Category / Toe Curler!!

by mvbookreviewer

Requested ARC Review: Most Likely to Succeed by Kate Davies

Format: E-bookmostlikelytosucceed
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Most Likely To…, #1
Publisher: Carina Books
Hero: Nathan Barrow
Heroine: Kelsey Moore
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: March 25, 2013
Started On: March 7, 2013
Finished On: March 8, 2013

Hero: Nathan Barrow, works in disaster stricken countries for an international relief organization. Doesn’t care much for mixing in with the “right” sort of company & is always focused on the task at hand.

Heroine: Kelsey Moore, works at her mother’s flower shop since high school. Basically thinks herself to be stuck in a rut from which she would never find an escape from.

Storyline: Its the 10 year reunion of Kelsey and Nathan’s batch in high school and Tess, one of Kelsey’s best friends is putting everything she has into making the reunion one that is bound to shake things up. Kelsey who had crushed big time on her high school lab partner Nathan finds a golden opportunity in scratching a 12 year itch she has had for him. For Nathan, it is something that keeps pushing him to return to his hometown that has him looking forward to the reunion and of course bumping into Kelsey is one of the topmost things on his agenda.

Time Period: Most Likely to Succeed takes place in present time in the small town of Silverton and is told from both Nathan and Kelsey’s points of view.

Awareness between Nathan and Kelsey: Nathan hadn’t noticed much back in high school apart from the fact that Kelsey had been his one steady friend and the lab partner who sometimes pushed him to have a little bit of downtime from studies every now and then. The reunion opens his eyes to a side of Kelsey that he has not noticed before, an altogether alluring side that makes him want to get horizontal with her and never come up for air. The sexual tension between Nathan and Kelsey is very much a part of the developing storyline, their attraction that makes them both ready to explore the feelings of a stronger variety that emerge later on.

Likes: Though a novella, I felt that Kate Davies did a decent job out of tying up all ends in the romance that buds and fosters between Nathan and Kelsey. Both Nathan and Kelsey are likable characters. For Nathan, Kelsey is the woman who excites him and completes him every single way. And for Kelsey, Nathan is the man who makes her look deep into herself and start realizing her worth as a person; not as the person who lost her way after high school as she likes to think. And of course, even before halfway into the story, I was practically itching to learn more about each character that I encountered along the way and I can’t wait for the rest of the novellas to come out!

Dislikes: –

Recommended for: Fans of contemporary romances and reunion romances. And of course, fans of Kate Davies.

Final Verdict: Great storytelling by Kate Davies. Cannot wait for the stories of Tess and Bree which I am certain would leave me begging for more!

Favorite Quotes

And then she was grabbing his shirt collar and tugging him down for a searing kiss, and he stopped thinking altogether.
Groaning into her mouth, he backed her up against the door, slamming it shut behind them. He pressed into her, her soft breasts tight against his chest and his groin easing into the sweet spot between her legs. She moaned and spread her legs as wide as her tight skirt would allow.

Kelsey moaned, wrapping her legs around his waist, hooking them together at the ankles as she rose to meet his thrusts. Her short nails scratched at his back, slipping through the sheen of perspiration that had blossomed. She lifted her head and nosed at the spot where his shoulder met his neck, latched on to it with her mouth and sucked.
Somehow, the knowledge that she was tasting him, marking him, drove him even closer to the edge.

 

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N

greatread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Seduction of Samantha Kincade by Maggie Osborne

Format: Paperbacktheseductionofsamanthakincade.jpg
Read with: NA
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Dangerous Men, #1
Publisher: Warner Books
Hero: Trace Harden
Heroine: Samantha Kincade
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 1, 1995
Started On: December 10, 2012
Finished On: March 6, 2013

It might have been ages since I have read a Maggie Osborne but I certainly have not forgotten the magic that she can weave with her stories; which is one reason why I keep purchasing her out of print titles at hideously expensive prices. But I believe its money well spent since each and every one of Maggie Osborne titles I’ve read so far always gives a story worth reading, a story that is so much more than just a romance, and The Seduction of Samantha Kincade is no exception to that rule.

23 year old Samantha (Sam) has pretended to be a boy half her life. A gunslinger and a bounty hunter who is famous for her kills, Sam is someone who hates the idea of being a woman, of being submissive and restricting herself to what society thinks she can and cannot do. More than half of her life has been focused on one goal; killing Hannibal Cotwell, the man who had taken away the center of her very existence. And nothing and no one is going to deter her from getting there.

Trace Harden is on the hunt for Hannibal himself when he is pursued by Sam as a means to the end that she is working for. Although Sam’s hatred for Hannibal and anything to do with him knows no bounds, Sam is forced to re-evaluate her strategy in getting to Hannibal when both Trace and Sam finds themselves on the run from the law with the same ultimate goal in mind. But what Sam doesn’t realize is that in her ambition to see to the promise she has made to herself 12 years ago, she would also find the woman she has lost in her a long time back and love in a place where she wouldn’t have ever expected to find.

