2 Wine Glass #Review for A Stardance Summer by Emily March

Title:  A Stardance Summer
Series:  Eternity Springs #13
Author:  Emily March
Format:  Paperback & eBook, 320 pgs
Published:  June 27, 2017 by St. Martin’s
ASIN: B01N7EXNY1
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Source: NetGalley
Reviewer:  Kimberly
Rating:  2 out of 5 Wine Glasses

Lili Howe took a leap of faith when she decided to join the Tornado Alleycats, her elderly landlady’s all-female glamour-camping club. Lili’s always given everything to her career, putting herself on track to become her CPA firm’s youngest partner. But now that Lili’s carefully planned future is shattered, she’s willing to let summer work its magic on her―at all costs.

There’s never a dull moment at Stardance Ranch, the Colorado resort Brick Callahan built from the ground up. Still, a late night skinny-dipping session involving a bunch of “glamping” grannies. . .with his best friend’s kid sister Lili among them? He couldn’t have made up such story if he tried. The undeniable mutual attraction between Brick and gorgeous, spirited Lili is a reminder that life is full of surprises. But when Brick’s ex-girlfriend suddenly shows up, he’s faced with a desperate choice: Do right by a woman he once loved or take a chance on Lili. . .and do everything he can to win her heart?

Kimberly’s Thoughts:
When Liliana goes to her parents for emotional support and they shut her down, she decides a life shake-up is in order. She joins the all women's group the Tornado Alleycats and takes off on a camping trip with them. Except, she doesn’t get to fully escape as the owner of the camp turns out to be Mark "Brick" Callahan, her brother's high school best friend and her lifelong crush.
Brick can't believe his best friend's skinny sister turned out so hot but after being burned hard by his high school sweetheart, he's turned into a three date max man. However, the summer is long and his and Liliana's chemistry can't be denied.

#BookNews: Laura Kaye's Blasphemy Series #Free

Decadent… Sensual… Forbidden…

12 Masters. 12 Desires. 12 Fantasies Come to Life.

Meet the Masters of Blasphemy…

Laura Kaye’s first two books in the Blasphemy series are FREE on all retailers through July 4! And with the third book, EYES ON YOU, releasing on July 18, it's the perfect time to dive into a sexy new series and meet the Masters of Blasphemy, a world of infinite fantasies just for you!

From the ruins of an abandoned church comes Baltimore’s hottest and most exclusive BDSM club. Twelve Masters. Infinite fantasies. Welcome to Blasphemy…

Bound to Submit 

(Blasphemy #1)

by Laura Kaye

Kindle Edition, 154 pages

Published October 11th 2016 by Laura Kaye

ASINB01H2KDTEE

From the ruins of an abandoned church comes Baltimore’s hottest and most exclusive BDSM club. Twelve Masters. Infinite fantasies. Welcome to Blasphemy...

He thinks he caused her pain, but she knows he’s the only one who can heal her…

Kenna Sloane lost her career and her arm in the Marines, and now she feels like she’s losing herself. Submission is the only thing that ever freed her from pain and made her feel secure, and Kenna needs to serve again. Bad. The only problem is the Dom she wants once refused her submission and broke her heart, but, scarred on the inside and out, she’s not looking for love this time. She’s not even sure she’s capable.

Griffin Hudson is haunted by the mistakes that cost him the only woman he ever loved. Now she’s back at his BDSM club, Blasphemy, and more beautiful than ever, and she’s asking for his help with the pain he knows he caused. Even though he’s scared to hurt her again, he can’t refuse her, because he’d give anything to earn a second chance. And this time, he’ll hold on forever. 

AMAZON

#Giveaway of Wanted: Texas Daddy by Cathy Gillen Thacker

Wanted: Texas Daddy
by Cathy Gillen Thacker
Paperback
Published June 6th 2017 by Harlequin Western Romance
ISBN 0373757611

A SECRET BABY BARGAIN?

Small Texas towns always have their secrets. Fortunately, no one in Laramie knows about Sage Lockhart's friends-with-benefits arrangement with hunky cowboy Nick Monroe. And now Sage wants something more from Nick--something that could change the very nature of their relationship. She wants to have his baby.

Nick's always wanted to take things with Sage to the next level. Maybe this wasn't exactly what he had in mind, but having a child with Sage is an adventure Nick can't refuse. Of course, neither of them knew just how complicated things could get. With a baby on the way and all their careful plans unraveling, Sage and Nick must face the one secret they've been hiding from themselves...and from each other.

