Archives for January 2018

January 30, 2018

Review: Surrender To The Highlander by Lynsay Sands

Reviewed by Sara

Lynsay Sands was one of the first Historical Romance authors I ever read and she is the first author to introduce me to the delight of Highlander Romances. So, you can be sure that when one of her books is up for grabs, I’m taking it.

Surrender to the Highlander is book 5 of Sands’ Scottish Highlander series. In it, the Buchanan brothers pay a visit to their very pregnant sister, Saidh, only to find out she needs their help. Saidh hasn’t been able to reach her friend Edith in several weeks and she’s worried. The brothers take on the task of looking in on Edith, but when they arrive at Drummond castle they find the castle closed up due to an illness that has overtaken the Laird and several of the brothers and has left Lady Edith on death’s door. The brothers make their way into the castle only to discover it’s no illness that has plagued the castle, but rather poison. This leads to the brothers protecting Lady Edith and bringing her back to health. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Sara, Highlander, Historical Romance Tagged With: , Leave a Comment
January 29, 2018

Review: No Contest by Harper St George and Tara Wyatt

Reviewed by Elle

No Contest is the third book (final maybe? I hope not!) in the Blood and Glory series from Tara Wyatt and Harper St. George.

We first met Leandro in book 2, where he was portrayed as the rich, arrogant, title hungry competitor, chasing after Gabe’s belt.

And that’s exactly who he is as we get to know him better in this book. Rich, spoiled, and arrogant sum him up perfectly. As heir to a family fortune, he’s never had to work for anything in his life. Except fighting. The ring is the only place he’s ever wanted to prove himself and earn something the hard way instead of it being handed to him on a silver platter. He did the work, became one of the best and got his shot at the belt, only for Gabe to pretty much hand it to him when he retired. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Elle, Contemporary Romance Tagged With: , Leave a Comment
January 28, 2018

Review: Wallflower Most Wanted by Manda Collins

Reviewed by Jen

I struggled to get into this book. It wasn’t bad, but it was very slow and it took a really long time before I was even remotely interested in either main character, much less a romance between them.

I picked this up because the hero was a vicar and the blurb promised that he and the heroine would “confront their fiery mutual passion.” I mistakenly thought this would be perhaps a forbidden romance, or at a minimum a gentle reserved hero who would be tempted by a passionate woman. Not so much.

This is the third book in Manda Collins’ Studies in Scandal series and I did not read the first two books. Sometimes with historical romance series, that doesn’t matter. Often, they stand alone very well and you barely notice that there may have been stories that came before. Not here. I wasn’t lost, necessarily, but there were plenty of references to the earlier books and with the struggles I already had to care about the main couple, this only made my problem worse. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Jen, Historical Romance Tagged With: , Leave a Comment
January 26, 2018

Review: Outlaw by Katana Collins

Reviewed by Shelly

This story was initially distributed as a serial (in three parts) and later distributed as a single complete book. In essence, it’s the second part of Katana Collins’s Harrison Street Crew. After doing a little digging, I found out the former which completely explained why I felt as if I missed some vital information between characters with the two As – angst and anger. There’re more than a few relationships that felt established and left me slightly perplexed.

During the parts, we get a pretty even measure of what each character is feeling. For me, that didn’t help so much because at thirty two years old, Patrick Flanagan is a child in a man’s body. Regrettably, Michelle Chiccarini the ADA just came off as a corrupt public servant who couldn’t stay away from the prowess of the ‘club’ VP, Patrick. The same ‘club’ that she’s been trying to take down for the past year because of their criminal activity. Please note there will be spoiler alerts. It’s a case of who’s worse – HSC, the Sauceda gang or DA’s office. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Shelly, Contemporary Romance, motorcycle club Tagged With: Leave a Comment
January 25, 2018

Review: The Talon of the Hawk by Jeffe Kennedy

Reviewed by Jen

Oh wow. Jeffe Kennedy really takes it to the next level with this third book in her Twelve Kingdoms series. I didn’t realize that I needed Ursula’s book until I started reading it and I’ve got to tell you, this book is not for the faint of heart.

So far, we’ve only seen Ursula through the eyes of her younger sisters. We know she is strong and powerful, almost masculine. The heir to their father’s throne, she leads armies, she eschews relationships, and she demonstrates unwavering loyalty to the king. All of those things are true, but what we could never see through the first person POVs of Amelia and Andromeda is that her power and strength have come at a very steep price.