With complex and multilayered characters, The Seduction of Samantha Kincade is a seduction unto itself. The slow awakening of Sam as a woman, the side of herself that she has hidden from herself and the rest of the world is one to be savored. Sam might be one of the best bounty hunters out there and adept at fooling the whole world when it comes to who she really is but with Trace she finds that from the first moment that that’s not the case. Trace gets under her skin, makes her want the impossible and awakens strange yearnings in her that Sam knows would lead towards one inevitable conclusion.

The fact that Trace who has seen it and done it all gets seduced in turn by the woman that Sam slowly turns into is one to revel in and I loved the bits where Trace is so darn frustrated from his attraction for a woman who exasperates, infuriates and challenges him at every turn but he can’t help but want her with every fiber of his being. For someone who prefers dainty and feminine women in his life, the fact that he is drawn towards the one woman who doesn’t know the lethal weapon she could become if she were to totally embrace her feminine side was an aspect of the story that I absolutely adored.

Trace has his own demons to fight on the journey he takes towards reaching Hannibal. To avenge the legacy left behind by his dead wife Trace knows he would do what he must, even if it means a vital part of himself would die along with it. Trace and his magnetic presence in the story fires things up, starts a slow burn that reaches its very explosive culmination by the time the reader is about to self combust. The slow build up, the ultimate conclusion to all that heady desire and attraction is one of the best bits about books by Maggie Osborne. Its one of the reasons I mourn the fact that she stopped writing a long time back.

The bit that struck me the most when I was reading The Seduction of Samantha Kincade was how I felt about the villain in the story. Hannibal is a hard to place character, something inside of me wanted redemption for him which I knew would never come. Nevertheless his character is one that made me think deeply, his childhood and what he had undergone something that would continue to haunt me for quite a while. I saw the good bits in him which doesn’t excuse all the heinous crimes he had committed most of his adult life, but that didn’t stop me from weeping for him and all that he could have been as the story reached its conclusion.

It takes tremendous talent for an author to create books of this caliber and each one of my reads has been top notch when it comes to Maggie Osborne. Cannot recommend this enough to readers who love American Western historical romances with unusual heroines and undoubtedly, sinfully alluring heroes in the mix.

Favorite Quotes

Trace watched with smoldering eyes. He could recall hundreds of times when he had become aroused while observing a woman remove her clothing. This was the first time he had become powerfully aroused while watching a woman put clothes on. He would have thought such a thing impossible.
Later, he would remember this unique experience and laugh. Right now, he watched her don a pair of pearl ear drops and practice a smile in the glass. He wanted to throw her on the bed and tear off the undergarments she had so carefully assembled. He wanted to touch her all over, and stroke her, and caress those small swelling perfect breasts, and tease his fingertips along the inside of her strong thighs until she gasped his name and begged him to take her as she burned to do.

His lips came down on hers, hard and hot and as possessive and demanding as the hands grabbing her waist. Sam fell against the haystack, her arms going around his neck, and she kissed him back, hard, her lips opening beneath the insistent pressure of his.

 

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

Requested ARC Review: All the Way by Jennifer Probst

Format: E-bookalltheway
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Hero: Gavin Luciano
Heroine: Miranda Storme
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: March 4, 2013
Started On: February 26, 2013
Finished On: February 28, 2013

Hero: Gavin Luciano is sexy with a take-charge dominant attitude that can make any heterosexual woman go weak at the knees and then some. Coming from an Italian family, Gavin is a man who has always been determined that nothing would ever prevent him from living his life and following his dreams as he sees fit – even at the cost of losing the only woman he has ever loved.

Heroine: Miranda Storme, as the name suggests is a feisty heroine if ever there was one. She is a food critic, a famous one at that, a name she had earned for herself fair and square when the one man who had invaded her heart had left her reeling when he had walked away from her without a backward glance. Bold and beautiful, Miranda is a heroine that is hard not to fall in love with.

Storyline: Gavin returns home to help his family’s ailing restaurant Mia Casa and runs into Miranda, the woman who still has the ability to take his breathe away. Gavin knows that it had been a mistake to walk away from the best thing to ever happen to him. But then winning Miranda back is not as easy as he thinks it would be as he navigates the minefield of seething emotions on both ends to conquer the woman he loves, once & for all.

Time Period: All the Way takes place in present time in New York and is told from both Gavin and Miranda’s points of view.

Awareness between Gavin and Miranda: If there is anything that Jennifer Probst excels at, and believe me she always tells a darn good story; it is the sense of awareness & heat that she creates so well between her characters which always leaves the reader begging for more. There is always a thread of sensuality spun into every scene that Gavin and Miranda appear in that sometime spins out of control and for most Jennifer leaves it up to the reader to imagine their inevitable conclusion.

