4.5 Wine Glass #Review of Once Upon a Royal Christmas by Robin Bielman

Title: Once Upon A Royal Christmas
Author: Robin Bielman
Format: Kindle, 174 pages
Published: Tule Publishing (October 20, 2016)
ISBN: ASIN: B01LWMU7F1
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 Wine Glasses

Colliding with a prince while dog walking isn’t how Rowan Palotay pictured meeting royalty, but then lately her life hasn’t gone according to plan. With one teensy tiny mistake, her job as a news reporter took a turn for the worse and now she’s lucky to have a small pet column in the local newspaper. Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy and magic, but she feels like she’s forever stuck on the naughty list.

Prince Theodore Chenery is in Marietta shortly after the death of his mother to meet his grandparents for the first time. When an accidental run-in—literally—with Rowan leads to an unexpected friendship, he finds himself enchanted with the outspoken, feisty country girl. She’s unlike anyone he’s ever met and her special brand of kindness and honesty make it harder and harder to remember his obligations back home.

Rowan can’t afford one more mistake, and Theo’s future is already mapped out, but when they find it impossible to fight the passion and deep-rooted emotions between them, they discover what matters most. Until their relationship makes worldwide news…and Theo must decide whether or not to follow his heart or his royal duty.

Linda's Thoughts:
What prince wouldn’t make a country girl a little restless? Those eyes, that mouth, the broad chest, were a royal combination unlike any other. He only held power over her if she let him, though. He brushed his teeth just like every other person. Put on his shoes one foot at a time.
Prince Theo was just extraordinarily normal.
And she could handle him and her story.
Probably.

#Interview with Donna Grant of The Hero + #Giveaway!

Lexi: We are very excited to have this return guest today. She not only loves wine…she is one awesome author! Welcome back, Donna Grant!

Thank you so much, Lexi! It’s good to be back. ☺

Lexi: A few years ago we drooled over your hot covers. Today we get to talk about your new romantic suspense series, Sons of Texas. The cover of THE HERO is another hit! The flag in the background is a nice patriotic touch for the hero, Owen. How did you prepare to write about a Navy SEAL?

Read an #Excerpt from Perfectly Paired by Lexi Blake

Perfectly Paired 
(Topped #3)
by Lexi Blake 
Kindle Edition, 179 pages
Published November 29th 2016 by DLZ Entertainment, LLC
ASINB01MCRI3GJ

A table for two

Waitress Tiffany Hayes knows what she wants and she wants Sebastian. Top’s grumpy sommelier calls to her in a way no man has before. She simply needs to show him that they belong together. Finding an opportunity to spend some quality time with him turns out to be the easy part. Convincing Sebastian to look beyond his damaged heart and soul is far more difficult.

A thirst he can’t deny

After losing everything he held dear, Sebastian Lowe has finally rebuilt his life and the walls around his heart. Tiffany is a sweet temptation he struggles to resist. She’s bright and complex, but he’s sure she can’t handle his dark desires. When they’re thrown together on an assignment, he can’t help himself.

A perfect pairing

As passion builds, the new lovers are both forced to face their pasts. To have a future, they must find a way to heal the wounds they thought would haunt them forever. 

AMAZON | B&N

4.5 Wine Glass #Audio #Review of Must Love Breeches by Angela Quarles

Title: MUST LOVE BREECHES
Series: Must Love Time Travel #1
Author: Angela Quarles
Narrator: Mary Jane Wells
Format: Unabridged Audiobook, 10 hours and 59 minutes
Published: March 29, 2016 (Unsealed Room Press)
ISBN: ASIN:B01DFCIL5K
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Audible
Reviewer: Linda
Source: Author
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 Wine Glasses

She's finally met the man of her dreams. Only one problem: he lives in a different century.

HOW FAR WOULD YOU TRAVEL FOR LOVE?

A mysterious artifact zaps Isabelle Rochon to pre-Victorian England, and suddenly her love of historical authenticity collides with the reality that she’s a modern-day girl. But when a thief steals her card case, she determines to retrieve the time-traveling artifact. Now she must hunt down the case, navigate the pitfalls of stiff society London, conceal her origins, and resist her growing attraction to Lord Montagu, a viscount so hot, he curls her shower-loving toes.

