Brave the Heat with Sara Humphreys

Brave the Heat is the debut book in Sara Humphrey’s new contemporary romance series The McGuire Brothers.  While known for writing paranormal romance, Sara Humphrey’s does not disappoint readers with Brave the Heat.

It is an emotionally driven tale of a pair of old flames who reignite their teenage love.  As an abused teen Jordan McKenna runs away from home only to marry an equally abusive man, but after putting an end to her abusive marriage Jordan returns to her childhood sea town to raise her girls and deal with the reasons she ran away from home and Gavin. Gavin McGuire is the town’s fire chief, who has his own share of emotional baggage including dealing with his feelings from Jordan’s flight when they were teens.  Heat ignites as this pair of lost loves rekindle they’re old love and deal with the hurtful feelings of the past.  Throw in a pair of precocious girls and a mysterious arson investigation, and you will find one blazing delightful read.       

Brave the Heat is an emotionally charged roller coaster ride.  Readers will cheer as Gavin and Jordan stumble their ways through a rocky path back to each other.  It’s beautifully written with well flushed out characters that one cannot help but fall in love with.  Brave the Heat is one book romance reader’s don’t want to miss!

4 ½ Stars.

Heartbreaking and Heart Healing Must Read!!

Books that touch heart are often keepers and Return to Me is one of those keepers! Kelly Moran’s Return to me is an emotional roller coaster that will touch even the coldest of hearts. It’s one of those books where you sit down and the pages just flow until you have discovered that it’s over.

It’s the story of Cole and Mia; young lovers who are torn apart by circumstances beyond their control.  Cole is the son of the Covington’s an up an up and coming political family, Mia is the daughter of a house keeper who was born on the “wrong side of the tracks”. Their summer time love story comes to abrupt end when Cole’s scheming mother makes a veiled threat against Mia’s family including her young sister Ginny who has Downs Syndrome. Though Cole has no desire to end their blooming relationship, he quickly puts an end to it in order to protect Mia and her family from the threat that is his mother. With a broken heart Mia leaves the Covington’s residence, which results in a tragedy that alters all of their lives.  When the young Mia leaves for college, Cole does the only he can do….joins the army.  Ten years later they come together when Cole’s sister Lacey reaches out to Mia for help with her wounded brother.  Years of hurt and guilt have taken their toll on the young lovers, but can they find a way to meet in the middle to forgive and find each other again?

The book is written in both the past and present tense and simply flows well together. It draws readers’ right in and keeps the attention span flowing. It will make you laugh and cry, and believe in the healing power of love.  For this reader, many tears were shed, and yet I still fell in love with the book. Return to Me has found its permanent place on my keeper shelf and is a must read for any romance lover. Books that earn that coveted five star reviews are rare, even rarer still is a book that should and would earn more than five stars, Return to Me is that book!  I cannot wait for book two in the Covington series.

5 Stars……

Beverly Barton's Just the Way You Are......

How to write a review on a beloved author, whose final book was bad, just awful;  I felt no connection to this book what’s so ever and I was hard pressed to even hear the author’s voice in this books. I have long been a fan of Beverly Barton’s…there are few of her books that I wouldn’t suggest to someone but this book lacked in so many ways. It felt like it had been finished just to be finished.

What I did like was the overall idea of the tale…..I also liked Mary Beth and Parr, I liked the sudden spark in the early pages of the book and I liked that each had stories to be told but I feel those stories were not told or not completely fleshed out so to speak.  They met at Mary Beth’s engagement party to of all people Parr’s younger brother. Mary Beth had just discovered Bobby Joe’s indiscretion with a former flame and is heart broken when she meets Parr. Parr is the kind of guy who does right by his family no matter the costs to him.  When the two meet it is a case of instant attraction for both.  Yet when push comes to shove she forgives Bobby Joe.

Bobby Joe throughout the book continues to walk a thin line of almost cheating, and Mary Beth continues to forgive him. There is however several times when Parr and Mary Beth almost give into their attractions yet something keeps stopping them; namely Bobby Joe.  The entire book becomes a do they or do they not push pull thing between Parr and Mary Beth. When Mary Beth finally realizes she is with the wrong brother the fizzle in my opinion has left building. That instant spark that drew me into the book was long gone and it simply fizzled out.

