Category / Tortured Hero

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Rafferty’s Angel by Caroline Cross

Format: Paperbackraffertysangel
Read with: Paperback
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Silhouette Desire, #851
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Chase Rafferty
Heroine: Margaret Rose McKenna
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: March 1, 1994
Started On: January 4, 2012
Finished On: January 4, 2012

Reading wise, the year 2012 didn’t start off so great for me. I picked up 2 books which have received rave and glowing reviews from several reviewers & readers, but somehow I found myself not really getting into the story that was developing. Maybe I wasn’t in the right frame of mind or lets face it, I may very well be the odd one out when it comes to the said books. That being said, Caroline Cross’s Rafferty’s Angel was a recommendation I got off of a giveaway I held here on my blog and I have been awaiting this one’s arrival ever since I ordered a used copy from Abe Books. So  last evening I found myself engrossed in the story that unfolded, a book that delivered exactly what I was craving for which made me a very happy and satisfied reader all around.

Former DEA Agent Chase Rafferty is a man who is haunted by what took place 2 years ago. The fact that the widow of the man whom he had killed had come forward to provide the testimony that had freed him in the eyes of the law continues to haunt and taunt him. Chase had grown up without ever knowing an ounce of kindness from his military bred father and his life as a DEA agent later on makes him a cynical man, one who is befuddled and confused by the way Maggie comes forth to the rescue of the one man whom she should hate with every fiber of her being.

2 years pass on by and Maggie lives in her hometown of Mission in Eastern Oregon with her two children. Once again, Maggie finds herself playing the rescuer, this time to a Chase that seems to have lost all hope, a man whose tormented soul beckons Maggie to bestow upon him her soothing touch, a man she undeniably has a strong connection towards no matter how much she may try to think otherwise.

Its a slow and a moving journey that Maggie and Chase takes together towards the discovery that in each other lies their better halves and their entwined future, if only Chase is willing to let go of the demons that continue to hound him every step of the way. The sizzling sexual tension that is so much a part of Maggie and Chase’s relationship proved to be an oh! so delicious one, one that had all my nerves rejoicing in the way that Chase loses his control when it comes to Maggie.

Maggie is one of the most endearing heroines I have come across. She has this soothing quality that is hard to explain, heck she even worked her charm over me throughout the story. I was lulled into this place where the world was a beautiful riot of colors, one where loneliness and pain is a foreign concept. That doesn’t mean that this story is all fluff, candies and rainbows. Hardly that, but Caroline Cross’s writing came across to me as a thing of beauty, one that I fell hopelessly in love with and won’t be forgetting anytime soon!

For fans of tortured and cynical heroes, Chase Rafferty is the man for you! He is sexy as sin and has a way about him that would draw you into his character and make you want to shoo away all those nightmares that seems to linger on even after such a long time. 

Highly recommended!

Favorite Quotes

Yet as bad as she felt, it was nothing compared to the stark despair she saw in Rafferty’s eyes. It was so total, and went so deep, that it made her forget her own hurt to see it. It was the look of a man who’d given up deep inside where it mattered most, and for Maggie, who was a survivor to her very toes, it was profoundly disturbing.

Maggie lifted her head.
Chase lowered his.
Like the inevitable meeting of sea with shore, their mouths came together.

And then those dusky lashes fluttered up, revealing a lambent gleam of jungle green.
His hands circled her waist and she slowly flexed his hips, a wholly male sound of satisfaction escaping him when her eyes fluttered shut and she gasped.
And then a small, secret, feminine smile appeared on her lips and Chase’s control snapped like a power line in a high wind.
Wrapping her in his arms, he began to pump into her in a slow, relentless rhythm that was both too much and not enough.

“Oh, baby, I can’t wait….”
“Don’t. I want you, Chase….” She slid her fingers up the strong channel of his spine to lock in the soft heavy gold of his hair and urged him down until his mouth, hot and wet, latched hungrily on one distended nipple. He hooked his fingers in the fragile lace barrier of her panties and tore them away, then yanked at the fastening of his jeans.
This time there was no slow slide of discovery. There was one endless agonizing second of delay as he made use of one of the packets she’d purchased, and then he was gripping her hips and plunging inside her, the pair of them bowing together as the ache of anticipation became a white-hot pulse of pleasure.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Abe Books

amazingread

by mvbookreviewer

Requested Review: Blame it on Texas by Tori Scott

Format: E-bookblameitontexas
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Logan Tanner
Heroine: Megan Flynn
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: November 24, 2011
Started On: December 25, 2011
Finished On: December 26, 2011

Blame it on Texas by Tori Scott was a great read, one that I enjoyed immensely. I was subjected to a lot of emotion as I read this novel, one I am finding out that Tori Scott is quite adept at dishing out to her readers. Toe-curling sexiness together with a lot of heartwarming characters with a hint of a secondary romance to follow, Blame it on Texas is a novel I would recommend for fans who love romances that makes you feel like you are part of the journey of the hero and heroine’s way towards happily ever after.

The fact that Logan Tanner hates going back to his hometown in West Texas is an understatement. The misplaced guilt Tanner feels about his mother’s sudden death when he was just around 12 years old still haunts him which keeps him away from a land that has no mercy in Logan’s eyes. A successful game designer and the father of a beautiful daughter whom he doesn’t get to see enough of, Logan has a lot on his mind when he is summoned by his sister Carol to take care of their father after he has a debilitating stroke.

When Logan’s daughter Katie turns up on the ranch’s doorstep with Carol’s friend Megan Flynn in tow, the feelings that courses through the rigidly controlled Logan is one that shocks him to his core. Divorce from a woman whose theatrics has soured him from commitment and relationships seems to have no place in his life when the sweet, courageous and sexy Megan steps into their lives. A connection that Logan doesn’t want or need nevertheless forms between the two and Logan doesn’t know whether to thank the Lord for sending her his way or to curse the fates because he has too many stuff to deal with at the moment.

Tragedy strikes, bringing out the best in each and everyone that is part of Logan’s hometown and in the midst of it all, Logan finds that he is not strong enough to turn away from the warmth and affection that Megan seems to shine upon his life, a woman who seems to understand the very things that he wants and needs.

Megan has her own dreams which she yearns to fulfill with everything inside of her. A veterinary practice in a small town where she would feel a sense of belonging is all that she wants from life until Logan Tanner and his daughter Katie invades her heart throwing her into the chaotic realms of love.

The reason I enjoyed Blame it on Texas so much was that Tori Scott managed to mix up all the right ingredients to give me an engrossing tale that in the end has its own message to deliver. Logan who has lost his way because of his misplaced guilt goes through a lot of hurdles to reach a place where he is ready for a happily ever after, and I loved the angst his tortured nature lent to the story.

I loved Megan. For me, she was the best thing about the story. She has all those qualities that I love about a heroine and for me she was just the right person to bring Logan out of the darkness that seems to consume him until there is not even a flicker of light left in his life. I loved the family dynamics and the small town aspect of the story that lent the story a charm of its own.

