Category: 5-Stars

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Book Review: Kiss Me Tonight by Emma Hart

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What do a wrong number text, a burning building, and a quirky florist have in common?

A hunky firefighter with an extra-large…hosepipe.

Kiss Me Tonight, an all-new hilarious standalone romance from New York Times bestselling author Emma Hart is available now!

 

KISSMETONIGHT-1

 

In hindsight, I never should have opened that text message. The last thing I needed first thing on a Monday was a picture of some stranger’s, um, eggplant, in my inbox.

I also should have replaced the batteries in my fire alarm, because my Friday night did not need to end with my apartment building going up in flames.

But it’s fine. It’s fine. Everything is fine.

I’m only lying in a hospital bed with more split ends than I’ve ever had, almost all my Earthly possessions have turned to ash, and apparently, they don’t serve wine to patients in this place.

But like I said, it’s fine.

Until he walks in.

The guy who saved my life. My hero. Noah Jacobs.

And the universe is amusing itself at my expense, because the dirty photo I woke up to on Monday?

It’s his.

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Download your copy today!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/2IYsOqw

AppleBooks: https://apple.co/2XwekGv

Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/KissMTonight

Nook: http://bit.ly/2YrDJhO

Kobo: http://bit.ly/2IZe1M9

Add to GoodReads: http://bit.ly/2jX2gMs

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

“Aunt Bethel,” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose. “I am not going to stage a boudoir shoot for you to give Harry James for his birthday. He has a pacemaker and a stent. You’ll kill the poor man.”

 

With those muscles, the only thing sweeping you off your feet is a hurricane.

 

I’m in my old bedroom and there’s a poster of Justin Timberlake with noodle hair.

 

I would bet a hundred bucks that he’d never met anyone like me before. Not that I was tooting my own horn— I knew I was what normal people called ‘unique.’ I mean, my best friend fed raccoons, so compared to her… I was only a little strange.

 

Men like him were why catfights started. It was evolution. We women were biologically wired to seek out and find the strongest, most manly man we could so we could procreate and keep up the questionable strength of the human line. Noah fit that to a tee. He was definitely the kind of person I’d pop a few crotch goblins out with.

  

My Review:

 

Emma Hart is a clever minx, and I am irrevocably besotted with her. I adore her irreverent humor and saucy wit while I jealously covet her snappy wordplay. This is the fifth book of hers I have read and her quirky characters and amusing storylines (both full of sizzle and sass) have never failed to produce giggle-snorts in ample measure while leaving a near-permanent smirk on my face. Kiss Me Tonight was no exception.

Written in my favorite dual POV, Kiss Me Tonight begins with the unusual and somewhat alarming event of an errant text message with a little something extra, well, actually, a big something extra, an intimate exposure of a male’s… sacred member. It seems the female which the drunken Noah had been corresponding with on a dating site had requested a… candid shot, but supplied a bogus or incorrect number for the private text. The message ended up on the spunky Reagan’s phone and had her debating what course of action to take. Reagan was such a fun and lively character, she was a self-proclaimed “drama llama” with an even quirkier family which included a feisty and highly inappropriate octogenarian, my favorite kind, of course.

I will be anxiously awaiting the next cheeky installment to this humorous series.

Excerpt

“Hi.”

I glanced over at him, my lips curving. “Hi.”

“You ready?”

“To escape the madhouse? What do you think?”

“That I should put my foot down.”

I winked and clicked my belt into place. “Let’s go. Where are we going?”

Noah pulled away from the curb. “I was going to let you direct me. I haven’t been in town long, like I said, and I definitely haven’t been out for lunch.”

I leaned back in the seat. “Hmm. What do you want to eat?”

“You’re the one breaking out of jail. I’m happy to go wherever you want to.”

“Oh, no. I hate making decisions like this. Do you know how difficult it is to pick somewhere to eat?” I shifted my whole body so I could look at him. “Do you want Chinese? Thai? Steak? Korean? Pizza? Burgers? Caribbean? Mexican? Spanish? French? Italian?”

Noah’s gaze darted my way. “Do you have all those places in Creek Falls?”

