Category / Red Hot Reads

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Burn For Me by Cynthia Eden

Format: E-bookburnforme
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Series: Phoenix Fire, #1
Publisher: Brava
Hero: Cain O’Connor
Heroine: Eve Bradley
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: January 28 , 2014
Started On: February 13, 2014
Finished On: February 16, 2014

She was Eve . . . his Eve.

Having never sampled Cynthia Eden’s paranormal romances before, I sort of expected the same sort of intense writing that she puts into her romantic suspense novels. And yes, while the intensity was there, her paranormal romance or rather this particular novel tended to have a different “voice” to it and rightly so when all sorts of emotions and events are explosive on an altogether different scale when you consider the nature of the characters that would exist in a paranormal romance.

The first book in the Phoenix Fire series, Burn for Me tells the story of Subject Thirteen, aka Cain O’Connor, a man whose ability is being exploited by keeping him caged, under lock and key. When Eve Bradley at first enters the Genesis Facility posing as a research assistant to uncover the truth to the facility and the man behind the operations, she doesn’t contemplate on meeting a man whose very gaze burns right through her.

Escape from the facility comes at a cost, the cost of running for their lives as the hunt intensifies and reaches a national level with little or no way out for either of them. With each avenue that might provide Eve with away to clear up their names and bring the truth behind the nefarious experimentation and exploitation of the paranormal beings that have been happening for far too long, Eve starts to realize that when one has deep pockets extending its way to the top layer of the government, there is little choice for the victims caught in the midst.

Cain burns for Eve in a way that he has never burned for any other. The fact that he is dangerous is one that seems to be lost on Eve, the only woman who is able to handle him and accept him the way he is. Eve has the ability to reach deep inside of him, even when he is lost and in the throes of the darkness that seems to engulf him time and yet again. Rather than minding the darkness of his cravings and his total lack of control when it comes her, Eve seems to revel in the fact and want more. That in itself is a novelty for a man like Cain whose very existence is one that would always be up for exploitation by those hungry for power.

With Burn for Me, Cynthia Eden introduces a world of shape shifters and vampires, one that has an interesting premise to it. While Cain was the dark hero personified, Eve tended to be the one whose thoughts alone had the ability to make me smile. Eve has the sort of character that finds humor in even the most difficult predicaments, and there were a lot of them as the story progressed on its way. The one thing that stood out for me in Cain’s character was his uber possessiveness when it comes to Eve, even when one half of him refuses to accept the fact that he is enamored with a woman who just might be his undoing.

Though Burn for Me didn’t woo me on a scale Cynthia’s romantic suspense novels do, I believe I am intrigued enough to know more of this world and of course the story of the wolf shifter and the tortured vampire seems like they’d offer great stories to indulge in. Recommended for those who love Cynthia Eden’s paranormal romances.

Final Verdict: Eve and Cain’s intensity together burns through the pages!

Favorite Quotes

He didn’t let her make it to the bed. Two more steps, and he pounced. The room spun around her. She blinked, then found herself flat on the mattress. Her legs were parted, dangling over the edge of the bed, and Cain was between them.
“Need to taste . . . have to . . .”
He put his mouth against her. A mouth that was just as warm as the rest of him. Not burning. Heated just . . . right. His tongue licked over her clit. His fingers slid into her. He tasted.
She came.
But he didn’t stop.

“I’ve been waiting for you . . .”
She blinked, then shook her head, sure that she’d misunderstood. He couldn’t have just said those words. They didn’t make any sense but . . .
I feel like I’ve been waiting for him, too.

“Eve?”
“Yes . . .” Her whisper. “Cain, come in . . .”
He thrust into her and she forgot everything else. Her legs wrapped around his hips. Eve arched up against him. She’d never been filled this way before. Completely. Totally. This wasn’t just sex.
Possession.
Heat.
Need.
Pleasure.

His gaze met hers, and she saw the danger in his stare. “Even hell can’t make me forget some things.” His hand rose to her mouth. “I came back . . . wanting your taste again.”
Eve swallowed. “Cain?”
“I opened my eyes”—he pulled away from her and stood with his back to her—“saw you and thought . . .”
What? What had he thought?
“Mine,” Cain growled out the one word.

Rough. Hard. Fast. He drove into her again and again. Her sex closed around him, holding tight, and his cock seemed to swell more inside her, stretching her with delicious pleasure.
His hands were on her hips. Holding her. Lifting her. Getting her to take more of him. More.
The climax hit her, slamming through her, and Eve screamed.

The rush of pleasure built fast. No gentle peak. A tidal wave that flooded over her and took her breath.
It didn’t stop. He didn’t stop. More. More. He rolled her over on the bed. Lifted her onto her knees. Surrounded her with his body and his heat and his power and—
Took.
Deeper. Harder.

He lifted her higher. Positioned her so that his mouth hovered right over her sex
Then he took her. His tongue thrust into her sex and she jerked against him. Good. Her taste filled his mouth. Cream. Woman. Sweet and rich and perfect on his tongue.

He erupted inside her, driving into her and shuddering with the force of a release that gutted him. A pleasure that ripped past the fire and the hell and touched the man caged inside him.
“Eve.” Her name broke from him.
She came around him, shuddering, her sex gripping him and greedily taking the last of his orgasm.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Scream For Me by Cynthia Eden

Format: E-bookscreamforme
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: For Me, #3
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Hero: Kyle McKenzie
Heroine: Dr. Cadence Hollow
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: February 4, 2014
Started On: February 12, 2014
Finished On: February 13, 2014

Its being a while since I’ve read a good romantic suspense novel and Scream For Me, the 3rd book in Cynthia Eden’s For Me series seemed to be a good place to start. I actually had no idea that Scream For Me belonged to a series of books; I just received an email from Amazon on its release this month since I’ve purchased Cynthia’s books before. Either way, even though there was a time or two while I was reading that I thought to myself I should have checked whether this was a standalone before purchasing, Scream For Me had the ability to wipe out every other thought from my mind and make me focus on the developing story.

Dr. Cadence Hollow is an FBI agent who specializes in serial killers. Her “talent” lies in thinking like the victim, going through the motions the victim would’ve undergone under the circumstances. Kyle McKenzie is Cadence’s partner, a sexy and dangerous agent that makes Cadence wish for things that could never be. Cadence had been unimpressed at first when Kyle had been assigned as her partner, but as time had gone on and Kyle had proved himself, Cadence had come to realize that when it comes to Kyle, there are many enticing layers to him that she wants to explore, even if it might not be whats best for both of them.

Their latest case takes them to Paradox, Alabama, where a woman has been snatched from her car which was left stranded in a lonely highway. For Kyle, the case is personal on a level that would have him taken off of it, except for the determination that drives him to find the killer. Cadence might not want to believe Kyle and the connection that he at first makes with a similar abduction that had happened a long time back, but when the clues start to pile up and the bodies too in its wake, Cadence is left with no choice but to find the killer who had spent so much time doing what he does and had managed to slip under the radar for so very long.

What the killer wants is to play a game, a game to draw Kyle into a web of destruction that would ultimately destroy him. And with the clock ticking and the pressure on, Kyle finds himself edging more and more towards the vortex into which the killer wants him sliding into, the only thing holding him back being the fiery connection he has with his partner, a connection that forgoes the professional level into personal, a connection that he wants to expand and work on without any walls of pretense between them.

Scream for Me is a quintessential Cynthia Eden when it comes to romantic suspense. Her stories are always intense, both in the suspense and romance aspect and Scream for Me had all the ingredients that made this a worthy read. I especially loved how good the suspense was in the novel, enough to make me switch back on the reading light to light up the room even though I was reading from my iPad. Yes, the killer was that creepy to instill that sort of fear inside of me and I would say that alone tells enough the story on just how good a tale Cynthia weaved with this novel.

