When I found out Jodi Ellen Malpas was writing a standalone I was crazy excited. Factor in the premise of a bodyguard falling for his client, and The Protector was an easy sell for me. Perhaps my expectations were a bit too high, but this wound up being a middle of the road read for me. It wasn’t my favorite, but I didn’t hate it.
I love the Rugby series by L.H. Cosway and Penny Reid, so I’m really looking forward to reading The Cad and the Co-Ed. There’s no release date yet, but here’s a peek at the cover—and a $25 Amazon gift card giveaway!
August was a busy, busy month. Blogging took a back seat to real life while I sent my oldest daughter off to college and got the younger ones ready to start school again. I reached my Goodreads 2016 reading goal of 100 books though, so go, me! I read two 5-star books: It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover and After I Do by Taylor Jenkins Reid. In case you missed it, here are the books reviewed on the blog in August 2016. As always, feel free to follow me on Goodreads.
Go ahead and call me a skeptic. I read The Pact and The Lie, and I confess I’m in the minority of people who didn’t care for either. I’d all but given up on the McGregor series. In fact, I was thisclose to not reading The Debt, but some friends encouraged me by saying the series keeps getting better. I decided to take a chance on this book—fully prepared for disappointment mind you—and it really paid off. You can tell Karina Halle put a great deal of thought and time in developing two amazingly sympathetic characters. When Jessica and Keir meet, it’s surprising how very similar they are. Both are with dealing PTSD—albeit in different ways. Jessica was a victim of a terrorist attack, leaving her physically impaired, so her scars are more visible. However, Keir’s wounds are no less real. In addition, the choices they made in the past have resulted in emotional devastation in the present. You wind up with two shattered individuals who are drowning in pain, guilt, and many secrets, but they just may be able to help heal each other’s brokenness. “I love every broken part of you and how well it fits with every broken […]
I’ve been looking forward to LOCKED by Ella Frank and Brooke Blaine, and now it’s live! Be sure to enter the giveaway for a $10 Amazon gift card.
Kudos to Marni Mann for daring to delve into the area of dark erotica. It’s a risk that takes her well outside the boundaries of her previous novels, and while the premise is intriguing, unfortunately Prisoned just didn’t resonate with me.
Plain and simple, After I Do is absolutely phenomenal. It’s a touching story about marriage, and what happens long after the honeymoon phase has ended. I suspect readers who’ve never been in a committed, long-term relationship may not be as affected by the book because it’s less about falling deeply in love than it is about slowly falling out of love. However, as a woman who has been married for twenty years and known my husband for more than half of my life, the story really resonated with me.
When I think of a Meghan March book, New Adult Romance is not a genre that comes to mind and neither is Romantic Comedy. Edgy, erotic, and suspenseful are all terms I’ve used to describe her previous work. I admit I was a wee bit skeptical that she could pull off a New Adult Romantic Comedy that’s still a little sexy, but I’ll be damned if Bad Judgment didn’t pleasantly surprise me.
Attention fans of the Manwhore series by Katie Evans: WOMANIZER, the fifth book in the series, will release December 5, 2016. Here’s the first look at the ridiculously amazing cover!
From the NYT Bestselling author of BIG ROCK and MISTER O, comes two brand new, hot and hilarious standalone romantic comedies… FULL PACKAGE and JOY STICK!
Happy release day to Marni Mann. PRISONED is now live! Cover Design: MadHat Books Release Date: August 24, 2016
Caroline Nolan will be releasing a standalone friends-to-lovers romance in September, and I’m pleased to share the cover and synopsis of Everything Unexpected with you. I’m looking forward to this one!