Book Review: Hold Me (Cherry Blossom Lake #3) by Tawna Fenske @tawnafenskebooks

Hold Me
(Cherry Blossom Lake #3)
by Tawna Fenske

Romeo. Boy Toy. Player. I’ve heard what they call me, and never gave it much thought.
Then Zoe walks in with her library smarts and innocent eyes and one helluva dirty idea.
I guess living in hospitals for two decades didn’t leave much time for dating.
Or any kind of fun, really.
Zoe’s a virgin with a bucket list, and guess who’s on it?
No way am I satisfying her desires.
She’s my boss’s little sister-in-law, and besides.
I’m maxed out with my sick dad and a secret I’m not ready to share.
I’ll help with the unsexy things on Zoe’s list.
Problem is, everything from a foul-mouthed pinball machine to my dopey dog keep conspiring to push us together.
Even cooking class and an oddly sexy oil change lead straight to temptation.
Girls like Zoe don’t end up with guys like me.
It’s basic math even this high school dropout can do.
So how come I can’t stay away?
.
One-click this laugh-out-loud steamy romance about a notorious ladies’ man lending a hand (and ahem…other parts!) to help his boss’s little sister ditch her v-card.

Continue reading “Book Review: Hold Me (Cherry Blossom Lake #3) by Tawna Fenske @tawnafenskebooks”

Book Review: Dark Hearts (Special Agent Beth Katz #3) by D.K. Hood    @d.k.hood @bookouture


Dark Hearts
(Special Agent Beth Katz #3)
by D.K. Hood

Amazon  / B&N / BB

Under a thick canopy of pine trees, Cassidy Wilder frantically searches for a hiding place. Her breath catches in her mouth as she hears heavy footsteps. She says a silent prayer, but she knows he’s closing in on her. She knows it’s too late…

When a robbery at a local store ends with multiple deaths and the abduction of sixteen-year-old schoolgirl Cassidy WilderFBI agent Beth Katz and her partner Dax Styles are called in. Visiting Cassidy’s family home just a couple of blocks away from the quiet little store where she went missing, Beth’s heart breaks as she talks to her grieving parents and promises to find their daughter.

Looking at CCTV footage, Beth is horrified to see how calm the killer is as he shoots everyone in the store before forcing the terrified Cassidy to follow him into his truck. Then Beth uncovers multiple robberies just like this one, where all witnesses are killed and a young girl is taken. All of the victims are taken at night and found dead the following morning, so Beth knows time is running out to save Cassidy.

When Cassidy’s lifeless body is discovered dumped on a busy highway near a patch of forest, Beth is devastated. And as more girls go missing, she fears the murderer is escalating. A breakthrough finally comes when she finds a name written in blood next to one of the bodies. Beth knows she’s close to catching the killer and is determined to stop any more lives from being taken—even if it means serving her own form of justice. Will she be able to resist the urge to take a life herself? Or will she become the killer’s next victim?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

She often compared herself to science-fiction characters who by no fault of their own had been the issue of two opposite species. In her case, both sides of her had different ideas of how to deal with monsters and each had a convincing argument for being themselves. Yes, she often referred to herself as two people because in reality that’s what she’d become.

Covering up crimes of the rich and powerful wasn’t new, but it made those responsible as guilty as the perpetrator. Beth might well be a serial killer, but she’d never been corrupt. She followed a set of rules and stuck to them.

 

My Review:

 

Silly me for jumping into this series with the third installment yet I didn’t struggle to keep up. However, I am eaten up with a fatal case of curiosity about the prior books and itching to read them as well. The crimes were disturbing and twisted, as were the individuals who were committing them. The storylines were complicated, well-nuanced, and multi-layered while each character was complex and cunningly crafted, even the secondary ones. D.K. Hood has mad skills although I worry for her neighbors if they give her grief.

D.K Hood is THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, USA TODAY, and #1 AMAZON MILLION COPY Bestselling Author of the Kane and Alton Series.

D.K’s spine chilling, fast paced serial killer thrillers revolve around Sheriff Jenna Alton and her ex- special forces Deputy, Dave Kane. As the main characters fight crime, their secret pasts are never far away. Set in and around the fictional backwoods town of Black Rock Falls, Montana, known locally as Serial Killer Central, D.K ‘s imagery takes the reader into the scenes with her. Given the title “Queen of Suspense” by her reviewers, D.K ‘s writing style offers her readers a movie style, sizzling fast thrill ride.

