Romance Book Review: Tamara Hogan's Touch Me

Author: Tamara Hogan

Series Connection: An Underbelly Chronicles Novella

ISBN: 9780989451109

Genre: Paranormal Romance

Publisher: 

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This book is just to give you a taste of Tamara Hogan's An Underbelly Chronicles series. This book can be read alone, but after you do you'll want to read the next book coming this fall that will feature more about Bailey and Rafe. 

Bailey works for a security company that is run by the Sebastiani family. She finds out early in the morning that everyone she has worked with in the company are supernatural beings of one kind or another. She spends the day learning about these people who have been her friends  and others like them. Later on that evening she is asked to work on a special security detail that might make her a little light headed with pheromones, but a special pill will help her get through the evening. Unfortunately the pill doesn't come quite on time and Bailey gets a little drunk on the pheromones and right into the arms of her crush Rafe Sebastiani. How can she possibly keep her hands to herself and does she want to.

This is a very short book, but it does wet your appetite to read on with the series. Book one and two in the series are available with stories that happen around this same time as this story. I'm already anxious to read the next chapter in Bailey and Rafe's story. 

Description:

Mere hours after human technology whiz Bailey Brown learns the truth about her Sebastiani Security co-workers—they're all vampires, incubi, succubi, sirens, faeries, Valkyrie, and werewolves!—she’s thrown into an undercover operation protecting a siren singer at Underbelly, one of Minneapolis’s premier nightclubs. With pheromones saturating the air like sweet chloroform, starving for touch, and her inhibitions fading fast, Bailey has to avoid Rafe Sebastiani, her boss’s gorgeous sex demon of a brother, at all costs…

Because only his touch will do...

Romance Book Review: Holley Trent's Saint and Scholar

Author: Holley Trent

ISBN: 9781616504687

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Lyrical Press

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As his student eight years earlier, Carla stole his heart, even though she didn't really even know him. It was the worst time of her life right after losing her father. Grant wanted to take care of the lost girl, but knew as an assistant teacher he had to keep his hands off of her. Now he's heading back to Ireland and he can't help but take a chance and get to know her on a completely different level.

Carla barely remembers Grant, but she is sure she wants to get to know the sexy professor and acquire his help looking up her father's family tree. When Grant offers her a chance to go to Ireland and look up the information, she jumps at the chance, but can she accept everything that Grant has to offer, especially after she hears that he has been in love with her all these years?

Sweet emotional romance. Grant's behavior is a bit cooky at times and their relationship is a bit rushed, but worth the read.

Description:

He teaches about the Irish past. She worries about their Irish future.

Grant Fennell seems to lack the luck of the Irish. He’s had his nose broken three times, his dissertation advisor was a useless lump, he’s thirty-one and finishing his PhD, and he can’t find a teaching position in the US. Then he accepts a job in his native Ireland on the same day the stunning former student heís been intrigued by for nearly eight years shows a shred of interest. Finally, he catches a break: Carla Gill needs his expertise.

Carla is at a dead end on her late Irish-American father’s family tree project. Who better to assist than an expert on Irish history? Especially one with the face of an Adonis and a brogue that makes her want to shed her clothes. She’ll be his girlfriend, all right, in spite of her overprotective brothers and nay-saying friend.

But when Carla accompanies Grant to Ireland to conduct her research, he makes it clear he wants to put her on the fast track to matrimony. The professor wants to teach her something about ‘happily ever after.’ Does she really want her happy ending to start right now?

CONTENT WARNING: Contains swearing in two languages and scenes of explicit sensuality.

A Lyrical Press Contemporary Romance

Romance Book Review: Red Garnier The Billionaire's Club

 Kept By Him

Author: Red Garnier

Series Connection: The Billionaire's Club

ISBN-13: 978-1466833470

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Macmillan

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After reading the second book in the series of The Billionaire's Club Taken By Him, I decided to check out the rest of the series. All quick reads about each of the five friends. The last book to the series Bared to Him is scheduled for release Aug. 1, 2013. Meanwhile I've now read the other three and are up to date. By the way, the more I read of the other two books, the more I like the immature Luke from Taken By Him. His character is getting better the more he time his spends with his lady love. 

For now the last story is Kept By Him, the story of the "Prince" Daniel and the woman who stole his heart years before Monica. Daniel is the ultimate ladies man, so when Monica asks him if he'll help her with a little problem she is having with intimacy she's sure if anyone can help he can. 

Daniel can't say no to the woman of his dreams. He'll do anything to get into bed with her. For Monica everything is okay as long as there are no strings attached, but for Daniel those strings have been there all along. Can he convince Monica to be his or will she hide from love?

Of all I like the emotional depth of this book the most. Monica is terrible wounded from events of long ago and Daniel is the strong protective guy who has always been there for her. This is a sweet, very sexy story. 

Description:

The Billionaire's Club: The wealthiest, most powerful men, not only in Chicago, but in the world. They are used to having whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Not everyone knows that billionaire Daniel Lexington gets a little dirty, a little dark and will settle for nothing less than everything from any woman lucky enough to tangle his sheets. Handsome, rich and completely irresistible, Daniel can have any woman he wants. However, there is one woman he aches to possess, but has never touched: Monica Davenport. Monica is one of the alarmingly few women in his life that Daniel has called friend and Daniel protects his friends—no matter what. But when Monica comes to him one night, asking him to make love to her, Daniel is not about refuse—he can't refuse—even if it could cost him everything.

