5 Smooches

Synopsis

Peyton Callaghan is a fighter, a survivor, a warrior. When it was kill or be killed, she didn’t hesitate. Now, she’s the only one left standing, haunted by the ghost of a dead man and plagued with the guilt of having taken another person’s life. The upheaval of her life to start over in Rock Falls has been rocky at best, her worst nightmares and wildest desires colliding with each other. Terror tortures her nightly, breeding fear inside her dreams, and in every waking moment, she fights against the lust that threatens to drown her.

Jayden King harbors secrets beneath his outward playboy demeanor. The women who warm his bed lay claim to nothing—you can’t lay claim to someone who doesn’t have a heart. His wit and charm are exquisite means of deflection and distraction from the turmoil roaring inside him. He’s hidden in plain sight, a mask of humor keeping the sadness at bay. The only real reflections of his soul are in the artwork he creates, pieces of him muraled on the skin of others. If tattoo artists could have a calling card, the etch of pain and suffering in each design would be his. Because when the lights go out and the women he’s satisfied have gone home, he’s alone with every fear he refuses to face.

After suffering from a brutal attack at the hands of her roommate’s stalker, Peyton is forced to live with the object of her affection. Without intention, she breathes love into his starved heart, and although the mere thought of that terrifies him, Jayden would burn the city down to keep her safe, causalities be damned.

Some people you have. Some people you hold.

She can have him. She can hold him. But can she keep King? Or is it impossible for Callaghan to keep something that was never really hers to begin with?

Can be read as a standalone or as part of the Rock Falls series.

Review

“And you can quote me on this: When I find my dream, I’m keeping it.”

The Rock Falls Series by Anne Jolin is a recent find of mine. After reading the first book one night (it had been sitting on my kindle for a while) I devoured the other two in the series within days. So when I saw this new one was coming out I jumped at the chance for an early copy. I have to say with each book Anne puts out both the writing and stories get better and better. Keeping King was an extraordinary story that I am already planning to re-read!

“She gives him her smiles. The smiles I crave. The ones she keeps from me. The ones she so freely gives Detective Brick Shithouse.”

Peyton, Oh Peyton! We have known for quite awhile that something is going on with Peyton. For several books we have been told that she has awful nightmares that have her waking up screaming but we have no clue what it is that is haunting this poor girl. While close to the girls in the other books, Peyton is more of a loner and keeps quietly to herself. She has had a crush on Jayden for awhile but would never act on it. Jayden has always noticed Payton but demons from his past make him determined to stay away. He never wants to be in a ‘relationship’ again and Peyton is definitely the ‘relationship’ kind of a girl. So instead of ever giving into the pull he feels towards her he ignores her and carries on with his man-whore ways.

“Why does it seem like he’s always walking away from me?”

Something in Jayden changes when he walks into his tattoo parlor, The King’s Mistress, one night to see an artist touching her. His inner alpha leaps out and he cannot have that. But still, while not allowing another to touch her, he does not make any move for her and lets her go home . . . alone. This is where we see overlap from the previous book, Breaking Bennett. Peyton gets hurt and Jayden blames himself. Soon he is forcing her to live with him and Jamison “to keep her safe” and everything gets complicated.

“I am deeply ‘in like’ with my roommate and I haven’t a fucking clue what to do about it.”

Both Peyton and Jayden and wonderfully complex with past that haunt them everyday of their lives. The decisions from their past are dictating their future and unless these two find some way to make peace with this they can not move forward. I loved both of these characters so incredibly much. They ached for each other and yet did not just give in. Jayden was possessive and protective and yet while in denial he could be mean and a bit cruel to Peyton. The miscommunication these two have makes for a difficult start.

“You did not just laugh at seeing my cock for the first time,”

I am just going to say it, Jayden King a fucking sexy alpha of a man. There I said it and I can’t take it back. Muscular and tattooed with a chip on his shoulder he is just what I look for in a book boyfriend. Just like all the other books in this series Keeping King is unquestionably sexy and suspenseful. he book is not long and I read it in one sitting desperate to find out what will happen. Told from dual point of view we get insight into the minds of both characters and an understanding of why each makes some of the decisions that affect the entire plot.

“I want to feel you in the morning, Jayden. Make me sore.”

Anne Jolin is quickly becoming one of those authors I recommend to anyone who will listen. If you love a sexy story with an alpha male that has a plot that will keep you on your toes this is for you. While Keeping King can very easily be read as a standalone trust me you won’t want to cheat yourself out of the chance to read the other remarkable stories in this series!

“Every King needs a Queen,”

~miranda

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5 Smooches!

Synopsis

Kensington Worth had a vision for her senior year. It involved her best friends, her posh private school in downtown Chicago and time alone with her piano until her audition was perfected, a guaranteed ticket into the best music programs in the world.

Instead, a nightmare took over. 

It didn’t happen all at once, but her life unraveled quickly—a tiny thread that evil somehow kept pulling until everything precious was taken from her. She was suddenly living miles away from her old life, trapped in an existence she didn’t choose—one determined to destroy her from the inside, leaving only hate and anger behind. It didn’t help that her neighbor, the one whose eyes held danger, was enjoying every second of her fall.