Book Review: It’s Complicated by Camilla Isley @camillaisley @theboldbookclub

It’s Complicated
by Camilla Isley

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple / GP / BB

Lori has been in love with her best friend Aiden since college. Now Aiden (handsome, fair, All-American dream doctor) is getting married, and Lori desperately needs a date to the wedding.


So she asks the best man, Jace (tall, dark, and brooding), to pretend their platonic friendship is something more not to have to face the worst day of her life alone.
Fake dating one best friend to forget the other should be easy… Plot twist—it’s not. When Jace starts acting like the sweetest, most attentive boyfriend, Lori begins to wonder if she’s been seeing him wrong all this time?They’ve been an inseparable trio since freshman year, but now everything is changing — and that’s not even bringing Jace’s feelings into the mix.

Basically? It’s complicated.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Kirsten’s smile in response to our confirmed dinner plans is blinding. All that fake ceramic in her mouth should come with a potentially-damaging-to-the-eye warning.

On a scale of one to ten, my femininity is at a solid six, seven when I make an effort. Kirsten is an eleven. Kirsten and her bridal party combined are six figures.

…she studies me. Like a cheetah would study a gazelle she can’t wait to eat alive.

“I promise to love you, your four cats, six hens, and thousand rescue books for as long as my heart shall beat… I promise to love you even when you finish all the hot water in the shower and sing Taylor Swift at the top of your lungs for half an hour non-stop.” “I promise to love you even when you kick me under the covers at night and hog all the blankets.” “I promise to always be there when you need me and be strong when you’re vulnerable. I promise to never lie to you, to always tell you the truth, even when it hurts.” “I promise to keep on loving you every day, until my last breath, even when you get gray hair or when you lose your teeth, because you are the love of my life… and I will never stop loving you.”

 

My Review:

 

I reveled in this divinely amusing tale, it sparkled with clever humor and endearing characters. I adore Camilla Isley and I declare this book is her best missive yet. The gal has seriously strong word voodoo and never fails to pull me into a delightful vortex of quirky and authentic characters with real-world problems that are so much more fun than my own.

 

 

Camilla is an engineer who left science behind to enter the whimsical realm of romantic fiction.

She writes contemporary rom-coms. Her characters have big hearts, might be a little stubborn at times, and love to banter with each other. Every story she pens has a guaranteed HEA that will make your heart beat faster. Unless you’re a vampire, of course.

Camilla is a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading—duh!—cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies—popcorn, please. She’s a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn’t want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.

Book Review: Her Feud (The Drew Family #7) by  Emma Tallon  @my.author.life @bookouture

Her Feud
(The Drew Family # 7)
by  Emma Tallon  

Family is everything to Lily Drew and she’s always battled to keep hers together. But following the death of her only daughter, Ruby, and after losing her son, Connor, to a rival firm, Lily feels like everything she’s fought so hard to protect is about to fall apart: and when a turf war between two rival gangs starts on the Drew’s doorstep, Lily must pick a side…

The right choice could take the firm to a whole new level and bring her beloved son back into the fold. But get it wrong and her empire could come crashing down, and all of their lives could be in danger.

When Lily makes a bold decision and goes up against the most powerful firm in the city, she puts all of her men on the case. But the job goes wrong, and when one of London’s most dangerous crime bosses comes after the family, hellbent on revenge, Lily’s heart pounds. Did she just put everyone she loves in danger? And when the bitter feud ends, what will be left of the Drews?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Of the three brothers, Sean had always been the quietest, using his words sparingly, as if each one cost him something.

He mashed his lips together as the idea settled like a bruise on his heart.

Truths ain’t something to apologise for. Not in a world full of liars.

Billie’s lonely heart finally felt as though it had found a home here, in this family. And after all these years of wondering why she was so unlovable, and trying to ignore the hollow void where family was supposed to be, that simple acceptance was the most beautiful feeling in the world.

 

My Review:

 

This was my first time reading the prolific Emma Tallon and I will confess, I flinched more than a few times. She has conjured a tense and cringe-worthy tale of the British underworld brimming with complicated storylines full of unpredictable twists, and a full roster of complex characters who weren’t immune to violence. I undoubtedly would have gotten more out of this installment had I read the previous books in the series and was familiar with their gritty histories, yet, flinching aside, I was able to keep up and remained enmeshed and curious as to how it would unravel.

 

Emma Tallon is a British author of gripping, gritty, organised crime thrillers. With a number of bestsellers published by Bookouture since early 2017, Emma continues to write full time and has many ideas in the pipeline for future novels.