Lord Montagu is resolved to avenge his sister and has no time for dalliances, despite the appeal of the strange but lovely Colonial. However, when his scheme for revenge requires a respectable match, he convinces Isabelle to masquerade as his fiancée. But he did not bargain for Ms. Rochon being his intellectual match or her irresistible allure.
Isabelle thought all she wanted was to return home, but as passion flares between them, she must decide when her true home, and her heart, lies.

Set in 1834 London, this time travel historical romance features a small cast of historical characters, including Ada Byron, Lord Byron's daughter, and Charles Babbage, inventor of the Difference Engine. It explores the often overlooked scientific developments of pre-Victorian London.

Linda's Thoughts:
If only she had lived back then... experienced a real ball... not this play-acting. "Wouldn't that be amazing to truly be at this ball in 1834?" she whispered. The silver under her thumb flared with heat. The room spun. The air, colors and sounds muted as if she was inside an abstract color painting. 

Happy #BookBirthday to Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt

Duke of Pleasure
(Maiden Lane  #11)
By Elizabeth Hoyt
Format:  Paperback & eBook, 352pgs
Published:  Nov. 29, 2016 by Grand Central
ASIN: B01CO4AU0Y

IN THE ARMS OF DANGER

Bold. Brave. Brutally handsome. Hugh Fitzroy, the Duke of Kyle, is the king's secret weapon. Sent to defeat the notorious Lords of Chaos, he is ambushed in a London alley—and rescued by an unlikely ally: a masked stranger with the unmistakable curves of a woman.

IN THE HEAT OF DESIRE

Cocky. Clever. Courageously independent. Alf has survived on the perilous streets of St. Giles by disguising her sex. By day she is a boy, dealing in information and secrets. By night she's the notorious Ghost of St. Giles, a masked vigilante. But as she saves Hugh from assassins, she finds herself succumbing to temptation.

ONE KISS WILL CHANGE THEIR LIVES FOREVER

When Hugh hires Alf to investigate the Lords of Chaos, her worlds collide. Once Hugh realizes that the boy and the Ghost are the same, will Alf find the courage to become the woman she needs to be—before the Lords of Chaos destroy them both?

AMAZON | B&N

3.5 Wine Glass #Review for Her Enemy Protector by Avery Flynn

Title: Her Enemy Protector
Series: Tempt Me #2
Author: Avery Flynn
Format: Kindle, 156 Pages
Published: Entangled: Indulgence (November 14, 2016)
ISBN: ASIN: B01MG2HNUP
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 Wine Glasses

By-the-book secret agent Lucas Bendtsen will do anything to keep his country safe—even if that means blackmailing the stepdaughter of a notorious mobster who is about to sell guns to a group of terrorists. The plan? He'll pose as her fiancé in order to access her stepfather's guarded compound and find out the location of the arms deal. The problem? Despite her reputation as a heartless femme fatale, Ruby Macintosh is not at all what she seems.

Only a fool would double-cross the Organization, but Ruby doesn't have any choice—not if she's going to save her brother and mother from her stepfather. So she places her life in the hands of a man who turns her on as much as he ticks her off…

The fake engagement may be the beginning of a high-stakes game of subterfuge, but when their hearts get involved, Lucas has to decide whether to break the rules or break Ruby's heart.

Linda's Thoughts:

“I’m not the kind of girl who ends up with the good guy. I’m the crime boss’s daughter.”

Characters in a New Light with Paige Tyler of A Wolf Unleashed + #Giveaway

Characters in a New Light


In Wolf Unleashed, the fifth installment in Paige Tyler’s sexy and suspenseful SWAT series, Lacey, the heroine, sees a side of the hero, Alex, that she really did not expect. Namely, his wolf side!

We asked Paige Tyler about other fantastic stories that portray a character seeing another in a new light. What are her favorites?

Happy #BookBirthday to J. Lynn's Fire in You + #Giveaway

Some are born with fire in them.

✮✮✮ SECOND CHANCES, HOPE, & RED-HOT CHEMISTRY… FIRE IN YOU, the final book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Wait For You World is here! Don’t Miss Brock and Jillian’s passionate and richly moving story in this standalone contemporary romance! ✮✮✮

Let the FIRE IN YOU burn and grab your copy today!