“No, but that doesn’t make the decision any easier,” I replied. “Well? Burgers? Pizza? Mexican? Italian? Steak? Or Chinese?”

“I don’t—shit me, I feel like I’m being interrogated by the fucking Government.”

“You may as well be. Pick somewhere and I’ll tell you where to go.”

“I said you can pick.”

“I don’t care. I’ve been everywhere. They’re all good. You’re the new boy in town. Pick somewhere.”

“You’re demanding, do you know that?”

“Yes, Preston—oh, he’s my brother—regularly points out how demanding and difficult I am.” I paused. “If you really want me to pick, I will, but you can’t complain after.”

He turned the blinker on so we’d head in the direction of Main Street. “You just said they’re all good.”

“They are, but it’s not my fault if you feel like pizza and end up with a taco.”

“I can honestly say that I do not care what I eat for lunch as long as it’s edible.”

“Right. Then turn left, then right, and pull into the parking lot next to the liquor store.”

“I see you’re taking us to a reputable location.”

“Oh, no. The liquor store is a pit stop. It just happens to be on the way to the Mexican place I like.”

“I see. So you’re using me for liquor.”

“You’ve met my great-aunt. Damn straight I’m using you for liquor.”

About Emma Hart

Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty novels and has been translated into several different languages.

​

She is a mother, wife, lover of wine, Pink Goddess, and valiant rescuer of wild baby hedgehogs.

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Emma prides herself on her realistic, snarky smut, with comebacks that would make a PMS-ing teenage girl proud.

 

​Yes, really. She’s that sarcastic.

Connect with Emma

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaHartBooks/

BookBub: http://bit.ly/2Dr0atq

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2Dq42ez

Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2EBbZNe

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2D91d3T

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/emmahartauthor/

Stay up to date with Emma by joining her mailing list: https://www.emmahart.org/newsletter

Website: https://www.emmahart.org/home

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Book Review: Wrapped Up in You (Heartbreaker Bay – Book 8) by Jill Shalvis

Wrapped Up in You

Heartbreaker Bay – Book 8

By: Jill Shalvis

Avon Books – September 24, 2019

 

AMAZON / AUDIBLE / APPLE / 

NOOK / KOBO / GPLAY

It’s love. Trust me.

 

After a lifetime on the move, Ivy Snow is an expert in all things temporary—schools, friends, and way too many Mr. Wrongs. Now that she owns a successful taco truck in San Francisco and an apartment to call home, Ivy’s reinvented life is on solid ground. And she’s guarded against anything that can rock it. Like the realities of a past she’s worked hard to cover up. And especially Kel O’Donnell. Too hot not to set off alarms, he screams temporary. If only his whispers weren’t so delightfully naughty and irresistible.

 

Kel, an Idaho sheriff and ranch owner, is on vacay, but Ivy’s a spicy reason to give his short-terms plans a second thought. Best of all, she’s a tonic for his untrusting heart, burned once and still in repair. But when Ivy’s past intrudes on a perfect romance, Kel fears that everything she’s told him has been a perfect lie. Now, if only Ivy’s willing to share, Kel will fight for a true love story.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Mentally sifting through a long list of fantasies, Ivy told her landlord all about Brandon the artist, who was living in Paris at the moment, becoming famous for his incredible oil landscapes. She left off the fact that he peddled stolen art instead of creating it, and it hadn’t been Paris, France, but Paris, Texas.

 

And trust me, women are tougher than us. They can handle our shit. And if you don’t think so, think about this—they take showers with the water temperature set to the exploding sun, by choice.

 

Her chest felt tight. Way too tight. “It’s hot in here,” she whispered. “Is it hot in here?” she asked all the people standing way too close. “Honey, that’s called a hot flash,” an elderly woman waiting in line said. “Are you going through the change?” “Edna, she’s like twelve,” the woman next to the first one said. “She’s not going through the change. And how much longer before you refill the mashed potatoes? I can’t stand on my feet too long, I get the veins.”

