Month: March 2018

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Book Review: Hot Mess by Emily Belden

Hot Mess

by Emily Belden

Amazon 

 Books-A-Million 

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Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: Graydon House (March 20, 2018)

Sweetbitter meets The Devil Wears Prada in this riveting and provocative novel set in the trendy Chicago restaurant scene.

Twenty-something Allie Simon never imagined she’d fall for a recovering drug addict—but that was before she met Benji Zane, Chicago’s hottest up-and-coming chef, who’s known as much for his hard-partying ways as for his unparalleled culinary skills. Six months into their relationship, the food and chemistry are out of this world, but the reality of living with a cooking wunderkind hasn’t exactly been all hearts and flowers. Still, Allie’s convinced that her love is the key to fixing this talented man’s broken soul—so when Benji is offered his dream job as chef de cuisine for a new restaurant opening on Randolph Street, Chicago’s foodie hot spot, Allie agrees to invest her life savings in his future. But less than a month after she goes all in, Allie learns a heartbreaking lesson: addicts lie. Benji cracks under the pressure, relapses and disappears, bagging out not only on the restaurant, but on her, too. Left with nothing but a massive withdrawal slip and a restaurant that absolutely must open in a matter of weeks, Allie finds herself thrust into a world of luxury and greed, cutthroat business and sensory delight. Lost in the mess of it all, she can either crumble completely or fight like hell for the life she wants and the love she deserves.

With razor-sharp wit and searing insight, Emily Belden serves up a deliciously dishy look behind the kitchen doors of a hot foodie town.

“Belden has written a story that’s more complicated (and feminist) that I ever suspected. Without giving too much away, I will say that HOT MESS far exceeded my expectations.” -The Bookly Club

“Emily Belden serves the decadence and drama a la mode in Hot Mess. The full-bodied novel takes the resilient Allie Simon on a journey of sex, love, secrets, and the high-end culinary world. You’ll savor every word of this provocative story.” -Abby Stern, author of According to a Source

“[F]ull of fire and fury….Belden’s excellent tell-it-like-it-is read is perfect for foodies and entrepreneurs alike.” -Library Journal (starred review)

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

 Food may be the way to a man’s heart, but as my colleagues assemble around me, I’m convinced it’s the way to a woman’s ego. It’s like I’m dating da Vinci and I’ve just hung the Mona Lisa in my cubicle. Everyone is ooh-ing and ahh-ing, reminding me just what an awesome perk it is to be dating Benji Zane. I’m the cool kid at the lunch table… “You’re so lucky,” a girl from a different department gushes from the kitchen table. I don’t even know what her name is, but she begrudgingly stabs at her lackluster salad and shoots jealous death rays my way.

 As he pulled on the knot, his muscles surged a bit through his sleeves and the spell was cast. I looked over at my mother who was salivating. It had nothing to do with the chicken, mind you.

 She leaves me alone in the office and I just stare at the keys in the palm of my hand. It’s like somebody has asked me to hold their baby and then took off running. I’m overwhelmed to say the least, but I’m afraid of what Angela will do if she mistakes my fear and paralysis for slacking.

 I used to like proving to people, especially myself, that we belonged together. But then went from exhilarating to excruciating faster than an elaborate lower back tattoo.

My Review:

 

I am on the fence and can’t seem to put my finger on the sum totality of I how I feel about this book.  The Urban Dictionary defined the term hot mess as, “When one’s thoughts or appearance are in a state of disarray but they maintain an undeniable attractiveness or beauty.”  This book and several of the characters featured were a Hot Mess, but the epicenter or source of the turmoil and havoc was generated from the selfish, seductive, and alluring character of Benji.  The story contained heartbreaking life lessons for those dealing with the fallout and seedier aspects of supposed loved ones with addiction, clever bites of humor, carnal and steamy sensual scenes, liberal use of expletives, a slick and manipulative drug addict, and a frustratingly indecisive and love-blinded woman enabler who I wanted to whack in the head with my Kindle for being a spineless wonder and world-class waffler.

