Friday, December 30, 2016

Review & Tour: Bad Boys After Dark (Dylan) by Melissa Foster

 
Title: Bad Boys After Dark: Dylan
Author: Melissa Foster
Genre/Age: Contemporary Romance
Series: Bad Boys After Dark Series (Book Two)
Publisher: World Literary Press
Format: ebook via Tasty Book Tours
Rating: ✺✺✺.5
LinksGoodreads
SynopsisSinfully sexy bar owner Dylan Bad has a thing for needy women. He’s a savior, a knight in shining armor, and his mighty talented sword has no trouble bringing damsels in distress to their knees. 

Enter Tiffany Winters, a gorgeous cutthroat sports agent who looks like sex on legs, f**ks like she’s passion personified, and wouldn’t let a man help her if she were dangling from a ledge and he was her only hope. 

One night and too much tequila might change their lives forever. The question is, will either one survive?





With her phone pressed to her ear, Tiffany Winters ducked out of the rain and into the Kiss, an eclectic Manhattan bar, to return calls and take care of a mountain of text messages that had piled up during her dinner meeting. She listened to her client’s wife explain why she didn’t want her husband traveling too often to endorse a hotel chain Tiffany was planning on pitching to him next week. Her client had already nixed any mention of his family in the advertisements, and reducing his travel would make it an even harder sell.
“I hear your concern, Allison,” she said as she sat on a barstool. “If you and Matt decide this isn’t the right thing for your family, we’ll turn our efforts in another direction.” As a sports agent, dealing with significant others was part of the job, a part Tiffany enjoyed and other agents rued. Sure, some wives assumed their husband’s success granted them the power to be overly demanding. Ass kissing was part of the game. Sometimes she wished she could give the meeker wives lessons in how to be tough. Teach them to have balls as big as their husbands’ and come right out and say what they meant instead of beating around the bush with bullshit hypotheticals. She reminded herself often that not every woman grew up in a testosterone-laden house with two competitive older brothers and a father who won the Heisman in college and went on to play pro sports—a house where mincing words didn’t cut the mustard.
“You missed the wedding.”
The deep male voice drew Tiffany’s attention from her phone call to the fine specimen of a man standing behind the bar. He looked like he’d just stepped off a Hot Guys in Suits Pinterest page. His tie hung loosely around the collar of his white dress shirt, which was open three buttons deep, revealing a smattering of dark chest hair, a rarity nowadays, when so many men manscaped every inch of their bodies. Tiffany preferred a man to look like a man, which included hair in all the right places. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, exposing heavily corded forearms, and his jacket hung casually from two fingers over his left shoulder. Her fingers itched to send the last few buttons—and that jacket—flying to the floor. The guy’s chiseled jaw and dark eyes were movie-star classic, and his dark hair was thick enough to hang on to. She’d had a long, hard day, and he looked like he could provide a long, hard, pleasure-filled night.
Perfect. 
Holding his gaze, she spoke into the phone as he laid his jacket across the bar, giving her the impression he wasn’t the bartender, but rather a guest who’d happened to wander back there. “Allison, I’ll see what else I can come up with and get back to you. Right. Okay, hon. Thank you.” After ending the call, she responded to the stud behind the bar. “Wedding? Who gets married at a bar?”
“My brother, for one.” He nodded across the room to a group of men and women who were holding their glasses up in a toast.
She zeroed in on one she recognized as her tall, dark colleague. “Mick Bad is married?” The high-powered attorney was a workaholic like her, and he’d been unattached two months earlier, when they’d worked together on a deal for one of her clients. She’d never understand couples who claimed to fall in love practically overnight. Love was a crutch for weak people who needed someone else to lean on. Except Mick Bad had never needed anyone to lean on. She wondered if his new bride was pregnant. 
“The one and only.” Hot guy’s eyes took a long, luxurious stroll down her body, lingered on her breasts, then roamed north, hovering around her mouth, before finally meeting her gaze. He flashed a wolfish grin full of sinful promises.
“Dylan Bad at your service.”
Pushing thoughts of her newly married colleague’s expedient nuptials aside, she focused on his very available brother. A definite player, which was fine with her. She had no time—or interest—in anything but a quick hookup, and the six-two or -three stud had already shot to the top of tonight’s fantasy list. 
“What’s your pleasure?” he asked with more than a hint of innuendo. 
You. Naked, with your head buried between my legs, to start.
“Surprise me.” She watched him turn to prepare her drink and checked out the way his dark slacks hugged his perfect ass. It had been a long time since she’d found a man this attractive. But Mick Bad’s brother? That spelled trouble.