 

My Review:

 

I don’t think I will ever tire of Jill Shalvis’s clever wit or her entertaining and amusing tales. To use one of her own words, she is divinely, “Crackalicious.” One of the main characters of this book was Ivy Snow, and although ivy doesn’t typically have thorns, this Ivy was a prickly one who was always on guard, and for good reason. I wasn’t sure I was going to enjoy her but Ivy’s backstory was a heart squeezer and my appreciation of her rose steadily as her layers were slowly peeled back.   I grew to adore this couple as much as the other Heartbreakers that I’ve read.

 

 

 

Goodreads Series Link: https://www.goodreads.com/series/169076-heartbreaker-bay

 Series Buy Link: http://jillshalvis.com/books/#heartbreaker-series

 Author Info

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.

 

Author Links:  WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Website:  http://jillshalvis.com/

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/JillShalvis/

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/JillShalvis/

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22370.Jill_Shalvis

Newsletter: http://jillshalvis.com/faq/newsletter/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/jill-shalvis

 

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Sweet Little Lies (Heartbreaker Bay #1) by Jill Shalvis

Sweet Little Lies
(Heartbreaker Bay #1)
by Jill Shalvis

 Amazon  US / UK / CA / AU /  B&N 

 

As captain of a San Francisco Bay tour boat, Pru can handle rough seas — the hard part is life on dry land. Pru loves her new apartment and her neighbors; problem is, she’s in danger of stumbling into love with Mr. Right for Anybody But Her.

Fall for him — hard…

Pub owner Finn O’Riley is six-foot-plus of hard-working hottie who always makes time for his friends. When Pru becomes one of them, she discovers how amazing it feels to be on the receiving end of that deep green gaze. But when a freak accident involving darts (don’t ask) leads to a shirtless first aid, things rush way past the friend zone. Fast.

And then tell him the truth.

Pru only wants Finn to be happy, it’s what she wishes for at the historic fountain that’s supposed to grant her heart’s desire. But wanting him for herself is a different story — because Pru’s been keeping a secret that could change everything…

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

He was her unicorn. He bent low behind the bar for something and an entire row of women seated on the barstools leaned in unison for a better view. Meerkats on parade.

 

Maybe he hasn’t shaved… That’d keep me from dropping trou. I only shaved from my knees down. My thighs are as hairy as a lumberjack’s chest, which is why I’m wearing capris and not short shorts. You are all welcome.

 

She didn’t ask how he knew her kryptonite. Everyone she knew worshipped at the magical griddle inside the magical food cart outside their building that a woman named Rayna ran. Pru snatched the bag from Finn and decided to forgive him.

 

It was Nineties Night. This required copious amounts of glitter, which apparently is like the STD of the craft supplies. Once you use it without protection, you can’t get rid of it… Ever.

 

“How do they fit?” Finn asked, smiling, enjoying the old man’s discomfort. Eddie rolled his eyes. “Like a cheap castle —no ballroom.”

 

“She’s so badass,” Willa whispered, staring after her. “I mean look at that dress. She’s badass, kickass, and she has a great ass. It’s really not fair.”

 

“Pru, can you tell me what’s wrong?” “I think she’s having a seizure,” Mrs. Winslow said helpfully. “Honey, you look a little bit constipated. I suggest a good fart. That always works for me.”

 

 My Review:

 

This book needs to come with a caution to avoid liquids while reading as I frequently giggle-snorted and also laughed aloud while perusing this cleverly humorous tale. I am totally in awe of Jill Shalvis’s delightfully witty arrangements of words and avariciously covet them all. Every single character was enticing, endearing, magnetically appealing, and cleverly described in a manner that incited a desire to know every little thing about them. I am irrevocably hooked and feeling an inordinate itch to clear my schedule to read this entire series.

 

Author Info

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Jill Shalvis writes warm, funny, sexy contemporary romances and women’s fiction. An Amazon, BN & iBooks bestseller, she’s also a two-time RITA winner and has more than 10 million copies of her books sold worldwide.

 WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER | GOODREADS

Newsletter: http://jillshalvis.com/faq/newsletter/

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Book Review: THE LIES WE TELL by Debra Webb

THE LIES WE TELL

by Debra Webb

ISBN: 9780778308317

Publication Date: September 17th, 2019

Publisher: MIRA Books

 

Nothing hurts like the truth.

