Riding Steele (Ready to Ride #3) by Opal Carew

 Being kidnapped by bikers is a harrowing experience, but for some reason, Laurie doesn’t feel as terrified as she should.  The leader’s steely eyes soften when he looks at her, and the others in his gang clearly know she’s hands off.  But does that include Steele's hands?  Her brain resists him, but her body insists she wants those big hands all over her.

Steele doesn’t know how he wound up in this mess—with a kidnapped woman on his hands and the police hot on their trail.  Now he and Laurie are in hiding at an isolated cabin, and Steele has to figure out how to extricate himself...and steer clear of his accidental captive whose tight, slinky clubbing attire is making him think all kinds of dangerous thoughts…

Laura has been kidnapped by bikers.  Big, mean, smelly bikers. Kidnapping tends to change your life a bit, but not how Laura thought it would.  Not when she meets the sexy leady Steele.  Will the captor fall for the captive?

This is a short story that is part of a six-part series.  It is pure and absolute fantasy because I can’t imagine this scenario working out in real life on any level at all.  But, for what it is I found it to be intriguing.  It’s a sexy book with a lot of very sexy scenes that really pushes the vanilla envelop.  I don’t think this book is for the faint of heart because this a pretty hard core story that has some, um, wild sex acts involved in it.  But it’s also a story of a woman’s self-discovery, which is an interesting layer to the story.

I’ll just put it out there that I am not a fan of serials.  This has nothing to do with the quality of the story, but I feel like it’s just a marketing ploy.  I don’t understand why it can’t just be one book or even two.  That always annoys me. 

I had some issues with the pace of the story, but with such a limited amount of space to work with I suppose it’s unavoidable.  The MC in this book didn’t really seem very realistic to me either.  Of course, my expertise is limited to other MC books I read, but the lines in this club were very blurred between who was supposed to be in charge and the other members.  Not very gang like.

Overall, I did like this book but I had some issues with it.  I have to give it 3 stars.

Wow! This was a HOT and fun read!! Steele and his MC gang are recruited to kidnap a friend’s sister to protect her from her sketchy boyfriend. Donovan, the boyfriend, is controlling, manipulative, and abusive to Laurie and shows his true colors when confronted by Wild Card (one of the gang). Steele just wanted to keep an eye on the girl, but Wild Card has no choice but to save her from further abuse and takes her to a deserted cabin the guys are all staying at.  She tries to escape multiple times to no avail.

Steele comes home from celebrating his birthday and thinks the girl in his bed is his present. But, no, it’s Laurie and she is handcuffed and scared to be alone in the room with the big, sexy biker. The sexual tension between the two is off the charts!! Steele tries to prove that he is not going to hurt Laurie, but she doesn’t believe him.  On one of her escape attempts, she goes to the swimming hole where Raven, Rip’s girlfriend (but everyone is allowed to play with her) and thinks Raven is being attacked by 2 men. She runs to Steele for help and the scene turns SPICY! LOVE that particular scene the most in this book!

Steele has to keep Laurie safe until her brother gets back to town. While, this may seem like a typical good girl/bad boy love story, their chemistry is off the charts and they eventually have some fun while waiting.

This is a fantastic read! I recommend it to anyone that loves a quick, spicy, fun story! 

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Slow and Steady Rush (Falcon Football #1) by Laura Trentham

  She lives by the book—and is still searching for her happily ever after.

Darcy Wilde has tried hard not to live up to her last name. As a librarian in Atlanta she lives a fine life far away from the football-obsessed town of her childhood. But when her beloved Grandmother needs help, Darcy takes a leave of absence and heads back to the home and past she left behind.

He knows how to play the field—and is in no rush to settle down.

Robbie Dalton knows a thing or two about painful pasts. After bouncing around in foster care and the Army for years he is finally ready to move on and make a home for himself in Falcon, Alabama as the newest high school football coach. Sparks fly when the sexy new coach and the sharp-tongued librarian meet, but neither of them is looking to make ties.

But when it comes to love, sometimes you’ve gotta throw away the rule book to cross the finish line…

Everything changes when Darcy falls in love, not only with the gruff, protective, and smoking hot man who's sharing her days and nights, but also with the complex tapestry of people who weave Falcon together. Could this be where she belongs - and who she belongs with?