The book was written from the first person POV of Allie, who thought she had found “the one” in a mercurial chef with a high media profile and sordid history of drug abuse.  Allie thought she was doing the right things but also consciously avoided looking too closely.  Despite knowing his history of failure, she was imprudently gullible and ignored her own instincts while she supported and maintained Benji while living in a state of incredulous denial despite the warnings of others.  After the blinders were off and being slapped in the face with evidence she had backed the wrong horse and foolishly investing all her savings into an extensive new restaurant scheme for her drug-addicted boyfriend, Allie was forced to give up her own career plans for a crash course in restaurant management, or lose her investment.  I ached for her during her devastating crash to reality.  Yet still, she waffled – say what?

The story progressed in at an arduously slow rate although upon reaching the conclusion I understood the pacing better, however, that doesn’t negate the fact that I was periodically stricken from impatience and exasperation as it was a bit too intricately detailed and heavy with the minutia of her endless tasks.  I enjoyed the odd assortment of characters, as each was compelling in their own way, while the tantalizing food descriptions kept my mouth greedy and wet and may have led to the increase of a pound or five from indulgent snacking.  I also learned more than I will ever need to know about the hospitality industry, serving food, and culinary terms like “amuse-bouche” which according to Wikipedia is French for mouth amuser.  Hmm, I do like the idea of my mouth being amused.


About Emily Belden   

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Emily Belden is an author for powerhouse publisher, Harlequin/HarperCollins. She is represented by famed literary agency, Browne & Miller, along with 44 Blue Productions in Burbank. The SoCal studio is adapting her memoir into a comedic series.

 

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Book Review: Love Broken by J.D. Hollyfield

Title: Love Broken
Author: J.D. Hollyfield
Genre: RomCom/Contemporary
Release Date: February 26, 2018

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My name is Katie Beller, but the world, as of late, knows me as Bailey Swan, the love guru behind my bestselling book.

Want the shortened version? Here it is: 

Love was stupid.

A fake. A farce

Love was broken. 

Women everywhere were eating up my advice and fighting back against fake love. My book started a relationship revolution. And I stood by my story. 

Until I met Charlie Bates.

When I throw all my own rules and advice out the window after a week-long rendezvous, I start to wonder just how real my words were. Maybe love might be just a little more complicated than I thought. 

Maybe I’m the one who’s love broken.
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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I don’t have a great literary background story for you on how my book hit the big time, or any “awe” love story that pushed me to write it. To be honest, I’m a bartender at a local hole in the wall in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, and I just get to hear and see a lot of shit.

 

What I didn’t expect was a cult-like following of women to read my book of words and start a hateration on dead-beat men.

 

I don’t dance. Mainly because I don’t know how to, so this game of who can make who jealous more, quickly starts blowing up in my face, since I look like I’m having a seizure over trying to get hot and heavy on the dance floor.

 

My love got so messy, it should have come with a cleaning kit. To say it was a bit turbulent at times was an understatement.

 

My Review:

 

No matter how carefully I shop, I often come home with a new carton of eggs only to later notice an obvious fissure in one of them.   Love Broken was my twelfth J.D. Hollyfield read, and my least favorite of the otherwise crack-free dozen.   I started off with a smirk and high expectations, anticipating writing up another 5-Star review for the crafty author I had previously experienced to be cleverly amusing, but my smile and projected rating started to slip, bounced a bit, then plummeted with a grimace for an uncomfortably long stretch while I actively sighed, before finally resuming to a habitable level again shortly before I ran out of pages and optimism.

My chief source of consternation was my lack of appreciation for the irritable main character of Katie, and all the brooding, conflict, and angst she mired herself with. I had adored previous readings of Ms. Hollyfield’s amusing work and had aspirations of liking this one as well, so I expended a considerable amount of energy while endeavoring to find some admirable traits in the cowardly Katie.   However, other than her witty snark and euphoric sexual chemistry with the cut, buff, and swoon-worthy character of Charlie/Chase, I found Katie rather tedious and exasperating; the annoyingly cranky and immature type of personality I actively avoid in real life.   Katie was bitterly insecure, bitingly bitchy, irresponsible, and tiresomely stubborn. I couldn’t fathom why the besotted Charlie/Chase would bother with her, other than the explosive sensual gymnastics they performed. Sizzle and snap! They scorched the sheets!

