Blog Tour - Review of Siren Beloved by Lexi Blake writing as Sophie Oak
Wednesday, 18 July 2018
Siren Beloved by Lexi Blake writing as Sophie Oak
Republished on 17 July 2018 by DLZ Entertainment, LLC
Aidan O’Malley walked away from his fiancée, Lexi, and their best friend, Lucas, after a night of passion left him shaken to his core. Years later, Aidan returns home from Iraq haunted by all he has lost. The enemy broke his body, destroying his dreams of a career in music. Worse still, he lost Lexi and Lucas. That damage he’d done all by himself. While he can’t restore what combat took from him, he’s determined to reclaim the two loves of his life.
Aidan O’Malley walked away from his fiancée, Lexi, and their best friend, Lucas, after a night of passion left him shaken to his core. Years later, Aidan returns home from Iraq haunted by all he has lost. The enemy broke his body, destroying his dreams of a career in music. Worse still, he lost Lexi and Lucas. That damage he’d done all by himself. While he can’t restore what combat took from him, he’s determined to reclaim the two loves of his life.
Lucas
Cameron is a changed man. After connecting with his brother, he found the
discipline to get his life on track. His legal career is flourishing, but his
love life is a train wreck. The woman he loves is spiraling out of control.
After Aidan abandoned them, Lucas and Lexi clung together but no matter how
hard he tries, Lucas can’t find a way to heal the wounds that Lexi carries.
Lexi
Moore feels like a jigsaw puzzle with too many missing pieces. Losing Aidan was
hard, but the true reason for her shattered spirit is a secret she only shares
with her beloved Lucas. She knows she is drowning and the time has come to
heal, but the holes in her heart hold her back from moving on. Shedding the
burden she carries is her only hope for a happy future, but she fears she will
never have the strength to reveal her secret.
When
Aidan walks back into their lives, Lucas and Lexi know everything is about to
change. But as they fight to reconcile their past and reclaim what they lost, a
vicious predator stalks Lexi. In order to stop the killer, all three must
confront the secrets they’ve carried…before they’re buried by them.
I received a digital review copy of Siren Beloved from the publisher via Ink Slinger PR in exchange for an honest review on their blog tour. The following review contains my opinions and mine alone.
Hello, readers dearest! I really wanted to give y’all a nice long
review like usual but this book kinda snuck up on me in the middle of the summer
of medical nightmares and I’ve been sneaking in reading sessions in between
sick bouts and going where electronic devices are frowned upon. I’ve been a
frequent visitor at my medical centre so much that I’m actually comfortable
walking the halls in a hospital gown set. Yeah, never thought I’d see that day,
but yep.
I enjoyed reading Siren Beloved even though I make
it a thing not to read second chance romances if I could help it. I’m a one-and-done
girl – hello, daddy issues. But I
love Lexi Blake and figured I’d give it a go. I’m glad I decided to try Siren
Beloved. It was a good bit of different to break up the monotony I had going bingereading one of my favourite series.
I'm truly in awe of Aiden, Lexi, and Lucas' relationship (and any other functioning throuple's relationship). Aiden is a bit insecure in his place in the relationship at the beginning where Lexi is bound and determined not to let him back in but Lucas is the perfect complement to them and makes them into the perfect trio by constantly doing little things along the way in the book to make sure Lexi sees that Aiden has sincerely changed.
I like that Ms Blake gave us a little twist in our suspense at the end and I loved all things Ike (obviously, I know). I especially loved the little confrontation scene at the fair with Karen, I even wish it had been longer - and that I had had some popcorn, and had the health ability to eat popcorn without trying to choke on it. Ha!
I also enjoyed how both Aiden and Lucas subtly and not-so subtly rebuilt Lexi's real self instead of the Intervention showcase she was at the start of the book. Little pokes towards her old self and punishments to help her find herself, caring Doms at work there.
I also enjoyed how both Aiden and Lucas subtly and not-so subtly rebuilt Lexi's real self instead of the Intervention showcase she was at the start of the book. Little pokes towards her old self and punishments to help her find herself, caring Doms at work there.
