Vivian's List

 

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Vivian Sorenson is in a verbally abusive relationship, and all the abuse has left her feeling lost and disoriented. When her boyfriend, Brody, calls her "frigid" and "boring ol' vanilla," Vivian ends the toxic relationship and embarks on a journey of sexual self-discovery. Hence, the sexual bucket list or as she calls it: Vivian's List.
Liam Sykes has known Vivian all his life. He's always been overly protective of her and perhaps half in love with her, too. When he happens upon Vivian's sexual bucket list, he agrees to be her sexual partner. Soon it becomes more than just sex as Liam picks up every jagged little shard of Vivian's shattered heart and pieces it back together, replacing it with a piece of his own.

 ** New Adult Erotic Romance intended for readers 18+ due to language and sexual content

Review

****The author provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****
Vivian's boyfriend Brody is verbally abusive; she breaks things off with him and writes a "sexual bucket list". Liam, Vivian’s brother’s best friend who is staying with her, finds it and the two of them start to mark of things on the list. Can they keep it as just sex or will they realize that it's more. The plot is interesting if not a bit cliché, but the author wrote it in a way that kept you reading and not rolling your eyes. I liked the premise of the book Vivian’s bucket list wasn't really out there, I was thinking that it would be more adventurous but everything on it was normal, which is kind of sad for Vivian. I liked the idea and the authors writing more than I liked the book itself. Yes the book was good, but I didn't feel an emotional connection to the main characters that brings a book from good to great. I will be getting Liam's List the next part of the story to find out what happens.

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Author Toni Aleo is hosting an Instagram #BlueLines Party event! 

For those who are new to the series, you can learn all about the books and her hot hockey men HERE. Each book can be read as a standalone. 

Before we jump into details on this event, author Toni Aleo has a little message for her readers. :0)

There you have it! We hope you will join us and help spread the word about #BlueLines!

Opposites do more than just attract in Toni Aleo’s latest Nashville Assassins novel about a very bad boy and the good girl he can’t resist.

The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him—wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lies behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she’s lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.

Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he’s been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it’s not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn’t take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it’s supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam.

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as excerpts from these Loveswept titles: Taking Shots, Trying to Score, and Empty Net.

Pre-order #BLUELINES TODAY!
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How can you help spread the word about #BlueLines?

It's easy! You create an instagram video telling readers why you need #BlueLines? If you are new to the series, no worries! You can still enter. Just get creative! :) 

Don't have instagram? You can download the app for FREE on any mobile phone. 

Make sure to tag @ToniAleo1 in your video on Instagram and use hashtag #BlueLines so that Toni Aleo can keep up with all your videos. 

What do you win?

As a huge THANK YOU, Toni Aleo will be giving away THREE gift cards to the most creative WHY I NEED #BLUELINES? video. Third place will win a $5 gift card, Second place will win a $10 gift card, and first place will win a $20 gift card. 

Enter via rafflecopter below. Everything on the rafflecopter is optional. 

Rules:

• Must be 18 or older to enter.
• Giveaway is open international.
• Winners will be announced on November 25th on Toni Aleo's website, Facebook and Twitter.
• Must tag @ToniAleo1 and #BlueLines in your post. 

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Toni Aleo is the author of the Nasvhille Assassins series: Taking Shots, Trying to Score, Empty Net, Falling for the Backup, and Blue Lines.

When not rooting for her beloved Nashville Predators, she’s probably going to her husband’s and son’s hockey games and her daughter’s dance competitions, taking pictures, scrapbooking, or reading the latest romance novel.

She lives in the Nashville area with her husband, two children, and a bulldog. Read more about Toni here.

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Some Kind of Wonderful

What would you do if you found a baby?

Late one night in Christmas, California, Carol Baker sees unexpected movement in the manger of the year-round nativity scene. A real baby! Alive. Abandoned. With the help of the local sheriff, Carol will care for the precious newborn until her mother can be found... but what then? Will Carol be forced to give up the two people who are beginning to feel like family?

Praise for Some Kind of Wonderful:

"Child deftly invokes the full range of human emotion in this contemporary romance set in the determinedly festive town of Christmas, California...thoroughly satisfying." Lynne Welch, Booklist

For one week only you can download SOME KIND OF WONDERFUL on Kindle! 

