Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Review: Three Broken Promises by Monica Murphy




Breakout New Adult sensation Monica Murphy returns with a hot new contemporary romance—a heartfelt story of second chances, forgiveness, and redemption.

Commitment. That’s what I really want from Colin. Ever since my brother, Danny, died in Iraq, Colin’s done so much to help me, including giving me a job at his popular restaurant so I can leave my crappy waitressing job at the strip joint. But lying in bed with him every night to comfort him from his horrible nightmares isn’t enough anymore. I know he feels guilty about Danny’s death, about not going to Iraq, but I can’t keep living this double life. 

I love him desperately, but he’s got so many demons, and if he can’t open up to me now, then he’ll never be the real partner I need him to be. I gave him a month, and now I’m out of here. If he truly loves me like he says, he knows where to find me.

Amber says...

As someone who loved both One Week Girlfriend and Second Chance Boyfriend I was very excited to see another book set in the world of Drew and Fable. I’ll admit it took me a second to remember who Colin was (but that was due to how long ago I read SCG and not the fact that he’s not an awesome character). We met Colin and Jen when Fable went to work at his restaurant in SCG. And getting to know the two of them has been a ride. Both have issues with the past, and both have battles to overcome, but together they can be great.

Colin was best friends with Jen’s brother who was killed in action. He has nightmares about what he feels is his responsibility in Danny’s death. One of the last promises he made to Danny was to take care of his baby sister Jen. When he finds her she is at one of the lowest points of her life, and he doesn't hesitate to take her in. Giving her both a job and a place to live. While they are both attracted to each other there is something that holds Colin back. That is until Jen tells him that she is leaving.

Feeling like a burden Jen decides she needs to learn to stand on her own two feet. The road has not always been easy for her and she lives with nightmares of her own, but she is tired of the push and pull of her attraction to Colin. Does he want her? Is she just his best friends little sister?

As with all of Monica’s work she has a way of pulling you into the world and falling in love with the characters. While it was a little angsty I still give Three Broken Promises a solid 4 stars. Her writing is as good as her characters. One of the things I loved about this book was seeing Owen grow up, and I am impatiently waiting for Four Years Later when we will finally get to see Owen’s story! 



New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of new adult contemporary romance. A believer in kissing. A believer of love.

I'm a wife, a mom and I live in California.

Blog Tour: Review of Burning Up by Marie Coulson

Bound Together brought us the love triangle of Jared, Layla and Ollie. In Burning Up, they are all back. Come along with us on this journey and see what trouble these 3 get into...





Title: Burning Up
Author: Marie Coulson
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: November 1, 2013


Scorching heat...

Erotic pleasure...

Intense passion...

Layla Jennings thought she had it all figured out. The right time, the right place and the right guy.

After leaving behind her life and friends in Long Beach, Layla must now walk the path she has chosen, hand in hand with the man who holds her heart.

As the flame of love continues to burn brightly, she discovers more about herself and the man she loves every day. But what happens if the fire goes out? What happens when half of your heart is across an ocean?

With the other man in her life unwilling to give up his fight for her, and a danger she is too blind to see, Layla must battle between the safe and steady journey she has embarked on and the one that leads to destinations unknown.


Georgia says...

Layla you got me on my knees, and my fists are pounding the ground. What a rollercoaster of ride I was just on. I have to wait for my head to stop spinning. This is book two of a series by Marie Coulson. Layla Jennings goes off to college and finds herself in love with two men. Jared Garrett is your over the top Alpha Male and Oliver Greene is your sensitive musician. I do not want to spoil whom Layla chooses but it does amaze me that this young 20 year old woman has two men so enthralled with her that they stop at nothing to get her. If you love angst these books are for you. If you love hot steamy sex scenes, these books are for you. And yes you will get your happily ever after and so does Layla. Along the way you will travel the world and meet some really great friends and finish it all with a smile.

Marie Coulson does a great job in storytelling and does not stray from the plot or the two main characters. I usually have a hard time identifying with characters that are so young but Marie Coulson brought me back to all the emotions of young adulthood and all the emotions that we go through in finding the “right one” opposed to the “dangerous and exciting one”. Well done Ms. Coulson.

4 out of 5 stars.







Born and bred in Essex, England, Marie Coulson discovered her love of writing in her early teens. Beginning with poetry and song lyrics, she tried her hand at creative writing while studying for her English GCSE.

It was love at first line.

Unfortunately, Marie's career as a childcare and education practitioner soon took up most of her time and writing became something she only dreamed about.

In the summer of 2012 she quit her job and enrolled at university, ready to start a new career as a therapist. This left her with a lot of time on her hands and on August the 20th she sat down and wrote the first chapter of Bound Together.

Bound Together was a story that had been waiting three years to be written and when fingers hit the keyboard...Layla, Jared and Ollie's story was born. 

