Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night, by Kresley Cole

Format: Paperback, 359 pages

Published: First published October 30, 2007

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Back cover blurb: Her breathless kiss haunts him… Bowen MacRieve of the Lykae clan was nearly destroyed when he lost the one woman meant for him. The ruthless warrior grew even colder, never taking another to his bed — until a smoldering encounter with his enemy, Mariketa the Awaited, reawakens his darkest desires. When sinister forces unite against her, the Highlander finds himself using all his strength and skill to keep her alive.

His slow, hot touch is irresistible…

Temporarily stripped of her powers, Mari is forced to take refuge with her sworn adversary. It’s rumored that no one can tempt Bowen’s hardened heart, but soon passion burns between them. Though a future together is impossible, she fears he has no intention of letting her go.

No deed is too wicked for her seduction…

If they defeat the evil that surrounds them, can Mari deny Bowen when he demands her body and soul — or will she risk everything for her fierce protector?

My review: Oh, Bowen! What a scrumptious beast you are! You may be my new favourite IAD man… it’s a tough choice between you and Bastian. This story had me frustrated and then hot, and frustrated some more, and then surprised – the whole gamut of emotions, which is great in a book. I couldn’t put it down, and that ending was quite a finale. Mariketa was another kickass heroine I loved, and I also enjoyed the introduction of the new demon characters who I see will get their own stories later in the series.

I’ve said before I love the new covers, but here is my only gripe: the dude on this one doesn’t look anything like a Lykae. In fact, the guy on the previous book did, so maybe they got them mixed up and this is meant to be Bastian? He looks more vamp than were to me. Not a big problem, though. This is still a winner.

My rating: 5/5

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow #18: Is it 2013 yet?

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that runs over the weekend, hosted by Crystal from one of my favourite blog sites, Reading Between the Wines.

Question of the Week:  What are the Top 5 Books that you are looking forward to in 2013?

Apologies, folks! I haven’t been around for a while, and I haven’t done one of these follows for ages, but this looked like a good one to join in on.

Obviously, my first must-buy for 2013 will be Lover At Last by J.R. Ward. I know a lot of people are really looking forward to March when it comes out.

I can’t wait for Unravel Me by Tahereh Mafi, because Shatter Me was one of my fave books this year. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

Julie James is another auto-buy, so Love, Irresistibly is expected to be really good.

I don’t have the cover for it yet, but Burned by Karen Marie Moning should be good. I haven’t read Iced yet – it isn’t available here, much to my annoyance – but this series is pure win and you can’t have enough Barrons or Ryodan.

And my number five, again with no cover yet, is Painting by Numbers by Jasper Fforde. The first book in this series, Shades of Grey, was amazing!

What about you? What are you looking forward to in 2013? Leave a comment below or link up HERE to follow the meme.

MORE, by T.M. Franklin

Format: e-book

Published: October 4, 2012

Publisher: The Writer’s Coffee Shop Publishing House

Back cover blurb:

Ava Michaels used to think she was special.

As a child, she fantasized about having magical powers . . . making things happen. But Ava grew up and eventually accepted the fact that her childish dreams were just that, and maybe a normal life wasn’t so bad after all.

Now a young college student, Ava meets Caleb Foster, a brilliant and mysterious man who’s supposed to help her pass Physics, but in reality has another mission in mind. What he shows Ava challenges her view of the world, shaking it to its very core.

Because Caleb isn’t quite what he seems. In fact, he’s not entirely human, and he’s not the only one.

Together, the duo faces a threat from an ancient race bound to protect humans, but only after protecting their own secrets—secrets they fear Ava may expose. Fighting to survive, Ava soon learns she’s not actually normal . . . she’s not even just special.

She’s a little bit more.

My review:

This book is FANTASTIC!!!!! The characters are amazing, the story is thrilling and twists in all the right places, and the budding romance is just perfect! It isn’t often I love a female character from start to finish, but I did with Ava. The bit where she lies in bed wondering what he’s doing… I die! Seriously, I cannot wait to read the rest of this series. A stunning debut novel, and I love the cover!

My rating: 5/5

Sylvain Reynard's Gabriel's Inferno Series Purchased by Berkley (Penguin Group)

Reblogged from Bookish Temptations:

• 

Hello peeps...this has been a couple of exciting days for all of us who love my favorite author, Sylvain Reynard.

Yesterday, it was revealed that Gabriel's Inferno was #35 on the NYT e-book/fiction best sellers list. Today brought even more exciting news!

Below you'll find a reprint of the press release from this morning...all I can keep saying over and over is WoW!

Read more… 777 more words

Fantastic news for SR :)

Virgin Daiquiri, by Moira Rogers

Format: ebook, 37 pages

Published: December 12, 2008

Publisher: Changeling Press

Back cover blurb:

Caitlin Carlson, the only non-witch in the powerful Dumitrescu line, needs to lose her virginity, and fast. A family legend about a pure soul with prophetic visions has put her first in line for a good, old-fashioned sacrifice, and visiting Last Call seems like the perfect way to head off her one-way trip to the altar. Buy a drink, go upstairs, have sex. Simple. Virgin Daiquiri: Looking for a first lover. Being a demon isn’t as easy as it used to be, especially with the dwindling number of corruptible souls in the 21st century. Luckily for Leofric, he’s never been particularly concerned with corrupting enough innocents to earn a promotion off of the mortal plane. But when a virgin wanders into Last Call and stirs up competition among the younger demons, Leo finds himself tempted to rethink his stance on mixing a demon’s business with a woman’s pleasure.

 

My review:

Oh, yes! This is why I started reading this series. I may even like this one more than the first book… it’s just perfect. Hawt, tender, sassy and with sufficient backstory that I feel I know these two, even in the short time we’re given with them. Leo might have to join my (rather long) fictional boyfriend list

My rating: 5/5

Insurgent, by Veronica Roth

Format: Kindle Edition, 545 pages

Published: May 1, 2012

Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books

Back cover blurb:

One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.Tris’s initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth’s much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

My review:

Wow! Veronica Roth never ceases to amaze me, especially given her young age. Insurgent is an emotional ride, and at times I had to put it down because the heartfail got a bit much. I love Tobias/Four, but sometimes I just wanted to shake him for being so clueless. Typical teenage boy, really. This book is missing the delicious UST of the first because they have become a couple, yet their relationship is seriously tested by communication issues right to the end.

Tris, although only 16, seems to get stronger as she fights on bravely to find what truth there is left in their world. I was genuinely afraid for her most of the story, but she really is a fantastic heroine. Regardless of heartfail, I could not put down the last third of this book. That ending was amazing, and I cannot wait for book three (which Roth is very amusingly calling Detergent as she is writing it). This series is a must-buy and I cannot recommend it enough!

My rating: 5/5

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Behind Closed Doors, by Sherri Hayes

Format: ebook

Published: January 19, 2012

Publisher: The Writer’s Coffee Shop

Back cover blurb:

Elizabeth Marshall spent the last nine years doing all the things she was supposed to do. She went to a good college. Married a man with a promising future. Elizabeth even had a nice house in a respectable part of town. There was even the promise of 2.4 kids in her future. From the outside everything looked picture perfect.

Then one night, the world she lived in came crashing down. Six months later with her husband dead and her friends gone, Elizabeth moves to the small town of Springfield, Ohio to start a new life where no one knows who she is or about her past.

Christopher Daniels enjoys the simplicity of his bachelor life. After his divorce three years ago, he swore off women. He has no desire to change that philosophy.

When Elizabeth Marshall moves into the apartment below his in the small Victorian house, she makes him reconsider the motto he’s lived by for the last three years: women are trouble. She is everything his ex-wife is not, and it doesn’t help that she is his wet dream come to life.

He is determined to resist her charms; however, when someone sends threatening messages to Elizabeth, he finds himself in the role of protector. Can he protect Elizabeth and still resist the pull she has on his body and his heart?

My review:

I read this in about two sittings and really enjoyed it, even though it was obvious to me who the baddie was very early on. Hayes has a way of writing which makes her stories easy to read, despite a few errors, and I really loved all the characters, especially Chris and his brothers. I’m thrilled to see this is going to be a series about them, with Gage the football player next – yum!

My rating: 4/5

The Governess Affair, by Courtney Milan

Format: Kindle Edition

Published: April 22, 2012

Publisher: Courtney Milan

Back cover blurb:

She will not give up…

Three months ago, governess Serena Barton was let go from her position. Unable to find new work, she’s demanding compensation from the man who got her sacked: a petty, selfish, swinish duke. But it’s not the duke she fears. It’s his merciless man of business—the man known as the Wolf of Clermont. The formidable former pugilist has a black reputation for handling all the duke’s dirty business, and when the duke turns her case over to him, she doesn’t stand a chance. But she can’t stop trying—not with her entire future at stake.

He cannot give in…

Hugo Marshall is a man of ruthless ambition—a characteristic that has served him well, elevating the coal miner’s son to the right hand man of a duke. When his employer orders him to get rid of the pestering governess by fair means or foul, it’s just another day at the office. Unfortunately, fair means don’t work on Serena, and as he comes to know her, he discovers that he can’t bear to use foul ones. But everything he has worked for depends upon seeing her gone. He’ll have to choose between the life that he needs, and the woman he is coming to love…

My review:

Courtney Milan is fast becoming a favourite with me. First of all, her covers are gorgeous, but more than that, she can write in such a way to make you fall for even the most vilest of scoundrels.

Hugo Marshall is a coalminer’s son who is the Duke of Claremont’s “fixer” – he makes things go away – but when he is confronted by Serena Barton, a governess who was raped and left pregnant by the duke, he finds she is not so easy to pay off and dismiss.

I loved Serena and her stubborn persistence, and the way in which Hugo eventually gets her to reveal her story to him. She gets under his skin to the point where he cannot just leave her and her child to rot. Oh, the meeting in his office, and the game with the pins… *sigh*… and the letters! Milan really had me with the letters.

I couldn’t put this down, and cursed when I had finished and realised the next book isn’t out yet. The series seems to pick up next with the duke’s (legitimate) son, Robert, but I seriously hope we go back to find out what happens to Serena’s sister, Freddy. If anyone needs to get laid it’s her.

My rating: 5/5

About That Night, by Julie James

Format: Kindle edition, 304 pages

Published: April 3, 2012

Publisher: Berkley Sensation

Back cover blurb:

HE’S PLAYING GAMES

Though Rylann Pierce tried to fight the sparks she felt for billionaire heir Kyle Rhodes the night they met, their sizzling chemistry was undeniable. But after being stood up on their first date, Rylann never expected to see him again. So when she finds herself face to face with Kyle in a courthouse nine years later, she’s stunned. More troubling to the beautiful Assistant U.S. Attorney is that she’s still wildly attracted to him.

BUT SHE’S MAKING THE RULES

Just released from prison, Kyle Rhodes isn’t thrilled to be the star witness in a high-profile criminal case — but when Rylann comes knocking at his door, he finds she may be the one lawyer he can’t say no to. Still as gorgeous and sharp-tongued as ever, she lays down the law: she doesn’t mix business with pleasure. But Kyle won’t give up on something he wants — and what he wants is the one woman he’s never forgotten…

My review:

Julie James does it again! This series is such fun to read, and Ms James knows how to craft a story so the pacing, characterisation, humour and smoking hotness is just right. Kyle was one of my favourites from the previous book, and here we get to see him reunited with a woman he met nine years previously, who just turns out to be the prosecutor in his Twitter hacking case.

What I love so much about this series is that the scenarios don’t seem contrived, unlike with some other contemporary romances. There’s an old boyfriend on the fringes, but no silly love triangle developed, and despite my fear at one point, there was also no switcheroo with the courtroom drama coming back to bite them on the bum. We also get the added bonus of all the old characters featuring, too, like Cameron and Jack and Nick and Jordan. Next up in the series just might be the lovely Agent Wilkins and maybe Rae? I hope so! Cade Morgan should also be in line for a book if I had any say about it

I preordered this and am so glad I did. Julie James should be on everyone’s auto-buy list. Highly recommended.

My rating: 5/5

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow #9

18 & Over Book Blogger Follow is a weekly feature that runs over the weekend, hosted by Crystal from one of my favourite blog sites, Reading Between the Wines.

Question of the Week: What are you currently reading? Do you love it? Is it a new-to-you author or an old favorite? Tell us all about it!

I’m about halfway through Sacrificial Magic (Downside Ghosts #4), by Stacia Kane and I am absolutely loving it! I had to wait until this week to finally have it available in my little corner of the world, but it was worth the wait.

As always, there are a couple of mysteries for Chess to solve – they usually turn out to be linked – and this time we have the added bonus of her being officially in a relationship with the lovely Terrible *sigh* It’s really not going smoothly, though… but to say any more would be to give away spoilers.

This is an excellent series and I have given each one five supcakes so far. I highly recommend them.

So what are you reading at the mo? Leave a comment below or link up HERE to follow the meme.

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