Month: April 2013

Review: After Hours by Cara McKenna

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
After Hours by Cara McKennaFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Erotic romance
Length:
Publisher: Penguin InterMix
Date Released: April 16, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

A dangerous infatuation with a rough and ready man…

Erin Coffey has been a nurse for years, but nothing’s prepared her for the physical and emotional demands of her new position. Needing to move closer to her dysfunctional family, she takes a dangerous job at Larkhaven Psychiatric Hospital, where she quickly learns that she needs protection—and she meets the strong, over-confident coworker who’s more than willing to provide it.

Kelly Robak is the type of guy that Erin has sworn she’d never get involved with. She’s seen firsthand, via her mess of a sister, what chaos guys like him can bring into a woman’s life. But she finds herself drawn to him anyway, even when he shows up at her door, not eager to take no for an answer.

What Erin finds even more shocking than Kelly’s indecent proposal is how much she enjoys submitting to his every command. But he can’t play the tough guy indefinitely. If they want to have more than just an affair, both will have to open up and reveal what they truly need.

My Review:

After Hours is a romance that makes you work for its happy for now ending…and seriously makes its happy for now ending work. This gritty working-class real-life romance is also one of the hottest romances I’ve read in eons.

We all know we aren’t going to get rescued by billionaires, but we do have a chance at ending the day with a guy who can fix our cars and grill a mean steak. If he can also provide enough orgasms that we walk funny the next morning–now that’s the stuff of real-life fantasy.

The story of After Hours tugs at so many hearts because it is grounded in everyday life. Erin Coffey has a job that most of us wouldn’t want: she’s a Licensed Practical Nurse at a psychiatric hospital. It’s her first real job, because she got her LPN as a caregiver while her grandmother descended through Alzheimer’s. Now she has to earn a paycheck.

Erin has always been a nurturer. Her mother has gone through a series of worthless, domineering men, and left Erin in charge of her baby sister. Now that Amber is more-or-less adult, she’s repeating their mother’s pattern, complete with an out-of-wedlock child. Erin sees herself as the only stable influence in their lives.

So she gets the job at Larkhaven Psychiatric, just so she can be near them, in spite of its location in a rundown Rustbelt town  and the fact that she’s scared to death of the job and the patients.  And that’s where she meets Kelly Robak. Kelly is an orderly at Larkhaven.

At first, Kelly seems just like all the men that her mother and her sister keep train-wrecking their lives into. He’s big and overpowering and he admits that he can’t manage relationships because the women he gets involved with won’t put up with the fact that he demands that things be his way, all the time.

Kelly has some serious control issues. But then, so does Erin. And they also have some major, blistering hot chemistry. And no one has turned Erin’s crank for too damn long.

But Erin’s not sure she’s willing to let any man dominate her, not even for the promise of the best sex she’s ever had in her life.

After a week at Larkhaven, she changes her mind. The idea of turning her mind off for a couple of days, and letting someone else be in charge, sounds pretty damn appealing. And she already knows just how good it’s going to be.

Except it’s better. The only problem is that once she lets Kelly in, she can’t keep him out. And she doesn’t even want to. But this isn’t a no-strings-attached coworkers-with-benefits fling. Whatever it is, it’s real.

Erin and Kelly are starting to not just care, but take care, of each other. And neither of them planned on that.

Escape Rating B+: There needs to be a new category for After Hours, because this erotic romance (and it is very erotic) isn’t happily ever after, and I’m not quite sure it is even happy for now, exactly. But it is happier for now. Kelly and Erin are both in better places in their lives because they are together than they were separately. Their world is brighter than it was, but it is not bright, nor should it be. They are working in a pretty grim psychiatric hospital and living in a depressed rustbelt town that doesn’t sound like it’s ever going to lift out of the recession.

They’re not rescuing each other. But they are helping each other to heal from a whole lot of bad stuff that happened before they ever met. They are stronger together than they are separately. How they reach that point and the way they reach towards each other is what makes this story so damn good.

Erin and Kelly are two people who you really want to see make good. By the end of the story, you are rooting for them to get their brighter day. Awesome story.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: The Summer He Came Home by Juliana Stone

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | 4 Stars> book reviews> Originally published at Book Lovers, Inc.> The Rocket Lover

Summer He Came Home by Juliana StoneFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Series: Bad Boys of Crystal Lake, #1
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: Apr. 2, 2013
Number of pages: 386 pages
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback
Purchasing Info: Author’s website | Publisher’s website | Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Book Depository US | Book Depository (UK)

Sometimes the best place to find love is right back where you started…

Falling asleep in a different bed every night has made it easy for Cain Black to forget his past. It’s been ten years since he packed his guitar and left Crystal Lake, Michigan, to chase his dreams. Now tragedy has forced him home again. And though Cain relishes the freedom of the road, one stolen moment with Maggie O’Rourke makes him wonder if he’s missing out on something bigger than fame.

For Maggie—single mother and newly settled in Crystal Lake—love is a luxury she just can’t afford. Sure, she appreciates the tall, dark and handsome looks of prodigal son Cain Black. But how long can she expect the notorious hellion to stay?