Owen Harper was trouble, his heart wild and his past the kind that’s spoken about in whispers. And somehow, his path was always intertwined with Kensington’s, every interaction crushing her, ruining her hope for any future better than hernow. Sometimes, though, what everyone warns is trouble, is exactly what the heart needs. Owen Harper was consumed with darkness, and it held onto his soul for years. When Kensington looked at him, she saw a boy who’d gotten good at taking others down when they threatened his carefully balanced life. But the more she looked, the more she saw other things too—good things…things to admire.

Things…to love. Things that made her want to be reckless.

And those things…they were the scariest of all.

Review

After having stayed up until 2am reading Wild Reckless, I now fear a book hangover is on the horizon. I’ve never had a book shred my emotions to smithereens so easily before, twist my insides in turmoil, hurt my cheeks from smiling and have my eyes watering like I sliced a dozen onions open. It may be aimed at the YA crowd but as a twenty-nine year old mum of two I can completely appreciate this book for the epic emotional journey it was. I was just blown away by it. It centres around Chicago transplant Kensi who is forced to move to a new town where her next door neighbour happens to be the town hoodlum Owen Harper, a boy with a deeply troubled and tragic past. It’s very much Owen’s anger and confusion that gets him noticed by the spirited and charming young girl living in the house next to his, her ability to see beneath the attitude and detect that there is something more to the infamous middle Harper boy that ultimately begins a stunning transition from enemies to friends.

These two characters are the reason this book comes to life, grabs you by your beating heart and pulverises it with hurt, bitterness, hope and love and every other type of emotion you can think of. It’s like being a teenager again and going through that wide spectrum of feelings and mixed up thoughts. Although Owen and Kensi are only high school kids, the burdens and issues they’re dealing with on a constant basis are unfathomable even for the likes of you or me and somehow that makes their young age incomprehensible whilst elevating their maturity levels. The weight of the world is on them and the world is also so quick to judge them. Ginger Scott has unleashed the full weight of her writing talent into this novel. The characterisation is perfection in every way imaginable, from the way she allows Owen and Kensi to grow and conquer and fight and love and make mistakes but balancing it all out by adding this great sense of realism in all that happens around them, even in the midst of chaos they can be compassionate and loving and funny and studious.

‘And I’m afraid I’m losing myself to danger- the worst kind, the kind that rules your heart.

I’m falling for Owen Harper, and I’m afraid he’s going to die”

The storyline is fairly heart-breaking and the prologue involving Owen had me in tears before the first chapter even began but with a truly remarkable heroine in Kensi, a girl who perseveres when the chips are down and it looks like all is lost, who can stand her ground when she’s fighting for what she believes is right and with Owen and his courageous will to battle on through the hard times and learn to trust the one person who might actually be his salvation this story literally stayed with me hours after reading it. I kept thinking about it in work, when making dinner, when I was doing laundry, just snippets of it reappeared in my brain or something one of the characters did or said.

It’s been awhile since a book has affected me this much, so for that I am eternally grateful to Ginger Scott and her incredibly well plotted story and ingenious characterisation talents. If I could, I would give Wild Reckless a whole sky full of stars rather than five paltry ones.

~Nicole

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5 Smooches

Synopsis

I wanted him.
It was as simple as that.
It was also dangerous.
I was willing to risk it all for just one night with him.
As I watched my carefully structured life fall apart around me,
I needed him to make me forget.
Preston was everything I knew I should walk away from,
but impossible to leave behind.
He would be my undoing, my downfall,
but I wanted nothing more than to be undone.

**This is volume two of a multi-volume serial. Readers should not expect a resolution at the end of this publication. For mature readers only due to explicit sexual situations

Review

“I wasn’t expecting to be drawn to you, Lena. I couldn’t have prepared myself for the attraction I felt when we first met. I should have turned the job down, should have walked away, but I’m not that strong.”

Intensity seems to be the theme of this second installment in The Private Serials by Anie Michaels. The drama is intense, the characters are intense and damn the plot gets soo intense. I am addicted to Preston. I love him. I hate him. I need him in my life. Anie Michaels has woven a story that I can’t put down and I am desperate to see how it all ends.

“He was generous but needy, intense but soft, domineering yet giving.”

Private Encounters picks up where Private Affairs left off and Preston and Lena are working together to find Lena a way to get out of her loveless marriage. A marriage where she was cheated on and lied to for years. So it is understandable that when Preston in all his alpha glory asks Lena to hand over control of herself and her body to him that she is scared and apprehensive. But she knows with how protective and attentive he is to her that he wouldn’t hurt her. Right?

“This is like every wet dream I have ever had combined into one.”

Preston is sex just pure alpha sex and I love it. He knows what buttons and boundaries of Lena’s to push to get her to open up and let go. For her part, Lena is both strong willed and receptive to Preston’s ideas. She wants to fight and stand on her own (something she hasn’t been able to do while married to Derrick) but at the same time her body and heart wants to submit to make Preston happy and trust that he can make her happy.

“Now listen to the reasons you should give yourself over to me, take me up on my offer, and be a good girl, Lena.”

I love Anie Michaels writing. She pulls me in and makes me eager to get more. I knew going into this that this is the middle of a serial so without a doubt there would be a cliffhanger but WOW. The twist and turns this story is taking has me all kinds of excited to get the end. I hope everyone gives this sexy and suspenseful story a go, you won’t be let down.

~miranda

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