I did like Siren Beloved, truly. But I read books to take me out of my head and away from everything. I need a book that's going to do that. Not one that's going to tease me with escape every now and then and toss in a bunch of sex to distract me. I'm not that into sex, you can't distract me that way. I would have loved to have more townspeople scene time, we had a lot of mention about the townsfolk reactions to if Aiden brought home a girlfriend and a boyfriend but we had, like, 3 small teensy moments? I'll Oliver Twist some townsfolk out of the next book!
In the end though, it seems that Siren Beloved was written mainly to convey the sexual side of the BDSM ménage and some of the nonsexual nature of a BDSM relationship. It did bring to light that there are limits and safe words and even a smidgen of BDSM culture, which I think, in a post-Fifty Shades world, is a needed thing.
Overall, I'm going to give Siren Beloved 3 stars and 4 flames for spiciness. While I liked the book and everything, it was still missing a lot. I already bought the other republished editions of the Texas Sirens books and I think y'all should too if BDSM throuples are a thing for you.
Note if you choose to dabble in the BDSM world, please educate yourself a bit beforehand. Practise not just Safe Sane and Consensual sex but also Risk Aware Consensual Kink. This is not Fifty Shades and someone could get hurt.
Lexi realized she was in serious trouble the minute the words left
Lucas’s mouth. Hell, she’d realized she was in trouble the minute she opened
her mouth. What was she thinking? She knew damn well how to behave in a
dungeon, but something about this Master made her want to push him. Damn it. She’d been this way all of her
life. She had to push. She thought about taking a step back, but before she
could make her feet move, Master A had her in a fireman’s hold.
“Hey!” She shouted as her world upended. She turned her head up to
throw a desperate look Lucas’s way.
Lucas stood there, a stony cold look on his face. In that moment,
he was all Dom, and she’d never seen him look hotter. There was a confidence
about him she had rarely seen when he was around her. Lucas was utterly in
command at work, but his surety faltered when she walked into the room. Even
when he performed a scene with her, she knew he worried about her comfort. He
didn’t look worried now. He looked ready.
Her heart started to pound as Master A turned, and she lost sight
of Lucas.
“I need a chair, Lucas.” The words came out of the Master’s mouth
like a judge delivering a sentence.
“Yes, Sir.” Lucas’s words were silky smooth. There was not a hint
of hesitation now. She could hear him moving to do Master A’s bidding.
“What do you think you’re doing?” she asked, though she was a bit
less hostile now. She’d fucked up. She was glad Julian wasn’t around to witness
it, though Leo would probably tell him. Tears pricked her eyes. Damn, she was
proving to Leo she couldn’t handle the lifestyle. “Look, Sir, I’m sorry. It was
wrong of me to be rude to you, but I was merely pointing out that Lucas and I
had a plan for tonight.”
Reason.
She could reason with him, surely. It worked on all the men in her life. Of
course, usually she was looking at them instead of trying to plead her case to
a group of back muscles. The muscles were unbelievably tight, but his skin—oh,
his skin had been decimated in his lower back. It was a mess of white, puckered
flesh, and she could see both neat, surgical lines, and jagged edges. She
reached out to touch the mass of scars, but she was jerked back over his
shoulder and set on her feet before she could make it. She wobbled on her
heels, but Master A’s big hands held her shoulders.
“I don’t think you understand how this is going to go, sub. I am
the Master, and you are the one being punished. I won’t put up with a spoiled
princess telling me how her punishment will go. It will go the way I say it
will go. First, you will pay for the insult to me, and then we’ll proceed to
the sawhorse.”
“I don’t like the sawhorse.” The words came out breathy and small,
because she was beginning to understand that this was serious.
Master A didn’t look like he was planning on giving in. And she
hated being called a spoiled princess, but a part of her worried that he was
right. The last few years, she’d allowed herself to become spoiled and
dependent. She’d fled from everything that hurt her. She’d hidden. She’d let
her stepfathers and Lucas coddle and provide for her so she didn’t have to face
the truth.