The last thing either of them wants is something complicated. But sometimes love has its own plans.

My Thoughts:

The Summer He Came Home is part small-town romance, part second-chance love story and part, maybe mostly, a story about what happens when bad boys grow up and become men.

They were kings, and they didn’t know it, or so says one of the main characters, Raine, Jesse’s widow. The story starts with Cain Black’s arrival at Jesse’s funeral, his first time home after ten years.

Jesse and his twin Jake left Crystal Lake for Afghanistan. Only Jake came back. Mac left his home and his abusive father for a high-flying legal career in in the big city. And Cain left first, because his life was his music, and the only way he could find the fame and fortune he craved was on the road.

Jesse’s death found him on tour in Europe. He dropped everything to come back, burned out and almost completely used up. His marriage to a flashy model over in a bitter divorce, and his songwriting partnership finished with an onstage brawl in the middle of concert.

Cain Black arrives in the middle of Jesse’s funeral to celebrate his friend’s lost life, and finds his own. Cain thinks he’s leaving Crystal Lake in just a couple of weeks. Instead he decides that being with his remaining best friends, the men he knows in his heart are still his brothers, is the soul-deep healing that he really needs.

And he’s met one woman, one real woman, who isn’t interested in him for his music or his money. Maggie O’Rourke doesn’t want a bad-boy rocker in her life at all. And she certainly doesn’t want him in her son’s life. She just wants to keep her head down and scrape by.

Cain is too intrigued to stay away, in spite of his mother’s warnings not to hurt the shy young widow.

But he can’t get Maggie out of his mind, so he begins a cautious and careful courtship, not just of the beautiful Maggie, but of also of her precocious son, Michael. Cain’s deepening involvement brings him back into the life of the town, and back into the lives of the friends who need him.

He just brings Maggie back to life.

Then he discovers the terrible secret that she’s been keeping, and he almost loses everyone that is precious to him, just in the moment of discovery.

Verdict: You would think that starting the story with a funeral would be a real downer, but it actually isn’t. It turns out to be a terrific device for introducing all the characters, and explaining why Cain left Crystal Lake and his hesitation at coming back. It works.

Cain and Maggie start out from very different places. He’s a bit selfish about pursuing Maggie. Maggie has a huge secret that the reader figures out pretty easily. She doesn’t want a relationship and is clear about it. Because Cain doesn’t know what the secret is, he continues a gentle, non-threatening pursuit until she is willing to let a kind of courtship start. While he’s sweet about it on the one hand, there is an element that he isn’t clear until the end what he’s planning to do when the summer ends and he goes back to the band. Maggie has a child to consider who has become attached to him.

It is obvious to the reader what Maggie’s secret is. Her previous relationship was abusive. The only questions are whether the asshat is her husband, ex-husband, or boyfriend, and whether he is in or out of prison. It’s all too easy to see that Maggie is afraid of being found.

The development of the relationship between Cain and Maggie, and between Cain and Michael, her son, was slow and sweet, not that there isn’t a lot of simmering sexual tension between Cain and Maggie. A lot of this story is about healing, and it takes a while for Maggie to heal enough to let herself have a relationship with Cain.

However, the sudden arrival of Maggie’s ex and his capture seemed anti-climactic. There was no suspense, he just knocked on the door and started slapping Maggie around. Then Cain showed up and “boom!” the ex was arrested and locked up.

On the other hand, the friendships between the “bad boys”, Cain and Mac and Jake, make a big part of the book. The loss of Jesse is like the ache of a phantom limb, they all feel it. Painfully. I’m looking forward to Mac and Jake each having their own book, because in spite of the sudden ending, I really enjoyed The Summer He Came Home and want to read the rest of the series.

4-Stars

I give The Summer He Came Home by Juliana Stone 4 stars!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Guest Post by Author Elise Sax: A Day in the Life of Gladie Burger + Giveaway

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Giveaways> Guest Posts

My very funny special guest today is Elise Sax, the author the recent (and hilarious) romantic suspense book, An Affair to Dismember. Gladie has a terrific chance at stealing away some of Stephanie Plum’s fans (take a look at my review for details). 

Meanwhile, here’s Elise’s take on Gladie. You’ll see just how funny they are!

A Day in the Life of Gladie Burger
By Elise Sax

Gladie Burger is the heroine of the Matchmaker Series. I recently asked her to tell me about a typical day in her life. This is what she told me…

An Affair to Dismember by Elise SaxYes, I have to admit my days were a lot more boring before I moved to Cannes, CA to work in my grandma’s matchmaking business. It used to be I would get up, brush my teeth, get dressed, go to work, come home, watch TV, and go to sleep.

Of course, I moved around a lot and switched jobs like some people switch toilet paper rolls, but otherwise, it was a pretty boring life. And safe.

Since I moved in with my grandma a few months ago, I have had men chase me, murderers chase me, and once a dog chased me—but that was because I was carrying Grandma’s order of ribs, and who doesn’t like ribs?