Doctor Rowan Dupont knows a serial killer is coming for her. Julian Addington has been waiting. Watching. And it’s only a matter of time before he strikes. But what Julian doesn’t know is that Rowan is ready for him. And more than anything she wants answers. How well did the depraved killer actually know her mother? And how many lies have been spun in the years since she took her own life?

Working alongside her childhood friend Police Chief Billy Brannigan, Rowan is determined to get to the bottom of her mother’s puzzling suicide once and for all—even if it means exposing an unsettling past. It certainly seems like her family’s Victorian funeral home has borne witness to more than one dark secret, but when a recent double homicide leads to an even grislier discovery, separating the truth from the lies might be the last thing Rowan does.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

That was the thing about secrets. Secrets never stayed secret forever.

 She hadn’t analyzed the realization too deeply in the past. Honestly, this was the first time the thought had fully formed in her brain. Ideas and conclusions so very close to that thought had bobbed to the surface of the ocean of others flooding her life lately.

 She closed the bag wondering when she had so thoroughly become her father? He had always chatted with the clients. She vividly remembered walking into the embalming room and hearing him carrying on a conversation with the person on the mortuary table. As a teenager she had thought it was completely bizarre. It was true, she supposed. You did become your parents.

She stared directly at him. Her famous eyes, one blue and one green, were as vivid as if light poured out from them.

 Paranoia. It was spreading inside her like a disease she couldn’t stop.

 

 My Review:

 

As impossible as it may be, I am even more fascinated by this complex and captivating tale than ever, it just keeps turning over and infinitely expanding while tickling my gray matter and provoking my curiosity.   This case is as slippery as an eel and ingeniously plotted. In addition to being well entertained, I’ve also gleaned a considerable amount of knowledge concerning mortuary services, a ghastly yet necessary and interestingly evolved process.

Rowan has discovered that her mother’s secrets were much darker than anyone ever imagined and has uncovered unsettling notations in researching her parent’s journals. But that is just a pittance to the disturbing and hair-raising events that take place throughout the various active and intriguingly nuanced storylines.

I am irrevocably enthralled by and enamored with this author’s well-honed storytelling and am currently coveting all her clever words.   How has she eluded my notice all this time as she has an impressive backlist of over one hundred forty novels?   I am ashamed of myself but determined to make up for my slothful dereliction and have added her to my list of favorite authors.

 About The Author

Instagram: @DebraEWebb
Facebook: @DebraWebbAuthor
Debra Webb is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of more than 130 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency, and the Shades of Death series. With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood on a farm in Alabama. Visit Debra at www.DebraWebb.com
or write to her at PO Box 176, Madison, AL 35758.
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Book Review: The Secrets We Bury by Debra Webb

 

Amazon  US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

Nothing stays buried forever…

Doctor Rowan Dupont knows death. She grew up surrounded by it in her family’s Victorian funeral home, and it’s haunted her since the day her twin sister drowned years ago. Between her mother’s subsequent suicide and the recent murder of her father, coming home to run the funeral home feels fitting—even if it leaves her vulnerable to an obsessive serial killer.Rowan refuses to let fear keep her from honoring her family. But the more time she spends back in Winchester, Tennessee, the more she finds herself questioning what really happened that fateful summer. Had her sister’s death truly been an accident? And what pushed their mother to take her own life? The dark lake surrounding Rowan’s hometown holds as many secrets as the bodies that float in its chilling depths. But Rowan is running out of time if she’s going to uncover the truth before somebody sinks her for good.

 

My Rating:

 My Review:

 

This small and typically quiet southern hamlet, with an eighty-year-old veterinarian for a coroner, was suddenly overflowing with murder cases, old and new, and lots of peculiar goings-on. This engrossing tale was extremely well crafted, ingeniously paced, and cast with a full slate of quirky and oddly compelling characters. I was instantly and forcefully yanked into the story and the intrigue and creepy sense of impending peril never let up, what with nightmares, cryptic messages from a serial killer, missing memories, and eerily misplaced objects in the funeral home – yikes.   I devised and cast off myriad hypothesis and was only partially correct, but my little pea brain would never have come up with a fraction of the deviously clever twists and turns this master storyteller has conjured from her brainpan. But wait, there will be more as the killer is still out there, lurking.   Thankfully, I have the next installment locked and loaded on my beloved Kindle.

