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A lover of all things romance, from Maldives.
by mvbookreviewer

Blog Tour & Guest Post + Giveaway: Untamed by Jane Shoup

Guest Post

untamed_The first novel I wrote, Jayna Incarnate, was, at heart, a bodice ripper featuring a beautiful, twenty-something woman who falls into the clutches of a notorious sea captain (feel free to read pirate into that) named Shoale. Wow, was he was a terrific bad guy! A dark, complex, determined alpha male, obsessed with possessing the heroine.  The premise of the book was more complex than that, of course, involving time travel and daring escapes and true love found in the Scottish highlands. It was good enough to get an Eppie nomination under the category of mainstream novels. It’s not currently on the market, but I plan to rework it and get it back out there because … did I mention what a delicious bad guy Shoale was? Mackenzie MacAndrews is equally as wonderful in the role of the good guy, but somehow the good guy doesn’t resonate as strongly.

Hmm.

Upon hearing that erotic romances sell well, I wrote nearly a half dozen. In the first of them, an area in a now-wooded area in modern day time was the same place where a horrific Revolutionary war crime occurred. On Halloween evening in 2004, the fabric of the time/space continuum is lifted and a lonely, disconnected woman steps back in time to 1783 and into the life of a man who is haunted by his past, restrained by eighteenth century manners and yet consumed with desire for woman he believes he willed to him.

Another erotic romance was a rather twisted, modern day tale of abduction where the tables eventually get turned. The review from The Romance Studio said the book, ‘will have people talking. What would you do if a man kidnapped you and then went about trying to make every one of your dreams come true?’

Untamed, my newest release, is the authentic reimagining of the legend of Tarzan. Once again, there is a strong, complex alpha male and an abduction and a torrid love scene. Still another of the erotic romances was also abduction for the sake of revenge, because a man believes his true love betrayed him.  Anyone sense a recurrent theme in the vicinity? What’s astonishing is that I didn’t see the pattern until I was probably a dozen books in. Once I saw it, it glared right back at me like a crazed, hairy monster. Unblinking. Unrepentant. Insatiable.

As a side note, and not that I’m disagreeing with the fact that I desperately need therapy, but, in my own defense, I have written books that involved no abductions or forced captivity. Not many of them, but some.

Before I wrote Untamed, I put a lot of thought into where and how to begin the story. The question became, if the story was true, how did it come about? I wanted a logical base, and so I researched until I found it. The next effort was to flesh out this man who’d been abandoned in an African jungle as a six year old and spent the next twenty years cut off from civilization. Civility and language is buried deep within in his mind, but he’s lived according to his most basic needs for two decades.     When he sees a woman in the camp of men – a camp of men scouring the jungle for him – he senses she is his mate, and sets out to make it happen. There is no question as to morally right or wrong – not until much later when he’s being reintroduced to morals and the rules and expectations of society.

There have been many comments on the ‘love’ scene between the untamed man and Arianna, the female protagonist. Some positive; ‘I loved the rawness,’ some feeling it wasn’t necessary. And it’s not the first time a scene I wrote caused controversy, but, as an author, it is vital to be true to a character. I want to write characters well enough that they come alive on the pages. More than that, I want them to direct each action and scene. It doesn’t matter if I, as the writer, like what they’re doing or saying or thinking or not. What’s important is that it’s true to them. The question – the only question – is what would this character do at this time?

In Untamed, Arianna is just as interesting a character study as Zan. She’s an outsider of sorts in that she’s a transplant from America. She came to live with an uncle at the age of nine, so she’s able to blend perfectly, but she’s still ‘an American, whose father is in trade,’ as her suitor, Marshall Derringer, reminds her.

She’s spirited and intelligent and self-aware, but some of that awareness came from mistakes she made in the past, mistakes born of a desire to please the father than eagerly gave away custody of her.  She’s also living in a century in which women are not fully in control of their destiny. In 1908, things were changing for women – fashion, opportunities, expectations, but amongst high society, there was often a fierce resistance to change. It was still expected that women would marry correctly and according the wishes and best interest of their family.

Most young women her age were fixated on their appearance and their apparel, their position in society and on the man they would (or did) marry. Arianna isn’t immune to these pressures, but she has the advantage of having been taken in by an uncle who is a renowned photographer and avid adventurer and who is open minded enough to allow her to tag along.

Like most of us, she’s fumbling her way along toward what feels like the right path, but there are so many complicated roundabouts and unexpected forks in the road. The sudden obstacles and difficult choices are what make us who we are, and both Zan and Ari face a lot of them.

For as many stories as I’ve created that feature some form of forced captivity, I’ve written even more in which two ‘outsiders’ strive to come together to form a perfect union. Untamed is one of them. At least, I don’t think that’s something I need therapy for.

So What’s The Book About You Ask?

In 1908, on a mission to find a new breed of ape in central Africa, an unfathomable thing is discovered – a wild, white man, living amongst gorillas. Local villagers call him matokeo ya utafutaji kwa, the untamed one.

Joining the team of hunters and trackers searching for matokeo ya utafutaji kwa is Arianna Day, the 21-year-old niece of the expedition’s leader. She catches the untamed one’s eye and, believing she is meant for him, he takes her captive and claims her for his own, body and soul.

When Arianna is rescued, the untamed one is captured, and they are sent their separate ways: the wild man to learn language and social skills he’d long forgotten, Arianna back home to England to try to fit back into her old life. A promising marriage proposal awaits, but thoughts of the untamed one haunts her.