Though the sex was insanely hot as is usual when it comes to Cynthia’s novels, I did feel that the deeper connection that should have existed between Cadence and Kyle was a bit off in this story. Somehow I just didn’t get the feeling that there were the feelings of the variety of deep abiding love between them. Don’t get me wrong, Kyle has enough singe to him to light the whole room up with that dangerous vibe to him hot enough to put the heat on. Perhaps my point of contention stems from the story’s intensity in every aspect not giving Kyle and Cadence enough leeway to have a moment to slow down and take it all in. Or perhaps it could be a result of not having read the two books prior to this one. Either way, I wanted something more for Kyle and Cadence which somehow did not materialize. Or it could also have been the fact that both Kyle and Cadence’s pasts were left untouched even though there were references to that which if delved deeper could have changed how I felt about their connection.

Recommended for fans of Cynthia Eden and fans of intense romantic suspense novels.

Final verdict: Nail biting suspense guaranteed!

Favorite Quotes

His tongue thrust into her mouth. She gasped in surprise, and he took the sweet breath away from her. She’d stiffened in his arms.
No, Cadence. No. Want me, need me, as much as I do you.
Her hands locked around his shoulders. Her nails bit into his skin.
She kissed him back with a wild desperation of desire and passion that matched his.

He bent toward her. Wanted her mouth again. He’d been denied it for too long. “I think if I don’t have you tonight, I might go insane.” She’d been what got him through the darkness.
Her hand tugged away from his. “Go get your shower, McKenzie. Maybe it will cool you off.” She turned for the door.
He didn’t move. “Since I’ve been burning alive for you from the day we met, I doubt a shower is going to help much.”

He licked and wanted more. She was gasping now, pushing her hips against him, and he wasn’t stopping. He wanted deeper. Wanted more.
Wanted everything Cadence had. Everything she’d ever have.
Her nails sank into his shoulders. He liked the sting of pain.
He liked it even better when she came against his mouth, gasping his name.

He ditched his jeans and had his cock at the entrance of her body in seconds.
All that wet heat. Just waiting for him.
He held his body still, even though all he wanted was so close. “No going back,” he told her. The words were a promise. A warning.
He thrust into her and was lost.

“This is a mistake,” she whispered.
“Then it’s the best fucking mistake I’ve ever made.”
She smiled then.
His heart stopped.

Purchase Links: Amazon | BookDepo

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Devil’s Waltz by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookthedevilswaltz
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: MIRA
Hero: Christian Richard Benedict de Crecy Montcalm
Heroine: Honorable Miss Annelise Kempton
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: February 1, 2006
Started On: February 5, 2014
Finished On: February 7, 2014

The Devil’s Waltz by Anne Stuart is a romance that offers a bit of a toned down version of the usual variety of heroes that Anne Stuart creates. For someone who pretty much adores the version of anti-heroes as some might label the heroes in Stuart’s books, the toned down version wasn’t any less appealing to me, perhaps because the story still carries the essential elements necessary to draw all sorts of emotions from the reader.

Honorable Miss Annelise Kempton is almost 30 years old and unmarried. Rendered penniless with the death of her father, Annelise moves from one household to another, offering her services for bed and board because to work for a living for someone of her standing was practically frowned upon. Her latest mission so to say lands her in the household of that of Josiah Chippah, a self-made man who wants the marriage of his beautiful daughter to achieve his goal of belonging to elite of the society.

Annelise’s charge is hellbent on marrying Christian Montcalm, the worst of rakes one could come across. Penniless to the point of being destitute, Christian has his sights set on the woman who would bring all the wealth that he requires to put his life back in order, not that he cares much about the sort of thing. The only obstacle in his path seems to be the infuriating woman that is Annelise, a woman who stirs his interest in a way it hasn’t been stirred in a long time, or ever.

Annelise takes her responsibility towards her charge seriously, but the things Christian makes her think of and want to do should not be the thoughts that should run through a woman who has accepted the fact that she would forever be a spinster and that no man, especially a man as beautiful as Christian would want her. With each drugging kiss that Christian lays on her, Annelise’s resolve to stay away from his charming self dissolves at her feet until she is practically laid bare with her naked longing for a man who would never be suitable for a woman like her.

Interwoven into the tale of heat, passion and love between Annelise and Christian lies the story of a nefarious villain who is willing to do everything in his power to get what he wants, even if it is by committing murder in cold blood. The Devil’s Waltz has one of the most beautiful epilogues that I have come across in an Anne Stuart novel. Like it always happens to me in epilogues in Stuart’s books, I had to read and re-read the epilogue until I was satisfied enough to close my eyes and go to sleep, even though it was the wee hours of the morning by then.

The Devil’s Waltz reaffirms my belief that reformed rakes make the best of husbands. And just like the heroes of the caliber that only Stuart can create, Christian had all those essential bits that makes a hero swoon worthy minus the dark edge that seems to be off putting to certain readers of romance. If you have never read an Anne Stuart and would love to read one, I suggest you go with this one. It definitely has the sort of hero that you can get down with, and a heroine you would equally adore. Not to mention the witty banter that is an integral part of the story which made me laugh at several places throughout the read. Recommended!

Final Verdict: Decadent and delicious!

Favorite Quotes

He was sound asleep, his long legs stretched out in front of him, the blessed fire blazing, an empty bottle of wine by his side. He hadn’t been shaved recently, and he looked rumpled, dissolute and beautiful. Like a fallen angel. She moved to stand in front of him and pointed the pistol directly at his heart.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he murmured, and then he opened his extraordinary eyes. “It’s always unwise to shoot the man you’re in love with.”

She reached behind his head, caught his long hair in her hand, and offered her cheek to him, closing her eyes.
He laughed. “I don’t think so, my love.” And he swept her into his arms, pulling her tight against his strong body, and put his hungry mouth on hers.
He tasted like wine and hot sweet sin.

She wasn’t expecting it, wasn’t prepared for it. This was no lazy seduction, no charming flirtation. This was carnal, deep and shattering, and before she realized it he’d pushed her up against the wall, holding her there as he kissed her, and the feeling was so powerful she felt as if she might explode. His hand covered her breast, barely restrained by the antique chemise, and she could feel her nipples tighten against him, feel a wash of something totally foreign and good sweep over her body, until she was both hot and cold, trembling, wanting to weep, wanting to slap him, wanting to rip the white lace from her body and place his mouth where his hand was.

He put his mouth close to hers, just a moment away from kissing her, and her impossibly fast heartbeat raced ever stronger against his fingers.
“Shall I ruin you, dragon?” he whispered, aching for her. “Or shall I send you on your way?”

He tugged at his loosely tied cravat, sending it sailing. He ripped at his own buttons, opening his shirt and reaching for his breeches, when he stopped. “One last warning, love. This is no fairy-tale business, no pretty dream. It’s real. It’s dark and messy and for you, painful. In the beginning, at least. You’ll end up hating me.”
“Don’t worry about it, Christian,” she said. “I already hate you.”

“Chérie, I am going to die if I don’t finish,” he whispered in a hoarse groan. And the words, as if by instinct, were in French.
“Then finish me,” she whispered in the same language.

Her body convulsed and she tried to cry out, but nothing came from her throat but a strangled cry. She was out of control, lost, gone somewhere that she hadn’t known existed, and the only thing with her was Christian, his arms around her, shaking as hard as she was as he spilled himself deep inside her.

He was dressed, or at least halfway there. He had his breeches on, and his shirt was half-buttoned. He must have finally run out of things to do with her, she thought dazedly. So why, when she looked at him, did her body still shiver in longing?

