5 Smooches

Synopsis

Pretty things aren’t meant to be broken.
But I broke her, and now we both have to pay the price.
I’m her nightmare.
I’m her savior.
And now that I have her signature on an ironclad contract, I own her body and soul.
She doesn’t remember me.
She will.
It’s inevitable.
Because as much as I know I need to stay away, for fear of unlocking the memories I helped her father bury–I can’t.
She was the apple in the Garden, dangled in front of me, her core so tempting and sweet. A voice whispered. Just. One. Bite.
I bit.
I tasted.
I fell.
Welcome to the world of the Russian mafia, where death, is your only future.

Review

‘But what’s the fun in playin chess when you already know all the moves?’

I feel like I start every review I write for a Rachel book by saying that she is an author I can count on but I say it because it is oh so true! In this new stand alone mafia book (with Eagle Elite tie ins) she has proved once again that she excels in complex, action packed love stories that are incredibly unique and leave me wondering just how her mind works.

‘I’d saved her. She just wasn’t aware that her prison – was her freedom.’

I feel like it is impossible to describe this plot in a short paragraph and yet to go too much into detail would take away from the reader discovering the crazy and surprising twists and turns that happen in the story. After reluctantly signing a contract with Nik, Maya has to live and work with him for a year and must abide by his strict rules, including asking no questions. It seems to her that he is trying to control her life but through the beauty of his perspective we see he is honestly trying to save it. So much is not as it seems and it is FABULOUS!

“Stop being creepy.” He threw his head back and laughed. “I don’t think anyone’s ever called me that.” “To your face, probably not.”

Nikolai and Maya were characters unlike any other I have read before. I adored Maya’s spunk and curiosity and her determination to never waiver or back down. But Nikolai and his broken self was the true beauty of this book for me personally. His family’s debts to the Russian mafia and the secrets they hold have forever altered him and his outlook on life. Convinced he is of bad blood and trying to do a little good in an evil world he is complex and dark. Individually they are both exciting and dynamic characters but together they burn for each other and eat the pages on fire,

“Our life . . . it will never be easy.” “Who wants easy? She shrugged. “Give me hard.”

Rip is a spin off of the Eagle Elite series and a standalone and while I do believe it would still be an incredible read by itself, layering it onto of the Eagle Elite series (falling after Elude) bring a whole new dynamic level to it. I cried with the return of Andi and Sergio to my life. I laughed with Tex and bonded with the Elite women I love so much. The whole book over all was a hit for me, but honestly Rachel never delivers anything less.

~miranda

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4 Smooches

Synopsis

Sergeant Oliver Martinez joined the military to serve his country—not plan parties. But after a run-in with his commanding officer, Oliver is suddenly responsible for the Alpha Dogs Training Program’s upcoming charity event. Worse, he’s got to work with the bossiest, sexiest woman he’s ever met—who just happens to be the general’s daughter.

When it comes to military men, Evelyn Reynolds is not interested. And with the opportunity to launch her new PR firm at the charity event, she doesn’t have time for some sexy, arrogant jerk with a hero complex. Evelyn is determined to keep things professional—if only she can ignore how Oliver’s muscles fill out a t-shirt and the infuriating way he makes her heart pound.

But when tempers flare and a scorching kiss turns into so much more, Oliver and Evelyn will have to decide if this attraction is forever…or just for now.

Review

“Wrecking his career over a woman would be beyond moronic.”

Codi Gary excels at small town romances and I Need A Hero did not disappoint. I have been a fan of Codi’s through each f her series and was extremely excited to see her writing a new novella series surrounding men in uniform. From the start of this sweet and sexy novella I was hooked and I had a silly smile on my face the whole way through.

“I’m afraid that if I keep letting myself get close to you, I’m going to forget that I don’t want these things because I’ll want you more.”

After being involved in an altercation with a civilian, tough guy MP Oliver, is punished by sent to the new K9 unit to help plan a charity event. Forced to work with the sassy and in charge event planner , Evelyn. What starts out as the two trading barbs and butting heads turns into an undeniable chemistry. But being raised by a dad who was in the military has Evelyn convinced the last thing she wants is a military man. IS Oliver the man who can make her see the risk is worth is?

