SPICY WHITE CHOCOLATE

SPICY WHITE CHOCOLATE                      CASSANDRE DAYNE
Posted:  July 8, 2015

Spicy White Chocolate by Cassandre DayneWhat will five highly professional and well-respected women do to entice their erotic book club meetings? A game of seduction perhaps? Developing sinful stories of their own? Join them as they search for the perfect younger hunks to help satisfy their secret fantasies, indulging in uninhibited moments of passion. What happens when the selected men find out about their rouse?

Shawna Dupres was more than ready to have a steamy affair and so were the women in her erotic book club. Forming a wicked pact, each was to hunt and seduce a man. The winner would receive an all expenses paid weekend for the lucky couple. The kick was the hunk had to be much younger. Unfortunately owning Sauce and Spice, an upscale Cajun bistro and one with serious financial troubles forced long hours. She desperately needed inspiration for a spicy dessert and a way to save her livelihood. When Austin Tomlin arrived to repair a storm-damaged door, she knew the brawny man might be the tasty treat that could kick start her career and her libido. A spicy white chocolate fondue was a huge hit all the way around.

Austin craved the voluptuous woman at first sight and while she was years older, it only added to her allure and he knew Karma was giving him more than a hint or two. Engaging in a conversation, the sparks flew and they entered into a wild tryst in the middle of the kitchen, realizing they both craved more. Unfortunately Austin wasn’t who he purported himself to be and his secret could finish their relationship before it even started. Then again, if he came clean, he might be able to help her save her restaurant. But Shawna had been burned before. Could she trust this man to save not only her restaurant but also her heart?

MY REVIEW:
       Things aren’t always what they seem to be as this fun short erotica shows.  It opens with Shawna Dupres at a weekly Wednesday book club, “Piranha Girls.”  These are cougars on the hunt for younger men.  They have been used and abused in more ways than one and it’s their time to be served or serviced.
     At this book club night Cara was the hostess of this particular Wednesday.  She handed each woman a gift bag to go with their early afternoon drink, because it is 5 o’clock somewhere.  The way the chatter was headed the gift bag had something to do with erotica like the book.  They couldn’t open the gift bag until they came up with their secret very sensual pact.  The first time made.
     Boy did they come up with one.  In ten days they had to find and take a younger man to bed.  All were excited and game.  Although Shawna didn’t voice it she didn’t know how she could possibly do it with her business The Sauce and Spice a Cajun Bistro.  Not to mention the 70 plus hours she put in.  She didn’t want to admit it to herself but the restaurant was having financial trouble.  Her accountant was even advising her that she needed to consider taking on a partner at the least.  Yes, because he also told her there was someone trying to buy her out.
     She really didn’t want to think about that.  So the next morning she dressed as sexy as possible so she could come up with a new exciting chocolate dessert all the time thinking of the fantasy the girls created.  When she arrives at her parking spot there is a large vehicle with a ladder and all when she remembers she had an appointment with a guy to fix the damaged door from the storm.
     She gets out and all she can do is not melt as she takes him in this tall, sexy, brawny, young, and did I mention sexy man?  Don’t think he wasn’t checking her out she could tell even with his sunglasses on she could see his head move ever so slowly taking her in from head to toe.  Which was making her sweat and wet at the same time.
     When she gets to him she says how she is so sorry she was late.  He tells her not a problem.  He just got there also.  She extends her hand and she says Austin Tomlin from Creative Construction correct?  He smiles and says yes.  Removing his sunglasses he does nothing then to disguise that he is checking her out from head to toe.  Something that turns her to mush and has her feeling like a teenage girl not knowing how or what to do around a guy.
     She takes him around to the doors that are damaged.  He says they will take no time to fix and they chat a minute when she says she’ll leave him to it.  He says something that sounds like a come on but when she says excuse me he changes the inflection.  She says she’ll be inside when he’s done.
     She turns the music on, puts on an apron, and gets all the stuff to do a fondue with a twist…peppers.  When Austin comes in and he scares her when he speaks and she does something she is not known for she sends the fondue pot flying.  It’s spinning off the table and on to his pants.  He just laughs and takes his finger to taste it which she can’t seem to take her eyes off him doing.  When she comes to her senses and gets a towel for him to try to clean up. 
     What he does next with the chocolate and her is…you didn’t think I would tell you did you?  This was a cute story.  My hubby read it before me.  So I knew he knew answers to questions I had.  So when the plot would take a slight yet important turn he would throw out a “No” or “Keep reading!”  I was so surprised at points but pleased at the end.  There was a cute story to go along with this erotica and that is a plus.  I give this 4 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com