 About The Author

Instagram: @DebraEWebb
Facebook: @DebraWebbAuthor
Debra Webb is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of more than 130 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency, and the Shades of Death series. With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood on a farm in Alabama. Visit Debra at www.DebraWebb.com
or write to her at PO Box 176, Madison, AL 35758.
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Book Review: The Undertaker’s Daughter by Debra Webb

The Undertaker’s Daughter

by Debra Webb

Amazon  US / UK / AU / CA / B&N

 

Dr. Rowan DuPont and the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department are hunting a serial killer. All the victims have one thing in common–they could be Rowan’s twin, except her twin sister is dead.

Rowan grew up in a funeral home, surrounded by death, so her keen insights into homicide cases seldom fall short of the mark. Though growing up as the undertaker’s daughter made her acutely aware of life and all its frailties, she is only human. Will her one mistake in this shocking case be her last one?

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quote:

 

The circumstances of her birth and her childhood ensured that Rowan was intimately acquainted with death from the very beginning of her life. Her grandfather DuPont had died the day before she and Raven came into the world.   Edward insisted on taking a family photo before his father was buried. The twins were ensconced in the deceased DuPont’s lap, with their mother and father on either side. It was the way of things during her formative years. Living had always been far more mysterious and fearful to her than death.

 

My Review:

 

This was only my second time reading Ms. Webb’s enthralling arrangements of words and I am livid at myself for not noticing her genius sooner. I could not put this gripping tale down and thankfully it was a short yet highly eventful read that sets the stage for the series to come, one which I will undoubtedly be inhaling every well-chosen word as Ms. Webb’s intriguing hooks are deeply embedded in my gray matter.

 About The Author

Instagram: @DebraEWebb
Facebook: @DebraWebbAuthor
Debra Webb is the award-winning, USA Today bestselling author of more than 130 novels, including reader favorites the Faces of Evil, the Colby Agency, and the Shades of Death series. With more than four million books sold in numerous languages and countries, Debra’s love of storytelling goes back to her childhood on a farm in Alabama. Visit Debra at www.DebraWebb.com
or write to her at PO Box 176, Madison, AL 35758.
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Book Review: Flame (Men of Inked – Heatwave #1) by Chelle Bliss

 

Flame

(Men of Inked: Heatwave #1) 

 

by USA Today bestselling author

Chelle Bliss.

 

Flame is book one in the Men of Inked: Heatwave series. 

Men of Inked: Heatwave features steamy romance, hot alphas, and strong heroines    
 

(**City & Suzy’s Daughter**)
Genre: Contemporary Romance /Romantic Suspense
 

TBR: menofinked.com/flame-tbr
 

AVAILABLE NOW!
ebook

Could you love a man surrounded by danger?
Gigi Gallo’s childhood was filled with the roar of a motorcycle and the hum of a tattoo gun. Fresh out of college, she’s about to start working at her family’s tattoo studio — Inked. But when she shows up the first day, she never expects to run into someone tall, dark, and totally sexy from her not-so-innocent past.
Pike Moore is a bossy biker with a cocky attitude and an even bigger ego. He came to Inked to start over. New town. New job. New roots. None of that included coming face-to-face with the hot chick who spent a week in his bed before she vanished without a trace.
But when Pike’s dark family history catches up with him, can he stop Gigi from being caught in the crossfire?
Flame is book one in the Men of Inked: Heatwave series by USA Today bestselling author Chelle Bliss. The Men of Inked: Heatwave series features steamy romance, hot heroes, and strong women.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The guy isn’t just hot, he’s Freaking Fine with capital Fs…

 

You’re a good kid. If I had a son, I’d want him to be just like you, Pike. Instead, I got a daughter because I’ve done bad shit in my life and the big guy found a way to pay me back.

 

I’ve also been around enough wrong women to know when I’ve found the right one.

 

“You out for a stroll?” he asks, confirming I am, in fact, moving too slow. But I have one speed, and it’s sloth.