AMAZON | B&N

5 Wine Glass #AudioBook #Review for Must Love Chainmail by Angela Quarles

Title: Must Love Chainmail
Series: Must Love Series #2
Author: Angela Quarles
Narrator: Mary Jane Wells
Format: Audible, 10 hours and 1 minute
Published: 11/28/2016 (Angela Quarles, Publisher)
ISBN: ASIN: B01N2K8890
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Audible
Reviewer: Linda
Source: Author
Rating: 5 out of 5 Wine Glasses

Trapped in the wrong time, she needs a knight in shining armor, but this damsel in distress might be the real savior.

A damsel in distress...

With a day planner attached to her hip, the last thing Katy Tolson wants is a romance that threatens her well-ordered life. She's set to marry the safe--but bland--guy, but something's not quite...right. A careless wish thrusts her through time into medieval Wales and into the arms of...

A knight in somewhat shining armor...

Sir Robert Beucol, half-Norman and half-Welsh, lives with the shame of his father's treason and vows to reclaim his family's holdings and thereby his honor. To prove himself to his king, he must be more Norman than a full-blooded Norman. What better way to show loyalty than to fight his mother's people? He has no desire to be sidetracked by the mysterious wench with pink toenails, peculiar habits, and passion smoldering behind her cool, collected exterior.

A rebellion that challenges both...

The Welsh uprising fits perfectly into Robert’s plans. Katy’s on the other hand? That’s a no. As they embark on a perilous journey through the heart of Wales, each passionate encounter pulls them closer together, but farther from their goals. When everything they value is at stake, can they save each other and their love? 

Linda's Thoughts:
“Here before you lies the memorial to St. Cefnogwr, though he is not buried here, of course.” At her words, an uncanny knowing flushed through Katy and, crazy-of-crazy, transfixed her. “Why? Where is he?” Traci stepped forward, hand on her hip. A you’re-right-on-cue look crossed the guide’s face. She pointed to the ceiling. Traci scoffed. “I meant, where’s the body?” Her American southern accent lent a strange contrast to her skepticism. Again, the tour guide’s arthritic finger pointed upward, and a smile tugged at her lips, the smokers’ wrinkles on her upper lip smoothing out. “That’s the miracle that made him a saint, you see. Throughout the twelve hundreds, the Welsh struggled to maintain our independence from the English. During Madog’s Rebellion in 1294, St. Cefnogwr, a noble Norman-English knight, turned against his liege lord and sided with the Welsh—” “Norman-English?” Katy frowned, her voice raspy in her dry throat. “Why would a Norman have a Welsh name and side with the Welsh?” She might be an American, but her years living in England had taught her that was unusual.

Happy #BookBirthday to The Catch by K. Bromberg

The Catch 
(The Player #2)
by K. Bromberg
ebook, 284 pages
Expected publication: June 29th 2017 by JKB Publishing, LLC
ISBN 1942832052

After an unexpected twist of fate, All-Star catcher Easton Wylder is left questioning the loyalty of everyone around him.

Even the woman who shares his bed, Scout Dalton.

But if Easton thought being uprooted to the last place he expected was the only challenge life had to throw at him, he was dead wrong.

With an ailing shoulder and his career in limbo, his decision to make an unexpected change leads him to question everything – Scout’s love, family loyalties, and whether he can conquer the one obstacle he’s never been able to overcome. The secret he’s never shared with anyone.

He may be a man pushed to his limits, but he’s hell-bent on proving his worth no matter the cost.

AMAZON | B&N 

#Giveaway of Quiet Until the Thaw by Alexandra Fuller

Quiet Until the Thaw
by Alexandra Fuller
Hardcover, 288 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Penguin Press
ISBN 0735223343

From bestselling memoirist Alexandra Fuller, a debut novel. 

Lakota Oglala Sioux Nation, South Dakota. Two Native American cousins, Rick Overlooking Horse and You Choose Watson, though bound by blood and by land, find themselves at odds as they grapple with the implications of their shared heritage. When escalating anger towards the injustices, historical and current, inflicted upon the Lakota people by the federal government leads to tribal divisions and infighting, the cousins go in separate directions: Rick chooses the path of peace; You Choose, violence.

Years pass, and as You Choose serves time in prison, Rick finds himself raising twin baby boys, orphaned at birth, in his meadow. As the twins mature from infants to young men, Rick immerses the boys within their ancestry, telling wonderful and terrible tales of how the whole world came to be, and affirming their place in the universe as the result of all who have come before and will come behind. But when You Choose returns to the reservation after three decades behind bars, his anger manifests, forever disrupting the lives of Rick and the boys.