Recommended!

Purchase Links: Amazon

greatread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Cullen’s Bride by Fiona Brand

Format: E-bookcullensbride
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Silhouette Intimate Moments, #914
Publisher: Silhouette
Hero: Cullen Logan
Heroine: Rachel Sinclair
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: February 1, 1999
Started On: December 20, 2011
Finished On: December 21, 2011

Fiona Brand is an author whose name gets associated with that of Linda Howard. I have always heard that she has a similar writing style to that of one of my favorite authors of the romance genre and that is one reason why I picked up Cullen’s Bride to sample her writing. And of course a lot of raving reviews of the book by my Goodreads friends had me buying my very first Fiona Brand and indulging in it as soon as I could.

27 year old Rachel Sinclair returns back to the small town of Riverbend after a divorce that had completely shattered with plans to turn her life around. Now the owner of a hair salon, Rachel doesn’t expect much trouble from her sleepy hometown until she experiences otherwise. To her rescue comes 33 year old Cullen Logan, Riverbend’s one time bad boy and outlaw turned military man and still an outcast in his hometown.

The attraction that flares up between Rachel and Cullen is an immediate and a strong one at that, one that Fiona weaves so cleverly throughout the story. Rachel might have grown up with 4 overprotective half brothers who had tried to shield her from the reality that is life. But Rachel is a grown up woman, a woman who is determined in her efforts to live her own life on her own terms. Even when all her survival instincts tells her to flee in the opposite direction whenever she is around Cullen, her heart and other emotions that would like nothing better than to be claimed by the big, tough and a little bit rough around the edges former bad boy wants nothing more than to embrace him heart, body and soul.

Cullen is haunted by the very thought of sullying up the beautiful and dainty Rachel with his touch, his distrust for himself something he has lived with for a long time. But the need that takes a hold of him whenever he runs into Rachel is one that grows in its intensity from one encounter to the next until its very explosive against-the-wall culmination that changes both Cullen and Rachel’s lives forever.

I love it when a book is filled with sexual tension that just grows exponentially until I can barely remember to breathe while reading. And Cullen’s Bride turned out to be a book that delivered extremely well on that aspect from the very sexy Cullen Logan who just seems to fill up the pages with his mere presence. He is what you would call a tortured and tormented hero whose childhood had been nothing but disappointment and his rebellious attitude as a teenager that had stemmed from his frustration with just how meaningless his life had been. The military had been the one place where Cullen had fit in and it had molded him into a more dangerous version of the man he had been, one that is more alluring because even with that iron-clad control of his, nothing can change the fact that underneath all that civilized demeanor lies a man who is wild in his passions for the right woman.

I loved Rachel from the very start. From the way she pets and strokes the huge bear of a man who sends all her emotions into a tailspin to the way she stands up for what she wants and believes in and because Rachel knows when to advance and retreat in her mission to win the love of the one man who is reluctant to do just that made me fall for her big time! She matches Cullen in every way and is exactly what he wants and needs, even protecting him from the unjust voices in her hometown from making him feel unwelcome.

Tying up this story of need, red-hot desire with a reluctant hero and a determined heroine is a tad of suspense that just makes it a well rounded tale of romance very hard to put down. The one thing that the Kindle version of this book could have used though was a good editor; seriously some out of this world editing errors throughout the book that kept hindering with my enjoyment of the story.

If you love a hot, tortured hero who just makes your toes curl, Cullen’s Bride is the book for you. I seriously dare you not to dream that you are Rachel the minute the heat is on! 

Favorite Quotes

She pushed the hair away, then began uncoiling and recoiling the silky mass with an unconscious, natural grace. Against the crude background of the alley, she was startlingly feminine and delicate, and with every movement of her arms and hair, her scent wove around Cullen—flowers and freshness and the subtle earthy warmth of woman It sank into him and hardened him with a primitive fierceness he hadn’t experienced since his early teens.

“I’m no Prince Charming,” he admitted flatly. “I’m big and hard, and so hungry it feels like I haven’t had a woman in years. I wouldn’t court you, Rachel, I’d just take you.”

She’d braced herself for a hard, plundering, ravaging assault, but the sweetness of his caress was butterfly-soft, and so beguiling that she ached for him to deepen the pressure. Her hands lifted and settled on the incredible warmth of his chest as she parted her lips and tilted her head to grant him easier access. She was as guilty of misjudging Cullen as everyone else was—he looked every inch an outlaw, but he was kissing her like an angel. A fallen, dangerously beautiful angel.

The passionate fury in every line of her body made Cullen go still. The sudden vision of Rachel locked beneath him, her legs wrapped around his waist, that wild gaze linked passionately with his as he pushed himself inside her, flooded his loins with a throbbing, painful heat. A groan rolled through him, and he broke out in a sweat. Sweet hell
He wanted her. Here. Now.
And God help them both, but she wanted him, too.

Rachel arched, deliberately parting herself more widely over him, inviting him deeper into her body. She heard his intake of air, felt the raw tremor that shook him. Sweat sprang out on his skin, making him glow copper in the half-light. His lips drew back, baring his teeth as he fought for the control she was intent on denying him; then, with a rough sound somewhere between a groan and a purr, his hips jackhammered, and he thrust himself all the way in.
Time stopped. Rachel registered the wild dilation in Cullen’s eyes, her own sense of unreality. She was backed up against a wall, her arms and legs wrapped around Cullen, and he was so deep inside her that her muscles quivered in reaction to his alien heat and hardness.

Rachel’s kiss reached inside him and twined around what passed for his soul. and when she took her mouth from his, she had it all. He knew he loved her with everything he was. Everything that he could be. There would never be another woman for him.
And he could never tell her.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBaord | Kobo | Harlequin

awesomeread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Moonrise by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookmoonrise
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Signet
Hero: James McKinley
Heroine: Annie Sutherland
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: July 1, 1996
Started On: December 18, 2011
Finished On: December 20, 2011

Moonrise is going to end up being one of those novels that is going to be hard for me to rate. Not because it wasn’t engrossing enough but rather because I felt that a vital aspect of the story was missing in action even when the story ended. I wanted so much more for both James and Annie who seemed to go through so much in the span of just a couple of days. And although the mystery and suspense potion of the novel was superbly done as always, the romance aspect of the novel seemed to suffer making this novel not as enjoyable as it would have been otherwise.

27 year old Annie Sutherland is a woman who has led a sheltered life, a woman who has been manipulated endlessly by her father without even her being aware of the fact. With the sudden death of her father Annie withdraws into herself in grief until a missing picture from her father’s living room causes her to question how her father had actually died. Her quest to find the truth brings her to the doorstep of her father’s protégé James McKinley, a man whom she remembers as being part pf her life since Annie was 7 years old.

