closed, then pressed into a thin line. “We can tell the whole world how much we love each other if you want…Benjamin.”

He made a strangled sound and tugged on his tie. He seemed more shocked than anything, but he had to be angry underneath that cold exterior of his. “Love—?”

She cast a quick glance at Mrs. Gale, who was starting to turn blue from lack of oxygen, before turning back to her boss. Not giving him a chance to ruin the ruse she’d thrown together, she launched herself into his arms and kissed him, right in his office in front of his mother.

The second their mouths touched, it was as if she’d woken up from a long, deep sleep.

This wasn’t a kiss—not really—and she was fully aware of that.

But her body didn’t get the message.

His mouth softened under hers, and after a moment of sheer awkwardness, he closed his arms around her and hauled her against his chest. Though she’d initiated the kiss, it didn’t take long for him to show her who was in charge of it. A small shift of his chin, and he was the kisser instead of the kissed.

He turned her slightly, facing away from his mother, and ran his tongue against the seam of her sealed lips. She gasped, shocked he’d actually gone there, and he took full advantage of the situation. He tasted like wine and something else she couldn’t place, and that was about as far as she got before she couldn’t think of anything except his lips on hers, his tongue against hers. She curled her hands into his shirt, and a small moan escaped her. She jumped at the sound, jerking back and covering her mouth in surprise.

Mr. Gale stared down at her, breathing heavily, his focus clearly on her mouth. It did weird things to her insides— things that made her want to launch herself back into his arms, only for real this time, and take that kiss a step further.

Like, stepping right into his bed.

*****

Author Info:

Diane Alberts is a multi-published, bestselling contemporary romance author with Entangled Publishing. She also writes New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling new adult books under the name Jen McLaughlin. She’s hit the Top 100 lists on Amazon and Barnes and Noble numerous times with numerous titles. She was mentioned in Forbes alongside E. L. James as one of the breakout independent authors to dominate the bestselling lists. Diane is represented by Louise Fury at The Bent Agency.

Diane has always been a dreamer with a vivid imagination, but it wasn’t until 2011 that she put her pen where her brain was, and became a published author. Since receiving her first contract offer, she has yet to stop writing. Though she lives in the mountains, she really wishes she was surrounded by a hot, sunny beach with crystal clear water. She lives in Northeast Pennsylvania with her four kids, a husband, a schnauzer mutt, and a cat. Her goal is to write so many fantastic stories that even a non-romance reader will know her name.

Website: http://dianealberts.com/

Facebook Fan Page: https://www.facebook.com/DianeAlberts6

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DianeAlberts

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5081315.Diane_Alberts

*****

Giveaway:

Signed modern fairytale journal from Diane Alberts!

https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/726d2572260/

*****

Book Review – Forty Candles

20 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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Book Review, Forty Candles, Virginia Nelson

Forty Candles

by Virginia Nelson

Will she get her wish when she blows out Forty Candles?

Chloe Walker did everything right. She went to college, got a good job, dated the right men—everything. Peering at forty from a bit too close, she realizes she can be miserable that she didn’t end up happily married to the handsome prince…or she can count her lucky stars. She tries to go with stars, but the universe seems to have other plans.

Jack Leonard has loved Chloe since they were kids. He’s stood by her through all life’s little messes, been her shoulder to cry on, and figured one day they’d wind up together. He figures he’s just waiting her out. When her life goes swirly, he’s got to convince her that some men are worth risking it all for.

Can Jack make Chloe rethink her birthday wish or will she get just what she asked for when she blows out Forty Candles?

I started this book on Tuesday and finished it on Thursday – and it only took me that long because the rest of my life got a little busy. It’s a quick, enjoyable read and I really liked both Jack and Chloe. He is a strong, dependable country boy, who has been waiting patiently on the sidelines for Chloe to see him as more than a friend. She has a few hangups about commitment because of her past and values him too much to chance losing him due to a breakup. But Jack’s tired of waiting and he’s got a plan to get Chloe on the same page. Of course, it wouldn’t be a romance if things went smoothly!