Likes: There are so many things to love about All The Way. I started out reading thinking this would be just another one of those second chance romances where the heroine would play hard to get at every turn and get on my nerves. But no, there is none of that as Jennifer always creates such lovable characters in each of her stories. Miranda has good enough reason to be leery of Gavin and the second chance he offers at being a couple. At the same time I could understand Gavin’s reasons for leaving before though he could have done a better job out of it. But the fact we are all humans means we all make mistakes, sometimes of gigantic proportions that seems irreparable.

One aspect of the story I loved was the ruthless determination which Gavin puts into winning Miranda and her affections back. And by ruthless I don’t mean that he strides into the room and kisses Miranda senseless and all’s right in their world again. Hardly that. There is so much underlying emotions within the story that if Gavin had been any different, the way he won Miranda over would not have been believable at all.

I liked the fact that both Gavin and Miranda had matured enough during their time apart to understand the nuances of a relationship that makes it work and long lasting and that is exactly what Gavin tries to prove to Miranda though hiccups are encountered along the way.

And dear me, I loved Miranda’s friend Andy and of course Gavin’s well rounded family that gave me a couple of good pauses and much needed hilarity from the otherwise at times intense read.

Dislikes: For some reason though I can’t put my finger on it, I felt that in the end Gavin was the one who ended up making all the ‘sacrifices’. Perhaps sacrifice might not be the right term to use because he had changed along the course of the 3 years he had been away and his priorities had changed. But I’d have loved to see Miranda meet him half way in making their relationship work for the second time around.

Recommended for: Fans of Jennifer Probst & fans of contemporary romances, Italian heroes and second chance romances.

Final Verdict: A well rounded, sizzling story of two people whose karma lies in their entwined lives. Jennifer Probst hits all the spots with this one.

Favorite Quotes

She bit down on his lip. Her nails curled and dug into his biceps. He groaned and caressed her breasts, flicking her nipples with his thumbs, urging them to tighten and swell and obey his command. She arched.
With a growl, suddenly he lifted her up from the stool and placed her on top of the bar. Never breaking the kiss, he devoured her mouth and pushed her thighs apart. Swollen and ready, she sank into a pit of greed and lust, her body craving release and dominating her usual control.

Fear choked her and she moved to push him away, her mouth open to tell him no.
But it was too late.
Gavin surged inside of her with one strong thrust.
Fire.
Fullness.
Completion.
He interlaced his fingers through hers. Stared deeply into her eyes.
And moved. Again. And again.

Purchase Links: Amazon

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

Short & Sweet Review: The Lady’s Scandalous Night by Jeannie Lin

Format: E-booktheladysscandalousnight
Read with: Kindle for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Tang Dynasty, #2.5
Publisher: Harlequin Historical Undone
Hero: Wei Chen
Heroine: Yao Ru Jiang
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 1, 2011
Started On: February 19, 2013
Finished On: February 20, 2013

Hero: Wei Chen, no longer a common soldier of General Li’s army, is a trained swordsman and a trusted bodyguard.

Heroine: Yao Ru Jiang, known as River. She is the younger sister of Yao Ru Shan who served in the army alongside with Wei Chen.

Storyline: Both Wei Chen and River have known each other for a long time – through their mutual acquaintance who happens to be River’s brother. Though both have never laid eyes on each other, they have spun dreams about each other & fantasized about the day they would finally meet.

First Meeting: Wei Chen and River meet each other when Wei Chen turns up at River’s village seeking them out, to notify them that he is bound by duty to kill River’s brother.

Time Period: Story is set in Tang Dynasty, China in 759 AD. Story is told from both River and Wei Chen’s points of view.

Awareness between Wei Chen and River: Jeannie Lin is a true master in creating sexual tension and delivering beautifully vivid scenes to complement all of that. And though novella is really short, Jeannie still manages to make the connection & awareness that exists between Wei Chen and River right from the very start believable.

Likes: As always, a book by Jeannie Lin is a treat to read. I love her writing style. And I know I always say that in my reviews. But that is one reason why I keep going back where she is concerned.

Dislikes: I wanted more! Much more than a novella is capable of offering. Story’s ending seemed rushed.

Recommended for: Fans of the Tang Dynasty series by Jeannie Lin. And of course for anyone who loves historical romances Jeannie Lin is definitely a treat. If you love books by Courtney Milan or Sherry Thomas, you should definitely try out Jeannie Lin.

