COVER REVEAL & NEW RELEASE!! Play Me by Alla Kar

Play Me (Love Me #2) by Alla Kar

Release Date: January 31, 2014

Contemporary New Adult

Cover Photographer: Lindee Robinson Photography

Hosted by: Love Between the Sheets Promotions

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Synopsis

She’s his best play yet … 

ROXANNE DEEDS thinks she’s far enough away from her past that her demons can’t come back to haunt her. With only one year left of college, everything looks like it’s falling into place—until Southern Arkansas University’s drool-worthy football running back crashes into her with no intention of letting go. 

WESTON GARRISON knows two things in life. Sex and football. And he doesn’t plan on changing anytime soon—until he tears his hamstring a week before his first game, and his trainer is the one woman that he can’t seem to get enough of. 

When Roxy’s past catches up to them, will their love be enough to save them both?

Excerpt

My fingers curl around the knob and I open it an inch. A soft sigh escapes my lips. Weston. “What are you doin’ here?”

   Weston runs his fingers through his hair and kicks the door open with his good foot. Both arms cross over his chest as he leans against the doorjamb. “That depends on if you let me in or not.”

   Why is he here? Heat swarms my cheeks remembering everything we just done in that bathroom. Could he embarrass me anymore? “Why would I let you inside? It’s in the middle of the night.” I give him a good once over. “And you’re drunk.”

    He reaches down and digs into his front pocket. He pulls out my cellphone and dangles it in front of my face by two fingers. “This is the reason you’d let me inside.”

   What? I slap my palms against my pajama shorts and realize I really don’t have my phone. Dammit. Weston hums underneath his breath as he brings my phone closer to his face. “Looks like someone has a new text message.”

    “Give it back, Weston.”

    The edge of his mouth pulls up slightly. “Let me inside and I will.”

    “Why? What’s in here that isn’t out there?”

    Something passes over his face that I can’t pinpoint. “Let me inside, Roxanne.”

    I felt that in-between my legs. That word slipping from that mouth is more than I can take. Keeping my eyes on his, I take a step backwards while opening the door wider for him. Something appetizingly wicked heats in those brown eyes.

   With the help of one crutch, he wobbles forward. I watch as he shuts the door and locks it behind him. His gaze rolls over my small apartment and then back to me.     

   Taking his bottom lip in-between his teeth he places one arm against the wall. “Is he here?”

   What? Who? Leaning closer he presses his cheek against my own. “Is he here?”

   “Is who here?”

   A stern grip cups my hip and guides me until I’m pressed against the wall. A strong wisp of alcohol heats my face. He’s definitely been drinking but for some reason he doesn’t seem too drunk. “Don’t play with me,” he whispers against my mouth. Is Blake here?”

   Blake? Why would Blake be here? “Weston you’re clearly drunk–“

   A groan slips from his clenched teeth and he presses his hand tighter around my hip. “Is he here?”

   There is a demanding tone in his voice that makes a side of me quiver. “No.”

   Ten rough fingers grip the nape of my neck and force my mouth upward. “Was he here?”

   My thighs turn to goop. If he wasn’t pressing himself against me I’d probably fall. “No,” I whimper out.

   Lowering his mouth to my ear, he breathes in. “Did he kiss you?”

   I bite my lip and close my eyes. I’m burning up … everywhere. A hard weight is pressing against my lower stomach and it is slowly eating me alive. I don’t lie. And it’s mostly because I want to see his reaction. This aggressiveness is searing underneath my skin. I want it.  “Yes, what’s it to you?”

   There is a few short moments of silence. All I hear is his harsh breathing against my ear. Then he laughs. It’s a low chuckle that sets that fire ablaze inside of me. The hand on my hip lowers to cup my ass and the other slides up my throat to gently grip my neck. “You like him, Roxanne? You like the way he talks to you? The way he touches you?”

   Anger rushes my throat and a painful lump beings to grow. Tilting my chin upward, I stare up at him. Those brown eyes bore into me and then lowering toward my lips. “Yes.”

   Something wild darkens his eyes. He laughs beneath his breathe and presses the palm of his thumb against my bottom lip. “Does he touch you like this?” he whispers against my mouth. He squeezes my ass and presses me harder into him. And I feel exactly how excited he is pressed firmly against my stomach.  

   The truth is no one has ever made me feel this alive. Hormones that I haven’t felt in years are raging inside of me. “Answer me,” he hisses through his teeth.

   No, he doesn’t.

   Weston’s teeth grazes my bottom lip before he gently bites down. All my fingers clench into his biceps. “You’re drunk,” I whisper.

   I can feel his growl surge through me. “Does it look like I’m fuckin’ drunk, Roxanne. Stop avoiding the goddamn question. Let me fuckin’ have you.”

   Let me fuckin’ have you. Grabbing my back he pulls me closer so he can bury his face into my neck. My core is throbbing. I need this release. I need this friction.

   “No, he doesn’t,” I whisper.

   Weston squeezes me tighter and brings his lips to mine. “I didn’t think so.”

   He watches me through hooded eyes while he drags the tip of his finger to the drop in the front of my shirt. Arching my back, I press my chest against him. My tender nipples rub against his hard chest and it makes my head dizzy. “I’m goin’ to show you how you’re supposed to feel when you kiss.”

   God, I can’t think straight. Every atom in me is driving me toward him. Begging me to strip him out of those clothes and let him have his way with me. But everything is spinning in my mind. Ryan and Maddox. Weston’s reputation. One night wouldn’t hurt though, right? Just one night. But would one night be enough? Weston’s lips are hovering over mine as if he’s waiting on me to kiss him. To make the first move. I can already tell that there is no way one night will be enough. Those large hands. That full mouth. Tattoos and muscles. Can anyone say no to him?

About the Author

Alla Kar is from the Deep South. She lives there with her husband, feisty Chihuahua and Pit-bull puppy. She loves YouTube, Hulu, alpha males, southern gentlemen and everything new adult. 

Facebook | Twitter: @allkar1 | Blog | Email

Sweet Thing by Renee Carlino

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Synopsis:
"You have to teach your heart and mind how to sing together…then you'll hear the sound of your soul."
Mia Kelly thinks she has it all figured out. She's an Ivy League graduate, a classically trained pianist, and the beloved daughter of a sensible mother and offbeat father. Yet Mia has been stalling since graduation, torn between putting her business degree to use and exploring music, her true love.

When her father unexpectedly dies, she decides to pick up the threads of his life while she figures out her own. Uprooting herself from Ann Arbor to New York City, Mia takes over her father's café, a treasured neighborhood institution that plays host to undiscovered musicians and artists. She's denied herself the thrilling and unpredictable life of a musician, but a chance encounter with Will, a sweet, gorgeous, and charming guitarist, offers her a glimpse of what could be. When Will becomes her friend and then her roommate, she does everything in her power to suppress her passions-for him, for music-but her father's legacy slowly opens her heart to the possibility of something more.