Amidst the backdrop of London in the summer of 1908, as the Olympic Games are hosted and the Franko-British Exhibition is held, the now-civilized wild man returns home, with his original name restored: Sebastian or ‘Zan’ Shaffer. He and Arianna are drawn together again only to be ripped apart by social convention and Marshall Derringer, the man determined to have her as his wife.  But Zan is not the only one with an untamed heart…

About Jane Shoup

janshoupOriginally from Southern Indiana, (born in Evansville, grew up in Newburgh,) I now reside in Greensboro, North Carolina. My day job is that of a real estate agent, although the goal is become a full time writer … who actually eats regularly and pays the bills. I’m exceedingly proud of my young adult daughters, Mackenzie, Allyson and Hayley. They’re lovely and wacky and smart and basically my favorite people on earth.

If I had to describe myself . . . I’d say upbeat, highly imaginative, passionate, restless, easily bored, humorous, stubborn, spiritual and truly blessed.

I love writing. I love getting caught up in another time and place. Honestly – it’s often a disappointment to have to return to reality. My favorite genre tends to be whatever I’m working on at the moment. I write historical fiction, action/adventure, suspense, fantasy and more, all of it with an element of romance to it.

That’s about it, but if you want to know more, read my stuff. I’m in every page.

untamedblogtour

Participating Blogs

My Love For Films and Novels (9/9)

Bound 4 Escape (9/9)

Maldivian Book Reviewer (9/10)

House of Books (9/10)

I Choose Forward Motion (9/11)

Girl Who Reads (9/11)

BS Book Reviewers (9/12)

Indie Authors You Want To Read (9/13)

Musings from an Addicted Reader (9/13)

Swept Away by Romance (9/15)

K T Book Reviews (9/16)

Review from Here (9/16)

Links

Jane Shoup’s Website: http://janeshoup.com/

Jane Shoup on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jane-Shoup/338170666219714

On Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18159631-untamed

Diversion Books: http://www.diversionbooks.com/ebooks/untamed

Giveaway

Jane Shoup is giving away an e-copy of Untamed to one lucky commenter on this blog post. Tell us your most favorite romance set in the wilderness and why you loved it so.

Don’t forget to leave a valid email id to contact you with if you happen to be the winner.

Giveaway starts: September 10, 2013 – 00:00 hours MVT

Giveaway ends: September 11, 2013 – 00:00 hours MVT

MVT -> GMT +5

Best of luck and don’t forget to help spread the word!

by mvbookreviewer

Requested ARC Review: Darke London by Coleen Kwan

Format: E-bookdarkelondon
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Steampunk Romance
Series: Uncanny Chronicles, #1
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Hero: Nellie Barchester
Heroine: Julian Darke
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 10, 2013
Started On: September 2, 2013
Finished On: September 5, 2013

When Coleen Kwan approached me with a request to review her newest release Darke London, I was a bit apprehensive to say the least because Steampunk is not my favorite brand of romance and I usually tend to shy away from romances of that sub genre. But from page one of Darke London, I was pleasantly surprised with just how much I enjoyed and came to love the romance that unfurled between the protagonists.

24 year old Julian Darke is tormented by the need to seek out the truth about his mother and why he was left on the doorstep of the man who brought him up. Though Julian has never wanted for anything while growing up, he cannot help but yearn with everything inside of him to seek out the truth, even when it brings danger into his life of the variety that just might mean he end up losing everything that he holds dear to him.

When Julian comes to the rescue of Nellie Barchester at the hands of a mad man hellbent on murdering her, he has no inkling of just how much he would come to crave the woman whose mystery and allure only increases with the scars left behind from the injuries subjected to her body. Nellie wakes up from one nightmare to fall into another; to find out that she would always shock people with her appearance. Her need to keep her past and what she aims to do when she gets better a secret is purely a survival instinct, something that doesn’t help matters when her body and heart starts yearning for that of her rescuer who seems to become as much smitten with her as she is with him.

Add in a villain who would practically stop at nothing to have his way and the mystery behind the “murder” of Nellie, Darke London served to be a delectable read. Julian proved to a refreshingly delicious and appealing hero of the variety that had me sighing over his character every now and then. Nellie was just as an appealing heroine, someone who isn’t afraid to go after what she wants and never afraid to fight for the man she wants. That in my opinion is what a heroine should be and Nellie proved herself a worthy one in every aspect. I’d love to know whether Julian’s closest friend Gareth Derringer who looks like he would have a very interesting tale to tell.

Recommended to fans of historical romantic suspense with a dash of steampunk in it.

Final Verdict: Excellent appetite wetter for the rest of the books to follow in the Uncanny Chronicles series.

Favorite Quotes

The sight of Julian’s naked sweaty chest incited a hornets’ nest of illicit desire in her. Heat flared low and heavy in her abdomen. Dampness sprang out on the back of her neck, between her breasts, and even—heaven help her—beneath her drawers. As Julian wrestled with his friend, his trousers stretched tight around his thighs, drawing her attention to his flagrantly virile thews. Nellie swallowed hard as erotic sensations surged over her, followed quickly by hot, hedonistic and deeply disturbing imaginings of Julian gloriously naked and rampant, bending over an equally naked and impassioned woman— herself.

She made a tiny gasp, and he feared she would pull away, but then her lips softened and yielded against his, and it felt as though the blazing summer sun had burst through. The honey of her kiss poured out like hot lava through him, surging to every region. It was as if he’d been frozen for eons, and now the heat of her mouth was flooding his body, dissolving all the ice.