After witnessing her mother's turbulent, bitter marriage to her father and its tragic end, Monica Davenport has always had trouble letting men get too close. She's determined to never to give herself to the kind of violent passion that plagued her parents' relationship. But after her most recent boyfriend dumps her for being passionless, Monica longs to finally break free. She wants to know what it feels like to be taken by a powerful, sexy man. And who better than Daniel Lexington? He is one of her closest friends and one of the few men she trusts…and she has always longed for his touch. Now, she has a shocking, erotic proposal that threatens to change everything between them because Daniel is a demanding lover who will accept nothing less than complete surrender.

Bound By Him

Author: Red Garnier

Series Connection: The Billionaire's Club

ISBN-13: 978-1466833463

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Macmillan

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There is a big secret Andrew has been keeping from Whitney all these years. Three years ago he left telling her he needed to be away on business for a little while and asked her to be his forever. She agreed and waited for him, but when his letters stopped coming she gave up hope. 

Now he's home and he just expects to pick up where he left off. Whitney isn't having that. She's changed and it doesn't matter how much she loves him, she can't just let him back in her life without an explanation of where he has been and what he has been doing all this time. 

Andrew loved Whitney more than anything since she was a teenager. He would walk through hell for her and never let her worry about the sacrifice he made. Now that he is back he won't let her get away again. All he wants is his life back with her. 

Now someone wants to take that life away from him. He'll do anything to keep Whitney safe.

Description:

The Billionaire's Club: The wealthiest, most powerful men, not only in Chicago, but in the world. They are used to having whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Oil tycoon Andrew Fairchild would sell his soul to protect Whitney Donahue. She's the one girl he's loved his whole life. And when tragedy strikes and Andrew needs to leave, he's determined to keep Whitney from knowing where he's going, and why. But when he finally comes home, he discovers that Whitney is no longer the vulnerable young girl he left behind. She's all woman and she awakens his darkest passions with an intensity that threatens to consume them both.

Whitney never loved anyone the way she loved Andrew Fairchild and no one hurt her the way he did. When he returns, her body remembers his touch all too well and while Whitney is rendered helpless by his expert seduction, glorying in the way he forces her to surrender her body, she vows never to give him her heart again. But "never" is not a word in Andrew's vocabulary. When a madman threatens Whitney's life and the past they've struggled for years to put behind them haunts them once more, this sexy billionaire is even more determined to fight for her—and fight not only for her heart, but for the very life of the woman he's bound to him forever.

Claimed By Him

Author: Red Garnier

Series Connection: The Billionaire's Club

ISBN-13: 9781466833449

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Macmillan

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Chloe is tired of Graves treating her like his best friends little sister. She wants him for herself and she knows he's interested, but when she finally makes her move he's already hooked up with another woman for the night. So she give him an ultimatum if he doesn't give himself to her for her birthday she just give her virginity to her brother's other friend Luke. 

Grave is going crazy. He can't let Chloe go to Luke. Luke is such a man-whore he'd take her no questions asked. So he set out to try and convince her not to do it, but that doesn't work Graves can't resist the woman he's wanted forever. Unfortunately, when her brother finds out what's going on, he's ready to put a stop to it and he might just convince Chloe that its the best possible way for this who thing to end. 

This is one of those predictable stories of girl in love with her brother's best friend. It isn't as bad as it seems though. The writing is in top form, the story starts off the series and introduces everyone to the rest of the series characters and you just can't help but fall for Graves and his little nerdy gadgets and robots. 

Description:

The first original e-novella in Red Garnier’s fabulously sexy Billionaire’s Club series about the some of the world’s most wealthiest, powerful men and women they claim—and keep…

Graves Buchanan has always been secretly obsessed with Chloe Lexington, an innocent “princess” who also happens to be his best friend’s sister. But Graves would never dare touch her—his desires are too erotic, too deep…too dark. Little does he know that Chloe is just as infatuated with Graves. She’s dreamed about him for so long, despite her brother’s warnings that she could never handle a man like him. Now that Chloe has turned twenty-five, what she wants for her birthday is Graves. But once she has him, can Chloe tame the passion that will be unleashed?

Read all five e-novellas in this sensational series—and look for the full volume of THE BILLIONAIRE'S CLUB in January 2014 from St. Martin’s Paperbacks.

Romance Book Review: Red Garnier's Taken By Him

Author: Red Garnier

Series Connection: The Billionaire's Club

ISBN-13: 978-1466833456

Genre: Contemporary Erotic Romance

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks

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Luke is shot while having sex with a stranger in his apartment. That's nothing new for him, Luke doesn't mind sharing his bed with a different woman every day and thinks it is his due especially with all his money. 

His friends convince him it is best for him to go away for a while, so the police can sort out who tried to kill him, so he goes to a beach resort and spends some time away from women and to spend some Luke time. 

Peyton is an executive who has worked her butt off and deserves a break. She's decided she's been a good girl for long enough and wants to have her first fling. She meets Luke and decides that she's never going to have a chance to meet a man like him again and goes for it. 

For three days the couple spend practically no time out of bed and the sex is wild and fun, until the day they have to part and realize it has never been like this for either. They part thinking they will never see each other again. 

Peyton's back in her Chicago and back at work and finds out that Luke isn't who she thought he was and when she gets to meet him again, she's ready to give him a piece of her mind. 

This is one of those books where it is just too short to really believe the outcome. As much as I like Peyton's character and love the idea of her branching out and finding vacation fling, which she seems to richly deserve, we don't get a chance to really see Luke's character really change from just a three day fling with Peyton.

Description:

The Billionaire's Club: The wealthiest, most powerful men, not only in Chicago, but in the world. They are used to having whatever they want, whenever they want it.

