Drawing the Devil

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 A heart can live a lifetime in eight seconds.

Ever since his father caught him with another boy and threw him out at the tender age of sixteen, Dustin Lewis has been fighting his way up the national bull-riding rankings. He’s on the brink of qualifying for the National Finals when he draws Diablo, a notoriously rank bull—and the ride goes bad.
When bullfighter Shane Rees frees Dustin from the rigging of the same bull that nearly destroyed his face, he comes dangerously close to dropping his guard. Shane knows the potential consequences of being gay in a sport loaded with testosterone-overdosed cowboys, and the resulting scars of mind and body have left him with little self-worth.
Their near-death-by-bull first meeting sparks an attraction that awakens every last one of their personal demons. Yet as the National Finals draws closer, so do they. But they’ll have to overcome emotional highs, near-tragic lows, and bone-crushing danger before love can bust out of the chute.
 

Warning: Contains man-on-man boot knocking, rawhide and raw emotions, badass cowboys and even badder-ass bulls. This ain’t your old man’s rodeo. 

Review

****Samhain Publishing via NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy for my honest review****
Shane Rees has his demons. The scars on his face and body have nothing on the inner turmoil of feeling like you'll never be accepted for who you are. Being gay in the world of rodeo feels like a death sentence to one of the few things he enjoys anymore. Being a bullfighter is the one thing he still has confidence in, he certainly has none left in himself. His self depreciating devil on his shoulder says that a young, handsome bull rider like Dustin Lewis could never look at him with more than disgust or as a quick way to find relief. Shane is used to cowboys using him for their own needs before shoving him out in the cold. When Dustin admits attraction to Shane, he thinks it must be just another cruel joke.
Dustin doesn't understand how Shane can't see how gorgeous he is, inside and out. He understands rejection being thrown out at 16 when his father discovered he was gay, added to the ADHD, he fights his own issues with acceptance. He finds something in Shane that leaves him addicted to more than just his body but until they both find acceptance the sparks may just be left to burn out.
I have a lot of mixed emotions about this book. I felt the most connection to Shane through it all though I can't say either left a lasting impression. It was an easy read that was worth the time but I felt like both characters had some reality to come to terms with and some growing up to do. Some of the dialogue made me sigh but the quality of writing wasn't at fault. I didn't quite feel the romance between Dustin and Shane and that may have been what kept me from really getting into it. No cliffhanger and worth a read if you love to read cowboy M/M, but don't go into it looking for a deep story. I would, however, read another book by this author.

 

King's

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“I am the man who can find anything or anyone. For a price. And my price is you.”

When Mia Turner’s brother goes missing in Mexico, while on an archaeological dig, she believes that life couldn’t get much worse. But when she’s blocked at every turn from finding answers, by both local and U.S. authorities, she must turn to a man she swears is the devil.

Others might be fooled by his private jet, fine tailored suits, and disarming smile, but Mia knows something dark, sinister, and unnatural lurks behind those penetrating, pale-gray eyes. And the more she learns, the more she realizes she may never be free again.

Review

****The author via NetGalley provided me with a complimentary copy of this book for my honest review****
Mia Turner thinks she's willing to do anything to get her brother back, but is she willing to get in bed with the devil?

King's was just what I need at a time where everything was starting to feel like it fell into neat categories and I was frankly getting burnt out. Mimi Jean Pamfiloff's refreshing story and air of mystery brings to mind other great story tellers like Karen Marie Moning. The tension arches between Mia and King as we weave through her journey to bring her brother home and watch her hit road block after road block. Mia is a strong protagonist that doesn't easily bow to King no matter how far his power reaches, although at times her lack of agreement could be found frustrating. King is alpha without trying too hard, after this book I still have no real clue who or what he is. All I know is that the author has left a trail of delicious bread crumbs that I intended to follow. The book had you wanting to instantly learn his secrets and there was no way I could have ended at book 1, I finished the whole series in two days.

 

Darkhouse ( Experiment in Terror #1)

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There’s always been something a bit off about Perry Palomino. Though she’s been dealing with a quarter-life crisis and post-college syndrome like any other twenty something, she’s still not what you would call “ordinary.” For one thing, there’s her past which she likes to pretend never happened, and then there’s the fact that she sees ghosts. Luckily for her, that all comes in handy when she stumbles across Dex Foray, an eccentric producer for an upcoming webcast on ghost hunters. Even though the show’s budget is non-existent and Dex himself is a maddening enigma, Perry is instantly drawn into a world that both threatens her life and seduces her with a sense of importance. Her uncle’s haunted lighthouse provides the perfect catalyst and backdrop for a horrific mystery that unravels the threads of Perry’s fragile sanity and causes her to fall for a man, who, like the most dangerous of ghosts, may not be all that he seems