“I am a shameless wanton,” she whispered back. As her hands moved feverishly over his chest, her spurs unsheathed and caught in the soft fabric of his shirt, tearing a rent at his collar. She sucked in a breath, then bent her head and licked at the patch of bare skin exposed.
Julian inhaled as the warm moist tip of her tongue swirled over his skin. “Sweet Jesus, don’t stop.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Samhain

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by mvbookreviewer

Blog Tour & Guest Post: Trust Me by Joan Callahan

Guest Post: Inspiration for Trust Metrustme

The inspiration for Trust Me isn’t rocket science. Raising my boys has been the best fun I have ever had and the hardest job I have ever done. They say raising small children is a handful and raising big children is a heartful, and whilst this is true it leaves out the fun part; the chaos and anarchy that runs riot through all our lives when we are raising kids. Unless we raise them in some sort of boot camp. There is such a delicate balance in raising children so that they are not indulged and spoilt like rotten fruit, nor are they marshalled into militaristic compliance.  As I say, it is the greatest and most underrated challenge. When they grow up and set off into the world they will thank us or blame us and we need to own up to our responsibilities in shaping the people they have become. Thankfully mine continue to inspire me.  Personally my family has  faced so many physical, financial, emotional, vocational, and recreational challenges and yet magically we have always been able to see the humour in almost everything.

I don’t even think I set out to write a book. I’m just an inveterate scribbler  and it just tumbled out of me. The title sprang from a funny event where one of the children was caught in a tree and a friend arrived to address the situation and said “trust me, I’m a vet.” The child nearly laughed himself out of tree.

I wonder if there is any such thing as fiction, because the lives we all lead inform everything we do. Of course I made this story up, but my children and my patients inspire me. When I say the patients are fiction I really mean it. They are a conglomeration of the thousands of people who have passed through my life. More on that next time. I would love to hear your feedback about all the characters in the book, because this book is the beginning of a series, Trust Me, Again, is the next.

So What’s The Book About You Ask?

Beth Carter is a psychologist to many and a single mother to four unruly boys. Patients might almost be manageable, but her boys aren’t. While the household lurches inevitably from one catastrophe to another, Beth finds herself barely managing to hold onto the vital threads of sanity whilst leading her often complex patients through their own remarkable journeys.

Beth finds it to be a lonely venture, leading her to look for love—but in all the wrong places.

About Joan Callahanjcallahan

Joan Callahan is a clinical psychologist practicing in Melbourne, Australia. She commenced her career teaching English and history at the prestigious Melbourne High School and later retrained in the field of psychology. Joan set up her own private practice and has a heavy forensic caseload, while providing consultancies to commerce, industry, and government. She also enjoys several mediation contracts. She particularly likes working with anxiety disorders, couples, and the full spectrum of psychological disorders.

Joan is the divorced mother of three boys, has three brothers, and three grandsons—not to mention that she taught only boys at Melbourne High School. By her sheer survival as teacher, mother, and psychologist, she considers herself something of an expert on boys. Joan loves her job, going to the gym, making bread, (boring, boring, boring. Next it will be romantic fireside chats and long walks on the beach at sunset!), socializing widely, and travelling around the world as often as she can with the love of her life. Her vast travels around the USA have provided fodder for the third book in this series as the inimitable Carter clan enjoy the wilds of Yeehaw Junction.

Life remains wonderfully hectic. Any similarity between Joan’s life and Beth’s is not purely coincidental. Beth’s patients are pure fiction; her dogs are not. Her boys? Close!

Trust-Me-Large-Blog-Tour

Giveaway: Rafflecopter

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: No Romance Required by Cari Quinn

Format: E-bookNoRomanceRequired
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Series: Love Required, #3
Publisher: Entangled Publishing: Brazen
Hero: Cory Santangelo
Heroine: Victoria Violet Townsend
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: August 12, 2013
Started On: August 31, 2013
Finished On: September 2, 2013

She was his, had always been his, and now they both knew it.

Ever since I read No Flowers Required, book 2 in the Love Required series by Cari Quinn, I’ve been sending “gentle” and “subtle” reminders Cari’s way to remind her that at least one fan of the series was in high anticipatory mode to read Cory’s story. It would be an impossibility to read No Flowers Required and encounter Cory Santangelo and Victoria Townsend (Vicky) and not “feel” the vibrancy of the chemistry and fire that is between them. Maybe because I had such high hopes for the book or maybe too much time has passed since I read book 2, I found myself a wee bit disappointed with how No Romance Required turned out.

Cory and Vicky have a shared history that goes way back into their childhoods. Cory is driven to the point of losing himself with a resolute absoluteness in his work that leaves little room for any time to loosen up and let go. Vicky on the other hand is a woman whose life is full of vibrancy, someone who refuses to let even a moment of her life pass by without enjoying it to the hilt. Though Cory might never understand why Vicky chooses to live as she does, the one thing that he cherishes and looks forward to is their weekly meet up to discuss Value Hardware’s lifestyle magazine which Vicky handles.

No Romance Required begins right where No Flowers Required ends and it is during that fateful evening that both Cory and Vicky are caught in a compromising position on camera which gives Cory the perfect “excuse” to get his parents off his back and enjoy his time playing fake boyfriend with Vicky to the hilt. Vicky might have a reputation of being a bad girl but when it comes to Cory, Vicky knows that none of her usual tricks would work for a man whose tastes run a bit darker and edgier than anyone she has been with. Vicky knows how ruthless Cory could be on her emotions if she lets him in and that is exactly what happens which gives the story its dose of angst together with the heat of the scorching variety that is always a part of Cari’s romances, which is one reason why I enjoy them so much.