I really enjoyed the back and forth between the two but I will say that I was a little confused by the time frame for the story. We started it with Chloe’s 39^th birthday and ended on her 40^th but it didn’t seem like a year passed. Maybe a few months but it definitely didn’t feel like a whole year. It’s just a minor complaint and I wouldn’t even have mentioned it if it wasn’t so blatantly stated. So in fairness I thought I should point it out 🙂

Forty Candles is a short, earthy read – with tons of heat and heart, friendship and romance. It’s got a hero who has the patience of a saint, knows exactly what to say and do, but is about to reach his breaking point. He’s ready to take on a heroine who’s too busy running that she’s not seeing that there is a man in the world that knows all her warts but loves her anyway. Jack’s just going to have to trick her into seeing the truth that’s been in front of her all along.

Buy on Amazon

Book Review – Chance of a Lifetime

19 Thursday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour, Book Review, Contest, Sneak Peek

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Anderson Brothers series, Book Review, Chance of a Lifetime, Marissa Clarke

Oh, I can hardly wait for you guys to get a look at Marissa Clarke’s newest. I absolutely LOVED it!

*****

Chance of a Lifetime

Anderson Brothers #3

by Marissa Clarke

Releasing November 16, 2015

Entangled Lovestruck

Blurb:

Sometimes the biggest risk is playing it safe…

Gen Richards is tired of living down to her family’s expectation of the helpless blind girl. Resurrecting her high-school bucket list that begins with “kiss a total stranger” seems just the thing until she finds herself in a panty-melting lip lock with her big brother’s best friend.

Chance Anderson thrives on adrenaline, but Genny’s the one risk he’s not willing to take. His recklessness a decade ago landed her in the hospital and ejected him from her life. He’s bad for her and everyone knows it—especially her big brother.

Chance reluctantly helps Gen complete her bucket list in order to keep her out of trouble. Running through a freezing fountain, playing Spin the Bottle while fending off a mad horde of stinging insects, and skinny dipping with homicidal attack swans don’t hold a candle to the real danger: falling for the one person he can never have.

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26136108-chance-of-a-lifetime

Goodreads Series Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/134421-anderson-brothers

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo

*****

Excerpt:

Her agenda since this whole thing began had done a one-eighty. She no longer wanted to hurt him and show him what he’d missed when he left all those years ago; she wanted to make up for lost time. She wanted to kiss and touch and hold him like she had in her dreams—and in her imagination when she was alone. She wanted him to see her for the woman she had become. She wanted him to help her scratch number ten off her list, finally, after a decade of waiting.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll go through with it, but I want to see the list. Keeping me in the dark is counterproductive.”

“Kinda like being me, huh?” “You know what’s on the list, so, no.” He wanted to see the list. Fine. She’d show it to him. She

pulled it out of the back of her phone case and handed it to him, waiting for his reaction with a smirk.

To her shock, he didn’t ask what to make of it. Instead, she heard him running his fingers across the surface. Shit. He could read braille. When had that happened?

“So… Speedboat, slow dance in the rain…”

“Give it back!” she swept her arms in the direction of his voice and made contact with his chest. Grabbing his T-shirt in her fist, she reached for his right arm.

“Play spin the bottle?”

“I was fifteen! Please give it back.” She had to get it away from him before he read number ten.

“Sleep under the stars…”

That was number nine. She lunged and made a mad grab for the scrap of paper, but only managed to rip a corner off of it.

“Lose it.”

Crap, crap, crap. She slumped to the floor and buried her face in her hands to hide what was surely the mother of all blushes based on the hot flush crawling over her skin.

“Lose what?”

He could not be that dense.

“Oh…that.” He sat down beside her, turned her hand over, and placed the list in her palm. “I was fifteen,” she said again as if it made a difference. “I’m sorry, Gen. I didn’t mean to upset you. You handed it to me.”

“I didn’t know you could read braille.”

He tipped her chin toward him with his fingertips and wiped away an escaped tear. “You don’t know a lot of things about me.”

*****

Review:

This is the first in the Anderson Brothers series that I’ve read, but based on Chance of a Lifetime I’ve definitely been missing out. (And it can be read as a standalone.)

Together Chance and Gen are fun, flirty and have a deep understanding of one another. Unfortunately they also have a history that makes any kind of a future hard. Gen has let her family control her for far too long and, because of an accident years before, they aren’t going to approve of her being with Chance.

