Friends & Lovers Trilogy by Bethany Lopez

17 May

makeitlast

Make it Last

In a small town, it’s hard to recover from being dumped by your high school sweetheart. That’s just what Briana has to do after Colin leaves her to follow his dreams. She focuses her energy into her friendships and the pursuit of her own goal of becoming a chef. Just when she finally feels like she’s on the right path, he comes back to town.

Colin knew breaking up with Briana before leaving for college was the right thing to do. He was determined to leave small-town life behind forever, and that included his high school girlfriend. But when a sports injury puts him on the sidelines, he’s forced to return home. Seeing Briana again brings back a lot of memories, and Colin wonders if he made the right decision. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he wants her back, and this time, he wants to make it last.

review

“You’re the only girl I’ve ever been in love with.”

In the first story of the Friends and Lovers Trilogy, we meet Briana and Colin, high school sweethearts, as they painfully part ways after years of being a couple. Colin is on his way to college to be a big football star, and he is leaving Briana behind, in her last year of high school, to nurse a broken heart and make plans for a future that now suddenly does not include Colin anymore.

“You’ll regret this, Colin. One day you’ll come back looking for a second chance, but it’s never going to happen. I’m not going to forget this day.”

Four years later, Briana has not made much of her life. After a short-lived stint at college, she is still living in her home town, working as a short-order cook at a local diner. She has good friends in her life, a job that pays her bills, but she is unable to jump start her life as her broken heart keeps holding her back.

After an injury cuts his football career short, Colin finds himself back home, a place he never thought he would return to, working for his father and taking each day as it comes, accepting his new life but finding no fulfilment in it. Until he runs into Briana again. Leaving her was something he never quite managed to get over, loving her still and hoping for a reconciliation. But for Briana, seeing Colin opens up a wound that never quite healed and even just seeing him again sends her into a tumultuous spiral of self-doubt and heartache.

“What if when I see him I feel just like I did when he left? I never want to feel that way again.”

As their connection still draws them to each other, Colin and Briana attempt to navigate the fiddly waters of second chances at love, hoping that their hearts still ache for each other as much as their bodies do.

A short but sweet, angst-free and easy to read story of giving true love another go. Like eating an ice-cream… deliciously sugary, a treat for the senses but alas over too soon.

“This is the only second chance you’re going to get, Colin. Don’t disappoint me.”

3stars

Make it Last

Buy Make it Last: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Buy the Friends & Lovers Trilogy (contains bonus ending for each story): Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords

✤ ✤ ✤

A young couple kissingI Choose You

Up until now, Nicole’s life has been mapped out for her. She’d go to college, marry Jake and become the upstanding minister’s wife. When she leaves that life to begin again in a small town in Texas, she finally has the freedom to live as she chooses. There, she meets Kent, a guy whose charm and passion make it hard to stick to her morals.

Dodging his father’s fists and protecting his twin sister made Kent into the man he is today. He learned by watching his mother stay by his father’s side that it’s better to keep relationships simple. Then he meets Nicole. Her sweet smile and genuine response to him land like punches to his resolve.

After a lifetime of learning to protect his heart, can he finally let down his guard?

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“He couldn’t help but worry that someone like him had no right to be with someone as pure as her.”

The second story of the Friends and Lovers Trilogy features Briana’s former “friend with benefits”, Kent, and Nicole. While still trying to get over losing Briana to Colin, Kent cannot but notice the sweet and shy new girl in town who blushes and get flustered every time he looks at her. His apparent innocence draws him to her, calls the protector in him, igniting a need to share his life with someone that he never had before.

After a painful childhood marred by neglectful parenting and an abusive father, and having watched his own twin sister go through a horrible marriage, Kent cannot help but perceive relationships as finite, having very little trust in the institution of marriage. But Nicole’s quiet demeanour but passionate heart shake everything he’s ever believed relationships to be, making him see that not all patterns must be followed and that it only takes the love of one good woman to awaken a heart that has never loved before.

Nicole and Kent are in so many ways each other’s firsts. Kent teaches Nicole how to be independent and answer only to herself; Nicole teaches him that a heart will love no matter how much you tell it not to and that there is always hope. They teach each other the true meaning of love and family, and together learn to patiently shape their own future as they see fit.

Another angst-free little injection of romance, with slightly better character development and a more in-depth background story that could have been even better with those aspects attended to even more.

3halfstars

I Choose You

Buy I Choose You: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Buy the Friends & Lovers Trilogy (contains bonus ending for each story): Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords

✤ ✤ ✤

young coupleTrust in Me

Roni’s dreams of becoming a contemporary dancer were smashed under the brutal rage of her ex-husband’s fists. Getting divorced and starting over at the age of twenty-two was never her plan, but maybe in Texas, she’ll find her path. When the town’s local player, Rich, opens a Rec Center, she sees a way to rekindle her dancing dreams…and maybe have a little fun with her sexy new boss.