Master A didn’t flinch. “I don’t care. Lucas has done the best he can,
but the truth is he wasn’t trained to be a Dom. He might enjoy it from time to
time, but he prefers bottoming. You require a firm hand. If you don’t want it,
then you’re free to leave. No one is holding you against your will. This is all
about consensual play, so you have to make the choice. Do you want the session
to continue?”
She hated this part. This was the part that she’d never understood.
She had to make the choice, and she couldn’t put it off on anyone else. She
wanted for him to simply do it. Then she could blame him later, but that wasn’t
what The Club was about. She’d been coming here for over a year, and she
finally had to decide to make the choice—stay and put herself in the hands of a
stranger, or go and never know what it was like. And then there was the fact
that Master A was right. Lucas needed something she couldn’t give him.
She cast her eyes down submissively. How bad could it be? “Yes,
Sir.”
“Then strip.”
NY Times and USA Today
bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband, three
kids, and the laziest rescue dog in the world. She began writing at a young
age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing
romance and urban fantasy that she found the stories of her heart. She likes to
find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings no matter how
odd the couple, threesome, or foursome may seem.
Remember to be respectful and not to invade Ms Blake's privacy by trying to find any private social media, folks. We're fans. Not stalkers.
As always, get your hands on a copy of Siren Beloved in a legal manner. And, if you're of a mind to and in a position where you're capable of doing so, please consider donating to this nonprofit organisation, Wounded Warrior Project.
Again, I'm terribly sorry this review isn't anywhere near as long as usual or as good, but have you ever tried sitting in a hospital waiting area in a hospital gown with a service dog and a nervous mother and typing on a laptop? I'll give you a hint, it's a bit of a spectacle because my mother acts more and more like a 5-year-old the more nervous she gets. She was singing The Song That Doesn't End and playing with Manny's ears beside me. Yeah, lots of free time for writing there. Until next time, have a happily ever after.
Friday, 15 June 2018
Nora Jacobs #2
Published 21 May 2018 by Bluefields Publishing
One month after Nora's violent induction to the dangerous supernatural side of Detroit, she's finally settling into her new life as the underworld's token human. All she wants to do is mind her own business, enjoy her new friends, and stay safe. But that's easier said than done when she's such an enigma to everyone around her.
Thanks to her unique psychic abilities, she's garnered a reputation for being mysterious and powerful. When the alpha of a local werewolf pack asks her to help him figure out who is stealing from him, she can't say no, even though getting involved in pack business could have deadly repercussions.
While tangled up in a heap of werewolf troubles, Nora can't quite shake her old vampire problem, either. Henry is practically stalking her, Parker is breaking down the walls around her heart, and Nora's blatant fear of the blood-sucking monsters is a delicious temptation for the natural predators.
Nora's succubus friend, Cecile, believes throwing her a "coming out" party into underworld society is the best way to solve all of her problems. Nora disagrees. If the vampires and werewolves don't kill her, Cecile's party planning definitely will.
* This is book 2 in the Nora Jacobs series and should be read after book 1. It is a slow burn reverse harem series.
Yes, I am reviewing the
second book of a series I gave 3 stars to. Why? Because the series got better and if y'all don't have any big issues with reading through the trigger-laden first book (click that for my review), I want y'all to give Don't Cheat Me a look-see.
The author couple
(actual couple) writing under the nom de plume, Jackie May, took their readers’
feedback and did better with Don’t Cheat Me. I’m happy to have taken a chance
on reading the second book of the Nora Jacobs series because I really saw the
potential in the first, Don’t Rush Me (again, my review), and I wanted to see the series thrive. If book 3 keeps on the
same track as book 2 has, it will!
We find out immediately
that Don’t Cheat Me takes place a month after the events of Don’t Rush Me, Nora
tells us this right off so there’s no confusion. Nora is still cohabitating
with Terrence, her troll buddy and clan leader, and she’s starting to eke out a
life of her own as a talented human in the paranormal underworld with her new
friends. Terrence asks her pretty please to come work at his club so he knows she’s
safe while she acclimates to the underworld knowing she exists and does their
nosing about in a safe space. Nora’s all for that deal with the promise that
either he or Wulf the werewolf (yes, we get more Wulf) will be with her. After
an incident at the club, Wulf offers to teach Nora some self defence against
the paranormal denizens she’ll be up against now – at his former pack’s gym
where we get to meet Wulf’s brother, Rook Winters. Va va to the voom, y’all. I have a weakness and the couple behind Jackie May found it. Whoops.