Melissa Foster is a New York Times & USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes sexy and heartwarming contemporary romance, new adult romance, and women's fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Melissa's emotional journeys are lovingly erotic, perfect beach reads, and always family oriented. 

Author Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Buy Links: Amazon | B & N | Google | iTunes | Kobo



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**Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for honest review.** 

When a tough-hearted woman and a soft-loving man collide...

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Tiffany's job as a sports agent is time consuming. And she's good at her job. Unfortunately, work is all that she ever does and her love life is practically non-existent. A quick romp in the hay is all that she has time for these days and a real relationship just doesn't have a place in her itinerary.

Dylan is a hard worker, also. But he knows that while it's important to work hard, it's just as important to play hard, too. And when he sets his sights on Tiffany, he is faced with his biggest challenge yet. Breaking her out of her shell and getting her to open up, to him and to a less-stressful life, is a full-time job all of its own.

What begins as undeniable chemistry leads to lustful encounters and soon turns into a need on both sides for a little more than just physical enjoyment. As Dylan works to tear down the wall around Tiffany's heart, she fights against her instinct to shut him out and obsess over her work.

This was my first Melissa Foster book and the only one I've read of this series, thus far. We're introduced to Dylan and Tiffany, of course, but we also get to meet members of both families, as well. I don't necessarily have an opinion of most of the secondary characters because we really didn't spend enough time with any of them for me to form an opinion but I am open to reading more about them in other books of the series.

The plot was pretty good and I loved Dylan's healthy view of romance and relationships. I liked him from the beginning and his adorable little gifts and interactions with Tiffany were swoon-worthy. He was a fantastic male lead and I would read another entire book about him if I could.

Tiffany, I liked quite a bit at first. She was tough but honest and I can admire a woman who works for what she wants. I could tell from the first few chapters that she had trust and commitment issues to work through. Normally, I'm all for a flawed character who needs to do a bit of soul-searching before reaching their destination. 

Unfortunately, I found that I grew tired of her journey that was laced with rudeness and self-absorption. In fact, pretty much the only conflict in this entire book was that of Tiffany trying to escape Dylan's affection. She protested so much that I mentally said, "Well, then just live a miserable life all by yourself!" I wanted to pull for her but she made it so hard.

The saving grace in this, for me, were the love scenes. Even though I knew Tiffany would deny her feelings the moment the sex was over, the actual love-making was spot on stupendous. I really enjoyed that element of the book and it's what helped me to accept the story in the end.

In closing... 
I am curious to see how the other brothers find their happy endings (in more ways than one!). For this story, 3.5 suns!


 

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Excerpt & Tour: Exit Signs by Patrice Locke


Title: Exit Signs
Author: Patrice Locke
Genre/Age: Women's Fiction Romance/Adult
Series: None
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
LinksGoodreads
SynopsisResearcher Tracy Price is trying to find a dead writer and forget a live musician. 

Rock star Jesse Elliot is sure Tracy is demented, and she believes he wouldn’t recognize the truth in a lineup of Bibles. Their only hope is to stop trying to read each other’s minds and start speaking their own. 

Anyone who has ever had a crush, felt betrayed, or been forgiven will appreciate Tracy's struggle to claim the life she never knew she wanted. 



Jesse raked some strands of his blue-black hair away from his forehead. The hair fell right back onto the shoreline of his face like a wave on a beach. I thought of the cliché movie scene where the action cuts to an agitated ocean to symbolize sex. I cleared my throat, and ordered myself to get a grip.

Instead, I surprised us both by asking him my name. “Tracy Price?”

“Yes.” He confirmed my identity. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He was all-business; I was all over the place.

This was how a romance novel would begin, and, as the designated hero, he was free to relax and be two-dimensional for now. I’d provide the script because I thought I knew the genre, but I had it wrong from the start because, on second thought, he was from another planet. He had to be. And if this was science fiction, anything could happen. Aliens are tricky.