Rich never expected to fulfill his dreams in the town he planned to leave behind, but that’s just what he’s doing. His reputation as a noncommittal ladies’ man might make it challenging to earn respect in the business world, but he’s willing to prove that he’s serious. In fact, when it comes to pursuing Roni, he’s more than willing. But she’s taking a page out of his book, not wanting to risk another relationship. Can he convince her that his playboy days are over and that she can trust him with her heart?

review

“Don’t tell me what I deserve… Maybe you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The third novella is perhaps the most intense and emotionally charged of them all in the Trilogy. This is the story of Kent’s twin sister, Roni, and Colin’s best friend, Rich.

The story itself starts with a domestic abuse scene from Roni’s past that is equally shocking as it is heartbreaking. We watch this young woman being beaten by her ex-husband for wanting to leave their marriage, his violence not only damaging her body but also destroying all hope she ever had in love and finding a happily-ever-after in life. When we meet Roni again, six months after her brother rescued her from her husband’s hands, she is a broken woman. Her marriage had killed all her dreams of becoming a professional dancer, and now she finds herself adrift, clueless what to do with her life or how to finally take charge of her future.

“She didn’t miss Hank, their house, or the life that they’d shared, but she did miss the dream.”

Her bright opportunity comes from the last man she ever wanted to get involved with at this point in her life, a known womanizer but also a man she has secretly admired from a distance, her body drawn to him like a moth to a flame. Rich is a serial dater and he is not ashamed of this. He treats all his conquests with respect and cherishes their bodies lovingly but passionately. He makes it clear from the beginning what they can expect from him, allowing him to never get tied to anyone and live his life commitment-free. But Roni is unlike any other woman he has ever met.

While women normally fall victim to his charm and self-confidence, Roni’s smart mouth disarms him and her resistance intrigues him. He does not hide his attraction to her and is certain that she is not completely immune to his attempts to seduce her, but he gives her space and time to make the first move.

When Roni finally succumbs to her body’s craving for Rich, one night of passion changes everything between them, leaving two different people in its aftermath. Rich has no doubts whatsoever about wanting Roni to be his family and building a future together, but Roni’s reservations run deep and they are hard to overcome for someone who has never felt that kind of love from another man.

“You deserve someone who isn’t broken. A girl who won’t fall to the ground if you raise your voice. Someone who can give you babies…”

Their story made me wish for so much more from these characters. The foundations were there, there was a solid back story that could have been taken so much further had it not been so short in length, but it was over before it even began in a way. Just like the previous two tales, this is a story to be enjoyed while indulging yourself with a warm bath and a glass of wine – it is a “romance espresso” to feed the romantic glutton in you and leave you smiling.

4stars

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Trust in Me

Buy Trust in Me: Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
Buy the Friends & Lovers Trilogy (contains bonus ending for each story): Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Smashwords
The Author

Bethany Lopez was born in Detroit, Michigan, and grew up in Michigan and San Antonio, Texas. She went to High School at Dearborn High, in Dearborn, Michigan, which is where she has set her Young Adult series. She is married and has a blended family with five children. She is currently serving in the United States Air Force as a Recruiter in Los Angeles, California. She has always loved to read and write and has seen her dream realized by independently publishing her novels through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.

Connect with Bethany: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest
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BLOG TOUR: After Math by Denise Grover Swank

12 May

aftermath_322x500Scarlett Goodwin’s world is divided into Before and After.

Before she agreed to tutor Tucker price, college junior Scarlett was introvert, struggling with her social anxiety and determined to not end up living in a trailer park like her mother and her younger sister. A mathematics major, she goes to her classes, to her job in the tutoring lab, and then hides in the apartment she shares with her friend, Caroline.

After junior Tucker Price, Southern University’s star soccer player enters the equation, her carefully plotted life is thrown off its axis. Tucker’s failing his required College Algebra class. With his eligibility is at risk, the university chancellor dangles an expensive piece of computer software for the math department if Scarlett agrees to privately tutor him.Tucker’s bad boy, womanizer reputation makes Scarlett wary of any contact, let alone spending several hours a week in close proximity.

But from her first encounter, she realizes Tucker isn’t the person everyone else sees. He carries a mountain of secrets which she suspects hold the reason to his self-destructive behavior. But the deeper she delves into the cause of his pain, the deeper she gets sucked into his chaos. Will Scarlett find the happiness she’s looking for, or will she be caught in Tucker’s aftermath?

review

“How long have I existed in this nether world? Living in it but not part of it? Standing on the sidelines as a bystander? I’m like an alien, exiled to a foreign land in which I never fit, no matter how hard I try. For twenty years I’ve lived alone, keeping me safely tucked inside, but it’s an illusion. A lie. I thought I could protect myself from the horror of my home life growing up, but all I’ve done is isolate and ostracize myself from the world. I’d always hoped someone would hold the key to open the door to my prison. Someone I felt safe letting in. Now I’ve found him. And he doesn’t want me.”

