Always on My Mind by Bella Andre

30 Mar

alwaysonmymind2At long last, Lori “Naughty” Sullivan falls in love in Always On My Mind, the new book in Bella Andre’s New York Times and USA Today bestselling series about the Sullivan family.

After a tragic loss three years ago, Grayson Tyler left his life in New York City behind and started over in the rolling hills of the California coast. He’s convinced himself that all he’ll ever need again is the blue sky, a thousand acres of pasture, and the crashing waves of the ocean.

Until one day, Lori Sullivan barges into his life and promptly blows his emotionless and solitary world to shreds, driving him crazy as only a woman nicknamed “Naughty” can.

But will Lori be able to convince him that it’s safe to love her… and that forever isn’t actually out of reach?

 

review

“Oh, Grayson… Don’t they know better than to wait for an invitation when the only thing that works with you is just showing up and refusing to leave?”

It’s with bittersweet anticipation that we awaited the last book in The Sullivans series and personally, this was the story that I wanted to read the most. One by one, the Sullivan siblings met the loves of their lives, and one by one, they found their happily-ever-afters. We watched Lori “Naughty” Sullivan witness it all, rejoice in her brothers’ and sister’s happiness, sometimes with a cynical attitude and always with a protective streak, but ultimately sharing their joy and only wanting what is best for them. We got hints throughout the previous books that her love life might not be all that rosy, but the details stayed a mystery. In this final book we finally find out who Lori really is, what motivates her and what is in her heart. We unveil the vulnerable woman behind the sassy attitude, and let me tell you, she might just be my new favourite!

Lori’s story starts on a sad note. We find her heartbroken and disillusioned with love. She is grieving the loss of a relationship, as dysfunctional as it was, and this latest heartbreak in her life has shaken her to the core, making her question her place in the world, making her give up her one and only passion in life – her dancing. She has given up her career, left it all behind and decided to find a random place away from it all where no one knows her, to regroup, find her bearings in life again, and lick her wounds. And that is how she stumbles upon a farm in Pescadero, CA looking for a farmhand.

“Lori had something to prove to herself first before she could go back to her real life. And she hadn’t yet proved it, hadn’t even come close to turning the darkness that had settled inside her these past months back to bright, vibrant color.”

As idyllic as her new surroundings might be, the farm owner does not appear to be impressed with her sudden appearance. Grayson has escaped city life himself, hoping to find comfort in isolation and solitude. He carries the heavy burden of guilt on his shoulders for the way his marriage had crumbled and turned into tragedy, having resigned himself to the idea of never deserving to find love again.

“For three years, solitude had been his companion and he’d convinced himself that all he’d ever need again were the blue sky, a thousand acres of pasture, and the crashing waves of the ocean. Until, from completely out of the blue, Lori Sullivan had barged into his life… and promptly blown his carefully emotionless world to shreds.”

Two broken hearts in need of mending, two lonely individuals desperate to love again but fearing another disappointment. Lori barges into Grayson’s quiet and predictable everyday life like a breath of fresh air, her smiles and positivity bringing his walls down, one cranky brick after another. While he likes his silence, she likes to talk, while he grunts his disapproval at everything she does, she responds with a smile. Before they know it, they are under each other’s skin, their mutual attraction steering the wheel, but their growing affection for each other being the driving force behind it. They thread the frustrating waters of unspoken sentiments and fears of unrequited love, week after week, until they finally give in to all the pent-up desire between them and when they do, oh boy, do we get fireworks!

“Nothing has ever been better than this, Lori. Not one goddamned thing.”

They heal each other, fall deeper in love with one another day after day. Grayson fulfils her dream of finding someone who would do anything humanly possible to make her happy, someone who would want to protect her and make her feel safe in giving her whole heart to him. Lori’s love for Grayson finally overshadows his guilt and pain, giving him hope that in Lori’s love he has finally found his home.

“Every time he kissed Lori and tasted how fresh and sweet she was, Grayson felt as though he was being bathed in warm sunlight on a perfect summer day. And even now, as he kissed her beneath the moon and the stars, that warmth moved through his veins, pumping through a heart that had been cold for so long.”