The James that she encounters is such a different version from the man that haunts her memories. The James that she finds in a remote cabin in an island off of Mexico has an aura of dangerousness that makes her nervous, but not enough to make her back down from her quest to find what it is that had killed her father. Though James would rather kill Annie than tell her the truth, something deep inside of him stalls at the thought of putting his hands around her neck and squeezing the life out of her. And James knows deep inside that his reluctance to end her life is reason enough to send her packing.

With killers turning up every step of the way, James and Annie travel from Mexico to the US and then to Ireland to find the truth. In the process both Annie and James are forced to remember their shared past and a fragile connection that had gone beyond anything they have encountered before or ever since, a passion and attraction that still seems to linger on stronger than ever. And when the truth does come out at the very end, it is a surprising one that proves Anne Stuart’s mastery when it comes to weaving tales of mystery and suspense.

James turned out to be a yummy hero of the dangerous type. He is a lethal killing machine, someone whose soul cries out to wash away all the blood that he has shed in the name of justice and a country he believed in. His tormented soul is one that comes across vividly, his one weakness being the attraction that burns deep inside of him to possess Annie Sutherland, the one woman who had remained forbidden to him from such a long time back. James is well versed in the art of deception, as good as the man who taught and mentored him, the man whose daughter trusts him with her life; a mission that James knows is a foolhardy one even long before killers start turning up at his doorstep.

Annie proved to be a difficult heroine to place. She has been brought up all her life thinking her father to be totally someone else from the man he actually was, a man who had molded and mapped out her life for her from childhood until his death. The fact that her father turned out to be the total antithesis of what she believed him to be is what makes her change her attitude and outlook towards everything that happens afterwards, her courage and wits the only two things that keeps her going even when James makes no secret of what he wants to do to her.

Though there was this sweet bit of shared history and passion between James and Annie, I felt that they had both outgrown who they were back then and had turned into much harder versions of themselves to be really able to love and accept each other as they were. James tries his hardest to keep Annie at bay, he fights constantly with his feelings that should have made his capitulation that much sweeter. And though as mouth-wateringly sexy as James was, their encounters barely hinted at the deeper emotions between them, that just sort of left me feeling empty deep inside.

Somehow I kept up my hope and belief that towards the end, I would see one thing, no matter how insignificant from James that would signal that he feels a gut wrenching love for the woman for whom he kills and taints his hands with more blood even when his heart and soul yearns for sweeter and softer things in life that he knows aren’t meant for him. But alas, the story ends on an empty note, and though a shared happily ever after is an implied one, I just did not feel the love that should have been there between two characters who held me riveted throughout their story.

Recommended for hard-core fans of Anne Stuart. 

Favorite Quotes

She felt hot, strong, alive against him, and he found he had this crazy urge to move his mouth down to the side of her neck, to press it against her, to taste her skin. He wanted to feel her breasts, wanted to pull her T-shirt up and feel her hot skin against his. Damn, he wanted her.

She expected annoyance, tolerance, perhaps even a distant amusement. She hadn’t expected his reaction.
His arms closed around her like a vice, pulling her tightly up against him. And she didn’t have time to kiss him—the touch of her mouth against his seemed to ignite a firestorm. She could feel him through every inch of her body, the lean, deceptively strong body beneath the suit, the heat and lure of muscle and sinew, the sheer intensity of him. She felt as if she were being absorbed into a maelstrom, and all she could do was hold onto him as he kissed her, he kissed her, using his tongue, kissing her with a thoroughness she’d never experienced.

He kissed the salty tears from her cheeks, her jaw, her neck. And then he kissed her mouth, slowly at first, tasting her pain and despair. Tasting her desire.
He didn’t know whether he turned her in his arms, or whether she shifted herself. He only knew she was astride him, facing him, her long legs wrapped around his hips, and the kissing had gone long past comfort.

He slid his arm under her waist, hauled her up, and entered her that way, sliding in deep, so deep, and her guttural cry was a heartbreaking pleasure.
He couldn’t stop. She wouldn’t let him. She twisted her head around and kissed him, and he wanted to keep on and on, to fill her mouth, her body, her soul with him. To have her take everything and then want more.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble

greatread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley

Format: E-booksweetdreams
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Colorado Mountain, Book 2
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Tatum Jackson
Heroine: Lauren Grahame
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: April 23, 2011
Started On: December 21, 2011
Finished On: December 23, 2011

I have never been so grateful for a book being so lengthy. Almost 700+ pages of pure magic is what Sweet Dreams by Kristen Ashley is all about, and Kristen managed to satisfy all my cravings within these pages, delivering one of the best contemporary romances that I have read to-date.

42 year old Lauren Grahame is on a venture to find Nowheresville, the one place where she can fade away into the background, work at a job that she doesn’t hate and just settle in with the fact that her quest to find that something special in her life had failed miserably. Four and a half months on the road and Lauren ends up in Carnal, a small town in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Securing the job of a waitress at the biker bar known as Bubba’s, Lauren is all set on her quest when she runs into the too sexy for his own good, the tattooed biker and part owner of Bubba’s, Tatum Jackson.

44 year old Tate is a bounty hunter, one who has a pretty eventful past that leaps from one corner or the other as the story proceeds. He is larger than life, has got a ton of attitude, is taciturn, totally alpha, a bit of a jerk at times, possessive enough to make butter melt, and through all that Kristen cleverly draws out the man who made my heart go aflutter every.single.time. His attraction to Lauren is one that he doesn’t need and want, he has too much shit going on in his life to really have any time left over to pursue that possessive streak that hits him when he eyes Lauren at his bar.

Lauren and Tate’s attraction, their relationship and how it proceeds to the happily ever after is a heart-warming and emotion wrenching one at best. Lauren the woman who has been betrayed so badly by her ex-husband and the people she had considered to be her friends has certainly done a number on her self-confidence. But slowly and surely with Tate’s powerful brand of seduction which at times might be found crude by certain readers (which I disagree 100% and certainly had my juices flowing all the time) made for one of the most interesting aspects of the novel. The growth of both Lauren and Tate’s characters throughout the story, how their love for each other makes them better people all around, and how their love is an all encompassing one was just beautiful, no two ways about it.

I was a bit disappointed at first with the fact that the story is told from Lauren’s point of view in first person. I wanted to learn first hand what was going through the mind of  Mr. Hotness himself and I thought that Kristen would not be able to pull his character off as I wanted it to with the story being told in the first person. But boy, was I proved deliciously wrong time and yet again as Kristen pulls off Tate’s character so fabulously that I seriously could not have asked for more! And I seriously mean it!

Lauren’s character is a fantastic one. I fell in love with her right from the very start. The way she is ready to embrace what life has to offer, the way she puts her heart and emotions on the line, taking a chance with the one man who seems to be all sorts of wrong for someone like her, but proves to be the right man in ALL the ways, Lauren’s character is one that I wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon.

