Category: Review Sunday

Truth and Seduction
AUTHOR: Melody Snow Monroe
PUBLICATION DATE: Available now
ORDER LINKS:  Siren-Bookstrand | Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Sexy television investigative reporter Jessie McCallister has returned to Intrigue, Wyoming, after eleven years and wants it all—her career and her two high school dream men, hunky newspaper mogul Cody Callen and hot arson investigator Shane McKee. After she watches these brave men save a young boy from a burning building, she knows these heroes are still the ones for her.

As the three of them investigate the fire and share information, they connect on an emotional and sexual level. However, after Jessie agrees not to expose the possible identity of the arsonist because it may harm the station’s bottom line, Cody and Shane’s rock-solid belief in telling the truth forces them to set her free. What does she have to do to win back their respect and love?

REVIEW:
This is book 2 in The Callens and we get to meet Cody Callen and his best friend Shane McKee.  I enjoyed revisiting this series. In this installment, Jessie has just come home to Intrigue after losing her job at a metropolitan news station.  The character of Jessie is an honest and strong one and when confronted with the dishonesty of her station she moves back home. She manages to find a job at a local station and there runs into the same problems. Her dilemma over reporting the truth vs. losing her job is a very real one that could be experienced by any one.  She wants to tell the truth and she wants to keep her job. There is no way she can do both.

Meanwhile, she has run into her two school crushes, but she does not have fond memories of them. In their past she felt that she wasn’t rich enough or good enough for them.  It is difficult to deal with high school dramas, even for the most well adjusted and Ms. Monroe shows how this affects how an adult deals with things in the present. I think we all have those traumas that have followed us into adulthood and she does a good job of showing this. Luckily, they are all mature and manage to overcome this small obstacle.
As they all begin to fall in love Jessie’s job begins to get in the way. I found myself wanting to strangle those men several times. I understand that they are both honest to a fault and want the woman they love to be the same, but they were so unyielding.  Or so it seemed. I may have not liked their methods, but I finally understood what they were trying to do and ultimately Jessie proved strong enough to stand up for her convictions.  Finally, they all got their HEA.  Ms. Monroe has a knack for illustrating emotions and making the reader “feel”.

The next book in the series is Secret Temptation and it released on 4-23-12. I can’t wait to read it!

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Ursula

 

Crazy On You
AUTHOR: Rachel Gibson
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/01/12
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Return to Lovett, Texas, the setting of Daisy’s Back in Town, in this smart and sexy new story from Rachel Gibson, the New York Times bestselling author of Rescue Me and the Seattle Chinooks books.

Lily Darlington’s been called crazy in her day-and, yeah, driving her car into her ex-husband’s living room probably wasn’t the smartest move ever made-but the louse deserved it. Now Lily is happily single, and she’s turned it all around. She knows she’s a good mom, a homeowner, and a businesswoman, all wrapped up in one good-looking package.

A package that police officer Tucker Matthews is dying to unwrap. This ex-military man sure doesn’t need another woman in his life. His last girlfriend left him with nothing but memories and a cat named Pinky! But living next door to Lily has been driving him nuts. He dreams about her long blonde hair and even longer legs. And maybe it’s time to go a little crazy . . . and fall in love.

REVIEW:
This is a short novella of about 80 pages that brings us back to Lovett, Texas where we first visited in Daisy’s Back In Town. We met Lily in the first book and as a secondary character she stole the scenes she was in and now we get a short story to catch us up on what has been going on. Lily has tried to change her ways and become a upstanding citizen so her 10 year old son can hold his head high. But then comes Tucker who is new in town, younger and crazy about Lily and her son.

The character of Lily has changed some from the original book she is not so wild and carefree. Tucker is very charismatic and endearing. I wish the novella had been a full novel and had gone on for another hundred or more pages. There was so much crammed into this short book and it is a shame we only got a taste of Lily’s story because she is the kind of character women love to read about.

REVIEWED BY: Kimberly

Guarding Jess
AUTHOR: Shannon Curtis
PUBLICATION DATE: 05/14/12
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Jessica Pennington’s work as an etiquette coach requires her to be polite and proper at all times, especially now that she has a book coming out. The only thing that rattles her reserve is the increasingly violent emails and texts from her persistent stalker. With the book launch in jeopardy, she reluctantly hires a bodyguard.

Noah Samuels hates stuck-up, prim people like Jessica. He’s more the blunt, straightforward type. But to advance up the ranks at McCormack Security, he has to take the high-profile assignment. After a near miss on his first day on the job, Noah realizes that the stalker isn’t just hype cooked up to sell books-the threat is real.

As the stalker escalates from letters to letter bombs, Noah sees a vulnerable side of Jessica that rouses more than just his protective instincts. But can she let down her guard long enough to trust Noah before it’s too late?

REVIEW:
When you first begin this book you have a feeling it is the same old same old story of the strong but silent type man protecting the “proper” woman. She has to be proper and polite and he just wants to “ruffle her hair to see her messed up a little” and honestly it is but it is a fun read. Noah is the type of guy who does not say much but when he does you want to cry for him or laugh at him. And Jessica is just a woman who wants to please everyone but never seems to be happy with herself.

While there was not a lot different in this book from practically every other book about a bodyguard guarding a celebrity I enjoyed the read a lot. The characters are enjoyable. I love how Noah puts his foot in his mouth more often than not and with Jessica you want to yell at her to loosen up and go for it with Noah. The book is very well written and was a great suspenseful story. I will say while I had the who figured out I certainly did not have the why figured out and the ending had some interesting twist. I found this book very enjoyable to read.

