Saturday, 27 June 2015

Book Review (479): Lola Carlyle's 12-Step Romance - Danielle Younge-Ullman


Lola Carlyle's 12-Step Romance

Lola Carlyle's 12-Step Romance was a delightful surprise, I was intrigued of course by the concept and enjoyed the story a whole lot more than I expected.

That was in part to Danielle's delightfully amusing lead character Lola, the daughter of two famous actors who are now divorced and seemingly oblivious to the lack of time and attention they pay to Lola, so when Lola's best-friend Sydney calls her from rehab telling her that Wade Miller an actor she befriended years ago whilst helping him on his first movie and whom she still has a crush, on is being admitted she knows she needs to find a way to be sent there as well, Lola knows she needs to be an addict of some kind and so begins her entertaining way of convincing her Mom she has an alcohol problem, after a couple of failures her Mom is finally realising that Lola needs some serious help for her (fake) addiction.

Once in rehab Lola discovers that it's nothing like the spa resort that Sydney told her it was and Sydney is nowhere to be seen, add to that she's expected to talk about her feelings, keep up the pretense of being an alcoholic, deal with her unusual roommates and it doesn't help that she keeps butting heads with her gorgeous mentor Adam either.

Lola will discover love where she least expects it, new friends, an understanding of her deep seated feelings she has towards her parents and most importantly herself.

This book was both humorous and at times quite sad, Danielle has crafted a story that is hard to put down and an incredible read that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I give this 4/5 stars.

About the Author
Danielle Younge-Ullman is a novelist, playwright and freelance writer. She studied English and Theater at  McGill University, then returned to her hometown of Toronto to work as professional actor for ten  years. Danielle’s short story, Reconciliation, was published in MODERN MORSELS—a McGraw-Hill  Anthology for young adults—in 2012, her one-act play, 7 Acts of Intercourse, debuted at Toronto's SummerWorks Festival in 2005, and her adult novel, FALLING UNDER, was published by Penguin in 2008.  Danielle lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters.

Author Links:
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Thursday, 25 June 2015

Release Day Launch: Excerpt and Giveaway: Light Me Up - Karla Sorensen

Today is the release day for Karla Sorensen’s Light Me Up!! I am so excited to share this sexy romance with you! Karla is sharing an exclusive excerpt and giveaway with us! Check it all out!!


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Light Me Up Synopsis:
For Rachel Hennessy, it’s been an interesting six months. Boyfriend? Cheated on her. Job? She totally just got fired. Starting her own wedding planning business sounds exciting … in theory. In reality, it’s completely terrifying. And on top of all that, the freaking cherry right on top? She just had an ill-timed, alcohol-instigated one-night stand with her bff Casey’s brother, Tate. Yeah, that Tate. The one that she’s had a teensy, inconvenient crush on for years.   But nothing about it is ill-timed or inconvenient for Tate Steadman. Because he finally feels free. Free of the oppressive relationship he’d been in for the past six years. Free to pursue Rachel, because one alcohol-fueled night was not even close to enough for him. He just wished she saw it that way. Because she makes him want more than he ever knew he was capable of.   When their one night has unexpected consequences, Rachel has no clue how to trust that he’s not just trying to be ‘the good guy’ who wants to do ‘the right thing’. And even though the chemistry between them practically burns down an entire city block when they’re together, she doesn’t know how to let down the concrete wall she’s built up around herself.   The ‘mistake’ of one evening can change the trajectory of two lives, but maybe a mistake is all they really need to push them right into true love.
 --------------------------------------------------------------
 Light Me Up is a 90k word humorous contemporary romance with a moderate heat level, and is second in a series of standalones.

