Category / Contemporary

by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: A Terrible Love by Marata Eros

Format: E-bookaterriblelove
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: A Terrible Love, #1
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Hero: Devin Castile
Heroine: Jess Mackey
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: April 26, 2013
Started On: September 22, 2013
Finished On: September 26, 2013

Jess Mackey leads a life that gives her the sort of security that she craves after the brutality of the past that she endured and walked out from. All that Jess wants to do is blend in and be one with the crowd so that no one would notice that she is not whom she pretends to be, day in ad day out.

Jess’s one vice remains to be her love for the ballet and that turns out to be the reason for her to break out from her shell and leave that wall of anonymity behind her after two years of living under its protection. And along with embracing her love for the ballet comes another kind of “danger” calling into her life in the form of bad boy tattoed hotness Devin Castile.

The attraction between Castile and Jess is instantaneous and you can practically feel the heat between them burn the pages with the slightly erotic and very sensuous scenes of passion that leaves you begging for more. In the midst of Jess rediscovering herself and her buried passions, her very much troubled past comes calling in a way that leaves a lot to be desired and forces Jess to face her fears and come out victorious even with all odds seemingly stacked against her.

A Terrible Love is told in the first person from Jess’s point of view. Though my very first book by Mantara Eros, I fond myself totally captivated with the story that was unfolding, her ability to draw the reader in, a testament to her ability in weaving a magical story. A Terrible Love is by no means a light read. There are dark elements to it that makes it a very enjoyable page turner with that hint of menace and danger snipping at your heels all the while.

I loved the hero Castile to bits. He is the perfect combination of danger and sexiness that practically revs up my engines. A hero whose body alone speaks volumes, the way he rides that tough meanie motorbike of his enough to make this girl swoon. And that take charge attitude of his and smouldering I-am-dying-to-take-you-against-the-wall-or-any-flat-surface-available-right-now stare of his was just the right amount to leave me practically sighing all over the place.

Jess turned out to be an equally endearing heroine too. Though at times I was of the opinion that Jess just should’ve trusted her instincts and gone ahead with Castile from the start, I could understand the whys of Jess’s actions when it comes to Castile. The woman who wants no emotional entanglements, whose commitment to the ballet demands that she focus on little else but just that and the fact that Castile makes her feel all too much makes Jess hesitate in putting her heart on the line when it comes to him. And then there is that shred of mystery that surrounds Castile like an invisible aura that drives Jess a bit crazy trying to figure out where he is coming from.

I wouldn’t term the love that flares to life between Jess and Castile as a terrible love. I would label their love anything but that. Combustive, fiery, consuming; all words that I would use to describe the love between them, a love that felt right, a love that just seemed to click in all those places that hums yes when an author gets it right and a love that had me smiling as I turned the very last page. A job I would say very well done by an author who is unfamiliar to me and yet already just a step away from becoming an auto-buy for me. The best bit about looking up this book on Goodreads today? Turns out that the second book in this series is told from Castile’s point of view and its already out. How delicious is THAT going to be?

Final Verdict: One hell of a page-turner. The twists and turns this book takes leaves you drained. Yep, that good!

Favorite Quotes

“May I kiss you, Jess?” he whispers above my mouth.
No. “Yes,” I whisper back against every impulse not to.
He doesn’t take my lips softly but crushes my mouth against his, a storm crashing into the shore, his full lips working over mine, forcing them open, and I groan as he gathers me against him, his huge hands splaying against my lower back in a con- vulsive surge, bringing me into the line of his body.

I don’t know who moves first but before I can take my next breath I’m in his arms, his fingers tearing out my damp braid and plowing through my long hair. He holds my face, slam- ming his mouth against mine until I groan and open it for him. His other hand goes to the small of my back, then dives down to my ass as he lifts me against him, my legs automatically winding around his waist.

“Watch me, Jess,” he says in quiet command, and I don’t look away, can’t. He pulls out torturously slow, then slams his cock so deeply inside me my walls clench around him and he moans softly, the beautiful ebony of his eyes disappearing when he closes them in paused ecstasy.

I grip him hard and pull; he shudders under my touch. “Don’t do that, vanilla girl.”
“Or what?” I ask breathlessly.
And he shows me. Cas hikes me against the wall. “You said just fucking, Jess.”
He grinds his hips against my lower body, his engorged cock splitting my lips apart, and I gasp as an electric surge floods my system, beginning at my sex and spreading like a wildfire ignited. My hips give a responding swivel.

