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Review: Hold Me If You Can by Stephanie Rowe

Lynn Reynolds — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Lynn Reynolds

Natalie Fleming was briefly murdered by a deedub. She also owns a boutique chocolate shop. But she has a challenge ahead – creating magical desserts overnight after having her shop looted. She goes into her walk-in freezer and meets her murderer. Boy, that’s one hell of a way to start your day.

Nigel Aquarian comes to Natalie’s rescue. He’s a man with his own set of problems. He’s doing a favor for Natalie’s sister. What makes Nigel unique is that he has some interesting powers. Some of those powers are tied to his art.

Nigel is seen interacting with some other warriors in his penthouse. I love how Nigel talked to them about being “men”. I can almost hear the theme from Two and a Half Men playing in the background. Stephanie also has us laughing as they interact and makeup is added to the mix.

A lot of Stephanie’s male characters are obnoxious. But the women are the ones that seem to keep them in line. It’s nice to see that the hero needs a woman in order to feel complete. This is what adds romance to the story. If you’re looking for a lot of sex between our main characters, you will not find it here.

Stephanie certainly gives us some interesting sounding demons. None that you would want to meet in a dark alley somewhere. But if you could have any type of power, like Nigel and his men, what would you like?

As you read this book you may become a little confused. The three books look like they can be standalones but if you want to understand what the warriors, and demons, are about I suggest that you read books one and two.

Natalie is in need of some help and she will get it from an unlikely source, Ella Smithweiser. Ella used to work for Nigel’s archenemy. Nigel’s art is also turning against him so Ella becomes important for both of them.

Then to add confusion to the mix, another character appears – a dream genie named Charles Morgan. Don’t get confused but sometimes he is referred to as “Smutty”. His jailor also has a connection to Nigel. Mari is the second in command to the archenemy.

Mari thinks she has a noble cause but you know what they say about good intentions. The more I read about Mari, the more I feel that she is just plain crazy. What’s good about this story is that you will see that she gets her just desserts (sorry about the spoiler).

Stephanie also puts a life lesson in her story line although it doesn’t show itself until the end. The story ends with us wondering if there will be a book 4. She leaves us hanging in the balance – who will be the characters to have their story told next?

Rating:

Buy: Hold Me If You Can

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Review: The Night is Mine by M. L. Buchman

Susan S. — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 09:08:11 +0000

Reviewed by Susan S.

Impressive! M. L. Buchman delivers an action-packed novel that’ll leave adrenaline junkies smoking a well-satisfied cigar. The Night Is Mine contains military covert operations, chopper crashes, secret agents, murder plots, daring rescues, humor, and still…pulls off a touching love story. Where’s book two?

Summary: The Night Stalkers Series, Book One

Captain Emily Beale is a highly trained soldier, the heroine of this story, the daughter to the Director of the FBI, a killer chef, the Black Hawk pilot for the Black Adders, and the first and only female pilot to fly for SOAR (The Army’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment a.k.a. The Night Stalkers). As is evidenced by the aforementioned-she’s one badass female. Oh, and did I mention she’s beautiful? Some gals have all the luck! Or do they?

This gal’s life is about to turn on a dime. The captain harbors feelings for Major Mark “The Viper” Henderson and vice versa. But since the Army prohibits relationships between different ranked soldiers-they’ll have to lock and triple-bolt their passion. Then there’s the reassignment order plunging Emily neck deep into a black-in-black ops mission. Suddenly, the Army’s fraternization policy becomes a moot point. Because if they die protecting the Commander-in-Chief, sex post-mortem just isn’t as appealing.

Review: I’m hoping one day The Night Is Mine adapts to the big screen. But even if it doesn’t, in my mind- it played like a movie. Guess I can always reread the novel when I feel the hankering to watch it again.

With military romantic suspense novels I always think, oh boy-here comes the heavy unintelligible military jargon. I needn’t have worried though. None of that in this novel. Only descriptions of military choppers and a great story infused with megadoses of action.