 

Book Review: The Lost Letters of Evelyn Wright by Clare Swatman   @clareswatmanauthor @boldwoodbooks

The Lost Letters of Evelyn Wright
by Clare Swatman

Amazon  / B&N / GP / BB

Starting over can be hard to do… So when mum of two Beth moves out of her beloved marital home and into an unloved and unkempt cottage, she can’t help but feel demoralised. Faced with months of DIY and dust, her children Jacob and Olivia aren’t impressed either. But when Beth finds a box of letters while she’s clearing out the children’s room, things start to look up.

The correspondence is decades old, between agony aunt Evelyn and those in need of solace. Intrigued as to why the letters have been kept safe all these years, Beth can’t resist reading them, and as the wisdom and kindness of Evelyn falls off the pages, so Beth starts to feel she has a friend and champion in this woman she has never met.

Good advice doesn’t age, and as life starts to look brighter, Beth begins to wonder if she could track down Evelyn and thank her for her help. But as Beth uncovers more about Evelyn’s story, it becomes clear that everything is not as it seems. And now Beth is determined to bring peace to Evelyn as she has to her.

A spell-binding, heart-warming story of friendship, love and being brave enough to be yourself.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Rob’s betrayal had taken more from me than just him, and I didn’t think I’d ever forgive him for that.

I recognised the pattern from my parents’ house, where the tea set was always locked away in a cabinet ‘for best’, as if they were waiting for the Queen to come for tea.

When it came down to it, things didn’t change as much over the decades as we might think. Love– with friends, family or lovers– had always been the glue that held everything together. It was merely the details that changed.

My Review:

 

My first Clare Swatman experience and I picked an excellent one to start on my path to enlightenment. Her writing style was emotive and thoughtful yet easy to follow with a unique premise and well-nuanced storylines and narratives that pulled me in and held me close.

Beth was forced to start over while navigating a painful divorce, realistic single-parenting problems, and unexpected life lessons. She gradually worked her way towards healing by anonymously helping others as an agony aunt on her newly developed website after finding inspiration from a stash of old letters written and answered some thirty years prior.

I felt every bump of Beth’s journey and reveled in her successes and was well pleased and satisfied by the story’s end. I will most definitely be perusing Ms. Swatman’s listings for similar gems.

 

Clare Swatman is the author of seven women’s fiction novels. Her latest, The World Outside My Window, is a story about the power of friendships and the importance of community. Before writing books, Clare spent 20 years writing for women’s magazines in the UK.

Clare lives in Hertfordshire in the UK with her husband and two boys. Even the cat is male, which means she’s destined to be outnumbered forever.

Book Review: Back to You…: The astonishing fate of John Fisher by Richard Plourde    

Amazon  / B&N 

One day, without warning, John Fisher turns his back on his past, on his name, on his father.

Thirteen years of unhappiness and a bout with leukemia later, John becomes convinced that the answer to his life’s woes lies in the mysterious female bone marrow donor who gave him a second chance at life.

Forced to face the demons of his past, John embarks on the journey of a lifetime, back to where it all began.« Back to You… » is the English translation of the best-selling novel « Revenir… » by Canadian author Richard Plourde.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Sometimes, I could feel you toying with the latch to your heart, but never once did you dare to open it.

Do you plan to dishonour us with your presence for much longer, John?

John, please, spare me your clichés! I’m thirty- three years old and I’ve been single for thirty- four of them.

Emma exuded a proud, confident elegance. She had always been like this: imbued with a flawless balance between strength and fragility, conviction and doubt, the woman she became and the girl she would forever be.

My Review:

 

I was captivated by this cleverly woven tale. The storytelling was brilliant, easy to follow, emotive, and cunningly paced with storylines populated by unique yet knowable and authentic inhabitants. Despite the loathsomeness of the main character I had a hard time putting my Kindle down as I was curious as to where his path was going to take him.

John Fisher was as an absolute ogre of an individual, so any change in his behavior could only be an improvement. I enjoyed his journey and the powerful epiphanies that rocked his world during his forced leave of absence. I was delighted by the conclusion and found the reading experience fully satisfying. Richard Plourde is crafty scribbler with undeniably strong word voodoo.

 

About the Author

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Richard Plourde lives in Edmundston, a lovely town nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains in New Brunswick (Canada). His first three novels were published in French and all have had a resounding success.

Two of his books have been translated and published in English.