Chance knows that her family considers him bad news and a long time ago he made a promise to stay away. But now that they are spending time together, Gen is providing to be impossible to resist.

From their first kiss thru her bucket list and all the way to the last page, I absolutely LOVED this story. There are so many wonderful things here – how capable Genny is, the emotions tying these two together for more than a decade, the understanding and support that Chance provides, and the lessons learned by all involved. I was so satisfied and amazingly sad to see it end.

*****

Author Info:

Marissa Clarke lives in Texas, where everything is bigger, especially the mosquitoes.

When not writing, she wrangles her rowdy pack of three teens, husband, and a Cairn Terrier named Annabel, who rules the house (and Marissa’s heart) with an iron paw.

Prior to attending University of Houston Law School, she received a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in Drama from the University of Houston. She has taught drama and playwriting in a large public high school and English in a private school.

Currently, she serves as Vice-President of Programming for the West Houston RWA Chapter, and is a founding member of Houston YA/MG Writers, and the QueryTracker.net Blog.

She loves to connect with readers, so follow/friend her on Facebook and, or shoot her an email from her “Contact” page.

Marissa also writes young adult novels for Penguin USA under the name Mary Lindsey. She is represented by Kevan Lyon of the Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

Marissa Clarke’s conference, signing, & event schedule can be found here: APPEARANCES

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

*****

Giveaway:

$20 Amazon or B&N gift card

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/521ac4c8836/

*****

Click on the banner below for the rest of the tour

Book Review – A Winter Wedding

18 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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A Winter Wedding, Book Review, Brenda Novak, Whiskey Creek series

A Winter Wedding

Whiskey Creek series

by Brenda Novak

One Christmas can change your life…

Kyle Houseman believes he’ll never find anyone he could love as much as Olivia Arnold, who’s now married to his stepbrother. Not only did he lose her, he’s been through one divorce and has no desire to go through another. He’s determined to be extra careful about the next woman he gets involved with—which is why he fights his attraction to the beautiful stranger who rents his farmhouse for the Christmas holiday.

Lourdes Bennett is a country music artist. She’s only planning to stay in Whiskey Creek long enough to write the songs for her next album—the album that’s going to put her back on top. Her dreams don’t include settling in a town even smaller than the one she escaped. But as she comes to know Kyle, she begins to wonder if she’d be making a terrible mistake to leave him behind…

I have been looking for Kyle to finally get his happy ending. When we met him in When We Touch I didn’t like him much, although I guess we weren’t really supposed to. At that point, he’d slept with that heroine’s sister and gotten her pregnant, which ruined not only his relationship with the heroine but cemented a big rift between the sisters. So he wasn’t exactly the good guy in that story 🙂 But as we got to know this group of friends over the next few books, we also got a better understanding of Kyle and how much that mistake impacted his life. Now it is finally his chance for a HEA.

I love how fluid this story is – nothing about it is big or dramatic or that surprising. He meets Lourdes and the two spend time together, realize they are attracted to one another but that their lives don’t exactly mesh. We get to know them as they get to know each other and we’re right there with them as they fall in love. It’s sweet and true to life (as much as it can be with a country music star 🙂 ). We do get some trouble with Kyle’s ex, which spices things up but also helps to wrap up that relationship and leave him clear for a future with someone else.

Kyle and Lourdes just have to figure out if their’s is that future and if so how to make it work for both of them.

(Buy on Amazon)

Spotlight – Compromising Her Position

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour, Contest, Sneak Peek

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Compromise Me series, Compromising Her Position, Samanthe Beck

It’s an Entangled kind of day 🙂 But I love this publisher – they have so many fantastic authors and stories. And Samanthe Beck’s newest looks to be the perfect sexy holiday read.

*****

Compromising Her Position

a Compromise Me Novel

by Samanthe Beck

Releasing November 16, 2015

Entangled Brazen

Blurb:

A sexy category romance from Entangled’s Brazen imprint…

He’s not who she expected, but he’s exactly the man she needs…

When Chelsea Wayne drags Santa into a supply closet for a little office party nookie, she assumes the man in the suit is her on-again/off-again coworker boyfriend. Instead, it’s Rafe St. Sebastian, a man known for his hard-driving ways in business as well as the bedroom–and, kill her now, the brand spanking new owner of Las Ventanas–who grants her naughtiest Christmas wishes.