When I’m not stumbling on to dead bodies, here’s a pretty typical day for me:

  • 7:00 AM: I wake up if my alarm clock is working, but I got it on sale at a thrift shop, and the wire is a little frayed and sometimes it turns off in the middle of the night if I turn too much in bed and jiggle the wire. So, if it doesn’t go off, I wake up around 9:00 when my grandma comes in and tells me that contrary to popular belief, love blossoms in the morning, not the night, and I better get cracking if I’m going to be in the love business.
  • 7:15 AM: (if I didn’t jiggle the wire): I take a shower and wash my hair with this fabulous coconut-smelling shampoo my friend Lucy gave me during her travels for work. She’s in marketing, whatever that is.
  • 7:30 AM: I always put on mascara, no matter what, and usually I wear workout clothes, even though I haven’t worked out since I moved to Cannes. (Note to self: start yoga. Everybody does yoga but me.) I try to tame my hair with gel/mousse/serum, but it mostly does what it wants.
  • 7:45 AM: Eat breakfast with Grandma. Usually bagels are involved. “Dolly,” she’s said. “Bagels are indispensable. Like toothpaste. And eyeliner. And control top pantyhose.”
  • 8:15: Follow Grandma around and help her with whatever singles class she’s hosting.
  • 11:00: Give up on class, wonder if I’ll ever be a successful matchmaker, go to pick up lunch for Grandma from one of her favorite fast food places and stop at Tea Time for a much needed latte.
  • 11:15: My credit card gets declined, and I scrounge coins from the bottom of my purse to buy a latte. Ruth calls me a “reprobate.” As soon as I get a dictionary, I will be upset she called me that.
  • 12:00: Pick up ribs/fried chicken/tacos for Grandma but am stopped by hunky police chief Spencer Bolton. “What are you up to, Pinkie?” he asks me and then tries to look down my blouse. “You are five years old,” I tell him. He leaves to fight crime.
  • 12:15: My car won’t start. I call AAA and eat the ribs while I wait. Sexy yumminess Arthur Holden jogs by and sees me. “Hi,” he says and sticks his head through my car window. I have BBQ sauce on my face but nothing to clean it off with. He doesn’t care. He kisses me, and my eyes roll back in my head. He jogs away, and I realize I’ve forgotten to tell him my car won’t start, but I’m feeling no pain. My uterus is humming love songs.
  • 1:30: AAA doesn’t show up, and I decide to walk home. On the way I stumble on a dead body. I scream. I pass out.
  • 1:40: I wake up. The dead guy is still there. He has a bullet wound to his head. I think: Why me? Why am I a magnet for death? I call Spencer.
  • 1:42: Spencer arrives. “Are you kidding me?” he asks me, as if I drag in dead bodies from neighboring towns just to piss him off.
  • 1:45: Spencer warns me not to get involved with the murder case.
  • 1:46: I get involved with the murder case.
  • 1:50: Spencer gets a police officer to drive me home.
  • 2:00: I arrive home with no food, but somehow Grandma knows and has ordered in food, herself. We sit in the kitchen with the food, and my friends Lucy and Bridget come over and talk about the murder. They ask me if I know who the murderer is. I don’t.
  • 3:00: Grandma takes a nap. Someone comes over and tries to kill me.
  • 4:00: The gardener saves me with his pruning shears. Now there’s two dead bodies.
  • 4:10: Spencer arrives and reads me the riot act. Holden comes over and rubs my back and asks if I’m okay. I realize the murderer wasn’t working alone, but I don’t tell anybody.
  • 5:26: I solve the crime. I know who killed who and why and how (wouldn’t you like to know?). Spencer yells at me for getting involved and looks dreamily into my eyes, making me hyperventilate. Holden takes me out to dinner, pushing Spencer out of the way.
  • 7:00: I choke on a chicken bone at dinner and go home early. Grandma has hot cocoa waiting for me, and she tells me I have “the gift”. Spencer unexpectedly shows up, grabs a root beer, and sits down at the table with us. He gives me the rundown of the aftermath of the murder case.
  • 10:15: I kick Spencer out, even though he offers to make me levitate if only I would let him into my bed. I think about this offer.
  • 10:28: I go to bed. Good night! Sweet dreams!
Elise SaxAbout Elise SaxElise Sax worked as a journalist for fifteen years, mostly in Paris, France. She took a detour from journalism and became a private investigator before trying her hand at writing fiction. She lives in Southern California with her two sons. An Affair to Dismember, the first in the Matchmaker mystery series, is her first novel.

