Review: Lure (The Allure Chronicles #1)

Lure (The Allure Chronicles #1) by Alyssa Rose Ivy
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: February 16, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

There's danger in the beauty...

Two years, six months, and twenty-five days. That's how long it had been since I'd seen my winged hero— not that I'd been counting. 

I'd suffered through years of counseling just to convince my friends and family that I wasn't crazy and knew he didn't exist.

But he did. And I was done waiting.

Days after college graduation I headed back down to New Orleans to retrace my steps and find Owen again only to find my life was about to get even crazier...thanks to the most beautiful and dangerous of all paranormal creatures, the Allures.


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“Inevitably those thoughts always went to Daisy, the girl I knew I could never have, but who had trusted me so much.” – Owen ‘Allure’

The Allure Chronicles are fast becoming one of my favorite series by Alyssa Rose Ivy. Allure picks up a little over two years after Seductions Kiss and starts off with Daisy planning a trip back to New Orleans. I did mention how much I love that the French Quarter is involved with this series right? Because it’s awesome. Ivy always creates such a well-developed setting. It truly sucks you in.

We got to meet quite a few new people in this book, but I think one of my favorite parts, and I say one because I had many favorite parts, was getting to know more about Owen. He was a lot more fleshed out in this book and we got to meet people involved in his life and see more of what was going on with him. One of the things that’s always great about Ivy’s writing is we get to see things from two perspectives, which allows us to see things from both character’s eyes.

Book Blitz: Love Bites

Love Bites by Rachel K. Burke
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: December 29, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

What do you do when you fall in love with your best friend’s boyfriend?

That is the question that twenty-six year-old Justine Sterling has been asking herself ever since the day she met David Whitman, her best friend Renee’s boyfriend. 

Justine is determined to ignore her growing feelings for the irresistibly charming David, until one night, when she finds herself in the bed of the one person she should stay away from.

When Justine and David’s affair ends in heartbreak, Justine is forced to repair the damaged friendship with her best friend. In doing so, she learns that right and wrong decisions aren’t always black and white, and sometimes you have to follow your heart to see where it leads.


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Excerpt:

I didn’t sleep at all that night. Neither did David. The conversation between us just seemed to unravel and expand into further levels of depth, and before I knew it, the sun was streaming through the window.

I told him things I had never told anyone. My fears, my insecurities. He was the only person I had ever felt completely, wholeheartedly comfortable with. It was like I could be myself, unconditionally, without judgment. It felt real. It felt right.

David propped his head up on his elbow and stared at me from the other end of the sofa. “You do know you’re beautiful, right?” David, who typically joked about everything, was being completely serious.

“Everyone in L.A. is beautiful,” I said.

Book Blitz: Damned (Four Horsemen MC #3)

Damned (Four Horsemen MC #3) by Cynthia Rayne, Sara Rayne
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 17, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Rose Weston is in hell.

After being kidnapped and held as a sex slave, she is struggling to come to terms with the trauma. Under the care of her sister, Daisy, Rose is recovering at the Hades Motel& Diner, owned by the Four Horsemen MC. When Rose is threatened by her former captor, she asks Duke for help.

Duke has been to hell and back.

After surviving an abusive childhood, dangerous black ops missions, and a couple stints in prison, Duke is reluctant to give a damn about anyone but himself. Despite his better judgment, he finds himself helping Rose. She touches a place in his cold heart, no other woman has. 

He reluctantly agrees to teach her self-defense skills. Together, they will make the man who held her captive pay. But he doesn’t count on what a temptation Rose can be. She wants to share his bed, have a sexual relationship on her own terms, but is she ready after the abuse she’s suffered? Or is she damned?

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Excerpt:

She’s a hot mess.

Duke watched Rose Weston as she sat, eating dinner with her older sister, Daisy, and his club brother, Cowboy. The girl tried hard to hide it, but he could see the chaos bubbling beneath the surface, even two tables over.

Not that it was any of his fucking business.