I think the bit where this book didn’t work for me as I thought it would was perhaps because the banter between Vicky and Cory that was evident in No Flowers Required and what drew me towards Cory and Vicky failed to materialize much in their own story. I love a little bit of darkness with my heroes which I am betting is no surprise to anyone who reads my reviews. But I kind of missed on what it was exactly that turned Cory into who he was. Cory came out as a ruthless bastard in No Flowers Required and I thought that he would keep going along his track record some more before actually succumbing to his own happily ever after.

Vicky was a splendid heroine. Her zest for life hides behind the pain of abandonment, all the while harboring a secret from her siblings that could break the fragile bond she has with them. All Vicky longs for and has longed for for a long while is for Cory to notice her and make her his. Thus it comes as no surprise when Vicky grabs with both hands the one chance she has to play make believe with the man of her dreams even though she knows she might end up with a broken heart that would never heal.

From the way things were left as book 3 concluded, I am hoping that Vicky’s brother Bryan would get a story of his own because there seemed to be something of that sort in the works. I did miss out on an epilogue though I think the ending was pretty good with a little bit of groveling on Cory’s side to tie it all up.

Recommended for fans of the series and fans of Cari Quinn. But mind you, read No Flowers Required first because I think otherwise you might not get a feel for Vicky and Cory’s characters which I believe is a must if you are to enjoy the 3rd installment in the series.

Final Verdict: Great addition to the wonderfully erotic and humorous Love Required series.

Favorite Quotes

“Victoria.” His guttural use of her name caused her to still. “This will change everything.”
Then his mouth crushed down on hers.
Its weight was a brand, forever stamping her with the memory of this night. Of stars in an inky black sky. Of his heart racing against hers.
Of wanting him more than she cared about the consequences.

When she stood before him in just her bra and lacy thigh-high hose, she stepped back until her spine hit one of the support columns that extended to the exposed beams of the ceiling. She wrapped her fingers around the wood above her head, stretching herself up like his very own unwrapped gift. Then she spread her legs and invitingly rocked her hips.

Her lips parted though she made no sound. He exhaled as her snug, drenched sheath enveloped his dick again and again, the scrape of her nails against the wood a strangely exciting accompaniment. Her nails could’ve been on his shoulders, on his back, for all the effect that noise had on his body. He drove into her harder, faster, wanting to hear her torturing the wood, that unconscious tell more revealing than her glazed whiskey-colored eyes.
There, she still held some control. But with her hands, with the ripples of her sex around him, she restrained nothing.
That was what he wanted. Her, totally mindless. Unafraid. His.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iTunes

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by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: Her Favorite Rival by Sarah Mayberry

Format: E-bookherfavoriterival
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Mathews Sisters
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Zachary Black
Heroine: Audrey Mathews
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 3, 2013
Started On: August 31, 2013
Finished On: August 31, 2013

Her Favorite Rival by Sarah Mayberry, though not up to par with the most recent releases from her still managed to be a romance that captivated me from start to finish. Some books require an effort to trudge through them, page after page, because its just difficult to give up when you have invested so much of your time in reading that book. But Mayberry’s books stand apart from this crowd as her books always manages to provide all those elements that makes a romance work on so many levels.

Her Favorite Rival is the story of work rivals Audrey Mathews and Zachary (Zach) Black. Audrey is the one who has made her way through the different levels through sheer grit and determination with a whole lot of experience at her back to support her. But Zach who joined just six months back seems to have what she doesn’t; the weight of college earned degrees that speaks volumes. Audrey knows that Zach is the only contender that she should be worried about regarding the upcoming promotion and she is ready to pull all stops into impressing the new management when an assignment pushes both Audrey and Zach together which forms the basis of their relationship.

Mayberry does quite an impressive job of bringing to the readers the pressures of trying to perform in an organization which really drives a hard bargain with its employees. Audrey and Zach are both ambitious and career-driven people, both for different reasons, but similar in the aspect that it is the demons of the past that drives them and has scarred them on levels that they are not even prepared to acknowledge when the relationship between them fosters into being.

Audrey makes the huge mistake of judging Zach based on his good looks and the charm he exudes, but she couldn’t have been more wrong even if she had tried. Mayberry brings to the table the “other side” of what its like to grow up with a drug addict as a parent, the pain of seeing the one person you love continue to go back and feed an addiction that never seems to cease. The shame that clings onto a person for not being able to stop loving that person no matter how destructive a force the person’s continued addiction becomes. Not an easy subject, but I think Mayberry did a splendid job in that aspect of the story.

Her Favorite Rival seemed to begin with a bang and waned a little towards the middle and then picked up again towards the latter part of the book. Even then, a Mayberry book is always worth the investment in time and money and if you love contemporary romances with deeper and in depth stories, this one’s definitely recommended!

Final Verdict: Mayberry delivers a great romance amidst the grit and realities that is life.

Favorite Quotes

“I tell you who won’t be going, though—Zach. Fifty bucks he gets a promotion out of all of this.”
Audrey reached for the fries. “He’s not that good.”
“Sorry, sweetie, but he is. He’s smart, he’s good at what he does and he could charm a snake out of its skin.”
Audrey rolled her eyes. “You’re only saying that because you have a soft spot for him.”
“Yeah, it’s called a vagina.”

He was already hard, his arousal a hot pressure against her belly. The ache between her thighs demanded that she rub against him, that she slide a hand around his waist and grip his backside and haul him closer still.
He muttered something urgent against her mouth, then his hands were on her breasts, cupping and squeezing them through the thin cotton of her shirt. She gave a small, inar- ticulate moan when his thumb grazed her nipple, and when he caught it between thumb and forefinger and squeezed she almost dissolved on the spot.