Favorite Quotes

The pleasure rose and took him over until he could think of nothing but thrusting deeper into River’s welcoming body. He tangled a hand into her hair. Her legs curved and locked about his hips. They became nothing but shapes and sensation in the darkness.
River. His River. The reason why he’d come all this way. One final, fierce thrust and he spent himself into her.
Afterward, they lay together unmoving, skin flushed and damp with sweat.
“I dreamed of this,” he murmured, letting his head sink onto the curve of her shoulder. “I dreamed of you.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Harlequin

goodread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: How to Get Over Your Ex by Nikki Logan

Format: E-bookhowtogetoveryourex
Read with: Kindle for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Valentines Day Survival Guide
Publisher: Harlequin KISS
Hero: Alekzander Rush (Zander)
Heroine: Georgia Stone
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: February 2013
Started On: February 05, 2013
Finished On: February  18, 2013

Never have I written a review while conflicted so much about the rating I would give to the story. On the one hand I enjoyed this story immensely. Nikki Logan has definitely earned her place in the list of authors whose books I would always continue to buy. Even then, I find myself a little bit more than disappointed in one aspect of the story I will highlight as I get on with the review.

28 year old Georgia Stone gets rejected on Valentine’s day by the man she has been dating for the past year. Public scrutiny is hardly what she needs or wants but then the contract that she signed with the radio station won’t let her get away that easily. The station manager Alekzander Rush (Zander) offers her a way out, a monthly segment on the radio which features bits and pieces of the one year journey that Georgia takes on an year of self discovery and realization i.e. “The Year of Georgia”.

With Zander “monitoring” her during all the activities that Georgia takes part in, the attraction and the sense of awareness that Georgia has had for Zander since their very first encounter starts to grow. Georgia might not be a woman who might be considered a ravishing beauty but her personality is one worth delving into. I fell in love with her for her easygoing nature, the way she tries her hardest not to let self-doubt and a sense of inadequacy get in her way of exploring new horizons. It takes courage for a woman who has been rejected in a very public way to find within herself to move past all that and take a chance at love and happiness once again and I applaud Georgia for that if not everything else about her.

Zander is one of those broody intense heroes that you are just going to love. I fell in love with him from the moment his intense eyes blazed with need for Georgia, a need he ruthlessly tamps down and brings under control every single time it tries to get the best of him. Zander is reserved, not surprising given his past and surprisingly empathetic when it comes to Georgia’s very public blunder on the Valentine’s day. But when you get to know what Zander himself goes through, the surprise factor turns into understanding of why Zander is the way he is. The more Zander tries to push Georgia and her thoughts away from his mind, the more tenacious they become until all he can think of is Georgia and the one inevitable conclusion of all the combustive passion that he is keeping a tight rein on.

And oh my dear lord, how I loved the subtle and yet intense layer of awareness and attraction that is such a huge part of Georgia and Zander’s relationship. And it made me want to weep and throw the e-reader at the wall when all that came to a realization and there was nothing for the reader to enjoy. Yes, the sense of awareness and desire between Zander and Georgia is mind-numbingly hot & intense and I wanted at least just one scene of passion between them to come to life in the  book. I don’t need explicit content. Just something other than a memory on the heroine’s part of the culmination of all that passion would have done it for me. And yes, true story, I whimpered in sheer agony because I never got to “witness” what an endurance runner might be like in bed.

What made the connection between Zander and Georgia that much more precious was the fact that both characters remain true to their self, and its a slow journey of discovery of a love that is that much more real because in the end its not the normal Harlequin variety of romance where the ultra rich workaholic hero takes one look at the damsel in distress and falls head over heels in lust and love with the heroine. The fact Zander resists the temptation Georgia offers and yet yearns for her with every cell in his being was what made the story work for me. And it would have made for a 5-star outstanding read if not for the fact the I felt so cheated out of seeing the passion between Zander and Georgia explode onto the pages.

Recommended for those who love reticent heroes and the heroines who make them fall in love.

Favorite Quotes

Her breath came heavy and fast and mingled with his. Then she turned inwards, drawn by the plaintive breath that was her name on his lips. Their mouths touched. Sensation sparked between them and birthed a flame, hot and raw. Zander pressed their lips more firmly together, leaned into her. Curled his fingers into the hair at her nape. Georgia pressed a hand to the damp, cool earth and used it to lever herself closer to him, to hold the connection fast. To explore and taste and experience. His breath became hers. Her breath sustained them both. She kissed him harder. Greedy for his taste.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Duchess War by Courtney Milan

Format: E-booktheduchesswar
Read with: Kindle for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Brothers Sinister, #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Robert Alan Graydon Blaisdell
Heroine: Willhelmina Pursling
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: December 6, 2012
Started On: February 10, 2013
Finished On: February 13, 2013

What an utterly beautifully captivating story. I finished this book in the wee hours of the morning and I was so overwhelmed by the emotions that raced through me all throughout the read, sometimes taking me unawares, other times caressing me with a gentleness and bittersweetness that made me want to weep; needless to say my very first Courtney Milan definitely impressed me beyond any level of expectation that I had when I first started reading.

The Duchess War begins with a glimpse into the very interesting and contrasting character of Willhelmina Pursling (Minnie), whose very entrance into the novel begins with her encounter with the ninth Duke of Clermont Robert Alan Graydon Blaisdell. Dressed rather severely and buttoned up to the extent that nobody would give her a passing glance, Minnie would rather she never be the focus of attention of anyone for long. But her days of hiding behind her the fortress that she has built around herself and perfected over the years are over when Robert enters her life and makes her yearn for the impossible.