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BOOTS AND THE ROGUE

BOOTS AND THE ROGUE                            MYLA JACKSON
Posted:  July 8, 2015

There’s more than one way to feed a hungry man.
Boots and the Rogue by Myla JacksonUgly Stick Saloon, Book 10
Brody McFarlan left home eight years ago after he and his younger brother had a falling-out over a girl. When a frantic phone call sends him racing home, he’s astounded to learn the truth. Mom isn’t sick, she’s threatening to sell the ranch—unless he and his brothers get busy settling down.
With Mom on strike, Brody uneasily settles in to help—and find a replacement cook before he starves.
Fired from her last job, Jessie Taylor is forced to ride out on her horse, leaving her car behind. Hot, tired and homeless, she stumbles onto the Ugly Stick Saloon, grateful to pick up a spatula in trade for a burger to fill her belly and a much-needed rest for her road-weary mount.
One bite of Jessie’s tasty burger, and Brody offers the rough-and-tumble blonde a job and a stall. It doesn’t hurt that she’s sexy as hell, and he hungers for a taste of her sweet pink mouth. The only bur under his saddle is the grudge he still carries…and the fear that his brother will once again swoop in to steal the pretty filly right out from under him.
Warning: Burning hunger lights fires in the kitchen, the barn, the pasture, and more when another McFarlan brother bites the romantic dust in the sexiest possible way.
MY REVIEW:
   Jessie Taylor was a girl with her horse who was just looking for a place to call home.  You see her mom left them when she was 4.  Her daddy did the best he could but he was a foreman on a large spread.  The thing was they didn’t own the house that she grew up in.  It was part of the perks of the job.
     So, when her father had a heart attack 2 years ago she had to vacate the home.  From there out she had been looking for a decent job.  She was more comfortable doing outdoor so called guys work on a ranch than indoor girl stuff.  Well, it turns out she had to leave this last job on short notice.  Do to the owner and his making passes at her all the time. 
     She always deflected his advances but this time they were caught during the cat and mouse fight.  So, she was the one fired because the wife said so.  Since she didn’t have a trailer to take her horse she rides him off the ranch after she collects what little she could carry in a duffle bag.  After 8 hours of riding trying to get the farthest away from her old boss as she could and his old haunts.  She ends up behind the Ugly Stick Saloon.
     She needed to get her and her horse Scout some water.  When the back door opens and the very pregnant owner sees her.  Audrey Anderson says if she tosses the trash bag in the bin she had been dragging out into the trash she would pay her $20.00 and the horse and she could have all the water they wanted.  Of course that is a no brainer Jessie does it for nothing but the water.  Once inside Audrey hires her for the night to B-B-Q since they are short a cook.
     That is when she meets Brody McFarlan the long lost brother to Colin and Angus who moved away eight years ago.  With his mama laying down the law they needed a new cook since their mama’s not cooking for them.  When he sees that Jessie can cook B-B-Q he gets an idea.  But first he is hungry so he stands in line but this big huge guy gets there first.  Jessie has her back to them so the big guy says he wants some food.  She looks over her shoulder and states that they needed to sit down that the waitresses will wait on them and that she can’t give them the food from where they are at they were for other customers. 
     She was able to handle herself and the waitress came to her aide too.  The whole time Brody had been checking her out and how sexy she looking in her Annie Oakley costume.
But back to business he wants to hire her.  But he uses the wrong wording and she punches him in the eye and knocks him out cold.  The brothers are laughing at him but thinks she will be perfect, after the punch he’s not so sure.  But when Chemistry hits and they kiss he is sunk.
     The next morning does not go as planned she burns the pancakes but their mama on the sly helps her out.  Their chemistry only gets bigger but he had promised not to kiss her again.  He does whisper in her ear, “You can’t cook can you?”
     This is a very cute short.  Sexually charged yet not overly erotic yet you feel what they feel for each other.  This has a family saga which you know I love and the characters are extremely loveable and funny.  I give this 4 stars.  Provided by Netgalley.com. 

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WICKED WHITE

WICKED WHITE                                           MICHELLE A. VALENTINE
Posted:  July 8, 2015

Wicked White by Michelle A. ValentineAfter his mother dies, rock star Ace White—lead singer of the red-hot band Wicked White—is done with the celebrity game. The phony people, the meaningless one-night stands: he doesn’t want any of it anymore. Quitting in the middle of a sold-out tour, Ace sets out to find some place—any place—where he can be alone.