Recommendations: For readers who stow Silhouette Romantic Suspense and Harlequin Intrigues inside their minivans. Also recommended for anyone who craves the forbidden love tropes. And if you’re a booklover who’s partial to All-American Heroes, hot Army pilots, secret agents, and political intrigue-then this is your kind of read.

Disclaimer: I received this novel free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

Review-O-Meter Rating:

Buy: The Night Is Mine

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Review: Susie White and the Right Hand Man by Lucy Felthouse

Lynn Reynolds — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Lynn Reynolds

The book starts off with a real hunk on the cover. He can be my right hand man anytime. This cover will tempt you to open the book and see what’s inside. Scott invites us to join him on a very sensual ride.

Susie is the owner of a confectionary company called “White Bites”. The story reads like a fairytale. Which one do you think it could be – keep in mind the cast of characters. She is seen participating in her father’s wedding when she sees him walking through the doorway. His name is Scott and he works for her new stepmother.

If you’re expecting an erotic tale, I’m afraid that you will be disappointed. But if you like to read a sweet romance with a smidge of suspense, than you will like this one. You’ll want to see what happens to Susie and Scott. If you don’t have a lot of time, this is a fast read and one that you can read over and over again.

Lucy also makes this a cliffhanger. Will this story continue? Will Lucy write another story based on a fairy tale? We’ll just have to watch to see what Lucy comes up with next.

Rating:

Buy: Susie White and the Right Hand Man

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Review: Evermine by Hailey Edwards

Susan S. — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 09:08:11 +0000

Reviewed by Susan S.

An enthralling and passionate love story amidst danger and magick. A definite re-read!

Summary: Daughters of Askara Series, Book Two

Then

Have you ever heard the Shakespearean line, “Parting is such sweet sorrow?” Well, Emmaline (Emma) Gray and Harper Delaney had a five-year parting that was anything but sweet. It was sorrowful and agonizing. She thought him dead, and Harper’s re-entry into Emma’s life has been extremely difficult to assimilate.

Now

The new Askaran Queen, Nesvia, is missing. In order to find her, Harper and Emma will need to: face their past, join forces with an evil spell crafter, shake-off a Sereian magickal enchantment, avoid the desert’s sand traps, and keep Harper from imprisonment, yet-again. And all while fighting a sexual hunger that’s quickly becoming damn-near impossible to resist. The question now is who’ll stop resisting first?

Review: I enjoyed the characters’ motivation (the driving force behind their every action), Hailey’s writing voice, and the potency of the love between the characters. As I’m reviewing a novel, I generally take notes. Next to favorite scenes, I’ll draw happy faces. Big ones. I’m not joking! At novel’s end-there were lots of happy faces.

Recommendations: Mega Mass-Appeal for Readers 18+

Evermine has elements that’ll appeal to a wide range of readers. First and foremost, it’ll speak to romance readers. The main characters have sacrificed so much for each other. And their love is both palpable and potent. What romance reader wouldn’t appreciate that in a story?

Secondly, the novel will call to fantasy readers. This story begins in a primary world (the Earthen Colony) and then moves to a secondary world (in the Askaran Realm). I suppose, this too will appeal to sci-fi lovers.

I’m now speaking to anyone with a weakness/fondness for damaged/scarred heroes. Oh-yeah! That sexy Evanti demon, Harper, will have you volunteering to lick every…single…one of his scars. Reader Beware: To get your tongue anywhere near him you’ll need to fight off an Askaran demoness named Emma, but it’ll be worth the fight. Now please stand behind me. I’m first in line!

Do you like the friends-to-lovers tropes? The hero and heroine are. Like dark secrets, do you? Harper has one that may or may not hinder his chance at love. Any paranormal readers out there? This novel has demons and magic users. And if you purchase a novel hoping it’ll give you a HFA, let me say, “Evermine's
happily-forever-after is profoundly touching.” The story will also charm anyone who’s ever wished star-crossed lovers a well-deserved happiness.