Hades, the Four Horsemen’s motel and diner, had quite a crowd tonight. The diner had a fifties feel to it with a black and white checkered floor, red vinyl booths, silver stools, and Texas memorabilia on the walls like an old Route 66 sign and a Texaco star.

Tonight, the place was packed for another one of their brotherhood dinners. Voodoo, a brother who served as the Hades chef and proprietor, barked orders at the prospects.

Book Blitz: This is the Wonder

This is the Wonder by Tracey Ward
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Release Date: February 19, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

From the moment I saw him – all blue eyes and American pie – I knew I’d never be the same.

Determined to escape the pressure of her impending graduation, Wren Porter chooses to take a semester in Europe. She’s there to study, party, and hide from the question that’s haunting her – What’s next?

At least that’s the plan until one night in Munich when she meets Jax, an American soldier stationed overseas. He’s charming, he’s handsome, and in one small act of kindness he becomes Wren’s own personal hero. Suddenly the two are swept up in a mad romance that will cross countries, break laws, and leave them both breathless.

But Jax has questions about his own future and when reality comes calling their bond is put to the test. Are they only meant to have the nights they shared together in Europe, or could they be so much more?

Could they be the future they’ve both been looking for?

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Excerpt:

Outside the pub is dark and cold, the wind coming off the Thames taking form in a swirling fog that lines the walkway leading to the bridge. Tall lampposts pepper the trail, their iron bases gothic and thick, coated in black paint that makes them look menacing and strange. The rain clings to them, obscuring the large yellow glowing globes at their tops and giving the world an underwater feeling, a thickness and body to the air.

We walk slowly not speaking much. We pass people who nod and wish us a good evening and at some point Jax takes my hand in his, pulling me in to walk so close to him that our bundled up bodies brush against each other with each step. I like the feeling. Of both him next to me and the clench of his cold fingers on my skin.

Wordlessly he leads me to the large stone railing that runs along the river and we stand side by side, our hands still grasped, and we watch boats traverse up and down the dark waters. It’s getting colder and I take a half step closer to him, burrowing into his side. He releases my hand and slowly lifts his arm, wrapping it around my shoulder lightly as though asking permission. I give it by stepping even closer, tucking in under his arm and resting my head in the curve between his shoulder and neck.

Book Blitz: Obsession (Werewolves of Montana Mating Mini #2)

Obsession (Werewolves of Montana Mating Mini #2) by Bonnie Vanak
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance, Erotica
Release Date: February 16, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

He comes to her in a dark dream promising sensual pleasure – sexy, tempting and dangerous. Raphael is an obsessed wolf with one thing on his mind. He wants Jessica naked beneath him, and nothing will stop him until he has her in his bed.

Jessica Tyrell is a Lupine with a mission – find her missing brother, her only living blood relative. Now, with the help of magick crystals, her dream can come true. All she needs is to hack into restricted records at her friend Alexa’s ranch. 

The only thing standing in her way is Raphael Amador, head of pack security. The wolf wants her with the same ruthless intent he displays in protecting the pack. Jessica knows if she surrenders to his sensual allure, she could lose her soul to Raphael.

Haunted by his tortured past and determined to never love again, Raphael finds his passion awakened by the lovely redhead, who threatens his control. He has vowed to seek revenge against the man who killed his intended mate and scattered his pack. Can he experience a night of pleasure with the lovely redhead and pursue his goal of revenge, or will Jessica capture his broken heart?

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Excerpt:

He parked a lean hip against the tree’s trunk and folded his muscular arms. In his red flannel shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to display tanned forearms, and faded jeans with scuffed Western boots, he looked like an ordinary cowboy.

But there was nothing ordinary about this Lupine. Curls the color of blackest night spilled down to his collar. His strong jaw was covered by a close-trimmed beard, and a crisp mustache framed a mouth far too sensual for a man. But there was nothing sensual about the sharp, angular features of his face nor the darkness of those brown eyes.

Those eyes seemed ageless, and ancient pain lurked in their depths as he gazed down at her.