Darcy has taken a sabbatical as a librarian and comes to Falcon to take care of her grandmother.  She didn’t want to return to Falcon because of all the memories it brings up that she wanted to leave behind.  When she meets the new football coach, Robbie, sparks fly.  But he has his own baggage and isn’t looking for any kind of relationship.  What happens when neither of them can deny what is between them? Can they put past hurts behind to be happy now?

I was taken a bit by surprise at how much I liked the characters in this book.  Darcy is a witty, sassy, warm and very loveable character with past hurts that I think anyone can understand.  And Robbie was a complicated and sad character that I couldn’t help but fall for a little bit myself.  His story is so sad and heart wrenching you just want to grab him up and give him a hug.  I really felt for him and his past and admired the man he turned himself into.  I can totally see why Darcy fell for him.

Of course, this isn’t one of those tales where everything goes smoothly, but I didn’t find the plot and the drama to feel really forced or manufactured.  I think it may have been just a smidgen predictable, but overall I really enjoyed it.  It’s a much layered story with complicated characters that really make the entire story one you can’t help but get wrapped up in.  4 stars.

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#Throwback: Ditching the Dream

 Feeling dead in her marriage, Elizabeth Fairchild ditches the dream of her seemingly perfect life with her husband in search of who she really is. 

She went from her parents' house to her husband's home and never really learned to stand on her own two feet. She decides to leave her comfortable life in Napa Valley in search of her inner fire in New York City. She certainly didn't leave her husband to find another man, but she soon finds herself involved with two: Jack Stevens and Kevin Parker. 

Jack is older. He has heart-stopping good looks, is wildly successful, and is very much in control of everything around him - especially Elizabeth. 
Kevin is younger. He is carefree with a heart of gold and loves Elizabeth's spunk. While Elizabeth's old life still calls to her, she also finds what she needs in New York. But which dream will she choose?

Elizabeth has been married to her college sweetheart for 22 years.  She has three grown children that are in college and is realizing that she has never been on her own in order to find out who she really is.  She went from her parent’s home to her husband’s and now she’s ready for some new experiences.  So, she goes to NYC where she meets a couple of very eligible men. What will Elizabeth find out about herself when she sees what she’s been missing all of these years?

This is one of those books that is pure fantasy.  I can’t imagine any world where your husband of 22 years just suddenly decides it’s ok for you to go out and “sow your wild oats”.  I mean, I get it, but that kind of bothered me through the whole thing and I think took away from the story for me.  The plot just seemed very unrealistic and while I don’t really read romance to be 100% realistic, I do like an element of it to the stories I read.  It helps me to get into the book and become invested in the characters and while I think this is a well written book, the general plot just left me a bit bewildered.  As a mother and wife this one was just a little hard for me to get into.

I will give bonus points, however, for the sex in this book.  That was spot on and pretty hot, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Overall, this was not a bad book at all; I think that perhaps it didn’t appeal to me as a matter of personal taste.  I give it 4 stars.

Rounding the corner of the hallway, I rested my back on the wall and tried to catch my breath and calm my racing heart. I shouldn’t let him talk to me that way. And I shouldn’t be having these thoughts. But… But… It made me feel so desirable. Surely he talked like that to all the women. This was all a big game to him. He couldn’t mean any of it.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” he said, appearing next to me. He followed me? 

“Jack, look, things are - my life is just -” He didn’t let me finish. His lips, soft lips, came down on mine. It was rather chaste, somewhat calming, yet firing off all sorts of bells and warnings - and arousal. I closed my eyes and an unbidden moan escaped my throat. 

“Calm down,” he whispered, pulling back. “I won’t do anything you don’t want me to do. But there’s something between us. You feel it, too. I know you do.”

I didn’t protest. I didn’t know why. I opened my eyes to see him regarding me as if I were the most precious thing in the world. His lips again joined mine and this time I kissed him back. It was a dance of lips and tongues that would seduce even the most conservative woman. My hands joined the dance exploring every inch of his extremely well-toned body. Man! This guy must workout for hours every day. His arms, his shoulders, his back… everywhere my hands roamed, they were greeted with taught muscle.