GET YOUR COPY HERE!

Some Kind of Wonderful by USA Today bestselling author Maureen Child is on sale for 99 cents for the Kindle from November 14-20! We asked Maureen to answer a few questions about the book and about her own holiday traditions.

What is Some Kind of Wonderful about?

I love this book so much! It's set in Christmas, California, a small town where 'Tis the Season all year long. When Carol Baker finds a baby abandoned in the manger, her heart is immediately captured. She always wanted to be a mom, but she never imagined it would happen like this. Still, the baby is only hers until the sexy local sheriff, Jack Reilly, can find the real mom. Carol's trying very hard not to fall in love with the precious baby – or with Jack – because life has taught her that love can be ripped away in a heartbeat.

Some Kind of Wonderful is a contemporary, small town romance, a perfect heartwarming read for this time of year. I'm really excited to offer it for just 99 cents this week for the Kindle. This is a 352-page book, not a novella. I hope lots of people will snap it up.

http://www.amazon.com/Some-Kind-Wonderful-Maureen-Child-ebook/dp/B00E9GAFDS/

Describe Sheriff Jack Reilly in 5 words.

Alpha. Sexy. Protective. Hurting. Nurturing.

Describe Carol Baker in 5 words.

Vulnerable. Loving. Yearning. Alone. Generous.

What do you love best about the holidays?

What I love best is the time with my family, with a focus not on gifts, but on demonstrating our love for each other in tangible ways. We'll do the whole, big Thanksgiving dinner – turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, pumpkin pie – gathered around a table so overloaded with food, it ought to collapse. Before we eat, we each say one thing we're thankful for. It's fun to see what the kids come up with every year.

I recently moved to Utah, so this will be my second Christmas with snow. I love it! When the world is blanketed by white, everything is hushed and peaceful. This is the most beautiful time of the year.

Thank you for spending some time with us today.

Thank you for helping to spread the word about my sale on Some Kind of Wonderful! Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

USA Today best selling author Maureen Child is the author of more than ninety romance novels and novellas. Maureen is a five time nominee for the prestigious Rita award from Romance Writers of America.

One of her novels, A POCKETFUL OF PARADISE, was made into a CBS-TV movie called The Soul Collector, starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis.

Maureen was not only on the Texas set to watch her characters come to life in front of the cameras, she was also tossed into the last scene by her husband and the producer, who both thought this would be a fun way to humiliate an author!

When her kids were small, Maureen started writing as not only a way to stay sane, but in the hopes of finding a job she could do and stay at home with them. Sanity is still an issue, but she did manage to write her way into a career she wouldn’t trade for anything.

Over the years, she’s written under lots of different names and she prefers the term ‘pseudonym’ to ‘alias’. As Ann Carberry, she wrote western historical romances. As Kathleen Kane, she wrote not only Americana romances, but western paranormal romances as well. As Sarah Hart, she wrote one really spectacular western paranormal that is still one of her favorites. And once, Ann Carberry even wrote a Victorian historical which she absolutely loved doing.

Under her own name, Maureen writes short contemporary novels for Silhouette Desire—books she loves to write because of their fast pace and condensed story telling. Maureen is also writing funny, contemporary paranormal romances for NAL and darker paranormal stories for Silhouette Nocturne.

Life is busy but when she isn’t writing you can find Maureen sitting under her ‘thinking tree’, coming up with new ideas for even more stories. When she isn’t dreaming up a new book or writing a current one, Maureen loves to travel. Her favorite vacation spot is Ireland, with Scotland coming in a very close second. She and her husband love a good road trip and Maureen’s looking forward to the day when she can actually drive to Ireland. Talk about the best of both worlds!

Maureen Child is a native Southern Californian who has recently moved with her family to the mountains of Utah where she's learning to deal with snow on the road and deer in the yard.

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Marry Me

 

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She'd vowed never to fall in love... Julia Richardson is no fan of weddings. A lifetime of watching her parents treat relationships like the flavor of the month has taught her that love is for fools. Then she learns her former stepsister is having a crisis with her pregnancy. The crisis has Julia returning to the small Southern town – and the family – she’s been avoiding for years. Before she knows it, Julia’s been pressed into service running her former stepsister’s wedding planning business, Marry Me. Julia doesn’t know a garter from a garden hose, but now she must navigate couples along the bumpy path down the aisle - despite wardrobe malfunctions, killer bees, and plenty of near disasters. In the midst of it all, Julia makes the most unexpected discovery of all…Love, with Seth Graham, the widowed local minister! Julia’s been running from love and everything spiritual for most of her life. It’s not until she finds the courage to stop running that she finds her own “I Do” moment.