So much for her reputation, not to mention her career.

Rafe needs to close three acquisitions to prove to his father he’s ready to take the helm of St. Sebastian Enterprises. A hot interlude in a supply closet after deal number two seems like the perfect illicit Christmas bonus. Unfortunately, when that “bonus” becomes the key to the final deal, he finds himself back in bed–so to speak–with Chelsea, and after their steamy tryst, he’s not interested in keeping things professional.

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26215010-compromising-her-position

Buy Links: Amazon | B & N | Google Play | iTunes | Kobo

*****

Excerpt:

“There is nothing personal between us.”

“I beg to differ. In fact, I’m fairly certain I know your deepest, darkest secret.”

“I sincerely doubt that.”

He brought his mouth to her ear. “You knew I wasn’t Paul.”

“No.” The denial, though immediate, sounded slightly breathless, slightly desperate.

She had to have at least suspected, at some point. He refused to believe otherwise. “Not at first. But when I had you clinging to the tables, trembling so hard you could barely stand? You knew.”

“You-you’re delusional. If I’d realized you weren’t Paul, don’t you think I would have stopped you?”

“No. By the time you realized, you didn’t care.” The crowd around them erupted into a countdown.

Ten… He cupped her jaw in one hand… Nine… and slid the other down her back. Then lower. Eight… “You didn’t care about anything except my tongue tracing the path of your thong”—he let his fingers do the honor now—“all the way down until I could taste your sweet, throbbing little—”

“I thought you were Paul!” Her wide eyes darted to his, pupils huge.

Five… “Remember how you used your body to beg for more? There’s no f-ing way you’ve ever begged like that for Paul Barrington. No f-ing way. I could have you begging again.”

Her breathing came in quick, shallow pants. The hands she’d rested lightly on his shoulders tightened, bunching his jacket in a white-knuckled grip. She shook her head. “Not going to happen.”

Three… He was risking getting his face slapped in the middle of a dance floor on New Year’s Eve, but he didn’t care. For some inexcusable reason, he needed to know she wanted him, not Barrington.

Two… He spread his palm over the perfect curve of her ass and hauled her against him, so she’d feel just how well he remembered every damn detail of their last meeting.

One…

“It’s not?” he challenged, and then crushed her lips under his.

Cheers of “Happy New Year” echoed around them over the strains of “Auld Lang Syne.” A flotilla of black and silver balloons sailed down from the ceiling. Guests laughed, and sang, and jostled them while he kissed her. Sparkly, star- shaped confetti rained over everyone and everything, and he kept right on kissing her. Her arms twined around his neck. Her lips parted. She flattened one hand against the back of his head and held on. When he bent her over his arm and swept his tongue into her soft, yielding mouth, she wrapped her leg around his hip. The heat of her body practically seared his thigh through his tuxedo pants.

He trapped her lower lip between his teeth and nibbled. There went his no biting promise, but her shuddery moan told him she didn’t mind.

The song ended. The house lights came up a few notches. He slowly drew her upright, and even more slowly relinquished her mouth. She stared up at him, dazed, her lips plumped from their kiss.

“You’re a terrible liar, Miss Wayne.”

Giving her a grin he hoped didn’t reveal how much the move cost him, he walked away.

*****

Author Info:

Wine lover, sleep fanatic, and USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy contemporary romance novels, Samanthe Beck lives in Malibu, California, with her long-suffering but extremely adorable husband and their turbo-son, Hud. Throw in a furry ninja named Kitty and Bebe the trash talking Chihuahua and you get the whole, chaotic picture.

When not clinging to sanity by her fingernails or dreaming up fun, fan-your-cheeks sexy ways to get her characters to happily-ever-afters, she searches for the perfect cabernet to pair with Ambien.

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads

*****

Giveaway:

$50.00 Amazon eGift Card and a rare print copies of

Samanthe’s Private Pleasures Trilogy

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/1cb55495648/

*****

Click on the banner below to check out the rest of the tour

New Indulgence Releases

17 Tuesday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour

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Alexia Adams, Beauty and the Boss, Blurring the Lines, Diane Alberts, Marisa Cleveland, Robin Covington, Secret Santa Baby, The Billionaire's Christmas Proposal, The Greek's Stowaway Bride, Victoria James

Stay warm as the weather turns cool with four hot new Indulgence novels from your favorite authors!