 Buy Links: Amazon | Light Me Up Goodreads

 Exclusive Excerpt: "Best get caught up, little girl. That shot isn't going to drink itself." She turned towards him and arched one brow. "Little girl?" "You're what? Six years younger than me and about a foot shorter. I'd say that's accurate." Rachel crossed her legs, and the way that they had lights mounted underneath the bar top only served to highlight her smooth skin capped by dangerous looking heels. She picked up her second shot glass, clicked it against one of his empty ones, and tossed it back. She blew out a breath and he caught a whiff of the Southern Comfort. "I get what you're trying to do, Tate. Be a peach and go work your mind tricks somewhere that's not by me." "No tricks, I promise." She scoffed. "So, what kind of shot was that?" he asked when she didn't respond. "It's called a Short Southern Screw. Seemed appropriate tonight." His confusion must have read on his face, because she rolled her eyes. "My boss ... well, former boss, Deidre, is quite the southern belle. And considering my impending unemployment, I most definitely got screwed. But I'd wager a guess that you already knew that, judging by your presence at this fine establishment that you would probably normally never step foot in." Tate was surprised that she brought up her firing so easily. Letting her statement pass for the moment, he flagged down the bartender again, who'd moved down the length of the bar to try his luck with a pair of coeds that had parked themselves on some stools a ways down. "And you accuse me of being judgmental. You don't think this is my kind of place?" She turned towards him finally, her cheeks holding a slight flush from the back to back shots. He had to shift his eyes away from her face because of how good it looked on her. Your sister's best friend. Your sister's best friend. He chanted it over and over in his head, to absolutely no avail. "This is so not your kind of place. Because people only come here for two reasons: to get wasted and try to sweat out everything they've imbibed on that dance floor or make conversation where the most substantial thing that gets said is 'Your place or mine?'" Tate laughed, because she was absolutely right, and then handed the bartender his credit card, motioning for him to start a tab. He pushed a glass towards her, and picked up one of his own. "Fair enough, I wouldn't normally come to a place like this. I like it though, it was a good choice." He looked around, and then landed back on where she watched him with a speculative look on her face. "What are we toasting to?" She blinked a few times, her hazel eyes burning in the dark atmosphere. "To being pleasantly surprised." They clicked glasses, and the only time she moved her eyes from his was to flick down to his mouth when he lowered his empty shot glass. And he felt that look like she'd dragged a lit match down his spine.


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Karla Sorensen has been an avid reader her entire life, and not long after the purchase of her first e-reader, she realized that it would probably be cheaper to just write out her own happily-ever-after stories. It doesn’t take much to keep her happy … a book, a glass of moscato, and at least thirty minutes of complete silence every day. She still keeps her toes in the world of health care marketing, where she made her living pre-babies. Now she stays home, writing and mommy-ing full time (this translates to almost every day being a ‘pajama day’ at the Sorensen household…don’t judge). She lives in West Michigan with her husband, two exceptionally adorable sons and their German Shepherd, who is not nearly as well trained as the one in her first book.

Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Author Goodreads  

Enter Karla’s giveaway! a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Promo & Excerpt: Manwhore+1 - Katy Evans


#SaintVsSinner

PRE-ORDER SURPRISE!
Submit your proof of pre-order and get an early peek at Ms. Manwhore, the last of Saint and Rachel's passionate love story. Click here to enter: http://www.katyevans.net/pre-order-bonus/


FOUR WEEKS

I’ve never been so hopeful as when I board the pristine glass elevator at the M4 corporate building. A handful of employees ride along with me, murmuring perfunctory greetings to each other and to me. I think my mouth must be on vacation because I can’t seem to force it to speak. But I smile in reply—my smile nervous, nervous but hopeful, definitely hopeful. My riding companions step out on their floors one by one until I’m alone, riding up to the executive floor on my own.
Toward him.
           Toward the man I love.
           My body is raging. My blood is pumping—my blood is storming—my thighs are shaking. My stomach feels filled with little earthquakes that just won’t quit, then they turn into a full-fledged roil when I hear the elevator ting at his floor.
          Stepping out, I’m in corporate nirvana, surrounded by sleek chrome and pristine glass, marble and limestone floors. But I hardly have eyes for anything except the tall and imposing frosted glass doors at the far end of the room.
           Framing those doors to each side is a pair of sleek designer desks, for a total of four.
           Behind these desks are four women in identical black-and-white suits, sitting behind their gleaming dark-oak desks, working quietly behind their flat-screen computers.
           One of them, the forty-year-old Catherine H. Ulysses—right hand of the man who owns every inch of this building—stops what she’s doing when she sees me. She arches her brow, then seems both tense and relieved as she lifts the receiver on her desk and murmurs my name into it.
           I. Am. Not. Breathing.
           But Catherine doesn’t miss a beat as she motions me toward the huge frosted doors—those intimidating doors—that lead into the lair of the most powerful man in Chicago.
           The human being with the most powerful effect on me.
           This is what I’ve been waiting for, for four weeks. This is what I wanted when I left a thousand messages on his phones and what I wanted when I wrote a thousand others that I left unsent. To see him.
           For him to want to see me.
           But as I force myself to step forward, I don’t even know if I’ll have the strength to stand before him and look him in the eye after what I did.
           I’m wracked so hard with nervousness and anticipation and hope—yes hope, small but bright, even as I shake like a leaf.
           Catherine holds the door open, and I struggle to hold my head high and walk into his office.
            Two steps inside I hear the swoosh of the glass door shutting behind me and my systems halt at the familiar sight of the most beautiful office I’ve ever been in.
           His office is all vast marble and chrome, twelve-foot ceilings, and endless floor-to-ceiling windows.
           And there he is. The center of its axis. The center of my world.
           He’s pacing by the window, speaking into a headset in a low, low voice—the kind he uses when he’s pissed. All I can make out are the words have to be dead to let her fall into his clutches …
           He hangs up, and as if he feels me in the room, he turns his head. His eyes flare when he sees me. His green eyes.
           His achingly familiar, beautiful green eyes.
           He inhales, very slowly, his chest expanding, his hands curling a little at his sides as he looks at me.
           I look back at him.
           Malcolm Kyle Preston Logan Saint.
           I just walked into the eye of the most powerful storm of my life. No. Not a storm. A hurricane.
           Four weeks, I haven’t seen him. And he still looks exactly as I remember. Larger than life, and more irresistible than ever.
           His striking face is perfectly shaven today, and his sensual lips look so achingly full I can almost feel them against mine. Six-feet-plus of perfectly controlled male power stand before me, in a perfect black suit and a killer tie. He’s the very devil in Armani; strong-boned, square-jawed, gleaming dark hair and those penetrating eyes.
           He’s got the best eyes.
           They twinkle mercilessly when he teases me, and when he doesn’t tease me, they’re mysterious and unreadable, assessing and intelligent, keeping me guessing about his thoughts.
           But I had forgotten how cold those eyes used to be. Green arctic ice looks back at me now. Every fleck of ice in those eyes gleaming like diamond shards.
           He clenches his jaw and tosses the headset aside.
           He looks as approachable as a wall, his shoulders stretching his white shirt, which clings to his skin like a groupie. But I know he’s not a wall; I’ve never wanted to throw myself at a wall like this.
           He’s walking towards me. Every step he takes makes my heart pound as he moves with that quiet and confident own-the-world stride of his.
           He stops a few feet away and shoves his hands into his pants pockets; and he seems so big all of a sudden, and he smells so utterly good. I drop my eyes to his tie as the little candle of hope I walked in with starts to flicker with doubt.