Marie has since written and released two novels in the Bound Together series and a novella. Her romantic comedy novel Diary Of A Dieter has also received excellent reviews and is the debut novel in the Confessions series. 


Follow Marie and chat with her about her crazy characters! She loves all her fans.

Now our only question is... Which team will you choose?




























Release Blitz! A Blue Tale by Sarah Dosher




The rock legend’s daughter…
Eli Blue Savage doesn’t trust musicians, especially those that idolize her dad. Her heart’s been broken by everyone she’s ever loved. Fairytale dreams and the music she locks inside her heart are all that keep her alive.

The musician with a dark past…
Deacon Chastain plays a blue guitar to match his rock idol, the man that saved him from a path of destruction. His life revolves around music; it’s the only thing that saves him from the darkness.

Hearts beat to the same rhythm…
Broken and scarred by their pasts, can they find a way to heal and move forward? No matter the adversity, even the hardest of hearts can be softened by love – music is easy; life is hard.





Sarah Dosher was born and raised in rural Oklahoma where she currently resides with her cowboy husband and twins (one cowboy and one cowgirl).

She is addicted to books and The Golden Girls. Her love for characters inspired her to write her first novel, Haven from the Storm.

Visit her website at sarahdosher.com.





Sunday, December 29, 2013

Blog Tour: Review of Perfect Lie by Teresa Mummert





Synopsis:

Sometimes love burns so hot in your veins that it consumes
all rational thought.

That's why Brock and I never had a chance.  I had to start my life over. College was my
chance to become someone new. I changed everything about myself to fit in, but
one person saw through my facade.

The attraction between Abel and I was undeniable, but I
still hadn't healed from the painful secret I carried around with me. Abel
struggled to get me to face my past in order to move forward. In doing so, he
revealed a secret of his own; one that changed everything I thought I knew.

A secret that would bring Brock back into my life and force
me to face the truth of what really happened the day I lost him.



Becky says...

5 huge Teresa Mummert Stars

I have yet to read a book by Teresa Mummert that I have not fell in love with. This story was no different. It was so unpredictable (a rare find these days) and I found myself 60% in without even looking up from my Kindle. It's even more rare that I have a head scratching WTF moment more than once in a book! Perfect Lie had that and then some.

Sometimes we find an all consuming, heart stopping love that just isnt meant to be a HEA.. I loved Brock but secrets can ruin everything, especially when they are all around you.. 
"Thats my punishment.  I get to spend an eternity knowing I cant be with you."

I had to put myself in check after that part and I know you will as well!!

Lie meets Abel as she tries to live a normal college experience. After what she's been through, I, too, would be jaded and guarded. Slowly, she lets him in, but with every one step forward it seems two are taken back in its place.

Anymore and you will find out the secrets, plots, WTF moments, curveballs and all about the devastatingly beautiful story!! I could type all night about this book. No matter what genre you are in, this book is made for you!!! Kudos Teresa Mummert, you have left me Speechless!!! I have NEVER read an ending quite like this one!!! 

It most certainly will take up a paperback residence on my bookshelf!!!



Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads


Author Bio:

"I was a Russian spy at the ripe age of thirteen, given my uncanny ability to tell if someone was lying ( I also read fortunes on the weekends). By sixteen I had become too much of a handful for the Lethal Intelligence Ensemble (L.I.E.). I was quickly exiled to the south of France where I worked with wayward elephants in the Circus of Roaming Animals and People (C.R.A.P.). I was able to make ends meet by selling my organs on the black market for pocket change and beer money. At the age of twenty three I decided to expand my horizons and become a blackjack dealer in Ireland. I loved the family atmosphere at Barney's Underground Liquor Lounge (B.U.L.L.). People couldn't resist the allure of Liquor up front and poker in the rear. Eventually I became tired of the rear and headed off to the United States to try my hand at tall tales. That is what brings us here today. If you have a moment I'd like to tell you a story.
(This bio is not to be taken seriously under any circumstance.)

Teresa Mummert is an army wife and mother whose passion in life is writing. She is the author of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling novels White Trash Beautiful and Suicide Note. Born in Pennsylvania, she lived a small town life before following her husband's military career to Louisiana and Georgia. Check out her website for samples and updates! TeresaMummert.com"





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Cover Reveal: Fallen From Grace by Leigh Songstad

FallenFromGraceCover

Synopsis

Expensive cars...

Penthouse apartments...

Exclusive clubs and endless money...

By day, Judas Woods practices Law in New York City.

By night, he’s forced to portray a playboy image he despises.

Past resentments his father holds against him have made Judas a prisoner in his own life. Just as he is ready to give up on life, he meets her—Grace Winters. Beautiful, intelligent and way out of his league.

Years have passed since the tragic accident that destroyed her family in just one night, and Grace Winters has finally found her new normal. Congressman Ellis Randall is charming, charismatic, flawless...and he wants to marry her.