Don’t get me wrong. Love Broken was not a bad book, just not as balanced or engagingly entertaining as I have come to expect from the talented wordsmith. Despite the periodic sparkles of clever humor, I read with a darkening sense of personal disappointment that blossomed into dire discontent, which then morphed into disenchantment and near despair, but I ended on a higher note of relief with the desirable destination of a satisfying HEA conclusion. Could I have possibly added more d-words to that sentence?

 

Creative designer, mother, wife, writer, part-time superhero…

J.D. Hollyfield is a creative designer by day and superhero by night. When she’s not trying to save the world one happy ending at a time, she enjoys the snuggles of her family and three doxies. With her love for romance, and head full of book boyfriends, she was inspired to test her creative abilities and bring her own story to life.

J.D. Hollyfield lives in the Midwest, and is currently at work on blowing the minds of readers, with the additions of her new books and series, along with her charm, humor and HEA’s.
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Book Review, Giveaway : Misadventures of a College Girl by Lauren Rowe

Misadventures of a College Girl

 

by Lauren Rowe

 

Goodreads

 


#MisadventuresofaCollegeGirl
 

 


***MISADVENTURES ARE STANDALONE ROMANCES THAT CAN BE READ IN ANY ORDER***

Synopsis
 

Straitlaced freshman Zooey Cartwright has arrived at UCLA determined to have a heck of a lot more fun in college than she did in high school. What’s the first item on Zooey’s agenda before classes start in two days? Losing her pesky V card. She’s definitely not looking for a boyfriend, so where can Zooey find the right guy to do the deed and move along without a backward glance? 

At a party thrown by a bunch of football players, of course. Enter Tyler Caldwell. A beast on the field and off, cocky as heck, and often wearing T-shirts with sayings like “God’s Gift to Womankind,” Tyler is most definitely not boyfriend material. After a make-out session with Tyler leaves Zooey entirely unsatisfied, she is determined never to see him again. But her schedule lands her in not one but two of his classes, and it doesn’t take long before Tyler and Zooey have reached an arrangement for Tyler to teach Zooey exactly what she wants to know―and a whole lot more she never bargained for. Can Zooey surrender her body to this bad boy without giving him her heart, too?


Buy the Book

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2slNcLu
BN.com: http://bit.ly/2gcAExG
iBooks: http://apple.co/2tuH2Jg
Google Play: http://bit.ly/2uoXYx2
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2turXam

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

If you really want to be traumatized, then consider this: Why the hell isn’t Pooh wearing pants? He’s a bear who lives in a house and sleeps in a bed. He drinks tea out of a cup. And yet he wears no pants with his polo shirt? I mean, is Pooh fully anthropomorphized or not? Because, if he is, then he’s a ‘public lewdness’ charge waiting to happen.

 

Gosh, when the universe works this hard to put two ridiculously good-looking people together, it’d be downright arrogant of them not to have sex, don’t you think?

 

I saw you two walking through South Campus the other day holding hands. You looked good together. Like Beauty and the… Beauty.

 

My Review:

 

Written from the first person POV of a virginal female college freshman, this delightfully entertaining book was a breezy, naughty, and fun read. This Misadventure was jam-packed with clever humor, salacious sizzle, enticing characters, and a sweet romance that wasn’t supposed to happen as it was not part of the project plan or on the syllabus.   I adored the characters and thoroughly enjoyed Ms. Rowe’s witty, amusing, and engaging storylines. I fell hard and fast for this cute couple.

 


Meet the Author

Lauren Rowe is the pen name of the USA Today, Amazon #1, and international #1 best-selling author of The Club Series and more. She’s a performer, audiobook narrator, award-winning songwriter and media host/personality who decided to unleash her alter ego to write The Club Series to ensure she didn’t hold back or self-censor in writing the story. Lauren Rowe lives in San Diego, California where she lives with her family, sings with her band, hosts a show, and writes at all hours of the night. 