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

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: Cake by Lauren Dane

Format: E-bookcake
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Gregori Ivanov
Heroine: Wren Davis
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: September 15, 2013
Started On: September 5, 2013
Finished On: September 5, 2013

Gregori Ivanov is an artist whose bad boy image keeps at bay and hides his true nature from the clamoring fans who always seems to want one thing or the other from him. His marriage and the divorce that had followed suite, together with the destructive relationship he tends to have with his ex-wife seems to have driven up the walls that protect his heart and emotions with iron bars.

Wren Davis is an art student, working as a part-time messenger to pay the bills which brings her to the home of the ultra gorgeous Gregori who makes her want and crave for him in a way she has never craved anyone ever before. The friendship and the flirty relationship that has been going on between Gregori and Wren for the past year or so reaches its breaking point and tumbles over when Gregori is driven to take a bite of the woman who has been driving him slowly crazy for the past couple of months. Wren is determined that she would make Gregori give in to the heat and obvious connection that is way more than just physical between them. And Gregori finds out the hard and delicious way that he is indeed no match for a determined Wren from getting all that she wants.

Cake though a short read proved to be an explosively good one. There is of course the hero Gregori who made me practically salivate with that bad boy charm of his and that predatory soul that comes to life within him when Wren is in the picture. Gregori might want to resist Wren with everything that he is for all the wrong reasons and that is exactly what gives this story the edge it required.

Wren was a lovely heroine. I loved her for her independence and her resilience when it came Gregori which made her put her foot down and work for the man she had fallen for. While the sex was of the scorching hot and panty melting variety, it is the connection between them outside of the bedroom that made my heart melt and made me root for them big time!

With just the right amount of body tingling variety of scorching hot sex and a hero who slips to  muttering in Russian in the throes of passion, I couldn’t have found a better way to spend the one hour it took to devour this scorching goodie! Highly recommended!

Final Verdict: Sizzling chemistry and a Russian hero = Win!

Favorite Quotes

He tasted like…well like everything she’d imagined he’d taste like. The spice of the Turkish tobacco in the French cigarettes he smoked. A little bit of vodka. Some cinnamon, probably from the gum he’d been chewing. And something else she couldn’t define but was all his anyway.
Heat raced through her veins. She nipped his bottom lip and he groaned again. She laved the sting with her tongue and tasted the kiss, the need between them and it was her turn to groan.

She climbed into his lap and he drew a shaky breath.
“I felt just how much you wanted me then.” She rolled her hips, grinding herself against his cock. “I feel it now. Question is, Gregori, do you enjoy me as much as you enjoy cake? And how can you know unless you take a taste?”
She brushed her lips over his mouth and his eyes snapped open. “Indeed.”
His muscles, which had been tense, loosened and then he pounced. He wrapped his arms around her, hauled her closer and kissed her.

She grabbed his waist, working his pants open. He swore when she took him in her hand, fisting, sliding up and a down a few times.
He muttered in Russian, drawing aside the straps from her camisole and bra, kissing the bare skin he left behind.
More muttering in Russian. Hearing it made her so hot.
“What? What are you saying? You’re giving me a complex.”
He snorted, tipping his head to look into her face. “I can’t get at all of you adequately here.”

“He’d better not fuck and dash.” Zoe sniffed as she cracked her beer open.
“He’s not what he tries to portray to the outside world. He’s a nice guy. Yes, he’s bossy and imperious and totally spoiled. But there’s more to Gregori than what you see at first glance.”
“Speaking of that. So… equipment wise you’d say? Standard? Deluxe? Premium?”
“Presidential suite.”

He drove her up fast. Relentless and when she came it was hard, rushing up from her toes to the top of her head as she clamped down around him. She heard the growl, a snarl of a sound as he followed, the hand at her hip tightening just shy of pain.

He watched the ghost of their reflection in the window, the way her lip caught between her teeth. Wanton. Even as he had her, he wanted more. He knew even as he came that he’d want her again within minutes.
She tightened herself around him and he growled. “Don’t think I didn’t miss this.” “You’d better have.”
She pushed back hard and fast, tightening up again and it was too much, he tumbled down, coming, his head back on a snarl of her name.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N 

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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

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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by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: Picture Perfect Wedding by Fiona Lowe

Format: E-bookpictureperfectwedding.jpg
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Wedding Fever, #2
Publisher: Carina Press
Hero: Luke Anderson
Heroine: Erin Davis
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: August 12, 2013
Started On: August 4, 2013
Finished On: August 5, 2013

30 year old Luke Anderson is a dairyman, the owner of Lakeview Farm, a farm that has been in his family for generations. Though Luke has gone through the whole of his life preparing for the takeover of the business from his father, something akin to discontentment has settled deep in his gut and he is unsure of the hows and whys of it and how to shake it off.