A complex tale that spans generations and geography, Quiet Until the Thaw conjures with the implications of an oppressed history, how we are bound not just to immediate family but to all who have come before and will come after us, and, most of all, to the notion that everything was always, and is always, connected. As Fuller writes, "The belief that we can be done with our past is a myth. The past is nudging at us constantly."

AMAZON | B&N

4.5 Wine Glass #Audio #Review for Dark Hope by H.D. Smith

 

Title: Dark Hope: The Devil’s Assistant
Series: The Devil’s Assistant #1
Author: H.D. Smith
Narrator: Lauren Fortgang
Format: Unabridged Audiobook,  11 hrs and 9 mins
Published: May 14, 2014 (Heather D. Smith)
ISBN: ASIN: B00KC09900
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Audible
Reviewer: Linda
Source: Amazon
Rating: 4 1/2 out of 5 Wine Glasses

After five years of working for the Devil, Claire Cooper believes she lives an otherwise normal life. Until she finds herself in jeopardy for a murder she did not commit. Desperate to save her life and soul, she enters Purgatory, but runs afoul of the Devil's sister, Pagan Queen Mab. Mab has her own agenda and uses Claire to get even with the Devil. Claire learns each ruler is in a race to discover "the girl" in the prophecy to fix time. As Claire peels away clues to the real killer, she realizes she must outwit the Devil's children or end up a prisoner in Purgatory forever.

Linda's Thoughts:
“I’d like to say it could have been worse. I’m sure lots of people hate their job, or their boss, or the people they work with. I just couldn’t relate to those people. They have options. They can quit their job, move out of town, or drop off the grid.  The only option I had was a guaranteed one-way ticket to Hell when I died, and that didn’t include dental.”

#Spotlight on Just the Thing by Marie Harte + #Giveaway

Just the Thing 
(The Donnigans #2)
by Marie Harte
Paperback
Expected publication: July 4th 2017 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
ISBN 1492631884

A FLING MIGHT BE JUST THE THING...

Gavin Donnigan left the Marine Corps a shell of a man, hounded by guilt for deaths he couldn't prevent. But teaching a self-defense class at the local gym brings some stability to his life--along with a gorgeous leggy blonde who won't give him the time of day.

Zoe York lost her twin sister to a freak car accident a few months ago. She's been struggling to bury her grief, but it isn't until she signs up for a self-defense class with its distractingly hot instructor that she begins to come out of her shell again. With the memory of her sister telling her to live a little, Zoe decides a fling with buns-of-steel Gavin Donnigan might be just the thing.

Soon they're sparring both in and out of the gym. And for the first time in a long time, each is looking forward to tomorrow.

AMAZON | B&N

#Spotlight on Call to Engage by Tawny Weber + #Giveaway

Call to Engage 
(Team Poseidon #2)
by Tawny Weber 
Mass Market Paperback, 384 pages
Expected publication: June 27th 2017 by Harlequin Books
ISBN 0373801963

The Poseidon team are hard-bodied, fiercely competitive Navy SEALs. But when a sensitive mission goes disastrously wrong, three of the team's finest will have to trust their hearts and instincts to uncover the truth…

Lieutenant Elijah Prescott should be spending his precious leave somewhere with sun, surf and scantily clad women. Instead, he's heading home with two goals in mind. Figure out exactly how his last assignment went to hell and almost killed him—and reconnect with the woman who might offer salvation.

Ava Monroe has streamlined her life, eliminating every source of pain—including a marriage touched by tragedy. One glimpse of her ex and those good intentions turn to bad-girl desires. Her strategy: get over Elijah by getting under him again, sating herself until she can finally let go. But as betrayal within the rank of the SEALs turns deadly, there's no denying that her heart and her life are on the line. Elijah is the only man who can protect both…

AMAZON | B&N

4 Wine Glass #Audio #Review of Fatal Deception by Katie Reus

Title: Fatal Deception
Series: Red Stone Security #3
Author: Katie Reus
Narrator: Pyper Down
Format: Audible, 3 hours 27 minutes
Published: 5 Feb 2014 (Katie Reus)
ISBN: ASIN: B00I9GHGKY
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N | Audible
Reviewer: Linda
Source: Author
Rating: 4 out of 5 Wine Glasses

A woman with a dark past…

Mara Caldwell made a clean break from her old life, never imagining her secrets could come back to haunt her. When an old enemy surfaces and threatens the world she’s created for herself Mara is prepared to give up everything, including the husband she loves if it will keep him safe.