Luke Preston is the ultimate playboy among his billionaire friends. Every bad girl in Chicago has surrendered in his bed. Some good girls, too. But when he ends up in the hospital after an assassination attempt, his friends suggest he take a long vacation to recoup, regroup and lay off the women until the man is caught. However, when Luke lays eyes on the stunning brunette across the beach, she inspires every dark, erotic thought his mind can conjure.

Peyton Lane has always been serious and responsible and she's determined to have some fun for once in her life. And that means a deliciously, sexy affair with a stranger while she's on vacation. So when a blond Adonis named Luke crosses her path at the Cancun resort, she's determined that he will be the one. But Peyton gets more than she bargained for when Luke introduces her to a passion unlike any she has ever experienced and she discovers that behind that charming smile are secrets and a beautiful, damaged soul.

Romance Book Review: Traci L. Slatton's The Love of My (Other) Life

Author: Traci L. Slatton

ISBN: 9780984672622

Genre: Sci-Fi, Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Parvati Press

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This quirky romance builds a solid story about an artist down on her luck and a nutty professor who whose from out of this world. 

Tessa hasn't been able to paint a picture before last week for three years. That was when everything in her life took a turn for the worse. Always looking out for everyone else besides herself she risks her art career, her marriage and her reputation to help a friend, without realizing that she would be the one who would need help in the end. 

Today Tessa spends her days thinking back on how she lost everything and working with the elderly in a church. She meets a man, Brian, on the street who swears that he's her husband in another universe and that he will only be around for five days and few odd hours. 

Of course she doesn't believe Brian, but being her soft hearted self she can't be mean enough to get him off her tail. 

The story interlaces with memories of Brian's world and the world and Tessa finding out what Brian wants, while trying to get herself out of trouble and to save the church which is desperate need of funds.

The story style takes a little getting used to, but soon the reader will become engrossed in the story and realize that the style works perfectly around the personalities in the characters. One of my true disappointments in this book is the cover. I'm sure it is because of the art appeal, but it promises erotic romance and this is a sweet romance with no real sex scenes included in the book, although there is alluding to sex scenes happening in the book. The same goes for the very erotic video for the book that is featured at the bottom of this entry. Otherwise a good story. 

Description:

Painter Tessa Barnum is struggling. Her husband left, she's broke, about to be evicted and has made some serious missteps in her career. When scruffy Brian Tennyson explodes into her life, claiming to be from an alternate universe, Tessa thinks he's a crazy vagabond - albeit one with mysterious and undeniable appeal.

Then he informs her that in his world, they're married.

Tessa's universe is turned upside down as the truth of love and loss, victory and humiliation, and second chances comes back to her. She has to choose love over logic to reach that state of anticipation where miracles unfold.

The secret to her own life was always in her heart.

Romance Book Review: Lacey Wolfe's Wanted: Wife

Author: Lacey Wolfe

Digital ISBN: 9781937325756

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Beachwalk Press

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Reaching back into one the Harlequin favorite story line of "man needs wife immediately" Lacey Wolfe adds her wonderful writing and twist to the age old story theme.

Steven is desperate. He's worked hard to take over the family company and now his grandfather has just added the stipulation that he will retire when Steven gets a wife. No wanting to marry his ex or any of the other women who have walked through his life, he decides to place an ad in the newspaper.

Darcy answers the ad. 

Darcy is desperate in a different way. After racking up debts in a failed business venture she is in need of money. She decides to answer an ad for a wife from the newspaper and when she sees the ad is from an old high school classmate and likes him today to boot she decides to take his offer.

But how close is too close and what would happen if the two happen to fall in love in their fake marriage?

Description:

Help Wanted: A Wife

Darcy White can't believe she's answering a help wanted ad from someone looking to hire a wife, but she's hit rock bottom and is on the verge of being evicted from her apartment. When she learns that the guy she had a crush on in high school is the one looking to hire, she'd be crazy not to live out her fantasy.

Steven McDonald needs a wife, or at least a fiancée, before his grandfather retires or else he won't inherit the family business. He knows not just any woman will do, and in a desperate attempt to find a solution, he places a help wanted ad in the local paper. The day Darcy White answers it, his dreams begin to come true.

As Darcy and Steven pretend they're engaged, they make a promise to keep things platonic. But the more time they spend together, the harder it is to keep their hands off one another. With his grandfather's retirement approaching, and the possible end to their fake engagement, can Steven and Darcy admit their feelings to not only themselves but each other?

Content Warning: contains adult language and sensual love scenes

Romance Book Review: Kaylie Newell's Taming Johnny

Author: Kaylie Newell 

ISBN: 9781937325763 

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.

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In Taming Johnny, author Kaylie Newell offers a look into the life of a man who has been hurt by the circumstances of his life he can't see that he's about to let the best thing that could ever happen to him walk out of his life.

Johnny is a police lieutenant who has see the worst life has to offer. After his mother's death when he is a young teen breaks his heart and leaves him angry, he decides to immediately join the army after high school. He serves three tours in Iraq and finally having enough of war joins the police force back home. 

He's the lion with the thorn in his foot, always angry and he knows it. Enter sweet Emma. A woman who has had a crush on the cantankerous lieutenant since she started working in the records room at the police force. She knows his current temperament, but she still wants him. She knows that the man underneath all the hard shell can be soft and tender, but can she last while Johnny comes to grips with his feelings for Emma?

In Tammy Johnny author Kaylie Newell isn't worried about showing the rough man that Johnny is, but the reader can't help but understand how Emma feels and wants to cheer Emma on, even while you want to slap Johnny a few times yourself. Johnny is such a sweet name for this guy, it would seem he would have told people to start calling him John. Not a lighthearted read but fast and worth it. 

Description:

He's got the temperament of a lion, and she's just the one to tame him.