Robert’s one mission in his life has always been to stay off the path his father had walked on as much as possible. Going as far as to atone for the bundles his father has made along the way, Robert is unlike any duke you would meet in any book. Well, I certainly haven’t come across any duke like Robert and that’s saying something since I have read my fair share of historical romances back in the day. Now, it is authors like Sherry Thomas and Jeannie Lin that makes me come back for more of a genre which I usually shy away from reading and with The Duchess War, Courtney Milan certainly has earned herself a spot in my list of authors to look out for when pursuing historical romances.

The Duchess War is certainly by no means your usual run of the mill variety historical romance. Contrary to that its comprised of complex characters which I had a hard time placing whether they belonged in the “good guys” category or not. Needless to say, Courtney continuously kept surprising me with the depth to her characters as she unraveled the story, one layer at a time and gives the reader an experience or rather a journey that won’t be forgotten anytime soon.

There were times when I thought that I would hate Minnie for the choices that she seemed on the brink of making. But then I should have known better than that and trusted Courtney to do what fans of her books always rave about – that she delivers and hits all the spots and then some. And that was exactly what happened with each of her characters and the story that kept spinning its magic on me until I turned the very last page and heaved a sigh of contentment that would definitely have been heard from all corners of the Earth; if not for my need to quietly contemplate on what the story had done to me and my emotions.

Robert’s character is so so wonderful that it just begs some gushing on my part before I end the review. There were times I wanted to weep for the boy that had been the object of the tug of war contest between his parents, a boy who had grown up thinking himself to be unworthy of love of the lasting kind. A parliamentarian at the young age of 28, Robert is a champion of the underdog, someone who detests what the peerage system means. And above that all he is a man who has contained his passionate side for far too long and when he does start on the journey of discovery, boy does he make up for lost time and then some. The love scenes were so tastefully done and made me burn like a furnace that would never run out of wood anytime soon. Trust me on that.

I can’t say enough wonderful things about a book that wooed me in all the ways that counts. As a true lover of romance I definitely could not have asked for more.

Absolutely recommended!

Favorite Quotes

“Look in a mirror sometime,” he suggested. “Look beyond this.” He touched his cheekbone, mirroring the spot on her face where her scar spread. “Look at yourself sometime the way you are now, all fire and anger, ready to do battle with me. If you’d ever once looked at yourself that way, you wouldn’t question whether I’d want a flirtation with you. You’d know I would.”

Her head remained stubbornly bowed before him. He wanted to grab her and shake her. He wanted to tilt her chin up and force her to gaze in his eyes. He wanted –
He wanted to do a great many things after that, none of which he was going to get from her by force.
“I’m not pretending to flirt with you,” he said instead. “There’s no pretense in it. I want you. God, I want you.”
She let out a little gasp and then – almost involuntarily – she looked up.
For just one moment, he saw something he thought was not pretense – a hopeless yearning in the way her face tilted toward his, a flutter in her ragged exhalation. Her lips parted, and she seemed suddenly, devastatingly beautiful.

“Indeed,” Violet said. Don’t mind us. We’re scarcely even here. And rest assured, if you’d like to talk of secrets, I’ll never repeat one. I’m known for my trustworthiness.”
“This is true,” Sebastian said. “The Countess of Cambury is like a deep, dark hole – secrets go in, but none of them ever come out.”
“Sebastian,” Violet replied calmly looping the yarn about one of her needles, “it is neither proper nor respectful to let a woman know that you think of her as nothing more than a hole.”

Her hips rose to his. Her hand continued its motion, an added stimulation at the base of his cock. He could feel her pleasure all around him, first ebbing, and then gathering again as he took her. And as if the dam had been broken to bits with her first orgasm, this time she came quickly – in scarcely a minute, her release a scalding hot wash of pure lust that had her clamping down on him.
He couldn’t have enough of her. He pounded into her again and again, each thrust better than the last, each one building, building to a crescendo that washed over him in fierce waves. It was almost painful, his second release. It was messy and slippery and wrong, and it felt so, so damned right.

“It’s a good thing you have hold of your urges,” she said, more quietly, “because I’m so wet now, and it would be dreadfully embarrassing if you were to – “
He lifted her against the wall, wrapped her legs around him, and slid inside her. She was wet, so wet, and hot. The pleasure of her body, clasped around him, was so intense that it almost hurt. The light rhythmic sway of the car rocked him into her.
He braced them against the wall, his muscles straining.
“That’s right, Robert.” Her arms cane around him. “That’s right. Just like that.”

She came around him, tightening in waves of pulsating heat around his cock. And he pounded into her, hard at first, and then even harder, until his own climax came. In the moment when he spilled his seed, he imagined them connected by far more than the scrape of his teeth against her jaw, the tangle of their hands, the clamp of her legs still wrapped around him. It was more than just the physical act of burying himself in her body.
In that moment, for the first time in his life, Robert believed that there was someone for him.