Find out more about The Club Series and Lauren Rowe’s other books at www.LaurenRoweBooks.com.   Facebook       Instagram

Find all books in the Misadventures Series here:

The Misadventures Series 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Book Review: Look for Her by Emily Winslow

Look for Her

by Emily Winslow

 

 HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

 

 Paperback: 304 pages
 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (February 13, 2018)

Search the book’s hashtag: #lookforher

 

Everyone loves a beautiful missing girl…

“Look For Her ratchets up the tension while also offering moments of sheer grace.”-Riley Sager, bestselling author of Final Girls

“Beautifully written with an expertly twisty, surprising story, this is a must-read!”
— Chevy Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of Never Let You Go

Lilling might seem like an idyllic English village, but it’s home to a dark history. In 1976, a teenage girl named Annalise Wood disappeared, and though her body was later discovered, the culprit was never found. Decades later, Annalise maintains a perverse kind of celebrity, and is still the focus of grief, speculation, and for one young woman, a disturbing, escalating jealousy.

When DNA linked to the Annalise murder unexpectedly surfaces, cold case detective Morris Keene and his former partner, Chloe Frohmann, hope to finally bring closure to this traumatized community. But the new evidence instead undoes the case’s only certainty: the buried body that had long ago been confidently identified as Annalise may be someone else entirely, and instead of answers, the investigators face only new puzzles.

Whose body was unearthed all those years ago, and what happened to the real Annalise? Is someone interfering with the investigation? And is there a link to a present-day drowning with eerie connections? With piercing insight and shocking twists, Emily Winslow explores the dark side of sensationalized crime in this haunting psychological thriller.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

I divorced Charlie seventeen years ago. No, wait, eighteen years now. Eighteen years! Our divorce is now old enough to vote, or buy a drink at the pub.

 

How is it that some crimes capture so much public imagination that people – strangers, even – still grieve them decades later? It’s like historic ghost stories. Most deaths, even terrible ones, get let go of, but occasional ones, for being particularly surprising, ironic, iconic, or grisly, get remembered as spooky tales.  

 

My Review:

 

The book started with a decades-old cold case murder mystery, which was being pursued again. The case had gripped the area and nation for a brief time in the 70’s after the event and again sixteen years later when a badly decomposed body was found and assumed to be the same missing teenager, although efforts from both previous investigations had been fruitless. There were several overlapping threads in addition to the police case that added to the mystery with intrigue, dead ends, misdirection, secrets, lies; flawed, broken, and vile yet compelling characters; and the ongoing family dramas of the various households of the characters contacted and involved in the case.

This was a slowly developing story and I enjoyed Ms. Winslow’s unpredictable and densely packed storylines as much as I did the compellingly crafted and flawed characters.   The premise was clever, relevant, and believable while the storylines were complex and multi-leveled, yet well-paced, engaging, and unpredictable. I had devised and cast aside several theories as I read, all incorrect, every single one of them. The multifaceted tale was written from multiple POVs, yet I didn’t have a problem keeping track as each of the multitudes of characters were distinctly drawn and plucked at my curiosity with a desire to know more. I would enjoy going backward and reading the previous books in the series although that wasn’t necessary to follow this story.  I was provided with a review copy of this intriguing tale by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

 

About Emily Winslow

Emily Winslow is an American living in Cambridge, England. She is the author of the novels The Whole World, The Start Of Everything, and The Red House.

Find out more about Emily at her website, and connect with her on Facebook.

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Book Review, Giveaway: The Best Medicine by Charlotte Fallowfield

The Best Medicine 

(Dilbury Village #3)

by Charlotte Fallowfield 

Goodreads

Amazon

A laugh-out-loud novel from Charlotte Fallowfield, whose books have hit the Amazon #1 bestseller charts internationally for Contemporary Romance, Romantic Comedy, and Humour.