Police records clerk Emma Beaumont has always played it safe, never taking many risks. Quiet, shy, and a little overweight, she's convinced herself that she's comfortable with the way her life is. That is until she lays eyes on incredibly sexy Lieutenant Johnny Street. But she's never met anyone with such a terrible attitude. He's a jerk. Everyone thinks so.

Little by little, Emma is forced to uncover a stronger, spunkier part of herself, one that isn't afraid to stand up to him. As she gets to know him, she starts seeing glimpses of a very different man. A man who has known great heartache, and as it turns out, has good reason for embracing such bitterness. Behind his sharp tongue and harsh demeanor, lies a young man who's desperately afraid of losing what's left of himself.

As Emma's intense desire for Johnny turns to love, she will have to ask herself how far she'll go to chip away at his frosty heart. And at what cost.

Content Warning: contains sensual sex and strong language

Romance Book Review: Jennifer Cole's A Delicious Taboo

Author: Jennifer Cole

Series Connection A Delicious Taboo Plus Two

ISBN: 978-1-59632-713-9 

Genre: LGBT, Polyamory, MM-MFM-MF

Publisher: Loose Id 

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Melanie is alone and has a crush on two couples who frequent the bar she works at. When the both male couples make a pass at her and invite her to spend the night with the four of them, she doesn't think they are serious.

I hopes of getting Melanie to share their lives and realize they are totally series Van and Calen invite her to dinner at their place, without letting her know that they have also invited their friends and the second couple Melanie has a crush on, Philip and Jake. The evening turns into a weekend and the five find sexual bliss, but can this last?

Okay, interesting extension on to the ménage story. Lots of sex, sex, and more sex in the story.  

Description:

Committed to one another and their union, Van Dansk and Calen Maxwell decide to spice things up by bringing a third into their bed. They intend to invite the lovely straight barmaid from the local gay/bi night club to join them in a ménage à trois. Their equally committed gay friends, Philip Weston and Jake Welland have the same intentions.

Melanie Drake has been secretly lusting over the seductive, teasing group of friends for six months. She's not delusional, however; she knows her infatuation with the two homosexual couples is completely one-sided and is content to keep her 'love affair' with the four hunks exactly where it belongs -- in her mind.

One night of alcohol indulgence leads the four men to proposition Melanie into going home with one lucky couple. She can't choose one couple over the other, because in her fantasies Melanie has all four men in her bed, together.

But that's just a fantasy, and fantasies aren't real.

Or are they?

Publisher's Note: This title is a re-edited, revised version of the book previously released by a different publisher, and contains explicit sexual content, graphic language, and situations that some readers may find objectionable: Anal play/intercourse, male/male sexual situations, masturbation, ménage (m/f/m, m/m/f/m/m).

Secrets: The Best in Women's Erotic Romance, Vol. 6

Author: Mary Janice Davidson (Love's Prisoner)
Other authors in the Secrets Vol. 6 anthology: Angela Knight, Alice Gaines, Sandy Fraser
ISBN-13: 978-0964894266

Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Erotic Romance, BSDM

Publisher: Red Sage Pub Inc

This original novella book was published way back in 2000. I just love pulling books off the shelf and checking them out again and again. This one was filled with humor, however some may find it not for them, as there are some forced love scenes. I however give the author points for balancing the humor with the sadness and pulling it altogether in a well done piece, especially for her first erotic romance.

Jeannie is stuck in an elevator when it gets stopped in a blackout. Unfortunately it is just before the full moon and she is stuck in the elevator with a man who tells her he is a werewolf. Although he apologizes over and over again he can't help was is going to happen next. He is overcome with excitement at just the smell of Jeannie and the two end up having sex.

Fast forward several weeks later and Michael, alpha to the Wyndham Werewolf Pack has been desperately searching for Jeannie to get her before his enemy finds out she is his mate. When he finds her, she thinks he's just as bad as a nutcase as she thought he was in the elevator. Michael is forced to kidnap her. Can Jeannie ever come to terms with what Michael is and what she is to him?

Description:

In this novella MaryJanice introduces us to the Wyndham Werewolf Pack. Pack leader, Michael Wyndham, is being pressured to find his "mate for life". When trapped in an elevator during a full moon with a woman at the peak of her cycle, he believes he has found his mate. She has other ideas in spite of the heat they generate.

The rest of the Secrets Vol. 6

Love’s Prisoner by Mary Janice Davidson

Trapped in an elevator, Jeannie Lawrence became Love's Prisoner when she experienced unwilling rapture at Michael Windham's Hands. She never expected the devilishly handsome man to show back up in her life- or turn out to be a werewolf! Will she accept her destiny to be his mate?

To My Readers:I’ve always been intrigued by good guys who have to do bad, and werewolves are prime examples of that. It’s tough to be a sensitive, 21st century guy when you turn furry, howl at the moon, and crave raw meat once a month. It’s even worse if you’re in love with someone who not only thinks you’re delusional, but at times actively despises you. Stick two people like this in an elevator, add one power outage, and watch the sparks fly… I hope you’ll email me or visit my website to tell me what you thought about Love’s Prisoner. I love to hear from my readers, and I like getting suggestions on what you think I should write next.

The Candidate for the Kiss by Angela Knight

On the trail of a hot story, reporter Dana Ivory stumbles onto a more amazing one-a sexy, secret agent who happens to be a vampire. She wants her story but Gabriel Archer believes she's A Candidate for the Kiss!

To My Readers:I was watching James Bond do something impossible in one of his movies when I thought, “This would be a lot more believable if he was a vampire.” And just like that, this story was born. Thanks to Alexandria Kendall for letting me play in her Secrets sandbox with my handcuffs and handsome hunks. And thanks to the readers who said, “When are you going to do another vampire story?”