He was reaching for her before she could process his words. One second she stood on the doorstep of his house, the next she was inside, her back against the wall, his mouth and body against hers. He tasted of heat, his tongue stroking hers with demanding greed, his body large and powerful as it pressed into hers. Her hands found his bare shoulders, closing over warm, hard muscle, even as his thigh slid between hers, forcing the heart of her into intimate contact with his leg.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Harlequin | iBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

Format: E-bookthenextbestthing
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Ethan Mirabelli
Heroine: Lucy Lang
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 27, 2013
Started On: August 26, 2013
Finished On: August 28, 2013

The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins, though I got it off of Netgalley as an ARC is not an altogether a new publication. This book was first published in 2010 and has been on my to-be-read pile for quite sometime now. And though I didn’t figure this fact out until I was about to begin reading this, it just made me wonder a little why Harlequin hadn’t listed this as a republication.

The Next Best Thing is a book that bears all the hallmarks of Kristan Higgins. There is humor of course, weird and laugh out loud variety of family antics to go around, a hero and heroine who for all intents and purpose spend most of the book apart and yet find their happily ever after towards the end and a dog or a cat to complement the picture. However, there is a slight difference when it comes to The Next Best Thing because the protagonists, i.e. Ethan and Lucy have been sleeping with each other even before the story begins.

The synopsis that goes with the story is a bit misleading to say the least, perhaps not to give the story away? Lucy is a widow, and  going on 5 plus years in her current status quo. The thought of moving on and finding someone else to share her life with stresses her to the point that the panic attacks that she has held at bay for sometime comes calling again, but the children that she wants to fill her life with urges her to seek a husband who would be an emotional risk-free investment on her part.

Having brought to an end her mostly weekend trysts with Ethan that has been going on for two years, Lucy tries to find that someone who meets all her criterion, all of them falling short of the mark for one reason or the other. Lucy doesn’t want the complication of even thinking of Ethan as a viable choice to share the rest of her life with, but time and yet again, it is Ethan that she misses like a proverbial ache in her heart, his companionship that she seeks when she has something worthy of sharing, and the combustive chemistry that they had shared that makes her want to rip her clothes off and get down and dirty with him every time she sees him.

Underneath the veneer of laugh-out-loud humor, The Next Best Thing is a story that waged an emotional warfare inside of me. I hated Lucy for what she continuously put Ethan through, all the while wondering how she could have been so clueless. But I guess given the circumstances and the pedestal upon which she had placed her dead husband, it was hard to see past that and see Ethan, the man who had always stood with her and beside her, unwavering in his support for her, no matter what. There was  this part of me that absolutely sympathized and empathized with what Lucy goes through. I have survived tragedy of the panic-inducing variety and I know what its like to battle with it every single day afterwards. And change, is definitely a trigger and that is exactly what Lucy is subjected to when she sets out to get out of the “rut” into which her life had fallen into after the death of her husband.

Ethan is a character to absolutely die for. Ethan and his emotions never making it to the forefront is one of the reasons why I tend to steer clear of books told in first person from just one character’s point of view. I would have dearly loved to see things from Ethan’s point of view, the heartache and desolateness that is part of him that was evident to see even when his point of view wasn’t part of the story. Simply put, I loved Ethan and everything to do with him, his unwavering courage in standing by and letting the woman he has loved ever since he set eyes on her find her way on her own terms telling in itself. A lesser man would have walked away to restore the pieces of his heart but Ethan sees it all through even if it must have broken him from inside out. The fact that he has always been considered “the next best thing”, even by his parents was heartbreaking to see. And Lucy not seeing it for so long just made my hands clench and unclench every single time such an incidence came up in the story.

Perhaps, I might not put Lucy into the category of heroines that I hated by the end of the story, but she certainly is someone who was difficult to fall in love with because of her blind devotion to the memory of a man who was less than perfect but made otherwise by those who had adored him to the point that the rest had just paled in comparison and faded into the background. I had a pebble the size of Mount Everest in my throat by the time I finished reading this in the wee hours of the morning. But every emotion wrangling bit towards the end was so worth it! So very worth it. And the epilogue tucked in at the end certainly went a long long way into soothing my ruffled feathers where Ethan is concerned.

Recommended for fans of Kristan Higgins, those who love romances with a large dose of humor and books that invoke a shitload of emotion from you!

Final Verdict: Worth every bit of emotion it wrenches out of you! Ethan is a must have on your bookshelf.

Favorite Quotes

His arms tighten around me, and the hangers rattle again as we knock against them, and now his lips are on my neck, the gentle scrape of his beard contrasting with the warm silkiness of his mouth. My knees soften in an almost painful rush. Then his mouth finds mine again, and the kiss is not so gentle this time…desperate, hungry, hot and forbidden and utterly welcome.

My hands move to his chest, and his skin is hot, practi- cally burning me through the cotton, and I can feel the hard thudding of his heart. Without thinking, I tug his shirt and slip my hands underneath.
“Lucy,” he mutters against my mouth. “Honey, wait.” But I just kiss him again and slide my hands against the smooth skin of his back, his ribs, and pull him closer, wanting him against me. He shifts so we’re closer, his mouth hot and hard. Waiting is forgotten.