The book had potential, but the problem stems in that it lacked in story, it lacked in character connections, and it just did not feel like a romance. The heat that was there in the early stages of the book simply disappeared and the ending felt rushed. Nor did it feel like a Beverly Barton book......I know she passed a couple of years ago (on my birthday at that) and I have to assume someone else finished this book because it's simply not her voice.  If you want a quick tame read then this might be the book for you, but if you’re looking for more…….I would actually skip over it.

3 ½ Stars.

Laura Kaye's Hauntingly Beautiful Hard to Hold on To!

There are just a spattering a books that rank so high to me to earn that coveted shelf keeper spot, that perfect review in which I cannot find any fault in the story and in some way shape or form touches not my mind but my very heart. Let me also point out that as a fast reader I am not a big fan of the novella format……I typically prefer 350 plus pages that can keep me engaged for hours at a time. That said, Laura Kaye’s novella Hard to Hold on To is just one of those types of books which will constantly grace my shelves. It is hauntingly heart breaking and wonderfully emotional that it is easily a book I will never forget.

I knew going into this series that tells the stories of five ex-soldiers who are running an operation against an organized crime ring out of a tattoo shop that sooner or later these books would turn dark. That the tale would explore the darkest corners of the human mind and perhaps body. Easy and Jenna’s book does just that……it triggers some of the darkest and saddest emotions that one could ever find in a romance.  Yet it leaves you breathless on the flip side of the coin. It deals with the harsh realities of what happens after losing your team members in an ambush and resulting post traumatic stress disorder that follows. It deals with what happens when a you woman with a bring future ahead of her is brutally attacked, and it deals with what happens when these two lost souls find a way into each other’s hearts.

I am an avid fan of author Laura Kaye’s writing from her Hearts of Anemoi series to her current Hard Ink books, each for their own reasons. Hard to Come By managed to leave me in both happy and sad tears, I cannot even begin to imagine where Ms. Kaye is going to take this series next. This novella picks up right where Hard as You Can leave’s off, and I would suggest reading that first as the two books closely intertwine.

5 out of 5 stars ……….and truth be told I wish I could give it more.

Introducing Leslie Tentler With Her Newest Release Fallen, Plus a giveaway!!!!

BACK COVER BLURB:

Amid a sultry Atlanta summer, someone is targeting police… 

The investigation becomes personal for APD Detective Ryan Winter when a colleague and friend is shot dead, the second victim in just weeks. But even as he finds himself being drawn into the tense hunt for a serial cop killer, he is forced to re-examine his own shattering personal tragedy. 

An ER physician at Atlanta’s busy Mercy Hospital, Dr. Lydia Costa is no stranger to suffering. Still, the recent police slayings reopen barely healed wounds—and bring her face-to-face with her ex-husband, Ryan Winter. 

As the body count rises and paranoia tightens its grip on the police force, Lydia and Ryan are pulled together by circumstances and fate…causing old passions to reignite despite their painful shared past. But as Ryan moves closer to discovering the killer’s identity, someone is watching, placing both him and Lydia in mortal danger. 

BUY LINKS

AMAZON ,  B&N

AUTHOR BIO:

Leslie Tentler is best known as the author of the Chasing Evil Trilogy (MIDNIGHT CALLER, MIDNIGHT FEAR and EDGE OF MIDNIGHT). She was named as a finalist for Best First Novel at ThrillerFest 2012 for Midnight Caller, and as a finalist in the 2013 Daphne du Maurier Awards for Excellence in Mystery and Suspense for Edge of Midnight. She is also the recipient of the prestigious Maggie Award of Excellence. Her newest romantic suspense is titled FALLEN.

Leslie is a member of Romance Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild and Novelists, Inc. A native of East Tennessee, she currently resides in Atlanta.

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JUST GOTTA SAY by Laura Kaye! Release Day Launch and Giveaway!!

We are so excited to bring you the Release Day Launch for Laura Kaye's JUST GOTTA SAY! JUST GOTTA SAY is a 17K-word erotic ménage short story. JUST GOTTA SAY will be $.99 and available in print!!