Creepy Henry the
vampire master is still stalking Nora but thankfully only has a small presence
in Don't Cheat Me (unfortunately nobody takes a stake to him) and Parker whom I’m still on
the fence about does manage to redeem himself for his role as Creepy Henry’s
lackey and even starts to show signs of being his own person. I’m not a vamp fan,
so I’ll keep the stake handy just in case.
Nick Gorgeous also pops
his hot self back into the picture as Nora’s very attractive flirtatious friend
and law enforcement buddy. Not a constant presence, but he does his fair bit in
the story. We still don't know what he is, so let's get a paranormal DNA test on him STAT, please.
We don’t get any Ren the
gay incubus time in this book which made me kind of sad because he’s my
favourite LGBT rep in the book as he’s a goofy sort reminding me of one of my
good friends. But we do get Cecile the multisexual succubus friend of Nora we
met in the beginning of Don’t Rush Me who takes it into her hands to host a
party introducing her human-not-human friend to paranormal society. She’s got a
regular part in Don’t Cheat Me and we get to know her a bit better, so yay.
We get more of the adorable Oliver whom we've known from pretty much page one of the series, which makes me a happy bookdragon. He's the Golden Retriever of the harem storyline, you know, I know, the Pope knows it. I'm glad that he gets to have a role in Don't Cheat Me, I'm a sucker for the puppy dog eyes - and I know Oliver has them in spades.
The mystery Nora gets involved in this time around is a bit more complicated and a tad bit heartbreaking (I cried a little there). Excuse me a second. ARE YOU SERIOUS WITH THAT SCENE, AUTHORS?! WHY DON'T Y'ALL JUST TWIST THAT KNIFE A LITTLE HARDER. I'LL WAIT! Okay, I'm done. Anyways, just when you think the mystery is all solved and we can settle down for some cute harem-building, our author duo slaps you with a no-no-not-yet fish. I don't know. I'm having some healthy issues right now. And then, we're off on another round of trying to help Wulf's former pack who are kinda bitchy about it - and she still has to deal with the men in her life.
We get things tied up a bit more quickly than I'd have liked (I seriously typed 'licked' at first so there's that for a laugh for y'all). No spoilers, but everything seems to be set on fast forward all of a sudden going from the Big Thing goes from happening in a few weeks to a week's time to tomorrow night to whoops, it's go time!
We also find out Nora's paranormal deal at the end of Don't Cheat Me, so I'm not giving that away. But, I totally called it. Which leads to the reiteration of the statement, I know way too much about paranormal creatures to be a mere human. Who knows, maybe I'm one of them. Kidding. Unfortunately.
As this is a slow burn reverse harem romance, the harem is coming together slowly. I have a bit of a sticky note board going of likely candidates starting to form on my wall. It's colour-coded according to my opinion of the likelihood of making the final lineup of Nora's harem. Maybe I'll share a photo of the 'board' with book 3's likely review?
Time to discuss those
changes I mentioned. Get comfortable, readers, I'll wait.
Oh, your version of 'get comfortable' doesn't involve puppy cuddles? Pity. Moving on then.