The Education of Miss Felicity Wells by Alice Gaines

The Education of Miss Felicity Wells covers how to satisfy her soon-to-be husband but she needs a teacher. Dr. Marcus Slade, an experienced lover, agrees to take her on as a student, but can he stop short of taking her completely.

To My Readers:At a time when all is forbidden, all will be desired…

Flint's Fuse by Sandy Fraser

In FLINT'S FUSE, Dana Madison's father has her "kidnapped" for her own safety. Flint, the tall, dark and dangerous mercenary, is hired for the job. But just which one is the prisoner- Dana will try anything to get away.

To My Readers: Change time and place, past to future, city to desert, Earth to the stars. One constant endures: the fiery passion of a man and a woman. Lose yourself in the fantasy.

Romance Book Review: Maddy Barone's After the Crash Series

In Maddy Barone's After the Crash series a plane in flight crashes during a nuclear attack. Unknown to the people in the plane the force of the attack sends them into the future 50 years later into a world they don't recognize. Those that survive the crash are all women and as they search out help they find all different types of people in the new world with one thing in common, all are looking for wives and women. Some are gentleman looking to love that special woman and others are woman stealers interested in selling the woman they find or enslaving them into relationships they want no part of. 

I love the world that the author has created. Image what life would be like if an Apocalypse so great came it shut off all power. There was not running water, no hot showers, no flushing toilets. Men were desperate for women. Now image you jump into the future and meet this new world. How would you react? This series should be read in order so you can see the world through the eyes of the woman who came off the plane. 

The first story Sleeping with the Wolf, introduces readers to two woman who go in search of help and find themselves being won as a prize in a Bride Fight. Carla is on her way to being a top country singer 50 years ago, but now she has the attention of every man in sight hoping to win her  as their own. The one who does finally win is more than just a man, because unknown to Carla some men changed more than their attitudes toward woman in the last 50 years, these men have turned into shifters who can turn into wolves. 

Everyone knows who Taye and his other shifter friends are. Some fear them and some respect them. Taye know immediately that Carla is his mate and nothing is going to stop him from having her. Can Carla accept the new world and Taye's protective nature? 

Title: Sleeping with the Wolf Author Maddy Barone

Series Connection: After the Crash

ISBN-13: 978-1466202818

Genre: Paranormal, Futuristic, Shifter, Werewolf

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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Description:

Carla is an up and coming country music star when she boards a plane for Denver in the year 2014. After the plane crashes in the year 2064 she learns that nuclear war destroyed technology and unleashed a plague that devastated the female population. Even now, decades after the plague has dwindled to isolated outbreaks, women are precious commodities to be fought for, and Carla finds herself offered as the prize in a Bride Fight. Alpha wolf Taye knows Carla is his mate. Losing her is unacceptable. He wins the Bride Fight. But can he win her heart?

Title: Wolf’s Glory

Author Maddy Barone

Series Connection: After the Crash

ISBN-13: 978-1466228627

Genre: Paranormal, Futuristic, Shifter, Werewolf

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

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In Wolf Glory, Glory wears her pink hair with pride and doesn't care if people don't like her goth appearance. She's on her way to a job interview when the plane crashes. Now she's years away from civilization as she remembers it and she needs to move with the future and except her fate. When she meets Shadow, a man who says she's his mate, she isn't too keen on taking him up on his offer to become his wife, even though she doesn't mind the idea of him wanting to fool around with him. The only problem is having sex means you're married for life in this new time and she needs to decide if she can accept what goes along with being married to a wolf shifter. 

Description:

When goth-girl Glory Peterson’s plane crashes she walks to find help. What she finds are people living in teepees like it’s the Old West. Wolf’s Shadow knows Glory is his mate. Glory’s happy to take a roll in the hay with him while she’s waiting for transportation back to civilization, but when she finds out she’s gone fifty years into the future and Shadow is a bossy werewolf who thinks he owns her, her attitude changes fast. Shadow is used to giving orders that are obeyed. Glory hasn’t obeyed an order since kindergarten. When two strong-willed lovers clash, who will win?

Title: Wolf Tracker

Author Maddy Barone

Series Connection: After the Crash

ISBN-13: 9781595788955

Genre: Paranormal, Futuristic, Shifter, Werewolf

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books

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Tacker is hired to find a man's wife and bring her back to him. He's all for the money he's going to make until he realizes that the man who wants his wife back has raped and hurt her. That is something he can't live with. When he finds out about the woman in the plane crash and realizes this woman is one of them he sets out to help her find her way away from the other man. Even though he wants her for himself he knows that she isn't ready for that and is determined to stay away until she asks for him.

Description:

Strong, independent Tami was a survivalist and mountain guide in

2014 when she was flung forward fifty years into a post-apocalyptic future where women are worth their weight in gold. She is taken by four men to be their wife, but when she escapes from them they hire the Tracker, a deadly loner from the Clan with a reputation for being able to track anything,  to bring her back. But Tami knows how to ride and how to hide, and she leads him on a chase that rouses his admiration. Behind Tracker’s stone cold face is a man who yearns for a wife of his own. When he catches up with Tami and learns that she is not a willing wife, he knows he can’t give her up. If her husbands aren’t willing to let Tami go, he’ll make her a widow.

Title: Sherry’s Wolf 

Author Maddy Barone

Series Connection: After the Crash

ISBN: n/a

Genre: Paranormal, Futuristic, Shifter, Werewolf

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Sherry's husband was killed on the plane and when she is found, Stag immediately tells her she is his mate and she must come with him. Sherry wants no part of a man ordering her around and she isn't too happy that he's a wolf shifter either. She resists Stag every chance she gets. 

