PLAY ME

PLAY ME                                                      DIANE ALBERTS
Posted: Oct. 6, 2013

 Even the best-laid plans can go awry.

Single-mom Kiersten Worth knows a bottle of champagne and night of hot, no-strings-attached sex is the perfect solution to her jilted bride blues…and Garrett Kelly, long-time friend and her teenaged son’s sexy basketball coach, is just the stud for the job.

Garrett wants more from the elusive temptress than a casual affair, but he never expects it to come in the form of an unexpected pregnancy. When he proposes an unorthodox solution—move in and raise their baby together—Kiersten has to decide whether to let down her guard and open her heart to the man who secretly loved her for years, or risk losing his tender embrace for good.


MY REVIEW:

     Play Me, Wow what can I say?  Fear is a motivator for making some really wrong decisions.  Kiersten Worth seems to not think things through and heads straight for a brick wall called Garrett Kelly a high school friend.

     Kiersten had a hard time trusting men.  Even her best friend Garrett.  So, when she made the decision to take him to bed out of shear “lust” and “revenge” over her ex.  She may have made a costly mistake.  You see her ex had no way of ever finding out she would sleep with Garrett because he had already moved on.  But, feeling lonely, depressed and horny because you see this would have been her wedding night too.  She decides that seducing Garrett because her ex was always jealous of him and their friendship.

     There was just one major flaw in her idea.  She didn’t expect to feel more for Garrett afterwards and moreover for Garrett to feel it too.  Then come right out and tell her so fast.  She had no time to think.  Out of fear she says things that pushes him away from even their friendship.  They can’t get totally away because he is Chris’, her nephews that she is raising since her sister passed away, coach & teacher.

     Three and a half months later their lives take a turn.  For her love has always meant pain and loss.  Fear grips her and Garrett soothes that can he do that now when he finds out the news...

     I was very taken in by this story because it seemed to take a real view of what so many couple go through and brought it to life in this story.  It was well written because you could feel each of the characters pains and joys.  I do recommend this book.  Provided by netgalley.com

UNEXPECTEDLY YOU

UNEXPECTEDLY YOU                                LILY SANTANA
Posted: Oct. 6, 2013

 Emma LeFleur’s vintage beach home is close to foreclosure. With a business struggling to take off, she has no choice but to turn to her neighbor, sexy and arrogant real estate investor Mitch McKenna—the man whose reputation she’s spent the past six months pulverizing.

Mitch offers her a deal that will save them both: if she’ll convince her neighbors that she’s 100% behind his controversial condo project he’ll save her home. As a prominent leader in the community, Emma’s the only one who can help him salvage the project and keep his employees from getting laid off.

But the chemistry between Emma and Mitch burns surprisingly hot, complicating their deal in a way neither had anticipated. Mitch unearths the long-buried siren within Emma, who’d forgotten how good it is to feel sexy, alive.

As Emma begins to turn public opinion in Mitch’s favor, she’s drawn to him in a way she can’t deny. And Mitch finds himself wanting to prove to Emma that he’s not the player she thinks he is…

MY REVIEW:

  Unexpectedly You was an unexpected surprise.  I did not know what to expect from it.  When I first got it I thought this sounds good but then when I got a lot of other books in my library to review I was oh maybe not as much as this one.  But then I felt guilty, so here I am reading this unexpected surprise and I have to say to the author, I am sorry you did a very nice job.

     Emma LeFleur, 35 years, is a widow who died over a year ago and she can’t seem to get out of her rut.  She has a daughter Sammy who is getting ready to go off to college and a business that is in need of a business loan or she won’t be able to send her off to college.  Her husband Stefan was a very well-liked man that in her small town no one lets her forget.  Not that she wants to but sometimes it is too much to live up to not to mention it is like living in a fish bowl.  Living on the beach is a plus and it’s a home that has been in the family since the forties.  But it is in need of repairs but if you just don’t look it will all be fine.  Until it’s not.  

     Emma dislikes change and a new developer/investor has shown up in town. He wants to build new condos right next door to her.  She has been fighting it for a year and making Mitch McKenna, the 31 year old handsome as hell but not welcomed developer, life a nightmare.  The only good thing with living in this fish bowl is all the support she gets blocking all the permits and things that McKenna needs to get his plans approved.