Nora stops being the
‘woe is me, the world is out to get me and I can’t figure out why’ character
that annoyed the tar out of me in Don’t Rush Me and finds her backbone in Don’t
Cheat Me. She’s still a bit of a Damsel in Distress but she’s more of a heroine
than a blithering idiot tripping over her own feet and a big shout out to the
authors for taking the time to hear us about that. We stopped focusing on her
Tragic Past™ every other paragraph and actually had Nora taking real steps
towards becoming her own person, but not completely
disappearing the actual character we started the series with. She stood up to
alphas and betas, vamps, and fae alike whenever she was of the mind to instead
of waiting for one of the menfolk to come over and bash some heads together for
her. Instead of obsessing over her
We also find Nora
stepping out of her comfort zone and actually initiating contact with the men
she’s grown comfortable around in Don’t Rush Me and in Don’t Cheat Me. We’re
not talking some friction in the sheets as this is a slow burn reverse harem
series, we’re just talking a little hugging and kissing and some hand holding. Thank
the deities for some slow burn, what is with romance books these days immediately
jumping to bedroom action? Give me some story and working through our issues!! Because we all have some deep-seated issues, don't we, darlings? That's okay, that's what book therapy is for.
Overall, I'm giving Don't Cheat Me 4 stars because Nora got her shit (I'll edit that for off-blog posting) together and pulled on her big girl panties and I finally got to see the Nora Jacobs I knew was there but didn't get to see in Don't Rush Me. We had a real story going on, no plot holes and some new developments that I truly enjoyed (no spoilers). Jackie May, keep going in this direction and I'll thoroughly love the third book in this series.
Jackie May is a pseudonym for a husband and wife writing team. Josh and Kelly live in Phoenix, Arizona with their four children and their cat, Mr. Darcy. Jackie May is their only daughter. (And she keeps asking for her cut of the profits since we’re using her name.)
Other books by Jackie May that I've reviewed include Don't Rush Me.
Hello, darlings. It's the end of another review. Wowie, gee whillikers. You would not believe how bad the past week has been for me. Think several thousands of dollars worth of car repairs and a car rental to go to work and oh yeah, birthdays month this month. I'm not doing well healthwise (mentally or physically) so things are going a bit slow, but they are still going.
In light of recent events you've no doubt seen on the news or on social media, if you're of the ability to donate and you'd like to donate, please consider donating to the Human Rights Campaign.
Until next time, dear readers, have a happily ever after.
Wednesday, 6 June 2018
Hello, dearest readers.
I started out wanting to write this
blog as a place to talk about books because I really don’t have that many friends
in the first place and then, I don’t really have any friends who are obsessed
with books like I am. My “sisters” like books, one even reviews them when she has
the time but I’m my grandmother’s granddaughter. You will one day come over to
my house, open the front door and be buried under an avalanche of books. More
likely of a scenario, I will take you on a guided virtual tour of my newly
acquired home and you will be positively terrified at the walls of shelving and
mountains and piles of books I have accumulated in my life and wonder at how my
dogs, my cat (there will be a cat) and I manage to navigate our way through my abode.
And I began this blog to share my love of my
books. Not just the newest and greatest that have just shown up on the market but
the ones that kept me sane when my life was really bad and I had nothing else
good in it, that took me off to far off places and times from my hiding spot in
an old cardboard box tossed into a pile of junk in the front room I wasn’t
supposed to be able to get into when I was little when my mum would be off at
class and my dad would be watching my brother and I.
I got distracted by the glitter of Edelweiss
(who doesn’t love that song?) and NetGalley and the I CAN READ BOOKS EARLY? of ARCs. I have a book problem.
But I’m fixing that. I’m going to be
slowly slipping in an Edelweiss/NetGalley review here and there as I go, but
for the most part, my reviews and my posts will be the books I hold dear or
that I discover wandering the stacks of local bookstores. Because I’m finally
getting my Florida license (I never actually needed my license in Georgia so. . . .), and I’ll be driving about
soon hopefully.
I’ll also be putting together some
updates for y’all on Manatee. I’ve just been undergoing a lot of testing lately
and my medical problems have been giving me some extra bumps in the road to
deal with so I’ve been all over the map. But I’m fixing that as well! I have
pictures and some video and with the acquirement of my Florida license, Manny
and I will be going out and about more for more training and whatnot.
I have one final NetGalley review I’ll
be publishing (but I want to reread it this weekend to make sure I’ve got all of
it covered) before I start writing reviews for whatever books I happen to
decide upon. There’s a bunch more waiting for me to get to but they’ll happen
when they happen. Too much pressure makes reading and reviewing not fun for me and
I tend to just say ‘no’ to all of it if that happens.