Stag has to decide if it is worth taking desperate measures to get the woman he loves to accept him. 

Description:

A free read available at most online book retailers.

Crash survivor Sherry Rowe was out of her mind with pain when help arrived at the crash site. When the big gray wolf transformed before her eyes into a gorgeous naked man who claimed her as his mate she thought he was a hallucination induced by the horror of the plane crash and the pain of her broken legs. But days later, he was still there, trying to take care of her. How could Jumping Stag expect her to love him, a man who turned to a perverted animal, when she was still dealing with the loss of the husband who hadn’t survived the crash?

Title: Eddie’s Prize

Author Maddy Barone

Series Connection: After the Crash

ISBN: 978-1-93176-144-4

Genre: Paranormal, Futuristic, Shifter, Werewolf

Publisher: Liquid Silver Books

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Lisa is a beautiful fashion model before the crash, but none of that matters to the people of the now time. To them she is just a skinny woman. Of course she is a woman so that's all that counts. Eddie, the mayor's son, has been nice to her from the start so she decides if anyone has to win a Bride Fight for her, she would rather it be him.

But after the wedding things start to change. Eddie is a loving man, however sometimes his jealousy gets out of hand and he has too many secrets for Lisa to deal with. When things start to unravel for her, she runs to Carla and the wolf pack for help. Can Eddie make her understand and give up enough control to tell him her secrets?

Description: 

Lisa Anton was a world famous fashion model before her plane crashed in a post-apocalyptic future where women are precious and rare and technology is only a memory. She’s offered as a prize in a Bride Fight for the best fighter to take home. From the moment he saw the blond beauty Eddie Madison was determined to make her his wife. Beating a dozen other men in the Bride Fight was child’s play for him. Learning to be a husband is a bit trickier. Eddie has been hiding a secret that could destroy their happiness. Is protecting his secret more important than winning his bride’s love?

Soon to be released

Title: Ellie’s Wolf 

Series Connection: After the Crash

Release Date: August 28, 2013

Description:

Note: The name has been changed from Wolf’s Prize to Ellie’s Wolf to avoid any confusion with Eddie’s Prize.

Ellie married her sweetheart and thought they would live happily ever after, with lots of children and a secure life surrounded by family and friends. But when her handsome young husband takes her to a distant city and then dies, Ellie and her young son are left alone among strangers. She is separated from her son and sold to be the prize for a Bride Fight. Quill still mourns the loss of the girl his wolf chose to be his mate and when he learns that Ellie is widowed and about to be forced into marriage to a stranger he rushes to her rescue. Ellie sees him as her cousin’s kind kinsman, but Quill has waited long enough to claim his mate.

Title: Tales of the Wolf Clan (working title)

Series Connection: After the Crash

Description:

A trio of short stories about secondary characters which I will be putting out as in the beginning of 2014.

**Wolf’s Promise: Connie Mondale, co-pilot of the crashed plane, has no intention of being forced into marriage, thank you very much. A former fighter pilot, she’s accustomed to being in charge. But leading two dozen undisciplined women is harder than flying missions over Iraq and Afghanistan. Scarier, too, with woman-hungry men outnumbering them two hundred to one. When Des, the grim-faced werewolf who is always there to support her, offers to share the load, how can she refuse?

**Wolf’s Vengeance: Snake, the fiercely protective wolf who always ends up guarding the mates of other men, finds a mate of his own in this story. Melissa Dirk is a cool-headed cowgirl accused of murdering her husband, and his brothers are demanding she pay for her crime. Maybe she did shoot her back-stabbing, thieving husband, but she’s Snake’s mate. Anyone who wants to hurt her will have to go through him and he will avenge every insult dealt her.

**Wolf’s Game: Sara Nelson is a pretty, spoiled, impetuous tomboy, used to getting her way. She’s won in a Bride Fight by  a handsome, feral stranger who courts her with a bewildering mix of shy pleading and steely determination.  Stone Wolf, whose boyhood name was Jelly, is no Alpha, but he’s not a doormat for his mate to tromp over either. Their game of emotional tug of war is one he intends to win, dragging her body, heart and soul into his arms.

Title: Wolf’s Princess

Series Connection: After the Crash 

Description:

Sky was only seventeen when his wolf chose teen-aged crash survivor  Rose Turner as his mate. With Carla playing watch dog until she’s eighteen and Rose refusing his kisses, he leaves the den to go east and work on the railroad. Now, nearly nine years later, Rose is an old maid with a whole Pack of wolves guarding her like she was the Hope Diamond. She wants a husband and children, and since Sky has ignored her for all these years she decides to find a man to love on her own. But Sky hasn’t been ignoring her and when he hears that his mate is husband shopping he comes back, determined to teach her who her mate is.

Romance Book Review: Carol Lynne's A New Normal

Author: Carol Lynne
ISBN eBook: 978-1-78184-173-0
Genre: Contemporary, Gay, M/M

Publisher: Total-e-bound

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Looking for an excuse to get his ex to talk to him, Jake tricks Charlie to coming to perform at a conference. Charlie has no idea that Jake will be there and after he fooled around with Jake when he was still married, he has no desire to see him now. Jake can't live with that though, he needs to clear the air and hopefully get the love of his life back.

Another of Carol Lynne's emotionally charred romances featuring a man still coming to grips with his sexuality and working to find "The New Normal". This is a very short novella.

Description:

You never forget your first love, but what if your first love never forgot you…and orchestrated an unconventional reunion?

Less than a year after the death of his wife, musician Charlie Foster agreed to perform at a convention in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He thought getting away from New York for a few days would be good for him, but he didn’t expect to see the first person he’d ever fallen in love with.

