Review: Bossman by Vi Keeland

The Blurb:

The first time I met Chase Parker, I didn't exactly make a good impression.

I was hiding in the bathroom hallway of a restaurant, leaving a message for my best friend to save me from my awful date.

He overheard and told me I was a bitch, then proceeded to offer me some dating advice.

So I told him to mind his own damn business―his own tall, gorgeous, full-of-himself damn business―and went back to my miserable date.

When he walked by my table, he smirked, and I watched his arrogant, sexy ass walk back to his date.

I couldn't help but sneak hidden glances at the condescending jerk on the other side of the room. Of course, he caught me on more than one occasion, and winked.

When the gorgeous stranger and his equally hot date suddenly appeared at our table, I thought he was going to rat me out.

But instead, he pretended we knew each other and joined us―telling elaborate, embarrassing stories about our fake childhood.

My date suddenly went from boring to bizarrely exciting.

When it was over and we parted ways, I thought about him more than I would ever admit, even though I knew I'd never see him again.

I mean, what were the chances I'd run into him again in a city with eight million people?Then again...

What were the chances a month later he'd wind up being my new sexy boss?

 

I got the audible for this book, and I think I might have liked it better had I not. This is my first Vi Keeland book, though I’ve heard so much about her work from friends and bloggers on GR. Part of my issue with the audible was the cheesiness of the voices. Chase sounds like Batman whenever the male is reading from his POV, and he sounds like a Cali surfer douchebag impression (as done by a woman) when Keeland is reading in his voice.



The story itself is solid, written well. There were parts that were unbelievably sexy, no doubt. But I guess the hurdle I couldn’t get over here was the dynamic between the two, which duh…is right in the title. Every time Chase would do something inappropriate I found myself going “OMFG YOU DESERVE TO GET SUED!”



The backstory is compelling, and I like that they both shared a history of trauma that they could bond over. I think I would have been happier with the story if Reese had simply resigned when she decided she wanted to nail Chase. I think it was a bit demeaning to have her literally repeat the same mistake twice in a row. And then towards the end it really felt an awful lot like she was just following after him like a puppy, begging for a chance, while Chase was like “N’aw. Reasons.”

Maybe I’m just a soulless asshole who doesn’t get “true love”. I’d have taken him at his word and moved right the eff on.

Review: Silver Blood by Emma Hamm

The Blurb:

A PROPHECY TO FULFILL

Two hundred years ago, our world changed forever. Two realms combined in an explosion of magic. One morning everything was normal and the next? Every human body was host to another magical creature who had thoughts and a mind of its own. However, with power comes darkness. Someone wants to wipe this earth clean and will stop at nothing to consume it.

SHE IS NOT A HERO

Or so she thought. Wren had grown up with another voice in her head but had never considered herself magical. She doesn't have the talents other people have. She certainly doesn't have the abilities anyone else has. But she is charming and manages her business quite well. She deals in emotions and makes people happy. It's a simple life, but it's hers.

HE THINKS SHE COULD BE

Burke was a bodyguard first and always. He had been sent to collect her and deliver her in person to the most powerful creatures in their world. But the moment he steps through the broken door of her shop, his world changes forever. She's strange. She's uncomfortable. And she's so damned beautiful. He is convinced she is part of a prophecy that can save their world.

But how to convince her?

Okay, review time! I’ve read quite a few books over the past few weeks, but this one was definitely one of my favorites!

To start, Hamm’s fantastical world consists of human beings that play host to magical entities, a coexistence that is necessary for their survival. There is a LOT of exposition to get through in the early parts of the book, but it was well worth it. Sometimes I read books and have no use for all of the information provided up front, but Hamm creates a world that justifies such an exposition.

The main character, Wren, is a juice seller (“juice” is actually emotions). It reminds me of one of those fantasy RPGs I used to play on Xbox.


“Oh Guildmasterrrrr….”

Anyways, Wren also has an unknown magical entity inside of her, referred to as “E”. Apparently this is unusual in Wren’s world, as we get labels/abilities for other types of magical entities, but Wren knows very little about her own.

Which brings me to Burke. His magical entity is a Dream Walker, which means they can go inside peoples’ dreams and even make changes to the dream (and vice versa, the dreamer can start to control them as well).


A concept I can get on board with.

There is a slow burn buildup with Wren and Burke, which I (of course) loved. My only complaint was that I would have liked to see a longer (and more descriptive) love scene, because I’m a romance junkie/perv and I just spent 250 pages waiting for these 2 to seal the deal!!!


I am what I am. Sorry.

Hamm is very attentive to detail and I can tell this story was created with a lot of imagination and love. Awesome cover art as well! A great read, especially for those who really enjoy the fantasy genre. 5 stars!