In the future, I want to get involved
with Down the TBR Hole posts because my Goodreads TBR list (not my actual shameful
list) is in the thousands and maybe one or two other post things that I’ve been
eyeing. But not yet. I have some work I need to do with this thing before I
start drowning in posts.
I hope y’all keep tagging along and
checking out my posts until this blog gets it’s internet legs. I can’t promise
I’ll ever be famous, I’m pretty sure that’d give me some serious anxiety
issues, but I can say that I’ll keep at this for a long time. I’ve gotta talk
about my books somewhere after all. And, since I don’t do well with the talky-talky
and all, it might as well be here, right?
I've got to go walk the dogs before I make dinner for the family unit. So, until next time, dear readers, have a happily ever after! And here's a photo of Manatee and the Target Dog!
Tuesday, 22 May 2018
Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle
Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Book 1
Published 5 April 2016
Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca
In the remote Rocky Mountains, lives depend on the Search & Rescue brotherhood. But in a place this far off the map, trust is hard to come by and secrets can be murder...
As the captain of Field County's ice rescue dive team, Callum Cook is driven to perfection. But when he meets new diver Louise "Lou" Sparks, all that hard-won order is obliterated in an instant. Lou is a hurricane. A walking disaster. And with her, he's never felt more alive...even if keeping her safe may just kill him.
Lou's new to the Rockies, intent on escaping her controlling ex, and she's determined to make it on her own terms... no matter how tempting Callum may be. But when a routine training exercise unearths a body, Lou and Callum find themselves thrust into a deadly game of cat and mouse with a killer who will stop at nothing to silence Lou - and prove that not even her new Search and Rescue family can keep her safe forever.
I received a copy of Hold Your Breath from the
publisher via Edelweiss+ in exchange for an honest review. The following review
is comprised of my opinions and mine alone.
While I was reading Hold Your Breath, I was
repeatedly reminded of one of my favourite romance novel couples, Blayne Thorpe
and Bo Novikov from Shelly Laurenston’s Beast Behaving Badly. Needless to say, Callum
Cook and Lou Sparks have now joined the ranks of my favourite romance couples
and I’ll be rereading Hold Your Breath a thousand times and randomly quoting parts
of it in the middle of conversations much to my friends and family’s dismay.
What can I say, I’m a weird potato.
Louise ‘Lou’ Sparks is the boisterous, goofy, and
messy leady lady I love. She’s the type of woman who will trip over thin air
and everybody in the tricounty area will witness it. But she’s also the woman who
will teach herself to fix a propane heater the first time it breaks rather than
cry about and spend the money she doesn’t have to call in a repairman to do the
job for her every time it breaks. She’s just recently moved to Simpson, Colorado to become a person she'll like seeing in the mirror (a thing I can totally get behind) and she's working as the new waitress in the local cafe to make an honest paycheck. She’s also just joined
Simpson’s volunteer Search & Rescue Dive Team – for anybody who doesn’t
know, that means she’s diving into freezing cold water and swimming under the ice
looking for whatever brain trust decided it’d be a good idea to take a stroll
on the not-as-thick-as-they-thought-it-was ice. Lou’s pretty hardcore doing
that but she’s also the spazz that has a slap fight with her buddy over some
random thing.
Callum Cook is a retired Marine (because there’s no
such thing as a ‘former’ Marine) and the leader of Simpson, Colorado’s Search &
Rescue Dive Team – and Lou’s boss/trainer. He comes off as a bit of a stick-up-his-butt
sort thanks to his OCD ways but he’s pretty great to me. He’s the perfect yin
to Lou’s yang. Where Lou is outgoing and really friendly to absolutely
everybody, Callum plays it more close to the vest, he’s cordial to everybody
and he’s friendly to the search & rescue community but he keeps himself
apart from his team since he’s the boss. Lou brings him out of his shell the
more they’re together and he brings a bit of needed organisation to her life as
well. He has moments where he’s “me Tarzan, you Jane” around her male friends but
I think he’s pretty 21st century about his relationship with Lou overall – and I’ll
admit, even I like a bit of the Tarzan attitude.