Aspiring singer Iris Easton’s life has never been easy. First, her mother walked out on her when she was a kid. Now she’s buried in debt, weeks after losing her beloved grandmother. When a mysterious and sexy new guy moves in next door, Iris can’t help but be drawn to his soulful gaze. She can tell there’s something from his past haunting him—something he’s not telling her.

Just as Ace starts falling for Iris, the media go on a worldwide hunt to find the missing rocker. Will true love conquer all, or will the truth be the very thing that tears the couple apart?

MY REVIEW:

     I was only 8 % into the book and Ace Johnson (White), 26, had me in tears.  The scene at the hospital was heart wrenching.  All that he had been through as a child gutted me.  Then to be take away from his natural mother didn’t want him.  That was enough to shatter anyone’s spirit.  He had been taken away at 6 years old and bounced around in foster care system until he was 12 years old.  No one wanted a broken child from a neglectful mother.
     Not until Sarah that was.  She gave Ace a permanent home.  She was willing to get to know him.  No one had ever done that before.  She showed him that love did exist in the cold cruel world, because she loved him, the only one who loved him.
     When he got the call right before going on stage that his mom was in critical condition and on her way to the hospital, by an Ohio State patrolman.  He knew he needed to go to her.  Jane Ann said he needed to do the concert before he left, he agreed.  Until, he approached his band mates, which none of them were getting along.  Since they all had issues with one another.  So when he told them that after the concert he would be leaving to be with his mom and cancelling the next couple of concerts they went ballistic, including Jane Ann.
     Once they all said their piece and fronted each other off he looked around and thought…none of these people are my friends in fact none even have my back.  The one who has always been there for me, loved me, and encouraged me and my music is in a hospital bed in Ohio so he left.  But, not without flipping the bandmates off and right before the concert even got started.  In turn he was flipping off Jane Ann too since she had her ass so far up the band's ass as well as the record companies. 
     After a wonderful nurse at the hospital said that he should say all that he ever wanted to tell his mom now was the time to do it.  Because it looked like she was waiting for him to get there even though she was breathing by a machine and was in a coma.  He told her.  He said good-bye and that she could go and she did.  After the funeral he went back to the hotel and knew he was done with the band life.  It was time for a change.  He was done being Ace White.  It was time to be Ace Johnson again to make Sarah proud of him again.  So, he cut away Ace White, changed clothes, snuck out of the hotel, and used his credit card to get a Harley and $5000.00 to live off the grid.  Time to find a place to live.
     When he stops at a place he see a place called Sarahville and feels it’s an omen like his mom is looking down on him.  He checks out the online places to rent and there was only one place and it was a trailer park.  What could be better they would never look there for him.  So he sends an email with his number.
     Iris Easton grandma passed away.  She left the trailer park that her great-great grandfather started.  But in order to get the property changed over into her name she had to find the deed.  Her and the friend she had since her sandbox days, Birdie, had to go through two unorganized piles that Gee Gee had when bingo she finds it.
     The bad thing is after 1 year of living in New York in hopes of making it big never has paid off yet.  So she waits tables.  Her flight home for the funeral and the little things almost drained her wallet completely.  She had already placed an ad to rent out one of the trailers that is vacant while she lives in her childhood home that her grandma had lived in just until a while ago.
     When she checked at the library on the ad she placed she had three bites.  Two wanted her picture that was just a little too creepy so they were out.  The third guy left his number.  She said nope and closed the email but Birdie had her best interest at heart and told her to open it up again.  Saying you need the money to at least call.  So she gets the number but she waits to call.  Now at the trailer park there is no cell service or internet.  So, she would have to wait until Birdie to get off work.
     Before she knew it though someone was knocking at her door.  You got it, its Ace Johnson saying he decided to stop by to see if the place was still available.  She was surprised considering his style of dress, his motorcycle, and his overall looks.  Ace had picked this town because it was named after his mother Sarah.  He felt he was meant to be there but Iris she was not so sure.
     She and her side kick Birdie decided they needed to keep an eye on him because when he spoke to her he was short tempered.  That short temper he’d gave her would look like passion than he would pull back telling her one day he would kiss her.
     This is one story that is always on the move.  Ace is likeable even loveable but I found myself getting to the point of saying alright already.  He got wishy washy and I wanted to say, “Enough already you weren’t the only one that went through something in the room so did Iris so knock it off!  You are just leading her on to get what you want.”  Then it really starts moving a different way.  I give this 4 stars.  Provided by Netgalley.com.