Review:
So I've been sitting here looking at the blank review screen on my laptop for what seems like forever, trying desperately to formulate words and condense my feelings into tangible ideas.  Why is that so difficult?  Because there's a lot going on in my brain and I'm kind of all over the place.  Don't get me wrong, I gave this book four stars on Goodreads for a reason, that reason is primarily Renee Carlino's lovely writing, but I did have some issues with the book.  Looking back, however, there was more I loved than didn't love.

The prologue for this novel is one that sucks you in immediately and is told from the POV of a character not completely tied to the story as a whole.  It's an interesting concept and one I thoroughly enjoyed.  This same character closes out the story as well and I thought it was a truly brilliant move on the author's part and the use of this character at integral stages of the novel is genius.  I'm not sure I've seen this done before, at least not in this way, and I have to say that it was one of the most inventive, original concepts I've seen.  And the execution?  Flawless.

Once into the meat of the story Ms. Carlino's writing is so effortless and smooth it's easy to get wrapped up in the world she's created.  This isn't an action-packed novel, it's totally character driven, and there's very little in the way of drama, so the ease with which Ms. Carlino captivates the reader is a testament to her ability.  I am a reader who is easily distracted, my mind tends to wander and it's very easy for me to walk away from a book, especially a book like this.  It takes a special kind of something to keep me engaged and this author has it.

Now, that being said, I had read some reviews that complained about the heroine in this story.  At first I was like, WTF?  Get off Mia's back, she's awesome and I love her.  But as the story progressed, I understood the complaints.  While I may not have reached the irritation level of some other readers, I totally got what they were complaining about.  Without getting spoilery, Mia's in NYC to take over her dead father's cafe.  She's uncertain what she wants to do with it as it's not part of her life plan but decides to live in her father's apartment and take over the cafe in the hopes of figuring it all.  On the way to NYC, she meets Will.  Being some serious music lovers they hit it off immediately and it's clear they have dynamic chemistry.  Eventually, Will rents the spare bedroom in Mia's apartment and the two become platonic roommates.  It's clear, however, that Will really adores Mia and would like more.  Their relationship has its highs and lows as the story spans a year and a half period but most of these lows are attributed to Mia's inability to see Will as anything more that her "buddy".

As I said, I got Mia at first.  Her father just died, it caused a major upheaval in her life and it's evident from the beginning that Mia was sort of lost to begin with.  Mia's real problem is that she has created rules for her life that are so rigid, so utterly unbend-able that she's boxed herself in.  The new life she's living is in such direct contrast to this envisioned, structured life that Mia's thrown into a tailspin.  I. GET. IT.  When you're young and have a particular idea about your future, it's really difficult to see beyond it and the author really created an environment made to rip apart Mia's sense of reality.  Again, this book is a character study and a necessary component of that is to sometimes gut your characters.  Now I know I've kind of wandered around a bit with this but stick with me because here's where the novel needed a little bit of help.  With all that Mia was going through independent of her conflicted feelings about Will it was absolutely understandable that she was often a mess.  A hot mess.  She did and said some things that, under other circumstances, I would find unforgivable.  She was sometimes cruel, often caustic, and the vitriol she spewed at Will was occasionally too much to take.  But still I got it.  HOWEVER, that was because I kept having to remind myself of that tailspin she was in.  What this story lacked was a deeper exploration of those elements.  Truly, I shouldn't have had to remind myself of the subtext, it should have been there for me to touch.  The result would have been a crisper, more relate-able Mia.  Had the author explored more, Mia wouldn't have come off so annoying.  Not to suggest that Mia was totaly unlikable, she wasn't, but there were elements that could have been better fleshed out.

Where Will was concerned, he was remarkably understanding and patient.  Seriously, by the end he deserved some sort of award.  At least a medal or something.  He was sweet, kind and completely smitten, and that Mia gave him such a hard time was where I began to find her annoying.  He played by her rules only to find that she would get angry with him for following them.  And, yet, there he was, ever-patient, always loving, forever putting her first.  Give that boy a standing ovation please.  When these two were getting along, it was simply magic.  Their chemistry, their absolute adoration of each other was blissful.  I loved the music they created with each other, the way they related through song and instruments was divine.  It was clear to everyone but Mia that they belonged together and it was really frustrating at times that she was so stubborn and opposed to the idea that she tortured Will without apology.  I think if you're going to read this you have to be prepared for that and always keep in mind that Mia is not only someone who's living through the aftermath of losing a parent but is also living a life they never envisioned.  If you can't do that, this may not be the book for you.  It truly isn't until the end of the book that Mia gets it and being that this is 300+ pages, it's an investment of time.  So if you're unable to see Mia for who she is under all of her bitchy, you may wind up disliking her.

I don't want to suggest that Mia is all bitch, all the time.  That's not at all true.  There are really some lovely scenes in this novel.  As the story progresses she has moments of clarity, times where she's accepting that life isn't going to be what she expected.  The scenes with Robert (a love interest) are very telling, both to Mia and the reader.  It's evident that this pair, while looking great on paper, are so inappropriate together it's painful.  The relationships Mia has with the staff of Kell's (her father's cafe) help her to ferret out her true self but, again, this takes time.  I wished there was more about Mia's dad in this book, I was desperate to know more about him.  His impact on Mia's life was so huge it seemed warranted but this aspect did fall a little short.  Mia's mom did help to fill in some of the blanks but it still left me craving more.

The last several chapters of this book is like a punch to the gut.  It's the crescendo of the mess which is Mia's life.  All of her fears and strife catch up to her and she's left with the consequences of her actions.  It's appropriate, though difficult to read.  It needed to happen because without it nothing would have been earned and the story would have suffered.  I appreciated that the author had the guts to eviscerate this character.  It was brutal but cathartic.  Don't worry, though, it turns out beautifully.

I'm not sure whether or not the author plans to write a companion novel.  There are some scenes from Will's POV which have been posted to a couple of blogs and they helped to fill in some blanks.  While I don't always like or appreciate companion novels, oftentimes they add little to the story as a whole, I would definitely read this story again from Will's POV.  I suspect it might make me like Mia more and, as I mentioned, I loved Will and would like the opportunity to read his story.  There are many instances in this book where Will's presence is missing and I truly missed him and wondered what he was up to.  I think if the author decided to do a companion piece it would make for a more fleshed out story.

