Friday, 31 January 2020

Review: Ring around the Rosey

Ring around the Rosey Ring around the Rosey by L.A. Fiore
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As I’ve previously adored a L.A. Fiore book, I was eager for more of the author’s work. With Ring around the Rosey we had a book that sounded perfect for me. Mystery and thrills, secrets and suspense, romance and darkness. I went in with high expectations… only to be conflicted.

This is a book where I wanted to be able to give a four-star rating, only it wasn’t quite there. It’s a three-point-five-star read, one I ended up rounding down. It was certainly addictive, but I had too many open questions at the end to be fully satisfied with the conclusion.

Although the constant head hopping that occurred in this one annoyed me, I found myself sucked into the story enough that I was able to deal with it. With information being slowly shared, there were so many possibilities about how things would play out. Things became quite obvious once the information started to come out, but there was plenty that had me curious.

All in all, an addictive read even though it wasn’t quite all I’d hoped for. I’ll certainly be reading more from both authors, as I remain curious.

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Release Blitz: Burned.




Title: Burned
Series: Alex Drake #3
Author: Lexxi James
Genre: Contemporary Romance/Suspense
Release Date: January 31, 2020



Blurb

Nothing burns like an old flame.
Book #3 in the Alex Drake Series



Marrying man Alex Drake has topped his multi-billion-dollar empire by securing the love of his life. But when an old flame re-enters the picture with information on Jack Taylor’s death, can a tough and tenacious Madison discover the truth behind her brother’s death without getting singed in the seductive crossfire?

Meet the woman who turned A.J. into Alex and find out why the name Jordan Stone is on everyone’s lips.

Warning: Full Steam Ahead.
Lexxi James Books are seductive, suspenseful romances filled with fun, sensual, and explicit love scenes.







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Author Bio


Lexxi James | Author of Romantic Suspense

Lexxi James is a best-selling author of mystery & suspense seductively wrapped in a love story. When not strapped to her laptop, she on a perpetual quest for the best cup of cappuccino. Her addictions include her HEA man, bourbon, and smoking hot romance novels.

She loves to connect!
Check out her newsletter & stalk her on social media.


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Release Blitz: Breach of Contract.




Title: Breach of Contract
Series: Kavanagh Family Romance #1
Author: Elizabeth Miller
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 31, 2020



Blurb

Bonafide bombshell Maisie Walker loves sex. The problem is she’s never had it—not with a real live person anyway. Her vibrator, Vinnie, and pornbud.com keep Maisie’s nights busy, but she’s itching to lose her V-card—with her boss, Jayce Kavanagh.

As managing partner of the hottest legal firm in New York City, Jayce Kavanagh likes to win—in court and in the bedroom. With his mind set on legal perfection, he doesn’t have time for the killer sway of his assistant’s assets or her sinful mouth.

One late night in the office changes everything.

Spanking your associate after-hours is not ideal, but with proper boundaries, Jayce makes it happen. Enter in Exhibit A—the contract. General terms and conditions are set in place, satisfaction is guaranteed, and oral persuasion commences.

As they test their limits in and out of the office, feelings surface and amendments are made. But just when an extension is proposed, Jayce strays outside of the contracted lines and Maisie must decide if their flourishing relationship can survive a breach of contract.







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Excerpt

Every three-point-five seconds my thoughts drift to Maisie and the contract I delivered two days ago. I haven’t heard a response, and why should I? We never exchanged numbers. She’s had no way to reach me while I was out. We’re nothing but colleagues with a history. But that doesn’t stop me from missing her, wanting her. It all pisses me off. I have work to do and life to deal with. I knew I didn’t have time for a complication, but I can’t stop thinking about her sweet face and gorgeous ass.

I force myself to focus on the Spears case and the latest injunction Marjorie Blume has filed. She’s muddying up the waters by leaking reports of MoMo’s lengthy conviction record. What he thought was past tense is front and center. It’s my job to retrain the focus on Blume versus freedom of speech, and not his penchant for cars that don’t belong to him.

I drill into the details. Each hour spent living through Blume’s history has my temper rise by ten degrees. At the end of the day, I’m hot. She’s not a saint, and it sticks in my craw she’s made a living making people believe she is.

Focusing on Wentworth for days and Blume for what feels like ages has my blood pressure off the charts. Life is full of complications and I’m in a punishing mood because of them.

“Mr. Kavanagh,” Lisa says from the door. “It’s seven and I’m heading out. Do you need anything before I go?”

“I do—” Ms. Walker arrives behind her with the devil in her eye and a fairly well-hidden smirk. She peeks around my secretary to stare me down with a secret only the two of us share. “I do not,” I amend.