~From Ditching The Dream by Isabelle Peterson

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 The short story: I'm the wife of a most fabulous man for twenty years.
I'm a mother of 2 busy teens. 
I'm a dog lover.
I'm a serious drinker of coffee and wine.
I live near New York City.
My favorite place that I've visited is Monte Carlo.
My favorite color is green (but I look best in pink/salmon).
My favorite food is chocolate.
My favorite kind of music is New Country.

The long story:
I've always been a creative sort of person... I started with my college studies in Advertising Design and Illustration. I'm good at drawing and coming up with clever ideas.
As for story telling - well, that's where I have the most fun!  Ditching The Dream is my first novel, but I've been working on writing movies since, what seems like forever. Way back in high school my friend Aimee and I started writing a movie and I was hooked. We didn't know what we were doing, but we loved coming up with the story. I also like to come up with stories about people I don't know. Like the guy that cut me off on the expressway...He had quite a story - at least in my mind! Who knows? Maybe I've come up with a story about you! ;)

Ditching The Dream is a story that came to me while I was helping two author friends of mine. I was helping them with their books and I would make suggestions to amp up their stories along the way. Bev and Amy encouraged me to write my own story and Ditching The Dream was born.  Is it auto-biographical? No, not in the least. But it sure has been a fun story to come up with (especially when my hubby gets involved with coming up with ideas).

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Captive (Captive #1) by Brighton Walsh

 He’s the most dangerous man she’s ever met…and she’s falling in love with him.

Madison Frost is desperate to escape her life. Daughter of a prominent businessman, she has everything a girl could ask for. Except for a family who’s present in her life, and anyone to talk to outside the four walls of the prison she calls home. Madison dreams of one day leaving her life behind. She never thought being kidnapped is how it would happen.

Now she’s being held captive by a man who’s as frightening as he is sinfully gorgeous. Enormous, muscular, and filled with secrets, the man they call Ghost is an enigmatic mercenary, and Madison is trapped with him. She doesn’t know who hired him or why, but the more time she spends at his mercy, the more she realizes he’s not what he seems. Beneath his rough exterior lies an unexpected gentleness and a heart as broken and battered as her own.

But as Madison lets down her walls, Ghost holds tight to his, hiding secrets that could destroy everything.

Dark romance books are, in my opinion, a difficult genre to do well.  They can really go into “too much” territory when it comes to violence and that I am not a fan of.  When done well, though, they can make you sympathetic towards a character that you have every reason to hate and that is when the genre really shines.

Madison is from a wealthy family, and she seems to have it all.  But really, she’s lonely and in a gilded cage.  Her father is a workaholic, her mother is an alcoholic and Madison is at rock bottom.  Then she gets kidnapped and it changes her whole world.  She is taken to a cabin in the middle of nowhere by a man named Ghost.  He’s a professional criminal and is doing this job just for the dough, but this job turns into more than he could have anticipated.

Ghost has some surprising redeeming qualities.  He’s a criminal, sure, but kidnapping women has never been something he was willing to do…until now.  He and Madison find that they have a lot in common and what I really liked about Ghost was just how incredibly real he came across.  These kinds of books have a really tendency to go way far out into lala land when it comes to the leading men, but I found Ghost to be troubled, sure, but he’s not actually a bad guy.

I also really liked the buildup between Ghost and Madison.  It was slow and it really worked for me.  It built anticipation and overall I thought this was a fantastic read and a great addition to the captor/captive dark romance.  Give it a try! 4 stars.

As the popularity of captive-theme books have been on the rise the past few years, I wasn’t sure what to expect from Captive – a dark romance, a Stockholm syndrome romance, a romantic suspense, or a poorly executed story because the author couldn’t pick a direction. Ms. Walsh had no problem with her execution of Captive and delivered a well-written new adult romance that actually showed how two people can be trapped in similar situations despite huge disparities in their socioeconomic status. Captive is not a dark romance nor is the relationship that develops between Madison and Gage (aka Ghost) the result of Stockholm syndrome, and while there is a bit of suspense regarding who is behind Madison’s kidnapping, it is ultimately a romance.