Jessica studied the acres of green pasture, the gleaming buildings, and thought about the expensive motor cars parked in the garage. “It must be nice to be wealthy,” she mused.

Book Blitz: Sword

Sword by Amy Bai
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Sword shall guide the hands of men . . .

For over a thousand years the kingdom of Lardan has been at peace: isolated from the world, safe from the wars of its neighbors, slowly forgetting the wild and deadly magic of its origins. Now the deepest truths of the past and the darkest predictions for the future survive only in the verses of nursery rhymes.

For over a thousand years, some of Lardan’s fractious provinces have been biding their time.

Kyali Corwynall is the daughter of the Lord General, a child of one of the royal Houses, and the court’s only sword-wielding girl. She has known for all of her sixteen years what the future holds for her–politics and duty, the management of a House, and protecting her best friend, the princess and presumed heir to the throne. 

But one day an old nursery rhyme begins to come true, an ancient magic wakes, and the future changes for everyone. In the space of a single night her entire life unravels into violence and chaos. Now Kyali must find a way to master the magic her people have left behind, or watch her world–and her closest friends–fall to a war older than the kingdom itself.

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Excerpt:

There was someone following them.

Devin shifted in the saddle, twisting to look behind him for the third time in the last hour. He turned back when his guard Hewet, a man who looked like he had been carved whole from dark oak but who moved with unnerving grace, hissed through his teeth. Amazing how much irritation such a small sound could hold. He scowled and faced the road ahead, which stretched on endlessly under patches of treeshadow and the blistering blue arch of the sky.

"They're closer," he said sullenly, earning himself another hiss.

Orin's briny, moody winds were far behind them now, and the rich fields of Syndimn province lay all around, shimmering under a heat haze. He missed the salt air and the fogs. He missed fish for breakfast, fish for lunch, and fish for dinner. He even missed Duchess Armelle, who had done what not one of the doddering theorists who claimed to be her court wizards had managed, and terrified him into taming his wayward Gift.

She was a frightening lady, Armelle Orin. He understood the magic no more than he did when he'd arrived, but he could at least play a tune without a flicker of magic now. He was going to miss her. He was going to miss her heir Ysmena more, though.

Book Blitz: My Soon-To-Be Sex Life

My Soon-To-Be Sex Life by Judith Tewes
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: June 24, 2014
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Charlie is down to her absolute. Total. Last. Resort.

Despite a thoroughly comprehensive list of potential cherry poppers, er…suitors, and careful plotting, Charlie is three weeks into her devirginization campaign, still untouched, and getting desperate. In the movie of her life, this aspiring screenwriter is giving herself a PG, for please, get some.

Her project goes into freeze frame when her mom checks herself into rehab and packs Charlie off to live with her estranged, or just plain strange, grandfather, Monty. How is she supposed to get a date when she has to go pick up his Depends?

Enter Eric, a hot rehab grad on the road to redemption, and the only one who can make Charlie rethink her strategy. The more she gets to know him, the more convinced she becomes that is the one, and not just another to add to the list of people who will abandon her.

In this hilarious and heartbreaking story of one girl’s detoured road to womanhood, Charlie’s list develops a life of its own – right when she realizes there’s so much more to lose.

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Excerpt:

In the most surreal moment of my life, my mother, the woman who had just folded my clothes into orderly bundles, told me, “I’m going into rehab.”

Resolution rested on every line of my mother’s profile. Rehab. The bricks in my stomach lurched. This was my fault. Why hadn’t I been in Mom’s face as soon as I started to notice her taking more and more pills? But I thought she knew what she was doing. Christ, she was a nurse. How the hell had I missed the fact that she’d started crossing the line? I felt dizzy, off balance, like someone held up my world and gave it a snow globe shake.

“I’d drag you to my place,” Grace said. “But with my hours at the law firm and Ian being on the road so much – you’d be alone most of the time anyway.”

I sucked back a snort. “I’m old enough to stay here and look after myself.”