Every coin has two sides, every stick has two ends, and every person has two faces. This is the story of two people who live their lives presenting a brave façade to the world around them, keeping their true vulnerable face hidden deep inside them where no one can hurt them. It’s a story of finding the one person in the world who makes you want to lower your defences for them, finally let your guard down and let them see the real you. And hopefully find yourself in the process.

“Could someone really see past the walls I put up and see me?”

Scarlett grew up in a trailer park, raised by a mother who only saw her as a burden and a way to get welfare. Never having experienced unconditional love or any love for that matter from the one person that should have taught her the meaning of love, Scarlett has not only moved away from the only home she’s ever known and the only family she has in the world, but also left her past behind forever. Desperate to become the very opposite of what her mother always expected her to become, she now lives her life surrounded by rules, structure, set plans for her future. Striving to achieve independence in her life and to never need anyone to feel complete, Scarlett steers away from romantic relationships, seeing them not only as a distraction she cannot afford, but also as something that could potentially break her fragile heart. Afflicted by anxiety attacks compliments of her traumatic childhood, she struggles in social contexts and in a world without order, she finds solace in the only constant in her life, the only thing she could always rely on to give her the control that her life lacked – math.

“With math, as long as you have all the necessary factors, you can find the answer. Life, on the other hand, is so much messier… Math is the one constant in my life, the one thing I can count on to always be the same.”

Tucker Price is in appearance Scarlett’s very opposite. He is the famous soccer player the entire school idolises; he is cocky, arrogant, irresponsible and popular with the opposite sex. He appears to have the world at his feet, a bright future, guaranteed success. But one chance glance exchanged between them and their lives suddenly but irreversibly collide. They recognise a deep but suppressed sadness in each other’s eyes and an unexpected connection immediately sparks between them.

“I’m surrounded by people every day, yet I always feel alone, no matter how hard I try to connect. It’s as though a veil has been thrown over my heart, and no one has ever been able to tear it down. Until this boy. This unattainable, untouchable, unreliable boy.”

What starts as a math tutoring arrangement benefiting both of them in different ways, slowly grows into a friendship that becomes something they both start relying on and drawing comfort from. Scarlett is comfortable around Tucker, he calms her, appears attuned and responsive to her emotional needs, he sees all her quirks and does not judge her for them. For the first time in her young life, Scarlett is able to just be herself and slowly let her guard down. He makes her want to live life, not just watch it pass by, and he makes her feel things she has never felt for another boy before.

“The door to me, the me deep inside, has cracked open, and I’m emerging into the daylight for the first time in years.”

While they both initially try to ignore and fight their mutual attraction, theirs is inevitably a superbly heart-warming and utterly addictive tale of first love, self-acceptance, learning to love another person selflessly and bravely, and feeling deserving of being loved. It is also a story that puts emphasis on making your own choices in life and then living with those choices. I experienced so many different emotions while listening to Scarlett’s sad but oh-so-very brave inner voice. She is a heroine to admire and learn from, a beautiful example of how much a human heart can endure and still not shatter and remain optimistic. Her quiet hope to feel loved someday by someone, but not feeling worthy of making a man want to stick by her, ultimately never expecting her own happy ending, are heartbreaking. Nothing gets to me like the false perception of unrequited love, it pulls my heart strings every single time, and by the end of this book I was as emotionally drained as I was ecstatically happy. And then I went back and re-read some of those scenes because I was not ready to let go of Scarlett and Tucker just yet, knowing all too well that another ten books would have not satisfied my craving for more of their story.

I cannot recommend this delightful book enough – it was my undoing from the very first page. I am now eagerly awaiting the second book in the series, Redesigned, which will be Scarlett’s best friend Caroline’s story.

“I look up into his face and his gaze lowers to my mouth. His arm tightens around my back, and he closes his eyes, pressing his forehead against mine. For several seconds, our breaths mingle and we’re breathing each other in. I’m amazed at how right this feels. Like I’ve been searching my entire life for this peace I feel in his embrace.”

4halfstars

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Pre-order Redesigned (Off the Subject #2): Amazon
The Author

Denise Grover Swank lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. She’s a gypsy who can’t live in one place too long or stay in one genre. She writes contemporary romance, urban fantasies without vampires and werewolves, young adult science fiction, and romantic comedy mysteries set in the south. Denise has six children, three dogs, and an overactive imagination. She can be found dancing in her kitchen with her children, reading, or writing her next book. You will rarely find her cleaning.

Connect with Denise: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
The Giveaway

To win one of TWO eBook copies of After Math, please enter below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions. 

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3 Comments Filed Under: Blog Tours, Denise Grover Swank, FAVOURITES, Giveaways, REVIEW Book Series:

Eyes Wide Open by Raine Miller

11 May

eyeswideopen4Big surprises are on the horizon for Ethan and Brynne as they struggle to adjust to what life has thrown at them.

Demons from the past are threatening to destroy the passionate bond they’ve forged despite their vow that nothing will ever keep them apart. A truly devastating loss coupled with the promise of a new hope opens their eyes to what is most important, but is it possible for the lovers to move on from the painful histories that continue to haunt them?