The secondary cast of characters is what makes Sweet Dreams such a perfect story. The characters whose lives that Kristen brings so vividly to life through Lauren’s eyes, the way they all embrace Lauren and her special brand of charm is what makes this story just so very special. The bit on the serial killer and the mystery behind the gruesome killings just proved to be the icing on the cake, and as I said before, I cannot pin-point at even one teeny tiny bit of the story and say that I wish it had turned out differently.

I am so thankful at the moment to all my Goodreads friends and their reviews on this fabulous book, and especially to Kim for loaning a copy of the book to me. I was all apprehensive about starting a book so well received by all the readers, sometimes high expectations can make a story not work for you.

Sweet Dreams is an outstanding read, I would recommend for EVERY SINGLE ONE of you who loves romances. Tate’s character alone is reason enough to buy this book, the way he calls Lauren “Babe” rendering the term as my word of the month. I found myself drooling all over the book because Tate’s character demands nothing less, that beautiful male specimen that just made everything female inside of me rejoice in the fact that I adore romances! And you’ve got to love a hero who isn’t afraid to be ALL that he is with the woman he loves, his no holds barred passion that just lights up the pages throughout the story. I just want to say to Kristen Ashley, thank you for giving me Tate! He is a character that would live inside of me for the rest of my life.

If you are waiting around because Kristen is a new author, don’t. Just buy yourself a copy and indulge. This lengthy read will leave you completely satisfied, purring like a cat who got all her milk and then some; that is what a perfectly done romance does to you!

Favorite Quotes

Tate’s kiss…
There was no describing it.
It didn’t start slow, it started hard and wet and so demanding I had no choice but to give back what I got. And I did. Our tongues sparred then our teeth bit at each other’s lips and our heads twisted this way and that, all of it a mindless, sexy dance that was all-consuming. There was nothing but his mouth and my mouth, what they were doing and what they were making me feel. Nothing. Not in the whole universe.

We were both quiet a long time and I was about to fall back asleep in the curve of his arm with his warm body at my back when he called my name.
“Laurie?”
“Yes,” I muttered, my voice sleepy.
“I was pissed last night.”
“I know.”
“You look good.”
“Sorry?”
“No way you can look like all the rest.”
My eyes shot open.
His arm curled me deeper into his body and I felt his face burrow into my hair.
“You’d always shine through,” he muttered and now he sounded sleepy but I was again wide awake. “Somethin’ special,” he finished.

He grabbed my calves and yanked them apart, then pushed them up so my knees were bent. He put a knee to the bed and moved forward, releasing one of my calves, his hand wrapped around his cock and I felt his weight begin to hit me.
“You come with me inside you, Ace,” he gritted and then he was inside me, filling me, beautiful.
At the feel of him, so hard, making me so full, my back left the bed again. “Tate.”
He moved, driving deep, fast, hard. Our mouths attached, our tongues clashed. His hand went between us and he touched me and that was it. It hit me like a rocket and I combusted, my world exploding, taking me with it and I loved every nanosecond.

“The first time I met you, you told me you grew up here, I’d call you a liar,” Tate informed me.
I tipped my head to the side and asked, “Really?”
“Really.”
“Why?”
“High-class,” he replied.
“Sorry?”
“You looked high-class,” he semi-repeated.
“I’m not,” I stated.
“No, Ace, you’re not. You’re a different kind of class.”
“Farmer class.”
“Pure class.”

After more of his sweet torture, I called, “Tate, honey?”
“Yeah, baby,” he answered.
“Am I under your skin?” I whispered as my hips moved with his hand.
He replied instantly, “Oh yeah.” His thumb tweaked my clit harder, my hips jerked and a low mew slid out of my throat as the fingers of one of my hands slid into his hair and the other arm held on tighter. “Fuck yeah,” he growled and his lips left my ear, his mouth found mine and he kissed me, wet and deep.

I stopped looking around when I heard a soft “mew” and I looked toward Tate to see he was crouched. He straightened and turned to me.
I froze and stared.
Tatum Jackson, ex-pro football player, ex-cop, now bartender/bounty hunter, tall, beautiful and more man than I’d ever experienced in my life was standing on the edge of his kitchen holding a cat.
And it wasn’t just any cat and he wasn’t just holding it. He was cradling it. 

His forehead dropped to touch mine. “I’m gonna piss you off ‘cause I can be a dick. That’s who I am. And you’re gonna piss me off ‘cause, babe, you got attitude. That’s who you are. And that’s who we’re comin’ out to be together. And I’m all right with that because, with what I had before, even when you’re a bitch, I like it. But when you’re not, it’s a sweetness the like I’ve never tasted.”

His hand slid up my back and his fingers sifted into my hair to cup the back of my head.
“Kiss me, baby.”
I used the moonlight on the angles of his face to aim and found his mouth. The minute my lips hit his, he rolled partially into me, forcing me to my back in the bed, and my mouth opened as did his. My tongue slid inside, he growled against it and when I absorbed that in my mouth, a small moan escaped my throat. His head slanted one way, mine tilted the other and my kiss turned into a kiss.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Dancing on Coals by Ellen O’Connell

Format: E-bookDacingoncoals
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Gaeten
Heroine: Katherine Grant
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: October 29, 2011
Started On: December 9, 2011
Finished On: December 10, 2011

You know those books that refuse to let its hold on you go even long after you are done? Yep, Dancing on Coals by Ellen O’Connell is one such novel that I lay thinking about long after I was done. The characters, the passion, the violence and the undying love between two people who are so obviously two halves of one just kept coursing through me, wishing that I could keep on reading their story forever.

The year is 1881 and Katherine Grant is on her way home to New York after travelling throughout the country. The only girl amongst 5 boys, Katherine had grown up running around with her brothers in different parts of the world ever since their mother had died when she was 6 years old. The only reason she had left home unknown to her family had been because they had not believed in her when she had needed it the most, and as Katherine figures, what her family doesn’t know cannot hurt them.

But when armed robbers attack their stagecoach and everyone else but Katherine is killed, her savior comes in the form of Nilchi, an Apache warrior whose lean good looks and fluency with English puts her at ease even with Nilchi’s older brother Gaeten glowering at her, hatred spitting from his eyes at every turn.

But not long after, Gaeten and Katherine are forced to team up, Gaeten’s promise to his younger brother on his deathbed the only reason that prevents Gaeten from testing the sharpness of his knife against the white woman’s throat. Gaeten’s hatred for the White runs and courses deep through his veins. The haze of rage that blinds him is a vicious one ever since his parents had been killed by white men when he had been just 9 years old. But through every harrowing escape that Katherine and Gaeten make together, he comes to realize that even if Katherine is a white woman, the courage of an Apache runs through her blood.

Ellen O’Connell writes romances that are a dying breed in present days. Her honest portrayal of life what it was like back then, the violence, bloodshed, thievery and murder that was part of the daily life comes across vividly and there isn’t one aspect of the novel that I would change. The setting, the characters and the way she brings forth the connection, the sizzling attraction and the oh so strong love between Gaeten and Katherine was just perfect.