In any event, I definitely recommend this book.  Ms. Carlino's writing is superb and she writes a damn good story.  Just bear in mind what I've said about Mia and give her a chance.  She's going to mess things up.  She's going to be bitchy about it and make you mad, but she has her reasons and at the end of the day I got her.  I didn't always like her, but I got her.  And in the end, she makes right all her wrongs.

NEW RELEASE!! Love, Chocolate and Beer by Violet Duke

Love, Chocolate, and Beer (Cactus Creek #1) by Violet Duke

Contemporary Romance

Release Date: January 30, 2014

Hosted by: Love Between the Sheets Promotions

               Amazon                                              .99c at Amazon - see note below
iTunes                                                            Free at iTunes
Barnes and Noble                                           Free at Smashwords

All you need in one post!

Blurb, Author Bio, Excerpt and Giveaway!!

Synopsis 

Romance has met its most unlikely match-up…

Luke Bradford is a chocolatier on a mission.  After moving his chocolate shop, and newly single life, to the quirky town of Cactus Creek, Luke wants nothing more than to devote all his energy into making his business a success—by taking the romance market by storm.  But his grand plans get thrown for a loop when he locks horns with the feisty beer-brewing beauty next door who calls his ‘romantic idealism’ a load of fairytale bull.  Soon, driving the woman sparking nuts becomes another wickedly fun priority he simply can’t get enough of.

In his defense, she’s addictively easy to incite … and plain impossible to resist.

Beloved local brewmaster Dani Dobson is beyond riled up.  It’s bad enough the new shop owner in town comes locked and loaded with both a distractingly rugged charm and sexy flashing dimples, but the whole only-in-the-movies variety of romance he’s selling—the kind her world has been crushed by before—is really doing a number on her allergy to unrealistic clichés.  What’s worse, he’s created an annoyingly clever ad campaign that dubs ‘beer joints’ like hers as the “cave where romance goes to hibernate.”  The nerve of that man.

Combustible chemistry or not, damn it, this means war.  The stakes … very likely, her heart.

Author Bio

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Violet Duke is a former professor of English Education who is ecstatic to now be on the other side of the page writing wickedly fun contemporary romance novels. When she's not arguing with her story characters or feeding her book-a-day reading addiction, she enjoys tackling reno projects with her power tools while trying pretty much anything without reading the directions first and cooking 'special edition' dishes that laugh in the face of recipes. Violet lives in Hawai'i with her two cute kids and similarly adorable husband.

Note from Violet

The prequel novella (A Little Combustible Chemistry) that goes along with this book is meant to be a **FREE** gift for all of you amazing fans.  It may take a little while but it should price-match to free soon.  In the meantime, I just uploaded a special version of Love, Chocolate, and Beer that has the prequel built into the file at the front so you can still read the prequel for free that way.  You don't need to get it separately.  I'll keep the prequel in there until the prequel ebook is price-matched at free.

Thank you!!!

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Excerpt

“Hey Dani, why isn’t the coffee started?  Breakfast is getting—OH!”  Xoey dropped the box of bakery fresh doughnuts in shock at the foot of Dani’s bed.

Dani estimated the level of Xoey’s shock was pretty high up there.  Not just because she was still in bed this late in the morning.  But more so because she wasn’t in said bed alone.  “Get out!”  Dani launched a pillow at her. 

Xoey shot out of the bedroom.  “I’m so sorry!” she shouted as she closed the door behind her.  “I figured it was safe!  I thought you two were waiting till your fifth date to...hey, wait a sec, did I count wrong?”

“Just stop talking and go wait outside!  Or better yet, wait down in the brewpub!” Dani jumped out of bed, and instantly dropped flat as a pancake onto the carpet.

Good lord, she was naked.

And, criminy, she was totally just gave herself a carpet burn on her belly.

Where the heck did her towel from last night go?

At the soft whoosh of falling terry cloth landing inches from her face, she muttered, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” came Luke’s amused reply.

Dani tucked the now dry bath towel around herself securely before peeking just her eyes and the bridge of her nose up from behind the tangle of goose down comforter lined-up like a trench barricade on her edge of the bed. 

“Good morning, beautiful.” 

She popped her head up fully like a prairie dog, and asked the first burning question that swirled around in her head.  “Did we—ˮ

The look he shot her stopped her from finishing that sentence.

“Honey, if we had, the trench barricade my soldier is failing to hide behind wouldn’t be taller than yours right now.”

Oh my.  A quick glance toward the center of her bed had her rising to her feet quicker than the sound of the national anthem had ever inspired.  Furthermore, she wasn’t the one saluting the flag in this case. 

Before she could do so much as gape, however, he dragged the comforter over himself, and pulled her back up onto the bed beside him in one easy swoop.

With a sleepy morning growl, he gathered her into his arms and laid warm, rumbly kisses down the side of her neck.  “Believe me Dani, the next time you wake up next to me in bed, you won’t be wondering if we did, you’ll damn well know it, remember it, and want more of it.”

All evidence in front of her would certainly suggest so.

He nipped at her earlobe.  “I can practically see your thoughts, sweetheart.  Before you slaughter my control even more than you already have, put some clothes back on me in that pretty little head of yours and go take care of Xoey.  I’m going to see how cold I can get your shower to run.”

As she rushed out of the room to go demand her spare key back from Xoey, it registered belatedly that Luke had spent the entire night lying next to her, fully clothed and on top of her bed spread, just holding her hand.

A total gentleman.

With whom she fully intended to renegotiate the intolerable terms of their pesky five-date waiting period.  Seriously, whose crazy-ass idea had that been anyhow?

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COVER REVEAL!! Deviant by Callie Hart

Deviant (Blood & Roses, #1) by Callie Hart

Erotic Romance

Expected Release Date: February 20, 2014

Hosted by Love Between the Sheets Promotions

Add it to your shelf on Goodreads.

Synopsis

Sloane

I'm not proud of the things I've done.
 The things I've had to do.
 The things I've given away.
 But I'd give it all over again to find her.

Even if I die trying, 
I have to find Alexis.

Zeth

She wants me to help her,
 but I won't.
 She wants me to save her sister, 
but I can't. 
She wants me to be her hero, 
but I'm not a good man.

I am her damnation.

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Rajmund (Vampires in America #3) by D. B. Reynolds

 

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I liked the first book (Raphael) and I like this one even better. Rajmund was a ‘warmer’ person than Raphael but certainly not a teddy bear. Just as alpha but less powerful than Raphael, he is still a power to be reckoned with.

The setup was interesting with converging plot lines for both the hero and the heroine. Sarah is a human friend of Cyn’s (Raphael’s mate from books one and two) who has left sunny California for a teaching position in a Buffalo, New York university. And if teaching freshman history surrounded by cold, snow and ice isn’t bad enough; her psychic ability to channel traumatized women comes screaming back. She can’t tell anyone, who would believe her? But she has to do something, it’s all happening again…

Cyn, who doesn’t know about the psychic stuff or her past, still recognizes her friend is depressed and unhappy. She talks Raphael into taking her to New York where she and Sarah can meet and have some ‘girl time’.

