Kimberly reviews Shall We Dance? by Shelley Shepard Gray

TITLE: Shall We Dance?
SERIES #: Dance With Me #1
CHARACTERS: Shannon & Dylan
AUTHOR: Shelley Shepard Gray
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/28/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
At twenty-seven, Shannon Murphy has just discovered that she has two sisters she never knew. Now, through Shannon’s loving persistence, the three of them are moving in together above her dance studio in Bridgeport. Shannon is excited to make a home with her sisters and to grow her budding business. Then she meets her newest client–he has all the right muscles, a perfect smile, and a lot of attitude. Will Shannon be able to keep things professional with this charming stranger?

Dylan Lange has a lot on his mind. He’s just been assigned a new partner at his job with the Bridgeport Police, and while he’s busy striving to protect and serve his town, he’s also trying to keep his baby sister out of harm’s way while she heals from her own trauma. And on top of everything else, he’s gone and lost a bet with his buddies, forcing him to take dance lessons. But when he walks into the dance studio to meet his instructor, a young and beautiful brunette with a sweet southern drawl is the last person he expected to find.

Get ready to fall in love again as Shelley Shepard Gray takes us back to Bridgeport, Ohio, where nobody gets left behind and a powerful community helps ordinary men and women to find extraordinary strength inside themselves.

REVIEW:
3.25 Hearts This is the first time reading this author. But it is the first in a new series so I decided to give it a try.

I might have picked it up because of the coincidences. First one of the names (Kimber) is one of the coincidences but also, oddly, I just found I have a sister I didn’t know about… year, really!

This story is very much women’s lit. There is romance but with a “hero” I never really fell for. And there was a bunch in the story that didn’t flow. Somethings done off page that didn’t make sense. Which is why I say it is more women’s lit than romance.

Still on the fence.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Kelly reviews A Heart Of Blood And Ashes by Milla Vane

TITLE: A Heart of Blood and Ashes
SERIES #: A Gathering of Dragons #1
CHARACTERS: Maddek & Yvenne
AUTHOR: Milla Vane
PUBLICATION DATE: February 4, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A generation past, the western realms were embroiled in endless war. Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil—until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.

Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents’ murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.

Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones—because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own…

REVIEW:
Maddek is out for vengeance and nothing will stand in his way. That is until he meets an unlikely ally. One that will test everything the Maddek knows and feels. Nothing will ever be the same for Maddek.

Yvenne has been looked away for all her life. But now she is free and she is determined to take what is rightfully hers. In order to do that she will need the help of a very reluctant ally that would rather her dead.

What a great first book in Milla Vane’s new A Gathering of Dragons series. I really enjoyed reading this book. Milla does a great job building a world full of very strange creatures, magic and the people that live in this world. I really enjoyed the case of characters too. I am already looking forward to the next installment in this series.

If you are looking for a great read that is filled with stubborn warriors, strategic queens, lies, betrayals, magic, hope and romance you need to put add this book to your need to read list!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley & Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

Series Sunday presents: Kendra Elliot’s Callahan & McLane Series

TITLE: Vanished
SERIES #: Callahan & McLane #1
CHARACTERS: Ava McLane & Mason Callahan
AUTHOR: Kendra Elliot
PUBLICATION DATE: June 24, 2014
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
When eleven-year-old Henley Fairbanks is abducted on her way to school, the FBI doesn’t waste a moment, sending agents to scour the area and embedding Special Agent Ava McLane with the distraught family. In the eye of the storm is local detective Mason Callahan, who also happens to be related to Henley. To make matters worse for Mason, the kidnapping comes on the heels of the murder of his longtime confidential informant, and he’s been sidelined from the investigation. Now both he and Agent McLane are holed up in the Fairbanks’ home, along with Callahan’s ex-wife, Robin. Every second counts in a kidnapping case, and the stakes keep rising the longer Henley stays missing. As Ava and Mason struggle to hold the Fairbanks family together in their darkest hour, the two investigators find themselves more and more drawn to each other.