From the outside, it looks as though Maddie leads a charmed life as the daughter of a wealthy businessman. But the reader learns almost immediately that Maddie’s life is not as perfect as it appears when she discovers her mother passed out drunk on the bathroom floor and it’s clear it’s not the first time Maddie has faced the prospect that her mother didn’t survive her night of drinking. As his corporation is more important than his family, Maddie’s father is of no help and she must call on Sylvia, their housekeeper, to help with her mother. Despite her family’s wealth, the only person in Maddie’s life that cares about her is Sylvia and she’s paid to be there, and that just made me feel sad for Maddie. I must admit that even knowing that Maddie was going to be kidnapped, I really didn’t expect it to occur so soon in the book. After all, the girl had a craptastic morning and to have her day end with being kidnapped just seemed to be too much for anyone to have to deal with. But I will say she handled it far better than I would have expected, especially when faced with the outright intimidating Ghost, particularly when she attempted to escape.

One of the things I enjoyed about Captive is that it is told from both Maddie and Gage’s points of view and having access to Gage’s inner thoughts helped a LOT because knowing that he had no interest in harming her made it easier to enjoy watching the romance unfold. Because we’re looking at a captor-captive relationship, there are no grand gestures or slow seductions that we would see in a typical romance, but rather it is the simple acts of human kindness on Gage’s part that leads the affection-starved Maddie to look beyond the tattoos, muscles, and cold eyes to the man inside – the man whose actions cause her to feel safe. I appreciated that there were no proclamations of love from either party after being together for only a few days; rather they spoke of connections, feeling safe, and feeling protected. There is a definite suspense element to the storyline as Gage refuses to tell Maddie who is behind her kidnapping but it is not the driving theme of the book and although I didn’t consider it predictable, I did have a very strong suspicion as to who the responsible party was before the reveal confirmed it. Captive is a fast-paced read with a bit of action, a bit of suspense, just the right amount of sexy fun times, and a whole lot of romance. It was a very enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to the sequel, Exposed, for Riley’s story.

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Overruled (The Legal Briefs #1) by Emma Chase

 A Washington, DC, defense attorney, Stanton Shaw keeps his head cool, his questions sharp, and his arguments irrefutable. They don’t call him the Jury Charmer for nothing—with his southern drawl, disarming smile, and captivating green eyes, he’s a hard man to say no to. Men want to be him, and women want to be thoroughly cross examined by him.

Stanton’s a man with a plan. And for a while, life was going according to that plan.

Until the day he receives an invitation to the wedding of his high school sweetheart, the mother of his beloved ten-year-old daughter. Jenny is getting married—to someone who isn’t him.

That’s definitely not part of the plan.

***

Sofia Santos is a city-raised, no-nonsense litigator who plans to become the most revered criminal defense attorney in the country. She doesn’t have time for relationships or distractions.

But when Stanton, her “friend with mind-blowing benefits,” begs her for help, she finds herself out of her element, out of her depth, and obviously out of her mind. Because she agrees to go with him to The-Middle-Of-Nowhere, Mississippi, to do all she can to help Stanton win back the woman he loves. Her head tells her she’s crazy…and her heart says something else entirely.

What happens when you mix a one-stop-light town, two professional arguers, a homecoming queen, four big brothers, some Jimmy Dean sausage, and a gun-toting Nana?

The Bourbon flows, passions rise, and even the best-laid plans get overruled by the desires of the heart.

A new series by Emma Chase?  Oh, yes please!

Stanton Shaw is a successful defense attorney, and when I say successful I mean both in and out of the bedroom.  He has a quick wit and southern charm that both juries and women find hard to refuse.  He lives by strict rules and has a plan.  The plan in interrupted when he gets a wedding invitation to his High School Sweetheart’s wedding…to someone who is not him.  That is most definitely not the plan.  So he begs his fellow lawyer Sofia to go with him to the wedding to try to help him to win back the woman he had thought would always be his.  Will everything go according to Stanton’s plan?