When he sat next to me I wanted to leap up and run away. Instead, I asked, “How do you like Albuquerque?” Very original, Tracy. What I wondered was, How does it feel to look like you do?

“I like it,” he said, answering both my questions. “I like it so far.”

I felt a surge of power. “I bet. And how long are you staying?” Or, more to the point, would it be too forward of me to sit on your lap?

“I can’t say yet. Maybe six weeks? This was kind of an unexpected trip.” Bingo. Both questions addressed.

This was working. Let me know when you decide about the lap thing. I covered my mouth for a fake cough to clear my head.

We were silent. I was contemplating his perfection. Maybe he was, too.

As a journalist, Patrice Locke wrote a lot of stories with unhappy and even tragic endings.Facts are facts, and a writer doesn't mess with facts.

But fiction is another world. Patrice began writing novels, where she could control the endings and make them as happy as she wants. The best thing about fiction, she says, is having time to think before her characters speak, so they can say the things most of us only come up with after the perfect moment has passed.
She loves to write, read, and watch romantic comedies where life always turns out the way it should. Her only obsessive relationships are with semicolons and Oxford commas.
Though she doesn't like to brag, Patrice is an award-winning artist. She won a gold and diamond watch when she was 13 for decorating a turkey drumstick bone to look like Batman. Alas, that was her last recognition in the fine arts.
Patrice lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the blue sky is brilliant, the air is thin, and the vistas are breathtaking. She is none of those things, which is one reason she enjoys living among them.

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@patricelocke

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Monday, December 26, 2016

Book Blitz: Light in My Dark by Jean Gilbert & William Dresden


Title: Light in My Dark
Author: Jean Gilbert & William Dresden
Genre/Age: Fantasy/YA
Series: None
Publisher: Rogue House Publishing
LinksGoodreads
SynopsisTwo boys love her. Two worlds need her. Only she can save them both.

Sixteen-year-old Harper Deveraux has longed for an adventure ever since her mother died of cancer four years ago. Much to her dismay, she is stuck in Glen Eden, a small mountain town in upstate New York that does little to fuel her hopes and dreams.

Another year of high school has begun, and with the Moon Dance only a few weeks away, Harper suddenly finds herself torn between the affections of two boys: her best friend Jack, and a new boy from the City named Knes who might not be from this world.

Strange things begin to happen in Glen Eden when Harper uncovers a mystery that involved her mother and a realm shrouded in darkness that lies beyond the wall... A realm that Knes intends to take her to. Only Jack stands in his way.

Light In My Dark, is an action-packed modern YA fantasy, filled with dark forces, love, and self-discovery.



The heat under Harper's sweater disappeared the longer she stared at the house. Goose bumps tickled her flesh. She wrapped her arms around her body, but the chill remained. Even so, her eyes refused to look away from the house.

"Well," she said," in the real world it is said that she fell through the floor in a part of the house that was still under construction at the time. No mystery there. Just an accident."

Jack raised an eyebrow at her. "In the middle of the night? Who goes walking around a construction site in the middle of the night? That's just stupid. What gets me is that's what all the tourists come to see, not the lake or the mountains or anything else that Glen Eden has to offer. Give the house a ghost, and they come running."

"Maybe it deserves a ghost. At least then it would be lived in."

Neither one said anything for a moment as they stared at the mansion.

Finally, Jack spoke again. "There must be over a hundred rooms in there. It'd take days to explore them all."

"It'd be an adventure."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"




William Dresden is an author and award-winning screenwriting. He spent several years as a script doctor and pursued the dream of writing hollywood blockbusters. Now he mostly writes fiction and enjoys spending time with his family and friends. William currently lives in Virginia with his wife and two children.

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Jean Gilbert is an award winning speculative fiction writer from New Zealand. She is a Core member of SpecFicNZ, and is also the coordinator for SpecFicNZ Central. Jean's novels include the Vault Agency Series: Shifters, Ardus, and The Vault. You can find her short stories Blonde Obsession in Baby Teeth: Bite Size Tales of Terror, and Pride in the Contact Light Anthology.