 

***

TITLE: Bridged
SERIES #: Callahan & McLane #2
CHARACTERS: Ava McLane & Mason Callahan
AUTHOR: Kendra Elliot
PUBLICATION DATE: February 10, 2015
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A Wall Street Journal bestseller

After a congressman’s tortured body is found dangling from a Portland bridge, the FBI joins the Oregon State Police to investigate the case—and FBI Special Agent Ava McLane, still recovering from a bullet wound, hunts the twisted killer alongside the man who captured her heart, police detective Mason Callahan.

But once a third body appears and all evidence points to a serial killer, the public furiously clamors for answers—and the couple’s relationship grows fractured under the pressure. Ava and Mason search in the past for clues that predict the future. And when Ava’s mentally ill twin spins out of control, the FBI agent who battles monsters every day wonders if she shares her sister’s self-destructive streak…

In the latest thrilling romantic suspense novel from award-winning author Kendra Elliot, the past and the present violently collide…and the fallout can be deadly.

 

***

TITLE: Spiraled
SERIES #: Callahan & McLane #3
CHARACTERS: Mason Callahan & Ava McLane
AUTHOR: Kendra Elliot
PUBLICATION DATE: June 2, 2015
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
FBI Special Agent Ava McLane solves crimes; she doesn’t witness them. When she’s trapped in a mall without her weapon as a shooter picks off victims, she hides with a wounded teen and prays for her survival.

But that’s only the beginning…

An epidemic of mass shootings has swept across Oregon. The young shooters terrify the public, committing random murders before taking their own lives. The task force assembled to solve the case—which includes Ava’s boyfriend, detective Mason Callahan—remains stumped. And on top of this chaos, Ava’s troubled twin sister reappears, throwing Ava’s already-tumultuous life into a tailspin.

An old-fashioned cop with a strong sense of duty, Mason struggles to find the cause of the shootings as workaholic Ava spins ever closer to breaking down. But can one detective save the lives of countless innocents—and prevent the woman he loves from going over the edge?

***

TITLE: Targeted
SERIES #: Callahan & McLane #4
CHARACTERS:  Mason Callahan & Ava McLane
AUTHOR: Kendra Elliot
PUBLICATION DATE: June 7, 2016
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
A Wall Street Journal bestseller

All Detective Mason Callahan wanted was a quiet fishing trip with the guys—a chance to get away and unwind before Halloween.

Until he finds the body of his boss, Denny Schefte, near their remote Oregon cabin. Now all he wants is to catch the sadist who slit Denny’s throat and covered his face with a mask. Mason was the last person to see him alive and will stop at nothing to find his friend’s murderer.

When the FBI learns of the mask left at the scene, they realize they have a serial killer on their hands—one who is targeting cops. They assign the case to Special Agent Ava McLane, despite her engagement to Mason. Barely recovered from her own nearly fatal injury and her sister’s attempted suicide, Ava hopes she is ready to chase another killer.

But as she delves into the increasingly disturbing case, the killer may be closer than expected—dangerously close.

Add the series to your Goodreads list: Callahan & McLane

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets and Callahan & McLane series, as well as the Mercy Kilpatrick novels. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden, and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy Pacific Northwest with her family, but she looks forward to the day she can live in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com

Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Amazon Page  | Good Reads 

Kelly reviews Whiteout by Adriana Anders

TITLE: Whiteout
SERIES #: Survival Instinct #1
CHARACTERS: Ford Cooper & Angel Smith
AUTHOR: Adriana Anders
PUBLICATION DATE: January 28, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Angel Smith is ready to leave Antarctica for a second chance at life. But on what was meant to be her final day, the research station is attacked. Hunted and scared, she and glaciologist Ford Cooper barely make it out with their lives…only to realize that in a place this remote, there’s nowhere left to run.