Jake Pierson gave his heart to Charlie when he was barely fifteen years old. As best friends, Jake believed he and Charlie would be together forever, but when Charlie took the easier path in life, Jake was left to deal with a future without the man he loved.

Jake knew tricking Charlie into performing at a conference he’d helped organise was low-handed, but he had a promise to keep and a future to build.

Reader Advisory: This story has been previously released as part of the “Unconventional At Best” anthology by Total-E-Bound.

Romance Book Review: Robyn Carr's The Newcomer

Author: Robyn Carr
Series Connection: Thunder Point
ISBN: 978-0778314523
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: MIRA Books

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Richly themed book set in the backdrop of a small town on the Oregon Coast, this book goes in to detail on some of today's current family issues. Everything from adult relationships to first love stories to teen depression this book has it all and in some ways just a little too much of everything.

The story really doesn't center around one couple but three families. When "newcomer", Cooper, first comes to Thunder Point six months earlier he becomes involved in a relationship with Coast Guard helicopter pilot Sarah. Everything looks good for them at the end of the last book, but there is still trouble on the horizon. The question is can Cooper convince Sarah that he isn't just passing through or can he show her he's in it for the long haul.

And then there is Mac and Gina. Mac is a local sheriff deputy who takes care of the residents of Thunder Point. For the first time in a long time he takes a chance and takes his relationship with Gina to the next level. Unfortunately while there love is strong, their family lives aren't a bed of roses. Gina's daughter, Ashley becomes despondent after her boyfriend calls it quits and she becomes the mark for a vindictive new girlfriend. In the meantime, Mac's ex-wife comes to town to stir up trouble.

In the mix is Sarah's younger brother and Mac's daughter, who experience a little drama of their own. As well as, Mac's aunt and Gina's mother. All and all there is a lot to keep track of. That is pretty much the style of Robyn Carr's books, and while normally I don't mind, this time I was hoping to dig deeper into Mac and Gina's relationship, but there just isn't enough time for the author to do it all. Yes we learn about their lives through their family's interactions, but miss out on a developing relationship between the two.

You can't be too disappointed with Robyn Carr's style however since she is a well versed author with stories that build good characters and important relationship and current day issues that families deal with all the time. I'll keep reading the series, with the next one being "The Hero" coming out at the end of August, featuring two new characters. One we met in this book and another "newcomer" to Thunder Point.

Description:

With humor and insight, #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr looks at letting go of the past—and knowing when you’ve found something worth building your future on.

Single dad and Thunder Point’s deputy sheriff “Mac” McCain has worked hard to keep everyone safe and happy. Now he’s found his own happiness with Gina James. The longtime friends have always shared the challenges and rewards of raising their adolescent daughters. With an unexpected romance growing between them, they’re feeling like teenagers themselves—suddenly they can’t get enough of one another.

And just when things are really taking off, their lives are suddenly thrown into chaos. When Mac’s long-lost—and not missed-ex—wife shows up in town, drama takes on a whole new meaning. They’re wondering if their new feelings for each other can withstand the pressure...but they are not going down without a fight.

Step into the world of Thunder Point, a little town on the Oregon coast where newcomers are welcomed, hearts are broken and mended, and the dramas of everyday life keep the locals laughing, crying and falling in love.

Romance Book Review: Rue Allyn's Hazard Duty

Author: Rue Allyn

Series Connection: Off Limits

ISBN: 9781603108362 

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Red Sage Publishing

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Ros Duncan thinks her new neighbor is something of a ladies man and she would do best to stay away from him and stay away from the scandal that comes with it. She knows that being a small town principal means that a bad rumor could not only ruin her reputation, but also lose her a job she loves.

From the minute Joe Hazard sees his new neighbor he knows that she's the woman he's been looking for. He's ready to settle down and find love and a woman to share his life with. When he realizes his neighbor is the one girl in high school that he never got but always wanted, he knows this is meant to be.

The only problem is someone else wants Joe and when they find out that Joe isn't interested, she is set to make them both pay. 

While this story is predictable the steamy love scenes and chemistry between the two lead characters makes it worth a read. 

Description:

Chief Petty Officer Joe Hazard defines the phrase love ’em and leave ‘em ladies’ man.  Ordered to recruiting duty in W. Va, Joe moves back to his hometown.  Aiming for Officer Candidate School, he’s eager to get a break from the wild life he’s led. However he doesn’t count on getting blindsided by the one female he’d never been able to impress.

When she first left Birds Gap, Roslyn Duncan never imagined she’d return, let alone as principal of the high school she despised in her teen years.  Those geeky, wallflower days are past and she now has everything she needs—a home, a job, and friends.  The last thing she needs or wants is a man like Joe Hazard who brings back memories of painful longing and inadequacy.  No, she doesn’t need Joe or his outrageous proposition.  But she’s tempted and even indulges her fantasies and convinces herself that Joe shares her dream of getting every student in BGHS a college education.
 

Reader Alert! Principal Roslyn Duncan thinks that her students need a straight-laced, morally upright example. There’s no place in her life for sex or a sexy man until CPO Joe Hazard teaches her that her sensuality is as important as self-discipline. In fact Roslyn learns that discipline can be very stimulating. Watch out, or you may learn the difference between sexual peer pressure and loving discipline. 

Romance Book Review: Lora Leigh, Alyssa Day, Meljean Brook, Lucy Monroe's Enthralled

Authors: Lora Leigh, Alyssa Day, Meljean Brook, Lucy Monroe

ISBN-13: 9780425253311

Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Steampunk, Shifter, Highland Romance

Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

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For contemporary authors pull together a group of short stories that add to their already existing series. 