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Beauty and the Boss by Diane Alberts

Billionaire Benjamin Gale III doesn’t believe in love or romance, but the look on his mother’s face when Maggie tells her that she’s his fiancée is worth millions. Instead of firing her for her insubordination, he goes along with the ruse. In his arms–and in his bed–she’d be everything he could ever want…which is why he can’t have her.

But if he doesn’t let her go, they’ll lose everything…

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Blurring the Lines by Marisa Cleveland

Real estate development CEO Blake Whitman is an Aquarius with a philanthropic nature, but when it comes to work, he’s driven and focused, and he would never, ever mix business with pleasure. As far as he’s concerned, office romance is off the table.

He also never backs down from a challenge, and Kira Layton just accused him of ruining the community. What better way to get her on his side than to hire her?

But the more he tells himself to keep his hands off his new, sexy secretary, the harder it is for him to come up with reasons why office romances never work and why it’s a bad idea to cross the line…

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Billionaire’s Christmas Proposal by Victoria James

She’s everything he wants for Christmas…

Social worker Allison Barrington’s home went up in smoke, literally, a month before Christmas. Now the guardian of her teenage sister and a crazy pup, she shows up on the doorstep of the only man in the city she can trust. Resisting Ethan Dane had never been easy, but luckily, Allie isn’t into cutthroat playboy businessmen. And Ethan is as driven as they come.

Ethan Dane has wanted Allie since the moment he laid eyes on her at their best friends’ wedding. Having her in his home is the perfect chance to prove to her that their chemistry can’t be denied, but when he finds out that the biggest business coup of his career means destroying the youth center where Allie works, Ethan is forced to decide what kind of man he wants to be…

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

The Greek’s Stowaway Bride by Alexia Adams

Egyptian heiress Rania Ghalli is desperate to free her political prisoner uncle before it’s too late. Hoping to make it to North Africa, she stows away on the yacht of Greek millionaire Demetri Christodoulou. But when Egyptian agents board the boat, she can either jump overboard…or claim she’s Demetri’s new bride.

Tired of being no more than the bastard disgrace to the Christodoulou name, Demetri intends to build a luxury resort below his grandfather’s house so the old man has no choice but to acknowledge that Demetri has made something of himself. But first, he needs a wife to complete the land purchase.

With Rania now at his mercy, a plan comes together. He’ll play along, protecting her and helping to free her uncle, but in exchange, he demands a real marriage. But keeping the vivacious heiress out of his heart will be a lot harder than keeping her on his ship…

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

Plus, you can grab this reissued novella just in time for the holidays!

Secret Santa Baby by Robin Covington

Tessa Stoneman hasn’t been able to get long-time friend and business partner Nicholas Boone out of her head since they shared a single kiss in college. Even when she dated Nicholas’s best friend. Now that she’s giving up her position at GameNerdz to strike out on her own—and now that she’s single—maybe it’s the right time to see if there’s still something between them.

Nicholas knows once Tessa leaves the company she helped found, they might drift apart. Before she starts her own company in the new year, he wants to woo the woman he fell in love with during college. So he poses as her Secret Santa, gifts her with items from the song “Santa Baby,” and plans a big reveal at the company holiday party. But when his best friend wants to rekindle his romance with Tessa, will Nicholas lose his last chance?

Spotlight – Forty Candles

16 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Blog Tour, Contest

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Forty Candles, Virginia Nelson

Y’all this one is at the top of my TBR list and I’ll be getting a review out to you soon, so stay tuned … or head on over to get your own copy if you can’t wait 🙂

*****

Forty Candles

by Virginia Nelson

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: ARe Books

Date of Publication: November 1, 2015

Word Count: 28,500

Cover Artist: Erin Dameron-Hill

Blurb:

Will she get her wish when she blows out Forty Candles?

Can Jack make Chloe rethink her birthday wish or will she get just what she asked for when she blows out Forty Candles?