The Story of Marry Me

I write contemporary, inspirational and general market women’s fiction.  I will confess that never thought I’d write an Inspirational romance. I had (a perhaps unfair) impression of Christian romance as overly sappy or preachy. The covers always featured some girl who looked like an extra from Little House on the Prairie. That just wasn’t the kind of book I wrote or read. My books had snark and humor and sassy heroines.

Then came this idea for a book. At first all I knew about the story was that my heroine would be a woman who never wanted to get married – and who in fact hated weddings – who wound up having to run a wedding planning business. Don’t ask me where the idea came from. I don’t have an unnatural loathing of weddings. I simply thought the idea was funny.

Armed with this funny idea, I then spent a long time trying to figure out “…the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to say. I had to ask myself a lot of questions…

Who is this woman?

Why is she so cynical about marriage and why does she hate weddings?

Why is she running this wedding planning business?

What would compel her to do it?

And the big question…who could be the love interest?

I went through many possibilities. It would have to be someone she’d run into a lot while she was planning these weddings. Then one day I stumbled upon the answer…a minister!

Then an amazing thing happened. The story practically came together in an instant like Athena jumping out of Zeus’ head dressed in full body armor. Suddenly, I knew exactly who my heroine was, I knew her past, why she would take on the business, I knew his past, too. Along with the plot came an entire fictional Southern town called Covington Falls.

And with the idea to have the hero be a minister, I realized the story could have a faith element as well. I could write an inspirational romance that was funny and sweet and snarky, but still had a positive, faith message. I could write an inspirational story I would want to read and that hopefully others would, too…even if they weren’t religious.

I wrote MARRY ME (formally called Here Comes The Wedding Planner). Rewrote it a couple of times, taking it from a first person point-of-view book to third person (that’s a whole other story, too). It finaled in the Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Contest in 2010. My agent sent it out to publishers…and it didn’t sell.

MARRY ME sat in my computer until this year when I decided to try again. You, see in the last couple years the entire publishing industry had undergone a seismic shift. The rise of ebook publishers, Amazon & self-publishing changed everything. Then in April I pitched the book to two editors on a website called Savvy Authors. I got two requests for full manuscripts…and two offers!!! Yes, that’s right…TWO!!! Within a week! I accepted the offer from Astraea Press.

I have a special place in my heart for this book because it helped me figure out the kind of writer I wanted to be. And I am so completely smitten by my hero and heroine, Julia and Seth (especially Seth because frankly I believe he wrote the book so I blame it all on him). And I’m so glad everyone will be able to FINALLY read their story.

Growing up Kristin devoured books like bags of Dove Dark Chocolate. Everything from Nancy Drew & Encyclopedia Brown to C.S. Lewis and the Sweet Valley High series. Later she discovered romance novels. It’s no surprise then that Kristin would one day try her hand at writing them. She writes inspirational romance and women’s fiction filled with love, laughter and a leap of faith. In May 2013, Kristin sold her first novel, MARRY ME, to Astraea Press. Publication date to come! When she’s not writing her next novel, Kristin works as an advertising copywriter. She also enjoys singing in her church choir and playing flute in a community orchestra.
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Love Waltzes In

 

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To her millions of fans, ballroom champion Selena Marcil seems to have the perfect life: a great dance partner, a hit reality show, and celebrity perks. But underneath the glamorous ball gowns, Selena longs to find someone to share her life with when the stage lights dim. Selena’s childhood sweetheart, Bret Lord, hung up his dance shoes after winning two national titles with her as a teenager, and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He never saw his former fiancée again, except on television and on the cover of men’s magazines. Ten years and three deployments later, Bret gets an offer to audition for Selena’s dance show. When the Marine Corps gives him temporary leave to appear on the series, Bret can’t refuse the quick cash that will enable him to provide financially for the widow of his buddy, even if it does mean coming face to face with his past. When Bret shows up at her national championship, Selena is shocked. For years she searched for him to no avail. After spending time with Bret, Selena realizes despite their past romance, they have no future. He has no desire to live under a spotlight and she has no desire to leave it. Can Selena and Bret recognize when Love Waltzes In?






