When We Fall by Marquita Valentine

The Basics:
When We Fall by Marquita Valentine
Book Two in the Take the Fall series
Loveswept
Contemporary Romance
Published December 8, 2015
Source: Received Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads

Why I picked up this book:

I read Take the Fall and loved it, and was hooked by the teaser chapter for When We Fall at the end of the first book...

Three Quickies

Three for one!

Today, we're taking quick looks at a memoir and two contemporary romances. 

Quick Reviews: Contemporary Romance Trifecta!

Today you're going to get three reviews for the price of one. And since around here, one review is free... yup! That's value for you, folks!

All three are contemporary romances I enjoyed for various reasons. We've got celebrities, bartenders, and MMA legends today...

Blurred Lines by Lauren Layne

The Basics:
Blurred Lines by Lauren Layne
Loveswept
Contemporary Romance / New Adult
Published August 25, 2015
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads 

Why I picked up this book:

I love Lauren Layne's books. I had to jump on this one when it came up on Netgalley!

Falling Fast by Tina Wainscott

The Basics:
Falling Fast by Tina Wainscott
Loveswept
Contemporary Romance / New Adult
Published June 16, 2015
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads 

Why I picked up this book:

The cover made me think this would be a fast-paced read, and I was up for that!

3 Quick and Dirty Reviews

I've read three books very quickly over the last few days, and I wanted to get out my thoughts on them. They were all released by Loveswept in May and June of this year, and I've been really tardy in getting to them.

As a group, I thought all three were middling contemporary romances, one featuring a billionaire, one a bad boy/nice girl, and one a cowboy. They were all quick reads - a couple of hours at most - and well written, though I had problems with each.  

Book Tour: Turn up the Heat by Serena Bell

 

I'm thrilled to be hosting a tour stop for Serena Bell's Turn up the Heat! This is the first book in a new steamy contemporary romance series, Second Chances. If you like your sex scenes on the kinky side, this is a must-read! I've had great luck with Loveswept before, and I'm happy to say that this one does not disappoint. Stick around for my review!

For the rest of the stops on the tour, check out Tasty Book Tours.

Blog Tour: Sebastian's Lady Spy by Sharon Cullen

First, can we take a moment to appreciate the model in the banner? Good, right?  Yeah. 

Today I'm happy to be hosting Sharon Cullen's Sebastian's Lady Spy, the fifth book in her Secrets & Seduction series. From Loveswept, it was released on March 31st. I've become increasingly picky about my historical romance (possibly because I feel like I'm reading so much of it lately), but Lady Spy adds a healthy dash of spy action so it's already ahead of the pack....

You may remember (or not) that I reviewed the fourth book, His Saving Grace, in this series back in January. I thought it was a really unique book, and that made me curious to see what Cullen had in store for us in book five.

Be sure to check out other stops on the book tour, hosted by Tasty Book Tours, particularly because you can find other excerpts!

Fever by Jamie K Schmidt

The Basics:
Fever by Jamie K Schmidt
Loveswept
Contemporary, Erotic Romance
Book Three in the Club Inferno series
Published March 17, 2015
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads

Why I picked up this book:

I needed something to break up all the historical romances I'd been reading!

What a Lady Requires by Ashlyn Macnamara

The Basics:
What a Lady Requires by Ashlyn Macnamara
Loveswept
Historical Romance
Book Three in the Eton Boys trilogy
Published April 1, 2015
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads

Why I picked up this book:

Despite having one of the worst covers I've seen so far this year, this book was everywhere and people seemed to be excited about it, so I had to check it out.

His Saving Grace by Sharon Cullen

The Basics:
His Saving Grace by Sharon Cullen
Loveswept
Book Four in the Secrets & Seductions series
Historical Romance
Published December 23, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads

Why I picked up this book:

I don't often see historical romances that address men returning from war with head injuries, so I was intrigued by the blurb.

Loving You Is Easy by Wendy S. Marcus

The Basics:
Loving You Is Easy by Wendy S. Marcus
Loveswept
Romance
Published December 9, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon Kobo Goodreads

Why I picked up this book:

I really liked the blurb and the premise of a quiet, respectable, good girl type going for it with the soldier she's met by being pen pals.

Blog Tour: Play Me series by Tracy Wolff

Today I'm hosting a huge tour for Tracy Wolff's Play Me series published by Loveswept. This is a five part serial that tells the story of Aria, a Vegas casino cocktail waitress, and Sebastian, the son of the casino's owner. I've got blurbs for each part in the series, an excerpt, a review and a giveaway! 

For the rest of the stops on the tour, check out Tasty Book Tours.

BLOG TOUR: Addicted by Tracy Wolff

Released on July 15th, 2014, Addicted by Tracy Wolff concludes the story of Ethan Frost and Chloe Girard - who were first introduced to us in Ruined, which I reviewed here.

Swing by the Romance at Random blog to check out the other tour stops!