Then he leans in closer so that our foreheads touch. “You sure, honey?” he asks
“Yes,” I whisper, and his mouth is on mine. His hand slides under my T-shirt and cups my breast, and my breath catches. He tastes so good, feels like heaven and I can’t believe I’ve waited so long for this. His mouth moves to my neck, a hot jolt shudders through me, and I sink into the bed, the sun hot on my skin, and give my- self away.
And I realize that despite my intentions, I’ve fallen in love after all.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Harlequin | Kobo | Diesel

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by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: Personal Assets by Kelsey Browning

Format: E-bookpersonalassets
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Texas Nights, #1
Publisher: Carina Press
Hero: Cameron Kyle Wright
Heroine: Alice Ann Shelby
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: August 26, 2013
Started On: August 20, 2013
Finished On: August 26, 2013

Turned out being bad with Allie was so damned good.

Cameron Kyle Wright returns to his hometown of Shelbyville in Texas with a sense of homecoming, to start his own business, make a name for himself and perhaps find a woman to settle down with and start a family. But he is barely home before he runs into the all too delectable Alice Ann Shelby, the cossetted daughter of the most prestigious family in town.

Allie knows trouble of the good kind when she sees it. And the six foot of grumpy ruggedness that Cameron presents calls out to all her girly bits to stand up and take notice and perhaps have a go at him while they are at it. With a PHD in hand, Allie is the owner of a body image and sexuality counseling service in town aka a sex therapist, a business that is frowned upon by her father who had never in reality approved of anything she has done with her life.

When Allie proposes to Cameron a deal that includes all inclusive hot and mind-blowing sex whose by-product would be intense orgasms that would leave both of them begging for more, Cameron is hesitant to get down and dirty with a woman like Allie. For someone who wants and craves respect from his townsfolk, Cameron finds out that getting his dose of mind obliterating sex with Allie just might be worth all the hassle that she brings to the other aspects of his life as well.

With humor that begs one to laugh out loud; and I guarantee you that you wouldn’t be able to hold your laughter in even if you tried, Personal Assets by Kelsey Browning is a contemporary romance for those who love humor interlaced with every aspect of their romances. There’s plenty of heat to go around, with a cast of characters that holds their own and are appealing protagonists for the books that are certainly to follow in the Texas Nights series.

Cameron’s character is not one easily discernible when you first start out with the story. His character is revealed bit by bit and mostly towards the end of the story. Cameron is a giver at any cost, which is evident both in his actions in and out of bed. The way he totally and utterly focuses on pleasuring Allie is something to be savored, the way he wants to protects her even out of a misguided sense of responsibility one that is endearing and exasperating at the same time.

Allie has her work cut out for her when at first Cameron tries and resists her advances to take things slow. However, Allie on a mission is hell on wheels for any heterosexual male’s libido and that is how she wins him over together with other aspects of her character that comes out when she is with Cameron. The one thing she doesn’t factor into their supposedly meaningless trysts is the fact that her heart might become involved, that Cameron might be the one to get past the barriers and finally lay siege on her heart.

Recommended for those who love romances from authors like Jill Shalvis and Kristan Higgins. With heat of the panty melting variety, Personal Assets makes for a scorchingly great debut of the Texas Nights series.

Final Verdict: Humor, heat and heart makes for an unbeatable read!

Favorite Quotes

As he rolled to his side to rest his shaking arms, Cameron tried to ignore the way his heart was also pulsing, but not just from physical effort.
She’d asked for sex, plain and simple.
Whether she knew it or not, they’d already blown right past simple.

She kissed the base of his throat, and his chest rumbled against her breasts. He two-stepped them right off the dance floor and into a dark hallway. He gripped her hips in rough hands and lifted her, her thin bodice rubbing his chest, aligning their lips. He backed her against the wall and, within a single heartbeat, the kiss became a symphony of tangled tongues and mingled breaths. His arms tightened around her so she could barely inhale. They’d said barely a word, but their bodies were in deep communication.

Suddenly, he gripped her hips tighter and thrust into a sitting position so his face was even with her breasts. She wrapped her legs around his hips, leveraging him even deeper. He gave her a look that could’ve peeled the paint off one of his cars, burning and wild. Then his mouth was on her breast, surrounding, sucking, taking all of her inside his mouth.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Carina

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Skin Heat by Ava Gray

Format: E-bookskinheat
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Series: Skin, #3
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Zeke Noble
Heroine: Geneva Harper
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: January 4, 2011
Started On: August 9, 2013
Finished On: August 19, 2013

After more than a year’s hiatus since I read the 2nd book in this 4 book series by Ava Gray, I finally managed to delve into Skin Heat, the 3rd book in this delectable series featuring Zeke Nobel, a hero from the wrong side of town and Geneva Harper, the only daughter of the richest family in the town of Harper Creek.

Zeke is a changed man after his escape from those that had held him under captivity and tortured him until he had thought that he wouldn’t be able to carry on. Given his family history, Zeke is a man who keeps to himself and that alone forces himself to shoulder his burdens all alone and take one step at a time to bring at least some semblance to normalcy into his life.

Neva is the owner of Paws & Claws, a veterinarian, defiantly standing tall and proud in her quest to be true to what she wants in life and not what her parents want her to be. Though her choice of a career drives a wedge between her and her parents, Neva refuses to give up the one thing that gives her happiness.

When Zeke comes knocking on her clinic’s door looking for work, this marks the beginning of a relationship that grows slowly amidst a lot of misgivings on both Zeke and Neva’s part. Zeke because though he has yearned for Neva more than half of his life, knows deep down inside that Harpers and Nobles will never mix believes that he is not good enough for the likes of a woman who is as wonderful as Neva. Neva feels that being Zeke’s boss, she should not be the one who cannot keep her thoughts from straying into more sinful ventures when it comes to Zeke.

But the time Zeke and Neva spends together finally pushes their frayed control to the edge until the break brings with it a passion that refuses to be denied, no matter what. But then, there is a darkness that seems to hunt Neva, a killer on the loose whose victims bear a striking resemblance to her, with the web of danger around her closing in until it all comes down to who will win; her or the killer.