Gaeten’s thoughts remain hidden until Chapter 9, the only way to garner his feelings being by how Katherine views his expressions and his behaviour when it comes to her. Even bound by his promise to his brother, Gaeten would like nothing more than to leave her behind, but unbeknown to him, the connection that is forged between them during their escape and trek through the wilderness binds him to her, even when Gaeten tries so hard to deny it. I was halfway in love with him even way before that, the minute he charged into the story on horseback, intent on killing the woman who would later turn his life around. And as the story progressed, I was mesmerized by Gaeten, the way he slowly transforms and leaves behind the black rage that surrounds him, the healing which comes from Katherine’s acceptance of him, just the way he is.

Katherine is the type of heroine that is trademark Ellen O’Connell. She creates them courageous with an inner beauty that makes it inevitable that the reader would fall for her as well. Katherine is a practical woman, who had turned away from her fiance back home when he had done something she would never abide by. Even when fear for her life at Gaeten’s hands makes her tremble, she doesn’t back down, making it that much harder for Gaeten to dismiss her as just another white woman. The way she accepts, loves and desires Gaeten just the way he is makes for one of the best aspects of the story, the way she “tames” her fierce husband reason enough to revel in this story.

Exceptionally crafted as is usual for Ellen’s novels, Dancing on Coals is a novel not to be missed for fans of the genre. To read the beautifully done afterword is enough reason to read this novel, the research that Ellen has done to write this story one that shines throughout and one that I applaud wholeheartedly.

Favorite Quotes

He entered her in a single hard thrust, opening her, stretching her and forcing a moan of surprise from her. She was ready, so ready, and yet totally unprepared. She’d been wrong. She was still virgin to this, to his strength and her need, to the pleasure and the pain and the sheer triumph of having him. He drove into her and she rose to him, clutched him tighter, harder. Her nails raked and dug into his back, her teeth into his neck.

“Your skin is white, but I think the white god made a mistake, or maybe he did it on purpose to play a joke. He gave you an Apache heart.”

She toyed with the top button of his shirt. “Do Apaches kiss?”
“The people believe the mouth is only for eating.”
“Oh.” She didn’t try to hide her disappointment.
He shifted her against him a little and cupped her breast with one hand, his thumb rubbing across the nipple. “They also believe a woman’s breast is only for nursing a child.”
Lowering his mouth over hers, he ran his tongue between her lips, exploring her tongue, making her shiver with a stroke along the roof of her mouth.
When he raised his head at last, she whispered, “I’m glad you’re an unbeliever.”

Facing him, she saw what she didn’t need to see to know. Even if most wives experienced being washed by a fully aroused, naked husband, they would never know this — a man no words had been invented to describe, beyond handsome, beyond beautiful. His skin glowed copper in the light from the fire, shadows emphasizing the curves of muscle and planes of bone. His erection was hers, for her.

If a man could taste wind and fire, they would taste like Katherine. When he stood in high places looking down on things made small by distance, he tried to feel what the eagle felt soaring free on the wind. He was an earthbound man. Only his spirit could ever soar, and only Katherine raised him so high.

He entered her slowly, determined to keep a tight hold on the lust pounding in his veins. She wrapped her legs higher, took him deeper and deeper. Her hands dug into the muscles of his rear, urging, telling him what she wanted and what he needed were the same. He obeyed and thrust harder, driving into her not with anger but with a desperate raw need. He felt her climax, her body arching, tightening and contracting around him as she cried out against his neck. He shuddered with the intensity of the explosion that wracked his body and spirit and wrung a deep cry from him.
“Katherine.” I was afraid. I missed you. I love you.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Requested Review: Shattered by Kate Kelly

Format: E-bookshattered
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Jay Rawlings
Heroine: Tess MacLean
Sensuality: 3
Date of Publication: September 5, 2011
Started On: December 1, 2011
Finished On: December 2, 2011

Shattered by Kate Kelly is a novel that hit the e-book stands on September this year. A romantic suspense that features a stalker killer and a past from which both the hero and heroine are trying to find their way out of, Shattered was a novel that I enjoyed reading.

When 27 year old Tess MacLean makes her way back to South Dakota after a 3 year period, its not at all how she has envisioned a return trip home back to everything familiar would be. With a killer close to her heels, Tess runs to the only person that she can count on, her ex-fiance Jay Rawlings who made it painfully clear to her during their last encounter that she was no longer needed in his life.

Jay is a man who kids himself into believing that all is right in his world by pushing away that nightmarish night from 3 years ago when everything in his professional and personal life turned upside down. Refusing to give anything a second chance to shatter his world once again, Jay believes that keeping people that he cares about at arms length is the way to live. However, once again when Tess tumbles into his life, needing him more than ever, there is little he can do to say no and turn her away.

Rusty skills that Jay has not used for far too long help him uncover the clues as to why Tess’s life might be in danger, the clues opening up a whole lot of mess that seems far more serious than he had believed at first. And to say that Tess once again opens up old wounds that has far from healed is an understatement.

Jay and Tess’s love had been a fiery and all consuming one before their future had vaporised right in front of them. And once again, those old feelings hit Jay with full force until he has no choice but to give in and experience that heady magic that had once been his life until he had pushed away the one woman who means everything to him.

A killer who is far too close to home than either Tess or Jay envisions stalks them both, biding his time until towards the very end where Jay has to confront his past demons once again to find closure from the nightmares that have been a constant presence in his life for far too long.

I loved Tess’s character far more than I loved Jay. Maybe it had something to do with that inner courage within Tess that refuses to give up or maybe because she is the straightforward type of heroine that I love so much. For me, Jay was a trifle bit too caught up in the past, maybe rightfully so at first, but there were times when I wanted to poke him in the chest and point towards Tess and their happily ever after. But in the end, Kelly managed to deliver an ending that fits, her writing style which is what made the story work for me at all times.

Shattered is a story of second chances blended well with suspense elements that guarantees an enjoyable read. Recommended for fans of the genre.

Favorite Quotes

Jay’s large body covered her. Oh God, the welcome weight of him. His mouth descended on hers, not asking, not seeking, but demanding she meet his need. She wrapped her arms around his neck and arched up into him as her tongue darted into his mouth, met his, and mated in a hot, heady tangle.

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | Smashwords

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by mvbookreviewer

Requested ARC Review: Edge of Survival by Toni Anderson

Format: E-bookedgeofsurvival
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Carina Press
Hero: Daniel Fox
Heroine: Dr. Cameran Young
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: November 21, 2011
Started On: November 23, 2011
Finished On: November 28, 2011

Edge of Survival By Toni Anderson released from Carina Press on the 21st of this month. Due to certain other commitments and stuff that kept cropping up, I took my own sweet time to finish this fantastic contemporary romantic suspense that features a hot British hero who made all my James Bond fantasies come to life.

34 year old Daniel Fox is a former SAS agent whose sole focus after his spotless military career goes haywire in a split moment’s decision becomes flying, drinking and seducing anything that moves. With his indigo blue eyes and charming physical attributes, not to mention that swoon worthy accent of his, women have no complaints whatsoever on being used by Daniel to forget the nightmares that continue to plague him.