A beautiful story of finding the kind of love that feeds the soul, flesh and bone. In true Bella Andre style, we are taking a journey into her unique brand of ‘meant-to-be’, into a reality where true love finds you regardless of how much you fight it or how little you expect it. This is a stunning finale to the Sullivan siblings saga, one that completes their stories by finally giving the last sibling her happily-ever-after. My heart is so full right now but so incredibly sad as well knowing my thrilling Sullivan tales have come to an end.

The series, however, continues with their cousin Rafe Sullivan’s upcoming book, The Way You Look Tonight, coming in Summer 2013.

“I love you… So that means you’re going to have to love something again. I know you hate doing anything I say, but this time you’re going to have to. Because you’re going to love me back. I’m going to make sure of it.”

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The Sullivans Series – Reading Order and Purchase Links
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The Giveaway

Because I love my Sullivans, I am giving away an e-copy of any ONE of The Sullivans books – winner’s pick! To win, please enter below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions.

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Let Me Be The One by Bella Andre

3 Sep

When Vicki Bennett saved Ryan Sullivan’s life as a teenager, it was the beginning of a close friendship that never wavered despite her failed marriage to someone else and Ryan’s well-earned reputation as a ladies man. So when she suddenly needs a pretend boyfriend to protect herself and her career from a powerful man’s advances, he is the only person she can imagine asking.

Ryan will do anything to protect Vicki from harm, but when their “fake” kisses and caresses lead to an incredibly sensual night that neither of them can resist, will he have made the biggest mistake of all by irreparably jeopardizing their friendship? Or is it possible that what they’ve both been looking for has been right there the whole time … and the perfect combination of wicked and sweet, friendship and love, is finally within reach?

review

Another delightful installment of The Sullivans series and, as usual, Bella Andre does not disappoint. I am not even sure how this is possible but, as the series continues, the stories keep getting better and better. I’m at a point where when I know a Bella Andre book is being released, I put everything else on hold in my life and dive into her new book until my fingers get all pruney. And what a scrumptious dive that is!

This is Ryan Sullivan’s book – he is the professional baseball player in the family and we have met him in previous books as the incorrigible bachelor. Ryan has had one best friend since he was a teenager, Vicky, but their lives have followed very different paths over the last decade. They are finally living in the same city again and Vicky needs his help. She needs Ryan to pretend to be her boyfriend to deter the inappropriate advances of a man who has the power to make or break her career as an artist. What starts as innocent role-play soon turns into irresistible reality, awakening long-suppressed feelings between Ryan and Vicky and making them realise that they have been each other’s ‘the one’ all along.

“Ryan didn’t just want Vicky, didn’t just crave her laughter, her curves, her mouth beneath his. He loved her. And every other woman he’d been with since that day she’d come into his life had only been a placeholder for the real thing.”

What is it about friends-to-lovers stories that presses all the right buttons with me every single time? The sexual tension between these two characters was so skilfully woven into the first part of the story, the anticipation of the inevitable climax slowly torturing us and making us turn the pages with increasing frustration. Ryan and Vicky’s friendship is something they equally value and do not want to ruin by taking their relationship ‘to the next level’ but the more we find out about them and their history, the more we know with certainty that they are made for each other. They struggle to reconcile the precious friendship that they share with fifteen years of hidden feelings for each other, but they quickly realise that a risk is sometimes worth taking when the alternative could mean regretting a missed opportunity for the rest of their lives. Oh, and there is no denying  a silver-tongued Sullivan when he takes charge of the ‘issuation’!

“Every fantasy, Vicky.” His words were raw. And so low she could barely hear them over the spray from the multiple showerheads. “You’re every single fantasy I’ve ever had.”

The development of the relationship between Ryan and Vicky follows a steady upward line, gently paced and constantly making as crave for more. The pace is on the slow side at times but that is because once the characters reach a high point in their relationship, that line never takes a downturn. We can always rely on Bella Andre to deliver a great love story without breaking our hearts in the process.