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

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by mvbookreviewer

ARC Review: Kaleidoscope by Kristen Ashley

Format: E-bookkelaidoscope
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Colorado Mountain, #6
Publisher: Forever
Hero: Jacob Decker
Heroine: Emmanuelle Holmes
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: February 4, 2014
Started On: January 29, 2014
Finished On: February 2, 2014

“We’ve always worked, Emme. Always.”

37 year old Jacob Decker finds himself back in Gnaw Bone, Colorado, running into Emmanuelle Holmes (Emme), nine years after they had last parted ways. Emme had been Jacob’s then girl friend Elsbeth’s best friend, and Emme and Jacob had shared a connection that had surpassed anything he had had with Elsbeth. However, Jacob had walked away once things had ended with Elsbeth, taking with him the one thing that Emme had given him, urging him to see the beauty of what he could have, if he were to look hard enough and seek it.

When Emme and Jacob run into each other, the only thing that stops Jacob from staking a claim is the fact that Emme has a man by her side, a man who Jacob is investigating in a string of crimes that had been happening around Gnaw Bone. Once these two meet though, there is no denying the fact that the feeling of connectedness that they had shared before still exists and the unexplored and unacknowledged feelings of desire and want on each others part runs deeper than ever.

While it might seem that Jacob and Emme would find their happily ever after in the most straightforwards a manner, the story proceeds to throw so many curve balls your way. Emme has a lot of stuff to deal with, the aftereffects of an event that had taken place in her childhood that she had never properly dealt with. The feelings of disconnectedness that tends to have a stronghold of her emotions drives Jacob crazy, but if there is one thing that Jacob is good at, it is solving puzzles of the kind that would make a lesser man give up.

After the disappointment that Law Man turned out to be, I think I found a bit of the Kristen Ashley that I remember from Dream Man inside of Kaleidoscope. The uber alpha hero is totally present with Jacob supplying more than enough sexy to the story from his dominance in the bedroom to the way he takes care of the woman he loves. And Emme proved to be the sort of heroine who could give as good as she got and also knew to take a step back when required.

Though sometimes I wish that Kristen’s characters would talk to each other instead of around each other, somehow with the sort of charm that only Kristen can pull off, it seems to work. The one aspect that I found lacking in the story was how rushed up the suspense aspect of the novel was in comparison to the romance aspect. The balance seemed to be sort of off in this story. Another thing that continued to irk was the fact that Jacob makes such a huge deal out of keeping his career a secret from Emme. Though that’s what he had done with each of his girlfriends, I just couldn’t understand why he couldn’t share his work, perhaps not all aspects of it but some, that would have showed in reality that he trusts her on a level that he hasn’t or doesn’t with anyone else.  So, even though Kaleidoscope didn’t come close to the caliber of that of Dream Man, it still managed to deliver a story that entertained.

Final Verdict: Contains the classic elements of a Kristen Ashley that makes Kaleidoscope a good read!

Favorite Quotes

I closed my eyes tight, put my forehead in my hand, my elbow to my knee and I whispered, “What if you don’t like the way I kiss?”
“I’ll like the way you kiss,” he whispered back.
“What if you don’t?”
“You’re the smartest woman I know, baby, you’ll learn to give me what I like.”

Fuck, she smelled of strawberries and tasted like them too. Fresh, cool and sweet.
At the touch of his tongue, Emme went completely still.
Deck pressed his advantage and deepened the kiss, drinking from her mouth, taking all he could get.
Christ. Unbelievable.
It became more unbelievable.
Because two seconds in, she… went… wild.

Then he slid down, yanked down the zippers on her boots, tugged them off, then socks, jeans, panties, all cast aside.
“Spread,” he growled.
On another sexy mew, Emme spread.
Deck bent forward and fed.
Christ. Hot. Drenched. Pure beauty. Absolute.

“More,” she breathed.
That was all Deck needed.
He pounded deep, watched and felt her reach for it, take hold and slide over the side, crying out, her neck arced, the elegant line of her jaw exposed, then her head shot forward and she buried her face in his neck.
He rode her hard, harder, then he planted himself, and Emme’s fire dancing behind his eyes, Emme his entire universe, Deck exploded on a long, deep groan.

“Jacob!” I gasped.
“Now this,” he grunted as he thrust, “this, baby, is fun.”
He could say that again.
He didn’t.
He kissed me.
I came again a few seconds later.
Then he did the same a minute after that.

I knew it was leaving him when he planted himself inside and stayed there, not moving, hands gripping my hips, pads of his fingers digging in and there was something about being connected to him like that, held by him like that, no movement, just that.
All that he had was his. My sex. My hips. My body on its knees before him. Just his.
I was Jacob’s.

He covered her, took her mouth and thrust deep.
Her arms rounded him and her whimper raced down his throat.
Soon, her pussy convulsed as she took his cock and her whimpers turned to heated mews.
But he was close too.
And he brought them home together, bodies and mouths connected, her cry mingled with groan.
Magnificent.

Purchase Links: Amazon | iTunes | ARe

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: A Rose at Midnight by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookaroseatmidnight
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Avon
Hero: Nicholas Blackthorne
Heroine: Citizeness Ghislaine de Lorgny
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: February 28, 1993
Started On: January 18, 2014
Finished On: January 23, 2014

I picked up A Rose at Midnight by Anne Stuart in my attempt to make my way slowly back to earth, after riding the high of reading Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh. I tend to need some time to come to terms with the fact that I might not be able to come across a book that would give me such a high in the near future and most of the time is struck with the need to read a book from an author that would certainly entertain me if nothing else. And this historical set in the 1800’s did just that, in the end leaving me a bit contemplative too, which is something that tends to happen often after I finish reading an Anne Stuart romance.

Ghislaine de Lorgny’s mission in life for the past couple of years has been a simple one. She has been biding her time until she meets the man who would die at her hands, the man who turned his back on her and never looked back, the man who had broken her heart and let her be crushed in every single way left thereafter until the fire for revenge and need for vengeance had become what had kept Ghislaine going. Opportunity comes calling when the man himself comes to the home in which Ghislaine resides in, giving her the perfect chance to exact her revenge even if it means she’d have to leave the life that she’d made for herself in the past couple of years.

Nicholas Blackthorne is a man who possesses the blackest of reputations. With no scruples seemingly whatsoever, Nicholas lives his life as he pleases, the bleakness inside of his soul hidden by the depth of depravity that he shows to the rest of the world. When Ghislaine comes into his life once again, Nicholas does the unpredictable thing and carries her off with him, seemingly to teach her a lesson that she would never forget, all the while refusing to acknowledge just how much of his black soul is already possessed by the woman in question.

A Rose at Midnight might not be an easy read for some people, but then that is one reason why I love novels by Anne Stuart. There is a sensuality to her ruthless heroes that is indescribable, the way in which she can redeem even the most unlikely heroes one that always would keep me going back for more. Nicholas seemed like a hero who would never find his footing as someone who would redeem himself enough to win the affections of Ghislaine, but then Anne Stuart’s characters are hardly that straightforward and Nicholas was definitely no exception.

The life that Ghislaine had undergone during the uprising in France, the way she had lost her family and everything dear to her, not to mention how she had been defiled in the most vile manner while hatred had borne in her heart for the man who had been in the next room served to be reason enough for the rough and tough journey of the heart that Ghislaine takes towards love and peace of her soul. Acceptance of her feelings for the complex man that Nicholas is takes a lot of doing and I understood every single bit of turmoil, hatred, anger and deep sense of betrayal that she felt in the process. I would say that it would take a woman of immense courage to let go and embrace love, a love so fierce and powerful that even the darkness that had invaded her soul a long time back was no match for the sheer potency of it all.