As always, Ms Ruggle’s romantic suspense kept me teetering
on the edge of my seat, erm, bed, I’m a total bed reader. I was freaking the freak
out with Lou’s stalker just standing there watching her sleep right outside her
window. I had to hide under Manatee the Service Dog’s head at one point but I kept reading because I had to see what
happened! I almost started chewing on Manny’s nails (mine are kept non-existent
for a reason!) at a certain point you’ll recognise it when you get to it (did
you honestly think I’d write a spoiler?!). Poor Manny didn’t get much sleep
during this book’s read time, y’all. I ended up giving him a salmon skin rollup
as an apology after I was finished the book.
One of my favourite things of Ms Ruggle’s writing is
always her humour. In Hold Your Breath, it’s evident immediately in how Lou and
Callum are introduced – there’s an actual slap fight involved. We also have
uncle brothers – I thought those were only a South Georgia thing, honestly. And
we had mocking of Big Bads, I can always get behind Big Bad mocking. It’s a
favourite pastime of mine.
Now, the chemistry between Callum and Lou. I love
love LOVE it. It’s dorky and weebly wobbly, is it there or not? But it’s also
blatant and everybody and their neighbour knows it’s there, how can you not
notice it? Between Lou’s messiness that invades every space that is hers at work
or at home and Callum’s OCD proclivities that leave him absolutely horrified at
the sight of her work locker let alone her living room, you just have to read
the entire book to watch how the two manage to blend their personalities
together. I have good reason to believe that the white board comes into play a
lot more often than just for Lou’s weird obsession with HDG.
As for the whodunnits and whatsits. I thought I knew
who the stalker was and then I was thrown for a loop then a loopdiloop! So I
really and truly loved Ms Ruggle’s Hold Your Breath for managing to surprise me
not just once but TWICE in my reading. I thought I was wrapping up the story
after everything was over and she threw in that curveball and wham I didn’t
know what to think! She is a constant font of surprises with every book I read. As always, you can tell that Ms Ruggle has put a lot of research into her writing. I actually found myself looking a few things up because I actually didn't know a thing or two which isn't very often in my world. I will always take the time to read a Katie Ruggle original just for that reason alone!
Hold Your Breath gets 5 out of 5 stars from me and just
3 out of 5 flames for spiciness. I look forward to reading the rest of this
series which I’ll also be reviewing, I can’t wait to see who else from Simpson,
Colorado gets bitten Ms Ruggle’s Love Bug and how their stories play out as always. I’ll be sure to let y’all
know!
A fan of the old adage “write what you know”, Katie Ruggle lived in an off-grid, solar- and wind-powered house in the Rocky Mountains until her family lured her back to Minnesota. When she’s not writing, Katie rides horses, shoots guns (not while riding, although that would be awesome), cross-country skis (badly) and travels to warm places where she can scuba dive. A graduate of the Police Academy, Katie received her ice-rescue certification and can attest that the reservoirs in the Colorado mountains really are that cold. A fan of anything that makes her feel like a bad-ass, she has trained in Krav Maga, boxing and gymnastics.
You can connect with Katie on her website, her Goodreads, her Facebook, or on her Twitter.
As always, get your hands on a copy of Hold Your Breath in a legal manner. And, if you're of a mind to and in a position where you're capable of doing so, please consider donating to Hidden Treasures Foundation which is a safe house program that helps young girls rehab after being rescued from sex slavery in the human trafficking industry. Until next time, have a happily ever after.
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
I-Team Book 8
Published 21 February 2018
Secrets buried in the sand…
Former US Army Captain Mia Starr has built a new life for herself in Denver, far away from camel spiders and sand—and the terrible secrets of her first deployment to Iraq. She isn’t looking for a relationship, especially not with an intrusive photojournalist. Joaquin Ramirez might be sexy, but in her experience, photojournalists only want to make a buck off other people’s suffering. Still, the universe must have a sick sense of humor because it keeps throwing her together with Joaquin, making the desire she feels for him harder and harder to resist.