A stalker is still lurking in the shadows, plotting evil amidst the distraction of the 2012 Olympic games in London. Brynne and Ethan are on the cusp of losing everything as the stakes rise.

Will they yield to circumstances beyond their control or will they give every ounce of fight they have left to save each other and win the ultimate prize of a life together?

review

“Are you real?” he whispered, brushing up my face with the back of his fingers in a cherished caress. “Because I’ll want you forever.”

The anxiously awaited third book of The Blackstone Affair does not only live up to its prequels’ high expectations, it exceeds them and then some. It almost appears like the previous instalments were there to set the stage for this book, and let me tell you, goosebumps and all, it was definitely worth the wait. This will not be a book that you’ll be able to put down so make yourself comfortable, have a glass of wine handy and be ready to become even more engrossed in the exquisite love story of our Ethan and Brynne.

We find the young couple exactly where we left them at the end of All In and the emotional rollercoaster ride that their relationship seems to have been from the beginning only picks up in pace from that point onwards. After escaping to the countryside to recover from everything that has happened to them and focus solely on each other without external threats and pressures, we see them completely immersed in one another, with all their defences down, fully absorbing and accepting their feelings for one another. Their bond is as strong as ever, their physical connection setting sparks whenever they lay hands on each other and it is a sight to behold.

“Ethan made me feel desirable. He made me feel beautiful and sexy, from the words that came out of his mouth to the touch of his body in mine when he made love to me. And afterward, when he held me against him like I was precious.”

Brynne is exactly what Ethan needs to extinguish the raging blaze inside his soul and to quiet his demons. Her safety and wellbeing have become his priority and he has become so finely attuned to the needs of the love of his life, that he can sense her every emotional shift and pre-emptively deal with it. By allowing him to protect her and take care of her, Brynne gives Ethan the control he so desperately needs to function.

“Brynne was my heaven. I’d seek out my heaven endlessly.”

Ethan’s protectiveness makes Brynne feel safe for the first time in years, safe enough to show him all her fears and anxieties. His passionate but healing touch calms and grounds her. However, as much as she needs him at this point to stay strong, she is also desperately afraid of losing complete control of her life, of feeling helpless and vulnerable again. This inner struggle tears her apart at times and affects all important decisions that they need to make as a couple.

“The one who had the power to take me apart was also the only one with the power to put me back together again.”

The intensity between these characters is breathtaking, their emotional connection closely rivalled only by their physical one. Desperate to stay together and constantly afraid of losing one another, Brynne and Ethan are faced with a myriad of circumstances that are out of their control and which ultimately set the pace for their relationship. In a story that is a lot more emotional, intimate, raw in every way, we witness the bond between them being challenged, surviving the odds, strengthening from within, and ultimately blossoming into something very little can break.

Ms Raine is a masterful wordsmith and once more her ability to balance impeccably developed characters with a solid plot makes her a force to be reckoned with. It seems that she is able to express in a paragraph what often takes a chapter to achieve. The connection between the characters is not only palpable, it is all-consuming for the reader. We feel their chemistry, their need and aching for one another, their desperation to hold onto each other and protect their growing relationship.

The timeless romance between Brynne and Ethan reaches a very happy milestone at the end of this book, leaving us at a satisfying place, eager for more but quite happy to wait.

“Are you ready?”
I nodded and whispered, “Yes.”
“And nothing changes us.”
“Nothing changes that we love each other.”

5stars

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Read Chapter 1 of Eyes Wide Open: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
Pre-order Eyes Wide Open: Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble
Connect with Raine: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
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The Blackstone Affair – Reading Order and Purchase Links
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BLOG TOUR: Lost and Found by Nicole Williams

7 May

lostandfound_322x500There’s complicated. And there’s Rowen Sterling.

After numbing pain for the past five years with boys, alcohol, and all-around apathy, she finds herself on a Greyhound bus to nowhere Montana the summer after she graduates high school. Her mom agreed to front the bill to Rowen’s dream art school only if Rowen proves she can work hard and stay out of trouble at Willow Springs Ranch. Cooking breakfast at the crack of dawn for a couple dozen ranch hands and mucking out horse stalls are the last things in the world Rowen wants to spend her summer doing.

Until Jesse Walker saunters into her life wearing a pair of painted-on jeans, a cowboy hat, and a grin that makes something in her chest she’d thought was frozen go boom-boom. Jesse’s like no one else, and certainly nothing like her. He’s the bright and shiny to her dark and jaded.

Rowen knows there’s no happily-ever-after for the golden boy and the rebel girl – happily-right-now is a stretch – so she tries to forget and ignore the boy who makes her feel things she’s not sure she’s ready to feel. But the more she pushes him away, the closer he seems to get. The more she convinces herself she doesn’t care, the harder she falls.

When her dark secrets refuse to stay locked behind the walls she’s kept up for years, Rowen realizes it’s not just everyone else she needs to be honest with. It’s herself.

review

“Sometimes we just have to cut off the dead branches in our life. Sometimes that’s the only way we can keep the tree alive.”