Raphael uses the excuse to meet with Rajmund, the vampire in charge of New York City, about a growing problem and imminent power struggle in the Vampire Council. Raj meets Sarah and they are both attracted but each move on to their separate lives. That’s until they end up working on finding the missing girls together and the sexual tension begins to build…

There’s a lot of wit in this one and less angst.  I loved quotes like Cyn’s answer when asked about the weather in California: "It's raining, which means the natives are convinced the end is near and are engaged in ritual auto pileups in an attempt to appease the angry gods." (Having grown up in California, all too true!)

The Sarah and Raj plot lines resolve nicely. My only complaint? There’s a cliff-hanger teaser masquerading as an epilogue… 

Copy received from Netgalley and publisher for an honest review.

Vampires in America

#1  -  Raphael

#2  -  Jabril

#3  -  Rajmund

#4  -  Sophia

#5  -  Duncan

#5.1 - Vampires in America The Vignettes, Volume 1 

#5.5 - Betrayed: A Cyn & Raphael Novella

#6  -   Lucas

#6.5 - Hunted: A Cyn & Raphael Novella

#7  -   Aden

Frigid (Frigid #1) by J. Lynn

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Synopsis:
For twenty-one-year-old Sydney, being in love with Kyler isn't anything new. They'd been best friends ever since he pushed her down on the playground and she made him eat a mud pie. Somewhere over the years, she fell for him and fell hard. The big problem with that? Kyler puts the 'man' in man-whore. He's never stayed with a girl longer than a few nights, and with it being their last year in college, Syd doesn't want to risk their friendship by declaring her love.

Kyler has always put Syd on a pedestal that was too high for him to reach. To him, she's perfect and she's everything. But the feelings he has for her, he's always hidden away or focused on any other female. After all, Kyler will always be the poor boy from the wrong side of tracks, and Syd will always be the one girl he can never have.

But when they're stranded together at a posh ski resort due to a massive Nor'easter, there's nothing stopping their red-hot feelings for each other from coming to the surface. Can their friendship survive the attraction? Better yet, can they survive at all? Because as the snow falls, someone is stalking them, and this ski trip may be a life-changer in more ways than one.

Review:
It's funny, really, because just recently I was thinking about Jennifer L. Armentrout's (J. Lynn is her pseudonym) book writing prowess, specifically the speed with which she writes, and feeling rather envious.  I mean, it takes most authors a year or so to deliver a single book to the masses while Ms. Armentrout manages five times (or more) that quantity.  Wow.  Impressive. 

Certainly I've had some issues with a couple of her books in the past, but altogether I'm a fan.  Remember, this isn't great literature we're talking about, but rather good storytelling, and while I find some of her characters, descriptions, and dialogue a bit redundant, there's no question she delivers the goods.

Now, all that being said, I must confess that this one missed the mark for me.  By a mile.  My irritation did not lie in any redundancies, nor did I take issue with overuse of her favorite character descriptions (please shoot me if I ever have to read 'sooty lashes' again), but in the story itself.

For me, reading one of Armentrout's books is a bit like slipping on a pair of warm, fuzzy slippers on a frigid January morning.  It's comfy and predictably good.  So I've been saving this book for a time when I really needed it, something to shake off the doldrums of all the crap life has to offer.  Only this time, my fuzzy slippers betrayed me and left my tootsies chilly.

So how exactly did this happen?  I mean, how on earth could things have gone so terribly wrong on such an epic scale? How?  And Why?

Best that I begin with the narrators of this story.
Aside from these characters informing me of their longstanding bestie status, I was given no real indication of why exactly Syd and Kyler were so close.  They seemed more like acquaintances than BFFs for life.  Their inability to have even the simplest of conversations pertaining to feelings or expectations felt much more like two people just learning to feel each other out as opposed to two souls who'd been friends most of their life.  Sure, I understand that when two people are delving in to feelings that seem foreign, given their longstanding friendship, there can be some anxiety over it, but their utter shutdown when it came to all things emotional made the angst surrounding this dilemma feel a bit hollow.  I'm not suggesting that they need to stand on a rooftop and shout proclamations of love, but I expected more dialogue on the subject, inner or verbal, even if it were vague.  No such luck.  Couple this inability to speak frankly with what I can only characterize as a lack of commonality, I often found myself wondering why these two were friends in the first place.

To make matters worse, the author chose to characterize Syd as a blundering, bumbling, buffoon. If she wasn't tripping over her own feet and spilling her coffee, she was taking a header into a mailbox, or flopping like a fish after falling in the bathtub, or slipping in the garage like some soon to be victim of a homicidal maniac in a horror flick.  It got old real fast.  When are authors going to stop characterizing their female protags as moronic, virginal dolts without an inability to fend for themselves?  Coupled with her simpy "why me?" attitude, I couldn't have given a crap if I were swimming in a sea of it.  Listen, by the time Syd finally pulls her head out of her ass (probably looking for said 'crap') and did something about her unrequited love, I was totally over her already.  There rest was simply going through the motions and needing to finish the story.

As for Kyler?  I found him utterly unenjoyable for the first half of the book.  He was crass and rude, overbearing and bordering on bullying.  If I had a friend like Kyler, I'd lose their number posthaste.  This only added to my inability to understand this supposed unrequited love even more.  Aside from his being "lickable" I found no other redeeming qualities.  It wasn't until the latter part of the book that his personality began to take form and I found him to be tolerable but, again, by this point it was too little, too late.  Trust me, I get how the author was trying to portray Kyler.  There are enough books out there that I fully understand the type of man she was trying to draw, but where books like Tangled, Wallbanger and Beautiful Bastard succeed in creating a male lead you love to hate and maybe slightly desperate to screw, Ms. Armentrout's depiction of Kyler was a fail.  He's simply a self-indulgent lothario without very much substance.

Aside from the above, there was a secondary story arc that fell utterly flat for me.  See, there's this mystery playing in the background of these would-be lovers' follies.   A whodunnit of sorts.  Only, there's absolutely no mystery to it and the fact that these two dimwits couldn't immediately piece this together was beyond believable and frustrating beyond tolerance.  Additionally, for a book released by a publisher, I was shocked at the amount of editorial mistakes.  There were grammatical problems, typos, tense issues and a slew of poorly structured sentences.  Will I read more of Ms. Armentrout's book?  Yes.  Unquestionably.  But as for this series... stick a fork in me, I'm done.  Perhaps Ms. Armentrout should worry less about the volume of books she churns out and more about their quality.  Needless to say, I am no longer in awe of her speed writing.