Ms Andre’s writing is consistently delicious, as always. Her prose is nor crass or unnecessarily weighed down by one explicit sex scene after another – not that I would have complained had that been the case! Her love scenes are classy, well-written and beautifully interwoven into the storyline, putting more emphasis on the sexual tension between the characters rather than the carnal acts themselves. They are not gratuitous gifts aimed at keeping the reader’s interest alive – they are done with finesse and they are SENSATIONAL. Her male characters are alpha males but they are not the rough cavemen types. Ms Andre’s heroes are gentlemen, hot passionate possessive want-to-lick-them-all-over alpha-types but gentlemen nonetheless. They ask you to strip but they also say ‘please’.

“Angry with herself for having less than no control around him anymore, she closed her eyes tighter. Only, she knew that wouldn’t deter him from getting his way, and she was right when he leaned back over her and kissed each eyelid softy. “Look at me. Please.” His plea undid her. Completely. Unable to resist him for a moment longer, she looked up at him, her inner muscles clenching even tighter around him as she let his dark gaze all the way inside her heart … and her soul.”

Cold shower anyone?

Read this book, read all of them and jump on the Bella Andre bandwagon – you won’t regret it. The next Sullivans book will be Smith’s story and this crazy Bella Andre fan is already panting in anticipation.

4halfstars

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Take Me by Bella Andre

20 Jul

Lily Ellis has curves – soft, beautiful curves. The kind of voluptuous body she fears Travis Carson, the man she’s always loved from afar, would never crave. But Lily is about to be proven wrong. Her adventure begins when the demure San Francisco interior decorator agrees to model a plus-size dress for her fashion designer sister. Watching this sensual beauty move down the runway, Travis can’t believe it’s the same Lily he’s always known – and always rejected.

In a whirlwind of electric attraction, Lily is soon moaning Travis’s name in his bed, not just in her wild fantasies. But Lily is all too aware that she’s nothing like his past lovers. Determined to beat Travis at his own game by guarding her true feelings, Lily partners with him on a business deal that takes them all the way to Italy. In the seductive warmth of the Tuscan sun, Lily plays a game of desire with the hot-blooded Travis.

Will she be burned by an all-consuming ecstasy or will Travis open his heart to the sexy, exciting, and lasting love she has to offer?

review

I said it once and I’ll say it again – I am a massive Bella Andre fan and her books take me to my happy place every single time but this is definitely my favourite. I just love when a less-than-perfect heroine gets the sexy guy, it just feeds my hope that not all hunks go only for size zeros.

Lily is a real woman with curves who sees herself as fat while everyone else sees her as beautiful and sexy. Her body image issues prevent her from believing that a gorgeous guy like Travis could ever be attracted to someone like her. Travis is a serial model-dater, all his conquests up to that point have looked like they came from the pages of Vogue and Lily knows that. Never in a million years would she have believed that Travis would find her sexy and desirable. One fashion-show later, one sexy dress and a few glasses of wine too many and Travis is out of his mind with desire for Lily – and he’s not the one that drank the wine! Ok, I won’t pretend that this is not a slightly predictable plot but sometimes that is all that is needed for an enjoyable and stress-free read.

What follows is just hot. I love how free and uninhibited Lily is with her sexuality. She might not like the way she looks but she certainly knows her body and what it likes. I found that beautiful. So many plus-size women who are dissatisfied with their bodies have trouble reconciling their own sexuality with their warped body image and self-esteem issues, but not Lily. The more Travis hungers for her, the more she lets go and becomes everything Travis ever dreamed of. She plays cat and mouse with him in a way because she really finds it hard to accept that he is as attracted to her. What she does not see is that their relationship gradually becomes more than just sexual attraction and they fall in love. We see that in Travis even before we see it in Lily. I really liked how he never saw her size – he always saw her only as beautiful and he felt you’re-my-woman-kind-of possessiveness toward her from the moment they became more than friends. Perhaps he didn’t go about it the right way half of the time but it was entertaining to ‘watch’.

