Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Lauren's Review of Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren



I am not going to lie, around 19% in, I thought I was going to have to stop reading this book. Hazel was not my cup of tea. I felt she was super annoying and there was no way I was going to put up with her for the length of the book. However, I pushed my way through and found around 25% in, she calmed down a bit. 

I found the Hazel and Josh dynamic interesting and enjoyed the blind double dating. It was cute meeting new possibilities for Hazel and Josh and then seeing how they tie back into each other in the end. I would love to see this as a rom com on the big screen. 

Also, it was very pleasing to have a Korean male lead in the story and to introduce a lot of the culture into the story. Kudos for that!

Tuesday, September 4, 2018

Lauren's Review of Sinful (Sinful Surrender Quartet #1) by Katherine Hawthorne


I do not usually give out 5 star reviews but this one deserves it! It took me Labor Day weekend to bang out this book and I had to even hide during some of the barbecues to see what happens next. Books like this is what keeps me going in life.  I loved every second of this book and I did not want to put it down. The writing is phenomenal, and the love triangle had me pulled in every direction.  Not sure who I wanted more; Sin, the bad boy, smoking hot cop or Xander, the epitome of elegance, charm and sophistication??? I see why she gave in to both!

I am usually very hesitant when it comes to trios and ménage romances. Sometimes they come off too corny or way too unrealistic. Hawthorne does an amazing job keeping the plot suspenseful and the characters appealing and believable.  I am very curious to see how this is going to play out because that scene with all three was intense!  Put me to bed now!

I am glad I read some of the reviews before…HOLY CLIFFHANGER! Luckily, we do not have to wait too long! Book #2 looks like it is going to be out by October 2! That’s going to be one long ass month!  #TEAMSIN

Check it out on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41134349-sinful?from_search=true

Purchase here on Amazon (Kindle ONLY $0.99!!): https://www.amazon.com/Sinful-Surrender-Quartet-Book-ebook/dp/B07G4958R5/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1536067837&sr=8-1&keywords=Sinful+Hawthorne


Thursday, August 30, 2018

Lauren's Review of Picture Perfect Cowboy by Tiffany Reisz


Spanking ü
Sub/Dom Play ü
Ropes ü
Flogging ü

I needed to spice up my life a little, so I requested from NetGalley, Picture Perfect Cowboy by Tiffany Reisz.  Back in 2013, I read both The Siren and The Angel and while both books had tremendously hot and sexy sex scenes, at times some of the BDSM situations were a bit much for me. However, sometimes you have to go back to author and see what they have up their sleeve, so I jumped on the opportunity to read this book.

YEEHAW Jason “Still” Waters!! Reisz wastes no time getting the Jason and Simone story started. The two of them are just so darn cute together that I think I blushed a few times while reading. Two opposite people from two different completely different worlds with ONE thing in common and that is really all you need. Find that common ground whatever it may be, and the sparks are flying. My favorite in this book was mostly Jason and watching him grow into himself. It is an important part of life realizing who you are and being okay about the taboo things that turn you on and Reisz captured that perfectly.

This is a hot and fun but quick ride with a little sumthin sumthin at the end of it.


Check it out on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39092063-picture-perfect-cowboy

Order on Amazon on November 5, 2018: https://www.amazon.com/Picture-Perfect-Cowboy-Original-Sinners-ebook/dp/B07G9MNNV2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535640518&sr=8-1&keywords=picture+perfect+cowboy

Monday, August 27, 2018

Lauren's Review of Consumed (Firefighter #1) by J.R. Ward


Firefighters. Yum! Seriously though...I was getting tired about reading books about secretaries seducing their rich, hot, playboy bosses. This story is refreshing and basically amaze"fire"balls. I was immediately hooked with the beginning scene with Anne and the fire. It was hard to not put this story down because every chapter had me hooked. What stood out to me the most about this book was that it had so many avenues of storytelling. This wasn't just about the romance between Anne and Danny but also about her investigation, her relationship with her family, adapting to new role in life and the life/stress of being a firefighter.