True Love Story by Willow Aster

Buy it here!

Synopsis:
Sparrow Fisher is transforming. No longer dressed up in antiquated clothes and ideals, she is finally trying on her freedom.

Before she moves to New York City, she meets Ian Sterling, a musician Sparrow has dreamed about since she first saw him. The attraction is instant, but their relationship isn't so simple.

Over a five year span, Sparrow and Ian run into each other in unusual places. Each time, Sparrow has to decide if she can trust him, if he feels the same for her, and finally, if love is really enough.

Review:
Let me just get this out of the way right up front.  This is a book about cheating and the aftermath it creates.  It is about how love sometimes isn't enough.  It is about how we forgive and move on.  It is about finding redemption and about paying dues.  It is about deciding what we will not tolerate and sticking to our guns.  It is about healing and rebirth and second chances.

So, that said, could this have been a better read? Uh, yeah, I guess so.  But the letters Ian wrote to Sparrow at the end of the book?  I'd give this book a full star for that alone.  I mean, wow.  I can't remember reading anything that so perfectly encapsulated remorse and longing in all my days.  Just. Stunning.  I swear, as soon as I read them, all my bitchy gripes seemed to have vanished into the ether.  Seriously.  They were that good.
 
Yes, there where some issues along the way.  I kinda felt myself getting a bit irritated with Sparrow a few times.  All the clues were there and just because she's a preacher's daughter doesn't give her the excuse of being that dense.  I mean, come on, really?  A blind man could tell Ian was up to no good.  ALL. THE. CLUES. WERE. THERE. Idiot (okay, you're not an idiot, I actually liked you a lot, Sparrow).  It's not as though she were dumb, she totally wasn't, but perhaps too trusting.  Naive doesn't seem appropriate because I never her found her to be that either.  So I guess I'll stick with too trusting, she should have questioned things, she should have challenged Ian a bit more.  Altogether, though, she made up for it in the end with her badassery.  So, yeah, that was my one of two major grievances with this book.

Number two?  Hey, do you know me?  If you've read my reviews and you know anything about this book then you should know what I'm going to bitch about next.  Don't know?  Let me share the love.  Yep.  It's my favorite subject.  Rape.  Why ladies?  Why? Why? Why? Why is it okay to portray a woman getting sexually assaulted and then minimizing it.  9-1-1 anyone?  No?  That's where our tax dollars go.  Police, clinics, crisis hotlines.  *Shakes Head* I just don't get it.  And then, to make matters worse, the answer to the problem is beating the piss out of the rapist?  No, this does not a solution make.  I swear, I'm beginning to feel like a broken record here.  Can someone help me out?  Does no one else see the issue here?  Okay, that's the end of my rant.  I feel I keep beating this dead horse and expecting it to get up and give me a ride.

In any event, the writing is super good.  The story flows really beautifully and even during the times that Sparrow and Ian are apart, those spaces are filled in perfectly with Sparrow and Tessa's banter.  I really enjoyed the dynamics between these two girls and Tessa is a great example of what a good female friend should be.  Warm, loving, supportive and loyal.  Yay sisterhood!

Even though Ian was a total asshat and did some really rank crap in this book, I totally got him.  Especially when I read those letters.  Swoon.  Yeah, he messed up and deserved his protracted exile in hell, but seeing him unveiled made his actions make sense in some twisted way.  Not that it's okay, mind you, because it totally wasn't, but at least I understood it.  Put into the context of his former life I at least could empathize with him.  I applauded him, also, for getting his shit together and making things right.  Bravo Ian!

What I totally appreciated was that Sparrow didn't go running back to him, though I did sort of feel like that ending was dragged out a bit too much.  Even still, Sparrow held firm to her beliefs, maintained her backbone and said hells no.  She made the choices that felt right to her and even though I didn't agree with all of them, I agreed with her about Ian.  Whether or not you love someone does not void out the things done to break trust.  Those are issues that take time to work through and sometimes it simply isn't possible.  Toward the end she said some pretty powerful things about love and trust and every word rang true.  It was really quite lovely to see this couple have frank dialogue about what pain means, to understand it emotionally and intellectually, and be able to accept resposibility for it.  Kudos!

So, altogether this was a very addictive read.  The romance was steamy and stormy, the plot was well paced and interesting and I love how these people loved and crushed and loved and were gutted and loved.  I would totally recommend this to anyone looking for an atypical love story.

NEW RELEASE! Freakn' Cougar by Eve Langlais

Release Date - January 29th, 2014

Freakn' Shifters #6

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Synopsis

Forget taming their cougar. These young studs want her as is, even if she scratches.

Someone’s killing shifters in prison, and Patricia needs help catching the culprit. The cougar enlists the help of Stu and Ricky, a techno geek and a reformed criminal, a mismatched pair, who turn out to also be her mates. But Patricia’s already loved and lost one man. Does she dare allow herself to care again?

Older isn’t just wiser, it’s sexier, or at least that’s what a socially challenged wolf and a bad boy panther think. Forced to work together to catch a killer, Stu and Ricky soon find out they’ll have to learn to do more than tolerate each other when they realize one hot forty-something cougar is their mate. Can they find a way to work together and make their cougar purr?

Genre: (MFM) Paranormal / Shapeshifter Romance

Quick Notes

Another great book by Eve Langlais! This is the continuation of the Freakn' Shifter series featuring older brother Stu, case worker Patricia and new comer, Ricky. Set in prison and perhaps a bit lighter on the laughs than its predecessors, Freakn' Cougar still lives up to the standard Eve has set with her books. 

Freakn' Shifters

#1 - Delicate and Freakn'

#2 - Jealous and Freakn' 

#3 - Already Freakn' Mated

#4 - Jungle Freakn' Bride

#5 - Human and Freakn'

#6 - Freakn' Cougar

Excerpt (18+)

Chapter One

Sunday was family dinner night. For most people this would mean a loving gathering of close relatives around the supper table, exchanging news and exciting gossip over home-cooked food.

But his was no ordinary family. With the exception of one new addition, all present were shapeshifters; large cats, wolves, and even one big-ass bear. As for Stu, one of the lupine diners, he was related, in an unfortunate twist of fate, to all of them.

To one side of him sat Chris, younger brother, pain in his ass, and newly married chump to the lovely and delicate Jiao. On his right, he had the entertaining Alejandro, his other brother Mitchell—whom he lived to tease—and feisty Francine, their mate as well as his sister’s best friend.

Across the table sat his loud-mouthed, bratty sister Naomi with her mates Ethan and Javier, accompanied by his adorable baby niece and nephew—who currently took turns spitting out food and chortling. Then there was his other brother Kendrick, his best bud Joel, and their human mate, Ruth, a plump and juicy morsel. Not that he said that aloud—he preferred to not bleed all over his favorite Despicable Me minion T-shirt.

