4 Smooches

Synopsis

At seventeen years old, Courtney Apuzzo is fed up. With a dead mom and an alcoholic father that beats her every chance he gets, Courtney decides that enough is enough. Packing up only what she needs, Courtney leaves home without telling a soul and heads off to find her new life.

Life on her own is not exactly as she thought it would be. With nowhere to stay, Courtney finds herself sleeping on an old stoop in an abandoned apartment alleyway. A chance meeting with a new group of friends seems like a great beginning to her second chance at a real life. But everything is not as it seems.

Tricked into a life she never wanted and fears, Courtney needs to run away, again. She needs to find a way out of this new and dangerous life. With the help from a man she barely knows, will Courtney find her way out? Or will she find herself on the run from a dangerous past, and a hopeless future? Faced with a choice that will change her life forever.

Review

This book was a fast paced, emotional drama filled story. Right off the bat we learn that Courtney’s mother has committed suicide and her abusive father has now taken to beating and berating her since her mother is no longer around. Determined to not end up like her mother and deciding she has had enough pain at her fathers hands, she leaves home only to find herself in situations not really any better than where she started.

Runaway was a different story than I usually read but I still very much enjoyed it and was able to read it in a day. The main focus on this story is the life on the streets that Courtney has found for herself and the romance is more of a subplot. Reading this story was very much like watching a movie play out in my head. There were tons of twist and turns and lots of action. I was constantly wondering what could possibly happen next and more often than not surprised at where the story took me.

I think the authors did a good job at putting a story out that is different than most of the NA books that I have read. Courtney was a character I really liked but found her to be guarded and not willing to open up a lot (for good reasons though.) It took awhile into the book for me to figure out who the love interest would be but once the plot opened up I was very happy with him and the role he played.

Other than a few minor mistakes I thought it was well written and I was very happy I had the chance to read it.

~miranda

4 Smooches!

Synopsis

“Asher Pratt had been a drug for me, and I wasn’t sure I wasn’t still addicted.”

Chelsea Whitaker works as a waitress at Tapestries, a trendy Pittsburgh bar. She’s doing her best to avoid Asher Pratt, the Pittsburgh rock legend who shattered her heart years ago.

When he takes a job at Tapestries just to be near her, Chelsea has some decisions to make.

She soon discovers that some things never change. It’s all she can do to keep a tight hold on her heart as Asher takes her for another wild ride.

As she struggles to gain some perspective on their relationship, she learns that he’s never needed her more. She must put the past aside for the sake of the future.

Review

Wow.  I certainly was surprised by this book.  I really wasn’t expecting to feel so much when reading it.  It shocked me on many accounts but what surprised me the most, was that Rock’n Tapestries is not your “run of the mill” rocker bad boy book.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is chalk full of bad boy rocker boy, Ashton, and smoking hot sex, but this book just seriously touched my heart.

Five years ago Asher Pratt broke the hell out of Poor Chelsea’s heart.  He cheated on her again and again and she finally decided she couldn’t take it anymore.  She may have broken if off with Asher but she never got over him.  Fate brought these two young people together once more.  This is their story.  It is not happy.  But, it is beautiful and tragic.  For me, this story screamed; you don’t always get what you want, sometimes you get what you need.  Sometimes what you need is best even if it hurts.

This book was written really well and I will definitely be reading more by Shari Copell.  I cannot wait for Nicole’s story.  I just know I  may need to get the chocolate, tissues, and booze ready.

Amie

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Synopsis

There are three absolute truths in Grayson Lee’s life:

1. His existence was a mistake.

2. No one is good enough for his best friend, Lily Jacobs, especially not him.

3. He loves her anyway.

Review

Love. Undying, unconditional, straight to the heart, and soul of your being LOVE. You know what I mean; you’ve all experienced it sometime in your life. That love that makes certain you can’t breathe without the other. Young love. Grayson and Lily have loved each other for so long but kept their relationship set at best friends. Until it becomes too much to deny their true feelings. This is a story about a very special couple and their turbulent lives at the end of high school. Well for Grayson, he graduates and Lily still has one more year left. Which of course just rips Grayson apart, knowing that he’ll have to leave Lily soon.

I first read Lindy Zart…no wait, that’s not right. I first experienced the extremely beautiful writings of Lindy Zart through her novel; Take Care, Sara. I was hooked with her beauty, with her grace that is present on every page. She truly knows how to capture emotion. She lays it out and strips you bear at the same time. It’s truly a wonder, and rare.