To learn more about Elise, check out her website and blog. You can also find her on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads,and YouTube.

~~~~~~TOURWIDE GIVEAWAY~~~~~~

Elise is giving away four $25 gift cards for Amazon!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

An Affair to Dismember Button 300 x 225

Review: An Affair to Dismember by Elise Sax

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
An Affair to Dismember by Elise SaxFormat read: ebook provided by NetGalley
Formats available: ebook, mass market paperback, hardcover
Genre: Romantic suspense
Series: The Matchmaker, #1
Length: 320 pages
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Date Released: January 29, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Three months has been Gladie Burger’s limit when it comes to staying in one place. That’s why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her eccentric Grandma Zelda recruits her to the family’s matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What’s more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has “the gift.” But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy.

When Zelda’s neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family’s drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor’s death was murder. It’s not too long before she’s in way over her head—with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she’s unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued—either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?

My Review:

An Affair to Dismember, and The Matchmaker series that it starts, seems like a match designed to appeal to fans of Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series. It has the same madcap sense of humor, some of the same family dynamic, and a very similar romantic triangle.

But at least so far, Gladie, short for Gladys, Burger, has a chance of avoiding some of the ennui that plagues long-time readers of the Plum books. At least I have hope.

Gladie has come back to Cannes, California to apprentice with her Grandmother Zelda in her matchmaking business. Any resemblance between Zelda and Stephanie’s Grandma Mazur is intentional but superficial.

For one thing, Zelda the matchmaker may have a terrible case of agoraphobia but she otherwise still has full possession of every single one of her marbles. Plus a few extra, as she quite definitely has a supernatural gift for matchmaking. And she’s got a Ph.D. in the study of human nature.

Gladie’s got the family talent, but most of it seems to lie in another direction. Instead of finding perfect matches, it turns out that Gladie has an instinct for finding murderers. A talent that lands her right in the path of Cannes’ commitment-phobic, but incredibly handsome, new chief of police, Spencer Bolton.

Because there has to be a triangle, Gladie’s next door neighbor is also a handsome, single hunk. The odd thing about the hunk next door is that no one in town seems to know exactly where Arthur Holden came from or what he does. They only know that he’s gorgeous.

No one ever gets murdered in Cannes. That’s why Spencer Bolton decided to become the police chief. He saw too much death as a cop in LA. But then Gladie moves in and suddenly old men start dropping like flies, always in mysterious circumstances.

Gladie can’t help herself, she has to investigate. And neither Spencer nor Arthur can help themselves, they can’t stop going after Gladie, if only to see what happens next!

Escape Rating B: An Affair to Dismember should have a sticker on it: “for a good time, call Gladie at 555-1212” or something like that. Gladie is tons of fun. Not much sense, but absolutely a giggle-fit.

There is one thing that drove me crazy, and needs to stop. Gladie needs to stop fat-shaming every three paragraphs. She worked in a health food store before she moved in with her grandmother and was apparently a size 0. She’s gained 10 pounds and rags on herself every 10 minutes about it, always while eating or talking about food. But the one time she puts on a dress, every man who sees her starts to drool, and every woman who sees her literally turns green with envy. As Grandma Zelda would say, “Enough already!”

Someday, there will probably be a romance, either between Gladie and Spencer, or betweeen Gladie and Arthur. I hope, for everyone’s sake, the author doesn’t drag it on through 19 books. That level of indecision would be much too much. Gladie does deserve the chance to try them both out, as far as this reader is concerned. That could be loads of fun.

The mystery was just screamingly funny. Gladie was learning how her gift worked, so she made lots of mistakes. And it made for terrific excuses for Spencer or Arthur to butt in and/or rescue her. Gladie never claims to be a professional anything, so her errors are mostly funny. We haven’t reached nearly the point where we think she should know better. She’s new.

Matchpoint by Elise SaxBased on An Affair to Dismember, The Matchmaker has the potential to be a terrifically fun and funny light mystery series. I’m definitely looking forward to Matchpoint in July!

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

The Sunday Post AKA What’s on My (Mostly Virtual) Nightstand 4-21-13

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Magic Touch Blog Hop> The Sunday Post> Virtual Nightstand> Winner announcement


Sunday PostThis morning’s newspaper was filled with information about the capture of the second suspect in the Boston Marathon Explosion. There are no words for this. Nothing makes sense about it. But it made people pull together again. One of the Occupy Wall Street groups, The Illuminator, lit up the side of the Brooklyn Academy of Music with the image below. Hope springs.

NY Heart Boston