Review: Angels' Blood by Nalini Singh

The Blurb: 

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she is the best- but she does not know if even she is good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, Elena knows failure is not an option—even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it's not a wayward vamp she has to track. It's an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other—and pull her to the razor's edge of passion. Even if the hunt does not destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just might. For when archangels play, mortals break.

 Ahhh I’ve been waiting to write this review until I had the time to properly GUSH.

As I write this, I’ve already finished the next book in the series, eager to press on. Singh has created a world where angels roam the earth freely, along with the vampires they create. Elena’s job is to hunt rogue vampires, contracted by an overseeing organization called “The Guild”. Elena is the best in her field, a natural born hunter (what that means and the advantages/disadvantages are a continuing story in which we get little snippets here and there).

Elena is my kind of heroine. She’s badass, she takes no shit, and her pride alone has given her balls of steel and a penchant for talking her way into trouble. So when the archangel Raphael hires Elena to do a hunt for him, he gets a little more than he bargained for. The chemistry between these two was amazing. The way their personalities are explored, Elena with her traumatic past, Raphael suffering from the ennui and apathy associated with being so damn old, they just work.

Then there are all of the side characters, characters that I dearly hope will get their own books in time. Dmitri, Raphael's most powerful vampire, is sex incarnate. Illium, the beautiful and cocky angel with blue feathers. I would read their stories in a heartbeat.

I got this book on audible, and I have to say this is by far the best audible I’ve ever purchased. Singh reads this dialogue in a way that gives each character their own personality without sounding cheesy. No deep, ridiculous attempts at a Batman voice. Her characters are diverse citizens of the world, and she reads them as such, accents and all. Without this audible component, I would not have imagined the characters in the way they were intended, which would have been my loss.

With that in mind, I think my favorite bits of dialogue are the simplest. Singh puts SO much emotion behind even the smallest sentences. “Yes,” is a phrase that gets repeated often, yet each time it gets me, because there is always so much wrapped up in that single word, no matter who is saying it.

When I was younger, I was OBSESSED with the early Anita Blake novels, and have yet to find their equal until now. Singh is officially my current “favorite” author. All the stars!!!!

Review: Driven by Fate by Tessa Bailey

The Blurb:

The first rule is obey... and she already broke it.

Francesca "Frankie" De Luca always pays her debts. Even when it means stepping inside Serve, the sensuous Manhattan club that caters to particular adult desires. For Frankie, it's a taste of something she's always wanted—and never received. Until a sharply dressed Brit orders her into his room, and instructs her to undress before delivering the carnal punishment she so desperately needs...

She wasn't the woman Porter Evans was expecting. Not this wild thing with the pale, silvery eyes. And such cheek. But she violates Porter's strict rules of control. Temptation is a dangerous thing indeed. Yet everything about Frankie cries out for schooling about the tantalizing interplay of pleasure and pain. So Porter offers Frankie a deal she can't refuse—and the only thing she owes him is submission...

Whoaaaa. I have just two words to emphasize the best parts of this book: Dirty talk.

I read a lot of romance, but this book impressed me in its ability to make me blush! Porter is a British dom who meets Frankie at Serve when she decides to sneak in and pretend to be a sub for a few minutes. As you do. I had trouble envisioning Porter for awhile. He's dark and dangerous-looking, but I couldn't stop focusing on his WORDS. Oh myyyy.



Frankie shows up at Serve to settle a debt to the owner. While she's there, she just wants to see how she feels about all of this "sub" stuff. Lo and behold, she digs it, and Porter is fascinated by her newfound curiosity and lack of experience. He offers to be her dom for a test-run, and she accepts. These two both have an interesting background that gets explored here and there throughout the story. Porter vacillates back and forth from being sexy as sin and a bit of a douchebag. Frankie, for her part, struggles to give him her trust, and Porter simply doesn't know what to do with it when he has it.

Spoiler Alert:

There is definitely chemistry between the two, but I think what lost me was the speed in which it progresses. They go from being sexually compatible to madly in love to ready to get married and have babies by the end. Porter's behavior towards her while at peak douchebag status should have stalled things for longer than they did. I love an HEA just as much as the next person, but I prefer a believable one. Still a solid story and damn sexy!!! 

Review: Love Reconnection by Sagarika

 The Blurb:

Brandon
I am back to claim the one who was always mine- My Gem
Linden
Now I will get to test your true loyalty, Jenny. It’s either me or him.
Brandon
I won’t let her suffer under Linden’s wrath. I will shower her with the happiness she deserves.
Linden
It’s pain that always tied us together. It will be the same pain that will set us free.
Brandon
It was always supposed to be Jennifer and Brandon. Linden ruined my chance.
Linden
She is the only one for me. It’s always been only her.
Brandon
It’s now or never. I won’t ever let her go. She is mine for keeps.
Linden
It’s too late for another chance and yet my life is in her hands.
Jennifer
Linden was slowly changing. He was beginning to trust me again, but Brandon is back and claims to love me. Have I really got a chance with my first love? Or should I keep my hopes high that Linden will give our relation another chance? I am torn between the two again and this time I will finally have to make my choice.