                                       

                                        Top Ten Things You Didn’t Know About Alana

                                                  1. I was a professional ballroom dancer.

                                                  2. I learned to speak Russian so I could understand my dance coach.

                                                  3. My secret dream job is to be a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader.

                                                  4. I used to be a professional Spice Girl Impersonator! Ginger!

                                                  5. I run a dog rescue and have saved 150 dogs from high kill shelters.

                                                  6. I took drum lessons from a top heavy metal guitarist.

                                                  7. I have two sons—age 3 and age 7 months

                                                  8. I love Round Table Pizza.

                                                  9. I’ve never ridden a bicycle.

                                                  10. I detest mayonnaise.

Alana Albertson is the former President of both Romance Writers of Americas’s Young Adult and Chick Lit chapters and the founder of Academe Advantage, a college admissions & test preparation company. Alana Albertson holds a Masters of Education from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in English from Stanford University. A recovering professional ballroom dancer, Alana currently writes contemporary romance and young adult fiction. She lives in San Diego, California, with her husband, two young sons, and four dogs. When she’s not spending her time needlepointing, dancing, or saving dogs from high kill shelters through Pugs N Roses, the rescue she founded, she can be found watching episodes of House Hunters, Homeland, or Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team.

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Finding the Right Girl

Finding the Right Girl by Violet Duke
Published October 30, 2013

From the New York Times & USA Today bestselling author who brought you the Nice Girl to Love trilogy, comes a Nice GUY to Love spin-off…

Brian Sullivan has been in love twice in his lifetime.  He lost his first love to early-onset Huntington’s, and he lost the other more recently…to his brother.  And somehow, his heart has managed to heal itself after both.  Amazingly, without therapy. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t gotten more wary along the way, however. In fact, he’s been thinking lately that maybe his brother’s now retired nothing-but-flings rule isn’t such a bad idea. Unfortunately, being the nice guy poster boy and all, Brian isn’t exactly versed in the fine art of flings.  So he looks to the outrageously ‘unique,’ provokingly button-pushing Tessa Daniels for a crash course.

There’s absolutely no way he’s falling in love with this one…right?

Tessa has no idea what she was thinking telling Brian that she was some sort of fling expert. She’s never been flung before and she sure as heck doesn’t know where or how to begin flinging a guy like Brian.  It was a temporary lapse in sanity, really—no doubt because of the can’t-help-but-fall-for-him brain fuzz that hits her whenever he’s around.  Not only does the man have her being more herself than she’s ever been in her life, but he’s the only person she knows who seems to have as many demons and skeletons in the closet as she does.  What’s more, he’s got her thinking of the one thing she stopped letting herself even hope for years ago.

A happily ever after.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | iTUNES | KOBO

   The door slammed shut behind him, cloaking them in darkness.

   “You drive me crazy, you know that?”

   God, his voice had dropped even lower, to a sexy thunder down under rumble.

   “Crazy in a good way or a bad way?” Tessa managed to ask as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light.

   “Both.”  He circled slowly around her as if she were a dangerous animal…he was getting ready to pounce on.  “You have no filter whatsoever.  Not with what you do or say, and especially not with how you react.”

   “That’s not my fault. You can just point that finger at yourself buddy,” she grumbled back before snapping her mouth shut.

   Alright, so maybe he was right about the filter thing.

   “What?”   

   Man, if looks could strip.  She’d never felt this naked before, this out of control.  Inwardly, she sighed. The guy just brought out the uncivilized in her.

   Oh well, she came this far, may as well see where this ride ends.  “You heard me.”  Her chin came up defiantly.  “I can’t think when you talk in that ridiculously sexy voice.  Or when your biceps suddenly double in size in the middle of even the simplest of tasks, like lifting a coffee mug.  And don’t get me started on your eyes.  My god, I almost walked into a wall the last time you smiled and your eyes went from that soft ocean blue to deep turquoise.  I mean who does that?!”  

   It was like she just couldn’t stop talking.