Past Tense by Nick MarshMoving back to bookish topics, a writer friend asked me to mention that he reached the nirvana of getting his rights back and edited and re-released his books. I was supposed to mention this a couple of weeks ago when they were free on Amazon. Nick, I’m sorry. I have a soft spot for Nick Marsh’s Conduit Novels, Soul Purpose and Past Tense, because Past Tense was one of the first books I reviewed for Book Lovers Inc. (I reviewed Soul Purpose here), because the crew time-travels back to Roman Britain, a period I adore, and because one of the villains is a librarian. We don’t often get to be the bad guys. The books are good fun. Give them a try. (Also, Nick’s day job is as a vet, and he was awesomely supportive last year when my kitty was going through chemo).

The delayed winners announcements from last week. Shelley S. won the copy of Robyn Carr’s The Wanderer. Jennifer K. won one of the $10 Amazon Gift Cards from my Blogo-Birthday. Veronika chose a copy of Ruthie Knox’ About Last Night, and Erin F. picked up a copy of Ruthie’s Big Boy. Joy F. was the big winner. Rafflecopter chose her as the winner of one of the $10 Amazon Gift Cards and the set of Victoria Vane’s Devil DeVere series. Way to go winners!

Slam by J.L. MerrowLast week’s complete recap:

B Review: I Kissed A Dog by Carol Van Atta
Guest Post by Author Carol Van Atta + Giveaway
B- Review: Werewolves Be Damned by Stacey Kennedy
B Review: His Southern Temptation by Robin Covington
B- Review: Stealing Home by Jennifer Seasons
B+ Guest Review: Slam by J.L. Merrow
The Magic Touch Blog Hop

Magic Touch Blog HopThere is still plenty of time to get in on The Magic Touch Blog Hop! It’s open until April 30. I’m giving away a $10 Amazon Gift card, and there are 50 other blogs participating. LOTS of chances to win.

Tomorrow starts another week. Let’s take a look at what’s on tap!

Monday starts out with a laugh riot. Elise Sax will talk about life from her character Gladie Burger’s skewed point of view. And since Gladie Burger is the woman on the spot in her new book, An Affair To Dismember, I’ll have a review of her series-starter, along with a giveaway.

River Road by Suzanne JohnsonOn Wednesday and Thursday, we’ll be visiting one of my favorite cities in the world, New Orleans, courtesy of Suzanne Johnson’s Sentinels of New Orleans urban fantasy series. I’ll be reviewing book 1, Royal Street, on Wednesday and book 2, River Road on Thursday along with an interview with Suzanne.

Friday I should have my review of The Magic Circle by Jenny Davidson along with her guest post. The Magic Circle is a somewhat spooky story about immersion in real-life gaming, and all of us involved in the arrangements got a bit too immersed in real-life and had to postpone this from last week to this week!

Return next week for another exciting adventure of “as the blog turns!”

The Magic Touch Blog Hop

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | Blog Hops> Giveaways> Magic Touch Blog Hop

The Magic Touch Blog Hop

Sometimes we say someone has a “magic touch” with something, and it’s a good thing. Occasionally it’s a bad thing. A “green thumb” is a magic touch with plants. I have more like a black thumb. And if I don’t kill them, my cats do!

King MidasOf course, King Midas had the ultimate “magic touch”. Everything he touched turned to gold. Absolutely everything. We all know how that worked out for him!

But I love reading stories about the possibility of magic intruding into contemporary life. Isn’t that the joy of urban fantasy and paranormal romance? The idea that somewhere out there in behind the mundane world of jobs and bills and the daily grind, there is still something magical to be found?

Of course, I still want my flying car, too!

To help you read more about your own version of the magic touch, just fill out the rafflecopter for a chance at a $10 Amazon giftcard. Then hop on over to the many other participants in this giveaway hop, and see what magic they have in store for you!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
This Hop is hosted by author Kallysten and book blog Riverina Romantics. In addition to individual prizes provided on each blog, we are offering assorted swag to the first 100 participants who simply tell us they want some! See all details and sign up here.

Guest Review: Slam by J.L. Merrow

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews> Guest Review
Slam by J.L. MerrowFormats available: ebook
Genre: Contemporary
Length: 275 pages
Publisher: Samhain Publishing
Date Released: April 9, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Limericks, lies, and puppy-dog eyes…

Jude Biggerstaff is all the way out and loving it—mostly. The Anglo-Japanese university graduate is a carnivore working in a vegan café, an amateur poet with only one man in his life. His dog, Bubbles.

Then there’s “Karate Crumpet”, a man who regularly runs past the café with a martial arts class. Jude can only yearn from afar, until the object of his affection rescues him from muggers. And he learns that not only does this calm, competent hunk of muscle have a name—David—but that he’s gay.

Jude should have known the universe wouldn’t simply let love fall into place. First, David has only one foot out of the closet. Then there’s Jude’s mother, who lies about her age to the point Jude could be mistaken for jailbait.

With a maze of stories to keep straight, a potential stepfather in the picture, ex-boyfriends who keep spoiling his dates with David, and a friend with a dangerous secret, Jude is beginning to wonder if his and David’s lives will ever start to rhyme.

Warnings: Contains a tangled web of little white lies, a smorgasbord of cheesy limericks, a violin called Vanessa, some boots that mean business, and the most adorable little dog ever. Poetry, it’s not…

Guest Review by Cryselle

After that blurb, the question isn’t what happens, it’s how. And it’s fun.

Stream of consciousness barely contained, that’s Jude. He’s flamboyant, funny, and when he bleeds internally, he bandages it with another joke. He’s head over heels for David, but what doesn’t go strange in one way goes strange in another. JL Merrow has “frequently been accused of humor” and this story earns her the shaky finger again, in the best way.