“I’ll tell you one thing, Oliver Martinez. The next time you want to seduce me in Spanish, you better be prepared to follow through.”

Fast, fun and full of heart I Need A Hero will leave you happy and excited for more from Codi. Her men are hot and her heroines strong and relatable. I loved this first installment and cannot wait for more from the exciting new series.

~miranda

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4 Smooches!

Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Sweet Ache comes a blistering new novel filled with danger, secrecy, and a desire that can’t be sated…

Foreign war correspondent Tanner Thomas is addicted to living on the edge. Needing the adrenaline rush of his job to help him cope with a personal loss, he throws himself back into the game, concentrating all his energy on getting the next big story.

But when he meets his new photojournalist, Beaux Croslyn, he can’t help but feel like he’s losing his focus—and maybe risking more…

With secrets she won’t address, Beaux is far from your ordinary woman. Determined to keep her distance, she’s willing to pull Tanner in closer and hide behind the sparks flying between them. But as Beaux’s past begins to put their relationship—and their lives—at risk, Tanner’s determination to find the truth puts them both in jeopardy.

He’s ready to chase her to the ends of the earth to find out if what they had was real, or if the danger surrounding them was just an exquisite heat fated to burn out…

Review

I love me a K. Bromberg book and Hard Beat is the seventh novel in the Driven Series, I believe, and I was really looking forward to it.  The synopsis sounded very intriguing and K. Bromberg’s books are always loaded with plenty of heart thumping angst.  Her books are also always riddled with ridiculously sexy moments and extremely alpha men and all of these things prove to be a heady combination making for my ultimate romance read.

“We’re breaking the bed.”

Hard Beat was definitely worth the read.  This is Tanner’s story (Riley’s brother) and he is a hard beat reporter that reports on very hard-hitting subjects which often finds him in areas riddled with war and terrorism which is where he lost his former lover, best friend and parter photographer.  He has been blaming himself since her death and now he is back at work in another situation and he has been given a new photographer and this one happens to be sexy as sin Beaux.  Beaux is extremely private and hardheaded and Tanner feels the need to protect her and keep her.  This makes for an interesting story as Tanner is super alpha and Beaux is extremely independent.  I love the back and forth of Tanner’s feelings;  him wanting her and not wanting her, him wanting to protect her but also not wanting to be in that position again after his best friends death.  These two characters have an explosive kind of chemistry and it was awesome watching it all unfold.

‘I want you so goddamn bad right now that the desire is so sharp, it’s painful.’

I am glad I gave this one a shot.  I do wish there had been more dialogue.  I felt there was a lot of internal feelings and dialogue but not enough actual conversation of my liking.  Tanner was likable and alpha enough and Beaux is definitely a heroine I can get behind.  But I think I will always like the original books in the Driven Series better.  Guess I will just always be Colton girl but I did really enjoy this one.

~Amie

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5 Smooches!

Synopsis

Millie Cross knows what it’s like to burn for someone. She was young and wild and he was fierce and even wilder-a Chaos biker who made her heart pound. They fell in love at first sight and life was good, until she learned she couldn’t be the woman he needed and made it so he had no choice but to walk away. Twenty years later, Millie’s chance run-in with her old flame sparks a desire she just can’t ignore. And this time, she won’t let him ride off . . .

Bad boy Logan “High” Judd has seen his share of troubles with the law. Yet it was a beautiful woman who broke him. After ending a loveless marriage, High is shocked when his true love walks back into his life. Millie is still gorgeous, but she’s just a ghost of her former self. High’s intrigued at the change, but her betrayal cut him deep-and he doesn’t want to get burned again. As High sinks into meting out vengeance for Millie’s betrayal, he’ll break all over again when he realizes just how Millie walked through fire for her man . . .

