4.5 Smooches

Synopsis

All things, when placed under pressure, eventually break or leave a mark.

Tattoo artist Brody “Cujo” Matthews knows how to keep things simple. In life and in love. Abandoned as a child by a mother who refused to stick around to raise three boys she didn’t want, he’s intent on staying clear of complicated women. The only things complicated in Cujo’s life are the killer tattoos he designs and inks. That all changes when he’s asked to help organize his best friend Trent’s engagement party, which means working with Trent’s fiancée’s best friend, Drea, the definition of high maintenance and sizzling curves. And the one woman he doesn’t want to walk away from.

Andrea “Drea” Caron is broke and tired. After years of caring for her ailing mom, she’s at the end of her rope trying to manage the piling medical bills, two jobs, and a life placed on hold. She certainly doesn’t need the added frustration of a sexy playboy tattoo artist messing up her best friend’s engagement party or her carefully balanced life. But when Drea witnesses the abduction of a woman from the café she works at, she can’t help but turn to Cujo who’s determined to prove to Drea that he’s someone she can count on forever…but as they attempt to bring the truth to light, someone is working to bring that forever to a sudden, deadly halt.

Review

‘When she stopped being mad at the world and him, when she let herself be vulnerable for a moment, he found it hard to stand be his decision to stay away.’

Scarlett Cole is a new author that I am watching closely. After a good book friend basically forced me to read her first books, The Strongest Steel, I was completely captured by her fresh story telling mixed with a seriously sexy hero and a strong heroine. I read it and knew that she was on to something. So to say I have been eager for the follow up novel, The Fractured Heart, would be an understatement.

“What makes you think it would be off the charts?” Her voice was barely a whisper. He leaned toward her, his lips a fraction from her ear. It took every ounce of self-control not to taste her skin. “When it feels this good without even touching, how could it not be?”

Drea and Cujo’s story isn’t always easy but really are the good ones really every easy? Drea spends most of her time caring for an ailing mother who doesn’t even appreciate her and Cujo is just a playboy who will never settle down. From the beginning these two cannot agree on anything and are at odds most of the time that they have to spend together in order to plan the engagement party for their mutual best friends. All the while Drea becomes mixed up in a mystery and her curiosity and need to help have her putting herself in dangerous situations. Can Brody “Cujo” convince her he can be a one woman man and help her stay safe and learn to be loved?

‘How did you help someone you love through a grief so violent they were choking on it?’

 Being honest going into this book Brody’s nickname of Cujo had me apprehensive. It doesn’t scream sexy book boyfriend (more like might kill me in my sleep boyfriend) but soon after getting to know him I too fell for him and by the time I found out the source of the offending nickname I was on board too. There were parts of this story that as an outsider with a lot more information I wanted to shake Drea and yell at her to put the pieces together but then I sit back and look at it from the point of view from the frantic girl who is trying to distract herself from a sad life. She lives the life of an old woman who has lived her prime only she never got to experience it. Since she was seventeen she has been struggling to keep her and her mother above water with no help and no one patting her ont he back telling her she is doing a good job. If I was her would I be able to clearly see everything from all angles, honestly no I wouldn’t . I loved Drea, I loved her heart, her fun side and mostly I loved the way she fully loves those she cares for. She would do anything for you if you were close to her and that in my opinion is a great woman.

“Why would you be proud of me? I hurt you. I hurt us.” ‘That’s just one moment in our history. It won’t define us.”

Brody and Drea have incredible chemistry and thoroughly steamed up my kindle. From the start you can tell that they want each other but both come with deep emotional baggage that they need to work through. Personally, I believe Scarlett did a grand job of slowly healing two fractured people and making both completely whole again, together. I am falling for these characters and this series and I cannot wait for The Purest Hook to come out!  So if you have not read Scarlette Cole yet I encourage you to take the leap and jump into one of her books, you won’t be let down.

~miranda

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3.5 Smooches

Synopsis

Clementine Daly knows she’s the black sheep. Her wealthy, powerful family has watched her very closely since she almost got caught in an embarrassing scandal a few years ago. So when Clementine’s sent on a mission to live up to the Daly name, politely declining isn’t even an option. Of course, the last thing Clementine does before departure is grab a stranger’s phone by mistake—leaving the hunky journalist with her phone. Soon his sexy voice is on the line, but he doesn’t know her real name, or her famous pedigree—which is just the way Clementine likes it.

Despite all the hassles, Justin Mueller is intrigued to realize that the beautiful brown-eyed girl he met at the airport is suddenly at his fingertips. They agree to exchange phones when they’re both back in town, but after a week of flirty texts and wonderfully intimate conversations, Justin doesn’t want to let her go that easy. The only problem? It turns out that Clemetine has been lying to him about, well, everything. Except for the one thing two people can’t fake, the only thing that matters: The heat between them is for real.

Review

I am a huge sucker for a book with a good does of texting, emails and phone calls, so when I say the synopsis for Call Me, Maybe I was incredibly excited and eager to start.  When Clementine and Justin’s phones get mixed up at the airport they decided to hold onto them for a week until they can exchange them in person back home. Suddenly these two strangers are thrust into each others lives delivering messages to one another. Before long they are talking more than necessary and not just passing along important messages and calls. They are eager to get to know one another and quickly find themselves growing close to the stranger who has their main life line in their hands. But socialite Clementine is no stranger to a public scandal involving private matters on her phone and has to decide how much information she can trust this man who she just met and cannot stop thinking about. Can their connection hold strong when they meet in person or will the exciting allure of the mystery  stranger be lost when the mystery is solved.