Opposites—Jude looks like Gok Wan, only prettier and gayer, and David’s so butch Jude’s not sure he’s gay—the man hasn’t seen a musical in years, and likes watching football. David’s got reason—he works construction in the management end of the business, but he’s not out at work and doesn’t plan to be any time soon. We don’t have any scenes from his POV, but that’s okay, Jude can rattle along for three.

Emitting limericks at irregular intervals to express his anxiety or frustration, Jude keeps us smiling, even when we’d like to whap him for withholding pertinent information from David. Granted, it seems rational at the time, but it does create a sequence of Big Misunderstandings. I can’t summarize better than this brief sequence, where Jude and David have gone on their first real date. Rescuing Jude from some gay-bashers isn’t exactly social life after all.

He shrugged. “I’ve never really been into gay bars. I’d rather go to a normal pub. Uh, does that come off as a bit homophobic?”

I swallowed my last mouthful of saltimbocca. “Yeah, but I’ll let you off because (a) you’re gorgeous and (b) I think my mouth just had an orgasm.” Dreamily, I put down my fork. “Although on second thoughts, that’s not a great mental picture when you’ve just eaten. We have got to come here again.”

“If you like. I’m still hoping to persuade you to try the raw fish at TTY.”

Oops. That again. I bit my lip. Should I come clean and tell him it was all to do with Stinky Cheese Guy? He’d understand, and then we could have a laugh about it…

I grimaced. Yeah, right. Because it’s always so attractive, finding the guy you’re out with is still hung up on his Evil Ex.

David laughed. “Why do I get the impression I just missed a whole conversation taking place in your head?”

That last sentence—really important.

The supporting characters shore everything up nicely: best gal pal Keisha keeps Jude grounded and provides a sharp foil for his wit, and Mom is a hoot. Mom has a younger boyfriend and a couple of secrets, which slop onto Jude and incidentally demonstrate that he comes by his talent for complications honestly.

In fact, everyone seems to have some way to affect everyone else, and it’s to the author’s credit that this crazy quilt of plot points winds up so neatly. Secrets and confessions fall out of the closet like improperly stored skeletons, and it all winds up as a big AW! in several directions, in spite of the epidemic of foot-in-mouth disease.

The title applies to Jude’s participation in slam poetry fests, where poets recite their work as performance art and are graded by how they affect their audiences. It’s not a huge plot aspect unless it’s needed—this story is more character driven than plot driven, aside from the eventual boy-gets-boy. The limericks are spice rather than meal. I’m very partial to external plot, of which this is rather short: the external elements are subservient to the relationship, and the title theme is nearly invisible for most of the book.

All in all, this is a sweet feel-good-eventually of a story. The Brit flavor is undiluted, not impenetrable to American readers, and is a wonderful antidote to stories where the English charm has been genericized away. If you’re in the mood for flamboyant, funny, British characters and situations, this is the story for you.

Escape rating: B+

Cryselle can regularly be found blogging and reviewing at Cryselle’s Bookshelf.

Review: Stealing Home by Jennifer Seasons

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
[Stealing Home by Jennifer Seasons]Format read: ebook provided by Edelweiss
Formats available: ebook
Genre: Contemporary romance
Series: Diamonds and Dugouts, #1
Length: 100 pages
Publisher: Avon Impulse
Date Released: April 2, 2013
Purchasing Info: Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble

Love may be just a game, but the baseball players in Jennifer Seasons’ sexy Diamonds and Dugouts series—they’re playing for keeps!

Mark Cutter has it all: a lucrative baseball career, fast cars, and faster women—and all thanks to his priceless good luck charm. At least, that’s what he thinks before Lorelei Littleton shows up. Next thing he knows, he’s waking up alone, the sexy brunette has vanished, and his good luck charm is gone. More than a little curious about the wicked-hot cat burglar and determined to get his property back, Mark’s going to track down the thief and make her pay—big time.

Maybe Lorelei feels a tiny bit guilty for stealing Mark’s good luck charm, but when it’s worth $100,000 and the money could save her niece’s life? She’s not losing sleep over it … but him? Lorelei can’t get the ballplayer with the bad attitude out of her head. And now he’s come after her with more than just revenge in his eyes. Lorelei has a choice: turn over the charm and lose the money, or keep it and risk losing everything … including her heart.

My Review:

It’s April and that means baseball season is just around the corner.

When the “boys of summer” start to play, can baseball romances be far behind?

Lorelei Littleton and Mark Cutter are both trying to steal home in Jennifer Seasons’ first trip at bat in her new Diamonds and Dugouts series. It’s just that neither of them starts out thinking that way.

Mark Cutter is the star catcher for the Denver Rush, the fictional Major League Baseball team based in, of course, Denver. Cutter is still young, but old enough to have gotten tired of the traveling life of late nights, lots of parties, and very easy plastic bimbos. Especially since his ex-wife used to be one.

He’s starting to hunger for something real, he just doesn’t know it yet.

Lorelei Littleton has way too much real in her life. A lot of very real medical bills and nowhere near enough money to pay them with.

Her beloved niece needs a life-saving open heart operation, and Lorelei’s brother doesn’t have medical insurance to cover it. That’s not all. He’s still paying for his late wife’s medical bills after her death, and his own surgery. There’s nothing but pain and tragedy there.

Logan’s done his best, but rodeo riders are bad health risks, especially with only one kidney. His life sounds like one of those sad country music songs.