If you haven’t read Love Connection, you’ll want to do that before reading this one.

In Love Connection, I really didn’t like Linden. His love for Jen/Gem seemed based more on the idea of love. Honestly, I didn’t really like Brandon, either. He was selfish and his world revolved around whatever he wanted in the moment, even at the end. The thing about this series is that we are not expected to like the characters going in, and I dug that. We get an opportunity to watch something more real, more flawed. And there is plenty of that to go around!

In Love Reconnection, one thing I was NOT expecting was the level to which Linden has spiraled. He’s spent years treating Jen like shit, but it is clear from his own inner monologue that he loves her and doesn’t want to admit how much he cares because it would make him vulnerable. That being said, I do not condone emotional abuse, which is exactly what he is inflicting upon her. He even goes so far as to tell her he “fucking hates her” and pushes her into a sexual situation with dubious consent just so Brandon can hear it.

Her response? “You do care, in your own twisted way.” WHAT?! We know from Linden’s internal thoughts that he is deriving just as much pleasure from making Brandon miserable as anything else. She later tells Brandon that Linden “has rights over her” and he “can treat her however he wants”. That’s…never a good sign.



Linden is just so angry, and it’s almost comical the way people around him respond to it. At one point, he picks up a phone call from her only to yell “I FUCKING HATE YOU, LEAVE ME ALONE!” and the girl next to him replies: "All I can conclude is that Jennifer Collins is your girlfriend."

Buttttt I still don’t understand Jen’s actions, either. Despite deciding to play out this twisted form of penance with Linden, she asks Linden for permission to be friends with Brandon when he suddenly pops back up. Now, Linden is being a jerk so in that regard I don’t necessarily feel sorry for him. But still. Even in the best of circumstances, this is usually considered a dick move, I think? It’s like watching a reality show and yelling at the people on the screen. I want throw a pillow at the tv when Jen is on screen.



Their “unique form of love” is complex, I’ll give it that. But I don’t agree with the way it has manifested, any more than I do for Brandon. I agree with Jen, he tuck tailed and ran, rather than fight for what he claims to love so much. It’s all so deliciously fucked up. And it culminates in a way that somehow manages to acknowledge that and face it down (a conversation between Brandon and Linden that is TENSE and cathartic). I absolutely love the detail to which Linden’s character was developed in this sequel, but I am still not sure that he is a good person, even as he comes to grips with the fact that he loves Jen so deeply.

I don’t want to spoil the ending, but I definitely did not expect it. This is gritty, flawed, and real. Love can be beautiful and it can be ugly. What an emotional ride!! I was happy to finally get an HEA out of all this!!!

Review: The Contract by Melanie Moreland

The Blurb:

A tyrant by day, a playboy by night. That is the reputation that precedes Richard VanRyan. He lives life the way he wants, no concern for the opinion of others. He cares for no one, is completely unrepentant, and he has no desire to change his ways.

Katharine Elliott works under Richard as his PA. She despises him and his questionable ethics, but endures all the garbage he sends her way, because she needs the job. Her end goal is far more important than the daily abuse and demands she tolerates from her nasty tyrant of a boss.

Until the day, he asks her for something she never expected. A new role with a personal contract — fiancée instead of PA.

What happens when two people who loathe each other, have to live together and act as though they are madly in love?

Sparks.

That’s what happens.

Can the power of love really change a person?

Will they survive the contract?

What do you do when the one person you hate the most becomes the one person you can’t live without?

I am a sucker for this sort of storyline, so I was super excited to check it out. Put into practice, however, I admit I was a little disappointed with the characters’ overall likeability.



Katharine, the saccharine sweet personal assistant, is so fucking saintly that I just wanted to roll my eyes every time I was reminded of her plight. I get it, everyone on the planet loves her except Richard. All I’m saying is, characters like this are usually there to get hit by a car or something and make the other character have some sort of epiphany about life and love. I didn’t make the rules. Take it up with Nicholas Sparks.



Richard is such an unrepentant dick (haha, I see what she did there), but not in that way that I enjoy in my alpha males. He was a straight up douche, lacking in wit, and seemingly unredeemable, even by his own inner monologues. His scheme is so deplorable and insensitive that I was just sort of annoyed by him in general.