I also loved the secondary romance tucked into this dark and gritty story which somehow seemed to lighten up the pages a bit. I loved Lady Ellen’s inquisitive, forward and at times clueless nature when it comes to the love of her life aka Honorable Sir Antony Wilton-Greening. Their courtship which takes place in their pursuit of Ghislaine and Nicholas seemed to make the darker emotions this novel seemed to generate easier to bear and I have to say I loved every single minute of their journey towards a beautiful and well deserved happily ever after.

Time and yet again, Anne Stuart astounds me with her creativity (even when I should know better by now), her characters and the way she unabashedly writes the best alpha heroes out there one that earns her the highest of ranks in my list of favorite authors. And every single time, with very few exceptions of course, I have always ended each book with the deepest sigh from within my soul, knowing that I couldn’t have asked for more!

Final Verdict: A Rose at Midnight is magnificent, the intricacy of this multi-layered tale is not to be missed!

Favorite Quotes

She could have withstood a brutal assault, his mouth grinding against her. She could have withstood a rough rape of her mouth, and she was fully prepared to disappear into that quiet place in her mind where no one could reach her.
But she was unprepared for the softness of his lips against hers. The damnable gentleness as he brushed his mouth against hers, feathering it lightly, so lightly that it was a caress. And she hadn’t been caressed in more than a decade.

“Just a kiss, love,” he said, putting his fingers under her chin and tilting her head up to meet his mouth. She held very still as his lips tasted hers, but he could feel the faint tremor that ran through her small, strong body, and he wondered idly what caused it. Hatred? Or desire?

Her body was stiff at first, and then slowly grew more pliant, her hips tilting up against his with the light encouragement of his hand at the small of her back, her perfect breasts through the thin layers of clothing pressing against his chest. He could hear the lazy buzz of bees in the background, the distant song of birds, and the wind rustled through the leaves overhead as he kissed her, until she was shaking, until he was shaking, until he wanted to push her down in the sweet-smelling grass and tear away her clothes and his, until he wanted to find comfort in the sweet danger of her body.

“It will be rape,” she said in a wild fury.
“No,” he said. “It won’t.”
She survived the fierce possession of his kiss. She survived his overpowering strength, as he pulled her to the bed, pushing her down and covering her flailing limbs with his strong body. She survived the touch of his hands on her breasts, the feel of his arousal against her stomach. But she couldn’t survive the sudden gentleness, the slow start of heat in her belly, the warmth in her breasts, the damnable yearning that blossomed in her heart.

She felt as if she were floating, lost in the feel of his lips on hers, the shocking intimacy of his tongue in her mouth, more intimate than anything she’d endured during her enforced couplings. She wanted to dissolve, to lose herself in the seductive wonder of his mouth possessing hers. She wanted it never to stop, to last forever in a billowing cloud of passion without end.

He’d told her she was beautiful, his precious child, his angel in a dark night. He’d told her she was his soul, his life and breath, and the heat of his desire.
And, God help him, he’d told her the worst thing of all. He’d told her that he loved her. And even now, he wasn’t quite sure if he’d lied.

“Don’t fight it, my angel,” he whispered, his voice a mockery. “I’m not going to finish with you until you come.”
She whimpered then, and hated herself for doing so. He covered her mouth with his, and like a fool she kissed him back, as his hair fell around them both, curtaining them in darkness. He reached down and caught her hips, pulling her up against him, and then his body went rigid in her arms, and she felt the flooding of a great warmth, one that for the first time was answered with her own warmth.

“You have two choices, Ghislaine. You must either kill me or love me. Make your decision.”
He watched her grip tighten on the knife, and he wondered whether this time she would do it.
He reached her, standing in front of her, his tom, bloodstained shirt barely covering his chest, and waited.
“Oh, my God,” she said in a broken voice. And she dropped the knife with a noisy clatter, and flung herself into his arms.

He caught her shoulders, pulling her up close against him, and this time he kissed her, hard and deep, a kiss she answered. Her dress ripped as he tore it off her; his breeches ripped as she tore them open. She touched him, felt the silken strength of him, and he groaned, deep in his throat, pushing against her hands.

He stared at her in mute frustration. “All right, I love you, damn it,” he snapped. “Does that satisfy you?”
She considered it. “It’s a start. But you’ll definitely need more practice. You haven’t learned the proper intonation. You need—” He silenced her, efficiently and swiftly, his mouth covering hers.
When he lifted his head they were both breathless. “I love you,” he said again, this time a little more softly.
She smiled up at him. “Much better,” she whispered.

Purchase Links: Amazon

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh

Format: E-bookheartofobsidian
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Paranormal/Futuristic Romance
Series: Psy-Changeling, #12
Publisher: Berkley
Hero: Kaleb Krychek
Heroine: Sahara Kyriakus
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: June 4, 2013
Started On: January 14, 2014
Finished On: January 18, 2014

With Heart of Obsidian, Nalini Singh has outdone every single book in the Psy-Changeling series, giving fans a whole new meaning to the term explosive, which renders this book the best addition to the series so far. One of the reasons that I think the story worked so well was the fact that Nalini decided to take a step back from the Changelings and focus on the intriguing world of Psy for a change. Added to it is the fact that Heart of Obsidian is the book that presents the most pivotal turning point in the series to date, thus it is no wonder that Heart of Obsidian practically turns the pages by itself with the sheer scale of entertainment it has to offer.

Kaleb Krychek, cardinal telekinetic is the man who had risen to power and attained his place in the Council at the young age of 27, the youngest to have secured a position as such. The sheer, raw and unadulterated power that he holds inside of him is one that kept me in awe from beginning till end, the scale of it one that I don’t think I would ever be able to completely wrap my head around. The plans he has for his race, a race that assumed Silence almost 100 years back to keep the madness at bay is one that only he is privy to. And all the while, Kaleb’s search for the woman who is the deepest flaw in his Silence had continued until finally, 7 years on, Sahara Kyriakus is found and returned to her rightful place beside him.

This spellbinding novel is the culmination of so many events that has continued to happen since the beginning of the series, the fact that Silence wasn’t what the Psy had assumed it would turn out to be made altogether more evident by a faction of the race who demands absolute Silence which would allow them ultimate control of the minds of every Psy. For them, it is absolute Silence or nothing else, even if it means the destruction of their whole race altogether.

Kaleb is an enigma, a man who makes your heart race, just because. Brought up as the protege of one the most evil of the Psy, no one knows for certain where Kaleb stands. The darkness that walks right along with him or rather inside of him is one that he had embraced a long time back, knowing that he’d been forged in the darkness, with his hands tainted in blood, his soul leeched dry of whatever emotions that would have made him even remotely hesitant in executing the plan he has in mind to take over the reins of a race that has been left floundering with their leaders in conflict with one another.

Kaleb’s most fascinating aspect turns out to be his “obsession” with Sahara, a term he would not have used to describe his relentless search for the woman for whom he would destroy everything and anyone who stands in his way and paint the world in blood red if required. Sahara when he finally finds her, is merely a shell of the 16 year old Sahara that was snatched away from his world, a woman who holds inside of her the sort of power that is enough make a man an Emperor, a power that in the wrong hands could be exploited for just that.

Kaleb’s plans for Sahara and that of the fate of the world takes an about turn when the Sahara he had known starts to return to him bit by bit, completely undoing his every intention and destroying every notion that he has held about himself when it comes to intimacies of the heart, body, mind and soul. With every searing kiss that is exchanged, Kaleb knows that its only a matter of time before Sahara realizes the darkness that swirls deep inside of him, ready to consume him and the rest of the world, if he were reach out and embrace the totality of it.