He stood. She couldn’t read his expression at all.
But then he put his hands on her shoulders, and, when she looked up at him, he kissed her. He kissed her with no finesse, no gentleness. He kissed her with all the emotion that he hadn’t shown since he’d walked in the door – fiercely, savagely, as if he’d returned from an absence of ten years and needed to remind her of everything that had happened. His arms came around her, wrapping her to him as tightly as chains. He was scorching heat against her.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Requested Review: Hard Irish by Jennifer Saints

Format: E-bookhardirish
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Weldons, #3
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Jared Weldon
Heroine: Roxanne “Rocky” McKenna
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: September 17, 2012
Started On: February 07, 2013
Finished On: February 10, 2013

Hard Irish by Jennifer Saints is the much anticipated and awaited 3rd book in the Weldon brothers series. I love Jennifer’s books, whichever pseudonym she chooses to write them under because she provides an unbeatable combination of romance and sensuous delights together with just enough suspense to keep the ball rolling in her stories.

Jared Weldon and Roxanne “Rocky” McKenna’s encounter happens quite by chance. Though Jared goes seeking her out and unknowingly stumbles into her life, blindsided by the desire and need that she invokes in him makes Jared hesitant to spell out his real reason for wanting seek her out. And when Jared is certain that someone is out to get Rocky, there is no stopping Jared from doing all that he can to safeguard the woman he begins to fall helplessly in love with, one scorching kiss and searing touch at a time.

Hard Irish brings to the forefront the lovable Weldon family together with the ultra-appealing four brothers 2 of whom I am already hopelessly in love with. Jared finds himself in a bit of a fix when he can’t come out with the truth about who he actually is, but he has no choice but to play along for the duration it takes to keep Rocky safe.

Rocky is a woman who has had a bit of a tough time of things of late. With her father out of commission after a stroke strikes him down, Rocky takes the lead role in their business and gets things going. As a divorcee who had a tough time with her ex-husband, Rocky has her own issues to deal with, emotional scars that are left behind from a relationship that had done more damage than good.

Added to the mix is the thick plot of a deranged killer intent on finding out the secrets that Rocky’s mother had taken to her grave, secrets for which Rocky just might have to pay with her life and the lives of the ones that are near and dear to her.

A good read, I recommend the 3rd book of the series to those who have enjoyed the Weldon brothers so far and those who love books by Jenni.

Favorite Quotes

“May God give you…For every storm a rainbow, for every tear a smile, for every care a promise and a blessing in each trial. For every problem life sends, a faithful friend to share, for every sigh a sweet song and an answer for each prayer.”
—Irish Blessing

The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we can never give enough of is love.
—Henry Miller

I know the depths of sin.
The wretchedness of the depraved.
I know the darkness within
I’ll never escape it, even in the grave.
Though I know it is wrong
And I’ll pay with my soul
I could not turn away from
The love that made me whole.
So I stole every moment of time
And lived in the shadows
To love this child of mine
Before facing heaven’s gallows
I was part of the unforgivable
Blood stains my hands
Still I pray for the impossible
That in the end mercy will stand.

She didn’t have a chance to breathe before he caught her in his arms and planted his mouth on hers, instantly hot and demanding.
She opened to him, meeting the thrust of his tongue with hers, groaning deep from within as her starving senses found succor for her every want. His tongue tangled with hers, leading her in a seductive dance unlike any other.

Her body tightened like bow. She was going to explode. “Take me,” she whispered. “Hard. Give me everything.”
“Hell,” he cried out. His control snapped. The bed shook with his frenzied thrusts, banging the headboard against the wall. She arched and rocked, slamming herself against him. “Come,” he demanded. “Come with me.”
She clenched hard, squeezing his penis with the muscles of her sex and screamed as a mind-stealing orgasm captured her body and her soul. Her vision dimmed, her heart thundered, and her body shook. Wave after wave of pleasure crashed over her, leaving her quivering, replete.

Purchase Links: Amazon

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by mvbookreviewer

Review: Trading Favors by Tatiana March

Format: E-booktradingfavors
Read with: Kindle for iPad
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Men at Work
Publisher: TM Romance
Hero: Robert Connell
Heroine: Madeline Livingstone
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: September 25, 2012
Started On: February 05, 2013
Finished On: February 05, 2013

Being a fan of Tatiana March and my restlessness to read something that would captivate me found myself visiting her website to find out whether any new books by Tatiana had come out. To my delightful surprise I found that she indeed has a couple of new books out which I am dying to read one by one. Trading Favors which is a novella caught my eye the most and from page one, I loved it so much that I read it in one sitting as soon as I went to bed that night.