Books like this one are the reason why I love reading. There is nothing more exhilarating than finding a rare gem of a story that holds you captive from beginning to end, makes you smile so much your jaw hurts by the time you turn that last page, and leaves you so delightfully enthralled by the characters, you wish the story never ended. This book quite simply stole my heart.

Rowen is a young woman desperately in need of a wake-up call in life. For the past five years, she has been spiralling down an angry hole of self-destructive behaviour, rebelling against everything and everyone around her. But behind the provocative black clothes, the dark contact lenses and the black lipstick, hides a broken-hearted young girl whose life has hurt and disappointed her so badly, that she has convinced herself not to expect anything but further pain.

“Instead of trying to get to the bottom of why her daughter was floundering through life, she sent me off to ranch boot camp to “prove” myself worthy of art school.”

After being shipped off by her emotionless mother to a ranch in the middle of nowhere with the directive to prove herself as responsible, hardworking and worthy of trust, Rowen finds herself sticking out like a sore thumb in wholesome countryside Montana. But for the first time in her young life, instead of fingers being pointed at her and being labelled a freak, people are actually taking their time to get to know her and seeing past her appearance. From barely having a parent who never showed her any love to suddenly being part of a large family where small demonstrations of love are a daily occurrence, Rowen is truly out of her element.

“Every morning we get a chance to be different. A chance to change. A chance to be better. Your past is your past. Leave it there. Get on with the future part, honey.”

At this point I think there should be a drumroll or some trumpet playing somewhere because lo and behold, prepare your hearts for the divine Mr Jesse Walker! Jesse is the ranch owner’s son and he is nothing like the guys Rowen is normally attracted to. He is cheerful, positive, affectionate, he pays her compliments and asks nothing in return, and he seems to see the person she so desperately tries to hide. The more she pushes him away, the more he gently pursues her, with nothing more than kindness and understanding. And a heart-melting smile.

“Why don’t you want to know that I like you, Rowen? Why don’t you want me to tell you I’m so damn attracted to you, I almost don’t trust myself to be alone with you like we are right now? Why don’t you want to know that I care about you so much…?”

Once her walls start crumbling and one very delicious cowboy gets under her skin, Rowen begins her journey of self-discovery.

“…when I looked into those eyes of his that saw everything, those eyes that saw me, I knew the fight would be worth it. The struggle to let him in when I wanted to barricade the windows and lower the gates would be a battle I’d never regret fighting.”

What is possibly one of the most enchanting and heart-warming romances I have read in a very long time, this is as much of a love story as it is a beautifully written and flawlessly developed tale of finding oneself and accepting that life is not just a string of negatives. Rowen is a complex character – her past has made her emotionally weary and afraid to let herself accept affection from others. She is hungry for it, starved for even the smallest sliver of unconditional love, but she has also been programmed to believe that she is unworthy of the kind of love Jesse is offering her. She perceives him as a ray of sunshine that her hang-ups would only end up clouding, but she ultimately fights their connection because she sees herself as undeserving to be loved, something her mother had ingrained into her with continuous neglect and grave lack of positive affirmations.

“You think you deserve this. You think you deserve to be alone and suffer. You’ve convinced yourself you’re so worthless that you’ve gone to the extreme to punish yourself. You think you deserve a life of misery.”

We watch the romance between Jesse and Rowen take root, blossom, weather the storms, as this young woman finds herself and learns that every woman deserves to have a ‘Jesse’ in her life. There is something very special in the way Nicole Williams gives her characters ‘life’, it is evident that they come from her heart and she somehow makes us love even the most imperfect of them.

It has been two days since I finished reading this book and my heart is still bursting at the seams!! A stunning book with a positive message – it was just what I needed, it was totally not what I expected, and it was simply perfect.

“We all want to open up to someone, Rowen. The hard part is finding someone we trust enough to open up to. That person we’re not afraid to let into the darkest parts of our world.”

5stars

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Read an excerpt HERE…
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The Author

Nicole Williams_picI’m a wife, a mom, a writer. I started writing because I loved it and I’m still writing because I love it. I write young adult because I still believe in true love, kindred spirits, and happy endings.

Here’s to staying young at heart *raises champagne glass* . . . care to join me?

Connect with Nicole: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
The Giveaway

To win a paperback of Lost and Found, a leather cuff bracelet with metal inscription “Love is organized chaos”, or a $50 Amazon Gift Card, please enter below. This contest is administered by AToMR Tours and it is open internationally.

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BLOG TOUR: A Life More Complete by Nikki Young

4 May

A Life More Complete_coverCan you ever really outrun your past?

Krissy Mullins, an overworked, obsessive-compulsive publicist has been giving it her best shot for the past ten years. Throwing herself into her work and devoting all her time to her teenage starlet client, Krissy finds little time for anything else. But as fate would have it, her world is turned upside down when she falls in love with laid-back California native, Ben Torres. Unfortunately, her only frame of reference on love and marriage is her parents and they weren’t exactly the poster children for a happy relationship.