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Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Promo: Manwhore+1 - Katy Evans



"I’d do it all again for another moment with him."

Malcolm Saint is back on July 7th.

Pre-order Now:
Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/pn852al
Amazon Paperback: http://tinyurl.com/nr9xvzz
Nook: http://tinyurl.com/oaf2zts
B&N Paperback: http://tinyurl.com/o54bdzj
iBooks: http://tinyurl.com/nnhfa42
BAM: http://tinyurl.com/qxwuqqz
IndieBound: http://tinyurl.com/ocxom66
Google: http://tinyurl.com/ncug79t

#SaintVsSinner

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Monday, 8 June 2015

Promo: Manwhore +1 - Katy Evans (Malcolm Saint Returns 7th July 2015).


Notorious. Insatiable. Alpha.

Malcolm Saint returns July 7th. 



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Sunday, 31 May 2015

Book Review (478): Broken (Broken #1) - Annie Jocoby


Broken (Broken #1)

Publication: 6th January 2014
Publisher: Self Published
Pages: 258
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Appropriate: New Adult
Buy It: Amazon 
Nick O'Hara is a veritable womanizer. The only qualifications that he looks for in a romantic connection is that the person is hot and breathing. Mainly hot. He has no desire for an emotional connection with another person, and that's the way he lives his life. He has his fabulous wealth and his reputation as a premiere architect, and that's enough for him. 

Until Scotty James. 

Scotty is a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City. She's broken from traumatic experiences from her years in foster care and homelessness. She has a vulnerability that is intoxicating to Nick, because, deep down, he knows that he is as broken as she. 

When Nick pursues Scotty, it seems that she is the only woman who doesn't want to be with him. At first she's a challenge, but Nick soon finds himself falling in love for the first time in his life. With a woman who wants nothing to do with him. 

Can Scotty overcome her trust issues and fear to let Nick in? Or will she prove to be too broken to trust?
My Thoughts.
The synopsis of Broken is what initially drew me to this book, I love reading stories where the main male lead is a well reknowned manwhore who is drawn to one specific woman and that's it, no other female matters and he knows his days of sleeping around are gone, he's found 'the one' and now he just needs to convince her of that.

This is what happens to Nick, you know you're usual hot, rich, sex obsessed lead who finds a quiet, gorgeous woman in this case Scotty who's hiding a secret that has affected her relationships with men and for good reason, she's a student in his architectural class, he is the professor, Nick just can't seem to get Scotty out of his mind and so hires her as his intern at the highly successful architectural firm he works at, with a spiteful and vengeful co-worker he slept with making her time there hell, Scotty is determined to stick it out, desperate for the money the internship brings in.

So I was really enjoying the story and Nick's character until around the 74% mark that's when although he was in love with Scotty, (something tragic in her past was keeping her from being the kind of girlfriend he wanted which is understandable given what she went through), he sleeps with a woman he met through a friend and spends the weekend with her,when he starts back at work the next week and hears gossip that Scotty went out with a guy from work, just as friends, he immediately assumes the worst without even asking her and then proceeds to ignore her giving her the cold shoulder, even telling himself that the secret she entrusted enough to tell him was all made up and she's nothing but a liar, that's when I started disliking his character, talk about double standards, it was stupid and a real downer after loving the story and character up till then.