“I brought the research you requested, sir.” Maisie holds out an envelope—a familiar one, stamped confidential.

My gaze jerks from the document to her mouth: plump lips brightened with peach gloss. Christ. My chest aches. Goddamn heart. I smooth it under the pretense my tie is out of line.

“Enjoy your weekend, Lisa. I’ll finish with Ms. Walker and close up,” I say while my gaze remains trained on Maisie.

I wave her in as Lisa escapes before eight on a Friday night. As the automatic lock latches on the door, we stand and stare with silence swirling around us like the promise of what’s to come. Evening sun warms my office, but Maisie’s nipples pebble into distinct points. They draw my attention to the ripe lushness of her breasts pressed together in a skintight button-up and I can’t think of anything but her naked flesh. Because I’ve seen it. I’ve watched her writhe in ecstasy, squeezing the life from my dick.

In an instant, my mind retreats from the memory and drills into sharp focus. There’s no reason why she’s over there and I’m here and we aren’t touching. “Did you read it?” I ask.

Maisie nods. “I did. And I signed it too.”

After this shit with Wentworth, it’s important that we’re on the same page, that she’s honest with me about her feelings. She must give permission. Say it out loud and reassure me I’m not the only one suffering. “Tell me, Ms. Walker. What do you want from me?” My voice is low and jagged from need. Something my body knows all too well as it stiffens at the mere sight of her.

“I want you to f*ck me like your dirty little secret, Mr. Kavanagh.” She breathes out my name as if it’s a wish, a fucking plea for my cock to meet the back of her throat.

Lord, have mercy. Who am I to deny her? If she wishes to know the type of justice I deliver, then so be it. “Come forward for your sentence, peach.”






Author Bio

She wears many hats. Some include wife, mother of two boys, writer, reader, lover of gummy bears and Henry Cavill. She’s a proud Indie author who adores a broken hero, a feisty heroine, and lots and lots of sexy times.


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Release Blitz: Fake You.




Title: Fake You
Series: Boys of Trinity Hall #2
Author: MV Ellis
Genre: Bully Romance
Release Date: January 31, 2020



Blurb

Drew
I hate the lies you tell.
For as long as I can remember, everything in my world has been fake. The happy nuclear family. The loving parents. The close father-son relationship. The respectable family business. All lies. I’ve had it with the pretense and the show, but I’m been trapped on a dizzying merry-go-round of deception, and I can’t get off.

So when she’s thrown unexpectedly into my path, and I discover she’s just another fake, I need to make her pay. Little do I know, the deceit runs deeper than I imagined, and nothing is as it seems.

Kik
I tell the lies I hate.
I hate the lies and the pretense, but if I ‘m going to achieve what I want in life, they’re a necessary evil. Truth is, I’ve mostly made peace with the idea. What I’m doing is a means to an end, and the end definitely justifies the means. Besides, it’s not forever—nothing ever is.

Everybody has to do what they have to do, right? I can live with that. Kinda. Sorta. Maybe. At least I can until he comes bursting into my life, and is determined to tear down everything I’ve worked so hard to build.





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Trailer



Excerpt

When Drew emerged from the shower my breath hitched at the sight of him. Even beaten, battered and bruised, he was beautiful. His hair was still wet, slicked back away from his face, revealing the deep gash above his eyebrow in all its glory. He was going to have a scar there whether he had stitches or not, but I figured it would be worse if he let it heal without getting it seen to. Stupidly, I couldn’t help but think that the scar would probably suit him.
The fact was, the whole beat-up vibe was really doing it for me. Not only that, but it totally suited what I knew of his personality. For someone with a mean, controlling streak as wide as his, the beefcake, preppy look he normally rocked was kind of false advertising. The world should probably be forewarned that below the cool, calm and buttoned-down exterior, a wild animal lurked just below the surface.
Case in point, if the sorry state of his knuckles—bloodied and bloated—was anything to go by, however badly off he was, the other person went away looking at least as bad, if not worse. They definitely weren’t defensive wounds.
I tried not look below the waistband of his gray sweats as he headed toward me, but it was like trying not to lick my lips while eating a sugar donut—the more I told myself not to, the more I was compelled to do exactly that. Not wanting to overtly leer at him, I quickly skirted past the obvious, and brought my eyeline down to his bare feet as he crossed the room. Big mistake. Big. Huge.
There was something so intimate about him padding about like that, it had me freaked me out. What the fuck was I doing cozying up and playing nursemaid to a guy I hated for twenty-three and a half hours a day, but who knew exactly how to make me love him for the other thirty minutes? 