Lily’s ‘issues’ bothered me at times because she was so blind to how men reacted around her. Her ‘self-flagellation’ was sometimes hard to take – I felt like shaking her – but I guess her problems were much more deeply-rooted than I wanted to accept. She was called names while she was growing up, she was considered the fat kid at school and that type of self-hate and embarrassment is sometimes hard to eradicate in oneself. Even with a God’s-gift-to-women lying in your bed. I found it particularly hard to read the gelato-throwing scene in Italy – it summarised Lily’s issues beautifully.

I really enjoyed this book, I even re-read it once. To me it illustrates quite nicely what it means to be a real woman, with a real body and real sexual needs and desires, and how twisted our own perceptions of ourselves can sometimes be. I loved that the heroine was not ‘perfect’ by general standards of beauty. She was a real woman with issues we all share to some degree and she got her dream guy in the end. What more can you really ask?

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I Only Have Eyes for You by Bella Andre

12 Jul

Sophie Sullivan, a librarian in San Francisco, was five years old when she fell head over heels in love with Jake McCann. Twenty years later, she’s convinced the notorious bad boy still sees her as the “nice” Sullivan twin. That is, when he bothers to look at her at all. But when they both get caught up in the magic of the first Sullivan wedding, she knows it’s long past time to do whatever it takes to make him see her for who she truly is… the woman who will love him forever.

Jake has always been a magnet for women, especially since his Irish pubs made him extremely wealthy. But the only woman he really wants is the one he can never have. Not only is Sophie his best friend’s off-limits younger sister… he can’t risk letting her get close enough to discover his deeply hidden secret. Only, when Sophie appears on his doorstep as Jake’s every fantasy come to life-smart, beautiful, and shockingly sexy-he doesn’t have a prayer of taking his eyes, or his hands, off her. And he can’t stop craving more of her sweet smiles and sinful kisses. Because even though Jake knows loving Sophie isn’t the right thing to do… how can he possibly resist?

review

Best one in the series so far! Let me preface this review by saying that I have become a crazy Bella Andre fan. I read one of her books some time ago because it was free on Amazon and I ended up reading all of them after that. The Sullivans series is my favourite, right after the Take Me/Love Me one, and this book is my first pick… so far. I don’t know why that is as they all are great stories and they all have really loveable characters, but I suspect it has something to do with the fact that this is the first one in the series with a heroine.

Sophie grew up being the baby in a family of overprotective macho brothers. Her twin sister, Lori, is her opposite, mischievous and outspoken, and hence never had to suffer the same overprotective treatment by her brothers. Sophie has been in love with her brothers’ friend, Jake McCann, ever since she was a little girl but never thought he saw her as anything else but his friends’ baby sister. Fast forward to the present, the right opportunity arising for making Jake finally ‘see’ her and the story unravels. And what a gorgeous story! I loved the chemistry between Sophie and Jake, I found it really believable and touching, not to mention hot (I had to fan myself at times!). I loved Jake and his possessive alpha character. I loved how Sophie managed to turn him to putty every time she just looked at him. I loved the way they loved each other. I loved Sophie’s determination. One of the things that I loved the most was Sophie’s willingness to fight for her relationship with Jake, even if it meant going against her family. She knew her brothers would struggle to accept them as a couple and she was willing to fight them all. However, as in all the books in the series, the Sullivans stick together and support each other no matter what. Their bond and unconditional love for each other made me wish I had a bigger family myself.

I wasn’t a great fan of the whole literacy issue with regards to Jake and how it affected him but I guess, as an alpha male, he would have perceived it as something to be ashamed of and something that other people would judge him on. Before we even knew what his “secret” was, I expected something much more serious, something he would need to redeem himself for – I think I was a bit let down by what it was. But that is also one of the reasons I just love Bella Andre’s books – we don’t get seriously tortured and troubled souls whose life journeys have a cathartic effect on us. Instead, we get escapist love stories with likeable characters who take us away from our daily grind.

I have read and re-read this beautiful story several times now and enjoyed it every time like it was the first. If you’re looking for a beautifully written, funny, romantic, feel-good book, look no further.

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