The King has grown wilder and more power hungry with each book. Or maybe, it would be more accurate to say, it’s become more obvious with each book. What’s also obvious now is that the journey each sister has taken has been in tandem with each identifying with one of the three goddesses. As they each come into their power, they come closer to balancing the gifts each goddess represents. Ursula is the sword. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Jen, Fantasy Romance Tagged With: 3 Comments
January 24, 2018

Review: Love Me Harder by Camille Mackenzie

Reviewed by Shelly

The first book in Camille MacKenzie’s Love Never Fails series was one that I really enjoyed. The writing was fresh, especially for a debut novel. This one felt rambly and unfocused. The heroine was one of the more immature ones I’ve read in a while and there were story lines that were introduced and left without resolutions. I had the same problem I had in book one with the errors, except this one is littered with them. This is book three – simple syntax errors and sentence structure errors shouldn’t happen this much. The editing for line repetition and character consistency was lacking. This time I chose not to overlook the lack of strong editing because they were distracting and plentiful. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Shelly, Contemporary Romance, interracial romance Tagged With: Leave a Comment
January 23, 2018

Review: Love Between Enemies by Molly E Lee

Reviewed by Elle

I’ve been binge watching 90’s teen romance movies lately. I don’t read a lot of YA romance, but my recent movie marathons had me agreeing to review Love Between Enemies by Molly E Lee.

It’s the second book in a series of stand-alones, that all follow different characters at an epic end of year graduation party. I haven’t read the first, and though there is quite a bit of talk about the characters from the first book, it only bothered me very briefly. So you can definitely jump into this series at any point.

As the two smartest kids in their grade, Gordon and Zoey have been competing against each other their entire lives. But there’s respect between the the two, so while they might not be friends, they aren’t true enemies either. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Elle, YA Tagged With: , Leave a Comment
January 22, 2018

Review: Don’t Go by Alexa Riley

Reviewed by Shelly

The duo of Alexa Riley have a niche that is – if you want HEA, plot-lite, and insta-everything then they have a story that you’ll enjoy. If I ever think about stating my expectations as anything but quick and I’m shocked because ‘that would never happen’ then that’s all my fault. I’ve enjoyed many of Riley’s stories and I’m sure I’ll continue to do so.

This is a novella with insta-love. The hero is a virgin. The heroine is a virgin. I mean real virgins, none of this new fangled back door action to save the vagina for later business. At 28 they knew what they were doing do – especially that Henry. So when the business (you know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout) starts, there’re no worries because in this work the baby consequences are all the better. I’m telling ya folks – low expectations are the best. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Shelly, Contemporary Romance, novella Tagged With: , Leave a Comment
January 21, 2018

Review: Single Malt by Layla Reyne

Reviewed by Jen

Feeling nostalgic for the Cut & Run books I loved so much, I asked Twitter to give me some recommendations of books with a similar feel and this one rose to the top. I can see the similarities for sure and they were close enough to scratch my itch, but there were enough differences that no one would confuse the two.

Like my beloved C&R books, this series centers around two FBI agents who are paired as unlikely partners. But these two guys are markedly different from Ty and Zane, who were always on the edge of spiraling out of control. Aidan is one of the FBI’s best agents, but he is just returning to work after an eight-month leave to recover from the accident that killed both his partner and his husband. His boss, Mel–his dead husband’s sister–assigns him to work with Jamie, a brilliant cyber-agent who is also a handsome former NCAA basketball star. Aidan is tasked with evaluating Jamie for field work. [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Jen, Contemporary Romance, m/m Tagged With: Leave a Comment
January 19, 2018

Review: Immortal Fire by Annette Marie

Reviewed by Ronelle

Once upon a time, Emi’s world was simple. Gods were righteous and wise, yokai were bloodthirsty and evil, and her duty as the kamigakari was straightforward. But when one of the kami sets out to destroy the mortal world as it’s known and the yokai are the only ones standing in her way, she’s faced with a far more terrifying reality.

Looming threat or no, Emi can’t escape her greatest distraction: Shiro, the fox yokai who has so deftly claimed her heart for his own. She’s promised to break the curse that binds his magic and memories, and once his true self awakens, she’s afraid she’ll lose him forever. But his power and knowledge are needed for the impending war, and so they’ll gamble everything to turn the tide against their immortal, all-powerful foes.

Together, they will find a way to save her world—but can they save each other? [Read more…]

Filed Under: by Ronelle, fantasy, Fantasy Romance Tagged With: Leave a Comment
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