Madeline Livingstone (Maddie) finds herself divorced by her husband Frank at the age of 32. On the night her divorce is finalized, upon the advice of her friend, Maddie gets drunk enough to get the courage to walk up to Robert (Rocco) and demand to know why he had cheated her out on the work she had hired him to do at her house. To her embarrassment, Maddie comes to the realization and hard truth that not only had her ex-husband dumped her and opted to go for a newer model, he had also duped her in so many other ways which brings to home just how naive her trust in him had being.

When Rocco turns up on her doorstep the next morning and makes a deal with her to finish the repairs on the house, the one glaring fact that comes to light is the red-hot attraction that simmers and flares to life between them. Maddie who has been told time and yet again that she is undesirable and that she would always remain so has a lot of self-esteem issues to recover from. Not to mention her childhood that had instilled in her the proper manners befitting a lady of her upbringing makes Maddie afraid to reach out and take what she wants when Rocco is more than willing to offer himself to her.

When Maddie does find the courage inside of herself to say yes to Rocco, he shows her a world of sensuous desire that Maddie never ever thought possible. A slave to the way he makes her feel, neither of them talks about the future and opts to live in the moment. With a little bit of tangible angst added to the mix and a hotter than sin hero who just made me melt in all the right ways, Trading Favors is an awesome read that lifted up my spirits and made me smile and hum in all the right places. One of the things I loved the most was the unique beginning to the story that certainly makes it worthwhile a mention. Highly recommended.

Beautiful and sensuous. I loved it.

Favorite Quotes

The water started coming down harder and a little colder. The stream cascaded over her head, rivulets running down her face. Rocco brought his mouth back to hers. Deep, consuming kisses. The heat from his mouth mixed with the cool drops that ran down her skin, creating the most erotic sensation she’d ever experienced.

“I’m not sure this is a good idea…” Her words trailed away.
“Maddie.” Rocco dropped his towel to the floor and walked up to her. He took the damp bundle from her and patted excess water from her hair, his movements clumsy. “I don’t know how to do this right.” He leaned down and spoke softly into her ear. “But trust me, when we get into bed, right is my middle name.”

Rocco lowered his head for a quick, rough kiss, and then he rose above her, his shoulders wide, his biceps rippling with force, his arms locked straight at the elbows. He pulled back and thrust back into her, hard and deep. She felt her body clenching around him. He withdrew again, only to surge back in. Once. Twice. Thrice. Her body spun out of control. Pleasure rolled over her, in crashing waves that swept her along.

“You won’t need any clothes tonight.”
He mounted her without any finesse, thrusting hard and deep, filling her. The first orgasm hit her almost at once, but he didn’t pause, didn’t even slow down. He seemed to go on forever, steady, insistent strokes that started the tension coiling inside her again almost as soon as rolling waves of the previous release had stopped buffeting her.
She couldn’t see in the darkness, couldn’t see his expression, but she could feel the frustration and ill temper that drove him, could feel the sweat that made their bodies slick. She could hear the harsh grunts that he made no effort to silence. Could almost taste the flavor of his anger, because she’d asked a question that implied she had no faith in him.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Smashwords | Diesel

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by mvbookreviewer

Requested Review: The Marriage Trap by Jennifer Probst

Format: E-bookthemarriagetrap.jpg
Read with: Adobe Reader for iPad/iPhone
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Marriage to a Billionaire, #2
Publisher: Pocket Books
Hero: Michael Conte
Heroine: Maggie Ryan
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: October 2, 2012
Started On: January 24, 2013
Finished On: February 2, 2013

On the surface, both Maggie Ryan and Michael Conte seems to  have everything going for them. Maggie is a successful photographer of male models and someone who is in absolute control of every aspect of her life. Though the fact that sometimes she yearns for the kind of love that her best friend Alexa has found with her brother Nicholas; the kind of love that would make her belong in every sense, well, Maggie ain’t going to focus on that.

Michael is a billionaire whose success is legendary. But coming from an Italian family means familial customs do take precedence over certain modern principles and that is how Michael finds himself scrambling to come up with a woman who would pose as his wife for a short duration of time. Michael doesn’t want the hassle of emotions or any untoward demands to cloud the arrangement. And Maggie seems like the perfect choice until Michael realizes that he should have known better and that with Maggie nothing would ever be as simple as he thinks it to be.

So amidst the charade these two set out on, Maggie finds a side of herself that she thought she had suppressed far too well for it to exist after all this time. She finds herself a slave to the scorching desire that had drawn her to Michael in the first place. Michael had known from the very first encounter with Maggie that she was the kind of woman who could get under his skin and really tempt him to look beyond the aspect of just appeasing his physical needs. And that is exactly what happens when these two fight, kiss and make up in true lovers-who-can’t-get-enough-of-each-other fashion.

Though The Marriage Trap started out with the feel of characters who seemingly lead these perfect lives, its far from that. True, materialistically neither Michael nor Maggie needs much from the other. But emotionally they are both vulnerable in their own way, complementing the other in ways that neither would have thought possible. Maggie’s childhood consists of memories of being passed off from one nanny to the other. There is this gaping hole in her heart that she refuses to acknowledge though sometimes the emptiness inside of her is enough to make her question what she really wants.