His oldest brother, Derrick, was the only one of his siblings missing because he was off on some mission to save the world—he always had been an overachiever and champion ass-kisser.

Toss in his mom and dad at the heads of the table, and the noise level currently underway probably exceeded local bylaw levels. Not that anyone would dare complain. Their neighbors were shapeshifters too and would more likely pee on the leg of a ticketing bylaw agent than complain about one of their own.

Seeing as how the whole family was pretty much accounted for, it made the ringing of the doorbell surprising. What insane person would show up at dinnertime on a Sunday at his house? Then again, the table still had one empty seat, a seat his mother enjoyed glancing toward at least once a day before shooting him a pointed stare, a look that plainly said, “And when will you be settling down with a mate of your own?”

As if he’d be filling it anytime soon. He still intended to sow many more oats before settling down. Of course, the whole sowing thing required him leaving the house and going to places where he could meet girls. Stu wasn’t the social type. At least not in person.

While comfortable around close friends and family, Stu lacked a suave tongue when it came to conversing with women. Tongue-tied, shy, and awkward tended to strike whenever he tried to flirt. So he mostly stuck to online dating personals, which would work a lot better if most of the profiles didn’t belong to lonely old men getting their jollies. Stu still woke in a cold sweat every so often when he remembered the video of the last so-called woman he’d virtually dated. Needless to say, she turned out to be a very hairy he who enjoyed masturbating for an audience while wearing a bunny rabbit suit. It took a week for the blindness to wear off.

Before the chimes could ding a second time, his father excused himself to answer, not that anyone paid much attention. The various conversation threads flowed fast and furious as everyone caught up on the week’s events. Naomi and Francine gushed over the newest thing the wonder twins had accomplished while the guys all discussed the most recent roster changes on the Ottawa Senators line-up.

Stu paid little of it any mind. He just came down from his room to scarf down a plateful, inhale some of mom’s pie, and store some energy for the World of Warcraft attack he’d planned with a group of other online gamers for the evening. His level seventy-six mage had acquired some new spells and armor that he was dying to test out.

But, judging by his stirring wolf, those plans might get cancelled.

Something smelled good, and for once it wasn’t Ma’s homemade peach cobbler pie. Leaning back in his seat and ignoring the noise around him, Stu inhaled deep, sifting the various scents.

No doubt about it. A shifter had entered their home. Someone he’d never met, in person at least. A female. Sniff. Sniff. Feline. And coming this way.

Stu opened his eyes and saw her as she stepped into the dining room, a trim, thirty-something blonde with bobbed hair and vivid blue eyes. Damn, talk about hot! She looked like a man’s stripper fantasy in her perfectly pressed RCMP uniform, which, while stern, did nothing to hide her athletic build, softened by very womanly curves. But it wasn’t just her looks that caught his attention, more the fact that judging by the way his inner beast sat up and took notice, along with a certain body part, he’d just found his mate.

What an unexpected surprise. Not that she was older than him or a cat, but the fact he even had a mate. Still in his twenties—and, yes, twenty-nine counted—his track record with women wasn’t great. While at ease among friends and family, he turned into a bumbling idiot around women he found appealing. Even when he did manage to speak, his appearance often played against him.

Stu was into comfort. Well-worn jeans, T-shirts with cartoons and humorous sayings, oh and hair he let his mother trim, usually while licking the mixing bowl for the brownies, her bribe to get him to sit still while she hacked at his uneven locks.

Don’t get him wrong. While he wasn’t movie star handsome, he also wasn’t butt ugly. Just ask his momma.

Sitting ramrod straight in his seat, he plastered a smile on his face, wished he’d combed his hair, and hoped nothing was stuck between his teeth. Alas, despite his certainty that the woman who’d entered was his mate, his luck with women held true. Her eyes tracked over him and didn’t linger. So much for instant attraction. On the upside, at least she didn’t scream, gag, or run away.

“Patricia, grab a seat,” his mom yelled from the kitchen, not at all perturbed by the addition of another person at their rollicking, mismatched dining table.

His mind automatically began to hum Patricia Delicia. Great stripper song, but not the time for it. He shoved aside the naughty ditty sung by that crooner Chris De Burgh as he tried to concentrate on placing the woman. Why did her name sound so familiar? Surely if they’d met before he would remember.

With a husky voice that would have done well on a late-night radio show, she replied, “I can’t. I’m here on business. I’m looking for Stu Grayson.”

Business involving him? Given her attire and the seriousness of her tone, that couldn’t bode well. Had his illegal pirating of movies and MP3s finally caught up to him because, as far as he knew, surfing porn—and whacking off to it—wasn’t illegal. What were the chances he could slink off his chair, hide under the table, and sneak out the back door? Given the fact a Chihuahua wouldn’t make it through the maze of legs and feet, not good.

Only one thing to do. Man up and hope for the best.

Stu pushed back from the table, his chair screeching on the battered hardwood floor, and stood. “That’s me. What can I do for you?”

“Stu Grayson, I’m placing you under arrest.” Patricia dangled a set of metal cuffs, and jaws all over the place dropped.

Get your copy here!

Leo (Sign of Love #1) by Mia Sheridan

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Synopsis:
Evie and Leo met in foster care as children and formed a bond of friendship. As they grew, their bond turned to love, and they vowed to make a life together when they turned 18 and were no longer a part of the system.

When Leo unexpectedly gets adopted as a teen and he moves to another city, he promises Evie that he will contact her as soon as he gets there and come back for her in a few short years. She never hears from him again.

Now eight years later, in spite of the odds, Evie has made a life for herself. She has a job. She has friends. She's content. Then a man shows up out of the blue, claiming that her long lost love, Leo, sent him to check up on her. The attraction between them is undeniable. But, should she trust this sexy stranger? Or is he keeping a secret about what his connection to Leo is really all about and why Leo disappeared all those years ago?

Review:
What a truly interesting premise this little book has.  Though I guessed at the secret early on, it in no way hampered my enjoyment of the book.  What did knock my socks of, however, was the reveal.  Totally did not see that coming.  So YAY for Mia Sheridan for coming up with something so compelling.  Truth be told, until a certain scene in Evie's apartment, I was so not willing to forgive Jake.  Afterward, I was completely on board with him.  Just goes to show you that it's possible to write a conflicted character who has totally messed crap up and still allow them to find a truly believable redemption.  With too many novels lately, I've been underwhelmed by the epiphanies or simply find that the plot devices used for dramatical purposes are so farfetched there's not even a modicum of believability in them.  Not so with this novel.  And while these characters went through some crazies, they were absolutely believable crazies.