The lead story begins with one of my favorite series Lora Leigh's Breed series. Meet the Breed they call the Devil and Katie, a young woman who has just discovered that her parents, whom she thought adopted her but turn out to not only be her real parents, but she herself is also a breed. 

Katie's world has turned upside-down. Reporters are waiting outside her parents home and bullets are coming from all directions in the house because the world has just found out she's a breed. Devil Black comes and pulls her out, but with his reputation he might be there to kill her himself. To top that off, she can't stop the attractions she has to him.

Devil has to get Katie out of the line of fire and then far away from him because he can't have the distraction of this one wolf breed. When he realizes that this isn't any ordinary attraction and she feels it too, there is nothing more to do but dive in. 

The story opens the do to some new questions and added to the series. 

In Alyssa Day's League of the Black Swan novella The Curse of the Black Swan readers learn the curse that has been passed down from generation to generation that Brynn has had to live with. Every third night she must sing for the moon, but to make matters a little difficult she much do it shifted into a swan. 

Brynn has no intention of falling in love, much less having a daughter who the curse can be passed down to. That is until fireman Sean O'Malley happens into her life. Sean has issues of his own. He's half fire demon, the most feared of demons. He doesn't want to have to tell anyone his secret much less have children of his own someday, but there is just something about Brynn that makes him want to change all that. And Sean might just be the answer Brynn needs to end her curse. 

In Meljean Brook Steampunk story Salvage from her A Tale of the Iron Seas series readers meet a young couple who fell in love an married, but Georgiana hasn't seen her husband Thom for four years until the day he turns up shot and on the shores of their home town. Georgiana is ready to leave Thom. He not only left in a big hurry to salvage his fortune, he hadn't even bothered to write home and tell her what is going on.

An unexpected turn of events brings the couple closer together and maybe understanding each other a little bit more. 

In Lucy Monroe's Ecstasy Under the Moon readers hear another tale from the Children of the Moon series. This one featuring Una, a young eagle shifter who lives in shame in the Forest of the Ean. As a young child her curiosity got the better of her and she ventured out of the forest too far only to be found by a group of wolf shifters who tormented her. No she can barely tolerate adult company. In her spirit world she meets Bryant, a wolf shifter who has come to the Forest to convince the Ean's that it is time to come out of hiding and come together with all the other shifters where they can be stronger. 

Una doesn't know what to make of Bryant at first, but he knows she's his mate and if he ever does meet her in real life he will be a lucky man. 

These novellas are all teasers to the actual series they belong in and as such the reader shouldn't expect too many resolutions but are encouraged to check out the full novels by each individual authors. I know that if I hadn't read all of the Lora Leigh Breed series books I would be completely lost after reading The Devils Due. Enjoy these novellas for what they a quick read to get the reader interested in checking out something new by each author. 

Description:

They have the power to hold you spellbound, to captivate your senses,

and to keep you forever in their control. Forever enthralled…

#1 New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh returns to her sensual world of the Breeds…as one stubborn Breed meets her match, and can no longer deny her mate—or the fierce desires of her own heart.

New York Times bestselling author Alyssa Day introduces the League of the Black Swan…and the dangerous game one woman plays when her family’s curse dooms her to kill the man she loves.

New York Times bestselling author Meljean Brook delivers a new story in her steampunk world of the Iron Seas…as a man who’s lost everything returns home to find that not only is his marriage in jeopardy, but he must now fight air pirates who intend to steal his one remaining treasure—his wife.

And Lucy Monroe, national bestselling author of the Children of the Moon novels…unleashes the feral passions of a werewolf on the body, mind, and soul of his prey, his lover, his lifemate.

Romance Book Review: Kylie Wolfe's Rayven’s Keep

Author: Kylie Wolfe

ISBN: 9781616504632

Genre: Science Fiction / Romance

Publisher: Lyrical Press

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Tru is in really big trouble and the only way she hopes to get out of it is by seeking help from Nick Ryven. The only problem is before she can ask for said help, he conks her over the head and with nothing else to do with gets her on his ships and leaves the planet they are on before anyone is the wiser. That's okay with Tru since that is what she needed his help with to begin with. 

The last think Nick needs now is to get tangled up in someone else's problems, but when he realizes that Tru's issues might include some of his own problems he decides to hear her out and help her get home to her family, but when he hears the whole story maybe that isn't the best place for her now.

As the two battle the elements of space, some space pirates and even drug cartels, their powerful attraction gets harder to deny, but Nick knows getting Tru out of this mess alive has to be his number one goal. 

For those who like sci-fi this book has some nice world building along with a sweet romance to go with it. Should make a nice continuing series.

Description:

The last thing he needs is the complication of a spoiled heiress.

All Tru Creighton wants is to be taken seriously by her wealthy and powerful family. When she discovers inconsistencies in one of the family holdings, she decides to prove her worth by investigating. After she’s stranded on a foreign planet with no way home and with her life in jeopardy, she puts herself in the questionable care of Nick Rayven.

Nick Rayven knows all about survival. A former soldier and refugee from a world destroyed by war, his focus is solely on carving a new place for himself and his growing business. When he finds himself stuck with Tru Creighton, his life is turned upside down by murder, drugs and an interplanetary conspiracy. To complicate matters more, her presence awakens emotions and feelings he thought long dead.

Nick’s strong sense of duty prevents him from acting on the growing attraction between them, but Tru doesn’t have the same qualms. She willingly follows where her heart leads–straight to the enigmatic, honorable man who is fighting to keep her safe. Will she be able to convince him they belong together?

A Lyrical Press Science Fiction Romance