The truth might destroy them…

Harrison knew his wife had secrets when he married her, but when he discovers the truth, it’s far worse than he imagined. He’s determined to protect her from a deadly enemy who wants to destroy her, but her lack of faith in him infuriates and wounds him. They must work together to keep her safe, but the man they’re up against seeks to destroy everything they’ve built together. Including their lives.

Linda's Thoughts:
Meeting Harrison hadn’t been part of her plan, but once she’d met him, walking away from him had never been an option. Now she wondered if he’d be the one to walk away from her when he knew the truth about her past. He’d been so brutally honest with her about his own life and his career with the CIA before he’d started working for Red Stone Security. 
But she’d kept her secrets.

Happy #BookBirthday to The Highland Commander by Amy Jarecki + #Giveaway

The Highland Commander 
(Lords of the Highlands #2)
by Amy Jarecki 
Paperback, 384 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Forever
ISBN 1455597856

She cannot resist the man behind the mask...

As the illegitimate daughter of a Scottish earl, Lady Magdalen Keith is not one to partake in lavish balls or other frivolities. Yet at her father's urging, she agrees to dance with the battle-weary officers at this year's holiday masquerade. It's practically her civic duty! But when one such officer-whose dashing good looks cannot be disguised by a mere mask-sweeps her off her feet and into his arms, the innocent lass can't help herself. Her lips are his for the taking.But will he betray his country for a kiss?

Navy lieutenant Aiden Murray has spent too many months at sea to be immune to the charms of this lovely beauty. Even after he returns to his ship, she lives in his dreams. But when he discovers Maddie's true identity-and learns that her father is accused of treason-will the brawny Scot risk his life to follow his heart?

AMAZON | B&N

Happy #BookBirthday to Comeback Cowboy by Sara Richardson + #Giveaway

Comeback Cowboy 
(Rocky Mountain Riders #2)
by Sara Richardson 
Mass Market Paperback, 368 pages
Published June 27th 2017 by Forever
ISBN 1455540773

A WOMAN NEVER FORGETS HER FIRST COWBOY . . .
As a single mother, Naomi Sullivan is used to doing things on her own. She's finally saved enough from working at the Cortez Ranch to buy a lovely home for her and her little girl. Life is going as planned. But when her high school sweetheart comes riding back to town, this self-sufficient woman feels something she hasn't felt in years: red-hot, unbridled need for the handsome cowboy who left her behind.

Lucas Cortez doesn't plan on being in town long. Yet when he sees Naomi again-the gorgeous girl he never stopped loving-he's tempted to hang up his hat and stay awhile. He's already charmed his way into her daughter's heart, but he'll need more than sweet talk and roses to convince Naomi to give them a second chance-especially when she's hiding a secret that could change their lives forever . . .

AMAZON | B&N

3 Wine Glass #Review for RoseBlood by A.G. Howard

Title: ROSEBLOOD
Author: A.G. Howard
Format: Kindle, 432 Pages
Published: January 10, 2017 (Amulet Books)
ISBN: ASIN: B01CRG1TUO
Links: Goodreads | Amazon | B&N
Reviewer: Linda
Source: NetGalley
Rating:  3 out of 5 Wine Glasses

In this modern day spin on Leroux’s gothic tale of unrequited love turned to madness, seventeen-year-old Rune Germain has a mysterious affliction linked to her operatic talent, and a horrifying mistake she’s trying to hide. Hoping creative direction will help her, Rune’s mother sends her to a French arts conservatory for her senior year, located in an opera house rumored to have ties to The Phantom of the Opera.

At RoseBlood, Rune secretly befriends the masked Thorn—an elusive violinist who not only guides her musical transformation through dreams that seem more real than reality itself, but somehow knows who she is behind her own masks. As the two discover an otherworldly connection and a soul-deep romance blossoms, Thorn’s dark agenda comes to light and he’s forced to make a deadly choice: lead Rune to her destruction, or face the wrath of the phantom who has haunted the opera house for a century, and is the only father he’s ever known. 

Linda's Thoughts:
He’d walked as a ghost in the gloomy bowels of this opera house for so long, darkness had become his brother, which was fitting, since his father was the night, and sunlight their forgotten friend.