Review

Walk Through Fire is the 4th book in the Chaos Series and while I have enjoyed all of these books this one was by far my most favorite.  I am really shocked to say that considering that I pretty much loathed High in the previous books and thought that he was a complete dog.  But this book was so packed with drama, angst and the gut wrenching kind of love that means you cannot put it down even for a second and I was able to forgive High’s past indiscretions and really learn to love this majorly alpha sexy as hell biker!

“I gave you up, walking though fire to do it but I did it,”

“I did it in the end.  I gave you everything.”

Lord mercy jesus, this story.  It literally ripped my heart out.  Walk Through Fire jumped back and forth between the past and present seamlessly telling the story of Millie and High’s relationship over 20 years ago and their pretty much non existent relationship now.  Millie left High back then and he has been torn up and hurt over it ever since but what he doesn’t know is that Millie walks through fire for him everyday and boy, did this one hurt.

“I’m done walking through fire for you, High!”

I’m done not because I’m done but because there’s nothing left of me to burn.  You have it all!  You’ve always had it all!  I gave up everything so you could have it all!!  Please!  God!  Leave me to my nothing!”

And while I felt bad for High and understood his pain, my heart really broke for Millie.  Her story really is a tragic one because for 20 years she has barely been existing and it is just so hard to read.  As usual in a KA romance the angst is broken up with bits of hilarity and sexy time.  But what I find I really enjoy in Kristen Ashley’s books is the children she writes and this book was no acceptation.  I loved and hated High’s kids.  Kristen has the ability to really portray children and their honesty and sometimes that just makes you not like them a little bit, but it made the story even better.

Walk Through Fire is brilliantly written and paced so incredibly well.  It is a long book but really every little bit was needed.  I loved meeting new characters and revisiting some of my favorites.  This one is the best in the series yet!

~Amie

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3 Smooches

Synopsis

Leah Godfrey has almost everything she could ask for—
She’s got an interior design business with an A-list clientele, a weekly spot on a national morning TV show, and a great daughter—but she doesn’t have a date for her twentieth high school reunion. It wouldn’t be a big deal, but her ex-husband was her high school sweetheart, and now he’s married to the slut Leah caught him with in bed. She won’t let the biggest failure of her life overshadow her success.

When her best friend suggests she hire a date, Leah thinks the idea is scandalous. But for one weekend, she wants to forget her mistakes and pretend she has everything her ex took away from her.
Jagger Holiday makes women’s fantasies come true—
But working as a male escort leaves him feeling empty. He turns to photography to fill the void. When Jagger gets a call from a lonely single mom who needs the same thing he does, he wants more. He wants her.

Leah and Jagger have no problem convincing everyone at the reunion they’re together. She should’ve known better than to think there’d be no strings attached.

After all, he’s a professional.

Review

No Strings Attached is the first book in Kristen Strassel’s new series, The Escort. I must admit, I was a bit nervous going in to this one, but I liked the idea even if the notion of him being an escort – and the infidelity that implies – made me uneasy. The first third of the book pleasantly surprised me, so I settled in and soldiered on.

“It was time for me to start loving me.”

Leah Godfrey is a thirty-eight-year-old single mom of a seventeen-year-old daughter, Raven. Divorced from her high school sweetheart after she caught him in their bed with her arch nemesis from high school, she’s a woman on a mission to re-invent herself, to start fresh, and the best way she thinks she can do that is by starting to care for herself. An interior designer to A-list clientele and a morning TV personality, Leah is well accustomed to creating beauty for others, but she’s lost as to how to turn that magic on herself.

“I was getting too old for this shit.”

Jagger Holiday. Gorgeous. Sex god. Escort. But there is more to this man, a side that he allows very few to see, and certainly not his clients. But then along came Leah, and she turned out to be somewhat of a game changer for him. He has his reasons for being an escort, and while it is definitely making him tons of cash, it’s not his passion, it’s not his calling and it’s not something he really even wants to do any longer. It is, however, something he feels that he has to do in order to earn the seed money for his dream.

“For the first time in a long time, I needed something more. Something I could call my own and be proud of.”