The things I loved about the Heart of Obsidian are many, and I am finding this review equally hard to write because I am afraid that I might not be able to do justice to the sheer pleasure reading this novel brought for me. I absolutely adored just how into each other both Kaleb and Sahara were; there were no pretenses to be had, no holding back and it worked beautifully for them with their entwined past making the connection between them that much more real. The heat and fire between Kaleb and Sahara was actually what I wanted for Hawke and Sienna, which unfortunately failed to materialize, the deep abiding connection between them something that I would carry in my heart always.

The telepathic dirty talk between Sahara and Kaleb was one that was enticing and arousing in equal doses, the scenes of passion between them hot enough to flatten down entire buildings with the raw power of it all. Beneath the icy cold exterior that is Kaleb lies the darkest of passions and deepest of desires, centered around just one woman who could bring him down to his very knees, the woman who would always be the game changer when it comes to him. Sahara’s adoration, love and deep seated protectiveness for all that is Kaleb was what made me fall in love with her, totally and irrevocably and I just might have to go ahead and say that I don’t think that I have ever fallen in love with a heroine that hard and fast. I definitely cannot wait to find out what Nalini is planning next for this incredible world that she has created, a world that is as enthralling as the stories that she spins around it.

Most absolutely recommended for everyone who loves romances, dark heroes, passions that run deep and obsessions that brings to light the most abiding of love.

Final Verdict: Stupendous in every single aspect, Heart of Obsidian is nothing short of a spectacular work of art!

Favorite Quotes

She couldn’t look away from him, his skin a sun gold that belied the cool lack of expression on his face. If he’d kept his distance, she might have resisted the temptation that had been riding her since the bedroom . . . but he crossed over to her, didn’t say a word when she ran her fingers over the tensile warmth of him, her nipples tight points against the thin fabric of her sleeveless lilac shirt.
His own hand was big, warm against her cheek as he cupped her jaw. “Don’t be afraid of me, Sahara.” Bending his head, he spoke with his lips against hers, the contact igniting a thousand tiny lightning strikes in her blood. “I’d line the streets with bodies before I’d ever hurt you.”

“I,” he murmured, “can never permit her freedom. She would find a way to harm you.”
Sahara’s eyes were haunted when they met his. “Am I so important to you?”
“Yes,” he said. “You’re everything.” The entire reason for his existence.

The caress felt raw, unpracticed, but no less addicting for it. The realization that he’d done this act with no other, that it was as new a pleasure to him as it was to her, was heroin in her bloodstream, a shocking punch of sensation, the world a study in passionate red. Stretching her body upward, her weight balanced on her toes, she kissed him with a wild desperation that lacked any sense of finesse.

Kaleb wasn’t cold now, his skin hot enough to burn, the arm he’d braced over her head trapping her in a prison she had no desire to escape. Thrusting her hands into his hair, she held him to her, sinking her teeth into his lower lip in a feral act of passion that should’ve shocked her.
It didn’t. Not in the madness.

A pause before he shifted to face her, one of his hands lightly cupping the side of her jaw, his eyes a black inferno. “I want more.”
Caught off guard at the realization that his arousal hadn’t been tempered by the interruption, Sahara’s lips parted in a gasp. Kaleb took the silent invitation, his mouth on hers as he pressed her back to the glass, his erection pushing into her abdomen in hard demand. Moaning, she sucked on his tongue as his hand came up to cover her breast . . . and the world turned to shards of glass, the windows exploding in a glittering shower of deadly snow.

Gripping her jaw in silent answer, he braced himself with his free arm beside her head, and then he branded her mouth with his own. You are mine. It was a statement telepathed along the private pathway that had formed years ago. Mine to touch. Mine to look at. Mine.

Sliding a hand from under her back, he gripped one breast with a firmness that felt like a brand and lowered his mouth to her flesh again. Her mind went red, her back arching as if to thrust her breast farther into his mouth. Kaleb, I need—
Tell me. Another scrape of teeth that scattered her neurons, her nails clawing the earth, crushed grass under her palms.
Touch me, please. I can’t—
Here? He cupped her between the thighs in a raw intimacy, pushing up with the heel of his hand.
And the world splintered.

“Teach me what feels good on your body.” She ached to kiss and pet him as he was doing her, burned to see those cardinal eyes drenched in the same storm that had sucked her under.
Watching you orgasm gives me extreme pleasure, was Kaleb’s unvarnished answer as his lips sought hers once more. Feeling you sticky and damp against my tongue, my fingers, your body soft under mine, your aroused nipples rubbing against my chest, that’s what feels good.

Sahara screamed, her body clenching around Kaleb’s in an orgasm that felt as if it would tear her to pieces . . . and that was when Kaleb’s control snapped. There was nothing practiced about the way he pounded deep into her over and over again, nothing restrained about the way he wrenched her head to the side to kiss and suck at her throat, nothing calculated about the way he bent her thigh upward then pushed it wide to facilitate a deeper taking.
It was primitive; it was rough; it was spectacular.

Kaleb came in violent silence, his breath harsh against her ear and his body rigid. The hot wet of his possession as his semen pulsed inside her made her erotically abused muscles spasm again, clenching tight around him. Jerking, he raised his head, eyes of obsidian holding her own as he drew back one final time, then thrust deep past her clenching muscles.
“Mine. You are mine.”
They were the last words Sahara heard before Kaleb’s kiss tore her apart, his body locked with her own as they fell.

“Make me yours, Kaleb.”
The throaty request, falling from lips plump and wet, snapped the ring of black ice. Slipping his hand under her thigh after repositioning his own, he spread her further and, tearing away her panties with a negligible use of his Tk, pushed inside her. She was tight. He was slow, deliberate. Moaning, Sahara dug her nails into his nape, her breasts flushed, her nipples lush beads he wanted to roll against his tongue.

“Kaleb!” Sahara convulsed around his erection, her entire body shaking with the strength of her orgasm.
Kaleb had intended to continue the slow pace that was an exercise in erotic control, but his brain short-circuited at the possessive clenching of Sahara’s intimate muscles. Pushing her onto her front, her face turned sideways on the pillow, he fisted one hand tightly in her hair and slammed into her in a brutally deep and fast rhythm, her body tight and slick and of the woman who was and had always been his. It felt like madness, creeping red on the horizon.

Punching her fist on the pillow, Sahara undulated her lower body toward him. Move!
The feminine demand was the only thing he needed to hear. Pounding into her, he saw her fingers clench tight on the sheets, her lips part on a breathless cry, and then she was coming around him once more, the pulses harder, more viciously possessive. Caught in the vise of her pleasure, his back arched as white lightning tore through his spine.
The bed slammed back to the ground.
Hard.
So did every other item in the room.

Sahara’s fingers tightened on his arm. “You’re mine.” Simple, quiet words that were a punch to the chest. “I will fight for you, today, tomorrow, and all the tomorrows to come.”

“You do not let that monster destroy the life we are going to have together. You are mine, not his. You have always been mine.”
The claiming was so absolute, it dared him to fight. Kaleb had no intention of doing so. Shuddering, he crushed her to him. “Yes,” he said, battling the rage because if he gave in to it, he would lose Sahara. “I’m yours. I will always be yours.”
Her lips on his jaw, on his cheek, her love fierce. “Remember that. Each action, every action you take, it has my name on it.”

“Kaleb.”
He flipped her onto her back on that breathless moan, making sure she never touched the wood. Her legs locked around his hips, her arms around his neck, her passion as wild as the rain that had turned hard, pounding against his back. Taking her mouth, tasting her with his tongue, he broke the kiss to thrust in and out of her in a driving rhythm, the water dripping off his lashes to hit her cheeks.
“Everything, Kaleb,” she gasped, her nails the sweetest pain on his shoulders, “give me everything.”