Isolated in the middle of a long, frozen winter with a madman at their heels, they must fight to survive in the most inhospitable—and beautiful—place on earth. But the outside world depends on what Ford and Angel know and, as their pursuers close in and their new partnership burns bright and hot, they will stop at nothing to make it out of the cold alive.

REVIEW:
This was an okay read for me. I found myself not really connecting to the characters. Oh, I routed for them and wanted everything to workout but there was not a strong connection for me. The story was a little predictable.
Overall it was a decent story and I am glad that I picked it up. I do believe that if there is a follow up story I will pick it up and give it a try.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Netgalley & SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

Tour Stop: Kendra Elliot’s The Last Sister blog tour + a giveaway

TITLE:  The Last Sister
SERIES #:  Columbia River #1
CHARACTERS: Zander Wells & Emily Mills
AUTHOR: Kendra Elliot
PUBLICATION DATE: January 14, 2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N  

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Twenty years ago Emily Mills’s father was murdered, and she found his body hanging in the backyard. Her younger sister, Madison, claims she was asleep in her room. Her older sister, Tara, claims she was out with friends. The tragedy drove their mother to suicide and Tara to leave town forever. The killer was caught. The case closed.

Ever since, Emily and Madison have tried to forget what happened that night—until an eerily similar murder brings it all back. It also brings FBI special agent Zander Wells to the Oregon logging town. As eager as he is to solve the brutal double slaying, he is just as intrigued with the mystery of Emily’s and her sisters’ past.

When more blood is shed, Zander suspects there’s a secret buried in this town no one wants unearthed. Is it something Emily and Madison don’t know? Or aren’t telling? And Tara? Maybe Emily can’t bear to find her. Because when Tara disappeared, she took a secret of her own with her.

Make sure to read my review HERE

Follow the whole tour HERE

Giveaway Time!!!

We are offering 1 reader a copy of  THE LAST SISTER, as well as copies of two of Kendra’s previous bestsellers, VANISHED and A MERCIFUL DEATH.  To enter please leave a comment or question below.

Giveaway is limited to USA only!! Giveaway Ends February 3rd.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kendra Elliot has landed on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list
multiple times and is the award-winning author of the Bone Secrets
and Callahan & McLane series, as well as the Mercy Kilpatrick
novels. Kendra is a three-time winner of the Daphne du Maurier
Award, an International Thriller Writers Award finalist, and an RT
Award finalist. She has always been a voracious reader, cutting her
teeth on classic female heroines such as Nancy Drew, Trixie Belden,
and Laura Ingalls. She was born, raised, and still lives in the rainy
Pacific Northwest with her family, but she looks forward to the day
she can live in flip-flops. Visit her at www.kendraelliot.com.

 

Kelly reviews Wicked Bite by Jeaniene Frost

TITLE: Wicked Bite
SERIES #: Night Rebel #2
CHARACTERS: Ian & Veritas
AUTHOR: Jeaniene Frost
PUBLICATION DATE: January 28.2020
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | Audible | B&N
BOOK SYNOPSIS:
In the newest Night Rebel novel, set in New York Times bestselling author Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress world, beautiful, daring vampire Veritas risks all to protect Ian…
Some promises are meant to be broken…
Veritas spent most of her life as a vampire Law Guardian. Now, she’s about to break every rule by secretly hunting down the dark souls that were freed in order to save Ian. But the risks are high. For if she gets caught, she could lose her job. And catching the sinister creatures might cost Veritas her own life.
Some vows are forever…
Ian’s memories might be fragmented, but this master vampire isn’t about to be left behind by the woman who entranced him, bound herself to him, and then disappeared. So what if demons, other Law Guardians, and dangerous, otherworldly forces stand against them? Come hell or high water, Ian intends to remind Veritas of the burning passion between them, because she is the only person seared on his mind–and his soul.