Things are perfect.

Almost too perfect…

When Grace meets the enigmatic and troubled local bad boy, Judas Woods, she is swept into a whirlwind affair of passion, desire, and secrets.

What is Congressman Randall hiding?

And can Grace trust the bad boy she is falling hopelessly in love with?

Judas and Grace Collage

About the Author

author pic

Leigh Nicole Songstad found her love for writing during her college years while earning degrees in Political Science and Human Services. She lives in The Black Hills with her husband and their three children. With many more characters and stories patiently waiting on her hard drive she hopes to continue writing, for as long as God allows.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Leigh-Songstad/143312655816013?re=hl

profilewebsite

Blog Tour: Review of Exquisite Betrayal by A.M. Hargrove




A male Romance Author… a convention in Vegas… a female book blogger… a goal to lose her virginity… what next? Find out when you mix all the above!

Fallon McKinley is headed to Vegas for the Wicked Wenches Romance Con and losing her virginity is only one of her goals. The other is to meet her favorite author of romance novels, R.T. Sinclair. What she doesn’t realize is that the sexy green-eyed god she rams into at the airport is the real R.T. When they keep running into each other, she’s shocked, but excited, because the attraction is irresistible.

Ryland Thomas Sinclair doesn’t want anyone to know his true identity. He’s the author that all women love, but everyone thinks he’s a female. He hides his persona behind the public face of his twin sister, keeping his own a secret. But after meeting the lovely Fallon, his intentions to avoid a relationship come to a screeching halt. She’s put an unwanted kink into his perfectly laid out plans. His unusual reaction surprises him because after a heart-shredding breakup a few years ago, he’s managed to avoid women at all costs.

Resisting Fallon becomes more difficult than he imagines. Soon things are spiraling out of control, until a major miscommunication has Fallon walking out of his home and his life. Will Ryland Thomas succeed in losing the woman he loves? Or can he win her back?



Melanie says...

“This is what I want. Always. Right here. Like this. Forever and without end. You, Fallon. It’s always been you and it will always be you.” - Ryland Thomas
 
Fallon is a book blogger who is determined to lose her virginity while in Las Vegas at a book convention to see her favorite romance author, R.T. Sinclair. Ryland catches her eye and she decides that he would be perfect for the task but when he discovers this at the exact moment she becomes a non-virgin, Ryland gets very angry and stops. Humiliated, Fallon goes to leave his hotel room only to find her purse missing with her I.D., money and credit cards, and she was due at the airport to return home to Spartanburg, South Carolina.
 
Ryland Thomas is a wealthy writer who has closed himself off to love after catching the women he thought that he loved going down on his best friend. He has not opened himself up to anyone since that heartbreak. That is before Fallon literally fell into his life.  When Fallon discovers herself with no money and no-one to help her, he takes her to his home at Lake Tahoe to wait for her new I.D. and credit card.
 
Suddenly, it becomes abundantly clear to me that a kiss with her is more intimate than the act of sex itself. There is something so incredibly emotional and personal about it that I know I’ll never think of kissing in the same way again. - Ryland Thomas 
The taste of him when we kiss is beyond anything I’ve ever known. Most of all, he’s seeped into my heart, wedging himself within it, and I don’t ever want him to leave. If he does, there will be a space so huge that I’ll never be whole, never be myself again; I know that Fallon will cease to exist. - Fallon
 
Fallon eventually goes back home, but neither one can stop thinking about the other. Eventually Fallon gets a her dream job in San Francisco where Ryland's sister, Tilly lives. I can't say too much more or I will be giving the story away, but Ryland Thomas and Fallon begin a relationship full of the trials and tribulations that they need to work through.
 
"... sometimes when you go through the rough spots, the beauty shines through, and when it does, it’s much more appreciated." - Ryland Thomas
 
I am kind-of on the fence with this book. I really liked to story line but felt it was a bit long and stretched out. Some of the wording was straight up corny, for instance, pleasure button, hoo-hah, jerk-hole, and intimate bits. The ending was good but the story had a bit of predictability due to all of the misunderstandings.
 
Sometimes, you think you’re getting over something, and that your life is taking a turn for the better, but then someone comes and throws you a fucking curve ball that flies at you so fast that you don’t have time to get out of the way before it smashes right into your skull, blinding you with the pain. - Fallon



One day, on her way home from work as a sales manager, A. M. Hargrove, realized her life was on fast forward and if she didn't do something soon, it would quickly be too late to write that work of fiction she had been dreaming of her whole life. So, she rolled down the passenger window of her fabulous (not) company car and tossed out her leather briefcase. Luckily, the pedestrian in the direct line of fire was a dodge ball pro and had über quick reflexes enabling him to avoid getting bashed in the head. Feeling a tad guilty about the near miss, A. M. made a speedy turn down a deserted side street before tossing her crummy, outdated piece-of-you-know-what lap top out the window. She breathed a liberating sigh of relief, picked up her cell phone, called her boss and quit her job. Grinning, she made another call to her hubs and told him of her new adventure (after making sure his heart was beating properly again).