“We’ve only known each other for what? Nine days?” The result of my mental math surprised me. He felt way too important – necessary – for nine days.’

So while overall I enjoyed this sweet easy read I had a hard time with a few plot points including Justin having no clue who Clementine was. In this modern world where everything is online someone who is such a big socialite I would think would not be too hard to recognize. Her family is big, like Trump or Hilton big, so to think that he has no clue who she is was a tad hard for me to swallow. But again it is probably just me nit-picking. Still overall the book moved along and I loved all the texting and phone calls. I wish I felt a deeper connection between the two but at the same time I didn’t feel disconnected either. Full of funny moments and a does of heart Call Me, Maybe is a book worth opening!

~miranda

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4.5 Smooches!

Synopsis

When Emily Wayborn goes home to visit her mom while on hiatus from her hit TV show, she receives a voicemail from her former best friend, Amber. Though the two were once notorious party girls, they haven’t spoken in years. Although the message might sound benign to anyone else, Amber uses a safe word that Emily recognizes, a word they always used to get out of sticky situations during their wild days. And what’s more chilling than the voicemail: it turns out that Amber has gone missing.

Determined to track down her friend, Emily follows a chain of clues that lead her to the enigmatic billionaire Reeve Sallis, a hotelier known for his shady dealings and play boy reputation. Now, in order to find Amber, Emily must seduce Reeve to learn his secrets and discover the whereabouts of her friend. But as she finds herself more entangled with him, she finds she’s drawn to Reeve for more than just his connection to Amber, despite her growing fear that he may be the enemy. When she’s forced to choose where her loyalty lies, how will she decide between saving Amber and saving her heart?

Review

Wow, I am big fan of this author.  I have enjoyed most of her books but man this one was totally different and really surprising.  I was hooked from page one.  I mean, COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.  Just, wow.

So, First Touch is impossibly sexy.  Ya know, the if you are reading it in public blush down to your toes sexy.  The sex scenes were beyond sensual but really what had me hooked was the actual story.  I mean these characters, pretty much all of them, are flawed.  Not a one did I think was a particularly good person.  They all have somewhat tragic past that have molded them and made them into the people that they are so while empathized with them, I didn’t necessarily love them but that did not stop me from loving this story.  It didn’t stop me from rooting for love.  It didn’t stop me from wanting to find out “who did it.”  It definitely didn’t stop me from wanting a happy ending.  And, speaking of that ending.  I am just so mad because I simply cannot wait for the next book.  I am absolutely dying for it because there is ridiculously huge cliffy that had my jaw literally hitting the floor.  Oh, Laurelin Paige, you are a bad bad girl.

The romance in this story is top notch but the mystery is the part I loved best.  It kept me turning the pages like the true book addict I am!

This book has fabulous writing and an amazing plot.  I have no idea what is going to happen next but I know it is going to be damn good.  I need that book now!

‘This was our first surrender,  First embrace,  First kiss.  First touch.’

~Amie

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4.5 Smooches

Synopsis

To love a Dark One is to invite death…

It is wrong to love her.
It is worse to want her.
It is sin to consume her.
I desire all three.

I’ve been given thirty days to prove my love to another immortal–as a human. Cursed to use nothing but the side of myself I’ve always despised to win her affection. I am Cassius, the King of the immortals, A Dark One.
And today I tasted fear for the first time.
How can I win her when my human emotions over take every ounce of logic I possess?
A darkness is brewing.
One I cannot stop as a human.
One that Stephanie, my loves visions, have shown, will be my end.
Thirty days ago I was King of the immortals.
Today I know fear.
Today I know how I will die.
By her hand.
The woman I love.

Review

‘Hope died in my chest as I realized – I would never be his equal even as a Dark One. He would always be one step ahead of me. He would always be – Cassius. And I? I would always be the little girl he saved. Never the woman he loved.’

Untouchable Darkness is the newest book in The Dark Ones Saga and while I do believe it can be read as a standalone it is greatly enhanced if you have read the first book. Picking up right where The Dark Ones left off, Stephanie and Cassius’ journey is full of secrets, hidden love and him going to any length to protect the one he loves.

‘My body hummed with anticipation. Or maybe it was irritation . . . that as a human he was completely wrecking havoc on my emotions – even more so than when he was immortal.’

Months have passed since Stephanie was willing to give up her immortality to save her king and the man she loves, Cassius. Thinking him indifferent to her she is tormented by her one sided love. Cassius has always loved Stephanie, even when he hid her true self from her, it was to protect her. Now it is Cassius who must give up who he is in order to prove he can be who she needs. Using her training to explain why he is around, Cassius is turned human and has thirty days to have Stephanie fall in love and mate with him or else his predicament will be permanent. But even with residual feelings not everything is easy peasy. As usual on the paranormal front war is brewing and evil is calling. Can Stephanie who is new to being a Dark One resist the darkness and stay in the light or will she give into the outcome feared and predicted by all?

“If I told you I loved you would you believe me? His eyes closed. “If I told you it was forbidden, would you stop?”

While I really enjoyed the first book in this series I felt that Untouchable Darkness was even better. It’s hard not to fall for Cassius. We saw him as a charmer in The Dark Ones and now we get to see his human side as well as a lot of backstory into how he became the man/god he is. The entire cast of characters adds to this dynamic story, often relieving the tension with funny quips and one liners. I am super eager to get my hands on Mason’s, the werewolf, story. Now this might be me but I personally see several parallels between this series and Rachel’s Eagle Elite series, which is one of my favorites. While similar they are also very different but if you are a fan of her mafia books like I am then I highly encourage you to give this paranormal series a go!

~miranda

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