Until there is a very big snag.

     This frumpy widow who hates mornings and change is confronted with a mountain of financial change that she will need to have help from McKenna.  McKenna will do it only under one condition…

     This book I recommend.  It is a saucy book so get your fan out ladies because these two like to dance around each other and a whole lot of other things.  The bantering that goes on between these two is what makes this book so much fun.  They just seem to get themselves in their own hot water.  A fun read.  Provided by netgalley.com  

KISS THE BRIDE

KISS THE BRIDE                                         JODY WALLACE
Posted: Oct. 6, 2013

 Herman Edward Heckley knows all about drywall, concrete, and nail guns. So what's he doing fighting off taffeta in a bridal salon? He's maid of honor for his best friend, Caroline Oakenfeld, in her wedding to a pencil-necked geek. But the closer he gets to the ceremony, the more he wonders if he's been missing out all this time. Caroline has been missing out, and she knows it. Shes been in love with Heck forever, but frittering her life away until Heck wises up isn't part of her life plan. She's agreed to marry her boyfriend so she can move on with her life. But the closer she gets to the ceremony, the more she realizes she has to resolve her feelings for Heck. For better or for worse.


MY REVIEW:

          Kiss the Bride (A Tallwood Novella) was just such a fun over the top book.  Caroline Ann Oakenfield (Caro) and Herman Edward Heckley III (Heck) were best friends since diapers.  Caro has been in love with Heck for longer then she can remember.  She has even waited for him even after her divorced and she let him cry on her shoulder and she moved back home to Tallwood to let him do it.

     But enough is enough.  A woman needs to get on with her life.  Even though she doesn’t love Dan (the Pencil Neck as Heck calls him) the way she loves Heck and never will, Dan has given her the “Either we get married now after almost 4 years or we are done speech.”  Over the phone no less, so she mustards up the courage to say a lack lustered “Yes.”  Then she calls Heck and ask him to be his Man (maid) of Honor, he says, “Yes.” 

     Jhi her girl BFF since she moved back home to Tallwood knows all about her secret love for Heck and can’t understand why Heck can’t get it.  So, for that she just hates the guy on principle, plus she feels he has stolen her spot as maid of honor.  But you have to hand it to Heck he does all the Maid of Honor duties and he gives it that old college try.  Maybe not the way Martha Stewart would have done but all from the heart and all for Caro because he does love her like a sister, right?  Or is there now something brewing in the undercurrent when he sees her in her wedding dress and notices she has, OMG! BOOBS!!!  The poor guy just figures out Caro is a girl and a sexy as hell girl at that.

     Heck doesn’t like Pencil Neck because 1.) He doesn’t like Heck. 2.) He proposed over the phone. 3.) He didn’t give her a ring. 4.) He is not raising a finger to help with the wedding and it was his idea. 5.) Now this is a big one he found out he has stopped having S-E-X with Caro.

     Did I mention Jhi has a plan to fix this? Well, she does.  I loved a lot of this book there were parts that dragged but not too long.  There is SEX in this book be aware of that so if you are okay with that then this is the book for you.

E-book provided by netgalley.com

MERRY CHRISTMAS COWBOY

MERRY CHRISTMAS COWBOY                JANET DAILEY
Posted: Oct. 6, 2013

  A Colorado Christmas To Remember

On the Denver streets, officer Paula Lewis is as tough as she needs to be. But away from skyscrapers and suspects, Paula gives back to the community she loves. This holiday season she's moonlighting at the Christmas House, a turn-of-the-century mansion transformed into a festive wonderland to delight local children thanks to volunteers like Paula--and Zach Bennett.

Zach left his family's Colorado ranch to sign on as a carpenter at the Christmas House. Freewheeling Zach hopes to make this holiday the merriest yet--from coaxing Paula onto the bunny slopes to filling in as a last-minute Santa. And as she and Zach are drawn together to keep one young boy out of harm's way, Paula realizes that the best gifts are second chances, happy endings, and the kind of love that makes every day warm and bright. . .