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Lauren Layne Coming Friday, July 10th 7pm PST: Author of: CRUSHED Excerpt Chapter 1 first half today part 2 tomorrow

Welcome 
Lauren Layne
Coming Friday
July 10th 7pm
PST



Author of:




Growing up in New York, Michael St. Claire never expected to spend his twenties wearing cowboy boots. But that was before he learned about his real father, a total stranger with a family in Cedar Grove, Texas. Once in the Lone Star State, Michael meets Kristin Bellamy, who is exquisitely refined and everything Michael always thought he wanted in a woman. The only problem is that Kristin is dating Michael’s new half brother, Devon.

Kristin’s mouthy, curvy sister Chloe has always been in love with Devon Patterson. So when Michael offers to help Chloe break up Devon and Kristin, Chloe agrees to a deal that seems too good to be true. Before long, Chloe finally gets her man, only to make a startling discovery: She no longer wants the guy she had to fight for—she wants the one who stood by her side.

After all he and Chloe have been through, Michael swears he’s damaged goods. Can Chloe convince him that love is worth the risk?



CHAPTER ONE

MICHAEL

“Your shirt’s untucked in the back.”
I turn, giving a half smile of gratitude to the blonde who’s just followed me out of the unisex restroom at the Cambridge Country Club tennis courts.
She giggles as she runs a hand over her tennis skirt, smoothing it over tanned, toned thighs. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into doing that in a public restroom.”
Yeah. Right. I hadn’t talked Mindy McLaughlin into shit. Everything from the location to the position had been her idea.
But I don’t remind her of this.
If I’ve learned anything in my first month as tennis pro to the rich and richer, it’s that cougars don’t like being reminded that they’re the ones doing the pursuing.
I give her a wink as I finish tucking in my shirt, before scanning the courts to make sure we don’t have any witnesses to the fact that we just spent the first twenty minutes of Mindy’s sixty-minute tennis lesson fucking against the wall of a bathroom stall.
Luckily, it’s the middle of the day and hot as hell. Most people hit the courts in the early morning or not at all.
Mindy follows me to the benches, where we retrieve our rackets. “Should we finish up?” I ask.
She lets out a low laugh, running pink manicured nails down the front of my white polo. “I think we already did that.”
I ignore this, and hold up the tennis ball questioningly.
“It’s hot,” she whines.
It is. Way too fucking hot to play tennis. She still has forty minutes left, but I’m not all that surprised that she wants to bail. We both know she didn’t come down here for the tennis.
It’s just as well. I hate the damn sport. I only work the courts three days a week, and my lesson schedule is packed with women that are probably better at tennis than I am.
I’m passably decent at tennis because once upon a time, I was one of the spoiled brats taking lessons, not giving them. I don’t love the sport. I’m not like these other douche bags that work the courts and make a big show of how they could have gone pro if they wanted.
My tennis skills aren’t why I was hired, and I damn well know it. Growing up on the Upper East Side of New York taught me early that women of the idle rich class get bored easily. A boredom they often ease by taking up with men other than their husbands.
Fortunately for me, most of my life I was blissfully unaware that my own mother fell into that category of straying housewives.
Ignorance truly is bliss.
And when ignorance is over?
All hell breaks loose.
“Same time next week?” she asks, moving toward me and tilting her face up.
I know what she wants. A kiss that I have no intention of giving.
I sidestep, setting my racket and ball on the bench.
“Can I buy you a drink?” she asks. She does an unnecessary stretch that strains her white top across full—definitely fake—breasts.
For the briefest of moments, I feel chokingly bored by it all, but I force myself to embrace the boredom.
“No, thanks. I’ve got a lesson after this.”
“What about tomorrow? I was thinking I should maybe add a second lesson in the week. To keep me loose.” She winks.
Christ. Really?
“Can’t,” I say. “I’m working the gym tomorrow. I alternate giving tennis lessons and being a personal trainer.”
I like the latter a lot better. It involves air-conditioning.
Her eyes light up both with interest and a competitive gleam. “Do I know any of your personal trainer clients?”
Probably half of your book club, Bible club, and Junior League.
I’d screwed a good portion of them, too, and it’s obvious that Mindy McLaughlin is eager to know her competition.
“Well,” she says, leaning forward when I don’t respond, “if you ever decide to take a little break, you know just who to call.”
“Sure do,” I say, giving her a sleepy look that’s always seemed to have a way with women.
Well, all women but one. The one who mattered.
Normally, I’d be more than happy to be late to my next lesson in order to scratch Mindy’s second itch of the day and help her forget that she’s married to a high-powered judge with a potbelly.
But Mrs. McLaughlin has one unavoidable disadvantage working against her.
Today is Wednesday.
And on Wednesdays, I have a client I want more than Mindy McLaughlin.
