Wednesday, 19 June 2019

The Irish Lottery - Sienna Blake

Keep reading for your chance to WIN!

 

Four hot Irish brothers

ready to play out your ultimate fantasy…



Noah
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Our ma is sick and this lottery is the only way to raise that much money quickly.

But when my best friend in the whole world, the girl I’ve secretly loved for years, turns up as the winner I cannot believe it.

When I read the secret fantasy she’s submitted I almost choke.
She just wants us to give her what she’s never had…

…an O.

This could be the very thing I need to convince her that we should be more than friends. I could give her what she wants—the sexiest night of her life…and more.

I just hope she’s happy when she finds out who’s behind the mask. 

The Irish Lottery is a full-length standalone friends-to-lovers contemporary romance.


Grab The Irish Lottery at this special Release price!

 


About the author





My Review

I've always had a bit of a thing for friends to lovers stories and that is what we get in Irish Lottery. While this is one of the Irish Kiss series, it also contains a reverse harem scene, which tend to appear in her quick and dirty reads. This is only one scene in this story and the whole book is one that leads to a happily ever after between the main couple. As with previous books, from both this series and Sienna Blakes other series, once I started, I didn't want to put it down and devoured it pretty quickly.
Both of the main characters, Noah and Aubrey are very likeable and while the idea behind the lottery that gives the book its title seemed a little far fetched, it didn't really matter as it just made for a fun read. I also liked Noah's three brothers and wonder (hope) that they are perhaps going to get their own stories soon.
This story also looks at the double standards that sometimes seem to exist between the way that men and women are treated when it comes to sexual desire and promiscuity.
Overall this is a bit of a feel good, makes you all warm inside romance, which sometimes, particularly when it's wet, cold and miserable outside, is just what you want.


Tuesday, 18 June 2019

The Rogue King - Abigail Owen

The Rogue King (Inferno Rising, #1)The Rogue King by Abigail Owen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love Abigail Owen's books and I particularly enjoy her Dragon Shifter romances. This one is slightly unusual as it is the start of the series, but it is linked to her other series Fire's Edge. These two series are linked although this one is set among the main clans that make up the dragon world, while the other series concentrates on a group of enforcers who live in the US.
In the other books, it has been explained that those who live outside of the rule and protection of their clans, usually because they have lost parents, are shunned and tend not to live long. Brand is one such rogue and despite the fact that the life of a rogue is a dangerous one, he has become something to be feared. He is sent by his friend and King of the blue dragons, to help to rescue and deliver to him a phoenix. It soon becomes clear that Brand and Kasia are destined to be much more to one another.
Brand is your usual silent and brooding type, who tries to keep people at a distance, while Kasia is a stubborn and determined woman, who tries to break through his defences and isn't at all convinced by his constant attempts to protect her. This is the type of paring that often comes up in books such as this, but it was done well and the characters were very likeable, I really enjoyed their pairing and story.
There is clearly much to come in both this series and the companion Fire's Edge series. I for one, can't wait to read more.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Tuesday, 11 June 2019

What we do for love - Anne Pfeffer


What We Do For Love
Anne Pfeffer
Publication date: May 21st 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Thirty-eight year old Nicole Adams has given up on finding love. Instead, the single mother focuses on the things she cherishes most—her sixteen-year old son Justin, her friends, and her art.
When she convinces a prominent Los Angeles museum to feature a piece of her work, a large-scale installation, she thinks her life has finally turned a corner.
Then Justin brings a girl, Daniela, home to live with them. Daniela’s angry parents have thrown her out of the house, because she’s pregnant with Justin’s child. Shattered, Nicole takes Daniela in and, in so doing, is drawn into the inner circle of Daniela’s family—a frightening world of deceit and violence.
Nicole struggles to keep life going as normal. Forced to deal with people she doesn’t trust or like, fearful for the future of both her son and the grandchild they’re expecting, Nicole wonders if she can do what she tells Justin to do: always have faith in yourself and do the right thing.

What We Do for Love won the Chick Lit category of the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and finalist for Best Cover Design/Fiction!


Author Bio:
Hi! I grew up in the desert around Phoenix, Arizona, where I had a bay quarter horse named Dolly. If I wasn't riding, I was holed up somewhere reading Laura Ingalls Wilder or the Oz books or, later on, Jane Eyre and The Grapes of Wrath. Horses eventually faded as an interest, but I ended up with a lifelong love of books and reading.
After college and eight years of living in cold places like Chicago and New York, I escaped back to the land of sunshine. I now live in California, one mile from the Pacific Ocean, with my dachshund Taco. I have worked in banking and as a pro bono attorney, doing adoptions and guardianships for abandoned children.
As a writer, I'd always been interested in children's books, since they had meant so much to me as a kid. I've found I especially like writing books about teens and twenty-somethings, an age where you make so many decisions about who you are and how you want to spend your life.
I love hearing from readers, so please write to me any time at my website www.annepfeffer.com.