Available at Amazon

*****

Author Info:

Virginia Nelson, USA Today bestselling author, likes knights in rusted and dinged up armor, heroes that snarl instead of croon, and heroines who can’t remember to say the right thing even with an author writing their dialogue. Her books are full of snark, sex, and random acts of ineptitude—not always in that order.

For more information on other books by Virginia, visit her website: www.virg-nelson.com

https://www.facebook.com/virg.nelson

http://www.twitter.com/virg_nelson

http://virginianelson.blogspot.com/

*****

Giveaway:

2 winners to receive two ebooks from ARe Books

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ba112ffc1212/

*****

Click on the banner below to check out the rest of the tour

Book Review – Next to You

15 Sunday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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Book Review, Julia Gabriel, Next to You, Phlox Beauty series

Next to You

A Phlox Beauty Novel

by Julia Gabriel

A sexy Beauty and the Beast romance from contemporary romance author Julia Gabriel

A scarred and lonely billionaire hiding from his past …

Jared Connor lost his innocence at the age of ten when his father poured gasoline around the family home and left his two young sons to die in the flames. Now an adult, he’s carefully crafted a pretend life where he can hide his scars and his death row father behind the disguise of a caretaker’s pickup truck and a pair of gardening shears. But when a beautiful woman with scars of her own barges into his quiet, solitary life, Jared finds it increasingly difficult to hide from what he really wants.

A successful young businesswoman ill at ease in her newfound beauty …

Phlox Miller was never the pretty girl and no magic mascara or secret serum was ever going to change that—not even one manufactured by her own company. When an accident at her country home burns her face and body, she spares no expense on her recovery and plastic surgery. Now she turns heads on the street, but can’t recognize herself in the mirror—and can’t convince the man she loves that he’s beautiful, too.

Can two people see beyond their physical and emotional scars to find true love and lasting acceptance?

The beauty and the beast plot is one of my favorites – it is pretty much a given that I will pick up the story if it even hints at it 🙂 And I’m very happy to say that here it works very well.

Phlox is a wonderful heroine. She’s smart and fun, but she’s also got a solid head on her shoulders. She may be gorgeous but she hasn’t always been and she had to go thru a horrible experience where she was burned badly. These things have given her a different take on beauty and other people’s reaction to it, which is a good thing because anyone who dares to fall for Jared needs a lot of understanding and patience.

Jared has carried around a lot of baggage. Not only because of his scars but because of what his father did to his family. It’s colored absolutely everything about his life and he’s still letting it impact his interactions with others. When he first sees Phlox he allows her beauty to impact how he treats her but she doesn’t let him blow her off and he quickly learns there is so much more to her than her face. It’s going to take a lot though to get him to let down his walls. Luckily Phlox may just be the person for the job.

**Warning: there is some spoilerish info below**

I really enjoyed this story but there were a couple of things I didn’t understand. There was a fight between the brothers that seemed to come out of left field because they had what I thought was a good relationship up to that point. Some suggestion was made that there was some undercurrent with how Jared saved Jake from the fire, but either I didn’t get it or it wasn’t detailed enough to make the impact needed for that fight to make sense to me. And then the deal with their dad wasn’t ever really resolved. An argument could be made that Jared just needed to accept and let it go but I felt like closure really was needed for him to truly heal.

Overall though the rest of the book worked really well for me and I loved the romance that developed between Jared and Phlox. It’s a tough go for both of them but Gabriel handled their troubles very well and gave them a great HEA.

(Buy on Amazon)

Book Review – Playing with Fire

14 Saturday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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Alison Bliss, Book Review, Playing with Fire, Tangled in Texas series

Playing with Fire

Tangled in Texas series

by Alison Bliss

Nothing ignites a fire like the perfect match…

Anna Weber is every inch the proper librarian—old-fashioned, conservatively dressed right down to her tightly clipped flaming red hair. She’s just moved to a small Texas town, and is determined to spend time with her friend before she has to disappear. Relationships aren’t easy for her. She knows too well what it means to be burned. And the last thing she ever wants to do is fall in love…

Especially not with a fireman who’s hot enough to set the entire state of Texas on fire.