REVIEW:
4.5 Hearts Ian is back and he is pissed!!
A mad Ian is not something you want to get in the way of. Not even his best mate Bones (sigh… Bones) can stop Ian from his mission.
The mission you ask?
To find his wife of course and ask her why the bloody hell she has been hiding from him.

Another great book from Jeaniene Frost!!!! Ian and Veritas story is great. I love that we are finally seeing another side of Ian that we all knew was there hiding under his tough guy façade. If you enjoyed Shades of Wicked (bk1) you will love Wicked Bite!! And we get a lot of camoes from some of our favorite Night Huntress characters, think Cat, Bones, Vlad, Lelia, and Mencheres.

Can’t wait to see what is next!!!!!

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of this book from Edelweiss & Avon Books in exchange for an honest review. This review is my own opinion and not a paid review.

4 Hearts

Happy Release Day: January 28, 2020

Happy Release Day to all the authors who have releases today!!!

Authors Website-

Lisa Gardner ~ Jeaniene Frost ~ Kait Ballenger ~Christine Feehan ~Sandra Hill ~ Adriana Anders ~   Carrie Ann Ryan ~ Lynsay Sands ~ Sofie Ryan ~ J. Robert Kennedy ~ Lynn Cahoon ~ Donna Kauffman ~ Lauren Layne ~ Susanne Enoch ~ Gregg Hurwitz ~Jenn McKinlay ~ Carolyn Brown ~ CJ Tudor ~ Katie Reus

 

Please forgive us if we missed any. If you have an upcoming release you want us to know about please fill out the form below.

Series Sunday presents Nora Roberts The Chronicles of One

TITLE:  Year One
SERIES #:  Chronicles of the One #1
CHARACTERS: Fallon Swift
AUTHOR: Nora Roberts
NARRATOR: Julia Whelan
RUNTIME: 12 Hours & 20 Minutes
PUBLICATION DATE: December 5, 2017
ORDER LINKS: Audible  | Amazon  | B&N  

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
It began on New Year’s Eve.

The sickness came on suddenly, and spread quickly. The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed–and more than half of the world’s population was decimated.

Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river–or in the ones you know and love the most.

As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.

In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.

The end has come. The beginning comes next. 

******

TITLE:  Of Blood and Bone
SERIES #:  Chronicles of the One #2
CHARACTERS: Fallon Swift
AUTHOR: Nora Roberts
NARRATOR: Julia Whelan
RUNTIME: Hours & Minutes
PUBLICATION DATE: December 4, 2018

ORDER LINKS: Audible  | Amazon  | B&N 

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
They look like an everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed.

Fallon Swift, approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed before—the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted—and the time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be hidden.

In a mysterious shelter in the forest, her training is about to begin under the guidance of Mallick, whose skills have been honed over centuries. She will learn the old ways of healing; study and spar; encounter faeries and elves and shifters; and find powers within herself she never imagined. And when the time is right, she will take up the sword, and fight. For until she grows into the woman she was born to be, the world outside will never be whole again.

******

TITLE:  The Rise of Magicks
SERIES #:  Chronicles of the One #3
CHARACTERS: Fallon Swift
AUTHOR: Nora Roberts
NARRATOR: Julia Whelan
RUNTIME: 14 Hours & 3 Minutes
PUBLICATION DATE: November 26, 2019
ORDER LINKS: Audible  | Amazon  | B&N  

BOOK SYNOPSIS: 
After the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace, and Fallon Swift has spent her younger years learning its ways. Fallon cannot live in peace until she frees those who have been preyed upon by the government or the fanatical Purity Warriors, endlessly hunted or locked up in laboratories, brutalized for years on end. She is determined to save even those who have been complicit with this evil out of fear or weakness—if, indeed, they can be saved.