Lorelei’s answer is to do something dangerous, and maybe live a little. Mark Cutter’s ex-wife wants someone to steal Cutter’s good luck charm. She says she’ll pay a cool $100,000 for it. That’s enough money to pay for her niece’s surgery.

What Lorelei doesn’t count on is the charm of the man she’s supposed to steal from…and that there is a very good reason Mark Cutter divorced the witch.

But his ex has finally done something good for him after all the pain she caused him…she sent this luscious would-be thief into his life. Lorelei is the most real woman Mark Cutter has seen since he became a star player. He’ll do anything to keep her near him. She’s his new good luck charm!

Escape Rating B-: The story all hinges on a series of misunderstandammits, and they are doozies! Mark’s ex-Dina lies like the proverbial cheap rug to Lorelei to get her to steal from Mark. That’s the one lie that makes sense. After that, the story keeps going based on Mark and Lorelei never telling each other anything resembling the truth.

It wouldn’t work at all except they are so hot for each other they can’t make themselves keep away, even when common sense says they should. The enemies-into-friends angle manages to work.

Both Mark and Lorelei have pretty big secrets. Lorelei hides that she’s doing this in order to get money for her niece’s surgery. Mark’s problem is his insecurity about his dyslexia. He’s hidden it all his life, and he’s very afraid to trust anyone. His last experience at trusting someone ended in divorce, so he’s pretty gunshy.

At the same time, everyone around them knows they are falling for each other. Her need for the money, and his need to keep his new good luck charm around give them both an excuse to stay together when logic would say otherwise.

This one is for people who like hot sports romances, especially about baseball players. It was fun and frothy, just like the mochas that Lorelei loves to drink.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: His Southern Temptation by Robin Covington

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> blog tours> book reviews
His Southern Temptation by Robin CovingtonFormat read: ebook provided by the publisher
Formats available: ebook
Genre: contemporary romance
Series: The Boys Are Back in Town, #2
Length:
Publisher: Entangled: Indulgence
Date Released: April 1, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo

Some women are bad. Some women are a bad idea. The best ones are both…

As a Black Ops assassin, “Lucky” Landon has had more than his fair share of close calls. Now he’s turned in his sniper rifle for the simple life of his small hometown. So the last thing he ever expected was to end up at gunpoint. Or that the woman holding the gun would be his best friend’s little sister and Lucky’s on-again/off-again lover.

Taylor Elliott is Trouble, and she likes it that way. And seeing Lucky again? Well, he’s been her dirty little secret for the past few years and everyone knows that secrets in a small town are almost impossible to keep. But Taylor has bigger problems on her plate. Like the local mob boss who wants her dead.

And right now the only thing standing between Trouble and disaster is a hottie named Lucky…

My Review:

Lucky Landon and Taylor Elliott meet again at gunpoint. Not that they haven’t met before in various compromising positions–this is just the first time that firearms have been involved.

And the first time they’ve entertained the possibility of hooking up in their home town. A typical small Southern home town where everybody knows everybody’s business the second there’s a whisper in the air.

A place they’ve both steered well clear of from the moment they were each old enough to see it in their respective rear-view mirrors.

But neither of them is an eighteen-year-old kid anymore. Lucky has spent more than a decade doing “wetwork” for the U.S. Marines. The special ops he’s been on are part of the shadow war that he can’t reveal to anyone, the kind that leaves a stain on a man’s soul.

The rare times he’s hooked up with Taylor over the years have been his only slice of heaven, his bit of redemption. He’s given the U.S. Marines all the soul that he can stand to give, and he’s come home to heal what’s left. He wants a real relationship with Taylor, instead of being just her dirty secret.

Taylor has spent her time as far away from the South as she could get. Her family wanted her to do something with her education. Instead, Taylor became a massage therapist and aesthetician. She’s on her way to owning her own business. In Hawaii. She’s also the wildest and most adventurous woman Lucky has ever met. What she won’t do is have a real relationship, not with him, not with anyone. She doesn’t want to let her emotions get involved.

The one and only time before she let herself fall for a man, she found out he was screwing the wedding planner. On the day of the wedding. She ran out of the ceremony and never looked back.

Her mother thought she should have forgiven the bastard. Which probably says all there is to say about Taylor’s relationship with her mother. And Taylor’s parents’ broken marriage.

Taylor left that ceremony by stealing Lucky’s car. He never pressed charges, because he loved her then. He loves her now, but the trick is getting her to deal with that. All while chasing a mobster who seems to have Taylor in his sights.

Just how Lucky is lucky, after all?

Escape Rating B: This sequel to A Night of Southern Comfort (reviewed at Book Lovers Inc) has all the chemistry and heat of the first story and all the fun with a slightly more plausible plot.

A Night of Southern Comfort by Robin CovingtonHis Southern Temptation also has the slightly goofball suspense element that characterized the story of Comfort, but the characters in Temptation are more believable, which made the story work better for me.

Lucky’s just plain done with the military. He’s served more than honorably, and has earned his peace. Working with his friend Beck to solve a missing persons case looks like a way of helping a friend using some of his skills. Then Taylor gets involved and everything goes pear-shaped.