Cowboy can’t resist the fiery little librarian, and he’s determined to make her his. Beneath that prim-and-proper exterior is a woman he very much wants to know—if she’d let him. She’ll test his patience. His control. Hell, his very sanity. And for the first time, Cowboy wonders if he’s found the one fire he can’t control…

After doing the blog tour stop for Playing with Fire, I was so hooked that I had to ask the author if she was doing a review tour. Luckily for me, even though she’d already done one she was kind enough to send me my own copy. I made the mistake of opening it up just to take a look and, even though I had others I should have been reading instead, I didn’t put it down for 2 days. That’s how long it took me to read the whole thing because I had my nose buried in it every chance I had – the characters are interesting and the plot is well-paced. All around a nicely written story.

I get the feeling that Cowboy was well loved in the first book and readers pushed for him to have his own, but not having read Rules of Protection this was my first introduction to him. And wow what an intro it was. He’s sexy and charming, smart and caring. He’s also cocky and a whole lot too sure of his appeal. I don’t think I ever got a good feeling on why he was against relationships before Anna – usually they have some reason, but his may just have been that he hadn’t needed to settle down before 🙂

Anna has her own issues (quite doozies too) and not the least of which is her insane attraction to overly confident Cowboy. She’s got reasons for avoiding any kind of entanglement but there’s just something about him that she can’t resist. I really enjoyed seeing these two dance around each other but end up at the mercy of their feelings.

There’s a little bit of mystery involved that is a nice complement to the romance. I didn’t expect the ending, which is always nice, and I think that Bliss does a great job of tying everything up with a nice pretty bow. I’m definitely looking forward to more in this series and I’m gonna have to get my hands on Book 1!

(Buy on Amazon)

Book Review – Melting Into You

13 Friday Nov 2015

Posted by romanticreadsandsuch in Book Review

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Book Review, Falcon Football Series, Laura Trentham, Melting Into You

Melting Into You

Falcon Football Series

by Laura Trentham

Alec Grayson returns home to Falcon, Alabama, to rebuild his life after a knee injury ended his NFL career. As the Falcon high school quarterback coach, Alec’s love for the game is reignited. Meanwhile, he puts his hard-partying past and the betrayal of the people he trusted most behind him, and adopts a hard demeanor. That is, until a spitfire artist with soulful eyes and a body that haunts his dreams gets under his skin and threatens to crack his armor.

Lilliana Hancock is forced to leave her struggling-artist lifestyle in New York and return to Falcon after her father’s unexpected death leaves her a decrepit family mansion. Determined to use her skills to turn the home into a successful bed and breakfast, Lilliana is stopped at every turn by the town contractor, who happens to be Alec, the gorgeous and arrogant jock to whom she lost her virginity in college. Except Alec doesn’t remember, which infuriates her. Too bad she can’t forget the way his body felt against hers or how his heated gaze follows her…

Will they be able to put their pasts behind them for a future together?

Oh, how I love this series (Slow and Steady Rush and Caught Up in the Touch). Each time I read one I think that it can’t get any better and then it does 🙂

Poor Alec is so burned by his past that he’s shut himself off from everyone. He’s decided that it is easier not to engage than to take the chance on being used again. But that doesn’t stop him from feeling an attraction to Lilliana, who seems to hate him for some unknown reason.

Lilliana is burdened by an interesting mix of fear, expectation and guilt. She’s back in Falcon and turning her family home into a B&B, although she’s an artist at heart. Add to that, being home puts her in close proximity to the guy who doesn’t remember their one night together in college … and he’s still just as sexy as ever, even if he does seem a whole lot colder.

There’s a fantastic sub-plot with one of Alec’s players. It’s a good vehicle to not only help Lilliana and Alec get together, but it also helps bring Alec out of his shell and create relationships with others. He slowly starts opening up and it is a great thing to watch him learn to trust again.

There were quite a few times in the beginning of this book that I just wanted these two to talk to one another. A lot of their troubles would have been avoided that way but once they start moving their way to a relationship those times became less and less. And I cheered so hard for them once they finally got things straightened out.

I definitely hope Trentham isn’t done with this series – I just love her way with characters and plot. Her books are fun, fast reads with characters that just draw me in. Plus I really want to know what happens to some of the secondary characters we’ve gotten to know. Especially Whitey – that guy deserves a second chance and there is a moment in this story that I hope is Trentham hinting that she’s going to give him one.

Buy on Amazon