An undeniable attraction…
As a Pulitzer Prize-winning news photographer, Joaquin has everything a single straight guy could want—except the right woman. When he meets Mia while shooting a crime scene, he immediately sees beyond her cold exterior to the vulnerable woman beneath. Though the police consider her a suspect, he’s sure she’s innocent. Someone is killing soldiers—and trying to pin the blame on her. Unable to resist the pull between them, Joaquin stands by her only to find himself snared in the killer’s net as well.
A twisted soul hungry for revenge…
Mia can’t help it when the heat between her and Joaquin melts away her preconceptions. As their passion explodes, danger draws ever closer. When it becomes clear that Mia is the killer’s true target, she must trust Joaquin with a secret that could ruin her … or risk losing the love of a lifetime.
I received an
advanced copy of Deadly Intent from the author via NetGalley in exchange for an
honest review. The following review contains my opinions and mine alone.
Joaquín Cristián Delgado Ramírez. If you’re looking
for a hot latinx lover who burns up the dance floor, takes prize-winning photos,
and is prepared to defend himself and others, look no further. Joaquín meets
Mia at a crime scene of a former co-worker and is instantly captivated by her. And
despite everybody believing Mia’s a murderer, Joaquín is steadfast in his
belief that the former Army Captain is not only innocent but a target of the
real killer. Joaquín goes out of his way to help Mia Starr out, to the point
where he becomes a secondary target in the killer’s quest for ‘revenge’. What I
love most about Joaquín is that he’s loyal, even risking his job and his reputation
as a photojournalist to keep his promise to Mia.
Mia is a complex woman when you really look at her. Joaquín
must work overtime to make her see herself how he’s seen her from the moment
they met, beautiful. It all stems from harassment from her superior officer and
the rest of the men in her company after she refused and reported her
commanding officer’s advances. At the same time, she’s a strong independent
woman who put in the hard work to get her degree and now works at her dream job
at the Botanical Gardens. One of my favourite things about Mia is that she sees
that Joaquín’s family is bilingual and tends to use Spanish more than English
and instead of asking everybody to just speak English, she takes the time to
start teaching herself Spanish so that she can communicate with his family who’s
basically adopted her after learning she trained Joaquín’s younger cousin in
the Army.
I really enjoyed reading Deadly Intent because Ms
Clare created characters that felt welcoming from the get-go. I immediately
trusted Julian and Marc and now I really want to get my hands on their stories.
And let’s not get started on the Wests, I felt like they wouldn’t mind if I
came over and hung out for a weekend with my
camera. The way the other characters from the previous books just easily popped
up in the book made me want to know more about them as well since they were so
varied in nature.
I was a teensy bit confused at one period in the
beginning – mostly because this was my first book of the series. It was quickly
made clear to me that I just wasn’t understanding things. You can read this as
a standalone, but I do recommend you check out the earlier books to understand
what all is going on and who’s who.
I was glad to see that Ms Clare tackles not only non-combat
PTSD but also sexual assault and harassment in the military. She tastefully
works Sophie’s problems into the story without making things a spectacle. It’s
great that, even in a book centred around a veteran, the author makes a point
to say you don’t have to have served to develop PTSD. I’m also glad that Mia’s
assault and harassment wasn’t just a storybuilder, it had a story of its own
throughout the book – and it gets a satisfactory ending.
To finish things off, I’m going to give Deadly
Intent 4 out of 5 stars and 2 spicy flames. It actually takes a while before sexy
times begin and even then, they’re not majorly in-depth or story-killing. I’m
already planning on going back and reading the rest of the I-Team series and I
hope y’all give Deadly Intent (and its seriesmates) a chance.
That's all for now, duckies! I totally recommend y'all check out Deadly Intent and, as always, if you have the ability and are of the mind to donate, consider Protect Our Defenders, the only nationwide foundation that is dedicated to helping victims, regardless of their gender, who've experienced military sexual assault or rape. Military sexual assault and rape are harder to combat and to see this organisation coming forward and not only fighting for the female victims but also the male victims is uplifting.
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