Erin Davis is a photographer of high-end brides, someone who has a plan to take her from Point A to Point B. Not one to take unnecessary risks, Erin needs the award which will be hers if everything goes according to plan, the publicity the award is going to bring on which she is basing the future of the rest of her self-made career on. Standing in her way of achieving the picture perfect wedding is one delicious hunk of a farmer who gets her inner wanton self doing cartwheels and somersaults in her attempt to make him sit up and take notice.

When Erin turns up at Lakeview Farm, the one thought that rushes through Luke’s mind before turning to mush in the face of that sizzling attraction that flares to life between them is the fact that he has no time in his life for high maintenance city girls. Luke might want to turn his back on Erin and her beautiful green eyes that calls out to him on levels that he doesn’t even begin to understand, but he finds that the strange fascination that he has for Erin is hard to say no to. For Erin, Luke is the one temptation that she cannot resist, even when their summer affair heats up just more than her sheets at night.

Picture Perfect Wedding is the second book in the Wedding Fever series set in the small town of Whitetail, Wisconsin. I loved this instalment in the series from the characters to the fun antics that had me snorting and laughing out loud and also the secondary romance that unfolded between the town widower Nicole and the hot new fire chief Tony.

Luke and Eric are a delicious couple, both with their own misgivings about their future and their own battles to fight. Luke is a man who is undecided on what he wants to do to the farm, and it certainly doesn’t help matters when it brings problems raining down on his close-knit family and has his retired father breathing down his neck.

Erin falls in love with every aspect of the charming life that she sees happen every day in Whitetail. With a steady income burgeoning her bank balance for the first time in a long while, Erin finds herself to be in her element, all the while working towards photographing the perfect wedding which would change the course of her life. But beneath all that enthusiasm lies a heart that is scared beyond anything at the thought of tying herself down, opening her heart to pain and heartache that is certain to follow in the wake of every relationship.

I loved both Luke and Erin, Lukes stoicism something that truly made his character one thats fascinating. Put into the mix his family and two dogs plus the various well meaning members of the community, well you have a hell of a lot on your hands to juggle and its wonderful the way Fiona knows just what to do to keep the story flowing smoothly. I loved the sexual battle of wills that took place between Luke and Erin and of course I didn’t even expect Nicole to come out and show a side of herself that I wouldn’t have ever thought her capable of. The secondary romance that took place perfectly complemented and was in line with the primary story that was unfolding and though I would have loved to learn more about Tony, I found myself pretty much satisfied with the level of detail Fiona went into when it came to their romance.

If there is anything Fiona Lowe does exceptionally well, it is contemporary romances set in small towns and she writes them with so much heart that it is impossible not to lose yourself in the magic of it all.

Recommended for fans of the series and fans of small town romances.

Final Verdict: Picture Perfect Wedding comes to you with lots of sizzle, fun & heart. Not to be missed!

Favorite Quotes

With a puff of dissatisfaction that he was so slow to respond, she pulled her hand from his, rose on her toes, slid both her hands against his cheeks, angled his mouth and kissed him.
Her lips pressed against his and the slight scratch of his top lip grazed hers as she coaxed him to open his mouth to her. Chocolate, coffee and heat flowed through her, spinning currents of delight eddying through her, feeding her need for this man like oxygen fuels fire.

Her fingertip touched his and flames engulfed her. His large, strong hand closed around her wrist. She lunged toward him as his arms lifted her at the hips, and then her legs were wrapped around his waist, and she was burying herself against his chest. She was home. Her body, so taut with ragged need for so long, stilled for a heartbeat, suspended in bliss, and then primal energy thundered through her. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she lowered her mouth to his and kissed him.

His hands gripped her hips and he lifted her over him and then very slowly he lowered her down.
Her body, oh so very ready and desperate for him, opened easily, absorbing him bit by bit until she’d stretched to the limit and he completely filled her. The sensation was indescribable and she experienced the oddest feeling that she was going to cry, which made no sense because her body was on fire for him. Her throbbing muscles, which had ached for him, closed around him and need became fire driving her upward to seize the ultimate prize.