I'm going to stay away from plot analysis as it's difficult to parse it out without spoilers and this is not the kind of book I'd want spoiled for me.  The mystery, or secret, is integral to the plot, so much so that to reveal it would detract from the story.  So I think, instead, I'll focus on the characters and hope you'll read the book to learn on your own how they navigate their story.

Evie was really a lovely character.  While I didn't always understand her decision making process (though it made more sense at the end of the book), I understood her enough to have faith in her ability to do what was best for herself, and that was enough for me.  Though her history is laced with some rather atrocious events and smothered in heartbreak, Evie had a remarkable capacity for love and understanding.  Through her relationships with her friends I discovered how fiercely loyal and kind she was, and her ability to hold on to the good in life was refreshing.  She had every reason to be bitter and resentful, no one would have faulted her for that, but she wasn't, and though she clearly hadn't worked through all the pain in her past, she wouldn't allow herself to live there.  Instead she strived to create a better reality for herself.

Jake was an easily likeable character, full of charisma and charm, though there was something off about him.  I think most of it is easily explained by the reveal, however, a few things weren't.  He had moments of alpha behavior that didn't resonate with me based on who he seemed to be outside of those moments.  My impression of him was that he was conflicted but had a tremendous capacity to love, there was also a tenderness about him that stood in stark contrast to those alpha behaviors and when he exhibited them, it all felt a little off to me.  But that could just be me and it probably wouldn't bother most people.  I battled with Jake a bit throughout this novel, even though, as I mentioned, I figured out what was going on pretty early in the book.  I think part of that has to do with his need for secrecy.  It's a hard balance to strike for authors, allowing their characters to reveal enough to be fully realized while still maintaining the big secret, and I'm not sure that Jake was as fully realized as he could/should have been.  That being said, I did like him very much, I just could have used more exploration.

Which leads me into the next little bit.  Without delving into the story, I did want more from this couple.  Even knowing what I knew, I had to begin this journey with them in the moment they began telling it, not during the earlier years that are relayed through flashbacks.  I had to see this couple as the people they were today and, therefore, wanted more development of their relationship.  Again, I know this is difficult to do without spoiling the reveal, but it is possible and would have made this really good book into a superb one.

Yes, yes, there are some grammatical issues and choppy transitions, but I forgive these and won't reduce my rating to reflect them.  This is an Indie publication so I forgive these little issues.  Other than that, really strong storytelling with a very unique plot made this a truly good book by an author I will absolutely read again.  And I will certainly be checking out book two in this series.

Tangled (Tangled #1) by Emma Chase

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Synopsis:
Drew Evans is a winner. Handsome and arrogant, he makes multimillion dollar business deals and seduces New York’s most beautiful women with just a smile. He has loyal friends and an indulgent family. So why has he been shuttered in his apartment for seven days, miserable and depressed?

He’ll tell you he has the flu.

But we all know that’s not really true.

Katherine Brooks is brilliant, beautiful and ambitious. She refuses to let anything - or anyone - derail her path to success. When Kate is hired as the new associate at Drew’s father’s investment banking firm, every aspect of the dashing playboy’s life is thrown into a tailspin. The professional competition she brings is unnerving, his attraction to her is distracting, his failure to entice her into his bed is exasperating.

Then, just when Drew is on the cusp of having everything he wants, his overblown confidence threatens to ruin it all. Will he be able untangle his feelings of lust and tenderness, frustration and fulfillment? Will he rise to the most important challenge of his life?

Can Drew Evans win at love?

Tangled is not your mother’s romance novel. It is an outrageous, passionate, witty narrative about a man who knows a lot about women…just not as much as he thinks he knows. As he tells his story, Drew learns the one thing he never wanted in life, is the only thing he can’t live without.
 
Review:
There have been a lot of references to this book being similar to Beautiful Bastard.  Others have compared it to Wallbanger.  And still others have said it's a combination of both.  Yeah, I can totally see that, though it's not close enough to either to feel like a rip off to me.

Drew is Part Simon and part Bennett.  He's definitely got some of Simon's sense of humor with a dash of Bennett's Devil May Care attitude, though he's lacking some of Bennett's alpha tendencies and Simon's sharp tongue.  Of these men I'd have to say Simon is still my favorite.  Drew and Bennett are neck and neck.

While this novel is definitely funny, it isn't the hilarity that was Wallbanger and sometimes it felt as though it was trying too hard.  The repetition of the conversational elements, specifically when the protag was speaking directly to the reader got to be a bit cloying.  I found this especially true when being asked to visualize a scene.  This level of direction drew me out of the story and felt very contrived.  In addition, the need to perpetually regress during the storytelling in quasi-flashback style was a tad distracting as well.

I will say that the second half of the book flowed a lot better than the first and was certainly more engaging.  It if weren't for this portion of the book, the rating would have been lower.  The story took off and became very immersive during the latter half and the humor was sharper and felt less staged.

What truly garnered my praise was the characters.  Both Drew and Kate were really well written and fun.  Their sometimes witty, sometimes caustic banter was really great and they certainly had fantastic chemistry.  It also helped that this story was told from Drew's POV.  It was intriguing to watch everything unfold from his perspective and the author certainly navigated the mindset of a man with startling percision.  I wish more books were written from the male POV.

The story is fairly linear, no real shockers abound, but I was never once bored which is always totally huge for me.  I have the attention span of a gnat so I'm easily sidetracked.  Oftentimes I find myself reading paragraphs ahead, just so I can get to the next thing.  Bad habit, but that's just me.  Well, that never happened with this novel.  It's fast paced and constantly engaging which is a win for me and my gnat brain.

If you enjoyed Wallbanger by Alice Clayton or Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren then this is a must read, I doubt you'll be disappointed.

No Ifs, Ands, or Bears About It (Grayslake #1) by Celia Kyle

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Grayslake is a bear town, and bears aren’t wolves. They don’t crave pack, they don’t instantly ‘mate for life’ and they have serious anger management issues.  Full or partial shifts are common. (Vacationing here? Not recommended.) What they do have is a fierce protectiveness of children, a solid hierarchy, and a strong sense of justice and loyalty. (Well, except for the bad guys, of course.)

The heroine, a mostly-human, non-shifting woman has inherited a house in Grayslake from her bear shifter grandfather. Lots of people aren’t happy about that. (Prejudice is alive and well in the bear shifter community.) But Mia Baker figures she can get past that. She’ll just blend in, keep a low profile…

Good plan. Sadly, it doesn’t last past finding an abused bear cub in her pantry.  One who is terrified of the drunken bear pounding on her door and demanding his nephew back. As Sheriff, Ty becomes involved when the neighbors call the disturbance in. Mia unsuccessfully tries to hide the cub, then announces he is abused and terrified of his uncle and she refuses to let him go. When Ty forces the cub to shift back to human and sees the bruises on the child’s body – both his roles as sheriff and head of the local bear community come into play. And both he and his bear really, really like Mia.