   When he came to a standstill and simply stared at her like she’d lost her mind, she huffed.  “It’s simply not reasonable to expect a girl to have a filter with all that steamy-eyed, bicep-popping, talking-like-a-wet-dream-voice-over madness going on!”

   Silence.

   Huh, so where might one buy one of these filters, she wondered.

   With a quiet curse, he stomped toward her and picked her by the waist, not even pausing in his stride as he kept right on walking to the bed.  Well, if he going to take her for a ride…she speared her hands into his thick, tousled waves and nearly purred with pleasure.

   “Stop being so damn open,” he rasped, sounding like a man about ready to do the unimaginable, his lips a whisper away from hers.

    “Stop being so damn irresistible,” she threw back, digging her heels into the carpet until his body ran flush into hers and bulldozed her straight back, flat onto the bed.

   The air wedged in her throat as she watched the outline of his granite-etched jaw clench and release.  He was so beautiful.  Oh to hell with it.  She wrapped her arms around his neck and touched her lips to his throat.  The quiet male hiss she heard shot her attention down to the fact that he was more than a little happy to see her.  Impressively so.  And her sigh of pleasure against his throat served as a live current of electricity that she felt run through him…everywhere.

New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Violet Duke is a former professor of English Education who is ecstatic to now be on the other side of the page writing wickedly fun contemporary romance novels. When she's not arguing with her story characters or feeding her book-a-day reading addiction, she enjoys tackling reno projects with her power tools while trying pretty much anything without reading the directions first and cooking 'special edition' dishes that laugh in the face of recipes. Violet lives in Hawai'i with her two cute kids and similarly adorable husband. 

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Awakening

 

  

River Rock, Vermont, 2011. This is the story of Claire Ryan and Evan Lang. 35-year-old Claire joins a local book club for romance readers in order to get over the breakdown of her 10-year relationship, there she meets book shop owner Evan, a dominant man who has never recovered from the sudden death of his submissive wife. As their relationship develops and they embark on the path of Claire's submission, it becomes harder and harder for Evan to keep his emotional distance. Claire is open and responsive and he wants her badly, but refuses to let himself go. As Claire falls deeper in love with Evan, she realises that he is holding back and decides to end their relationship, forcing Evan to confront his own past and his feelings in order to save his new love.

Review

 ****SOURCEBOOKS Casablanca, via NetGalley provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****
Claire Ryan is about to embark on a journey she never saw coming. After a hard break up from an unhealthy relationship she should have ended long ago, she decides to join the world one step at a time. Claire decides to start with a book club at a quaint local book store named Bibliophile.
Evan Lang is still in love with his wife who he lost to cancer, so he fills his days with the other love in his life, his book store. When he sees a woman who stirs long dead feelings he's angry with her and himself. To make mattes worse, he sees her quietly sneaking to read the store's erotica, embarrassed but aroused. An overheard conversation later he knows she's way more than he expected, and he's just the man to give her the awakening she needs. However, when his own demons come to surface he may have underestimated just how much he needs her in return.
Awakening was one of the more unique tales of a woman's journey into discovering her submission. Although the insta love was a disappointment, the heartbreak and struggle was inspirational .Palatable emotions and deep characters lead way to a nicely flowing storyline suitable for an array of readers. The sex was hot but didn't take away or make up the storyline. The depth of emotion between the characters and involved in the D/s relationship was accurate and led to a believable HEA. And of course I wish Bibliophile was a real book story because it made me want to curl up in the reading section in the back and enjoy. 

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Ungifted

Ungifted by Kelly Oram

Book 2 in the Supernaturals series

YA paranormal/fantasy

Even though her father is running for President of the United States, Grace St. Claire is as normal a girl as they come. She’s clumsy, shy, and an outcast among her peers. She even manages to nearly die in a freak accident in front of the entire school. But when Grace survives a vampire attack she quickly learns that she is anything but ordinary.

There’s something about human Grace that has all the supernaturals around her going crazy. Her best friend’s brother suddenly wants to date her. Her worst enemy has sworn to protect her even against her wishes. Someone with very powerful magic wants her dead, and the vampire that attacked her has developed an obsession with making her his eternal mate.