I thought the whole story contained great character development and I was intrigued to learn more about each individual and where their stories intertwined with Anne's and Danny's. I felt the ending was unexpected and I was surprised to learn who was involved but I did feel like the book ended a bit to abrupt for me. I know there are going to be more books in this series but I wanted just a tad bit more of Anne and Danny before I have to wait to read on. Come on Book TWO!!

Add it to your Goodreads TO READ LIST: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38622279-consumed?from_search=true

Purchase on October 2, 2018:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/1501194909/ref=cm_cr_ryp_prd_ttl_sol_0


Saturday, September 16, 2017

Coattails and Cocktails By Rumer Haven Release Tour & Giveaway!!!


Coattails and Cocktails
By Rumer Haven
Genre: Historical Mystery, Romantic Suspense
Publisher:  Fallen Monkey Press
Cover Designer:  RoseWolf Design

Release Date: September 14, 2017


A body clearly shaken, but not stirring…

Summer, 1929. Murder isn’t on the menu when Chicago tycoon Ransom Warne hosts a dinner party at his country estate. But someone’s a victim—and everyone’s a suspect—when drinks and desires lead to disaster.

Hollywood starlet Lottie Landry has returned home to celebrate her engagement. She’s famous for her on- and off-screen romance with co-star Noble, but, privately, she’s having second thoughts. As her former guardian, Ransom doesn’t approve of the match. Yet his own affections raise questions when his wife, Edith, suspects him of having an affair—just as Noble suspects Lottie. Stirred into the mix are Lottie’s friends Helen and Rex, a young journalist and football hero who can feel tension building in the Warne mansion like a shaken champagne bottle.

And once the cork pops, a body drops.


Coattails and Cocktails is where Agatha Christie meets The Great Gatsby, a whodunit spiked with new love and old baggage, public faces and private vices. Filled to the brim with romance and mystery, it’s sure to intoxicate.



Lottie held her saccharine smile for exactly two seconds after the door had banged shut behind Edith. Then she dropped her lips just as fast as she reclaimed her highball from Noble.

“Must she always be so patronizing?” With her free hand, Lottie fanned the lapel of her loose vest away from the sleeveless tennis dress beneath.

“Must you always be so attentive?” Noble cocked his head toward the lawn, his ice-blue irises particularly piercing. “Look, you’ve overheated yourself.”

Lottie turned on her heel to stare him down from head to toe. “That color doesn’t suit you. No, it doesn’t at all.”

Rolling the cuffs of his striped yellow shirt, he assessed his white vest and trousers. “I think it suits me fine.”

“I mean green. But then, jealous lover never was your strongest role.”

He stepped closer and fondled the bow hanging from her sailor collar. “Remember your place here,” he whispered firmly, then poked the skin above her neckline but once.

“I am. Everything at Belleau is mine to enjoy, too.”

“You flatter yourself, my little four-flusher.”

“As if you’re not counting on that being the case.”

Noble matched her steely stare until a throat cleared behind them.

“Lovers’ quarrel?” Ransom bellowed from the top step.

Lottie and Noble spun apart, her bow untying while still in his grip. He dropped the ribbon to give Ransom a robust pat on the shoulder. “Your little ward is only unhappy with her drink.” He seized the glass back from Lottie, leaving her to fist a now-empty hand onto her hip.

“That so?” Ransom frowned. Standing tall and broad in a cream linen suit, he stuffed his hands into his trouser pockets. “It’s not like Edith to mix a bad batch.”

“Everything’s jake, don’t worry,” Lottie said. “Just a little bitter on the tongue, that’s all.” She squinted at her costar with a wan smile as he downed her drink. “Luckily, Noble is dreadfully parched.”

“I only want to drink you in, my love.” He gave a little snort before swigging another deep sip.

Lottie clenched her fist for two beats, but willed herself to snake it around Noble’s back and slide against him. “Aw. You always deliver the right lines, baby.”

He tossed his cap away to wrap his arm around her waist, too, swinging her around to stand face to face.


“You never miss your cues either, doll.” Pressing her close, he brought his lips to where her earlobe peeked out from her bandeau. “Now stick to the script,” he murmured into the silk.