As Krissy attempts to navigate the precarious world of love, acceptance, and compromise, her past comes flooding back like she never expected. An ex-boyfriend returns from a life she has tried to forget, stirring up feelings in Krissy she had thought were long gone. Pulled in opposite directions as her past and present collide, she makes a rash decision that will forever change her life.

review

“This is my life. Somehow, somewhere I took one small misstep and ended up here.”

Once in a while you will read a book that does not fit into a mould, that does not follow a formula or try to romanticise life. A book that does not hide the ugly reality of the choices or the mistakes me make along the way. A book that portrays human nature as it is, gritty and real, and shows that sometimes it takes losing everything to truly see the value of what was in front of you all along.

Krissy Mullins is a young woman who spends her days emotionally ‘skimming’ on the surface of life, focusing on her career as a high profile publicist, a job that makes her miserable, but never truly stopping and taking stock of what her life has regrettably become. Even with the love of a man who absolutely adores her and would do anything to make her happy, Krissy is unable to let him in and let herself love him completely. She hides behind the demands of her job, tailoring her choices in life so that she would never have to face her emotional misgivings, including giving up on the one thing that could have made her happy in the long run.

“It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I wanted to love you forever. I wanted you to quit your job, move in with me, have babies and take vacations to Disney World. I wanted you to want that life.”

Her dysfunctional and loveless relationship with her mother being her only point of reference in life when it comes to family, Krissy finds it easier to connect with a man who behaves in a similar fashion to her mother than with someone who offers her what she has never experienced in life before – unconditional love. Her self-sabotaging tendencies eventually lead her down a road she travelled once before, but instead of learning from her mistakes, she chooses to repeat them, knowing all too well this could hurt her again. When the life she has chosen turns to be exactly as expected, instead of demanding more, Krissy lowers her standards, and stays in a relationship that only feeds her insecurities.

This is a book about what family teaches us about life, trust, love, and how much what we learn from our own parents can form the way we shape any future relationships. It offers a very untraditional version of a happy ending, free from all the glam and glitter that we often find in romance books. In essence, this is not a romance book but it is a book about romance. It shows the enduring power of true love and how misguiding our own heart can sometimes be.

“It’s funny how your heart can deceive you. Follow your heart, people say but they never tell you that sometimes it makes the wrong choice.”

Everyone will take something different with them from reading this beautiful book. It will appeal to people in so many different ways – you might find a little bit of yourself in Krissy, you might recognise someone close to you in her, or her choices in life might be those you always feared you’d make. Regardless of what she represents to you, I assure you that her story will move you and that you will find yourself travelling her journey with her, living through her mistakes, feeling her pain, anger, heartbreak, and eventually her realisation of what her heart knew all along.

Nikki Young’s writing is honest, touching, authentic. A splendid debut novel by an author whose sensitivity and realness shine through in her every word.

“You’re my most wonderful downfall.”

4halfstars

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Buy book: Amazon paperback | Amazon Kindle | Smashwords
The Author

Nikki Young was born and raised in the suburbs of Chicago where she still currently lives with her husband and two boys. She is a third grade teacher and spends her days forcing her love of reading and writing onto a group of poor unsuspecting eight year olds.

Connect with Nikki: Website | Facebook | Goodreads
The Blog Tour

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For a full list of the A Life More Complete Blog Tour stops, click on the image above.

The Giveaway

To win a signed paperback or one of two eBook copies of A Life More Complete, please enter below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions. 

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2 Comments Filed Under: Blog Tours, Giveaways, Nikki Young, REVIEW

BLOG TOUR: Rock With Me by Kristen Proby

2 May

rockwithme_322x500Front Man Leo Nash from the world-famous rock band, Nash, is the last person on earth Samantha Williams would trust. She’s already learned about loving a celebrity the hard way and isn’t signing up for another lesson.

Every time Sam gives Leo attitude, he wants to knock that chip off her fragile little shoulder. What the hell did he ever do to her, anyway? He’s not used to women treating him like he’s poisonous, and he isn’t about to let her run away every time he gets close. He’s had enough of people running away to last him a lifetime…when this one runs, he gives chase. But, catching Sam isn’t as hard as he thought.

The sexual attraction between them is so thick, Sam can practically hold it in her hand. There’s no way she can deny herself the promise of pleasure being with Leo would provide. But, pleasure always comes with pain and when secrets are revealed and trust is challenged, who will run and who will chase?

review

“You make me forget how to breathe.”

I am not sure what kind of water Kristen Proby is drinking these days but I want some. Just when you think that she has created the sexiest male character to date, she comes up with a hot tattooed rocker with a bossy attitude to melt your panties into oblivion, an apa not even needed to achieve such results! And then she goes one step further and gives us a visual of said rock star – Mr Sulan Von Zoomlander – in case the mental image wasn’t enough. This is a book that will definitely hit all the right spots, make you lick your fingers from all the delicious hot lovin’ scenes in it and remind you why Ms Proby is truly the Crown Queen of Smuttiliciousness.