Though my memory might be faulty, Skin Heat seemed to deviate a bit from its usual pace and setup and seemed to offer a story that was a bit laid back when compared to the rest of 2 books in the series. Even then, Skin Heat is a book that invoked a lot of mixed reactions from me. The biggest one of which was related to the villain, who definitely turned out to be a surprise. His background and the life he had led as a child was one that haunted me while reading and I believe it is still haunting me even as I write the review. There is this hint of something almost desperate in his last thoughts before succumbing to death, a fact that I don’t think I will get over anytime soon.

Zeke makes for a heartbreaking hero. I loved him. Oh my god, how I loved the broken but yet strong man he is. There is a fire that burns in his soul that refuses to be tamped down though life hasn’t been all that great to him. And when the bastards who held him captive and tortured him for days changes something fundamental inside of him that renders him almost completely helpless if you judge the world through the modern standards people have to live up to, simply put it just broke my heart to read about him. Ava Gray did a marvelous job out of creating Zeke, and she has achieved what she set out to do, especially given the fact that I wouldn’t be able to forget him soon, if ever!

For more than half the story and beyond I thought that Neva would never be able to earn my wholehearted approval as she always seemed to be hesitating and reserving a piece of herself when it came to Zeke. But when push came to shove, she stepped up beautifully and replaced all that lingering doubt with love for the way she accepts Zeke and loves him and accepts him for who she is.

A review of Skin Heat would not be complete without mentioning the very interesting ABI agent Emil Hebert whose happily ever after I would definitely love to read!

Recommended for fans of the Skin series, fans of Ava Gray and fans of romantic suspense with a dash of paranormal in the mix.

Final Verdict: Skin Heat is a novel that has a haunting quality to it, and that alone is a testament to Ava Gray’s remarkable talent.

Favorite Quotes

“Take me,” she whispered.
A shudder rolled through him. He pounced on her. That was the only word for it. In one graceful leap he had her in his arms. He ripped his own shirt off her back, tore the fabric with his hands. A low growl escaped him as he buried his face in the curve of her neck. This time he used his teeth on her, not hard enough to break the skin, but fierce animal nips that made her want to fall back and give him her throat.

He entered her in one fierce thrust. Hard. Fast. His hands hurt a little, but it was a pain that made her lift up higher to push back against him. Her field of vision went white with the pleasure sparking through her. His low grunts of pleasure woke an answering atavistic need in her. Nothing mattered, nothing but this.

Neva came in a cascade of heat. Moaning, she swept a hand beneath and wet her fingers, riding them as she flicked her clit to another orgasm. Then she eased it outward and encircled his throbbing shaft. Squeezed.
“Mine,” she whispered. “I marked you. You smell like me.”
He gave a possessive growl and went with a raw groan, spurting hot from her hand all over her thigh.

Her contractions drove him over. His whole body tightened and he urged himself into her over and over, trying to imprint himself on her. Nobody else for you, ever. Only me. Just mine. Love you. Mine. The words melted into a kaleidoscope of cascading colors and feelings. He wrapped his arms around her while they both trembled. Tingles spilled through him, lighting him up from base of spine to base of skull. He’d never known anything like it.

“Spread for me.”
She almost came at his white-hot instruction and rose on her tiptoes, quivering from head to toe in anticipation. Zeke sank himself home in one long thrust; a satisfied growl tore free as he pumped into her, rough and hard. Neva tried to support herself on her arms, but they trembled. She couldn’t think, only feel.

Her whole body felt flushed and hungry. “Now? Please, now.”
His reply came when he hitched her up and sank into her. Neva locked her ankles behind his back, gloriously full. He made her feel soft and small and so cherished. She rolled her hips, tightening her muscles on his cock. Zeke moaned. He gripped her hips and thrust in long, deep strokes.
“Oh. More.”
“Mine,” he whispered.
“Always.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: First Temptation by Joan Swan

Format: E-bookfirsttemptation
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Covert Affairs, #1.5
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Taft Walker
Heroine: Zoe Brooks
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: August 19, 2013
Started On: August 16, 2013
Finished On: August 17, 2013

Supervisory Border Control Agent Zoe Brooks gets tangled up with Agent Taft Walker from the Counterterrorism unit of the Department of Homeland Security in a joint quest to bring down Mexican drug smugglers of the El Diablo cartel.

From the moment Taft and Zoe meet, sparks fly, regardless of the fact whether they both want it or not. Going undercover as the owners of a sex toy shop might be pushing Zoe’s comfort zone a bit more than she would like, and given the fact that her emotions are all over the place of recent, Zoe knows that she would have to up her game just that much more if she is going to prove her worth as a fresh undercover agent.

The lust that spirals forth, scorching and undeniable is one thing that both Taft and Zoe never factors into the equation in working together. Taft is sexy, confident and phobic of any sort of commitment beyond that of a night of pleasure but Zoe seems to push all his buttons in the right way that seems to make him panic and soothe him all at the same time.

While Zoe and Taft try to find their footing amidst the passion that refuses to be denied between them, the web of danger that surrounds them continues to thicken, with Zoe being the centerfold of all that danger. Though Taft would like nothing better than to protect her from harms way, how he reacts to the danger and the need to protect Zoe could mean the end of whatever it is that is between Zoe and himself before it is even given a chance to flourish.

This is my very first Joan Swan and I would have to say I liked her unabashed style of writing and the sex scenes that definitely stirred more than just Taft and Zoe. Taft and Zoe definitely cannot be blamed for having lackluster sex; they are practically all over each other and tends to find themselves in the most interesting spots to get it on!