Amazon ** Barnes & Noble

Just Gotta Say is a super sexy friends-to-lovers story and a contemporary ménage a quatres. Here’s the blurb: Callie Davis stumbles upon two of her three male roommates in a surprising, molten-hot midnight tryst and discovers a side of herself she never knew existed. Desire to play with them grips her, and she can’t stop fantasizing about having multiple men, particularly her three long-time best friends. Callie is thrilled when a guys’ night out gives her the perfect opportunity to recreate her fantasy, with the help of a threesome porn video and a bag of sex toys. That is, until Lucas, Jack and Noah return early and catch her in the act. More than anything, the guys want to make her fantasy come true. But Callie has a secret, and she can’t help wondering if being with all three men will risk the future she’s always wanted with one of them. As three strong sets of hands caress and undress her, Callie surrenders to desire, because sometimes you just gotta say...yes.

  Just Gotta Say Excerpt: The set-up: Callie’s most secret fantasy was just unexpectedly revealed to her three male roommates… The invitation he laid out for her—the invitation to be with them, to act out this fantasy for real with them—was completely outside anything she imagined possible. She sat for a long moment, still mostly curled into herself. Her gaze lit on the rough bobbing of Jack’s Adams apple as he swallowed. His apparent case of nerves eased hers. A little. Soft, sandy-colored strands brushed against her forehead. Her nose filled with the scent of him, all night air and masculinity. Callie took a deep breath, her body remembering her unfulfilled arousal even as her brain struggled to keep up. “What are you saying, Jack?” she whispered, buying herself time to think and needing him to spell it out. One hand stroked her back while the other combed her hair off the side of her face. “I’m saying”—he nibbled at her ear, but this time his lips lingered, his warm exhalation caressing her skin—“that the three of us want to bring that fantasy to life for you. If you want.” Every nerve ending tingled with the promise of what he offered. Her heart rose from where it had plummeted into her gut and now hammered against her chest. Images of the three of them kissing her, fucking her, swamped her brain. Blood roared through her ears. “Are you teasing me?” “Look at me,” he said, sliding his large hand under her cheek. The commanding press of his skin on hers skittered electrical charges down her neck to her breasts. Her nipples hardened. She acquiesced and sat up just enough to face one of her three dearest friends. “We want to do this for you.” He quirked the sexiest of crooked smiles and shrugged with one shoulder. “You know we’d be good together.” She didn’t know whether his “we” meant her and him or the four of them. An encouraging voice in her mind said both interpretations were true. He cupped her neck, his grasp comforting and reassuring, and brushed his lips against her right cheekbone. Her right eye. Her forehead. Tilting his head to the other side, he repeated the action against her left eye, the apple of her left cheek. She gasped when his last kiss fell on that tender, hollow spot just below her ear. “What do you want, Callie? Whatever you want, we want. Always.” Get Your Copy Today! Amazon | B&N | Kobo

About Laura Kaye Laura is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of nearly twenty books in contemporary and paranormal romance. Growing up, Laura’s large extended family believed in the supernatural, and family lore involving angels, ghosts, and evil-eye curses cemented in Laura a life-long fascination with storytelling and all things paranormal. She lives in Maryland with her husband, two daughters, and cute-but-bad dog, and appreciates her view of the Chesapeake Bay every day.      

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Hope for the Holidays!

I have to admit that I’m not a huge fan of the overwhelming number of Christmas titles that come out in the fall, but there was something about this book that intrigued me from the start, and if there was a book to put me into the Christmas spirit Mistletoe on Main Street might have just done that. Mistletoe on Main Street is Olivia Miles first full length contemporary romance debut. It is the first in the Briar Creek series and one small town romance that I look forward to returning to.

Grace Madison left home five years ago to follow her dreams of a writing career, and by following those dreams she broke her childhood sweetheart Luke Hastings’ heart. When her father’s passing leaves his bookstore empty; Grace must return home to face her past and those she hurt. Luke is faced with questions about how the big city has changed Grace and how long will she stick around this time. After Grace had left for the big city of New York, Luke moves on to find love with another, but when tragedy struck early into his marriage Luke is left feeling a world of guilt over his lingering feelings for his first true love. Add in a bevy of wonderful secondary characters each with their own tales to tell and this is one fantastic holiday read!

 Mistletoe on Main Street is full of heart breaking romance and forgiveness. It’s ugly and it’s real, Olivia Miles really put the heart into this romance. It is one of those titles that will have you laughing through your tears. It is sweetness and heartache at its best. It is a tale of hope….and of how magical the Christmas season can be. I would recommend this book to any one that loves a good redemption tale.