Book Review:  The Whisper House (Rylan Flynn #3) by Dawn Merriman @Netgalley @dawnmerrimannovelist  @secondskybooks @bookouture

The Whisper House
(Rylan Flynn #3)
by Dawn Merriman

In a haunted mansion, ghosts are not the only danger…

I’m Rylan Flynn. I hunt for ghosts and restless spirits, and solve the mysteries that make them haunt the living.

My ex-boyfriend Declan never believed in my abilities. Now he thinks his home is haunted and he’s pleading for my help. Declan lives in a huge mansion, full of history and secrets.

When I arrive at the house, I find a dying woman in the gardens. It seems like the spirit in Declan’s house may be the only witness to a murder.

For the first time, Detective Ford Pierce asks for my help. Inside the mansion, we find mysterious locked rooms and shattered windows, but the ghost stays hidden. Why won’t it speak to me?

I’m almost ready to give up when my best friend, Mickey, is snatched from her home in the middle of the night. The killer has her, and time is running out.

I’ll do anything to bring Mickey back. But will my desperate search for clues uncover the truth, or lead me right into the killer’s hands?

The Whisper House is the third book in Dawn Merriman’s thrilling and addictive Rylan Flynn series. With twisting mysteries and a touch of romance, it’s perfect for fans of Wendy Wang, Heather Graham and Dean Koontz.

 

My Rating:

My Review: 

 

I rarely read paranormal stories but I was intrigued by the blurb and fell right into this tale shortly after starting page one. The characters and storylines were complicated, multi-layered, and difficult to get a bead on, causing the little pea in my brain to rattle non-stop. I was a willing victim to Ms. Merriman’s addictive storytelling and tumbled into an oddly disconcerting vortex that sucked me deeper and deeper into a misty plain of lost and/or helpful spirits.

The writing was so absorbing and easy to follow, that I felt I was as if I were fully present alongside the restless Rylan as she interacted with the living and departed. Despite diving into the series with the third installment, I felt no confusion or difficulties, but rather an intense yen to gather the two previous books for my reading enjoyment as well as to slate my curiosity about her previous adventures that led to her current state of affairs.

About the Author

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Dawn Merriman writes creepy small town murder mysteries from her small farm in northeast Indiana where she lives with her husband and teenage children. You can often find her with muck boots on her feet and a story in her head. She enjoys animals, auctions, snorkeling and archaeology.

Dawn Merriman grew up a small town farm girl, on a small time pig farm in Indiana. She spent her young adulthood sitting on her bedroom floor scribbling stories in notebooks. She won the “Northeast Indiana Young Writers” award as a sophomore in high school.

After battling severe depression, she wrote her debut novel How Murder Saved My Life as therapy, mixing her love of murder mysteries and farming with climbing out of the darkness of illness.

 

Book Review: Murder Under A Honey Moon (Mona Moon Book 12) by Abigail Keam @AbigailKeam

Murder Under A Honey Moon
(Mona Moon Book 12)
by Abigail Keam

 

Amazon  / B&N / Apple  / BB

Mona Moon and her new husband, Robert Farley, Duke of Brynelleth, are on their honeymoon at last. They have just boarded the RMS Majesty ocean liner. The couple are looking forward to visiting Robert’s ancestral English home, Brynelleth, and then off to Paris before winding up on the Italian Riviera. After a romantic evening of dancing until the wee hours of the night, Mona and Robert discover their suite has been ransacked and Mona’s jewelry, supposedly secured in their stateroom, has been stolen.

Mona is horrified, as some of the jewelry belongs to the Brynelleth Estate and were cherished pieces of Robert’s mother. The ship’s crew searches the ocean liner, and a gold brooch turns up in a bartender’s cabin. It is the same bartender who served Mona earlier in the evening. The only problem is the bartender has been murdered and the rest of the jewelry is still missing.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Of course, my dear, we are British. We don’t make a fuss. It’s unbecoming and makes for awkward situations. We don’t want another Titanic on our hands.

She looks like the village milkmaid next to you, because you look like a queen.

My Review:

 

This was an active tale placing Mona Moon and her new royal husband aboard an ocean liner containing jewel thieves, murderers, Pinkerton agents, pirates, a sinking ship, fascists, socialites, and Noel Coward. I revel in the clever and entertaining manner in which Ms. Keam weaves historical figures and events into her compelling stories. I tend to keep Mr. Google busy during perusal.