Fortunately for him, by throwing a hissy fit and threatening to quit his job, he has put Katharine in a position of pure desperation (as she will likely lose her job in the process). She has no choice but to acquiesce to his pitch: pretend to be in love with him, engaged to him, even marry him if he deems it necessary in order to get what he wants: a job at a family-friendly advertising firm that specializes in NOT being giant dickwads.



First of all, WHY Richard would want to work at this rival firm was beyond me. His personality was so despicable that I can’t comprehend how he thought he could reasonably alter his behavior enough to be accepted there.



I kind of hated how Katharine’s character developed as well. The trope of the ugly duckling just needing a makeover to become the beautiful swan is frustrating enough, but I was given to understand that Katharine was already beautiful and Richard was just a snobby asshole. To imply that she needed new window dressings to become appealing to him just makes him seem like that much more of an asshole.


Seriously, fuck that guy.

Of course they fall in love, Richard sees the error of his ways, yadda yadda yadda. Surely after so much tension and bickering the sex will be incredibly hot…I thought to myself hopefully.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

As some of you may have a noticed, I have not updated in some time. Due to life events, I had to postpone my blogging for about a month to take care of other matters. However, I look forward to returning to my favorite pastime now that we've begun 2017. 

Though I am still accepting review requests, I ask for your patience as I start to catch up on some of my reviews. If I have already accepted a review request from you, be assured that those reviews will be my first priority for January. I will update everyone in February once I've had the opportunity to catch up!

Review: Death by Roses by Vivian R. Probst

The Blurb:

 
For the first time in nearly thirty years of marriage, Art McElroy Sr. buys his headstrong, disapproving wife a dozen yellow roses. Hours later he discovers her lifeless body seated on the toilet. Mae Rose McElroy's sudden death leaves a void in her family and in the entire Midwestern farming community of Fairview. It's a void Mae Rose will attempt to fill, herself, from the hereafter by meddling directly in earthly affairs.

Mae Rose's meddling leads to her spiritual expulsion from heaven, and she winds up in the body of Mary Lee Broadmoor (Scary Mary), a crusty writer and director of exquisite horror movies. Mary Lee refuses to succumb to stage-4 pancreatic cancer until she gets one final shot at an elusive Oscar. Like Mae Rose, who argues with God for a return to earth, Mary Lee pleads, from her Hollywood deathbed, for more time to complete her work, as her hospice nurse, Gertie Morgan, looks on.

The two women's spirits work together, and Mae Rose provides her host with a new script idea: a love story, based on her life! The script earns Mary Lee her coveted Academy Award, but the movie's release shocks and disturbs Mae Rose's family. They set out to find, and confront, the woman who has somehow co-opted, and publicly revealed, their personal tragedy.

Along the way, new love emerges as the reader meets a caste of crazy, eccentric, but highly memorable characters. "Death by Roses" suggests that relationships don't end at death, but continue until their ultimate purpose is achieved. The universe has every resource at its disposal to get the job done. It also has an amazing sense of humor.

  

Writer was generously provided with ARC in exchange for my honest review. This wasn’t the typical smutty romance I usually read, but the plot was really intriguing!

The protagonist, Mae Rose, has met her end on the seat of her commode…a fact I came to appreciate even more the more I got to know her character. As deaths ago, that's definitely not the way anyone wants to go out.



Mae Rose is meddlesome, sharp-tongued, and a bit annoying, even after death. If I’m being honest, she’s not my favorite character of the book going in, but I like that she was never insisted upon as such. She had one job: don’t interfere in the lives of the living. Can she do that? Absolutely not. So she gets the boot back to the realm of the living.



Now she must share the body of another woman, Mary Lee, a director who just wants another shot at recognition before she succumbs to her own health issues. The two women have to work together to help Mary Lee realize her vision and get that Oscar.

For the record, if I die, someone help me get a RITA?

The storyline is pretty golden, most of the time. It’s funny, it’s dramatic, sometimes a bit of both. I liked the morbidity of the circumstances, just sort of hanging over everything like a giant ironic rain cloud. After a while I started to read this almost in the same tone as Steel Magnolias. My mind made Mae Rose into Ouiser. And then I really started to like her.

Probst gives a lot of attention to each of her characters, which is great but it can get overwhelming at times. POV transitions between several characters, which was necessary for this sort of plot, but I think it could have been scaled back a bit. Occasionally got confused between Mary Lee and Mae Rose.



What I liked most about this story was the honesty. Think of your most annoying relative at Thanksgiving dinner. Now, when they pass, think of the choices they might make, about their personality and their nature. Picture them arguing with God. Probst’s writing tackles death in an often humorous way, but also reminds us that our flaws are not something that have to be glossed over just because we’ve passed onto the other side. Even after death, we can continue to grow. For me, that’s the good stuff.