In order to survive—and not as Count Dracula’s undead bride—Grace dives head first into the terrifying world of the supernatural. She teams up with a charming but mysterious warlock who strolled into town causing trouble and spouting stories of a Prophesy and Chosen One that looks exactly like Grace. Together they must figure out why Grace is different, who wants her dead, how she’s connected to the Chosen One, and who they can really trust.

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Cooking Up Love

Goodreads Lyrical Press

Mix a chef and her contractor, stir in a mystery, and cook up a romance. Jemima George leads a charmed life as a personal chef and assistant to reality television's latest darling. But that changes in a New York minute when her Aunt Caro dies under odd circumstances, bequeathing her a small restaurant. Jem plans to sell the café and continue her life in NYC, until a dramatic phone call from her cheating boyfriend convinces her to experiment with the ingredients for happiness and accept her Aunt's legacy. Throwing herself into remodelling the restaurant with the help of the town's delicious contractor, Jem revamps the menu and renews her faith in herself. Jack Kerrigan considered Caro a surrogate mother and hates the idea that the cafe could be sold. He doesn't need the remodelling project, but if it means Caro's beautiful, fascinating niece will stay to run the restaurant, he's all in. He wouldn't mind being savoury to Jem's sweet. Jack's brassy ex-wife is cooking up a scheme of her own, where Jack tosses Jem like a salad and comes back to her. Fold in a creepy attorney hiding secrets of environmental mayhem, add Jem's claustrophobia, half-pint niece and nephew twins, one mysterious lockbox, and bring to a boil-a recipe for romance.

Review

****Lyrical Press provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****
I am a sucker for a food related romance, so the title of this one sucked me in . This book started off fast, immediately you are thrown into the present. Jem's Auntie has passed away suddenly and her life is in turmoil as she has been left her Aunties café. Her boyfriend soon to be fiancé turns out to be not so nice so this ends up being a gift at a new sort of life. Throw in the delicious contractor hired to fix up the café and you have a recipe for an interesting romance.
I liked a lot of things about this book. The characters were well written and warm, the setting was the kind I like. The writing flowed and but sometimes I admit to wishing it was a bit faster. I did feel that the storyline was a bit predictable, so the mystery wasn't really a mystery. Everything was sort of alluded to right from the start....although I would like to find out about her aunts mysterious illness. Lets face it, its the romance that I read this book for and it was a good one. Jack and Jem had chemistry that lead to many steamy scenarios. I liked them as a couple and enjoyed reading how they got their happily ever after.
This was a satisfying read.

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Reign of Blood

Goodreads Smashwords

  

 

"Never tease anything that wants to eat you. My name is April Tate and my blood is the new gold. Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother. The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I'm just hoping to make it to the next Vegas sunrise..."
In a post-apocalyptic world, a viral epidemic has wiped out most of the earth’s population, leaving behind few humans but untold numbers of mutated vampires. April is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the remains of Las Vegas one year after the outbreak. She has become a ferocious vampire killer and after her family is abducted, she goes searching for them. What she finds is a new breed of vampire, unlike any she has seen before. Unsure of whom she can trust, she discovers that her view of the world is not as black and white as she once thought, and she's willing to bend the rules to rescue her family. But in trying to save them, she may only succeed in bringing her fragile world crashing down around her.

Review

****Indie Inked through NetGalley provided me with a copy of this book for my honest review****

"Never tease anything that wants to eat you. My name is April Tate and my blood is the new gold. Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother. The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I'm just hoping to make it to the next Vegas sunrise..."

New author on my radar! This book was such an intense thrill ride. In a time where post-apocalyptic novels are abundant this book still brought a fresh spin that held my attention from the beginning. April's journey is a violent and bloody one as she discovers the tattered remains of her world aren't what she thought they were. I really respected April. She's young, 17, and instead of allowing herself to become a victim she adapts to survive the best she can, teaching herself how to fight and arming herself. She doesn't get cocky and go out guns blazing though, she remains smart. Even after her family is taken she devises a plan. It was nice to see a young characters not be displayed as some ditzy hormone filled body. There were twists and turns I didn't see coming and the story was well written and fast paced. The world was so intricately developed and realistic that you got sucked into an alternate universe where this was the real world. I definitely recommend this one and it was free on Smashwords at the time I posted this review.