Strengthened by the bond she shares with her fellow warrior, Duncan, Fallon has already succeeded in rescuing countless shifters and elves and ordinary humans. Now she must help them heal—and rediscover the light and faith within themselves. For although from the time of her birth, she has been The One, she is still only one. And as she faces down an old nemesis, sets her sights on the enemy’s stronghold, and pursues her destiny—to finally restore the mystical shield that once protected them all—she will need an army behind her…

 

About Nora Roberts: 

Nora Roberts was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the youngest of five children. After a school career that included some time in Catholic school and the discipline of nuns, she married young and settled in Keedysville, Maryland.

She worked briefly as a legal secretary. “I could type fast but couldn’t spell, I was the worst legal secretary ever,” she says now. After her sons were born she stayed home and tried every craft that came along. A blizzard in February 1979 forced her hand to try another creative outlet. She was snowed in with a three and six year old with no kindergarten respite in sight and a dwindling supply of chocolate.

Born into a family of readers, Nora had never known a time that she wasn’t reading or making up stories. During the now-famous blizzard, she pulled out a pencil and notebook and began to write down one of those stories. It was there that a career was born. Several manuscripts and rejections later, her first book, Irish Thoroughbred, was published by Silhouette in 1981.

Nora met her second husband, Bruce Wilder, when she hired him to build bookshelves. They were married in July 1985. Since that time, they’ve expanded their home, traveled the world and opened a bookstore together.

Through the years, Nora has always been surrounded by men. Not only was she the youngest in her family, but she was also the only girl. She has raised two sons. Having spent her life surrounded by men, Ms. Roberts has a fairly good view of the workings of the male mind, which is a constant delight to her readers. It was, she’s been quoted as saying, a choice between figuring men out or running away screaming.

Nora is a member of several writers groups and has won countless awards from her colleagues and the publishing industry. Recently The New Yorker called her “America’s favorite novelist.”

Learn more about Nora here: Website | Facebook Goodreads | Amazon Page | Pinterest 

Kimberly reviews Moral Compass by Danielle Steel

TITLE: Moral Compass
AUTHOR: Danielle Steel
PUBLICATION DATE: 01/07/20
ORDER LINKS: Amazon | B&N

BOOK SYNOPSIS:
At an elite private school in Massachusetts, a wide circle of lives will be forever changed by a devastating series of events in Danielle Steel’s riveting new novel.

Saint Ambrose Prep is a place where the wealthy send their children for the best possible education, with teachers and administrators from the Ivy League, and graduates who become future lawyers, politicians, filmmakers, and CEOs. Traditionally a boys-only school, Saint Ambrose has just enrolled one hundred and forty female students for the first time. Even though most of the kids on the campus have all the privilege in the world, some are struggling, wounded by their parents’ bitter divorces, dealing with insecurity and loneliness. In such a heightened environment, even the smallest spark can become a raging fire.

One day after the school’s annual Halloween event, a student lies in the hospital, her system poisoned by dangerous levels of alcohol. Everyone in this sheltered community—parents, teachers, students, police, and the media—are left trying to figure out what actually happened. Only the handful of students who were there when she was attacked truly know the answers and they have vowed to keep one another’s secrets. As details from the evening emerge, powerful families are forced to hire attorneys and less powerful families watch helplessly. Parents’ marriages are jeopardized, and students’ futures are impacted. No one at Saint Ambrose can escape the fallout of a life-altering event.

In this compelling novel, Danielle Steel illuminates the dark side of one drunken night, with its tragic consequences, from every possible point of view. As the drama unfolds, the characters will reach a crossroads where they must choose between truth and lies, between what is easy and what is right, and find the moral compass they will need for the rest of their lives.

REVIEW:
Danielle Steel is truly one of the best and with this one she brings you into a dark and serious subject.

A boys school has been open to girls now but when that happens it brings trouble. After underage drinking and the rape of one of the girls the school and the students in it are dragged into the dark but real consequences that happen every day in this country.

WOW! What a story. In the age of #MeToo this is poignant and provocative. I found myself hurting for each of the characters even the guilty but especially the victim. This story is a must-read for every teenager, boy or girl.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

4 Hearts