Dr. Cameran Young is the lead biologist on the Environment Impact Assessment team for a large mining project in the Canadian bush. Being one who suffers from diabetes, Cameran’s life is not for the faint of heart with her battle for survival that is waged every single second of every day. When Cameran’s work takes her to the remote and at times hostile environment in the Canadian bush, the last thing she expects is to walk in on a murdered woman to kick-start her trip.

When Cameran and Daniel’s paths cross, there is no stopping the fireworks that begins right from the very start. Though Daniel does everything in his power to turn his back on the numerous feelings that bombards the shield of steel that guards his emotions and heart, Cameran’s effect on him is not as easy to ignore as he would like.

Cameran might try telling herself that Daniel is the type of man who would love and leave without even a backward glance and she is so not the type to get tangled up with someone like him. But her heart and baser emotions have a plan of their own; that is to get as up close and personal with Daniel and his uber swoon worthy body that tends to make Cameran feel as if she is on a sugar high all the time.

Though this is my first Toni Anderson I was pleasantly surprised by the ease with which she drew me into the story and had me all tied up in knots over each and every single one of her characters. She has a style of writing that has earned her a spot on my authors to look out for in the future. I loved the way she developed all the characters in the story, and I guess will continue to wonder whether she plans to write any more stories with some of the characters that were encountered during Daniel’s tortured journey towards happinesss with Cameran.

As I said before Daniel is the type of hero to bring each of your wickedest Bond fantasies to life. Even when he is making an ass out of himself by sleeping with every woman who crosses paths with him, he has a charm about him that makes it hard to harbor any ill feelings towards him. Needless to say, I loved how Daniel’s character was brought to life, how he grew throughout the story and how his feelings progressed. I loved his tortured soul that just made me want to hug him close and was practically jumping up and down with glee during those moments that he tried so hard to stay away from Cameran and could not!

Cameran’s character is the type of heroine that I love best. With no coyness to her, she is upfront and straightforward with what she wants and how she feels which is how I like my heroines. The way she slowly chips away at the resistance that is so much a part pf Daniel was both fun and heartwarming to read about. I loved those scenes of seduction between Daniel and Cameran which were pretty hot and at the same time loved how the seducer becomes the seduced in most of the scenes.

The villain and the moment where everything clicked together was one of the best aspects of the story which I say signals the fact that this romantic suspense is a well done one. Sensual, different; romance with a bit of angst, just how I like them; Edge of Survival is a romantic suspense not to be missed.

Favorite Quotes

A shimmer of something feral moved over his face—a father’s anguish, raw and defiant, but something else too, rage. “I know to you she’s just another dead prostitute, but she was my baby. Promise me you’ll find her killer so we can put our baby to rest. Promise me, because if you don’t find him, I will.”

He was fully aroused as he moved against her, and she opened her mouth on a shocked gasp. His tongue slipped inside her mouth and explored slowly, thoroughly. Nothing like she anticipated from the whirlwind of sensations that exploded through her body. He hinted at seduction and passion. Subdued. Contained. Controlled.
Perfect.
She sighed.

His grip hurt and he tasted dangerous; there was no other way to describe it. Like fire and sweat and savageness that scared her. He was so much bigger than she was, so much stronger. His kiss was hungry, ravenous.
A starving man…or an addict.

Cam smiled as she grabbed the hem of his jeans and pulled them until his feet hit the floor with a thud. He was naked. She was naked. And he wasn’t looking quite so detached anymore. In fact, he looked panicked. And annoyed. And hot. For her.

He flipped her on her back and she squeaked.
“I want to see you.” And he kissed her, tasting like darkest sin, like double chocolate without insulin, like pure malt whisky injected into her bloodstream.

He turned her in his arms and kissed her. His hands were full of woman as she wrapped herself around his body so tight they were melded together from shoulders to hip. But her kisses…they stole his breath with their hunger for him. 

He tried to stand perfectly still and relinquish control, so she could do whatever she wanted with him, and he just about cried.
She felt so amazing wrapped around him. Strange and yet familiar. Brilliant. Too vibrant and frightening to explore with anything other than his body.

He slid his hands up her back and lifted her until they were eye to eye. She held his gaze, those changeable eyes of hers blue now, reflecting the water and the sky. And finally she let go, unraveled, squeezing him tightly, wrapping herself around him in sensual pleasure. Her cries, amplified by the water and ancient stone, reached out and connected to something so fundamental inside him it felt like his soul. He closed his eyes and cried out as he followed her back into the void.

“I could kiss you until the world stopped turning and it still wouldn’t be long enough.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble |Kobo | Carina Press

fantasticread

by mvbookreviewer

Review: On Thin Ice by Anne Stuart

Format: E-bookonthinice
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Series: Ice, Book 6
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Finn MacGowan
Heroine: Elizabeth Pennington
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: September 15, 2011
Started On: November18, 2011
Finished On: November 18, 2011

Anne Stuart announced about the release of the On Thin Ice, the 6th book in the ICE series when I had long given up hope that there would ever be another book in the 5-star series that I had enjoyed immensely from the minute I picked up Black Ice. For me, Anne Stuart is one of a kind; an author who manages to deliver heroes in a league of their own, passion that absolutely scorches through the pages and a love when it comes, binds the hero and heroine for all time to come. And On Thin Ice turned out to be exactly what I hoped and envisioned it to be as I finished this in almost one sitting, just taking breaks for those essential stuff in between.

36 year old Finn MacGowan is an agent of the infamous Committee, taken captive by the members of the Guiding Light that operates in Callivera, a small war-torn country in South America. Having been held captive for three long years, Finn is looking forward to the night he would make his third and final attempt at escape; the reason that he has been kept alive for as long as he has which still remains a mystery even to him.

31 year old Elizabeth Pennington, the sole heiress to the Pennington Pharmaceutical dynasty arrives in Callivera seven months back and works with the Catholic Charities of Callivera until one brutal day when everyone she holds dear is killed ruthlessly and Beth is taken captive. 

Beth’s savior comes in the form of the Irish man Finn who makes no secret of the fact that he would willingly leave her behind if it would mean an easier escape for him. But from the very first moment these two opposites are pitted together, Finn has a hard time acting the part of his usual cold and ruthless self around Beth who stirs his senses and literally sets him afire. Blaming his intense attraction towards the skittish and almost virginal Beth as an effect of his 3 year dry spell placates him somewhat but deep down inside, Finn knows that Beth is far more dangerous to his heart and mind than any other woman he has ever known.

A trek through the jungle, with the vicious members of the Guiding Light at their heels hell bent on vengeance and revenge, not to mention the nefarious plans of a member of the CIA tracking their progress all throughout in his own personal vendetta, the adventure aspect of the novel is as hair raising as they come and I fully enjoyed every nail biting minute of it.