Rumer Haven is probably the most social recluse you could ever meet. When she’s not babbling her fool head off among friends and family, she’s pacified with a good story that she’s reading, writing, or revising—or binge-watching something on Netflix. Hailing from Chicago, she presently lives in London with her husband and probably a ghost or two. Rumer has always had a penchant for the past and paranormal, which inspires her writing to explore dimensions of time, love, and the soul. Her novel What the Clocks Know won 1st Place in General Fiction for the 2017 Red City Review Book Awards.


Learn more about Rumer at www.rumerhaven.com.


Email:  rumerhaven@gmail.com
Street Team: Haven’s Ravens





Unfiltered By Leigh Lennon Release Tour & Giveaway!!!

Unfiltered
By Leigh Lennon

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: September 15, 2017

Justine

I never will get my happy ending. With my past threatening to ruin the possibility of love in my future, I keep every man at arm’s length. Nick appears out of thin air, becoming a part of my life instantly, leaving me breathless and wanting more. The pain that haunts me is still present, but Nick is worth the risk. When he promises me forever; can I trust him?

Nick

Justine makes me see that a forever is in reach with her. She keeps telling me she is hard to love; yet I find it quite easy. Once I break down her walls, she finally lets me in. But, I have a secret of my own which can expose her to the demons that destroyed me in the past. However, with Justine, I will do anything and everything to make her mine.


Nick

Justine is my future and I can’t imagine a life without her as my future. She is nervous about the next step yet I won’t let her go that easy. “Are you really that uncertain of us?”

“No, it’s not that. I’m not uncertain of us, I am uncertain of me, of me ruining this by being well, me!”

Leaning forward, with an affliction of righteous anger fueling me, I snap, “I fucking hate when you put yourself down like that Justine,” Her eyes instantly shift in dilation over my brashness, which has never been shown to her.

“Whoa, buddy,” she says as a warning. “Don’t you see? I am scared that I will be the one to screw this up, that is all.” She asks, her hands shaking. I grab them to bring calm to her.

“I am doing all I can to show you I am not like those that abandoned you in the past. Don’t you see that?” I look away, trying to not attach myself to the hurt in her eyes, placed by others, but I am not the one who placed all that crap there. “I haven’t had a lot of long-lasting relationships. You once told me that you suspected Rafe stepped out on you well before you left him.”

She looks down, as if she was silently telling me she hates the direction of this conversation. “Yes, that is true.”

“I think this is affecting you more than you’re willing to admit. And sure, this relationship of ours is moving fast, but I think when you are our age, you just don’t care about the petty shit you do when you are twenty. We have something special, Justine.”

“Yes, I agree.”

“But you’re still scared,” I press for an answer.

“Hell yes, I am scared. You came out of nowhere right when I wrote off being able to love again.”

“You are too damn proud of a woman. You don’t have to act all macho with me.”

“But I have had to do just that for so long. Rafe was a shitty husband and a really shitty dad until Hildy came around. And how do you think that made me feel. He wouldn’t change for the kids and myself but with her, he did. Which I guess is good, she wouldn’t put up with the half-assed dad stuff. But he wouldn’t change for me. So yes, I have been on my own, even during our marriage, on my own.”

“And that has made you the mom and woman you are today. But more so, honey, that has affected how you let someone love you. I am not Rafe and you are not alone anymore.”

“So, what does that mean?” she asks skeptically.

“I’m not leaving you. I’m here and we are going to make this work because I love you. I can’t see growing old with anyone else but you. So please let your guard down when it comes to me.”

Justine is not one to cry but she has let her exterior hardness down and tears were openly flowing. “I never thought I needed to hear those words before, but it is such a relief to hear them from you,” she says.

I kneel in front of her and bring her to the floor with me. “Let me take on that burden. Can you believe me when I say I won’t leave you? No matter how much you push me away; you are stuck with me.”


“Yes,” she says as I embrace her. In that moment, I feel every worry receding from her body because she has found her person and I have found mine.