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Dark Salvation

 

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A gathering storm of violence is on the horizon. Whispered threats of the Acta Sanctorum’s return have the supernatural world abuzz. Only recently aware of the other world hidden behind our own, Kitara Vanders has barely scratched the surface of what being supernatural truly means. A special woman in her own right, she possesses unique telepathic abilities, gifts that have recently come under the scrutiny of the Acta Sanctorum, a fanatical organization whose mission is to cleanse the world of anything supernatural. Targeted, and marked for death, Kitara’s only hope lies with the lethally seductive yet emotionally scarred warrior, Nicholas. Knowing full well the atrocities the Acta Sanctorum is capable of, Nicholas is all too eager for the battle to begin. Fueled by pain and rage from the loss of his mate, he’s itching for a fight, but one thing stands in his way, Kitara: a beautiful dark-haired woman with unique psychic abilities and an unusual link to the Saints. Despite his resolve to remain focused on his mission, a purely physical relationship binds them together in a way neither of them expected. And when her life hangs in the balance, Nicholas finds his own is teetering on the edge too.

Excerpt

Kitara glanced down to the ring on her finger. The small band of gold with channel-set diamonds and sapphires had only adorned her finger for six months. She remembered the day Jeremy got down on one knee and proposed. He’d told her he was the luckiest man alive to have found her and that he’d do everything in his power to take care of her.

How could all that have changed in such a short time? What had the Saints done to turn his affections? For that matter, what other lies had the Saints told Jeremy?

After becoming a Saint, Jeremy had said vampires and all other supernatural beings were depraved creatures. That had been the start of the end for their relationship. She’d been labeled one of the unnatural creatures for the way she prayed under the light of the full moon.

She’d believed that other creatures could be evil, but not her. She wasn’t a witch or anything like that. And vampires, sure, they would most certainly be on the list of bad things. But now that she’d met one, she wasn’t so sure she agreed with that assessment any more.

Despite his abrasive attitude, that vampire – Nicholas – had showed more humanity than the jerk she’d met at the bar the previous night. He’d saved her not once, but twice, albeit in the most aggravating way possible. He hadn’t tried to bite her either. Though now that she thought about it, his mental attack on her at the club might have been exactly the kind of thing Jeremy had warned her about. Thankfully she’d been able to ward him off. The echo of a headache still remained, a subtle reminder that if she chose to fight a mental attack, she could do it. She’d just need to make sure she could find a safe place to weather the aftereffects.

Perhaps not all Jeremy had told her had been true, but there were kernels of truth there that had her questioning everything she had known.

Vampires were real. She’d just met one in the flesh. And though she hated to admit it, his flesh wasn’t all that bad either. She’d expected to see sallow skin and a gaunt frame, something out of Nosferatu. Maybe even some crazy looking fangs. Nicholas was nothing like that. Despite his abrasive attitude, he was attractive and muscular, his dusky blue eyes were mesmerizing, and his teeth… sharp, but very discreet. She’d only really gotten a good glance at them when he smiled. And though it made her stomach turn at the idea of what he did with those fangs, she felt a twinge of excitement seeing them. A small thought crept into her mind. What would it feel like to be bitten? As soon as the thought took form, she pushed it away. That was exactly the kind of thing that invited trouble. She’d already had plenty of that.

The reality of this new information was unsettling. Vampires were obviously real. Witches were real. Jeremy had accused her of that more times than she could count. And if all of what Nicholas had said was true, and the Saints were killing all things unnatural, then she was a target herself.

That couldn’t be right. No. There was no way Jeremy, the same man who once filled the entire room with candles and red rose petals, could kill her in cold blood.

Katie Salidas is a Super Woman! Endowed with special powers and abilities, beyond those of mortal women, She can get the munchkins off to gymnastics, cheerleading, Girl Scouts, and swim lessons. She can put hot food on the table for dinner while assisting with homework, baths, and bedtime… And, she still finds the time to keep the hubby happy (nudge nudge wink wink). She can do all of this and still have time to write. And if you can believe all of those lies, there is some beautiful swamp land in Florida for sale… Katie Salidas resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. Mother, wife, and author, she does try to do it all, often causing sleep deprivation and many nights passed out at the computer. Writing books is her passion, and she hopes that her passion will bring you hours of entertainment.
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