Fire in You 
(Wait for You #6)
by J. Lynn, Jennifer L. Armentrout 
Paperback, 360 pages
Expected publication: November 28th 2016 by Jennifer L. Armentrout
ISBN 0997969121

From the # 1 New York Times and International bestselling author, Jennifer L. Armentrout writing as J.Lynn, comes a richly moving story about heartbreak and guilt, second chances and hope. Full of familiar, fan-favorite characters and no two people more deserving of a happy ending, Fire In You will burn bright beyond the last page…

Jillian Lima’s whole world was destroyed in a span of a few hours. The same night her childhood love, Brock ‘the Beast’ Mitchell, broke her heart, her life was irrevocably altered by the hand of a stranger with a gun. It takes six years to slowly glue together the shattered pieces of her life, but Jillian is finally ready to stop existing in a past full of pain and regret. She takes a job at her father’s martial arts Academy and she’s going out on her first date since a failed relationship that was more yuck than yum. Jillian is determined to start living.

She just never expected Brock to be a part of her life again. But he’s firmly back in her life before she knows it, and not only is he older, he’s impossibly more handsome, more teasing and more everything. And when he sees Jillian, he’s no longer capable of thinking of her as the little girl who was his shadow growing up or the daughter of the man who gave him a second chance at life. He sees the woman who’d always been there for him, the one person who believed in him no matter what.

Brock knows she’s the one he should’ve made his, and what begins as a tentative friendship quickly turns to red-hot chemistry that sparks a flame that burns brighter than lust. Falling for Brock again risks more than her heart, because when the past sorrow-filled and guilt-ridden past resurfaces, and a web of lies threatens to rip them apart, the fallout could lay waste to everything they’ve fought to build together, and destroy the dreams of those they care most about. 

AMAZON | B&N

#Spotlight on Ares by Felicity Heaton + #Giveaway

Ares, book 1 in New York Times best-seller Felicity Heaton’s hot new paranormal romance series, Guardians of Hades, is now available in ebook and paperback. To celebrate the release of Ares and Megan’s romance, she’s holding a FANTASTIC GIVEAWAY and sharing sneak peeks of the book.

Enter the ARES international giveaway (ends December 11th) and be in with a shot of winning a $75, $50 or $25 gift certificate by using the Rafflecopter form at her website, where you can also download a 4 chapter sample of the novel: http://www.felicityheaton.co.uk/guardians-of-hades-ares-paranormal-romance-book.php 

Here’s more about the book and the sexy Greek god hero and his heroine…

Ares 
(Guardians of Hades #1)
by Felicity Heaton 
ebook
Published November 26th 2016 by Felicity Heaton
ISBN139781911485100

Prince of the Underworld and Lord of Fire, Ares was banished from his home by his father, Hades, two centuries ago and given a new duty and purpose—to keep our world and his from colliding in a calamity foreseen by the Moirai.

Together with his six brothers, he fights to defend the gates to the Underworld from daemons bent on breaching them and gaining entrance to that forbidden land, striving to protect his home from their dark influence. Caged by the manifestation of his power, held apart from those he loves by his own fire and starved of physical contact, Ares lives a cold existence driven by duty and the desire to return to his world.

Until his world collides with a daemon who steals his power and a mortal female who shatters the ice around his heart and awakens the true fire within him—a soul-stirring passion both dangerous and seductive.

Megan has wandered far from her home, driven from everyone she loves by the devastating realisation that she is different to them all. Unsure who to trust in the world, she keeps to herself, until a fateful stormy night brings a temptingly handsome warrior crashing into her life and into her heart—a warrior who seems to hold powers more frightening and marvellous than her own.

When the New York gate comes under threat, and Ares is put to the test, will he choose his duty and regain the power he needs in order to save his world or will he choose the desires of his heart and sacrifice his fire so he can be with the woman becoming his whole world?

AMAZON | B&N

4 Wine Glass #Review for Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene by B.J. Daniels

Title: Cardwell Christmas Crime Scene
Series: Cardwell Ranch Series #5
Author: B.J. Daniels
Format: Kindle (256 Pages)
Published: Harlequin Intrigue (November 22, 2016)
ISBN: ASIN: B01E34F1DY
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: NetGalley
Rating: 4 out of 5 Wine Glasses

A conman's daughter takes refuge with the family she never knew she had in New York Times bestseller B.J. Daniels's latest addition to the Cardwell family saga. 