Leah needs a date for her high school reunion. No way can she go back there without one. Her best friend treats her to a date with an escort. Leah chooses Jagger, and their first date is scheduled. The attraction they feel is for each other is very real, and for the first time ever, Jagger finds himself crossing all kinds of boundaries with a client. For Leah, Jagger brings out a side of her that she didn’t know even existed, and when she steps out of her comfort zone with him, she finds that she really likes it.

“I think this describes us perfectly. Sweet, messy, and totally inappropriate.”

They head up to the reunion, and just as Leah expected, the run-in with her ex-husband is awful. He’s cruel, he’s mean and he takes great pleasure in humiliating her in front of everyone. The home-wrecking new wife, Leah’s nemesis from high school, and her posse of evil bitches, are right there along for the ride. Leah runs off from this confrontation without a word and completely devastated by his hurtful comments. Jagger swoops in whisking Leah back to the room for a seriously sexy photo shoot that leaves him weak in the knees.

“She was a work of art, and she took my fucking breath away.”

The weekend comes to an end, and knowing that a relationship with him won’t work when he’s based in Miami and she’s in DC not to mention the whole escort thing, Leah ends it. They both leave broken hearted. But it’s not long before she gives in and calls him. They plan another meet up for after the holidays because Jagger is booked through the escort agency through Christmas. But, unbeknownst to them, someone truly nasty has figured out their secret. While home for Christmas, Leah’s ex husband insists she and her family, including their daughter, come a holiday party at to his house – their former home together – to see his mom. The real purpose for his invitation is made evident when the new wife’s best friend shows up shortly after Leah arrives with none other than Jagger in tow.

“No, we weren’t perfect. But we were honest and real…”

I liked the premise of this book, but I think I was expecting it to go in a different direction. It’s my first venture into a plot featuring a male escort. Through the first third of the book, I was enjoying their banter, their attraction and how sexy they were together. The storyline advancement was a bit slow, and the author seemed to focus a bit more on describing the minute details around the couple than she did the couple themselves, their budding relationship or the storyline itself. These two were surrounded by a whole lot of drama but, unfortunately, that portion of the plot didn’t get nearly enough attention, development or resolution for this story to have worked for me. I know all about Leah and her best friend, Kari’s, love of sangria, but the humiliating confrontation at the reunion with her ex barely garnered a few paragraphs. It was the same with the awful scene at the ex’s Christmas party, where she was deliberately set up by him, his wife and her friends for the sole purpose of humiliating her in front of her family, most of the town and their daughter. But nothing came of it. She blurted out a semi-dramatic one-line response, turned on her heel and left. Huh? I wanted more of a confrontation with her ass of an ex; instead Leah came off as a totally weak, cowering doormat.

What bothered me most, however, was that I was fully unprepared for the very, very sketchy, barely there happy-for-now ending. And by happy for now, I mean right now, as in that very moment, because who knows where they’ll be the next day, let alone two hours from then. After the party scene, the story continued to drag on, but then very abruptly and suddenly ended on that HFN note. Now, my kindle told me I was coming to the end, but there was ample time to tie it up with a slightly more fleshed out ending. I was taken totally by surprise that the story ended, and I was left holding my Kindle thinking “wait a minute, what just happened here?” To say I was disappointed in the ending is putting it mildly.

For a story to work for me, I greatly prefer a HEA, but I’ll take a fleshed-out HFN. I can handle a HFN when it is more developed and defined. This HFN, though… well I was left mostly assuming they were going to move forward in pursuit of a relationship. That just doesn’t work for me personally. Couple that with the way that Leah just took all that verbal abuse from her ex with little to no response, while she was the one wronged by him and claims to be re-inventing herself as a strong, confident, successful woman? I just didn’t believe it, I didn’t believe, or really like, Leah, and it just didn’t wring true. Sadly, No Strings Attached just didn’t work for me.

The writing was good, it was well proofed and edited, and the author was very descriptive in the background details. If she’d have given that same attention to the storyline and the character development, I’d probably have a very different opinion of this book. But for me, this was a so-so read that ultimately left me a bit frustrated and disappointed. Not an epic fail or a DNF, just not quite sated or happy. 3 Smooches from me.

~ Danielle Palumbo

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