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Book Blast: At the Heart of the Stone by Roxanne D. Howard


Title: At the Heart of the Stone
Author: Roxanne D. Howard
Genre/Age: Romance/Erotica
Series: None
Publisher: Loose Id
LinksGoodreads
SynopsisDreams are the perfect shelter for our fantasies, safe havens to step inside without changing our daily lives. For Lark Braithwaite, all that is about to change. During the last six months, Lark has dreamt of a mysterious Irish lover, who knows what she wants, and gives her exactly what she needs. In her waking life in busy London, things aren’t as ideal, as her long-term relationship with Charles, her controlling fiancé, has hit a dry spell.

When Lark is called home to Oregon for her father’s funeral right in the middle of a high-stakes corporate merger, she heads back to face the demons from her past. What she doesn’t expect is to meet her dream lover in the flesh. Niall O’Hagan steps straight out of her fantasies and right into her life, and the powerful connection they share rocks her foundation. Although she's dealing with the bitterness of being betrayed by Charles and his jealousy, Niall soon stirs Lark’s awareness of the superficiality of her existence and reawakens not only her sexuality, but her soul.

If the kiss had stayed careful and guarded, she might have continued to question it. But the blindfold disappeared, and she realized she’d fallen asleep. Her eyes flew open, and he was there. Oh my God. He was there! Heated eyes watched her. Rakish dark hair fell over his forehead as he breathed hard, and the morning sun lit up the world behind him. She took a deep, shuddering breath to speak, but his hands moved to cup her face. He held still and closed his eyes as his lips took her mouth. Right then and there, it was very clear that this was real. That was the weight of a real man on top of her, clothed, and smelling citrusy and clean. What in the hell is happening here?
How did he get here? He was only her dream lover.
Or was he?
Confused beyond all comprehension, Lark didn’t have any time to contemplate what was really going on. His lips delivered a breath-stealing, soul-shattering kiss, and then they were all over each other. This, ah, this she knew. Lark hooked her ankle over his and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to rid him of his jacket and draw him closer. She clenched her hand in his hair as he devoured her mouth. He tasted the same as her dream lover, and she put her tongue in his mouth to savor more of that tangy sweetness.
They were both making noises they never had in her dreams, little breathy gasps and blasts of air as their mouths met and separated as they sought new angles and depths to their passion.
He made a disgruntled sound as he tried to get more comfortable in the cradle of her hips over the hindrance of clothes, and she realized she really wasn’t dreaming anymore. He nibbled on her lower lip as she opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but then she was carried away in the undercurrent of his large, warm hands, which were caressing the skin of her stomach beneath her hoodie and T-shirt. She continued to accept his kisses but pawed down her still zipped-up sweat jacket. Okay, so she was still clothed. He was rock hard against her, and he ground his hips into her, a disbelieving grunt escaping his lips. Lark rolled her eyes back, shivering at the jolt that went through her.
“Wh-- Mmm. Whoa. Stop!” She finally managed to say against his mouth. She furrowed her eyebrows and scrutinized him as he breathed in and out, bracing himself on the weight of his hands above her, his bright green eyes bearing into hers. His face was the face of her dreams--the sensual, bowed lips and cleft chin, the built body, and the thick hair. His hair... She blinked. It was cut at the nape and styled for a day at work. She glanced down at what he was wearing.
“Um, why are you wearing a suit and tie this time?” she asked, squinting against the sunlight. Please, God, let this be a dream. He moved his head, putting her in shade.
“This time?” He lifted an eyebrow, perplexed. “You’ll have to forgive me, lass, but I’ve no idea what the devil you’re talking about.” He maneuvered himself off her and sat upright at the end of the swing.
She tucked her feet against her and sat up, unable to do anything more than blink at him in utter disbelief.
“I was coming up to knock on the door when I saw you lying here, and given how you were tossing and the noises you were making, it looked like maybe you were having some sort of a seizure.”
Roxanne D. Howard is an author with Loose Id. She has two titles published and one series coming out over the holidays. She is a U.S. Army veteran, and has a bachelor's degree in Psychology and English. She loves to read poetry, classical literature, and Stephen King. She is also an avid Star Wars fan, musical theater nut, and loves everything related to marine biology. She resides in the mid-western United States, and is the proud mother of two beautiful girls, several pets, and loves to spend time with her husband and children when she's not writing. Roxanne loves to hear from her readers, and she can be contacted at author@roxannedhoward.com.

To find out more, please visit her website at www.roxannedhoward.com

Note: Winner of the Coffee Time Romance Reviewer's Award!


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