MY REVIEW:

Merry Christmas Cowboy Paula Lewis and Zachary Bennett met originally when Paula a police officer stopped behind him in a parking lot because the street he turned down was a street that was closed to the public and the sign blew down. The second time they meet it is at the Christmas House to benefit Denver area charitable programs.  They are both there volunteering their time.  She is there as their main security for insurances purposes and he is there to help his friend who was making the sign for the home.  Then he stays on to carpentry work.  Edith the elderly lady who talked her into doing this is also playing match maker to both of them.  At the same time they are helping Edith with her grandson Brandon.

     Brandon seems to be running with the wrong crowd.  At first Zach does not care for him.  Paula on the other hand has always been there for him like a big sister after nabbing him on a few minor law infractions.  Part way through this story Zach takes up for him and Paula starts to question what Brandon is up to.  They just know they both want to help out Edith and Brandon.

     Paula and Zach are running from each other or is it that they are running from their feelings.  Or is Zach hiding something.  Paula wants to like him but on the first day Zach drops a picture of a woman out of his wallet that Paula hands back to him.  So she starts to wonder if he is attached and therefore she is too worried about losing her heart to want to chance getting hurt. She has no one but herself and her job, he has a family back home on his ranch.  When she wants to risk it all with him he starts to go forward and then he says no she is not ready.  Which makes her worry all the more that she was right all along about the picture. 

     This story was good but I felt like I was but not great.  I would have only given it a 3 ½ stars though.  I felt like it was missing its emotional connection between the couple for a romance.  Was missing that spark because they were chasing each other than not I just felt cheated at the end.

COWBOY JUSTICE

COWBOY JUSTICE                                     MELISSA CUTLER
Posted: Oct. 6, 2013

  Transforming their parents' rundown ranch in Catcher Creek, New Mexico, into a tourist destination is the toughest challenge the three Sorentino sisters ever faced. But now one of them has another fight on her hands—to keep from falling for the sexy town sheriff—again…

Rachel Sorentino has spent her whole life protecting her siblings from trouble—only to run headlong into it herself. Her first regret about shooting at the vandals targeting her family is that her aim wasn't better. Her second is that when bullets started flying, it was Sheriff Vaughn Cooper's number she dialed. Vaughn is the mistake she keeps on making, a cowboy lawman who cuts through Rachel's surface bravado to the vulnerability no one else sees. And no matter how inconvenient their attraction—for his career, her tangled case, and their already battered hearts—there's no denying what feels so irresistibly right…

MY REVIEW:

Cowboy Justice had me from the get go.  This was one action packed story from right off the bat.  Rachel Sorentino is a young woman who has worked her whole life to make her family unit not only stick together but thrive.  You see her mother had bi-polar disorder, a father a farmer with a gambling problem who just didn’t know when to stop.  She was so embarrassed by her mother when she would have an issue in public until one day she just shut down and ran off.  Ending up at the feed store and the owner gave her a lucky horse shoe and took her back to the farm.  Where she ran off to think.  The one that found her was her father who told her that she would be fine and would grow up to be a great alfalfa farmer just like all the other family farmers have been that worked that land before him.  So, at a young age she went to work learning everything she could from her father, who walked on water, about how to be an alfalfa farmer.  And overlooked all his downfalls.

     Vaughn Cooper on the other hand was the town’s cowboy lawman, the Sheriff.  He was straight laced when it came to the law.  The reason being he was raised ten minutes away in a different town under the rule of another law enforcement agency.  It was run by Wallace Meyer Sr. of the Tucumcari’s police of which he is chief.  He is as bad ass as they come.  Bending the law to suit him and his.  At the young age of 16 years old Vaughn vowed to take him down. 

     One year ago while investigating the death of Rachel’s father’s death from a car wreck (after years of dealing with bringing one or both of her wild sister’s home from being out partying or whatever, etc…)  Their attraction took hold and they both turned off all logic and allowed their needs to be with each other take hold.  After that one night he said that they had to keep it a secret because he was on the job as well in the middle of her father’s case which was almost wrapped up but still. This was the start of the sexual roller coaster ride & hide and seek.

     Besides the hot and I do mean hot, sizzling hot scenes, which is not at great amount like some but they are there.  There is an under story going on with mystery, suspense, family, and love.  What an amazingly fun roller coaster of emotions this writer was able to bring forth in me.  Melissa Cutler has an extraordinary and yet simplistic way of writing that just engulfs you from the minute I started reading.  I highly recommend to men and women.  The Fans are optional but I do recommend them in spots.  Provided by NetGalley