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

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shadow Lover by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookshadowloveras
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Hero: Alexander MacDowell
Heroine: Carolyn Smith
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: December 31, 2013
Started On: January 14, 2014
Finished On: January 14, 2014

It is always a downright delight to find a novel that you have missed out on from an absolute favorite author of yours. Shadow Lover by Anne Stuart was first published in the year of 1999 and somehow during my voracious hunt through Anne Stuart’s contemporary romantic suspense novels, I seem to have missed out on reading this one. It was when I saw this novel up for grabs on Netgalley that made me realize my grievous “error” in missing out on this. But then again, I can’t complain too much because discovering veritable treasures like this one is the reason why I love reading so much!

Shadow Lover delivers exactly the sort of novel that only Anne Stuart can. With enough twists and turns to the story to make your head spin and the way she brings the story to life with her quintessential bad boy heroes that readers like myself can never get enough of, Shadow Lover brings to life the very reason why Anne Stuart continues to amaze and wow me, practically with every single book I have read of hers to date.

Almost eighteen years to the day he had left never to be heard from since, Alexander MacDowell returns home, seemingly to ease the passage for his mother, Sally’s imminent death. It is only Carolyn Smith, the only MacDowell who isn’t essentially a MacDowell by birth that seems to harbor suspicions about the man claiming to be Alex. And of course Carolyn has good enough reason to be suspicious when she had witnessed Alex’s murder with her very own eyes that fateful night when everything had gone so awfully awry.

In a family laden with secrets, Caroline seems to be the only one who remains unaffected, the only one who seems to have a strong sense of morality and conscience. Caroline’s only wish is to be completely free of the MacDowell’s family once Sally dies, the woman who had unofficially adopted her into the family and loved her as much as she is capable of loving and showing affection towards another.

While Caroline’s sense of mistrust runs deep when it comes to the charming Alex who bears an uncanny resemblance to the Alex that she remembers and dreams of, she can’t help but be fascinated with all that he makes her feel, the feelings of violent passions that he rouses in her far more disturbing to her peace of mind than anything else. Caroline is determined that she would protect Sally at any cost, even if it means holding her tongue from lashing out with the truth which would certainly have dire consequences.

It is only a master like Anne Stuart that can pull off a novel of mystery as intriguing as this one, the seemingly innocent enough plot filled with so many unforeseeable twists and turns that the reader is taken along on a journey that certainly gets the brain cells revving. And then there is the heat factor involved when it comes to Anne Stuart. The way she brings her hero and heroine alive in essentially every single one of her novels, the mistrust and at times hatred born out of the volatile feelings that they harbor towards one another and later on the spillage of the fierce passion serves to be one of the best aspects to her stories.

I can definitely go on and on about the elements that worked for me in the story to make it one that has earned its rightful place in my “Favorites” shelf, but you’ve got to read it yourself to determine just how enthralling a tale that Anne Stuart can weave. There is just something about her heroes with their lean and strong bodies and of course slender hands of veritable strength that just gets my blood pumping. And I would give up just about anything to meet one of  these heroes in real life.

Final Verdict: Anne Stuart fills every single page with her exquisite mastery. Most highly and definitely recommended.

Favorite Quotes

Her hands had somehow ended up around his neck, her fingers entwined in his long hair. She closed her eyes—she didn’t want to look at him, didn’t want to acknowledge the foolishness of what she was doing. She kissed him, clumsily, and he made a low, growling noise in the back of his throat, one of sheer animal arousal.
The sound made her wet.
He must have known. He slid his hands down and caught her hips, lifting her almost effortlessly, pulling her legs around his waist as he started toward the bed.

“You sure you want me to stop?”
She stared up at him, unable to say a word. She was hot, trembling, shaking with a need more powerful than any she’d ever known. He touched her lip, and his fingers had blood on them. “You bit your lip,” he said. “Bite mine.” And he covered her mouth with his.

“Slowly, Carolyn,” he whispered, pushing her back against the pillows. “No need to rush, we have all the time in the world.”
“No,” she said in a strangled voice. She opened her eyes, and she could see the firelight flickering over their bodies, dark, pagan, magical. “Don’t make me . . . beg.”
He slid his hands up her legs, pulling them apart. “Oh, angel, I don’t want you to beg,” he whispered. “I want to be the one to beg you.”

Her breath was coming in strangled gasps, and she could feel sweat and tears pour down her face. She gripped his shoulders so tightly her hands were numb, and everything was centered around his inexorable invasion, like nothing she had ever felt before.
It was too much, more than she could stand, and she tried to pull away, but he caught her hips with his hands, pinning her against the mattress. “Take me, Carolyn,” he whispered. “You know you can. Don’t be afraid of me. Take me.”

“I thought you weren’t going to touch me until I asked you?” she said in a furious whisper.
“Ask me.” He pushed the shirt from her shoulders, then reached for the waistband of her jeans.
“Go to hell,” she said, and kicked him in the shins.
He caught her face in his hands, holding it still, tilting her mouth up to his. “Ask me,” he said again, his mouth hovering inches from hers.
She stopped struggling. Her face was wet with tears, she looked lost and broken and so damned sweet.
“For what?” she whispered.
“For anything you want.”

“You ran away the last time,” he whispered against her mouth. “Are you going to run away again?”
“No.”
“Even though I’m a cheat and a liar and a con man and a thief?”
“Are you?”
“Do you care?”
“No,” she said in a fierce little voice. “I want you. I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what you are—none of it matters. I need you.”

“I’m afraid,” she said in a very quiet voice.
“I know you are. And I can’t figure out why. We’ve already done it once and you didn’t suffer any Victorian trauma. You know I won’t force you, you know I won’t hurt you. What’s the problem?”
She stood very still. “I’m afraid I’ll fall in love with you.”
He didn’t know what to say to that. And then a faint, reluctant smile curved his mouth. “Well, you can’t say I haven’t been doing everything I can to keep that from happening.”

“I was in love with the real Alex.”
He could only hope she couldn’t see his reaction. “You were thirteen when he left,” he said roughly. “Thirteen-year-old girls don’t know anything about love. And he was a selfish, spoiled brat who didn’t care who he hurt.”
“I loved him.”
He wanted her to stop saying that. He wanted her to say it again.

He wanted her whether she wanted him or not, but he wasn’t going to make a move.
He didn’t need to. She crossed the room, and before he realized what she was planning to do she sank to her knees in front of him and took him in her mouth.

“Turn over,” he said. “I want you that way.”
He half expected her to object. She didn’t. She did what he wanted, and her strangled cry of pleasure when he pushed back inside her almost finished him.
He wanted, needed to make it last. To take her every way he could think of, and more, so there would be no more secrets between them, no more lies.

She was even tighter from this angle, and he tried to think of something else, to slow himself down, but he couldn’t, all he could think and feel and hear was Carolyn, the soft, desperate little cries she was making, the rich scent of sex in the air, the silky smoothness of her back, the deep, clenching tightness of her.
He reached between her legs and touched her, and she exploded, her scream no longer muffled, a sobbing cry of complete surrender and savage, ultimate pleasure.
And he gave himself up to it, filling her with everything he had left, pouring into her.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Never Trust a Pirate by Anne Stuart

Format: E-booknevertrustapirate
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Hero: Thomas Morgan (Luca)
Heroine: Madeleine Rose Russell
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: December 3, 2013
Started On: January 12, 2014
Finished On: January 12, 2014

Never Trust a Pirate by Anne Stuart is her second book in the Scandal at the House of Russell series. Scandal at the House of Russell is a series that centers around the three Russell sisters left destitute in the wake of the scandalous demise and death of their father, who the three daughters believe was framed and murdered. Having been thrust into a life of hardship with their riches stripped away, the series tells the story of each sister as they embark to find the truth, and finding love with the most unusual of men in the most unusual of circumstances. And Never Trust a Pirate tells the story of the middle of sister Madeleine Rose Russell aka Maddy.