Dee Anna Justice had thought that her convict father was her only living relative. Now Walter Justice, fearing for his daughter's safety, urges her to seek out her cousins in Montana. Calling in a decades-old debt, he also enlists private investigator Beau Tanner to protect her.

Despite their fiery attraction, she resents the bodyguard her dad foists on her. Trust doesn't come easy to DJ. But the warm, embracing family she finds at Cardwell ranch just might begin to soften her suspicious nature, and learning to trust the sexy PI may be the key to saving her life.

Linda's Thoughts:
He’d been trying to save this woman in his dreams for years. Now here she was, all grown up, and he still felt helpless.

3.3 Wine Glass #Review for Campbell's Redemption by Sharon Cullen

Title:  Campbell’s Redemption
Series:  Highland Pride   #3
Author:  Sharon Cullen
Format:  eBook, 256pgs
Published:  Nov. 22, 2016 by Loveswept
ASIN: B01CBM44O2
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer:  Kimberly
Rating:  3.3 out of 5 Wine Glasses

Seduction betrays two Scottish patriots in Sharon Cullen’s sweeping Highland Pride romance—sure to thrill readers of Maya Banks and Monica McCarty—as a widowed young healer teaches a stubborn chieftain to trust his heart.

Like his ancestors, Iain Campbell, the Marquess of Kerr, swears loyalty to whichever government happens to be in power. Privately, however, he despises the British for the slaughter following the Battle of Culloden and finds himself playing a dangerous game of deception. When he defends a fellow Scot under cloak of darkness, Iain is wounded and must put his life in the hands of a mysterious healer. The prickly, bewitching woman saves him with her touch, though she denies Iain the pleasure of a smile from her sensuous lips—which only makes him want her all the more.

Cait Campbell has no fondness for the marquess and his political machinations. Now he makes a treacherous patient, since Cait is harboring Jacobite fugitives in her cellar. But with Iain confined to bed rest, Cait sees another side of the fierce warrior. How can she hate a man whose eyes sparkle in candlelight, a man whose voice stirs her soul? She soon discovers that he loves the Scottish people deeply—and, despite her painful intuitions, Cait is tempted to let Iain love her, too.

Kimberly’s Thoughts:
After her husband was killed in service to Clan Chief Iain Campbell, Cait couldn't bear to be around him. Living in a cottage on the edge of Campbell land, Cait is a healer who serves the Scottish and English.
Iain's guilt over his best friend's death has kept him away from Cait but as the tensions between the English and Scottish start to heat up very close to home, he feels responsible for her safety. He's been called a traitor to Scotland but as his feelings for Cait grow, he might have to come out of the shadows and declare his true loyalties.

4 Wine Glass #Review for Christmas On Pointe: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella by Samantha Chase

 

Title: Christmas On Pointe: A Silver Bell Falls Holiday Novella
Series: Silver Bell Falls
Author: Samantha Chase
Format: Kindle, 219 Pages
Published: Chasing Romance, Inc. (November 9, 2016)
ISBN: ASIN: B01LZS5BR3
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: Author
Rating: 4 out of 5 Wine Glasses

It’s Christmastime again in Silver Bell Falls and the whole town is getting in the spirit to help ballet teacher Abby Foster achieve her dream of opening her own dance studio!

Dancing has been Abby’s dream for her entire life – but more than anything, she wanted that dream in her beloved hometown of Silver Bell Falls. Teaching ballet to children at the community center is fine, but she’ hoping for so much more – her own studio, her own business…not to mention maybe meeting Mr. Right and having a family of her own. For almost a year, she’s been picturing Dean Hughes in that role and if he wasn’t such a darn recluse, maybe she’d have a chance.

Solitude and Dean Hughes have always gone hand-in-hand. It wasn’t by choice, but because of circumstances beyond his control. And once again, things are out of his control when he finds himself being named permanent guardian for his five year old niece just in time for the holidays. Dean had always imagined that he’d have a family of his own someday, just not quite like this. With the support of his hometown friends, he knows he’s going to be okay. But it’s Abby’s help with his niece that’s making the biggest difference.

This isn’t the Christmas either of them has planned, but maybe it’s the chance for the most perfect one yet!

Linda's Thoughts:
"I kind of fantasized about watching you dance. Just for me."
Wow. That was totally unexpected too. “Like a striptease?” she asked, slightly confused.
He shook his head. “No. More like just what you do in class. But… just for me. And maybe…just wearing something sexy.”