Unfortunately after that I just wasn't interested in Nick or anything he thought or had to say, there was nothing he could have done to endear me to him after that, Scotty deserved so much better than him, and with the male lead unlikeable in my eyes, I struggled to finish the book and while I did get there in the end and to the cliffhanger, I'm not sure if I want to carry on with the series, once I dislike a main character I find it hard to enjoy the story, unfortunately what started off so well for me ended on a sour note because of Nick's actions and thoughts.

My rating is based on the first 74% of the book I enjoyed.

I give this 3/5 stars.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Annie Jocoby is the author of 8 contemporary romance novels and 3 New Adult contemporary romance novels. Her motivation to begin writing these novels is that she was interested in writing about rich men who actually love and respect their women. Her heroes are alpha and damaged, yet also genuinely good guys.
Ryan, Nick, Luke and Asher are all complicated characters who have experienced plenty of darkness, yet always seek the light. They would all go to the ends of the earth to protect the women they love. And they’re all sexy, enigmatic, magnetic and great in bed. 
All of Annie’s books have things in common: they all combine a touch of mystery and intrigue with drama, love, and lots of hot sex. Some of the books have action and even some criminal elements in them. Her current book, in fact, is her first book that would be classified as straight romantic suspense, although it also combines definite elements of the thriller genre! If you’re in the market for a book that is fast-paced, where the heroes are beautiful and wealthy, and the heroines are strong, vulnerable and flawed, then try these books out!
WEBSITE  GOODREADS  FACEBOOK


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Monday, 25 May 2015

Book Review (477): Broken Juliet (Starcrossed #2) - Leisa Rayven


Broken Juliet (Starcrossed #2)

Publication: 1st May 2015
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Pages: 320
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Age Appropriate: New Adult
Buy It: The Book Depository + Amazon
Cassie swore she'd never forgive Ethan for breaking her heart when they were in acting school years ago. He was her one great love, and when he refused to love her back, a part of her died forever...or so she thought. Now she and Ethan are sharing a Broadway stage, and he's determined to win her back. Finally he's able to say all the things she needed to hear years ago...but can she believe him? Has he really changed, and what makes this time different from all his other broken promises?The answer lies somewhere in the past, and now the truth will come to light.

Will Cassie rediscover what it's like to be trusting and open again-the way she was before Ethan? Or is it too late for these star-crossed lovers?

Don't miss this mesmerizing final chapter in the Bad Romeo duet, the unforgettable love story that captured the hearts of over two million fans online.
My Thoughts.
Broken Juliet is the second book in the Starcrossed series, picking up from the ending in Bad Romeo we finally get some understanding and closure to the rocky, heartbreaking and emotional love story of Ethan and Cassie.

Two soul-mates who endure a long and painful journey to find the happily ever after they both clearly deserve to find in one another, both drawn towards one another like moth's to a flame, no matter how much time goes by, you know they'll always find their way back to one another.

The character roles have been reversed in this book, in Bad Romeo Ethan is closed off, distrustful and feels unworthy of being loved, after suffering through two break-ups with Ethan, Cassie is now the same way, whilst Ethan finally got help for his problems and is in a far better place, now he's the one who is positive and sure of their relationship and what they could be together.

As per the first book we have two different timelines running throughout the story the present and the past of 6-5 years ago, giving the readers the story of their fledgling, floundering relationship and the choices good or bad that they made between them which brought them to where they are today.

I really enjoyed the way this storyline was wrapped up, the happiness I felt when I'd finally finished reading the book left me with a smile on my face and relief that Ethan and Cassie's story had ended in a way that I was really happy with.

If you're looking for an angsty contemporary romance read of the new adult persuasion then be sure to pick this series up, you can't go wrong.

I give this 4/5 stars.


8034143
Writing has always been a passion for Leisa, and even though she originally intended to be an actress, it wasn’t long into her time at drama school that she began writing plays.
Those plays were bad. Very bad. Well, her friends thought they were good, but that’s because they were always cast in them and any opportunity to be on stage was met with an obnoxious amount of enthusiasm.
Since then, she’s honed her craft, and several of her plays have been produced and toured
throughout Australia.
These days, playwriting has given way to fiction writing, and Leisa’s debut novel, BAD ROMEO, will be available in a worldwide release through Macmillan Publishing in December 2014.
Leisa lives in Australia with her husband, two little boys, three cats, and a kangaroo named Howard.
(Howard may or may not be her imaginary marsupial friend. Everyone should have one.)
Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads
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