Despite being a successful author of risqué romance novels, Charlie Faulkner had yet to star in her own love story. Drowning her sorrows in takeaway pizza, and at risk of getting wedged in her favorite writing chair, she despaired of ever finding the kind of all-consuming love that she wrote about in her books.When she did venture out of her writing cave, chaos and disaster followed, with many a trip to the emergency room of the local hospital. It was there she fell head over heels for the handsome doctor who often treated her, Guy Fitton. The trouble was that with her medical track record, she wasn’t sure if he’d see her as a sexy, desirable temptress or just a crazy, accident-prone woman, with a medical file so heavy it needed its own trolley.

Would Charlie get her “happy ever after” with Dr. Fitton or end up with the other significant male in her life, the pizza delivery guy?

While The Best Medicine is a standalone story, it’s the third in the Dilbury Village series of romantic comedy novels. All of them will be set in the quaint fictitious English hamlet in the Shropshire countryside, but feature a different village couples’ story.

Warning, if you are of a sensitive disposition when it comes to toilet humor, then the Dilbury Village series may not be for you! 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

So, how do you write such realistic and steamy sex scenes? I started one of your books as soon as I heard you’d moved in, and I have to say, that first steamy scene, with the dirty-mouthed Frenchman, nearly necessitated a trip to accident and emergency for the fitting of a pacemaker. I haven’t had such a vivid and exciting dream in a long time.

  

Don’t underestimate her… She looks like butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth, but underneath that sweet granny exterior she likes to portray is a sex-crazed nympho with a mouth that would make a sailor blush.

 

I’ve never heard of anyone getting beaver rash from jeans… Maybe your knicker elastic cut you… Take a look… don’t ask me. Muff inspections aren’t in the “things girlfriends do for each other” handbook.

 

We’d had a few more entertaining girls’ nights out, which had led to Andy the taxi driver refusing to accept bookings from us for our return journey. Daphne had given us the feedback, from the Dilbury rumour mill, that we were too raucous and our drunken topics of conversation had interfered with his pacemaker. She’d decided if the conversation was that spicy, she wanted to come on the next night out.

 

‘You’re buttering me up like a hot potato, what’s going on? Are you after some action tonight? A bit of the horizontal mumbo jumbo, as Charlie says?’ ‘Horizontal mambo,’ I giggled. ‘Though if you’re saying jumbo, is that a Freudian slip?’

 

 My Review:

 

I am totally besotted with this cleverly amusing author, her irreverent humor had me barking with glee. Charlie was a smart cookie and a successful author of “salacious material,” although she had the worst of luck and was a hazard to her own health with frequent slips and uncanny injuries that required emergency trips to the hospital where she caught sight of whom she believed to be the most swoon-worthy of beautiful men, who also happened to be her trauma doctor. She was a smitten kitten, although oddly, none of her friends seemed to share her opinion and even warned her that he seemed sketchy.   The premise was entertaining, the characters were beloved and endearing, and the writing was witty and crisp. The hardest part of writing this review was narrowing down my favorite quotes, as I seemed to have acquired a ream of them. I am already looking forward to the next trip to this quaint and quirky little village.

Giveaway

 Click on the graphic to be taken to the Facebook page for entry:

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About the Author

 
Enough heat to make the pages sizzle, romance to make you swoon, strong characters with depth and emotions to 

pluck at your heartstrings, and humor to make you laugh out loud. Roll all of that into one novel, or in C.J.’s case a lot of novels, and you have the measure of her books. Unless of course, you count the odd twist she likes to throw in to keep readers on their toes. C.J. comes from the United Kingdom and is half-French. She lives in the wonderful countryside of Wales, surrounded by rolling hills, trees and fields full of sheep and cows. She is yet to find her Prince Charming, but lives with her extremely pampered fur baby, Pumpkin, kitten of mass destruction.

C.J Fallowfield. is an Amazon #1 UK and international bestselling author of contemporary humorous erotic romance novels. She released her debut novel in January 2014.

Her alter-ego, Charlotte Fallowfield is an Amazon UK and international bestselling author of sweet, and sex free, romantic comedy novels.

Sign up for her newsletters to be kept up to date on her frequent promotions and giveaways, as well as to get exclusive first looks at covers, teasers, excerpts and her latest releases: