Review - Lovestruck by KT Grant

Title : Lovestruck

Author: KT Grant

Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing

Buy Link: Buy Lovestruck Here!

Rating : You Need To Read

Reviewed By : Jodie Pierce

Story Blurb :

CEO hotel mogul Barbara Jennings has three months to decide whether to close her Manhattan hotel or cut costs by firing some of her employees. She meets her much-younger employee, Jennifer Caffey and is instantly smitten. Now Barbara has another mission, and that is to seduce the innocent Jenny.
Jenny is also attracted to the powerful and beautiful Barbara, but has never really had a steamy love affair with another woman. Unwittingly, she allows herself to be swept away by her passion for this older woman who may ruin her life.

Review :

Two strangers and spilled coffee ignite the spark that is carried out between these two main characters for the books entirety. A penthouse living, $1000 suit wearing, mid-thirty’s CEO of a privately owned chain of hotels gets coffee spilled on her. The young offender is a college student in jeans, a t-shirt, a baseball hat and backpack, the plain Jane type. A lightning bolt bounces between their hands as they touch in an attempt to wipe coffee off the briefcase. After leaving, a backward glance between the two women solidifies the secret lust between them.

Barbara Jennings is the CEO of Jennings Hotels, built by her Grandfather in the 1880’s after making his fortune in the California Gold Rush. She is beautiful, blonde and ruthless within the business world. Forbes Magazine did a piece on her and labeled her “The Barracuda” to describe her. However, the New York Hotel is in the “red” and she will have to start laying off people and/or close the doors permanently very soon. She has a buyer who is willing to come in and buy the whole thing from her and make the building into a new office building. She is reluctant so they strike up an arranged to give her time to think about it.

Jenny Caffey is a part-time student working towards a Business & Economics Degree while working at the St. Jennings Hotel full time. She has been there for a couple years so she knows the ins and outs of the place and is often left in charge. She is often called to come in and clean up the bosses’ desk who is a very unpleasant man but he is related to “The Barracuda” somewhere down the line so he gives himself special privileges around there. Jenny lives with a coworker Mike who is gay and has it bad for their fellow coworker Tonya’s brother who works at their local bar. Both coworkers know about Jenny’s sexual preference but neither are ready for what is about to happen.

Barbara comes down to the hotel to speak with the boss and inform him of the situation. While using the restroom she encounters Jenny and instantly recognizes her from the coffee shop over a month ago. She consoles her but the entire time her body is sexually on fire for this woman she barely knows. She goes on about her business but waits for Jenny to get off work and takes her to dinner under the premise of “work talk” but she is definitely more intimate than Jenny was suspecting. Jenny is a little uncomfortable but she too, is feeling the burning lust for Barbara with every touch. Barbara starts showing up at Jenny’s school (Jenny’s teacher is Barbara’s brother) and at work where she corners Jenny in one of the rooms. The electricity that runs through them during sex is something they’ve never felt with anyone else. They make plans to get together later. Jenny spends the night and it is the most sexually gratifying night either woman has had in a long time. Both women are starting to realize there could be more to this than just sex, though Barbara tends to think about sex a lot. Barbara asks Jenny’s ideas about the hotel and Jenny gives her a few really great ones. Barbara offers her a job as her personal assistant. Jenny reacts negatively and doesn’t want to mix what they have with business. They make up and the makeup sex is great too. Barbara knows the deal with the hotel but hopes to make a decision before Jenny finds out; however, Jenny, while cleaning the boss’s office phone heard him talking on it about a new job because this hotel was closing. Jenny became angry and hurt and refused to take Barbara’s calls and avoided her at work after telling her she knew all about the hotel’s situation. Barbara was also a wreck and unable to sleep. She would do anything to get Jenny back and she realized saving the hotel was the way to do it. She met with Kyle James, the Entrepreneur and Real Estate Investor and they came up with a plan to keep the hotel up for “for at least another century” Barbara told the employees at a staff meeting. Jenny was shocked but snuck out quickly, unsure what to say to Barbara. The book ends with Barbara and Jenny coming full circle back at the coffee house and Barbara spilling coffee on Jenny. Barbara had given Jenny an engagement ring and the two of them were totally in love. The State passed a bill on gay marriage making it legal in the spring of the next year.

This was a great book with only a minor issue in my humble opinion! The characters were very well developed as well as the setting and audience. There was a great plot and the story moved along with a fantastic climax! The story pulled me in and created a wonderful picture for me; however, the sex scenes left me looking for more of a visual. They were very well written and I understood what the author was saying but the images weren’t exploding through my brain which is what I’m looking for in a great story. However, again, I really liked the book and would definitely recommend it to others.

Review - Whispering Bones by Rita Vetere

Title : Whispering Bones

Author: Rita Vetere

Publisher: Lyrical Press Inc.

Buy Link: Buy Whispering Bones Here!

Rating : You gotta read!

Reviewed By : Jodie Pierce

Story Blurb :

When someone dies in outrage, a curse is born. In 1576 Venice, during the second and worst outbreak of the plague, a dying child is shown no mercy. Her death spawns a curse, one which has endured for more than four centuries.In 1927, the curse manifested in acts of madness and murder in a newly constructed asylum, events which, almost a century later, have not quite been laid to rest. Now, in a rendezvous with fate, architect Anna LaServa has arrived in Venice, opening the door to the next fulfillment of the curse. She will uncover the reason behind her ultimate confrontation with the barbaric executioner whose name is... Revenge. Content warning, some scenes of violence.

Review :

This book bounces by chapter from present day Toronto, Canada, Venice, Italy, 1576, and to Poveglia Island 1927. The end of each chapter leaves you wanting more and not wanting to move to the next part of the other story. However, you become engrossed in that one and feel the same at the end of that chapter and so it progresses throughout the entire book.

This is a story predominately about a young girl named Isabella Moretti who was nine years old in 1576 during the time of the Black Plague in Italy. She lost her entire family and when they came to haul the bodies away, she was barely alive and able to tell them so. She was then taken to Poveglia Island and dumped into the mass grave there when she finally was able to muster all she had to attract their attention and beg for help. The pizzicamorti were cruel and buried her alive but not before she fed of the rush of evil from the place and put a curse on the man Tomaso and his entire family for every generation to come.

Her spirit, along with the others buried there haunted the island and anyone who came to the island. They haunted the workers who built the new hospital and even the patients that finally resided there. In 1927, Dr. Alberto Rossi came to work as the Head Surgeon but had a family on the mainland, wife Serafina, children Julia and Vittorio. He started doing lobotomies to find a cure for the Schizophrenia he thought the patients had until he started seeing the spirits. He ended up murdering patients and cremating them in the middle of the night in secret. He had started drinking and on one night abused his family. The following day, his wife found a note he left saying he was leaving them on their own and wouldn’t be back. She was relieved until a “monster” according to Julia, came in the window, sucked the blood from her brother Vittorio and then threw him out the window. The two girls moved to Canada to get a fresh start but Julia was always haunted by the “monster”. Dr. Rossi turned out to be a direct relative of Tomaso so Isabella relished in her killing of him, sucking his blood and the other spirits ate his flesh. He was pushed off the bell tower but survived so the spirits mortared him up in the bell tower behind a wall so his body would never be found.

In present day Canada, Anna LaServa visits her grandmother in the nursing home as she’s 103 years old and the only family she had left (mom committed suicide when she was 3 and father died when she was 10). Anna was raped when she was fifteen and had to give up her baby that resulted from the rape. Her grandmother had arranged the whole thing through a convent. Anna felt her whole life like she was meant to be miserable. When she grew up she became an Architect that had been hired by Paolo Falcone to come to Italy to help him build a hotel on Poveglia Island. The history of the island is unbeknownst to Anna but not to Mr. Falcone. Anna tells her grandmother of her ten day visit to the island just to get design ideas and her “Nonna” forbid her to go. Anna dismissed her and went anyway only to find out the history of the island and that Dr. Rossi was her grandfather and Nonna is Serafina according to a picture on the doctor’s desk. The spirits chased her, stalked her and thwarted her efforts to set fire to the buildings on the island. When Isabella finally came to the captured Anna, she touched her and made her relive all the murders she caused over the years down the family line, including Anna’s mother’s suicide. Isabella then jumps on Anna and starts sucking her blood and all Anna can think of is how her grandmother was right and the daughter she never knew. Isabella is excited to learn there is a daughter and plans to hunt her somehow too.

Several months later, a thirty-three year old Denise Carrington called the nursing home about a Serafina Rossi only to find out she’d passed away three weeks ago but no one was there to claim her stuff. Denise said she’d take the stuff. Denise had hired a detective to find her mother but was told by the local Luogotenente Baldacci that she’s fell off the island and drowned. A story he and Mr. Falcone had come up with when he paid Baldacci 100,000 euros to make Anna’s events at the island go away and rule her disappearance an accidental drowning. Baldacci had a sick daughter so he took the money and made the deal, one he knew he’d regret. Denise went through the things, looking at pictures and got excited about her Italian heritage. She had mentioned a European vacation only a little while ago so now she wanted to stop in Venice.

This was a fantastic book from the beginning all the way through to the end. It even had me thinking about it when I reluctantly had to put it down. The descriptive words used here really painted a vivid picture in my mind. It was almost like watching a movie play through my head as I read the story. My best recommendation is to sit down with it when you have awhile to read because it’s hard to put down!

Review - Pay Up by Kaily Hart

Title: Pay Up

Author: Kaily Hart

Publisher: Ellora’s Cave

Buy Link: Buy Pay Up Here!

Rating: You Gotta Read

Reviewed by: Brynna

Tag: Neighbor. Friend. Lover.

Blurb:

At least that’s what Carly Wagner wanted Rio Reyes to be. She’d settled for two out of three for almost a year and it just wasn’t enough. Not anymore. When Rio proposes a bet—of the sexual variety—she knows it’s out of character and he’s not really serious, yet she can’t resist. The payoff could mean finally getting her hands on the gorgeous firefighter she’s drooled over since she moved in next door.

The timing had never seemed right for him and Carly, but that hadn’t stopped Rio from imagining wild and wicked things about her. It had been a joke—sort of—but Rio’s shocked when she takes him up on the dumbass bet. Now he’s in a world of hurt, because regardless of who wins, he might be crossing a line he never thought he would, and jeopardizing a friendship that means more to him than anything.

Review:

Carly Wagner has had a secret crush on her neighbor and close friend Rio Reyes since they first met in the elevator while she was moving in. Now after a year of wondering, she's free. Rio attraction for Carly has only grown stronger over time, no matter how many other women he's taken to his bed to try and forget about his sexy off limits neighbor. Now all bets are off, or should I say on, when Carly's boyfriend ditches her Rio proposes a wager, but is he risking her friendship?

I absolutely loved Pay Up! Carly and Rio met at a point in life when neither were free to act on their attraction or admit to the other they had it in the first place. The strength of their friendship is only heightened when taken to the next level. Ms. Hart doesn't just write compelling characters, she pulls you into their world. Kaily Hart is a You Gotta Read author.

Review - Dragons Among Us by C.L. Kreamer

Title: Dragons Among Us

Author: C. L. Kreamer

Publisher: Rogue Phoenix Press

Buy Link: Buy Dragons Among Us Here!

Rating: You Want to Read

Reviewed By: Janelle

In a world full of anomalies such as the platypus and self reproducing Komodo dragon, is the human race willing to accept that dragons may be real?

Sapien Draconi-human-dragon shape shifters-all over the world face this dilemma every day. The question has become life and death as their species is plagued with unexpected and unwanted shifting in the most unlikely of places.

The Ancient Ones-full-blooded dragons-can offer advice, but few seem to put forward workable solutions to the problem.

The fate of the shape shifters hangs in the balance, and an answer must be found before the Homo Sapiens find, dissect, and hunt Sapien Draconi to extinction.

This book would work better as a series. There are way too many characters, none of whom get enough screen time to be called the main character. This makes it very hard to care about any one of them or their personal problems. If it were split into smaller stories, each focusing on one or two characters, it would be more effective on the whole.

The story itself isn’t bad, but the pacing needs work. The book is just under 390 pages and all the reveal is done in just 15 pages towards the end. More over, despite the fact that several characters are researching the problem, the reader is given no clues as to what is going on. Part of the fun of a book is for the reader to see if they can guess the answer before the big reveal. Without any clues, this fun is taken away.

Overall, this story could use some work. The concept is good, but the execution is choppy.

Review - Her Biggest Fan by Sharon Donovan

Title: Her Biggest Fan

Author: Sharon Donovan

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Buy Link

Rating: You GOTTA Read

Reviewed by: Val

Blurb:
From the shadows of the woods, he keeps vigil. The stage is set to drive the pretty little princess insane. He’s coming for her. And when he catches her, he’ll pounce on her like the big bad wolf.
After receiving a disturbing fan letter, New York Times best-selling author Tess Kincaid flees to the Northern California home she’s inherited following her father’s suicide. The manor has been tainted with, every room staged to resemble the way it was in its glory days. But when Tess calls the police, the chilling props vanish into thin air.
Ruggedly handsome Sheriff Mike Andretti is called to investigate the reported burning candles, dancing gargoyles and otherworldly. When he discovers no trace of the eerie setting, he finds himself caught between duty and desire. Is the woman with the bewitching green eyes delusional--or is this a trap of twisted wit set by a demented fan?

Review:
This book just made me say WOW! First, lets start with some of the characters. Tess Kincaid was a woman tormented by a delusional maniac. Dealing with the recent death of her father, Tess decides to move back home, where she meets the very handsome sheriff. Very peculiar occurrences start to take place that make her question her sanity. Enter sheriff Mike Andretti. Oh my, how yummy is this guy? From the moment Mike sees Tess, sparks fly. A man of honor, he vows to do all that he can to help Tess. I could say so much more about Mike's character, but I don't want to give away any of the book. Finally, we have the deranged villain who has an agenda of his own. This villain is constantly lurking in the shadows and always one step ahead of law enforcement. Tess is the target, can Mike save her in time?

An edge of your seat chilling suspense, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next! "Her Biggest Fan" really was a book I couldn't put down. This book was an addicting, pulse-pounding read with an explosive climax. The drama was intense and I loved every minute of it.

Ms. Donovan is a favorite author of mine. In all the work I have read of hers, this is the most captivating and exciting. The exquisite descriptions were amazing and throughout the book, you can tell Ms. Donovan has researched so many details extremely well. To Ms. Donovan, congratulations on a job well done. You nailed it with "Her Biggest Fan" . To anyone reading this review, I highly recommend you purchase this book. This would be the perfect Halloween read.

Review - Lust's Temptation by Tawny Taylor

Title: Lust's Temptation

Author: Tawny Taylor

Publisher: Ellora’s Cave

Buy Link: Buy Lust's Temptation Here!

Rating: You Could Read

Reviewed by: Gabrielle

Book two in the Masters of Sin series.

Troi and Amun—one dominant, the other submissive, both alpha—are possessed by the spirit of Lust. Its dark demands have tested their will every minute of every day for centuries. And they’ve committed deviant, selfish acts to satisfy its unrelenting carnal hunger. But the guilt doesn’t overwhelm them until they meet Oriel. She is their salvation, their peace. They need her. But they don’t deserve her.

Life’s lessons have taught Oriel not to trust anyone, especially gorgeous men who will use anyone for their own satisfaction. Granted, they’re sexy. Charming. Her body responds to their every look and touch. But she can’t—won’t—take a chance on them. Until she discovers she can run away, but she can’t escape the emotions they stir.

As darkness closes in, Troi and Amun’s lives and souls hang in the balance. The beast will consume them if Oriel can’t accept her own dark needs, and trust the two men who have summoned her most decadent desires.

Review:

Over the centuries Amun and Troi have painfully lived with the spirit of lust trapped inside of them. Just when it seems they have reached their breaking point they find Oriel their salvation. Every moment without her is excruciating. Only she can keep the spirit at bay. Amun and Troi must convince Oriel of their love and hopefully their lifestyle before it is too late for them all.

Amun and Troi are great characters. Each man living with the same problem yet they are totally different. Oriel is a strong woman who must deal with so much at once yet she is still standing. Together the three make a wonderful family.

I thought the actual storyline was good but the story seemed rushed for me. With so much happening to Oriel at once it was a little hard to sit back and enjoy her newfound relationship with the men. This is the second book in this series but it can be read by itself with out the reader getting confused. The characters are full of emotion and depth and go on a roller coaster ride of emotions making this a book you may want to check out.