The attraction between Finn and Beth is a strong and visceral one that just about took my breathe away with the sexual tension that fairly leaps out of evey single one of their encounters. Finn is the type of hero I love to allow into my dreams. Ruthless and dangerous enough to kill for those whom he loves, with an inner core of tenderness towards that one woman who rocks his world in all the ways, I would love myself a Finn any fine day! I think Finn might come a very close second in my favorite hero list from the ICE series and that is saying a lot when all of the heroes in the ICE series are unbeatable and one of a kind in their own unique way.

Beth is the type of heroine that Anne Stuart does so well. Though in her thirties and richer than the average woman could ever hope of being, Beth is calm and serenity itself and believes herself to be one of those women who would never enjoy the act of sexual relations and steers clear of anything and everything that might lead to it. Her awakening is a slow one, the senses that stir into life and makes her yearn for those things that she cannot for the life of her seem to be able to voice one of the most invigorating aspects of the novel. The way Finn seduces her, not with poetry and flowers but his brand of loving that is hard and branding in its own right just about melted me on the very spot!

I loved how characters from previous ICE books came together in this novel and learning tidbits of their lives at present just warmed me up from the inside. I especially loved the last chapter that serves as a sort of epilogue which I nearly jumped up and down after reading because lets face it, Anne Stuart is famous for leaving the reader begging for more with her books.

Everything about this novel spells perfection right from the very start though there were certain editing errors here and there which I didn’t mind overly much. The only drawback; there is a feeling of finalty with how the novel ended which I think signals the end of the ICE series. I am practically a pretzel at the moment from crossing all my limbs together in the hope that I be proven wrong in the near future.

Recommended for fans of the ICE series, fans of Anne Stuart and fans of ruthless and dangerous heroes that no other hero can ever hope to compete with!

Favorite Quotes

(Beth) “You can’t leave me behind!”
“I can and I will, if I have to break your neck to keep you from following me.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“No, you wouldn’t.” His voice was flat, unemotional, but even in the darkness she could see the faint flicker in his eyes. She looked behind her, at the crumpled body of the pot smoking soldier, his head at an odd angle, his eyes open and staring.
“Oh, God,” she whispered, horrified. What had seemed a strange kind of nightmare was suddenly, terribly real. “Did you kill him?”
“No, the tooth fairy came along and took care of him.” 

(Finn) “You’re sure you’re not a sister?” he tossed back at her, his voice little more than a growl on the night air.
She was closer than he thought, making decent enough headway on the steep hill. “I’m an only child.”
Stupid, he thought. “I’m asking if you’re a holy nun.”
“I told you, I’m not a nun, holy or otherwise.”
Okay, she met the criteria for fuckable. 

He halted abruptly, and this time she did slam into him, but at least it was his back absorbing the blow of her soft body. He could pretend to ignore it. “What have you got on your feet?” he growled.
“Shoes.”
He looked down, his eyes accustomed to the inky black. Light-weight sneakers, already soaking wet from the damp undergrowth. “Christ, woman,” he muttered.
“I didn’t exactly get a chance to choose my wardrobe when they kidnapped me,” she said.
Damned if he didn’t like her. 

The vibration of laughter increased, and for some reason it did even more to warm her than the heat from his big, strong body. “You know, Sister Beth, you’re a dangerous woman.”
“You said that before, and I assume you’re being sarcastic.” She was too sleepy to come up with a real argument, too warm and safe for the first time in days to bestir herself. “I can’t imagine anyone more pathetically weak than I am. What could I possibly do to you?”
“Sweetheart, you could make me fall in love, and that’s fatal.”

He moved around the wide counter, silent as always. She was sitting on the floor, her arms wrapped around her knees, her fist in her mouth to try to quiet her sobs, and he realized he hadn’t actually seen her cry before. [..]
She must have felt his eyes on her, for she suddenly swallowed her sob on a choked gasp and looked up at him, her huge, sorrow-filled eyes a sharper pain than the knife slash.
He moved slow enough, so as not to spook her, to give her plenty of time to move, but she stayed where she was, her huge eyes looking into his, and she fucking broke his heart, if he still possessed such a useless organ. 

Without his shirt she could see just how bony he was, probably twenty or thirty pounds under his fighting weight from his years in captivity. He loomed over her, and she finally understood her ambivalence. He had protected her, killed for her, led her to safety. He was safety.
But he was also big and raw and so elementally male that it made her teeth sweat. She’d spent most of her life blissfully above the calls of the flesh and the dark, desperate couplings that subsumed others. She didn’t like sex, didn’t want sex. Body parts were simply that. She looked at MacGowan and thought about sex.

There were times when she was honestly afraid of him. He could kill, had killed for her on a number of occasions, seemingly without a moment’s hesitation or an ounce of regret. He was mercenary, brutal, charming, devious, and yes, any other woman would think he was sexy as hell. Not her.
Not her. Oh hell, yes, her. The way he moved, as if he understood his body better than any man had a right to and knew just how to use it for a woman’s maximum pleasure. The way his gray eyes slid over her, coolly caressing. It meant nothing, it was part of his stock in trade, and yet she felt it slide over her skin like a physical touch.

He caught up with her outside her doorway, when she almost gave up. He said nothing, simply pulled her into his arms, against his strong, hard body, and his hand slid beneath her hair, tilting her face up to his. “No more running away?” His voice was rough.
His eyes glittered down into hers, and if she wanted tenderness it wasn’t there. Simply a dark, naked heat sparking between them.
“No more running away,” she said.

He wanted her hands on him, he wanted her mouth on him, he wanted to take her from behind, leaning over the bunk, he wanted her to go down on him, he wanted everything he could possibly think of and more. He wanted it hard and nasty, gentle and sweet. But most of all he wanted it now.

She could feel the hot tears pouring down her face, and she pressed it against the stone. MacGowan, you stupid bastard, she thought. Why did you have to go and get yourself killed? I care about you.
Care about you. Stupid phrase. She knew the truth, and right then the least she could do for the man who’d died protecting her was to admit it. She was stupidly, idiotically in love with him. He didn’t deserve it, she was smart enough to know better, but all the rationalization in the world didn’t help. It simply was.

Purchase Links: Amazon

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

Re-Read Review: Hidden Fires by Sandra Brown

Format: E-bookhiddenfires1
Read with: iBooks for iPad
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Warner Vision
Hero: Jared Lockett
Heroine: Lauren Holbrook
Sensuality: 3.5
Date of Publication: July 1, 1982
Started On: November15, 2011
Finished On: November 16, 2011

First published on my birth year, Hidden Fires by Sandra Brown is a romance that stands true to the test of time. Trust on Sandra, one of my all time favorite authors to deliver a romance as sizzling as hot coals and a story that is so engrossing that I couldn’t bear to let this one go even for a minute. Even being the second time round that I was reading this, I was completely riveted on the events that took place in the novel, a woman’s hatred and vindictive and controlling behavior that drives the story together with the sensual and beautiful romance Sandra delivers.

