ALMOST MATCHED (THE ALMOST BAD BOYS SERIES #1)

ALMOST MATCHED                              A.O. PEART
Posted:  Jan. 29, 2014

  Would you take another shot at love? Or just settle on a friend with benefits?

THEIR HEARTBREAKING PAST WILL MOVE YOU. THEIR PASSION WILL MAKE YOU BLUSH. THEIR ANTICS WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH OUT LOUD.

Twenty-five-year-old Natalie Davenport lugs substantial baggage. One boyfriend after the next has been a total disaster, leaving Natalie distrustful toward the male population in general. So when Colin Hampton crosses her path, she’s cautious. Her heart (and some other body parts!) nudges her to go for it, while her head wants her to run for the hills.

Colin is one of those gorgeous guys who attract women, no matter the age or marital status. With a successful career at a popular Seattle radio station, hard body, and charming personality, he is the complete package. But something dark lurks in the corners of his soul; some murky experience that has changed him—maybe for the better, but maybe for the worse.

Will he steal her heart and stomp over it like other guys did?

Will she let him into her heavily fortified world despite herself?

Or will they settle somewhere in the middle—establishing the emotional boundaries to protect them from falling in love?

****************************************************************
This contemporary romantic comedy blends humor, sensuality, and angst, with zany characters and witty dialogue.

***Warning: contains sexual situations (some quite vivid!), profanity, and a high dose of sarcasm. Oh, and there is a lot of appletini and beer drinking.
May not be appropriate for readers under 18 years old. Not intended for prudes and killjoys with no sense of humor***

THE SERIES:
The Almost Bad Boys series are the stories of four feisty twenty-something women who refuse to let their past drag them down.

MY REVIEW:

How do you suppose a relationship will go, when a man encounters you for the first time in a mini skirt and hot pink bra?  How can you command respect understand if that was the first showing of what you got so to speak?

     This is how Natalie Davenport, 25, business owner with her best friend, Ali, meets Colin Hampton.  His is the manager of the radio station, KZIX in Seattle, WA.  They are both attractive and attracted to one another but Natalie has been through this one many times.  Colin on the other hand finds running into her in the hallway looking like a Victoria Secrets model is eyeing her like a wolf looking for its next meal. 

     Ali tells Natalie all the time she needs to find herself a regular “F—k Buddy” like she’s got.  So, she can send him home when she’s done with him.  Natalie knows she’s not made that way.  Her heart always seems to get in the way.  In stop and go traffic she is next to Colin on the road and he tosses her his card and says for her to call him sometime. Can she do it?     

     They take it slow and a relationship starts to form.  He’s different for a, 27 yr. old, and other men she’s dated.  More invested in the two of them being together, yet there is a part of him he won’t or can’t seem to let her into.  She’s not sure if its fear or trust that is the issue.  Now though it is starting to scare her.  Could it be he is like all the others after all?  They have their first fight and he then becomes someone she doesn’t even know at all.  He seems distant and hardly calls.

     This book was moving along great on a funny note when it was at the beginning and centered around Natalie and her friends.  The relationship with Colin I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop but was not expecting that.  I think the twist even though it took a dark twist the way I see it, was still good, until it ended with no closer.  Now that is what got me.  I hate stories with cliffhangers.  I hate them a lot.

There are some that are so good you just can’t wait until the next.  I might do it to review for the blog but not if I had to buy for myself or a friend.  I’m glad it told us about what happened to faith though at least. 

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THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW VEST

THE GIRL IN THE YELLOW VEST            LORETTA HILL
Posted:  Jan. 29, 2014

  ‘We can’t choose who we fall in love with. It could be our best friend or … our worst enemy.’

Emily Woods counts cracks for a living. Concrete cracks. So when her long-term boyfriend dumps her, she decides it’s time for a change of scenery. Her best friend, Will, suggests joining his construction team in Queensland. Working next door to the Great Barrier Reef seems like just the sort of adventure she needs to reboot her life…until she realises that Will is not the person she thought he was.

Charlotte Templeton is frustrated with the lack of respect FIFO workers have for her seaside resort. But picking a fight with their tyrannical project manager, Mark Crawford, seems to lead to more complications than resolutions. The man is too pompous, too rude, and too damned good looking.

As both women strive to protect their dreams and achieve their goals, they discover that secrets will come out, loyalty often hurts, and sometimes the perfect man is the wrong one.

MY REVIEW:

     This book so far at the beginning is an interesting mix of four people’s lives and how they connect to one another.