My Favorite Character: The Hero!

Harper is everything you’d want from a hero. He’s strong, sexy in his demonic form, and he’ll sacrifice everything for the love of “his” woman. He’s also passionate and he’s got wings. Not the angelic type, either. The leathery kind you’d expect from a demon. I love when they turn crimson when he’s aroused, when he uses them to fly, when they enfold Emmaline, and when he uses them to cover her like a blanket.

Favorite Scenes:

Scene #1: The tub scene. Oh-no! That’s all I’m divulging. You’ll have to savor that scene without my spoilers.

Scene # 2: Evanti males like Harper are claimed by their mates. Emma’s a half-breed Askaran demoness who doesn’t have the first clue how to claim him. I love when he enlightens her!

Scene # 3: An Askaran female’s in heat. And Harper reacts “strongly” to the pheromones she’s emitting. But she’s not the female he wants. Love how sexually intense he reacts around Emma. Especially what he says when he grips her thighs. Again, I’m not divulging!

Others in the Series: Everlong (Daughters of Askara, book one).

What’s Next? Book three in the series is titled, Eversworn. No release date, yet. Let’s hope it’s soon!

Disclaimer: I received this novel free of charge in exchange for my honest review.

Review-O-Meter Rating:

Buy: Evermine: Daughters of Askara, Book 2

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Review: A Demon Does it Better by Linda Wisdom

Sharon S. — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:30:00 +0000

Reviewed by Sharon S.

This is the second book in Wisdom’s Demon series and the first of hers I have read. The author has set up an open world for her story. The magical community isn’t hidden from the “mundanes” but they don’t really mix. There is an alternate dimension called Inlander’s Magical Plane where magical folk can live and shop.

Lili is a healing witch (doctor) that is searching for her best friend who has mysteriously disappeared while working at Crying Souls, a hospital for magical folk in San Francisco. She gets herself a job there to secretly investigate Sera’s and many others disappearance. What she finds is the disturbing treatment secretly taking place in the basement on the insane. One such patient is Jared, a smoke demon who is thought to be beyond help. Lili and Jared team up to uncover what is really going on down there.

I had a hard time finishing this book. It just didn’t hold my attention. The main and secondary characters didn’t have a lot of depth so I never felt invested in them. The author also wasn’t able to make me believe in the world she created. I didn’t feel the chemistry between the Lili and Jared. The deep connection between them seemed to come out of nowhere.

Lili has a talking cat, the reincarnation of Cleopatra who is supposed to be a source of humor, but the snarky cat’s comments seemed forced. The plot was straight forward and predictable. No surprises or twists. There were some secondary characters whose appearances didn’t do anything to move the story forward, just show what a nice people Lili and Jared are. They felt like story filler to me.

Based on other reviews of this book, I am pretty much alone in my opinion about this story . Sometimes an author’s voice just calls to you and sometimes they don’t. This seems to be the case with me. I won’t stay away from this author’s other series, just this one.

Rating:

A Demon Does It Better by Linda Randall Wisdom 2012 P

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Review: If Wishes Were Husbands by Elizabeth Kyne

Karin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Karin of Savvy Thinker

I really enjoyed this book.

The story: Rachel is tired of being unmarried. While all her friends can tell horror stories about their men, she has nothing to say, so when her new hairdresser asks if she is married, she spins a story about the perfect man she is married to.

And then when she meets her friend for a drink, she spins the same story to the new women she meets, even as her friend challenges her about the story in privacy. Rachel says she will put them straight, the next time she meets them.

And then…

Imagine her surprise when she goes home and finds the man of her dreams, the one she has spun lies about, ensconced in her apartment, having prepared the gourmet meal she had said he prepares, with a perfect body, perfect sex, perfect everything.