Maddy finds herself taking up the task of seeking the truth behind their father’s demise by following a cryptic clue in a hastily scribbled note left by their father. The phrase “never trust a pirate” finds her seeking the position of a maid at Captain Thomas Morgan’s residence, willing to spy on the man Maddy believes to have played a hand in her father’s death. But things however go far from according to plan as Maddy makes up close and personal acquaintance with the man in question hours before she finds out that the seemingly old captain that she’d been thinking he would be turns out to be a man who fascinates her on levels beyond her understanding.

Thomas Morgan (Luca) is a man who belongs in the ocean, sailing the ships that he is supremely famous for commandeering and of course an immensely wealthy man who is rumored to have been a pirate once. Though restlessness hits him every now and then, Luca is determined to go down the road of domesticity, and is engaged to be married, when the most insufferable woman he had ever crossed paths with and he hasn’t been able to put out of his mind ever since he claimed those scorching kisses from her turns out to be the new maid at his residence.

Luca knows just like he knows that he isn’t who he claims to be that Maddy is not whom she is impersonating herself to be. And when he realizes who she exactly is, it doesn’t douse the fire that burns and rages inside of him to possess the woman who haunts his every waking thought from that first kiss onwards, rather it burns stronger than ever until Luca is driven to the point of madness. While Maddy tries to outwit Luca in a game that he is far more good at, an outside force that truly does not want the Russell sisters from ever finding out the truth sets out to silence their quest for the truth forever.

Never Trust a Pirate proved to be a fascinating tale in every single aspect. Luca or rather Luca is the type of hero that is unforgettable, long after you turn the very last page. Dangerous, wily and charming with a rough past, Luca is your proverbial bad boy hero come to life, the badness tampered down a bit to suite societal needs. But one look at his gorgeous frame you know that no other hero would ever claim the place he would forever hold in your heart. And best of all, Luca fits the type of hero that Anne Stuart is famous for; ruthless and dangerous, even when it comes to the heroine herself. Don’t get me wrong, what makes men like Luca so alluring is the fact that there are those seemingly small deviations from their behavioral norm that lets the reader witness just how affected he is by the heroine and Luca was definitely no exception to the rule.

Maddy proved to be someone equally interesting. Having never let herself grieve for all she had lost, Maddy holds all that anger and grief deep inside of her, ready to change everything, if nothing else by her sheer force of will and determination. And that is exactly how she embarks on her quest to uncover the truth til she sets her eyes on Luca and her world as she knows it comes tumbling down right in front of her. Inquisitive by nature, Maddy has a hard time playing the meek role required of a maid. And even knowing that Luca might be responsible or even partly so in terms of what had happened to her father, Maddy finds that the way she is drawn towards Luca doesn’t seem to abate, if anything it seems to grow in strength by the day.

The sexual tension was top notch and oh dear god what followed was more so, the dialog between Luca and Maddy witty and the other secondary characters in the story well developed to give a well rounded story that I finished within just one day, a rare occurrence for me of late when novels hardly seem to hold my fascination for that long. But like almost every single Anne Stuart I have read to date, the story seemed to call out to me until I had finished the very last chapter, and that too with an altogether too huge a smile on my face. I can’t wait to read the third book in this series that will hopefully conclude and give answers to the mystery surrounding the demise and death of their father.

Final Verdict: Carries all the trademarks of a classic Anne Stuart. Definitely recommended!

Favorite Quotes

He kissed her again, hard at first, as if imprinting his claim on her, and then more slowly, brushing his mouth against hers, softly, back and forth, and she knew her lips were trembling beneath his. Her words were her best weapon, but they were locked in her throat as she felt his tongue, his outrageous, shocking tongue intrude into her mouth and the sensations moved through her body like fire.

He pushed her fully back against the wall, both hands on her breasts now, and there was only a thin bit of cloth between them, a thin bit of cloth he pulled down, so that she felt the rough texture of his calloused hands on her sensitized skin and she let out a helpless moan of pleasure against his mouth. His knee was between her legs, and somehow she’d ended up straddling it, so that it was pushing up against that damp, most sensitive part of her, and she wanted… she wanted…

His voice was no more than a low, carnal whisper. “I could show you so much more. All you have to do is tell me your name.”
She wanted to. She wanted to do everything he asked of her, and more, just for the sweet, drugging pleasure. She opened her mouth to betray all her secrets, only to gasp in shock as he bent down and put his mouth on one hardened nipple. He made a soft growl as his mouth tugged at her, but it was nothing compared to the heat that flashed through her, and her fingers dug into his shoulders, savoring the exquisite sensation. More, she thought. Please, I need more.

“Speaking of which, what put her out. Dorrit use chloroform? That’s not his lay.”
“I hit her.”
Billy looked at him in astonishment. “Jayzus,” he said with a whistle. “You really must love her.”
Luca stalked away.

He pushed all the way in, and a spasm of pure delight tightened her body around him, and he seemed to swell inside her. “Hurry,” she whispered in clawing desperation, fighting for release.
“No. I want to savor this.” His answering thrusts, slow and steady, made her want to scream in frustration. But he couldn’t control her body, any more than she could, and he’d only thrust a half-dozen times before she climaxed, her body clenching down on his, her skin prickling in an endless contraction that left her breathless and panting.

When she fell back again, panting, he kissed her breathless mouth. “I can keep this up for hours.”
“Why?” she gasped.
His laugh touched strange places inside her. “Because there’s no where else I’d rather be. I want to stay inside you forever, I want to make you come so hard you can’t even think, I want to forget where I end and you begin. I want everything from you, Maddy Rose. Everything.”

Fuck. Such a dirty, nasty, erotic little word. That was what he was doing to her. And she wanted more.
His hands on her breasts set off another paroxysm of pleasure, and this time when he moved again he was faster, his breathing a little more shallow. And then, to her shock and despair, he pulled out of her completely.
She cried out, reaching for him, but he simply turned her onto her knees, pushing her hands down on the mattress, her face into the pillow, as he pushed inside her from behind.

Purchase Links: Amazon | iTunes

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Emerald Rain by Maggie Osborne

Format: Paperbackemeraldrain
Read with: NA
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Hero: March Addison
Heroine: Eulalie Pritchard
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: June 5, 1991
Started On: December 30, 2013
Finished On: January 5, 2014

Emerald Rain by Maggie Osborne is one of those romances that reaffirms my belief in the reason why romance would always be my preferred genre to read. I had almost but not quite, forgotten just how good a Maggie Osborne romance could be and why I had actually spent a small fortune in acquiring these out of print titles of hers for my collection. Even those novels that can be considered lackluster when it comes to Maggie Osborne are titles that still gives you a read to remember. This being otherwise I would say made a wonderful start to my reading for the year 2014!

24 year old Eulalie Pritchard (Lalie) makes her way to Brazil to follow her fiance’ to Hiberalta, a journey that would take her through the perilous Amazon jungle and the river that runs through it. Lalie lives by the strict rules of English society, her prim and properness a facet to her character that irritates March Addison from the first moment he lays eyes on her. The son of Earl of Addison, March has carved a name for himself in the Amazon as a renowned businessman in the booming rubber industry in Brazil and Lalie believes that nothing of the gentleman she had encountered 10 years back lives inside of him now.

Lalie expects the rough around the edges March to ferry her up to Hiberalta as quickly as possible and March in return expects fluff of her kind to depart from the country within a week. Both Lalie and March have surprises in store for the other as a trip that takes 3-5 months to complete bares everyone aboard down to their very basics. Living primitively does the one thing that wouldn’t be obvious while living in polite society, and that is to bring to light all the characteristics, good and the bad that drives a person. And that is exactly what happens when March takes Lalie on board despite all the misgivings he has when it comes to the most infuriating, beautiful and enticing woman he has ever come across all his life.