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Author Bio

MV ELLIS knows what it’s like to fall head over heels in love with a badass musician. She followed her heart halfway around the world to be with one. She moved from London to Sydney after a steamy holiday romance with a sexy bass player in sultry Brazil.

Twelve years, two children and a dog later, and she’s still smitten. All this with a guy she sat next to on a bus for 36 hours! She has toured internationally as a “WAG,” and her experiences inspire her writing.

Ellis’s love of romance began when she was 11 years old, after a summer spent secretly reading her auntie’s books. She’s been a sucker for an alpha hero and strong heroine ever since.

An avid reader, Ellis always knew she’d write a book of her own one day. She was right about that. Following a career spanning advertising, marketing, and social media, she finally wrote her debut novel, Catching London in 2017.


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Thursday, 30 January 2020

Review: Giahem's Talons

Giahem's Talons Giahem's Talons by Katharine E. Wibell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Giahem’s Talons is the final book in Katharine E. Wibell’s Incarn series, and it’s a great conclusion to the series. After enjoying the three prior books – Issaura’s Claws, Ullr’s Fangs, and Crocotta’s Hackles – there was a lot I wanted to see from this one, and I was not disappointed by what I was given.

Giahem’s Talons offered an epic conclusion to the series, giving fantasy fans everything that they desire from an epic read. War and conflict, politics and intrigue, action and drama. Things are constantly happening throughout this one, ensuring you cannot put it down. With so many questions being answered, each chapter pulls you in ever deep.

As much as I loved this one, I will be honest and say I saw a few things coming. This did not lessen my enjoyment, but I would have liked certain details to have been a bit more shocking than they were. I’m also uncertain how I feel about the romance. For me, it was the aspect of the series I liked the least. There were details that felt forced, simply to include a romantic element to this story, but that could be because I’m picky about my romance in fantasy.

Despite the couple of things that I wasn’t one hundred percent crazy about, I highly recommend this series. There were enough details left open to ensure there will be more of this world, and I’ll be diving right into those stories.

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Series Blitz: The Soul Sister Series.




Title: Fostering Love
Series: Soul Sisters #1
Author: Victoria Johns
Genre: New Adult/Romantic Suspense



Blurb

What do you do when you love someone who's off-limits? If you're me... fall deeper.
You absolutely, must not ever, fall in love with your foster brother. Just try telling my heart that.

Dalton Frobisher has loved the same guy since she was a teenager.
It's just unfortunate that he doesn't love her back, or rather, can't and most definitely shouldn't love her back.
Growing up around the person you believe should be yours, is hard. Seeing him with other girls is harder, but watching him leave is pure torture.
Life is full of regrets, and not telling him how she feels is the biggest regret she has... so far. Dalton wasn't going to miss that opportunity the next time it came around.
She just didn't expect the fallout that followed.
Jonas Drakeson has spent years trying to stay out of her way; he knew how she felt, but he had to be sure she was ready for him. Leaving was the only way to save himself, he just hoped that one day he’d find his way back to her.
One night could seal their fate, one night could decide their future.

Fostering Love is the first book in the Soul Sisters Series, which tells the story of four girls, friendship and their path to finding 'the one'.





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Title: Forgiving Love
Series: Soul Sisters #2
Author: Victoria Johns
Genre: New Adult/Romantic Suspense



Blurb

It's impossible to get someone to fall in love with you when they've got you friend-zoned. We had sex once and it scared him, but it just made me fight harder. I would prove him wrong, even if it cost me my heart.

Aneelia, Dalton, Charlotte and Florence have always been best friends and self-confessed soul sisters. Supporting each other through thick and thin is the easiest way to survive life's highs and lows, after all, they know everything about each other.

Or do they?

Aneelia Prince has been hiding a secret from her soul sisters.

A shameful night of regret, a misjudged bad decision and a situation read wrong.
Things didn't go as expected when she decided to take a chance on the guy she'd loved from afar. Neely thought they wanted the same thing but what he wanted was something entirely different.

Her attempts to avoid the situation come to a crashing halt when she gets caught between a rock and a hard place. As desperate as she is to act like nothing happened and move on with her life, she finds herself stuck in the middle of his business, surrounded by intrigue and danger. Being close to him is the last thing she wants when it's so hard to forgive him, especially when he's chosen to forget. His regret hurt her heart once and letting him in a second time when her heart overrides her head is crazy.
Never had finding true love been so… dangerous.

Forgiving Love is the second book in the Soul Sisters Series, which tells the story of four girls, friendship and their path to finding 'the one'.





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Title: Fated Love
Series: Soul Sisters #3
Author: Victoria Johns
Genre: New Adult/Romantic Suspense



Blurb

Fake it 'til you make it. It's just a shame my heart doesn't agree.
It's easy to pretend to love someone when it's really the truth.
It's simple really… make my fake boyfriend fall in love with me for real.

