TAKEN HOME

TAKEN HOME                                   RUTH CARDELLO

Playboy Mason Thorne is nothing short of complicated. Though he was a movie star at a young age, his life took a downward spiral when he turned to drugs after losing his mother. He cleaned up his act and became a senator but still keeps his distance from most everyone—including his own father. There are plenty of women around, but most are gone by morning.
Twenty-five-year-old Chelle Landon thinks she must be the last virgin in Texas. She’s worried if she doesn’t remedy it soon, she’ll stay one forever. She attends yet another small-town wedding where the last single man her age is officially off the market, until sexy politician Mason Thorne appears. He’s the answer to her prayers, if one can pray for something that decadent.
He needs a cover story, not another lover. Chelle’s on a mission to lose her virginity, no matter what. Will he break her heart or will she heal his?
MY REVIEW:
     When she agreed to be in friend’s wedding Chelle Landon had no idea it would forever change her life.  What she did know is she was the last single female in Fort Mavis, Texas, a 25-year-old virgin and had no idea what to do with her life since there were no single men left to marry.
     At least not ones that she would take a second to consider.  They were too much like brothers for goodness sake.  Here she was at the point and age where she was so very ready to give her V-card away.  As she stood at the altar looking at the guest the first few rows give her no hope.  Sure she wanted to wait to give herself to the man she loved on her wedding night but damn if she turned 26 she would be a lost cause no man would want her for sure.  As she continued her search her eyes happen upon a tall, gorgeous, and blue eyed devil staring straight at her.  Just as they make eye contact he winks.
     Mason Thorne a senator from California and a friend of the brother of the bride and the couple themselves.  He came with and agenda for being there.  You see he arrived late for the wedding because one of the last women he slept with turned out to be another senator’s crazy obsessed daughter.  To get her off his scent he told her that he was engaged to a sweet beautiful girl from Texas.  That she had been a slip back into his womanizing ways and that he was on his way to Texas to a wedding to meet her and confess and beg her forgiveness.  She didn’t believe him he said he would bring back pictures to her. 
     She wasn’t happy but she agreed even though she wanted to come.  So now he needed to get Chelle to agree to be his fake fiancĂ©e since he knew she was the only single female in town.  So he stood at the back of the church figuring out just how he was going to talk her into this since she looked like the type a girl that was the happily ever after kinda a girl.  For some reason though he just couldn’t take his eyes off of her.  She was everything he didn’t know that he would want, odd.
     Chelle could feel Mason watching her so as they were exiting the church she asked David her escort who he was.  He said nothing but bad news and no one said things but bad news and that no one nice needed to be hanging around with him.  Hence her she noted.  As Mason waited for her she decided she would ask him to be her one-night stand.  So she asks David for a condom he starts to protest until she brings up a sore subject for him.  Then he just hands it over.  She steps on her tiptoes and gives him a kiss on the cheek.
     At that moment it gives Mason a weird feeling in his chest and he can’t describe it.  He has never experienced it before.
After the pictures she goes over to introduce herself and there’s instant chemistry for them both.  Which scares the living hell out of Mason which even though he would love to bed her in a NY minute he couldn’t for her sake and his. 
     For Chelle in that moment she knew he was the perfect man to give herself to.  Follow this couple's journey to discovery.  See if Chelle can break down Mason’s walls or will Mason’s so called friend make him think less of himself to even try?  I give this 5++++ stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:

www.1rad-readerreviews.com.

I WISH YOU WERE MINE

I WISH YOU WERE MINE                               LAUREN LAYNE

A year ago, Jackson Burke was married to the love of his life and playing quarterback for the Texas Redhawks. Now he’s retired, courtesy of the car accident that ruined his career—and single, after a nasty scandal torpedoed his marriage. Just as he’s starting to get used to his new life as a health and fitness columnist for Oxford magazine, his unpredictable ex shows up on his doorstep in Manhattan. Jackson should be thrilled. But he can’t stop thinking about the one person who’s always been there for him, the one girl he could never have: her younger sister.

Mollie Carrington can’t say no to Madison. After all, her older sister practically raised her. So when Madison begs for help in winning her ex-husband back, Mollie’s just glad she got over her own crush on Jackson ages ago—or so she thought. Because as Mollie reconnects with Jackson, she quickly forgets all her reasons to stay loyal to her sister. Tempted by Jackson’s mellow drawl and cowboy good looks, Mollie is sick and tired of coming in second place. But she can’t win if she doesn’t play the game.