Lalie is determined if nothing else to live, to never be labeled as the woman who never lived a full life. Her infatuation with her fiance is seemingly what drives Lalie to seek the trip on her own but as the days fade into weeks, just like the rules of propriety that Lalie was determined to stick to at the beginning of the trip are stripped away one by one, feelings of the most wanton and unexpected variety seems to fill her heart, body and soul where March is concerned.

As swift as the currents in the Amazon that propels their vessel forward, so does the desire that explodes to surface where March and Lalie are concerned, a desire that is as primitive as the Indians that live amidst the jungle that surrounds the waters. Maggie Osborne always does a remarkable job in creating her heroes and March Addison is another exemplary specimen. One can almost imagine the sinewiness to his musculature, his sensual lips and the totally alpha male vibe that just seems to cling to him. His strength of character is one of the many things that made him an appealing hero and his honor one that made me fall irrevocably in love with him.

Lalie’s character makes me remember a friend of mine whose sheer determination carries her through a lot of hurdles in her life. Lalie who has had a privileged upbringing, is in short, a dreamer. Having seen her fiance through the eyes of infatuation, Lalie had missed out on the crucial aspects of his character to which she is brutally made aware of as the time of reckoning draws closer. While her heart, mind, body and soul yearns for the touch of the man who should be all sorts of wrong for her, Lalie is determined that she keep her word where her fiance is concerned. There were many a times that I literally burst out in laughter due to Lalie’s sometimes innocent and yet honest to God nature that she tries to hide behind all the rules of propriety. Lalie has the sort of hidden sensuality that would drive any red blooded man insane with wanting and that is the kind of wanting that leaves March reeling from the sheer force of it all.

The sexual tension wrought in the novel is top notch, one that made me sigh, squirm and want to prolong the read as much as possible. And one reason I love Osborne novels so much is that she is not afraid to deliver on the said tension when the time comes. And believe me, all that sexual tension Osborne puts the reader through was worth every nail biting moment of it and I was sighing all throughout every beautiful second of it.

Highly recommended!

Final Verdict: Sensuous and a whole lot of adventurous; Maggie Osborne delivers a tale as steamy as the Amazon itself. Not to be missed!

Favorite Quotes

A moaning sound came from her parted lips. Her breasts were thrust against his chest as her head fell backward and her eyes closed. Her fingers dug into his shoulders and her legs wrapped around his, pulling him more tightly against her until his erection throbbed between them, a rigid strength pressing against her soft, yielding body.

“Lalie,” he whispered. He slid one hand to the small of her back and held her pressed against him, his other hand moved slowly to cup her breast, teasing the hard nipple. Her breath was as rapid and choked as his when she met his eyes with a look filled with helpless urgency.

With tormenting slowness, exercising a patience and tenderness he had not known he possessed, he moved his month and tongue over her throat, teasing upward toward the swollen promise of her lips. His hand slid up her back go cup her small head.
“Oh my god March… March..”
Her words emerged part sob, part plea, and her body tightened around his.

Then she raised her face to his clenched jaw, his hard mouth, and finally defenseless, she surrendered to the dark eyes burning down into hers. Their stared locked and held. Her breast rose and trembled on a dry, scorching breath. A yearning sound almost like a sob caught in her throat.
And she wanted.

Her body moved against his; her hands rose and she buried her fingers in his thick hair as her mouth opened beneath his to receive his plundering tongue. Gasping, almost sobbing with the bliss and relief of finally knowing his kiss, Lalie clung to him, pulled him closer, closer, as if she could absorb him, as if by holding him tightly she could make this feverish moment last forever.

“On those nights when sleep won’t come, I’ll lie in my bed and remember the softness of your breast, the sweet curve of your waist. I’ll remember the lagoon, the sunshine on your eyelids. I’ll remember the taste of your skin and the scent of your hair… and I’ll wonder.”

“I’ll make love to other women, Lalie, but they won’t be you. I’ll feel that loss and wonder. All my life I will remember you and regret that I didn’t have you. All my life I will wonder at the feel and touch and scent of you. I will wonder if you would have cried my name. I will wonder if I would have given you pleasure. I will wonder and mourn my loss.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | AbeBooks

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Asking for Trouble by Tessa Bailey

Format: E-bookaskingfortrouble
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Line of Duty, #4
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Hero: Brent Mason
Heroine: Hayden Winstead
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: November 25, 2013
Started On: December 11, 2013
Finished On: December 13, 2013

“Take it off, Hayden, or I rip it off.”

Asking for Trouble by Tessa Bailey is book 4 in the Line of Duty series. Having read only book 3, Officer Off-Limits prior to this, that one read alone served to be guarantee enough that when Tessa Bailey puts pen to paper, she delivers scorching delight to the senses that is unbeatable.

Hayden Winstead and Brent Mason have always rubbed each other the wrong way. Hayden comes from a rich family, the kind of rich that is brought down from generations. Brent comes from a blue collar family and he works hard as an explosives expert in the NYPD Emergency Services Unit and leads a pretty much well rounded life apart from the fierce lust and feelings of the antagonistic variety that courses through  him whenever he is around Hayden.

Hayden faces enough condescension from people because she comes from a privileged background. But Hayden would give anything not to feel so helpless and out of control about her own life when it comes to her mother who sniffs disdainfully pretty much about everyone and everything that she thinks is beneath their family. One more person ribbing about her rich background shouldn’t be a cause of contention for her except for the fact that time and yet again they are forced into each others company that makes it pretty much hard to ignore the fact Brent gets under her skin in ways she doesn’t want to admit.

A daring remark here and there leads up to one of the most explosive sexual encounters of Hayden’s life, Brent being man enough to give her everything that she desires. Though Hayden might want nothing better than to think of Brent as only the stud that would fulfill all her deepest and darkest longings under the veil of the night, the bits and pieces of Brent’s character that slowly comes to light as they spend time together minus the cloud of judgement that colors all the time they spend together, Hayden comes to realize that her heart just might be on the line where Brent is concerned.

Just like the previous book, Asking for Trouble is also filled with sexual encounters of the mouthwatering variety which is hot enough and just dirty enough to get the blood pumping. Both Brent and Hayden are likable characters whose connection is one that is visible to the reader right from the very beginning. Just about 170+ pages of scorching goodness, Asking for Trouble is recommended to those who love erotic contemporary romances that delivers.

Final Verdict: Explosive enough to singe, Tessa Bailey’s stories aren’t meant to be missed out on!

Favorite Quotes

He claimed her mouth once again on a growl. A single forearm curled under bottom and lifted with so little effort, her thoughts went fuzzy, blurring her indignation into nothingness. His mouth moved, rough and demanding over hers, forcing her lips wide to receive rhythmic thrusts from his tongue. Hayden could only twine her arms around his neck and hold on as white-hot need poured through her in waves.

He brushed her hair aside with one hand and scraped his teeth down the side of her neck. “You made this fucking sound Hayden. The first time you spread your legs to take my cock. I hear it everywhere I go. This goddamn… moan? Sob? I don’t know. All I know is if I don’t fuck that sound of you again soon, I’m going to completely lose my mind.”

She grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled his head away from her breasts. His eyes were feverish, glazed with need. It nearly sent her spiraling into release, but she held it back.
“Please,” he whispered roughly. “Please.”She spoke through panting breaths. “Tell me what you’re going to do to me first.”
Brent buried his face against her neck and moaned. She reveled in the desperate sound. Between her thighs, his body shook like it might implode at any moment. Raw power. Leashed. By her.

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

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