First off, Stanton is such a jerk, but in a loveable kind of way.  The guy likes him woman and he’s not ashamed of it.  I also think it’s kind of sweet that he always thought he would end up with Jenny.  I mean, sweet in a very selfish way but still sweet.  Stanton definitely has some Drew Evans qualities, so you get what I’m saying when I say that you will both love and hate him and then ultimately end up loving him.

I thought that the small town setting was the best part of this book.  The characters we meet in the middle of nowhere Mississippi are endearing and unforgettable.  This book has Emma’s signature wit and is just a fun book to read all around.  I cannot wait of the next book in this series.  I gotta give this 5 stars!

I LOVED IT! As a fan of Ms. Chase's Tangled series, I jumped at the chance to review Overruled and was delighted that Drew makes a couple of cameo appearances in the book. At his first appearance I got quite giddy at the prospect that the author was going to infuse the same level of humor, conflict, miscommunication, romance, and no-holds-barred sex that she did in the Tangled series. And Ms. Chase absolutely delivered all this and more as she kicks off The Legal Briefs series.

Unlike Tangled, Overruled is told from both Stanton and Sofia's points of view. Mind you, the first three chapters were told from Stanton’s point of view and do a wonderful job of laying the foundation for the book as we learn about the relationship he had with his high school sweetheart, how she refused to let a positive pregnancy test derail his education and career plans, and how their family plans changed over a decade’s time. As I was in the groove of Stanton’s storytelling (and it being reminiscent of spending time in Drew’s head), I was thrown quite a LOT when the author switched to Sofia’s point of view as I completely missed the chapter subheading; but once I laughed at my mistake and the chapter made far more sense coming from Sofia, I got down to brass tacks and buckled in for one seriously witty, unbelievably sexy, and emotionally satisfying romance as Stanton comes to the realization that he has gotten far too comfortable with the life he leads and realizes that he’s the only one happy with it. After all, the man does have his cake and get to eat it too.

I loved the banter between Stanton and Sofia. Their passion for their careers was as obvious as their passion for one another. In the beginning it is clear that theirs is a friends with benefits arrangement between two colleagues who respect one another, are truly friends, and are able to fulfill one another’s sexual needs without crossing the line from loving one another to being in love with one another. This is an important distinction because of the relationship Stanton has with Jenny (one which I suspect will tick off some readers) and the distinction becomes the crux of the problem when one of them begins to worry that they may be crossing that line by falling in love and worries that it will ruin their friendship. But then again, dragging your best friend (who happens to be the woman you’re sleeping with) back home so you can prevent “your girl” (who is the mother of your child) from marrying someone else pretty much guarantees that that friendship will never be the same, no matter the outcome of the trip. And boy what a trip it was! Ms. Chase has created yet another wonderful cast of characters who kept me entertained from beginning to end, whether they had me crying from raw emotion or from laughing so hard that my fact hurt. I absolutely loved Overruled and cannot wait to see what Ms. Chase has in store for them in the next book in the series.

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Snow White Lies by Sarah J. Pepper

 “Evil poisons everyone. Period. Our mouths water when we sink our teeth into what we have always craved. Surrendering to our desires by biting off delectable piece of the forbidden fruit is nothing more than a meager confession: Poison tastes sinfully sweet,”—Confessions of the Big Apple Debutante, by blogger Miss Snow White.

I love books like this.  Books that take a fairytale that everyone knows and loves and gives it a modern update are so completely awesome.

Snow White is not so innocent anymore, and the seven dwarves and the huntsman are completely different too.  Snow White is a rich girl with a blog, and this is a very complicated but magical tale of mystery and deceit with a blog.

I was into this book.  Like, I didn’t eat and forgot to go to the bathroom for a few hours into this book.  It was one of the freshest books I have read in a while.

This tale is told through a series of flashbacks mixed in with present day.  I thought the way the author did this was both intriguing and done very well.  I was transported right along with the characters in the story and I have to say that this rarely happens.  This book was extremely well-written and I applaud the author for writing a book that managed to retell an old fairytale but remain completely new at the same time.  Bravo.

I would highly recommend this book.  I’m certain this will remain one of my favorite books this year. 5 stars.

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