 

“Auntie Fran, go easy on him,” Gigi says as the woman plasters her body against me, resting her head on my chest. “Shh. Don’t ruin this for me, girl. When you’re my age, there’re very few thrills left in life… Don’t ruin this for me,” Fran says again, her fingers digging into my pecs. “God, to be young again.”

 

My Review:

 

I can never get enough of these loving, loud, luminous, and living large Gallos. Chelle Bliss kicks off her new series with a bang – featuring the next generation of sassy and brassy troublemakers with a first installment that left me tapping my little foot and eager for the next one. The storylines were heaving with irreverent humor, family drama, and breath-stealing sensual steam as well as generous lashings of danger and suspense.   I inhaled this engaging tale with a steady smirk and a few gasps for good measure. Please, hurry with part two Ms. Bliss, before the little pea in my brain forgets all the deliciously juicy details.


 Meet The Author

USA Today bestselling author Chelle Bliss currently lives in a small town near the Gulf of Mexico. She’s a full-time writer, time-waster extraordinaire, social media addict, and coffee fiend. She’s written over ten books and has two series available. She loves spending her free time with her boyfriend, 2 cats, and her hamster.

Before becoming a writer, Chelle taught high school history for over ten years. She holds a master’s degree in Instructional Technology and a bachelor’s in History. Although history is her first love, writing has become her dream job and she can’t imagine doing anything else.
WEBSITE – FACEBOOK – NEWSLETTER – TWITTER – INSTAGRAM

 

 

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Book Review, Giveaway: Hit&Run (PASS Series Book 1) by Freya Barker

 

Title: Hit&Run (Pass Series #1)
Author: Freya Barker
Genre: Contemporary Romance/ Romantic Suspense
Release Date: September 16, 2019
Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

Returning home to Grand Junction would not have been Rosie Perkins’ first choice, but with her mother no longer able to take care of herself, it’s the only one she has. As is working the night shift at a local hotel to bring in a much-needed income.
Rosie juggles to keep all the pieces of her life together and has no room to add anything more. One morning after a long shift, when she witnesses a hotel guest crash into a dumpster, her careful control starts to unravel.
Security specialist, Jake Hutchinson, has his hands full protecting the arrogant lead actor of a movie being filmed in town. Since the production company and crew arrived at the hotel, the entitled star has been nothing but trouble.
The only thing that can improve his mood is the occasional nightly glimpse of the redheaded housekeeper.
Until he finds himself trapped between desire and duty.

AMAZON | APPLE BOOKS | NOOK | KOBO |

Tweet: Hit & Run (PASS Series, #1) by @freya_barker It’s a brand new series and you can #BuyItNow Here ➜ http://bit.ly/2YjqQoM #ContemporaryRomance #ContemporaryRomanceReads #RomanticSuspense #Romanticsuspensereaders #BAPpr @buoniamicipress

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Grant in a tent—I would give good money to see that. “Sweetheart,” he starts in complete diva mode, waving his hand up and down the front of his body. “See this six foot six frame of carefully honed muscle, coated in a rich coat of cocoa, polished and waxed to a perfect shine? This here body will not stuff itself in any sleeping bag, it does not fit in any tent, it is not intended for rough terrain, and it does not find the idea of peeing in a bush at all romantic.” He takes a deep drink of his beer, slams his empty bottle on the counter, and belches loudly, only adding to our hilarity, before he finishes. “This is a body designed for feather beds and the soft slide of twelve hundred thread-count, Egyptian cotton sheets. I’ll sleep in the wild when I’m dead.”

 

“With that scruff, he’s like catnip for soccer moms.” “Are you calling me a soccer mom?” she protests. “No. I’m calling him catnip.”

 

“I tried calling: no answer. I left a message: nothing. Finally, I called your office—” He points a scathing look at Jake. “And threatened whoever was unfortunate enough to answer the phone, that I would sit on them, hold them down, and roll rubber bands through their chest hair until they’re as smooth as a baby’s butt— to get this damn address.”

 

For years I’d harbored the dream of a family, but eventually simply gave up even hoping. My fortieth birthday had been a come -to-Jesus moment when I felt I passed that invisible barrier between; it could still happen, and your ovaries now grow dust bunnies.

