Review of “Taught”, by Sienna Ciles @HGRomanceDeals

Jax, Ernest J. Cooper IV, is the CEO of a software company. He started the company with his best friend from childhood. He’s sexy, kind, and loyal to a fault. He’s not looking for the right woman to stand by his side forever, but fate may intervene.

Lanie Carmichael is an investment broker working for her father until he drops an unexpected bomb on her. She’s looking for her way in the world and in the process runs into a man that she can’t get out of her mind.

These two are getting a lot of advice, but they aren’t quite sure if the advice they are receiving is what they really want or need, but in the end will all of the interested parties help them to find what they want in life? Can these two find their way in the world and remain who they are? This was an enjoyable read. I wanted to scream at the characters a couple of times to make they figure out that they were screwing up, but they figured it out in the end.

Review of “Player: (Caribbean Nights)”, by Anne Marsh @HGRomanceDeals @Anne_Marsh

Not exactly what I expected, but a great read just the same. When you see the title “Player”, you expect a story of a man who sleeps around, but that’s not all there is to Finn Callahan. He’s so much more and then some. Finn is a player and does sleep around, but he finally meets the woman who can tame him and when he realizes this, his life takes a turn. Will he lose the best thing that has ever happened to him?

Valentina Fuentes is a woman who wants to live her life to the fullest after a death scare and loss. When she crashes into Finn’s world, her life takes a turn for the fullest that she can have, but will she take the leap?

This story is so much more than a story about a Player, it is a story of loss, love, strength, and perseverance. These two characters have been to hell and back, but they have found a way to live their lives and take what they can to make their lives the fullest they can be. I enjoyed this story and will now have to get the rest of the books in the series to find out about Roman and Vann’s lives.

Review of “Dirty: The Complete Series,” by Tara Crescent @HGRomancedeals @taracrescent

Wow, I just read the four book series of “Dirty, The Complete Series”. Dirty Therapy, Dirty Talk, Dirty Games, and Dirty Word. Talk about some hot books!! I really enjoyed these books and love the characters. The men are all Alpha and take great care of their women. It’s great to read a story about a man who has his woman’s back no matter what. These men all do and they don’t care what the people in New Summit think of their unconventional relationship. Great stories, all four of them! I loved stepping into the lives of these four groups and reading about their lives. The stories are full of hot sex, hot alpha males, and great love stories. I wish there had been more stories to read in this series. I think Becky and Sophia need their HEA.

Dirty Therapy: When Mia breaks up with her fiancé shortly after saying yes to his proposal, she is at a loss and doesn’t think she is worthy of a relationship. She believes her ex-fiancés statement that she is frigid. She decides to go to the two new Therapists in New Summit to get some help. Benjamin and Landon are new to New Summit and are Sex Therapists, they create a lot of controversy just because of their chosen profession. Mia owns a dress shop and her landlord is a prude and a traditional Psychiatrist who is not happy that Ben and Landon are in New Summit. There’s an immediate attraction between all of them and Ben makes a comment that scares Mia away right off. The controversy really starts when Mia, Ben and Landon act on their attraction to each other. They are the talk of the town.

Dirty Talk: Cassie is Mia’s best friend, they grew up together in New Summit. Cassie owns the coffee shop in town and grew up being paraded in beauty pageants and has some issues with what she had to endure because of it. James and Lucas move to New Summit to get out of Manhattan, NY and care for James’ father Patrick who had a stroke and needs to be someplace that he can get good health care and feel comfortable. James and Lucas spend every morning in Cassie’s coffee shop working on their internet show Dirt Talk. They’re Vloggers and spend a lot of time in the lime light, this scares Cassie and she avoids them because she is petrified of being in front of a camera after her childhood pageants. They come to her rescue on more than one occasion, but the one that makes her open her eyes is after she goes out with the high school quarter back and things don’t end so well. After the talk of Mia, Ben, and Landon has died down, Cassie, James and Lucas become the talk of the town with their unconventional relationship.

Dirty Games: Nina, another good friend to Mia and Cassie owns the pub in New Summit. Before moving to New Summit twenty months ago she was on the road with her two lovers Scott and Zane, and their band Evolving Whistle. She left them because she felt that she came second in their lives. They are in New Summit helping out Zane’s father who is a real estate developer. They know that Nina ended up in New Summit, but they have not tried to connect with her. When she finds out they are there though, all bets are off. They propose a game with her, five steamy nights with them and if she still does not want them, if she wins, she can ask them to leave and they will. What will her decision be?