Last of the Red Hot Cowboys by Tina Leonard

The Basics:
Last of the Red Hot Cowboys by Tina Leonard
Loveswept
Book One of Hell's Outlaws
Romance
Published June 24, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Why I picked up this book:

I've got a thing for cowboys.

Blurb:

Ava Buchanan dreams of a career on the rodeo circuit. Winning a spot on a one-of-a-kind team would be her ticket to the life she’s always wanted. Ava won’t let anyone stand in her way—not even a stubborn cowboy whose slow-molasses smile and red-hot swagger set her senses aflame . . . and whose talents as a trainer could make her a star. Rodeo might be a man’s game, but Ava knows the right woman’s touch can tame the wildest heart.

Trace Carter believes his mayor’s plan to raise the town’s profile has disaster written all over it, and he won’t allow the Hell’s Outlaws Training Center to be dragged into the fiasco. Yet watching Ava’s delectable body on horseback proves too much of a temptation, and his fantasies stray to her riding skills outside the arena. Soon Trace is fighting like hell to rein in his unbridled desire for the petite brunette before it becomes a passion hotter than the Texas sun.

My thoughts:

Last of the Red Hot Cowboys fell far short of the mark, for me. This book felt dated, with chest-beating, manly men and scheming women. It definitely reminded me of some of the first romance novels I read, that had been published in the 1980s and 1990s. The gender stereotypes were out in full force, and it made me extremely uncomfortable.

Trace is a manly man - a former military man who now runs a training center with his two best friends. It's a men-only zone - one of the foundations on which the business is built is that women aren't welcome. And of course, they live in 'Hell' - a town that's short on women as it is.

Until Mayor Judy - who basically runs around scheming and manipulating and promising her Sheriff boyfriend his Saturday Night Special if he keeps her happy - brings in three gorgeous women that she wants to train as rodeo clowns to raise the profile of her small town. Or,  you know, she wants to pair off with these three friends. Because that's what scheming mayors do. Truly, she spends so much time running around with her team and shaking her fist at Ivy, a woman who has her eye on Judy's boyfriend, I wanted to know what her actual duties as mayor were.

I felt extremely uncomfortable not only because Judy brought the women to town on false pretenses, but also because of how the stereotypes played out. Trace's thoughts were cringeworthy - women as delicate flowers or else manipulative.

This is very much a men vs women type romance and I did not enjoy it at all.

Bottom line:

Not my cup of tea, Last of the Red Hot Cowboys struck the wrong notes for me with the gender stereotyping and manipulation. This one might be fun if you can see past those things or if you're *really* into cowboys.

2 stars
For fans of cowboys.

Have Mercy by Shelley Ann Clark

The Basics:
Have Mercy by Shelley Ann Clark
Loveswept
"Erotic Romance"
Publication Date July 1, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

I loved the forbidden romance quality in the blurb. 

Against the Cage by Sidney Halston

The Basics:
Against the Cage by Sidney Halston
Random House: Loveswept
Book One in the Worth the Fight series
Romance
Published May 27, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

Why I picked up this book:

I've enjoyed watching MMA fights in the past, and I always enjoy a good little sister/friend of big brother romance.

Just One Night by Lauren Layne

The Basics:
Just One Night by Lauren Layne
Loveswept
Book Two in the Sex, Love & Stiletto series
Romance
Published April 22, 2014
Source: Received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Amazon.ca

Why I Picked Up This Book:

I enjoyed the first book in the series, couldn't resist the next one.

Ruined by Tracy Wolff

The Basics:
Ruined by Tracy Wolff
Random House: Loveswept
First in the Ethan Frost series
New Adult, Romance
Published Jan 7, 2014
Amazon.ca Kobo.com

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb:

Fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, Bared to You, and Release Me will be hooked on Ruined, an electrifying journey of emotional and sexual discovery that pushes two damaged souls to their breaking point—and beyond.

He’s the last man Chloe Girard should love . . . but the first she ever could.

Ethan Frost is a visionary, a genius, every woman’s deepest, darkest fantasy—even mine. And, somehow, I am his.

He stole into my life like a dream. Turned my reality upside down and made my every desire come true—especially those I never knew I had. He demanded everything I had to give and gave me everything of himself in return.

But dreams don’t last forever, and ours is no exception. Because my nightmares are darker, and my wounds deeper, than I could ever reveal. And as much as Ethan wants to protect me, the secrets we we share will only tear us apart.

Why I picked up this book:

For some reason I keep giving domineering, alpha men another shot.

My thoughts:

Because of the blurb, comparing this book to Fifty Shades, I was expecting this to be erotica. It definitely had some pretty hot sex scenes, but overall, it was more romance.

So, I expected Ethan Frost to be a real alpha guy. I thought he'd order Chloe around in and out of the bedroom. That he'd get pissy when he didn't get his way, that he'd set ultimatums for her that would  put her in an untenable (for me) position.

Happily, I was wrong. Ethan is definitely a character who knows his own mind. As Chloe points out repeatedly, he wouldn't be a billionaire CEO if he wasn't quite capable of setting his own terms and getting his way and so forth. However, I found that the way he treated Chloe was not overbearing, and that he didn't behave like a pompous or arrogant jerk all the time. I quite liked him, overall.