And because she doesn’t remember how they got to that point, he re-proposes to her and tells her about their marriage, and…

But honestly, perfect is not what it is cracked up to be.

Even perfectly perfect in all his ways, after all she did make him up, ends up driving her mad.

The ending: Well, I won’t give it away. It ends differently than I thought, and perhaps my ending would have been better – and I suspect you could propose several endings yourself. But it is satisfying and wraps up some of the loose ends, while giving me other questions, which perhaps if I had read slower, I might have caught – or not. Perhaps the ends are not wrapped up tightly.

This book is delightfully funny, wry, interesting, witty…with good friends…with a mother going through her own mid-life crisis – funny in itself.

You would enjoy it. Part fantasy, part reality, a little bit of everything.

Buy: If Wishes Were Husbands

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Review: Carrie Goes Off the Map by Phillipa Ashley

Karin — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Karin from Savvy Thinker

I really enjoyed this book.

The story: Carrie’s life has changed dramatically.

She had been in the midst of planning her fast upcoming wedding to the fellow she’s known since college and lived with for about 10 years. Meantime she had put some of her own dreams on hold to help him with his family farm. Then he tells her he just can’t go through with it.

And to top it off, four months later he is marrying someone else.

And all her friends have kept the news from her.

When she finds out on the very day of his wedding, she goes a little bit crazy, a mixture of grief and anger -- and how she finds out is as funny, as life sometimes can be, as what she ends up doing.

I’m not sure it is supposed to be funny, maybe more ironic, and it is certainly has an equal amount of pathos.

And intersecting with her story is the story of Matt Landon, MD, newly back from his charity post overseas, to get over an accident.

They end up in a camper, an old VW van, along the English countryside – not quite what Carrie thought, when she expected to go with her friend Rowena through the Continent.

My take: This book is well written, easy to read, with romance, love, laughter, good friends, and some mishaps along the way. What more could we want in a read? Even Carrie’s ex is not as bad as he seems, and gets a bit of a comeuppance along the way – and is even willing to buy out Carrie’s part of the family farm, as well he should, and fairly.

And along the way, she finds a new love and accomplishes her dream.

Rating:

Buy: Carrie Goes Off The Map

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Review: Nightwatch by Alice Gaines

Sandra Scholes — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Sandra Scholes

Women like Janice Morgan enjoy all the pleasures sex has to give them, whether she is with a man or not. She can please herself with movies that give her what she wants with the end result being hot, steamy and passionate – plus she is not afraid to experiment no matter what it is.

Janice is about to go one step further with her sexual ambitions when she finds out a man over the way from her likes to give the women of the neighbourhood something to talk about. He strips for their amusement, and one night he strips just for her. She is both surprised and delighted that he would do this for her, and can only show her appreciation for him later. He’s an exhibitionist while she is the voyeur, and she likes that very much, but when he is also a man who likes to experiment as much as she does, she likes him even more!

Janice thinks she is safe observing the man of her dreams, but once he finds her watching, she thinks he might have something to say about it. Sam Winsdsor though, likes her watching him – he gets a huge thrill out of it, so they both get what they want out of it if they carry on as they are. Life isn’t that kind though and Sam and Janice start to form a friendship, one based on voyeurism, and exhibitionism that acts as an amazing stimulus for both of them.

I liked that there was a lot in Janice’s life that had prevented her from forming a decent relationship with a man. One of them is her thought that she is incapable of having sexual relations with a man at all as she gets her kicks from seeing naked men on film and through a window. Sam can’t believe she is like that at all, and when he wants a relationship with her, she is happy as well as daunted by the possibility she might disappoint him.

Both characters show their differences in this novel, but opposites do tend to attract, and what better way of attracting than forming a bond based on mutual kinks. Alice Gaines shows she can pen more than just a romance novel, this one’s a sensualists dream come true.