 

My Review:

 

With every new book she writes, I adore Freya Barker just a little more. She gives us everyday hard-working and well-seasoned heroes and heroines who have or are struggling with real-life issues and doing their best at jobs they may not enjoy but need to hold on to. Most of us have been there. And quite often doing those thankless jobs conflict with doing the right thing, which causes additional stress and dissatisfaction, lots of us have been there too.

 

Hit&Run broke ground for an action-packed new series with several busy, realistic, and compelling storylines and a full slate of uniquely interesting, likable, and relatable characters who labor away at relatively common jobs and are doing so with healthy servings of dignity as well as a side order of irreverent humor.   And of course, I must not forget to mention the supportive and sensual romance that blossoms amid of all this intriguing peril and chaos.

 

All of Ms. Barker’s thoughtfully written books that I have read have been remarkably self-contained standalone stories that seamlessly interconnect with the others in their series. I am already eager for the next installment.

 

Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; with characters who are perhaps less than perfect, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills, and their own slice of happy.
A recipient of the RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for best first book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya has not slowed down.
She continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!

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Book Review: The Lost Daughter by Gill Paul

The Lost Daughter

by Gill Paul

Amazon US / UK / CA / AU  

B&N / HarperCollins

Paperback: 496 pages
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (August 27, 2019)

If you loved I Am Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon you won’t want to miss this novel about her sister, Grand Duchess Maria. What really happened to this lost Romanov daughter? A new novel perfect for anyone curious about Anastasia, Maria, and the other lost Romanov daughters, by the author of The Secret Wife.

1918: Pretty, vivacious Grand Duchess Maria Romanov, the nineteen-year-old daughter of the fallen Tsar Nicholas II, lives with her family in suffocating isolation, a far cry from their once-glittering royal household. Her days are a combination of endless boredom and paralyzing fear; her only respite are clandestine flirtations with a few of the guards imprisoning the family—never realizing her innocent actions could mean the difference between life and death

1973: When Val Doyle hears her father’s end-of-life confession, “I didn’t want to kill her,” she’s stunned. So, she begins a search for the truth—about his words and her past. The clues she discovers are baffling—a jewel-encrusted box that won’t open and a camera with its film intact. What she finds out pulls Val into one of the world’s greatest mysteries—what truly happened to the Grand Duchess Maria?

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

The minutes crawled interminably, so slow she suspected the clock had been tampered with in order to torture them.

That evening, she explained to Nicole that a judge had decided she did not have to visit her daddy anymore. “OK.” Nicole nodded, quite happy with this. “Will I get a new daddy now? What do we have to do? Should we apply somewhere?”

If you can help someone without harming anyone else, then why on earth wouldn’t you do it?

My Review:

 

This was my first experience of being immersed in Gill Paul’s epic storytelling and I am beyond impressed. The Lost Daughter was beautifully written, lushly descriptive, and heartbreakingly realistic.   Her emotive writing was taut with tension and pulled me right inside her characters’ various storylines. I felt my chest tighten as if I were fleeing with them and racing for escape while in danger of capture. The book spanned 90 years with an intriguing and enthralling fusion of fact and fiction. The story hit all the feels and I was enthralled, educated, and horrified yet highly entertained by Ms. Paul’s absorbing and well-crafted tale.

I was provided with a review copy of this sweeping tale by TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins. 

About the Author

Gill Paul is an author of historical fiction, specializing in relatively recent history. She has written two novels about the last Russian royal family: The Secret Wife, published in 2016, which tells the story of cavalry officer Dmitri Malama and Grand Duchess Tatiana, the second daughter of Russia’s last tsar; and The Lost Daughter, published in October 2018, that tells of the attachment Grand Duchess Maria formed with a guard in the house in Ekaterinburg where the family was held from April to July 1918.

Gill’s other novels include Another Woman’s Husband, about links you may not have been aware of between Wallis Simpson, later Duchess of Windsor, and Diana, Princess of Wales; Women and Children First, about a young steward who works on the Titanic; The Affair, set in Rome in 1961–62 as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton fall in love while making Cleopatra; and No Place for a Lady, about two Victorian sisters who travel out to the Crimean War of 1854–56 and face challenges beyond anything they could have imagined.