I rarely read new adult/young adult. That being said, I connected with this story so profoundly. I believe it’s because the situations that both Grayson and Lily are put in are so similar to my first love relationship. When you’re young, you just feel so immensly. Everything is so intense. I remember feeling that way with my first love. Just wanting to connect with him all the time, and not knowing what the future held. That’s the scary part about growing up, and Lindy Zart did such an amazing job expressing that. Grayson is on the precipice of the rest of his life. He is a talented singer/songwriter and Lily wants the best for him; bottom line. They both end up making sacrifices and I can only hope that it is all for the best.

I highly recommend this book. Incomplete is so beautiful, so poignant, and just so real.

5 ENORMOUS smooches

~Nicole

PS: I was fortunate enough to marry my first love 😉

BUT IT NOW

Synopsis

Suzy’s a control freak and has her life mapped out – work hard, find a man with a stable job, and live happily ever after. She’s content with the status quo, but her plan comes to a screeching halt when he enters her life and turns it upside down.
City gave up on love when his heart was crushed in college, preferring to be the typical bachelor. He spends his nights hopping from one bed to another and his days working at his family tattoo shop, Inked. A chance encounter on a dark road makes him question what he had sworn off forever – a relationship.
A night of passion and lust causes them to question everything. Is City the knight in shining armor to the damsel in distress? Can their relationship survive when a fantasy falls apart and a secret comes out that changes everything?

This is the first book in the Men of Inked Series.

Review

A control freak, scared out of her mind that she’ll never find Mr. Right woman meets a put together business owner who is an inked and pierced man. It was a fateful meeting, and turned into exactly what Suzy needed in her life, something to mix it up, give her a run for her money and make her feel. Throttle Me is the story of City and Suzy and the love that consumes them. This story is super hot with LOTS of sex scenes that will turn you into a pile of mush.

City is Italian and has the full on Italian family to back him up. His brothers and sister and Ma love him and after losing his fiance, they are very protective of him. They want him to trust again, and to find someone to spend the rest of his life with.

Suzy doesn’t have a real family to speak of. She depends on her good friends, Kayden and Sophia. Their love and marriage are what feed Suzy’s fantasies to have a better life. To find someone that she can trust as well as someone that will push her, both sexually and emotionally.

Throttle Me is one HOT read! It was well written and bounced back between both points of view, which I love. City is a dirty talker and isn’t afraid to show Suzy that sex can be filled with love, at the same time as being dirty.

4 BIG ol’ smooches

~Nicole

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5 Smooches!

Synopsis

Trouble. There it is again, smack bang in the middle of the Fox’s lives once more. Mason and Ava Fox are back in town when family problems demand their return.

History has a cruel way of repeating itself and Ava and Mason soon find out just how true that statement is when old faces, old habits and prior events echo into the present.
But when tragedy strikes, the Fox’s find that nothing but their all will suffice in bringing down the person who claimed the life of their deeply loved friend.

Grief can manifest itself in many ways and for Ava, there’s only one way to deal with hers.
Revenge.
Mercilessly and with ferocity.

But has the feisty heroine taken on too much this time? And can Mason get there in time to save his little warrior once again?

This novella contains explicit sex scenes, strong language and severe violence… oh, and one hell of a tough couple.

Review

Wow.  OK, so I just finished this tonight and part of me was like maybe you should calm down before you write this review.  Why, you ask?  Because I am spitting freaking mad.  As usual though, Dawn’s writing is fabulous and the story gripped me from page one, and because I am in love with Mason Fox.

Mason and Ava Fox are an extremely effed up couple and it is good to see that nothing has changed in twenty years.  They are still going at it like rabbits and Ava is still an absolute nut job.  Oh, I honestly just cannot get enough of these books.

This novella is a total MIND FUCK.  Do not think you know what will happen because you wont.  I literally do not want to write anything else for fear I will give something away.  You must read this if you have read the other Heart of Stone books.  Oh, and that ending.  Dawn I am literally seething with you.  I still loved it.  Apparently, I am a glutton for punishment.

Amie

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4 Smooches!

Synopsis

What would you do if you were granted millions of pounds and a face that melts the underwear off of any woman? Meet Theodore Ellis, the business man who parties like a rock star, and has more women than he has room on his bed post to put the notches.