Though everyone advices never to judge a book by its cover, I know most of us are guilty of just that and I requested for a galley of this because the cover hinted at the deliciousness that was bound to come. I am certainly glad that this novella gave me a bit of an insight into what Joan Swan can do and has definitely whetted my appetite enough to pick up more of her books to read.

Recommended for fans of romantic suspense with singeing passion that rocks you to your toes!

Final Verdict: Hot & wild; First Temptation certainly makes for a combustive prelude to the Covert Affairs series!

Favorite Quotes

She stretched, sliding her body along his slowly, feeling every swell and groove and plane before she pressed her lips to his. His mouth remained firm, chaste. His eyes remained open, but a clear new awareness burned hot.
She tugged on his neck, pulling their mouths flush, and licked his bottom lip. His hands fisted in the waistband of her slacks.
She gazed into those blazing golden eyes and pulled back just enough to whisper, “Are you on board, Walker, or not?”
He growled. Opened his mouth. Closed his eyes. And really kissed her.

Zoe used her arms to rock her body into his touch. “Taft…”
He bit her ear, then whispered, “I’m going to make you come, but we’re not done. Not even close. I’m only giving you relief. And prepping you for the next one. And the one after that. I’m going to keep going until you come so hard you scream.”
Zoe whimpered. She opened her eyes, unable to believe the sound had come from her own throat. Then Taft pressed two of those thick, practiced fingers inside her, and Zoe couldn’t focus on anything but the way he filled her.

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Bound by Marriage by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookboundbymarriage
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Silhouette Desire
Hero: Gabriel Dumont
Heroine: Jess Randall
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: October 1, 2005
Started On: August 7, 2013
Finished On: August 9, 2013

I have been so engrossed with reading the Psy-Changeling series by Nalini Singh that I have never even wondered whether Nalini has strayed into writing any other genres in the world of romance. So while I was doing some random searching on the Internet, imagine my surprise when this little number came up, and that too with the uber interesting marriage of convenience trope that can really make for superb reads!

Bound by Marriage takes place in New Zealand and is told from both the hero and heroine’s point of views in the third person. While wealthy rancher Gabriel Dumont and Jess Randall enter into a marriage of convenience knowing fully well what they both are getting into, neither of them factors in the searing passion that lights up the sheets between them and of course plays havoc with the general order of things or how they both perceive their joint lives would turn out to be.

Jess never thought that her heart would be capable of loving anyone else, much less a man like Gabriel who is so withdrawn that he opens up to her only when they are in bed together, him drawing out responses from her that she would never have thought possible. But even then the times that Gabriel does let her see that tender side of his, although it is very rarely with the situations that continue to develop and put further strains on their already fragile bond, Jess finds herself inexorably drawn towards the man she calls as her husband.

I seriously thought that I would have a hard time liking Gabriel by the time the book was half way through. Yes, he is that stubborn and set in his ways that if it weren’t for his emotions that are as much in turmoil as that of Jess’s I wouldn’t have thought that he felt anything for the woman he had married. But lo and behold, I should have trusted Nalini a bit more and waited for the bombshell when it hit and yes, I was blown away with the compassion and love that filled my heart for the little boy Gabriel had been when he had lost vital pieces of his heart in a way that they would never be regained.

For some readers, Jess might seem to be putting up with much more than they would have liked. But I think Gabriel needed someone just as equally stubborn as him, willing to give until those impenetrable shields of his that he wears around himself like an armor were all but shattered around him. I loved the ending, the glimpse into the man Gabriel later turns into, not completely tamed, no never that, but a man who is at least a little bit at peace with his past and smiling in the arms of the woman who loves him like there is no tomorrow.

Final Verdict: Sensual & heart wrenching; Silhouette Desire at its best!

Favorite Quotes

Gabriel’s hand was rough against her skin, the hand of a man who worked the land. But on her neck, his lips were almost velvet soft—a seductive contrast. She lost her breath as he closed his teeth over a pulse point, then released with exquisite deliberation, scraping those same strong teeth along the sensitive flesh.

“I’m damn glad you’re a rider, Jess,” he almost growled as he filled her, going so deep that she could feel his heartbeat in her body.
Not aware enough to understand what he was referring to, she squeezed intimate muscles around him in a reaction as old as time itself. Throwing back his head, he tightened his hold on her and began to move. His rhythm was fast, his strokes deep. She screamed and screamed as he pushed her over the edge in a tempest of hot breaths and powerful thrusts.
And when she fell, it was as a marked woman. Gabriel Dumont’s woman.

And then she heard the zipper being lowered.
Even that warning wasn’t enough. She screamed as he pushed into her. Hard. Fast. Deep. Her body accepted him, welcomed his driving thrusts, but he was merciless in the intensity of what he asked of her, pushing her so far that she lost all traces of civilization and surrendered to her most primal heart.

“So I did,” he murmured, reclaiming her lips even as his hand pushed aside the gusset of her panties to thrust two fingers deep into a body more than primed by the slow seduction. Pleasure erupted inside her almost instantaneously. Pulling away from the ravaging fury of his mouth, she threw back her head and rode his fingers, feeling herself clench and unclench with vicious strength.

Gabe’s arm came around her waist and his teeth scraped lightly over the sensitive skin of her neck. “Now, Jess. Now!”
She fractured under the command, everything female in her glorying in the wildness of that harsh masculine voice. At the last second, their eyes met in the mirror and Jess knew they’d crossed a line. The question was, what lay on the other side?

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Harlequin | Kobo

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