Michael, though he comes from one of the most loving close-knit families, the sacrifices that he has made along the way to step up to the plate and be everything he is expected to be had changed a part of himself that he had not been able to get back. And with Maggie he finds himself willing to take the chance again to be free deep inside of his heart, to reach out and grab the happiness that he yearns for.

Maggie turns out to be what Michael needs in his life, for him to open his eyes and realize that while he had been playing the role as the head of the family and big brother, all his sisters had grown up and were more than capable of making their own choices. For a man like Michael who is used to taking charge, that is not an easy conclusion to come to. Likewise Maggie finds herself continuously challenged by the man who is her pretend husband, someone who shows her all the reasons why surrendering all of herself to him could be the best thing to happen to her ever.

Filled with spine tingling moments of the sensuous variety, The Marriage Trap is a good read that is recommended for those who love romances of this variety.

Favorite Quotes

With one final plunge, Maggie shattered.
She screamed his name, and heard his hoarse shout right behind her. The world broke around her in jagged pieces, and she rode out the pleasure to the very end. When she collapsed on top of him, and his arms came around her, one word echoed over and over in her mind, her heart, her soul.
Home.
Then she closed her eyes and slept.

She moaned. He caught it and pressed a bit deeper, and Maggie opened her mouth and gave in.
He plundered and commanded in complete thrusts, reminding her of how he’d claim her body if she gave him a chance. She tried to surface and gain control of the kiss, but her mind crumbled and her body sang. He murmured her name, and her legs got shaky as she held on to him for dear life and kissed him back.

He moved. Each motion claimed her for himself, told her of his emotions and need for her to belong to him. The last of the fight eased from her body and she matched him thrust for thrust, her heels digging into his back as they climbed higher and higher. She exploded beneath him and he let himself go. The unbearable pleasure wrecked him, overtook him, and threw him over the edge. When the storm finally passed, Michael realized his life would never be the same.
And he didn’t want it to be.

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

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by mvbookreviewer

Requested ARC Review: Craving Her Soldier’s Touch by Wendy S. Marcus

cravinghersoldierstouch.jpgFormat: Paperback
Read with: NA
Length: Novel
Genre: Medical Romance
Series: Beyond the Spotlight
Publisher: Harlequin
Hero: Ian Calvin Eddelton
Heroine: Jaci Piermont
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: January, 2013
Started On: December 22, 2012
Finished On: February 2, 2013

Being not much of a fan of medical romances doesn’t stop me from wanting to read Wendy S. Marcus’s romances set in the said genre when they come out. Its always a delight to encounter balance in a novel such as a medical romance; equal amounts of knowledge enhancing tidbits about the medical world and enough romance and heat to keep the blood pumping. And with Craving Her Soldier’s Touch, Wendy takes this a step further and includes an emotional depth to her characters that really touched my heart.

Craving Her Soldier’s Touch is about ex-army ranger Ian Eddelton who returns back home after surviving horrific injuries with a hoard of survivor’s guilt wrecking his mind and heart. The only thoughts that had kept him sane throughout had been that of the woman he had left behind in the rush and need to get away from the riot of all sorts of emotions of the deeper kind that she had been able to rouse in him. Though Ian is known as Ice amongst his army buddies, all his cool deserts him when the woman in question is around him.

Jaci Piermont might be a heiress with a fortune waiting to happen but she is one of the most down-to-earth and feisty characters that you would ever find. A community health nurse and Women’s Crisis Center advocate, Jaci is someone who is continuously on the move, always ready to help the neglected and the less fortunate sector of people in the society. Her heartwarming and caring nature together with her competency when it comes to everything she does is totally entwined with the story that unfolds; the story of how Jaci reunites with the man who leaves her in a wake of confusion when he left as he did.

I’d say that with every book that Wendy pens, her writing becomes more appealing and her characters show remarkable depth that makes the story hard to part with. Jaci’s character was one that really shone through in every aspect as her past and what she had gone through comes to light, painting a picture of a woman that has had more than her fair share of trouble in her life. The only thing I felt that slightly lacked in the story was the ‘healing’ aspect of Ian from his injuries as well as the psychological trauma he suffers from. Still, I would say Craving Her Soldier’s Touch made for a great read highly recommend it for fans of the author and fans of medical romances.

Oh and yes, lest I forget, I want to share the bit in the book where my beloved Maldives is mentioned, a lil prezzie that was left for me by the author. Thank you Wendy, for giving me that. ^_^

He twirled one of her curls around his freakishly long, thin, almost womanly index finger and held her in place. “Strolling the Avenue des Champs-Élysées. Visiting the beaches of Bali. Shopping in Milan. Skiing in Switzerland. Yachting in the Maldives.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Harlequin

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