     First you have the two best friends and engineer’s Emily Woods and Will Steward.  They went to the University together with four of their other friends.  Yet, Emily and Will had a special bond, never dated just friends.  Will in fact was dating Sasha when they met and since they were having problems thought about dropping her for Emily but never did.  His loss because he took Em to a party and Will’s best friend since grade school, Trent asked her out.  It was first love for the both of them.  A dagger to Will’s heart but he had waited too long to make a move.
     Will loved Em enough to continue to be her BFF to the point where she thought that anytime now she thought that Trent would be popping the question.  So was teasing Will about being his maid of honor.  Then at Lena and Dan’s wedding when all the Uni friends were together he could tell something was bothering her.  Trent wasn’t there yet that wasn’t unusual since he was a lawyer and he missed a lot of events.  Emily was slowly getting hammered with hardly touching her meal.  Will sees her go out by the pond and he follows.  When he asks what’s wrong and she says nothing he then ask if she is ready for dessert she says no then he knows something is wrong.  And asks again…

     Finally she tells him about how Trent took her to dinner two weeks ago not to pop “The Question” but to break up with her.  Saying it’s not her it’s him.  More freedom to date, so now she is single again after five years.  Not to mention that he asked her to move out so now she is living with her parents, she is slightly overweight and she hates her job.

Will throws her a bone and says he will try and give her an in for an engineer position that they have at his job site but he couldn’t promise anything.  That just made her day.  Not to mention he gave her what for because she was calling herself overweight.  He thought she looked wonderful and told her so.

     Now the other two the story revolves around is Charlotte Templeton and Mark Crawford.  Charlotte went to Uni and became a psychologist.  Giving her the ability to read the signs of why Mark had his aggressive behavior.  It was always triggered by something: abuse as a child, trauma in adulthood, loss, guilt, suffering so the tightness of his responses belied those truths.  Therefore, she was not fearful of Mark like everyone else.  Aggravated sometimes sad for but not mad.  She did however find him sexy but with her family’s business just barely making it, raising her 15 yr. old sister and caring for her mother with Alzheimer’s who has time for dating.

     As for Mark, everyone on the job site behind his back called him Caesar.  He is more of a ruler than a boss.  He is a cold blooded bastard to everyone.  You either feared him or hated him no in between.  No one knows since he still wears his wedding ring that his wife passed away 2 years ago from breast cancer and that’s where most of his anger comes from.  But like reaching out from the grave Kathryn had her lawyer send him a package 2 years after her death.  There was a DVD from him to watch and a list to follow exactly of things to do.  She knows he is grieving and it’s time to move on and she had wanted to make sure he did.

     This is where each of their journeys begins but definitely not the end.  This story is stacked with so much going on behind each sub story you get totally engulfed in the complicated lives of these four that you don’t realize you are totally invested.  The characters are multilayered in who they are and what they are about.

     Will, is so simple that Emily misses all the signs of what is going on.  Then there is Mark, he is so extremely complicated that Charlotte with her PHD can’t help but dig into his mind and heart.  Even if it hurts them both.  Then add all the other characters and WOW!  Loved it!!!

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LANTERN LAKE

LANTERN LAKE                                      LILY EVERETT
Posted:  Jan. 29, 2014

  They’re single, they’re rich, and now these billionaire bachelors are heading to Sanctuary Island in a new e-original novella series from Lily Everett! Fall in love with the heartwarming island’s latest catch.

Leo, Zane, and Cooper made a pact to stay bachelors and enjoy the single life forever, and when they receive an invitation to their friend Miles’ wedding, they head down to Sanctuary Island determined to talk some sense into the errant groom before he makes a life-changing mistake. But Miles knows his own mind, and he makes a vow of his own: before he walks down the aisle, he’ll have Leo, Zane, and Cooper changing their tune about matrimony. Because Miles knows, better than anyone, that all it takes is a little Sanctuary Island magic to turn romantic cynics into true believers.

Cooper Haynes can’t believe how easily his friends have all succumbed to the lure of romance. Luckily, he knows he’s safe, since the one woman he ever loved is lost to him forever. But when he gets a look at the wedding program and sees the list of bridesmaids, Cooper knows he’s in trouble, because there she is: Vivian Banks. After her shattering break-up with Cooper, Vivian never wanted to see him again, but when Greta asks her to be a bridesmaid, Vivian can’t refuse…even knowing it’ll bring her face to face with the man who broke her heart and stomped on the pieces. But Sanctuary Island has a way of reminding people of what really matters, and teaching them the power of the human heart to forgive, heal, and fall in love all over again.