She smelled of vanilla and tasted of salt and he couldn’t get enough of the feel of her body. Reverently, he cupped her breasts in his hands, savoring the weight of them against his palm.
She gave a moan of pleasure and he felt her breasts tighten. He grinned. He’d never had a lover this responsive. Very slowly, he moved the pad of his thumbs across her nipples. Her body jerked and her eyes opened as wide as a cat’s. In the clear, green depths he clearly read desire—hot, molten need for him.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Guilty as Sin by Jami Alden

Format: E-bookguiltyassin
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Forever
Hero: Tommy Ibarra
Heroine: Kate Beckett
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: July 30, 2013
Started On: August 1, 2013
Finished On: August 3, 2013

Jami Alden is one of my go-to authors for novels of the romantic suspense variety. She has a style of writing similar to that of authors like Cynthia Eden that makes a book hard to put down. Thus when I came across the publication date of Guilty as Sin which happened to be the 30th of last month, I didn’t hesitate to mark my calender and purchase myself a copy the very day it was released.

33 year old Tommy Ibarra is ex-military, specialized in the weapon of information retrieval amongst other things. 30 year old Kate Beckett is the daughter of a US Senator, working with families of child kidnappings, a calling she had paid heed to after the fateful night 14 years back when her younger brother Michael had been kidnapped and brutally killed. The guilt that Kate has harbored since then proves to be one of the reasons that the budding romance between Tommy, the son of a rancher and Kate had not accounted to much.

When a fresh kidnapping brings an altogether more poised, collected and a professional Kate to Tommy’s hometown once again, the feelings that he had pushed aside into a deep and dark corner of his heart clamors to be let out from its prison and embrace the only woman that Tommy had ever truly loved. However, with the dark shadows that linger between them, reconciliation of the feelings that are very much alive between them is easier said than done, especially when things aren’t what they seem to be and the case puts Kate’s life in danger in more ways than one.

Guilty as Sin is sort of a spin off from the trilogy that featured the books, Beg for Mercy, Hide from Evil and Run from Fear. I remember Tommy making an appearance in one of the books, don’t know which for certain. Tommy is a brooding hunk of a hero with an army tattoo to complete the package. His past run-in with Kate, an altogether younger, softer and a much less cynical version of him had been burnt badly and Tommy is of the mind that nothing would make him take that step towards Kate and claim her as his, no matter how much his body might want him to.

Kate knows she has a lot to apologize for where Tommy is concerned. And though being in close quarters with Tommy is the last thing she wants, Kate finds she has little choice where the matter is concerned, and if truth be told, Kate is as much enamored by the brooding and a much cynical version of the boy she had fallen head over heels in lust and love with all those years ago. But the ugly sword of guilt that she harbors inside of her heart rears its ugly head, especially when the new case brings too close to comfort the memories of a night that has tainted her life so much.

The villain though is twisted as they come is easy to figure out even from the very beginning of the story. Even though that’s the case, the outcome of the story is not affected because Jami certainly knows how to keep the pages turning and the momentum going. I loved Tommy and Kate and felt for both of them, especially Kate who struggles with a lot of dark memories. It is a wonder that she can stand as she does and work so closely with families who are going through something that she herself had gone through with much more terrible an outcome.

The heat between Tommy and Kate is classic Jami Alden, and I say classic because Jami is an author who definitely knows how to turn the heat up.

Recommended for fans of Jami Alden and fans of romantic suspense with heat and twisted villains.

Final Verdict: A villain who’s beyond twisted, a love that defies the most terrible a tragedy & heat of the scorching variety. Jami Alden’s signature shines through & through!

Favorite Quotes

Her memories of Tommy’s kiss, his touch, didn’t come close to what she was feeling now. It was like being thrust into a vortex full of heat and light, where nothing mattered but the taste of him, the soft rasp of his tongue against hers as he tasted every corner of her mouth. She opened her mouth wider, pressed her lips harder, sucked his tongue into her mouth like she was starving for the taste of him.

Then he was there, as deep as he could go, deeper than any other man had ever been.
Tommy Ibarra is inside of me.
That was all it took to send her careening over the edge. Her orgasm hit her with sudden, stunning force. He didn’t even have to move—just the feel of him, buried deep, so big and hard her body could barely contain him, was enough to make her shudder and clench around him as waves of pleasure like nothing she’d ever known poured through her.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N

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