Chloe, for her part, is presented as a smart young woman, and she seems relatively capable of holding her own. I liked that we had workplace evidence of her intelligence. She's definitely got issues, and does frequently emphasize her need to be her own person and not put her life in anyone else's control.  It could easily have just been blowing smoke to try to give this character more dimension, but I think it was put into action in the story as well, which gave Chloe real depth.

There's some inconsistency in the workplace in terms of the day to day detail we get about the other interns. The treatment of Chloe on her second day of work seems like it should be setting the bar for the two weeks that follow but there's no references to it beyond being persona non grata. I expect this to be picked up again in future books, but I was a little letdown that this thread wasn't teased out more across the last third or so of the book.

This is clearly the first of a series and there's a lot of issues that aren't resolved by the end of the book. In fact, I felt like nothing was really taken off the table - Ethan's got secrets, Chloe's shared only a few of hers and they're not really fully dealt with by the last page. The author hints at some things but Chloe, who is our narrator, hasn't hit on them yet. I'd like to read more - which is saying a lot because I quite regularly am disappointed by follow-ups in series of this nature. I must say that because I did like Ethan, I found the story much more engaging than similar works (I'm looking at you in particular This Man series).

Bottom line:

I liked this one significantly more than I have anything else in the same niche - I'm hoping lots of other people feel the same way because this is a shift in the market that I happily support. It doesn't have the same degree of kink that erotica would, but it's still quite sexy. Fingers crossed that the rest of the series lives up to the high standard set by first entry.

4 stars
For fans of erotic romance (romantica? is this really a term people are using?), alpha men who aren't jerks, contemporary romance

Blue Lines by Toni Aleo

The Basics:
Blue Lines by Toni Aleo
Random House Publishing Group - Loveswept
A Book in The Assassins Series
Romance
Published December 9, 2013

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Blurb:

Opposites do more than just attract in Toni Aleo’s latest Nashville Assassins novel about a very bad boy and the good girl he can’t resist.

The instant Piper Allen sees Erik Titov, she wants him—wants his rock-hard body, sure, but the strength and mystery that lie behind that superstar hockey jock demeanor, too. So when he sidles up to her at a bar and slinks his arm around her waist, she’s lost. What follows is the wildest night of her life . . . followed by inevitable heartbreak the next morning. And then, a few weeks later, a very big surprise: two blue lines on a pregnancy test.

Only a check to the head could make Erik fall for a nice girl like Piper. But since their crazy-sexy night together, he’s been trying to forget about her alluring body by falling into bed with every woman in Nashville, and it’s not working. So when Piper shows up at his house with a baby-bomb to drop, it doesn’t take much for Erik to suggest the nuclear option: marriage. While it’s supposed to be all for show, the second they say “I do,” the ice between them starts to melt into sizzling steam.

What worked for me:

The language, though foul, seemed pretty realistic to me, and Aleo didn't shy away from some of the realities of pregnancy and labour. 

I was intrigued by Piper's relationship with her family. While on the one hand, she seemed to help out all over the place, they still seemed to treat her like a screw-up because she hadn't settled on a career. I'd like to think that this attitude - that we have to settle into a single career - is a throwback at this point because in today's economy - who stays in the same industry for long?  That she had to cope with it, and with her family treating her in a really negative fashion, intrigued me. I was definitely on her side when she was pointing out that she was a functioning adult and didn't need anyone's permission or approval. 

What didn't work for me:

There was nothing redeeming about Erik. After the first hundred pages, I would have quit reading if I wasn't committed to reviewing the book. He was a jerk, through and through. His behaviour was completely unforgivable - not only was he a 'man-whore,' as pointed out to him in the book (and usually I can forgive this as in the past), but he was also completely self-involved to the point of mistreating Piper. Telling her that she owed him because she got pregnant? Really? REALLY???  He was so oblivious to her needs and so focused on not hurting her in the one way that he didn't want to hurt her that he cut her in million other ways.

He was also patronizing - every time Piper stood up to him, his internal monologue - and sometimes his responses to her! - were that she was so sassy and such a spitfire. It completely wrote off his bad behaviour, which irritated me. Yes, he had a terrible upbringing and I felt some sympathy for that, but not enough to forgive the way he treats Piper. His gut reaction to so much of what happens in the book is so off-putting. 

I didn't love Piper either, but Erik was the real downfall of the book for me. I couldn't get behind this romance because I couldn't understand why she was so love with him in the first place!

Bottom line:

I definitely did not get this book at all, so take this review with an extra grain of salt. There wasn't enough time spent with Erik when he was likable to override or redeem the many ways in which he was *not* likable.

Going to have to recommend you skip this one - but if you don't, please let me know what you thought, or what it was that I missed! Because I feel like I had to have missed *something*. 

1.5 stars
For die-hard fans of hockey-themed romance.