MY REVIEW:

     Well, Miles did it.  He ambushed Cooper at his and Greta’s wedding.  How you ask?  By not telling him that the two of them had asked Miles old and dear friend, Vivian Banks, to be in the wedding.  This would make Cooper Hayes upset why you ask?  Well, Viv and Cooper were do to get married.  He had the marriage license in hand at the courthouse and she never showed up.

     Emotions are running high for Cooper when he figures out that he is partnered to walk out of the church with Viv.  He does it but it is hard.  Viv thought Miles had cleared it with him and told him so.  When the new couple tosses the flowers to her and says Viv was next in line to marry if they could just find a groom both looking at him.  He chuckles and escorts Viv to the beach for the reception.  On his way he comes up with his plan.

     Cooper plans to seduce Viv spend this special night dancing, romancing, and then bedding her only to be gone in the morning.  He starts off his plan by slipping a $50.00 to the band leader to play “At Last” they dance, drink, eat, and mingle with friends.  After the bride and groom leave…

     See how Cooper sees Viv now.  Can he ask all the questions he needs the answers to?  When he turns to leave Viv, is it as easy as he thought?  Or does she make him think twice?  Does she reveal things that are shocking enough to make him lose the bet?

     Out of the three stories in this series I like this the best.  It has so much irony and it is more believable, grittier, the characters were more real especially with their emotions.  You know for billionaires, since I hang around with so many you see.  NOT!!!  Viv finally found her voice, though.  Nice short read.  Provided by netgalley.com

BONFIRE BEACH

BONFIRE BEACH                                     LILY EVERETT
Posted:  Jan. 29, 2014

  They’re single, they’re rich, and now these billionaire bachelors are heading to Sanctuary Island in a new e-original novella series from Lily Everett! Fall in love with the island’s latest catch.

Leo, Zane, and Cooper made a pact to stay bachelors and enjoy the single life forever, and when they receive an invitation to their friend Miles’ wedding, they head down to Sanctuary Island determined to talk some sense into the errant groom before he makes a life-changing mistake. But Miles knows his own mind, and he makes a vow of his own: before he walks down the aisle, he’ll have Leo, Zane, and Cooper changing their tune about matrimony. Because Miles knows, better than anyone, that all it takes is a little Sanctuary Island magic to turn romantic cynics into true believers.

Zane Bishop has always been the life of the party, the guy who makes sure everyone is having a blast, and he turned his experiences as a college DJ into a multi-billion-dollar entertainment company. He can’t wait to take control of the bachelor party, but Zane’s plans for an all-night rager come up against wedding consultant Felicity Carlson’s ideas about getting Miles to the church on time and sober.  While Zane works overtime tempting Felicity into having fun, she discovers that there’s more to the party boy than meets the eye—but can a woman who makes her living planning other people’s perfect romances ever find true love of her own?
MY REVIEW:

     Lily Everett did a nice job of bringing a little romance to Sanctuary Island once again.  It looks like Miles knew what he was talking about when he made that bet with Leo, Zane and Cooper.  Oh, wait I forgot there’s a little “something-something” that goes on up at the alter with one of the bridesmaids and Cooper so it’s not totally in the bag so can’t wait to read about that tidbit.

     Anyway, this little short was told in 76 pages and it was cute.  It was just enough family background to see conflict, there is the current conflict of meet and condition of working the wedding together.  You see Felicity Carlson owns her own wedding consulting company of one (her) in Manhattan.  Zane Bishop is a self-made billionaire in “Whatever Entertainments” in New York.  Which his owner and CEO.  He was asked by Miles, his friend, to help and she was hired by Greta.  Neither told them they would be working together.

     They are both very closed off people who never share personal details.  Yet, each one can see that they are closed off.  Zane, sees that she does this by all her control and structure she needs with regards to the wedding and reception.  Felicity, can see it in Zane always wanting to be having fun, free, exciting new things not boring, yet, his eyes tell a different story. 

     After a few days of trying to win each other over he hears a talk Felicity and Greta have about her parents and her mom’s health. He gets it but he knows there’s more but for the first time ever he wants to find out what that is.  So, a relationship starts (sexual) maybe more… During this talk Greta and Felicity have pay attention to what she says her dad answer was about her mom’s illness.  For me it was a tear jerker. 

     Then Zane being a guy (sorry guys) says something crazy because he is having feelings and boom…Ha-ha you will have to read to see how they will resolve it.  It’s nice, very sweet and not what I was thinking would happen.  Is believable maybe not but its fiction and a romance so don’t wake me up yet…

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