Our heroine is Samantha Williams, the foul-tempered sister of Luke Williams from Come Away With Me, and while we did not particularly love her attitude in the previous books in the series, we now finally get the pleasure of meeting the real Sam, we get to understand her, see what makes her tick and recognise the vulnerability behind her tough exterior. She struggles with her family’s fame as it makes her feel invisible and always uncertain of people’s true motivations. Sam is a woman with so many layers to her personality that it truly takes a worthy hero to peel them all off and expose the woman behind them who not only finds it difficult to trust others, but who is also inherently afraid to let herself love.

“I’m not anyone special. I don’t have any amazing talents, I don’t make a ton of money, I’m not even a very nice person. The only thing I have is famous family members.”

Enter Leo Nash – rocker, dominant male, sex god. His painful past has made him hungry for control, in all aspects of his life, including the bedroom. While Sam’s sassy attitude and filter-free mouth might turn most men who show any interest in her away, Leo is no ordinary ‘interested party’ and the more Sam tries rejecting him, the more he pursues her. He senses a deeply engrained fragility in her, and the protective caveman in him cannot turn away. He introduces himself into her life firstly as a friend, never hiding his attraction to her, but also never rushing her to let her guard down.

“I lift my hand to her cheek but she flinches, and I can’t help the surge of pure anger at her reaction. Who the f*ck put that in her?”

From the moment their friendship crosses the line of sexual intimacy, there is no turning back for either of them. Their sexual compatibility is off the charts, overwhelming and immediate, and soon Leo is slowly but surely cracking through Sam’s protective shell. He possessively wants to take care of her, pamper her, make her feel loved and comfortable enough to not only submit her body to him, but also her heart.

“You are everything I’ve ever wanted, Sam. More than music. More than anything.”

Sam, on the other hand, is exactly what Leo has been looking for all his life – someone to challenge him, make him laugh, ground him, but also someone to share his views on family and commitment in general. He understands her more than she understands herself, sees all her little qualms and triggers, and works around them to gain her trust.

“I’m completely in love with her. I just don’t know how to tell her because I’m afraid that as soon as I do, she’ll run at full speed in the other direction.”

This is ultimately a story about the value of family, both immediate as well as extended, and the irreplaceable network of support it offers to those lucky enough to have it. Like with all the previous books in the With Me in Seattle series, the secondary characters often steal the show, bringing us some of those stories back and continuing them. In terms of character development, there were certain sides of Leo ad Sam I wish had been explored more, in greater depth, as I feel a unique door into these characters’ pasts was opened but the threshold was never properly crossed. There were no real highs or lows in this story, no angsty moments to recover from. Greater emphasis is put on the sexual journey between the characters, rather than their own emotional one, but with a formula this pleasant to read, I am definitely not complaining.

There is no doubt in my mind that you will love this book, and that it will capture your attention and feed your senses page after page. And mark my words – you will want to lick Leo’s stars too!

“Oh, sunshine,” I whisper and smile gently. “Haven’t you figured out that I’m completely in love with you?”

4stars

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Buy book: Amazon paperback | Amazon Kindle | Barnes and Noble
The Author

Kristen Proby_pic croppedKristen is the author of the Amazon and USA Today bestselling With Me In Seattle series. She has a passion for a good love story and strong characters who love humor and have a strong sense of loyalty and family. Her men are the alpha type; fiercely protective and a bit bossy, and her ladies are fun, strong, and not afraid to stand up for themselves.

Kristen spends her days with her muse in the Pacific Northwest. She enjoys coffee, chocolate and sunshine. And naps.

Connect with Kristen: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
The Giveaway

To win one of THREE eBook copies of Rock With Me, please enter below. This giveaway is administered by InkSlinger PR.

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BLOG TOUR: Twisted Perfection by Abbi Glines

22 Apr

twistedperfection_322x500Life outside of her house was a new experience for Della Sloane. The dark secrets of her past weren’t something she ever intended to share with anyone. They would never understand. No one would ever get close enough to find out. Besides there was always a chance she’d go crazy sooner than they expected…

Woods Kerrington had never been one to be attracted to fragile females. They seemed like too much work. He wasn’t in it for the work just the pleasure. A night full of naughty fun had been exactly what was on his mind when he’d laid eyes on the hot little number that didn’t know how to pump gas and needed some help.

What he didn’t know was she was as fragile as they came.

The carefree girl who spoke her mind and didn’t care what the world thought of her was more breakable than he could ever imagine…

review

“Go find yourself while in the sunshine, Della.”

You might think you know Woods but you don’t know Woods. We met him in the previous two instalments of the Too Far series as Blaire’s ‘other interested party’, we loved his protective streak and his general cool and collected façade, but let me tell you, by the time you finish this book you’ll have Woods’ name tattooed somewhere on your body!