So began A. M. Hargrove's career as a YA/NA and Adult Romance writer. Her books include Kissing Fire, Edge of Disaster, Shattered Edge, the series the Guardians of Vesturon (Survival, Resurrection, Determinant, Beginnings and reEmergent), Dark Waltz and the upcoming release Tragically Flawed.

Other than being in love with being in love, she loves chocolate, ice cream and coffee and is positive they should be added as part of the USDA food groups. 

(If you're wondering, it didn't happen EXACTLY that way, but….)

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Blog Tour: Quintessentially Q by Pepper Winters




Purchase Link:

iTunes:



“All my life, I battled with the knowledge I was twisted… fucked up to want something so deliciously dark—wrong on so many levels. But then slave fifty-eight entered my world. Hissing, fighting, with a core of iron, she showed me an existence where two wrongs make a right."

Tess is Q’s completely. Q is Tess’s irrevocably. But now, they must learn the boundaries of their unconventional relationship, while Tess seeks vengeance on the men who sold her. Q made a blood-oath to deliver their corpses at Tess’s feet, and that’s just what he’ll do.

He may be a monster, but he’s Tess’s monster.




Excerpt

“Tess,” I growled, charging for the bed.
She let me come. She didn’t move away or try to hide under the covers. She cocked her head. “I didn’t think you’d be sleeping with me. Not after what I said.”
She wore the same white T-shirt of mine to bed, and all I could think about was her undressing before I strapped her to the cross—it felt like a century ago. We’d been happy then. I’d been tormented and scared, but happy as Tess promised she’d never leave.
I pinched my brow, trying to get my thoughts under control. “I’m not coming to bed, esclave. You and I need to talk.”
She eyed me but nodded. “Okay.”
Goddammit, where was the fire? The argument that she didn’t want to talk because I woke her in the dead of night. I needed to see tenacity and boldness. Nothing shone on her face, no ounce of emotion.
I squeezed my eyes, trying to understand what the fuck I was doing here.
“Q…”
Her soft voice wrapped around my heart and I struck.
I didn’t mean to. I didn’t give my hand permission to strike her cheek. It just happened. The force of her power over me made the monster fucking crazy. Denied for so long, it’d done what I was terrified of happening all along. It took away my control—made me hit her.
The soft sting in my palm and the resonating noise of connecting with Tess’s cheek was pure heaven. I’d missed it for far too long. I opened my eyes, looking at the red handprint on her skin. My cock instantly hardened.
The first fucking erection I’d had since I found Tess so ruined and weak.
Her eyes popped wide as she touched her cheek with gentle fingertips.
I waited, licking my lips—waiting for her crystal tears that tasted so sweet, but her eyes remained dry. No salt, no amazement, or accusation.
“I know you’re trying to get an emotion out of me, Q. But…it won’t work.” She broke eye contact. “I’ve tried. I hate what I’m doing to you. I loved you and can’t stand to be the reason for your pain, but they made me—” She swallowed. “My thoughts aren’t safe anymore. I can’t be myself because everything is wrapped up in such evil.” She looked up. “I’m truly sorry but you have to let me go.”
The alcohol rolled in my stomach and I lost it completely. I’m not proud of what I became. I never wanted to be so out of control, but I lost all elements of the man and showed her just how much the beast fucking wanted her.
I ripped the sheets off and shoved her into the middle of the bed. The T-shirt rode up, showing her flat belly, and I had to bite her. Had to mar that slightly bruised flesh.
With a snarl, I buried my mouth against her stomach. She flinched as I bit hard. I didn’t break the skin, but only because some miracle intervened.
I spread my entire weight over her, smothering her into the mattress. Eyes to eyes, mouth to mouth, hips to hips.
I thrust hard against her, groaning at how good my hard cock felt. It’d been too long. Way too long since I’d had this woman…since I’d wanted this woman. “Feel that, Tess. That’s for you. I want you. So. Fucking. Much. Please come back to me. You will come back to me.” I smashed my mouth against hers. Her taste intoxicated me more than any alcohol. 






AUTHOR BIO:

Pepper Winters wears many roles. Some of them include writer, reader, sometimes wife. She loves dark, taboo stories that twist with your head. The more tortured the hero the better and she constantly thinks up ways to break and fix her characters. Oh, and sex… her books have sex.

She loves to travel and has an amazing, fabulous hubby (who speaks French—hot!) who puts up with her love affair with her book boyfriends. She loves to hear from her readers so hit her up at pepperwinters@gmail.com

AUTHOR CONTACT INFO


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