My Review

I'm not really sure what genre of book I'd describe this as. There is some romance, although in many ways it's secondary to the other events that take place. The book deals with relationships of different types; there is the mother and child relationship in its various forms, there's friendship of different types and then there are romantic relationships. As our main character Nicole finds herself looking at the different relationships in her life, she questions them all and finds that things change.
I really enjoyed this read. It was interesting seeing the different way the mothers or potential mothers dealt with their relationship with their child and tried to protect them. I also liked the friendships between Nicole and the people that she had around her.
This was quite a light and easy read, although it dealt in some ways with some quite meaty topics. Overall it was an enjoyable and thought-provoking story, but one that didn't tax my little grey cells too much.

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Monday, 10 June 2019

Robby - Jen Davis

Robby (Cooper Construction, #3)Robby by Jen Davis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I read the first two books in the Cooper Construction series (Brick and Kane) some months ago and have been keeping an eye out for book number three. We met sweet Robby in those first two books and learnt about his crush on fellow construction worker Matt. I wasn't sure how their story, if it indeed would be their story, would play out. Obviously, when I saw the book available on NetGalley, I jumped at the chance to read it and find out.
In the first two books, Robby comes across as a young lad, quite naive, but with a heart of gold. It soon becomes clear that while that might be the face that he displays to the world, there is far more lurking beneath.
I really enjoyed this story, I liked Robby when we first met him, but as his character developed in this story, he was even more likeable. Matt has not had it easy either and while it's not nearly so dark as Robby's past, it still left plenty for him to deal with. I also really liked the way that this book dealt not only with a homosexual relationship and one of part of the couples' first foray into that but also with someone who had really found themselves sexually attracted to someone in the past. (In this age where we try and give everything labels, then I believe that Matt would be considered Demisexual) it added an interesting dimension to the storyline.
Overall this is really quite a sweet story and one that I really enjoyed.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Sunday, 9 June 2019

Torn in two - Vincent Morrone

Torn in Two (The Torn Series Book 2)Torn in Two by Vincent Morrone
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Torn in Two is the second in the Torn Series, I have to admit that I have read the first book. I don't know if that would have changed my opinion of this book if I had, but I have to admit that I struggled with it. There's an awful lot going on here, with four or five, inter-related threads that make up the plot of the story. Obviously, much of this has been introduced in the first book and I think that might be where I struggled a bit. I got lost in the beginning and then found later on that I was forgetting about some aspects of the plot entirely until they were mentioned again.
This book is a thriller/mystery with a romance subplot. The romance aspect was written in a similar way to what you would expect in a straight romance book, but it was almost an afterthought. I did enjoy that part of it, in fact, I enjoyed quite a bit, but the book was confusing and that detracted from the overall read.
I wish I could have enjoyed this one more, but it just wasn't for me. I think it may be better if you have read the first book, but as I haven't I can't be sure of that. In some ways, it was almost as though we were expected to already know the characters. I couldn't decide how old the young boy was, his age (almost 9) wasn't mentioned until nearly the end. Things like that, although perhaps not essential just made me more confused.
There are some very dark themes in this book, which might not be for everyone. I didn't hate the book, but I really didn't love it either.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


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Tuesday, 4 June 2019

Tangled Threat - Heather Graham

Tangled ThreatTangled Threat by Heather Graham
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to love this one, I really did. Usually a combination of two of my favourite genres, romance and mystery is something that I really enjoy, but for some reason, this one just fell a bit flat.
Firstly the mystery aspect. While there was an interesting storyline, with a parallel murder, or in fact two, in the past, for some reason it was all just a bit flat. I think that it might be, at least in part because it all seemed a bit rushed. The book was short and there wasn't really time to build the story and the mystery in quite the way that I would have liked. I had figured out who was behind it all and why quite early on, or at least half of it. When the big reveal came, in all honesty, it just didn't make much sense.
When it came to the romance side of things, again, I think this suffered because of the speed with which the story progressed. There was little chemistry between the two of them and they go from not having seen one another for 12 years, to nothing has changed.
This book was an easy read and I didn't hate it, but I had expected enjoy it so much more than I did, which means that ultimately it was really quite disappointing. I think that a longer book with a bit more development of both the mystery and the romance would have been much better.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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Sunday, 2 June 2019

The Other Half of Augusta Hope - Joanna Glen

The Other Half of Augusta HopeThe Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a bit of an unusual story. I have to admit from the blurb, I wasn't really sure what to expect and even as the story unfolded I really wasn't sure where it was going. This is a story about living life, love and loss. Or perhaps in many ways, it would be more accurate to simply say that this is a story about life. It follows Augusta and her twin Julia from their early days, while at the same time we see snippets of Parfait's life. Of course, these two stories are going to eventually collide and it becomes apparent that they are in more ways than one, two halves of the same story.
What's really odd about this story is that in many ways it's a very sad or melancholy tale, there is a lot that happens that is truly awful for all of the various characters that we meet. Even the good stuff is tempered by decisions or events of the past. The really odd part of this is that despite all of that, there is something that does leave you feeling good when you've read this book. Possibly it's the ending? But I would say that I had that feeling as I read it, there's something about the story overall that just gives you a bit of a contented feeling, or perhaps that's just me.
I went into this book not really knowing what to expect and in many ways, I've come out of it, not really able to fully describe what it is, but knowing that I really enjoyed it,
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

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