 

 

About the Author

One thing Miss Abigail loves to do as an author is to write real people and events into her stories. “I am a student of history and love to insert historical information into my mysteries. My goal is to entertain my readers, but if they learn a little something along the way—well, then we are both happy. I certainly learn a lot from my research, and I hope my readers come away with a new appreciation of beekeeping from my Josiah Reynolds Mysteries.”

Book Review: Strictly Not Yours (The Salinger Brothers, #4) by Carrie Elks   @CarrieElks

Strictly Not Yours
(The Salinger Brothers, #4)
by Carrie Elks

 

 

Amazon / B&N / BB

 

I thought I knew everything about my rich, neat freak doctor of a boss

Strictly Not Yours

Until I walked into a fight club and our eyes clashed across the ring...

Holden Salinger doesn’t believe in relationships. Until Blair Walker enters his life like a wrecking ball.

Grumpy, emotionally-closed-off doctor meets oversharing mature student -slash- cleaner in this all new romantic comedy from Carrie Elks. A standalone read in the Salinger Brothers series, expect smiles, swoons and a whole lot of happily ever after…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I think every Y chromosome in the place explodes. Along with more than a few Xs.

I roll my eyes. “When did we decide to be the Waltons?” I ask. “I thought we were stoics. We don’t talk about this stuff.”

Why can’t you just turn love off, like a television program you no longer want to watch?

My Review:

 

This series continues to amuse and entertain with endearing and well-nuanced characters and cleverly textured storylines. Carrie Elks is one of my go-to authors for an enjoyable and satisfying read between thrillers. She creates smooth-flowing and well-written tales that never fail to keep me engaged and fully immersed.

Carrie Elks writes contemporary romance with a sizzling edge. Her first book, Fix You, has been translated into eight languages and made a surprise appearance on Big Brother in Brazil. Luckily for her, it wasn’t voted out. Carrie lives with her husband, two lovely children, and a larger-than-life black pug called Plato. When she isn’t writing or reading, she can be found baking, drinking an occasional (!) glass of wine, or chatting on social media.

Book Review: Vampires, Whiskey, and Southern Charm (Masie Kicklighter, #1) by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff @mimijeanpamfiloff

Vampires, Whiskey, and Southern Charm
(Masie Kicklighter, #1)
by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

 

Amazon  / B&N  / Apple / BB

 

𝐇𝐄’𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐔𝐏, 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐒𝐇𝐄’𝐒 𝐍𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑 𝐆𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐈𝐍…

My name is Masie Kicklighter, and I work at my family’s local bar in the heart of Tennessee, slinging whiskey and living a quiet life.

I can’t say my life was perfect, but when a local vampire started stalking me and sayin’ all sorts of crazy things (I was not his. Nor would I ever be.), my first instinct was to run.

But Leiper’s Fork was my home. This was my town. And no one was gonna run me out. Even if he was hotter than a Sunday BBQ in July.

So I came up with a plan to run him off.

The only problem? He was one stubborn man.

And crafty, too.

Then something terrible happened. A whole lot of terrible somethings. And they would change everything for us both.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I jumped back, my mind flooding with the sort of rage that leaves a permanent burn mark.

Vile bastard had dimples. It felt like God was playing a joke. Dimples were for giggling babies and cute boys with good hearts. On him they were more like a weapon meant to deceive.

I knew the major composers, just like I knew that banjo music hurt my ears. Like listening to a cat suck lemons.

I was too busy staring at the elaborate murals on the ceiling. They reminded me of something you might see in ancient Rome, with clouds and angels and ripped men in cloth diapers.

Charlie was nuttier than a squirrel turd.

My Review:

 

This was an amusing and lively read that was just plain fun and kept me chuckling and smirking with glee. I don’t often read paranormal anything but I’m glad I picked this one up. The storylines brought interesting and unique twists to vampire lore with humor, wit, and a bit of steam tossed in as a bonus. I’m looking forward to more Maisie Kicklighter adventures and am highly curious as to what this clever scribbler has in store for her.

About the Author

MIMI JEAN PAMFILOFF is a USA Today and New York Times bestselling romance author with over a million books sold worldwide. Although she obtained her MBA and worked for more than fifteen years in the corporate world, she believes that it’s never too late to come out of the romance closet and follow your dream. Mimi lives with her Latin Lover hubby, two pirates-in-training (their boys), and the rat terrier duo, Snowflake and Mini Me, in Arizona. She hopes to make you laugh when you need it most and continues to pray daily that leather pants will make a big comeback for men.

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