Rating:

Buy: Nightwatch

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Review: Encompassed (Immortal Series, Book 4) by Em Petrova

Sandra Scholes — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0000

Reviewed by Sandra Scholes

It is interesting the amount of cross genre fiction there is out for readers to have a look at. Encompassed, book 4 is Em Petrova’s chance to show how she can weave a ship’s captain and a Mayan Princess into a loving relationship.

There is a reason Dante and Maria are together and it is to do with the Calling, a way of them bonding with full knowledge of whether they are good for each other. They love each other very much, and their immortal companions notice that too. After a while though, that feeling of love and affection starts to leave them and while others like them are only just getting that feeling, they long to get it back and have the fulfilling relationship they once had.

It isn’t long before a love triangle develops with Dante being distracted by Gracie, another immortal who is influenced by the Calling too. Before this can happen and Dante is torn away from her, Maria has to go back to the place where their feelings were first felt.

I liked how Em Petrova had the original concept for Gracie, the heroine in this new novel. Originally she was under another name and in a contemporary spanking story. She gives her heroines a comical aspect and isn't afraid to create unusual stories in order to somehow make them seem real to others. She has a great descriptive mind and can make the reader truly believe they are there in her chosen world.

Rating:

Buy: Encompassed

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Review: Immortal Rider (Lords of Deliverance, Book 2) by Larissa Ione

Sharon S. — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:38:40 +0000

Reviewed by Sharon S.

You better grab the oven mitts before you try to pick up this book, it is smoking hot! This is the second book in Ione’s Lords of Deliverance series about the 4 horsemen (well, there is one woman) of the apocalypse. It is set in the same world as her Demonica Series. Many of the Demonica characters are also in the Deliverance books. If you haven’t read any of Ione’s books, don’t worry, you can jump right in and pick up on things pretty quick. I haven’t read the first book in the Deliverance series, wishing I had now because Ares sounds mouth watering, but it isn’t necessary.

The great thing about this author’s stories is all her lead characters/couples from past books of the series are still active in the story and she also starts setting up the storyline for the next book so you are already in love with the new couple and biting at the bit to read their story (smart lady ). The 4 horseman are siblings who were cursed. Their destiny is to bring about the apocalypse once they have all had their seals broken. They have spent their lives looking for their seals so they can keep them from breaking. They don’t want to turn evil. In the first book, Reseph had his seal broken and became Pestilence he is the villain of this book because he is now trying to make the rest of them turn. We got the story of Ares (would be war if his seal broke).

This book focuses on Limos, the only female horseman. She will become Famine when her seal breaks. As if that wasn’t enough she was betrothed to Satan (yes, that one) as a baby and now he wants to claim her. Limos was raised by demons and behaved like one for a long time. Telling lies gives her a high like no other. With the help of her brothers she turned her life around and things haven’t been so bad, but a smexy human named Arik kissed her and everything went to hell (literally) as all her lies catch up with her and she hurts the ones she loves the most. Mix in a love/hate storyline between an angel and demon that work against each other to help/hurt the horseman and the setting up of Thanatos’ story (who will become death, and I think he is going to be my favorite!) you get a whole lot angsty, kick ass action. Ione is also pretty good with the snark and adds just the right amount of humor.

This story/series is what you would call hard core PNR, lots of smut, cliché’ situations, high drama and emotional turmoil. Few do it better than Ione. This book has a lot of urban fantasy elements when you consider the extensive and ingenious world building going on. If you are a PNR fan then this is the author and series for you. For me to like a PNR book it has to be able to go that extra mile and impress me with tortured alpha men with that soft mushy center that only the right woman can touch, a unique twist, clever world building and yeah, lots of great sex. I think she went a little overboard with some of the clichéd PNR themes, but that is just a minor complaint. I will be reaching for Thanatos’ story because you don’t use and betray Death without consequences.

Rating:

Buy: Immortal Rider (Lords of Deliverance, Book 2)