Find out more about Gill at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.

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Book Review: The Last Widow by Karin Slaughter

The Last Widow

by Karin Slaughter

 

Amazon  US / UK / CA / AU / 

B&N / HarperCollins

 Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (August 20, 2019)

New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter brings back Will Trent and Sara Lintonin this superb and timely thriller full of devious twists, disturbing secrets, and shocking surprises you won’t see coming

A mysterious kidnapping on a hot summer night, a scientist from the Centers for Disease Control is grabbed by unknown assailants in a shopping center parking lot. The authorities are desperate to save the doctor who’s been vanished into thin air.

A devastating explosion

One month later, the serenity of a sunny Sunday afternoon is shattered by the boom of a ground-shaking blast—followed by another, seconds later.  One of Atlanta’s busiest and most important neighborhoods has been bombed—the location of Emory University, two major hospitals, the FBI headquarters, and the CDC.

A diabolical enemy

Medical examiner Sara Linton and her partner Will Trent, an investigator with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, rush to the scene—and into the heart of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to destroy thousands of innocent lives. When the assailants abduct Sara, Will goes undercover to save her and prevent a massacre—putting his own life on the line for the woman and the country he loves.

 

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

 

Money. That was the real obstacle… She would never forget the look on Jeffrey’s face the first time he’d seen the balance in her trading account. Sara had actually heard the squeaking groan of his testicles retracting into his body. It had taken a hell of a lot of suction to get them back out again.

 

Sara had explained the science behind these mood changes. During the stages of pregnancy and breastfeeding and childhood, a woman’s brain was flooded with hormones that altered the gray matter in the regions involved in social processes, heightening the mother’s empathy and bonding them closely to their child. Which was a damn good thing, because if another human being treated you the way a toddler did—threw food in your face, questioned your every move, unraveled all of the aluminum foil off the roll, yelled at the silverware, made you clean shit off their ass, peed in your bed, peed in your car, peed on you while you were cleaning up their pee, demanded that you repeat everything at least sixteen times and then screeched at you for talking too much—then you would probably kill them.

 

Tinder was a no-go. The guys who didn’t look married looked like they should be chained to a bench outside of a courtroom. She’d tried Match.com but not one of the losers that she was even remotely attracted to could pass a background check. Which said more about the type of men Faith was attracted to than internet dating sites.

 

Her parenting skills fell somewhere between Charlotte’s Web and Lord of the Flies. Jeremy still teased her about the note she’d once left in his lunch box: The bread is stale. This is what happens when you don’t close the bag.

 

Don’t mess with the US Government. They won two wars and can print their own money.

 

Dash was a stupid man’s idea of how a smart man sounded.

My Review:

 

This book was gripping and all-consuming yet it took me twice as long to read, as I had to put it down, take deep breaths, and walk away from it now and then. Not because it was bad, but because it was diabolically brilliant and absorbing, I was sucked right into this complex and fiendish vortex and helplessly engrossed in the chaos. The plot was complex and skillfully crafted while the writing was ingeniously textured and scorched my brain matter while it squeezed my heart and lungs.

This contemptible and monstrous scenario could very well happen, which was intensely disturbing to me as it was heinously realistic.   The ever-escalating and highly disturbing climate of arrogance, hate, manipulation, and perversion of information being generated from our current national embarrassments at the top does seem to be empowering the most twisted of the vile and disenfranchised. Karin Slaughter is devilishly clever and a masterful wordsmith. She scared me silly.

I was provided with a review copy of this enthralling thriller by HarperCollins and TLC Book Tours.

About Karin Slaughter

Karin Slaughter is one of the world’s most popular and acclaimed storytellers. Published in 120 countries with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe, her eighteen novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and the instant New York Times bestselling novels Pretty Girls and The Good Daughter. Slaughter is the founder of the Save the Libraries project—a nonprofit organization established to support libraries and library programming. A native of Georgia, Karin Slaughter lives in Atlanta. Her standalone novels The Good Daughter and Cop Town are in development for film and television.

Find out more about Karin at her website and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.