MY REVIEW:
What do you do when you meet the man of your dreams?  You hit it off and your heart is all in but…  Needle scratch on a record.   Your older sister comes in who always wins everything and happens to be the one who married him first.  That’s right Mollie Carrington fell in love for the first time at 20 but it was at her sister’s wedding and it was with her brother in law.  So yeah her sister wins again.
     Mollie Carrington for being the young sister was the brains of the two sisters for sure.  Although her sister played the role of the evil step-mother since their mother died but to the world she played the suffering sister who gave up everything to come home at twenty to take care of poor, geeky, 13-year-old Mollie when they mother overdosed.  But she wasn’t dumb enough not to string Jackson Burke along because she knew he was a catch especially since word was out he was going to be first round pick for sure in football.  So she played had to get for just enough time to get him hooked like a big fish.  Making him want her all the more.
     Everyone tried to tell him not to be with her but you could not tell him any different he was a puppy in love.  Once he won the first Super Bowl he had asked Madison to marry him and she asked her little sister to be in her wedding.  You see Madison had to keep up appearances.  But with Jackson her true colors showed especially planning the wedding.  The bridezilla came out.
     She resented that Mollie was different she wasn’t the cheerleader type, or the homecoming queen, she didn’t care about that.  She was the science camp kid, she had three masters and was working on her PHD at Columbia.  All throughout their marriage it was always Jackson who had Madison invite Mollie to live with them while she went to school and worked.  She would only do it if she would pay rent which always impress Jackson because he was already making millions and didn’t need it.  He did notice his wife was a taker not a giver like Mollie.
     Early on in the marriage she had cheated on Jackson with a college friend and that did him in but he loved her and he never cheated on her ever.  He truly loved her.  So he stuck it out.  But she kept having affairs.  What killed him was when he was in the accident that ended his career she had Mollie serve him at the Hospital.  Which hurt more than anything since Mollie was his friend and confidant.  Then Madison leaked to the papers that the woman that was in the car with him he was having an affair with.  All lies.
     Now she found out eight months later after the divorce is final that he wants to coach.  So she sees dollar signs again and is gunning for him.  He’s her meal ticket.  She talks to Mollie about wanting to talk to him.  She doesn’t know Mollie had been talking, texting, and emailing him all along.  Because her and Jackson were friends thanks to her never being home when she was living at her house.  So they talked a lot.  She dreamed of more.  I give this 4 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at: 1rad-readerreviews.com.


FIGHTING FOR CONTROL

FIGHTING FOR CONTROL                   MELYNDA PRICE

For Nikko “the Bull” Del Toro, an ex-marine turned MMA fighter, only two things quiet the demons raging inside him—facing an opponent in the cage…and the memory of his hottest one-night stand. But when his PTSD resurfaces, causing him to lose control at a CFA press party, it’s his career that may be KO’d.

Dr. Violet Summers is stunned to discover her newest patient is the man who rocked her world—and put her heart in a clinch after her nasty divorce. She’s determined to delve deep into the darkness that haunts him and to keep all further encounters strictly professional.

Nikko doesn’t want a shrink. What he needs is Violet. With the memory of their passion blazing between them, it’s only a matter of time before they give in to desire. Can Violet help save this surly fighter from his own personal nightmare? Or will he forfeit his career and his last chance at love?

MY REVIEW:
Survivor's guilt can be debilitating to the civilian but to an enlisted person who has now been discharged catastrophic.  Not to mention if they feel that they were the reason they got their fellow Marines killed and he was the only one survived.  Nikko Del Toro was an ex-Marine that was special forces recon unit, MARSOC.
     Now though he was the CFA’s Bad Boy of MMA cage fighting and at the top of his game.  But he was also a ticking time bomb when it comes to flashbacks from his last mission.  Since he refused to be treated after the secret mission believing he deserved his own hell he had no reason for his belief so his triggers that triggered him were not known and they would set off violent episodes.
     So, having to show up for a dog and pony show as the main pony, so to speak, for the CFA per his coach’s orders.  He had to speak and pose for the press at a meet and greet.  Which he was having to prep for since the flashes could set off his PTSD and cause problems but in controlled environments he was more or less on top of it.  Yet, being nervous and upset about having to do it at all did not help when a photographer from the press showed up at the bar taking endless amounts of photos with flash on.  Causing a major angry flashback which in turn landed him in jail for hurting someone who believed in him.
     When he is ordered by the CFA to 6 months counseling he agreed.  Who knew the person he would be seeing is the one person that gives his mind peace when he is anxiety takes over.  When he can’t sleep.  Or just out of sorts.  The woman who 6 months ago was on a flight with him from New York to Vegas.  She was having a bad day as was he. She asked him to be a part of the “mile high club” with her and he did.
     It turns out they never exchanged names.  But he always thought of her as his “four leaf clover.”  Something rare to be cherished.  So in his mind when he thought of her which was always her name was Clover.   Not to mention when she saw he was in a struggle with take-off she placed her hand on his.  He realized she was the first he ever allowed to touch him since coming home and he liked it.  But he never had secrets and a past he could never subject her to or to keep from her or anyone else before either.
     As for Violet (Clover) she too was running from her resent unpleasant past.  Her ex was screwing his secretary in the joint practice that they had.  Which meant the other doctors and employees knew about it and said nothing.  So, when she arrived home early from her conference to find Barry in bed with the other woman she ended it all and moved to Vegas to start a new practice with CFA as one of her biggest clients.

     See how these two get not only involved in the present but entangled in Nikko’s all to secret classified past life.  Can Clover help him?  Or will Nikko tear them both down with what happened in his past?  Or will both their ghost collide to cause pain neither saw coming.  I give this 5 stars.  Provided by netgalley.com.  Follow us at:  www.1rad-readerreviews.com. 

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