REVIEWED BY: Kimberly

Gabriel’s Rapture
#2
AUTHOR: Sylvain Reynard
PUBLICATION DATE:   05/21/12
ORDER LINKS:  Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Professor Gabriel Emerson has embarked on a passionate, yet clandestine affair with his former student, Julia Mitchell.

Sequestered on a romantic holiday in Italy, he tutors her in the sensual delights of the body and the rapture of sex. But when they return, their happiness is threatened by conspiring students, academic politics, and a jealous ex-lover.

When Gabriel is confronted by the university administration, will he be forced to share Dante’s fate? Or will he fight to keep Julia, his Beatrice, forever?

REVIEW:
I really enjoyed being back with the Professor.  I kinda missed the grumpy, tough talking, tough acting, pain in the ass Professor.   But in reality I think I really like the new and improved Gabriel.

We pick up in Gabriel’s Rapture where we left off in Gabriel’s Inferno (if you have not read Gabriel’s Inferno, you must really read it first) with Gabriel & Julia still on their vacation in Italy  While everything is rosy and good in Italy, waiting for them at home is a firestorm of problems.

Gabriel & Julia’s relationship will be tested yet again, but on a much greater scale.  It was nice to watch both Gabriel & Julia grow as characters.  Each learns more about them self and what they hold dear in their lives.

I will say that I enjoyed Gabriel’s Inferno a little more than Gabriel’s Rapture.  Mostly because I felt that some of the story lines just kinda dropped off.  I was really hoping a character or two would get their just desserts.   But at last they did not.  But overall this was a great book.

REVIEWED BY: Kelly

The Risque Target
AUTHOR: Kelly Gendron
PUBLICATION DATE:   02/01/12
ORDER LINKS:  Amazon  | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
There’s one name that has Agent Nala Dekker reaching for the gun holstered to her leg—Tantum Maddox, the one name her partner said before he died in her arms. After three years of searching for the faceless Tantum Maddox, his name has finally surfaced. Nala jumps on the first plane to Boston in chase of her long-awaited revenge. But instead of taking Tantum in for his crime or shooting him—in self-defense, of course—Nala nearly ends up in bed with the killer. So, it probably would’ve been a good idea to find out what her Target looked like before she went after him.

Agent Tantum Maddox has completed his assignment in Mexico… and now it’s time for his revenge. When Tantum finds a mysterious woman in his arms, and after he discovers exactly who she is—his Target—he must decide what to do with the gun concealed beneath her dress. Should he use it on her and kill her? Or spare her life and take her captive until he finds the answers he’s been looking for?

Somehow Nala’s innocence comes into question by the dangerously sexy Tantum Maddox and he accuses her of being a cold blooded killer. But why is Nala the one on trial, for Tantum’s the one who killed her partner—isn’t he? In this torrid twist of betrayal and seduction, will Tantum and Nala resist killing each other? Or worse, when the truth unfolds, will love become the only threat to their vindictive hearts?

REVIEW:
This looks to be the first book by this author and let me tell you I can not wait to read more. The characters are great. Tantum is the perfect guy. Totally hot, predatory, protective, sexual and has a sense of humor. Nala is interesting in her own right. She is new to being a agent and while she really does normally seem like she can take care of herself and on any other assignment would kick some serious butt, Tantum has become a complication and you can see her defenses fall.
There was a little too much of Nala questioning her own feelings (“Is he guilty?” “Can I really trust him?”, “He did do it!”, “No I know he could never do it!”, etc) and it got a little irritating but all in all it was a really good book. The premise is interesting too. They find they are pitted against each other and are each trying to find the other guilty of crimes but they seem to figure out pretty early what is going on but not the who is setting it up.

I really enjoyed this book and couldn’t wait to see how it ended. I wanted to see how Tantum would overcome his own issues of the heart and it was fun to watch Nala fall so easily into his arms but try to keep her heart at arms length. I enjoyed the humor that was written into these characters (especially Tantum) as well. It really is a fun yet suspenseful read. I will eagerly pick up the next book by Gendron and hope it is just as well written as this one.

REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Kimberly

Snowbound with a Stranger
AUTHOR: Rebecca Rogers Maher
PUBLICATION DATE:   05/28/12
ORDER LINKS:  Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Dannie Marino is hiking with colleagues when a sudden blizzard separates her from her group. She’s rescued by Lee, a dangerously sexy stranger who leads her to a remote cabin to weather the storm.
When the night inevitably ends in an intense erotic encounter, Dannie is both shocked and liberated by her response. But being intimate means letting herself be vulnerable, which isn’t her style. Lee tries to reach out to her, but she avoids any emotional entanglement by pushing him away.
Snowed in and unable to hide from each other, Dannie and Lee must both face up to their most closely guarded emotions. When the storm abates, will they be able to stop running from the past and live fully in the future?

REVIEW:
This is a very quick read with only about 75 pages and I really enjoyed it. Both characters of Dannie and Lee have issues from their past but when they are stuck in a small cabin for three days those issues become secondary to the current of passion that is running between them. A lot happens to these two while they are stranded. It is a really well written story that the reader gets to enjoy. It is not all about passion and love there are real emotions these two have and I would have liked a bit of a longer book to delve deeper into their stories. We read that Dannie is feeling burnt out in her job but the story only skims the top of why she is feeling this way and Lee has had some major heartbreak and has secluded himself from feeling for the last few years and that also could have been discussed. Also these characters have an instant connection but we never read why and *possible spoiler* Lee feels this connection just looking at her picture before he even meets Dannie. That being said this book is a really good story and would be great to have ready for when you need a quick read.

REVIEWED BY: Kimberly