Both Lucky and Taylor have problematic relationships with their parents that contributed to both of them leaving home, and in Taylor’s case, definitely factor into why she is so gun-shy about relationships. Her mother didn’t just give up everything to support her father’s career, she constantly needles Taylor to make sure Taylor doesn’t do the same thing. And intentionally or not, tells Taylor what a disappointment she is. Taylor feels compelled to succeed alone, to prove her mother wrong.

But Lucky is an addiction that Taylor can’t seem to give up. It just takes her a long time to stop listening to her mother and figure out why.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.

Review: Werewolves Be Damned by Stacey Kennedy

Posted on by Marlene Harris | Author : | B Reviews> book reviews
Werewolves be Damned by Stacey KennedyFormat read: ebook provided by the author
Formats available: ebook, paperback
Genre: Urban fantasy
Series: Magic & Mayhem, #1
Length: 267 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Date Released: April 15, 2013
Purchasing Info: Author’s Website, Publisher’s Website, Goodreads, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Book Depository

Nexi Jones—part witch, part guardian, and wannabe kick-ass warrior—can’t throw a punch or conjure the simplest magic. But that doesn’t stop her from hunting the werewolves who slaughtered her human family. She’ll have her revenge, but only if Kyden, the elite guardian, would get the hell out of her way.

Kyden can’t decide if Nexi wants to get herself killed or if she just has no clue what she’s doing. But her father made it clear: keep Nexi safe…or else. Of course, the more Nexi runs toward revenge, the more she needs Kyden’s aid, and as she grows into her power and confidence, so does his desire to protect her. The only problem? She’d rather he dropped dead.

But when a vampire paints a bull’s-eye on Nexi’s back, she’s hard-pressed to deny Kyden and the help he’s offering. Even if it means getting her revenge will be a little bit harder. At least it will still be as sweet.

My Review:

The series title, Magic & Mayhem, might have made a better title for this story than Werewolves Be Damned. At least it would have made a little more sense. And this first story in Stacey Kennedy’s new urban fantasy series needed some. Or at least a bit more explanation in its worldbuilding.

Nexi Jones’ story starts with a bang. We find this 21st century woman in the middle of a fight between werewolves and medieval knights, both making sure she stays alive as the werewolves kill the people she believes are her parents. She’s confused and so are the readers. Or at least this reader. Especially when the prologue ends with a classic reveal…the victims were not her birth parents. One of those medieval knights was her father. Of course the poor woman passes out. Wouldn’t you?

From there, we’ve got three stories running more or less in parallel, and the race is uneven. The good thing is that any one of the three would be a kick-ass story. The unfortunate thing is that there may be one too many threads, and they don’t quite braid together evenly.

Nexi Jones isn’t who she believed she was, and the world isn’t what she thought it was, either. So thread number one is her search for identity. Guarding the human world that she knew are, well, Guardians, those medieval knights she saw before she passed out. And yes, Nexi, one of them really is your father. Lucky for her, they are the good guys, but one of them has a whole lot of ‘splainin’ to do.

Her mother was a witch, the other half of those ‘good guys’. And mom is really dead, though exactly how that happened and why that tragedy led dad to hide Nexi in the human world without her powers isn’t fully explained. But now that she’s been found, she has to put on her big girl supernatural pants and learn how to use those powers, fast. Again, Nexi’s journey-story.

There is something powerful about Nexi being the only Guardian/Witch half-breed, but not enough detail on the how and why.

Nexi wants revenge on the werewolves who murdered her adoptive parents, so she needs training in how to use her powers. The Guardian who signs up to train her, let’s just say that he does it because he wants to stick around Nexi and figure out whether being near her will get her out of his system, or whether he can turn their love/hate relationship more to the love side of that equation for both of them.

Last, and very definitely not least, those werewolves did not attack Nexi’s family at random. It was all part of a long-term plan on the part of someone who has had the Guardian Council in his sights for a long time. Nexi’s new-found powers are a key part of his nefarious schemes.

Escape Rating B-: I wish this one had decided to stick with Nexi’s journey, and saved the love story for a later book. The world that Stacey Kennedy is creating has the potential for a lot of depth, with tons of interesting background and cool stories, but I felt shortchanged on the fantasy side by having things go almost straight to the love story. Nexi (and this reader) needed to know more about who she was, where she came from and how the Guardians’ world meshed with the Earth she knew before she gave herself to someone. My 2 cents.

We also don’t know enough about Kyden (Lexi’s other half) to really understand who he is and why Nexi falls in love with him. There are depths there, but we don’t get the chance to learn them. The love story happens too fast and too soon.

Reading Werewolves Be Damned, I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of a much bigger story than the one that I got. Especially when I finished and discovered that even the title is a red herring.

***FTC Disclaimer: Most books reviewed on this site have been provided free of charge by the publisher, author or publicist. Some books we have purchased with our own money and will be noted as such. Any links to places to purchase books are provided as a convenience, and do not serve as an endorsement by this blog. All reviews are the true and honest opinion of the blogger reviewing the book. The method of acquiring the book does not have a bearing on the content of the review.