After a few more failed come-ons, Mrs. McLaughlin finally gives up, although I know she’ll be coming with her A-game next week. Her skirt shorter, her lips glossier, her invitations more blatant.
I check out her ass on principle as she walks away, running the towel over my face before finishing a bottle of water in three gulps.
One more lesson before I can escape to Pig and Scout, the dive bar where I sometimes work nights. Generally, I count the hours until P&S; it’s a welcome break from all the pretension.
Although . . .
Today is Wednesday. And on Wednesdays, I’m not in such a hurry.
Despite what the other guys think about their athletic skills, I know we “tennis pros” are merely the pool boys of the country club. We’re supposed to be ripped, a little bit dangerous, and not clinging too closely to our morals.
I have no problem with any of those, especially the last one, even if it does get old after a while.
But my hour a week with Kristin Bellamy makes it all worth it.
I see Kristin approaching out of the corner of my eye, but deliberately don’t turn to check her out, even subtly.
See, forty-two-year-old women like Mindy McLaughlin are forever afraid they’re “losing it.” They need the confirmation that they’re still worth looking at.
But twenty-two-year-old girls like Kristin Bellamy know they’ve got it.
The trick to reeling those in is making them wonder if you’ve noticed.
“Hey, Michael.”
I turn to face her, keeping my expression indifferent. “Kristin.”
Yeah, I definitely notice her.
She’s wearing only a white sports bra and a tiny white tennis skirt. I’m pretty sure the club has some sort of policy requiring members to wear a little more clothing, but considering the place is run by a bunch of doddering old dudes, I doubt they’re going to order Kristin to cover up her tanned, toned stomach and perky tits.
My eyes don’t linger, returning quickly to her face, and she appears not to mind that I don’t check her out.
It’s a game we’ve been playing for weeks now.
For the life of me I can’t figure out who’s winning.
I only know the endgame. Her. Me. In bed. Or wherever.
Kristin is the first girl to interest me—truly interest me—since Olivia Middleton. The only girl I’ve ever really wanted. And definitely the only one I’ve ever loved.
Not that I have any intention of loving Kristin. I’m not going that route again, ever.
But I do want her. And not just because she has a smoking body. Kristin has a key connection to my very reason for being in Texas.
“Saw Mindy on my way down here,” Kristin says, giving a little twirl of her racket as she moves closer. “Everything go okay with your lesson? She looked kind of irritated.”
I toss my towel aside with an indifferent shrug. “It’s hot. Makes everyone edgy.”
“It really is hot, isn’t it?” she agrees, setting her racket on the bench to pull her long dark hair into a high ponytail. “I could hardly bear to get dressed this morning.”
Looks like you didn’t bare it at all, I almost say. But I don’t. I just pretend like I don’t notice the way her current posture shows off the lean curve of her waist.
Kristin looks nothing like Olivia. Olivia was blond with warm green eyes, whereas Kristin is dark-haired with scheming brown eyes. But they have that same combination of sweet and haughty, the same rich-girl fit body, same shy yet confident smile.
Kristin absently runs her fingertips over her bare abdomen and I nearly grin at the obviousness of her gesture.
Even as I want to haul her to me and give her the kiss she’s so blatantly asking for, I want to knock her down a peg. To tell her she’s nothing to me but a chance at redemption from my past, and the key to getting my foot in the door of my future.
Kristin Bellamy is nothing but a reminder of what it felt like to want someone.
“Should we get started?” I ask.
“Absolutely,” she says, flicking the ponytail back over her shoulder. “I’ll need all the practice I can get since I’m team captain next year.”
“You’ll be a senior, right?” I ask, even though I don’t really give a shit.
“Yup,” she says.
A snort comes from behind me, and I’m surprised to realize we’re no longer alone.
“Fifth-year senior,” the newcomer says, settling herself on the bench as though she belongs there.

“Sorry?” I ask, still trying to figure out where the hell this girl came from.  

Tomorrow you get part two of Chapter !





FOR BLOGGERS, MEDIA PEEPS, MY MOTHER, AND GENERAL PUBLIC USE
Lauren Layne is the USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance.
Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing. In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only take three). Since then, Lauren's gone on to publish ten books, including the bestselling Stiletto series, with several more on the way in 2015.
Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When not writing, you'll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.



I’m a huge email fan (lauren@laurenlayne.com). I actually can’t stand Facebook messenger, but I seem to be in the minority there, so I try to keep up with those messages as best I can. Facebook in general isn’t my jam. Twitter either. But I do love me some Instagram (https://instagram.com/_laurenlayne/) and definitely my newsletter, which you can sign up for at the bottom of (www.laurenlayne.com)



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