Leigh has done a number of interviews over the last month. Visit these sites to learn more about Leigh and her books.


Leigh Lennon is mother, veteran and a wife of a cancer survivor. Originally with a degree in education, she started writing as an outlet that has led a deep passion as she wrote twelve books. Now ready to publish all of them, she lugs her computer with her as she crafts her next story. She can be found drinking coffee or wine, depending on the time of the day.

Facebook  Website  Twitter



Friday, September 15, 2017

Cupcakegasm By Rhiannon Jean Cover Reveal & Giveaway!!!


Cupcakegasm
By Rhiannon Jean
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Cover Designer:  Imagination Uncovered

Release Date: September 29, 2017


Mabel has finally made her and her late Gran’s dreams come true: she has her very own organic cupcake shop, Hazel’s Hints of Heaven. For the most part, she’s content. There’s her daily visits to Cherry’s Coffee Roasters, hanging with her two best friends, Max and Corinda, and baking her heart out. Alas, she aches for a little human contact (wink, wink). She’d even settled for one-night stands from her favorite hole in the wall bar, but, when she meets two mouth-droppingly, eye-poppingly gorgeous men, things get complicated.

There’s Gavin, the tattooed, pierced, dark haired, blue-eyed devil who reeks of sin and needs a job in a pastry kind of way. And Henry, the tall, blond, green-eyed Greek god who borders on rude and tight-assed and needs sweet treats—and fast. As Mabel gets to know each man, her heart chooses one, while her body chooses another.

When push comes to shove, with a little help from fate, Mabel finally makes the choice that satisfies her heart…and her Cupcakegasm.




Hailing from the Midwest, Rhiannon Jean has finally decided to listen to the voices in her head and put their stories on paper. She loves cats, cupcakes, Netflix, tequila, writing, crafting, music, singing too loudly with the car radio, dancing, shoes, tattoos and correcting people's grammar.


Email:  authorrhiannonjean@gmail.com





Bound by Vengeance (Ravage MC Bound #3) By Ryan Michele Release Blitz & Giveaway!!!

Bound by Vengeance
Ravage MC Bound #3
By Ryan Michele
Genre: NA Romance/Suspense/MC
Release Date: September 14, 2017


Vengeance: punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for an injury or wrong.

Austyn Cruz’s life has been turned on its axis. She’s done with sitting on the sidelines while those around her deal with her problems. 

Growing up in the Ravage MC, there’s always been someone at her back. Now it’s time for her to deal with her problems on her own. That is, until the guy she’s lusted over and loved for more years than she can count decides to claim her.

Only, it’s too late. He’s too late. Everything has changed.

Ryker James lives by one rule: live free. His past does not define him, but it does decide to give him a wakeup call after years of lying dormant. It’s time to face his demon and make sure, once and for all, it never comes back into his life. All the while protecting the one and only he’s loved for longer than he should. 

Two people tied together by their pasts. Two people searching for vengeance. Will the retribution they seek tear them apart, or bring them together? In the end, justice will be served … the Ravage MC way. 

** Bound by Vengeance (Ravage MC Bound Series Book Three) is a standalone full-length novel. You do not have to read the Ravage MC series nor Bound Series to follow this book, but if you’d like to see where it all started, you really should. **

“This story was such a heartbreaking yet beautiful watching the relationship between Austin and Ryker develop.” - Reflections of a Book Geek

“Their connection was deep and the heat between them was scorching.” - Cat’s Guilty Pleasures

“Wow, the rollercoaster of emotions I experienced while reading BBV was deep, real, and raw.” - Angela Ruble Scott


Ryan Michele found her passion in making fictional characters come to life. She loves being in an imaginative world where anything is possible and has a knack for special twists readers don’t see coming.

She writes MC, Contemporary, Erotic, Paranormal, New Adult, Inspirational, and many more romances. And whether it’s bikers, wolf shifters, mafia, or beyond, Ryan spends her time making sure her heroes are strong and her heroines match them at every turn.

When she isn’t writing, Ryan is a mom and wife living in rural Illinois and reading by her pond in the warm sun.
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