The year is 1903 and 20 year old Lauren Holbrook travels to Texas from North Carolina on the invitation of one Ben Lockett who has all well placed intentions regarding the beautiful Lauren. Lauren having lost her mother at the age of 3 and father at the age of 12 had lived since then with Reverend Abel Prather and his wife Sybil. Naive and innocent, Lauren has no idea of the hornets nest she is stepping into when she disembarks from the train to make her way towards Coronardo, Ben’s hometown.

Jared Lockett is a man who is notorious throughout the state for his whoring and drinking. A Harvard graduate and a cowboy, Jared is a character who stirred up my senses even right from the start. A mass of contradictions is what he is; brash, harsh and coldly controlled one minute and tender and teasing the next. His parents marriage being an unhappy one is an understatement and Jared had borne the brunt of their unhappiness with one another that had shaped him up to be the person he is.

When Jared’s mother, the beautiful and vindictive Olivia Lockett schemes to arrange a marriage between Lauren and Jared both find themselves agreeing to the marriage of convenience for a period of two years. Though Jared would have loved to storm out of the discussion and turn his back on his mother’s wishes, her manipulations turn out to be more well placed than Jared could counterattack and thus finds Lauren and Jared being bound by holy matrimony and little does Jared know that Lauren is the woman who would bring him to his very knees before their marriage is through.

Lauren who is an innocent babe in the woods when it comes to carnal desires is misjudged right from the very start by Jared and thus makes her life miserable from the onset of their marriage. But for Jared, Lauren is not as easily dismissed from his mind as he would like as her innocence and beauty keeps creeping up on him at the most unexpected of moments, his personal vow to stay away from Lauren a much harder one to keep than he thought.

Lauren is drawn to Jared right from the very start, the cravings that hits her whenever Jared is around a foreign one to her but one she knows instinctively that only Jared can fulfill. Sandra keeps the sexual tension mounting until all I could do was practically squirm in my chair from wanting the explosive culmination of the desire between Jared and Lauren, something Sandra is very good at delivering on! And I wasn’t disappointed when their relationship progressed to that stage and all but welcomed the beauty of their coming together with open arms.

What I loved most about this novel was Lauren’s character. She is naive and innocent to a fault when she steps on the rugged land of Texas, but having an instinct that guides her to judge people easily saves her from a lot of hurdles. In Olivia, Jared’s mother Lauren finds a woman who is bitter to the very end, who loves people only to gain the upper hand and to further her own goals in whatever notorious scheme or plan that she cooks up. It is Olivia’s doing that separates Lauren and Jared and drives a wedge between them one right after the other, for the fear that Jared might not be as easily controllable if Lauren were to work her healing magic on him.

How Lauren grew throughout the story, her gentleness and giving nature together with that stubborn streak of hers when it comes to those she loves and considers dear to her are her best characteristics. The way she faces and weathers one storm after the other in her relationship with Jared, the man who so effortlessly steals her heart for good and all time to come is one of the reasons I admired her character. She gives as good as she gets, but knows instinctively when its time to let go in order to heal the tortured soul that is Jared’s.

Jared is the type of ruthless alpha hero that I absolutely adore and love. Sandra certainly knows her way with male lead characters and even when they are rakes of the most notorious kind, you can’t help but be drawn towards them like a moth to flame. Jared’s entrance to each and every scene in the book makes it come alive with his sheer magnetism alone and if I were to talk about the effect he had on my senses; I tell you this is going to end up a long, long review!

The one thing that stopped me from giving the 5-stars that this book so very well deserves was what happened towards the latter part of the book. I found that Jared’s “cruelty” towards Lauren to make his mission a more believable one was something that could have been done away with. But somehow it all serves its purpose, the villains get what they truly deserve and Jared and Lauren find a love so worthy of slaying dragons over that I just heaved a huge sigh of pleasure once the book was done!

Sandra’s mastery is such that not even one iota of my emotions remain aloof when reading, my whole being focused on the sensations that courses through me right from the very start. Her ability to paint a picture so vividly with words and make you feel as part of the story that unfolds is how remarkable an author she is and that is one reason why I would continue to buy her books as long as she continues to publish them.

Favorite Quotes

Lauren whirled her head around so quickly that the motion hurt her neck. Jared’s hand came up and clamped the hat more firmly over his face. He adjusted his long body to another position, contracting and relaxing muscles that Lauren didn’t know existed. But then, she had never seen a masculine physique like this before. His languid movements were repelling and thrilling at the same time. It was like watching some pagan god who was beautiful even in his decadence.

Jared hadn’t planned it, had never even thought about it, but he couldn’t control taking complete possession of her mouth with a bruising kiss. He wanted to insult her, to further humiliate her, to shatter her damned poise. But her body was so female, her lips so soft, warm, virginal, that what had been hurtful and brutal became tender, seeking, questioning.

Lauren could smell the starch that kept Jared’s shirtfront crisp, which blended intoxicatingly with tobacco and champagne. When he spoke in confidential tones to the silly woman, Lauren could feel the vibration of his voice in his chest. The bank director’s wife moved away, and still Jared retained his possessive hold on her. His hand trembled slightly as his thumb moved upward and lightly stroked the side of her breast. Or did she only imagine it? Lauren thought she would die from the constriction in her chest that pounded up into her throat and sought release in a small moan.
Another guest walked toward them. Slowly, reluctantly, the strong fingers were withdrawn, leaving behind an imprint on Lauren’s skin as scorching as a brand.

Rosa wasn’t far from wrong. In her naked loveliness, she appeared to be an angel.
But Jared was mortal, and he wanted her as he had never wanted a woman before. He carefully lowered his head and kissed the pulse in her throat. Then his lips traveled with a blissful laziness over her breasts, nibbling and licking lightly so she wouldn’t ever know that he had worshiped at this temple of her body. She was forbidden to him. It was a self-imposed denial, but that made it even more binding.

Don’t be afraid of loving this man, Maria had told her. Don’t be afraid. Her slender fingers closed around the warm shaft with its velvet skin stretched smooth. Gently her fingers played over him, curious, wondering fingers, fingers made exultant by their discoveries.
Reflexively Jared arched his back. His head went back in a gesture of exquisite feeling. Then his chin lowered and he was searching her face again. His golden eyes shone bright with emotion. “Touch me, Lauren. Touch me until I die from the pleasure of it. Know all of me.” His voice was breathy and uneven.

Her fingers dug into the flesh of his hips as his own passion peaked. His face was buried in her neck and her skin felt his rapid, moist breath as he chanted her name.
He didn’t leave her. He couldn’t forsake the paradise just yet. Nestled within her body, he raised himself on his elbows and looked down at her. Tenderly he kissed each feature of her face.
“Is this possible?” she breathed, referring to the enormity of her rapture.
“Yes, yes,” he murmured against her lips.
He raised his head and his eyes searched her face once again. His expression was difficult to define, but it closely resembled love.

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