Getting what you want, when you want, should be a matter of course. Unless the one thing you want more than anything, doesn't feel the same way.
Charlotte Groves, or Lottie to her friends, is a beautiful, rich and privileged member of Hawkstown's elite and country club circle. In an effort to please the guy she's yearned for, Lottie finds herself agreeing to keeping up country club appearances and playing the fake girlfriend for the town's entrepreneur and hot bad boy, Oli Hart.
What started out as a mutual arrangement, veers widely off course when disastrous events unfold in Lottie's life. Struggling to cope with the aftermath, Lottie decides it's time she lived her life for herself, ignoring the entitled reality she's become used to and the arrangement with Oli that gives him the freedom she so desperately yearns for.
Just like their fake relationship, Lottie Groves isn’t all that she seems either, but she’s hidden behind a mask for so long that letting the world see who she really is, is daunting.
You’re not supposed to mourn the loss of fake love…unless it’s real.
Fated Love is the third passion filled instalment in the Soul Sisters Series.





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Title: Finding Love
Series: Soul Sisters #4
Author: Victoria Johns
Genre: New Adult/Romantic Suspense



Blurb

Running away from the guy I really loved was supposed to help me start afresh, but the consequences were life-changing, almost deadly.

Florence Smith is desperately and hopelessly looking for her happily ever after, at whatever cost.

The Soul Sisters code for Lottie, Dolly, Neely and Flo has real meaning, they’re true friends who connect and understand each other, like true sisters. They're there for each other no matter what.

But what happens when that connection stops and you choose to close yourself off and willingly walk away?

Life happens. Ugly, dream-shattering life.

Sonny and Flo were the last singles standing and she dreamed he’d sweep her off her feet and romance her like the classic love stories she adored. Instead, his obvious disdain left her devastated, especially when he didn’t bother to hide.

Her hometown held too many reminders of the life she’d never have, so Flo jumped at the 'opportunity of a lifetime' and made a break for freedom.
Only, freedom was the last thing she got, and now she has to find her way back.

Finding Love- A Soul Sisters Novel - is the fourth book in the series, which tells the story of four girls, friendship and their path to finding 'the one.’





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The Soul Sisters Series Collection -
all four books in one box set!







Author Bio

Victoria Johns is a writer who enjoys sharing a happily ever after and believes that it’s every good girl’s dream to experience a steamy one. Growing up in North West England in a large family surrounded by love and support she found her Prince Charming many years ago and enjoys living the life they’ve made with their son.
She’s always had a creative imagination and decided that some of the stories bubbling in her head need to be given life and shared. This pen name gives them the freedom to be loved by others.
When she’s not writing, she’s sewing, cycling or chomping on crisps in front of the TV.


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Release Blitz: Barely Breathing.




Title: Barely Breathing
Series: Keep Breathing #1
Author: Erica Marselas
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: January 30, 2020



Blurb

Buried deep under a mountain of lies, I’m struggling for air. My life, my choices are being dictated by my father.
I was forced to give up the man I love in order to protect him and now I must marry a man who I hate.
I thought I had found a way out.
I thought my time in this gilded cage was almost over.
Then one day Jaxson Holden walks back into my life, flipping it upside down.
He’s angry, I get it.
But he has no idea how much I have to lose—how much he has to lose with him coming back.
Now I need to find a way to hold on while I’m gasping for breath as my past and present collide.

Just keep breathing, River.

Just keep breathing. 







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Excerpt

“You still smell the same, you know. I hate you most days, but I can’t forget how fucking amazing you smelled.” I brush back her hair with my fingertips, and I can’t miss the small tremor that runs through her body. I affect her. This is good, and I plan to use this to my advantage. “Or how good you looked underneath me.” Her chestnut hair still shines like I remember, and I can easily visualize how it looks twisted around my fingers. How her cheeks heated up to a nice pink after I made her come... and don't get me started on her legs looking like sex in these heels and how good they would look wrapped around my neck. Fuck. I'm kidding myself if I say she doesn't affect me and doesn't make my dick hard at the sight of her. Snap out of it Jaxson. Now isn't the time. "Tell me I actually meant nothing to you, and I'll go away."






Author Bio


Erica is a wife, a mother of four, and a tequila drinking smart mouth. When she’s not wrangling her children and trying to keep them alive, she’s writing. She’ll write anything from sweet stalkers, to forbidden love, to erotica, to rom coms to young adult because she believes no love story is created equal and every story deserves to be told. Even the fictional ones. As long as she can dream it, she'll write it. 


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