On a side note, the alpha bear is known as the Itan, his mate is the Itana. Good choice – especially if the author had followed the normal wolf shifter naming practices of alpha wolf & alpha bitch. Because with bears that would have been alpha boar and alpha sow…  It would have been hard to take them seriously.

As Itan, and town sheriff as well, Ty Abrams is strong, serious, and used to being obeyed. He roars and everyone drops to their knees and bares their necks. Everyone except Mia. She both stands up to him and calms him. What an Itana she will make…

Ty keeps Mia and Parker at the den. To say the thought of a mostly human Itana is not received well in all quarters is an understatement. There’s the skinny bitch who wants the job herself, the faction that hates humans, and those that are simply concerned that mating with Mia will produce non-shifting cubs. But others quickly develop loyalties to her that supersede their loyalties to Ty when he makes the ultimate alpha mistake of ‘protecting’ her by not telling her all of what’s going on and she walks out, taking Parker with her. Or perhaps they are proving their ultimate loyalty to Ty by protecting his Itana.

The story continues with enough murders for a CSI episode being revealed and old family secrets being illuminated. The ending is satisfying – and there is lots of room for sequels. Since this is listed as the first in the Grayslake series I assume there are others already being developed. I look forward to them.

Copy received from Netgalley and publisher for an honest review.

Beautiful Stranger (Beautiful Bastard #2) by Christina Lauren

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Synopsis
A charming British Playboy. A girl determined to finally live. And a secret liaison revealed in all too vivid color. Book two in the NYT Bestselling series.

Escaping a cheating ex, finance whiz Sara Dillon's moved to New York City and is looking for excitement without a lot of strings attached. So meeting the irresistible, sexy Brit at a dance club should have meant nothing more than a night's fun. But the manner--and speed--with which he melts her inhibitions turns him from a one-time hookup and into her Beautiful Stranger.
The whole city knows Max Stella loves women, not that he's ever found one he particularly wants to keep around. Despite pulling in plenty with his Wall Street bad boy charm, it's not until Sara--and the wild photos she lets him take of her--that he starts wondering if there's someone for him outside of the bedroom.
Hooking up in places where anybody could catch them, the only thing scarier for Sara than getting caught in public is having Max get too close in private. 

Review
I feel a bit like a fledgling lately, having spread my wings, tested the air a bit and lept from the Y/A & N/A nest I've been swaddled in for many moons.  I guess it's because summer's (almost) here and most of the kids in my reading group are doing their own thing (without me *sniffle*).  For the most part, I find Adult Contemps a bit formulaic for my taste, most of what's out there seems very a la Nicholas Sparks to me.  So I've been testing the waters with the edgier stuff as well as a bunch of Indie books and have had some success.

I was more than a bit surprised by this series.  I've read more than a few bad reviews, most pertaining to the notion that FanFic is somehow abhorrent, though I'm not certain I particularly understand judgement of a book based solely on its genesis.  Nonetheless, I was reluctant to read any of it.  Bad me.  I've actually found some of it really entertaining.  Is it great literature?  No, not really.  But it is fun.  So, on the fun scale this definitely gets a four out of five WooHoo's from me.  And, if we're being real here, I found this particular book even better than the first.

Here's why it got a better rating than its predecessor.  Character development.  No, it's not a homerun but it was way, way better in that arena than Beautiful Bastard.  Still, I did enjoy the first book, but found it lacked a bit in the development department as a whole.  Thankfully, not so much with this novel.  Sara and Max are much more fleshed out and their relationship, though initially founded on sex, was explored more deeply and allowed to flourish more organically.

Sara (Chloe's friend and co-worker from book one), has left Chicago to join Bennett and Chloe in New York where they're opening a new office as the business expands.  If memory serves, this is about a year after book one leaves off.  The reason for Sara's departure from Chicago is twofold.  One, she's just left her cheating boyfriend; and, two, she's looking for a way to explore her new self.  Almost immediately upon her arrival she goes for a girls night out with Chloe and Julia (who's in town for a few days) and meets a charming Brit (Max) who's not only easy on the eyes, but makes Sara feel very sexy after being in a loveless relationship for six years with an absolute asshat.

During her encounters with Max, Sara slowly begins to unveil herself to him.  And, yes, while he is somewhat the alpha male, Max shows a great deal of restraint and tenderness as he begins to share pieces of himself with her.  Their true intimacy is a slow growing thing, and it takes most of the novel to fill in all the pieces of the puzzle, which is exactly how I like these types of reveals to go.  Max is a fairly typical wealthy bachelor, though not in a sleazy way.  The way he's portrayed never made me skittish of him as a true love interest for Sara given her recent heartbreak.  It was clear he's sort of just plodding along in this life that he'd built without really knowing that it was unsatisfying.  I appreciated that he was willing to commit to a monogamous relationship, even if it was simply a sexual one, and that he never batted an eye at Sara's strange rules.  He was open and candid and honest, never brooding or unkind, and always seemed to be looking for more from her.  I loved that Max was given an opportunity to show his softer side, while Bennett's was somewhat limited.  Max's mum works in his office; he speaks affectionately about his family and obviously holds them in high regards; he adores his mates.  There's a great scene toward the middle in which Max asks Sara to meet him at a bar after a rugby match with his mates, and we're able to see him amongst his friends.  It was a nice touch and showed that Max was truly a decent human being.  I would have liked to have seen more of that given to Bennett in the first book.

Sara, too, was well written.  Oftentimes the heroine in these setups is a brooding, angsty bitch but I never thought that of Sara.  She gave as good as she got where the banter was concerned and though she was secretive about her history, she had her reasons and I couldn't fault her trepidation.  I also never felt as though she was intentionally jerking Max around, their relationship evolved naturally without either truly taking control or needing the author's to implement some crazy plot device.  Given that there are relatively little dramaticals until the end of the novel, this story progressed really nicely and I found myself following along and not even worried that there hadn't been any real craziness happening.  Don't worry, though, if you need the craziness, trust me it's there, it just takes a while to happen.

It was also really nice to see Bennett and Chloe again and they each had some pretty funny scenes in the book, especially Bennett who, true to form, always has a way of putting things when he needs to be heard.  George, Sara's assistant, is a new character in the book and was a fave of mine.  I am totally hoping to see him again in the next book because he rocked my socks off and he brought a lot a humor into this at some much needed times.

So, yeah, if you liked the first book, then I think you'll love this one.  And if you didn't, maybe give this one a chance.  The story has a much different feel to it.