Everything about this book was unexpected for me. I never thought that the chemistry between these main characters could successfully rival the one between Rush and Blaire, but it appears Ms Glines had been holding out on us. This book hits steam levels that had me blushing and I read erotic romance for breakfast! In a much darker, sexier and overall edgier story of heart wanting what the heart yearns, and body demanding what the body craves, we finally meet the real Woods Kerrington and the only woman who ever got him so hot and bothered that he risked it all to have her.

Della Sloan is one of the most emotionally complex characters to come out of Abbi Glines’ creative woodwork. She is a young woman burdened by incomprehensible emotional trauma stemming from a childhood so harrowing that her mind constantly struggles to stay in the present and not get lost in her painful memories. Her triggers are many and all equally unpredictable, making her vulnerable and afraid of her own future. She sees herself as broken and unworthy of being loved because she believes she would one day lose herself in the abyss of madness just like her mother.

“It wasn’t my imperfections that I was worried about. It was the terror that twisted everything in my life and that kept me apart from everyone else.”

Della is a heroine that we fall in love with from the moment she enters the stage. Her innocence, her social cluelessness and her untainted honesty with her feelings make us immediately protective of her. After living an extremely sheltered life and never experiencing any of the things that most people experience by default during their childhood, once she has the freedom to make her own choices, she takes off determined to make up for all she has missed out on.

“It was my greatest fear, that I’d snap one day too. Just like she had. I wanted to live life because if that day came I wanted to have lived once.”

While driving through Rosemary, she meets Woods. Their first encounter is a one night stand, passionate and commitment-free, a purely carnal indulgence between two individuals who are unable to fight the attraction between them. Many months later, however, Della is back in Rosemary and suddenly looking for a job at Woods’ country club, unaware that her one night stand would become her new boss. When faced with having to see each other each day, Woods and Della are no longer able to pretend that their one night of passion meant nothing to them. Whenever they are alone, their chemistry sizzles and they can’t keep their hands off each other.

“It’s a real bad idea. F*cking you is all I can think about but it’s a bad idea. Push me away and leave the room. It’s the only way I can keep from touching you.”

Woods is not only drawn to Della physically, he also craves the freedom that she represents, the freedom to do whatever he wishes and not be bound to a place or a future that someone else has set out for him. She is like a drug to him – the more of her he takes, the hungrier for her he becomes. He struggles between a path that was chosen for him and the one where Della would be a vital part of his life.

“My future was about to be completely thrown off track because Della Sloane was under my skin and I had to have her.”

This story explores surprisingly intense themes of unmet emotional needs and using sexual intimacy to substitute those needs. Having lived most of her life without affection, Della now needs it like the air she breathes. It is the only thing that offers her an escape from her bad memories.

“I craved the orgasm I knew he could give me. That one moment when I couldn’t tell where I ended and he began. Bad memories weren’t there to haunt me during that nirvana. It was my one moment of relief.”

A poignant roller coaster ride from beginning to end, in true Abbi Glines fashion, this book is loaded with scenes that simply rip our hearts out because they manage to hit every emotional string there is to hit. This is a story about choosing life over merely existing, finding the courage to become masters of our own fate and pursuing what counts the most in life. A book you will truly struggle to put down.

“You are mine. Do you hear me? You are mine, Della Sloane. I will take care of you. Nothing is taking you away from me. Nothing.”

Woods’ and Della’s story continues in Simple Perfection in the Fall of 2013.

5stars

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Buy book: Amazon US | Amazon UK| Barnes & Noble | Smashwords | Kobo | Apple iBooks
The Author

abbi_glines_picAbbi Glines was born in Birmingham, Alabama. She grew up in the small town of Sumiton, Alabama where she left the summer she turned eighteen. She didn’t get far… she chased her high school sweetheart down to the coast and she’s been there every since.

Abbi now lives in the quaint southern town of Fairhope, Alabama with her three children and husband Keith (the high school sweetheart she chased after). Her life is never dull and Keith always makes sure there is another “experience” for them to explore.

Books published by Abbi include The Vincent Boys and the USA TODAY bestseller The Vincent Brothers, Breathe, Because of Low, the USA TODAY bestsellers While It Lasts and Just For Now, The Existence Trilogy that includes the USA Today Bestseller Ceaseless, and The New York Times bestseller and Wall Street Journal bestseller Fallen Too Far. Currently she is working on Never Too Far, the sequel to Fallen too Far.

When Abbi isn’t locked away in her office typing away she is hauling her kids to and from their many social activities. You could say her second job is the Glines Kids personal chauffeur. It’s a rather illustrious job.

Connect with Abbi: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads
The Giveaways

We have TWO giveaways to celebrate the release of Twisted Perfection, one from Abbi and one from me!! The first giveaway is for an iPad Mini while the second one is for a $50 Amazon voucher.

To win an iPad Mini, compliments of Abbi Glines, please enter below. This contest is administered by AToMR Tours and it is open internationally.

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To win a $50 Amazon voucher, all you need to do is post your review on Amazon and enter the link to your review below. By entering, you accept the following Giveaway Conditions. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Twisted Perfection Blog Tour

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