Meet Lilly Parker. With a difficult past; Lilly is cold, closed off and emotionally unavailable in every way. Don’t go thinking she’s the sweet and innocent victim though, she plays the game better than most men, and is the original use and abuse woman.
She’s built her walls ten feet high and topped with razor wire, but Theo is relentless in the face of a challenge and Lilly finds herself besieged by him. Can he get in her pants? Or will the unsuspecting man whore go a step further and finally tear down her walls? Unlikely.

This is no hearts and flowers love story, it is a battle of wills as a woman who trusts no-one denies a man who has never been denied.

Cue fireworks as female sass meets alpha male tenacity.

Besieged will make you laugh, fantasize and perhaps even shed a tear.

Review

What happens when a womanizing millionaire and a controlling successful woman want what they can’t have? Both Theo and Lilly desire nothing more than taking advantage of the opposite sex. With witty quick dialogue, L.P. Lovell draws you in and keeps you begging for more.

     Theodore Ellis fits the general multi-millionaire, trust fund, gift to all women character. He knows it and every woman he slept with knows as well. He guarantees orgasms and nothing else. Theo and Lily meet at a local club ‘Poison’ and in an attempt to gain this conquest, he is turned down by the lovely Lily. Chemistry between Theo and Lily is beyond intense. Lily Parker is a very strong female role. The only way she will take a man is if she’s in the drivers seat. I wouldn’t go to the extreme of stating she is a man-eater necessarily. But she was able to keep toe-to-toe with man-whore, Theo.  I loved how Lovell wrote a strong character. In my book collection, there are very few to name, and Lily stood out. It was refreshing not having the doe eyed, bashful, inexperienced or virgin lead.  With ever strong person there is a reason that made them that way. And it was best described in this excerpt from this book: “Diamonds are made under pressure.” This books takes place in London, a destination I may never see, but it was nice to see have the scenery beautifully described.” I loved the English slang and I loved the word ‘arse’. I found myself finding any excuse to use it. And my husband was on the receiving end of it at times. My favorite character besides the strong female lead would be George. He was so quick and funny. His dialogue just made me giggle and I grew jealous of Lily for having a great friend like George.

    Story ended in a cliffhanger so beware. I will admit that I kind of expected the surprise arrival of a character but I didn’t mind it. I understood where the story was going and can’t hold that on the author. I may be jumping in my assumptions that this series would be a trilogy. But the sequel to the She Who Dares series will be Conquered. Expected release should be Autumn 2014 and I will definitely be waiting for this one! As a matter of fact, Conquered is on my ‘to be read’ list on Goodreads. 4 smooches for Besieged by L.P. Lovell!

Sarah

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Synopsis

Bleu Drawn thought she had everything she could ever want. A smart and caring fiance, a great job at a software company and a sarcastic, yet loving family miles away in Upstate NY. Until she walks in on her fiance and her boss, reenacting a naked rodeo in HER bed. Soon she finds herself going back home to her tattooed, crazy, manwhore twin brother, Axel who owns a tattoo shop full of very attractive, interesting tattoo artists.Before she can even settle in, she has to deal with a moody,secretive brother, a sexy tattoo artist, her crazy pregnant aunt and a socialite from hell. She soon realizes, that love rears its head when she least expects it, in the unlikeliest of places and that sometimes family can come in all shapes and sizes.

Review

What a ride! There were lots of topics and incidents covered in this debut from M.A. Stone. This is a coming of age story about Bleu Drawn. She is loyal, cute, and feisty. She seems to be struggling to find her place in the world after finding her fiance in a compromising position. She travels back home to find life a little different, and a little hard to get used to. She seems to struggle with her instincts and her desires. Her inner turmoil regarding her incarcerated father, her deceased mother, her long since gone older brother, and her twin brother seem almost too much to bear. I loved how feisty and sweet and vulnerable she could be.

The reader is introduced to many new characters. Brothers, father, boyfriend, girlfriends, the local MC and even drug dealers and undercover cops! The story had lots of action and moved very quickly! The characters were very expressive and you could easily fall for them. There were some editing issues, but it didn’t take anything away from the story as a whole. It was an awesome debut from M.A. Stone and I definitely recommend it!

4 smacking smooches

~Nicole

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