Review

Over the last few years I have heard many good things about this author and about this series. It has a very strong following. I am slow to jump on bandwagons but I have to admit that my curiosity was pricked and I finally folded and bought the first in the series.
I have to admit that this book begins slowly. There were quite a few times that I was wondering what all the fuss was about. However I had to remind myself, and you if do read the book yourself, that this is a fairly common thing in first books of a series. There is a lot of character building, background information etc. These are all good things, it builds your attachment to the characters, gets your interest, makes the book less shallow,so I pushed through ( I advise you do the same).
Perry Palomino is an interesting character, a little bit emo/grungy, I liked her style, her inner thought process, which seemed typical for a 22 year old who has been looked at funny her whole life for "seeing dead people". She was realistic and relate-able.I am quite attracted to characters like this, ghosts are my thing, my weakness. If there is a ghostly essence to a book/series I am there!
Any who, so Perry is sensitive to those pesky spirits around her and it seems to have gotten her into a bit of trouble over the years.She is a little bit of a loner. This leads her to a lonely midnight stroll at her uncles house where she walks smack bang into Dex Foray, another weird type character. The things we learn about Dex are few and far between in this book, in fact I was getting really frustrated by his "bipolar" type personality changes. I just couldn't get a feeling about him at all. I was once again told to prevail. Comments like "this is the slowest book in a great series" were said to me. I continued on.
These two together made an interesting pair. I am not sure how their dynamic will change over the series,however there seemed to be a small about of chemistry there. Maybe that will be built upon? The way that they are diving into this supernatural web show was interesting too. Even if the show is not successful it seems that these two are being guided by a mysterious ghostly old lady. Her appearances and clues are what has made me want to read the next book, in fact I have already bought it. I now simply must know about Dex and his past. I also want the ghostly details,plus, who the hell is that ghostly lady? lol
The creepy factor in this book was moderate. I wouldn't really say it was scary. But I am hopeful for some goose-bumpy reading in the next installment.
I have only rated this book a 3 out of 5 stars, this is purely due to the slowness of the story to get to some action. However I will be reading on and from what I have heard I will be rating the next books higher.

Love, Succumb

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Two souls …
Destined to be together
But just can’t be …
Eve’s life is going well -A job she enjoys, friends she loves, and a boyfriend who loves her and is dedicated to helping her achieve her end goal: Revenge.
Rene Ackerley happens.
A brilliant, beautiful man who has the world at the tip of his fingers. Money, Power, Respect, he has it all.
At thirty, he is the leader of a world-wide syndicate so powerful that its existence is almost legendary.
He is also the leader of the very men who took everything away from Eve.
The instant their eyes fall on each other, obsession becomes as real as the air they breathe.
They crave each other like drugs. They can’t bear to be apart.
But there is Bash. The man who has been in love with Eve since he was a young boy. She is all he knows. He will rather die or kill than be without her…

Review   

I had a few issues with this book. Unfortunately it ticked off some of my worst pet peeves.

Let me explain.

Character consistency. I like my characters to feel like they are a real person. Someone that I can relate to and understand.

I had trouble doing this with Rene and Eve. They chopped and changed throughout the book leaving my head spinning some times as to what exactly was going on and whether I was still reading the book from that particular persons point of view.

However I did like how we did get the different point of view perspectives.

Proof Reading. My spelling and sentences are atrocious so this is not me being nit picky or judgmental, however I felt that this book could have done with being proofread a little bit better.

Sometimes a completely wrong word was put into a sentence.
Now it could be because we seem to get thrown into the book at the "end"? and then brought back to the present but I loved the way the book started. Right in there guns a blazing, sexy over the top domineering sexy man Rene, teasing poor Eve. It is what kept me reading the book.I wanted to get to that part of the book, where both personalities had gotten to that stage in there relationship.

The stuff leading up to that ( which is the rest of the first book) is a bit stunted and I was confused as to what was actually going on. Now this could be because this seems to be a part book, so we are supposed to have questions and thus want to read the next installment. However I will say that I was just a bit miffed by this stage. The characters seemed to have gone through a lot of personality changes,already so far, yet I cannot understand what is driving them. Why does Eve have so much hate for Rene at the beginning? Why when she is supposed to be so happy ( book blurb) is she really quite miserable ( mother hate, sister who died, boyfriend, but is he?) I feel we got a lot more clear information in the blurb, but it didn't translate into the book. See! I have so many questions.

Finally, we end on a cliffhanger! Grrrr, why!

Now I have done a lot of complaining here, I am so sorry, I am not meaning to be mean. I just think this book could have been better if things were slowed down a bit, there was more solid character building and background story explanation. After all the story was interesting if only we got a bit more to whet our appetites so to speak.