Dirty Words: Maggie, the daughter of the owner of the Chinese restaurant in New Summit, and good friend of Mia, Cassie, and Nina. Maggie also went to school with Mia and Cassie. She changed her life projection when her father died. She moved back home to help her mother run the restaurant. Her new neighbors are rich and entitled, she thinks. Ethan and Lars moved from Manhattan, NY to New Summit after selling their business and want to start something new. They bought an old hotel in New Summit and are transforming it. They live across the street from Maggie and cause trouble when Lars parks his Lamborghini in her parking spot. He’s done it three times and she has had enough of having to park in the overflow lot down the street when she should be able to park right in front of her apartment. Unknowingly, her brother Damond told Lars it would be fine to park there, but he did not relay the message to Maggie. Maggie gets so angry at Lars that she decides to write some dirty stories about Ethan and Lars and post them on a website called Dirty Words. They find out about her stories and confront her about them.

Review of “The Gamble”, by Alice Ward @AuthorAliceWard @HGRomanceDeals

Talen Gaston, a rich kid with Daddy issues, decides it’s time to grow up and be an adult. He makes changes to start doing just that when his father demands that he grow up and settle down to prove that he is the right person to take over the company.

Dani Brooks, an artist who is trying to care for her sick mother and keep afloat, is in a relationship that is going nowhere and is just a comfortable part of her life. She’s been with the same guy for five years and his priorities are not the same as Dani’s.

Dani and her best friend decide it’s time to go out and live a little the same night that Talen and his best friend decide the same thing. What are the odds that they’ll end up in the same strip club on the same night? A drunken mistake leads to happiness for both.

I enjoyed this book and hated for it to end.

Review of “Going Deep”, by Mia Ford

Danny Dutton is undercover to take down a drug dealer. He comes from a large Irish family and his father was also a cop. He doesn’t have any trouble finding companionship, but he hasn’t found anyone he wants to spend his life with yet.

He finally finds a way into the strip club run by Richie Sylvestri, a drug dealer and all around bad guy. Richie doesn’t care about anyone. Hannah Sylvestri, Richie’s sister is under his thumb and wants out. Can Danny be the guy to help her find a way out? Will Danny get out of this undercover job with his life? Hannah has finally found a man who will be kind to her and take care of her the way she deserves to be cared for. Richie doesn’t give her the credit she deserves for being a smart and savvy woman. It could be his downfall. Even though they are family, he doesn’t deserve any sympathy, kindness, or love.

I really liked this story and the heat between Hannah and Danny is great. I hated to put the book down, and read it in a couple of sittings. I lost track of time while reading this book. Good job Mia, I loved the characters in this book and was happy that Archie stuck around.

Review of “Fractured Lives” (A Mayhem Series Crossover Novella in Elle James’ KW: Brotherhood Protectors), by Sue Coletta @suecoletta1

Shawnee, Levaughn, Nadine, and Christopher decide to get away for a vacation so that Nadine and Christopher can try to get their lives back on track after Christopher cheated on Nadine, with her Aunt. Only they don’t realize that they are not going to the vacation they were hoping for when they meet their neighbors who are also on vacation and she gets kidnapped. It is hard to shut off the policeman in Levaughn when there is a crime. Shawnee just wants to spend her vacation on the water and go to the island they can see from their vacation rental, little does she know that the island is not what she is hoping for.

I give this book a 5 star review. All of Sue’s books keep me wanting to read them in one sitting. The suspense and action in them keep me wanting to read to the end, but I also don’t want them to end. Sue, you’ve done it again. I love your Mayhem Series books. Shawnee is such a sassy, lovable character and her love for Levaughn and Nadine shows her soft side. I love that she is so strong and sassy, yet she is such a caring woman. She hides that from most people.

Review of “Kidnapped by 2 Men”, by Summer Cooper @summer_author

Two hot men who are doing a job and end up finding love unexpectedly. Liam and Cameron had a rough up bringing, and they finally found a family and felt the acceptance and love of parents. These men are both kind hearted and caring men and just need to find the right woman to help them come out of their shell and be the men that they are meant to be.
Lily is living the life she wanted and is in love with her boss, a man who is a CEO and is not as honest or good as Lily thinks he is. She ends up in the cross hairs of her boss’s business dealings and finds true love and the life she didn’t know that she wanted.
I got angry on behalf of characters, cried for characters, and fell in love with characters in this book. I loved this story and enjoyed reading it. Another great book by Summer Cooper.

Review of “Billionaire Hunt, (Billionaire Matchmaker Series, Book 2)”, by Summer Cooper @summer_author

I loved this story. Both Erik and Misha have been hurt in their prior marriages, but they need to find a way to put their heart on the line again and find the love that they both want and deserve. They don’t think they want love again, but when they start spending time together and Misha figures out that she is in love with Erik, she needs to convince him that his heart is worth the trouble, and that they can both have the life they deserve. She tries to protect her heart from him, but at the same time she tires to get him to understand that there is more between them than just friendship.

This is the first book that I’ve read in the “Billionaire Matchmaker” series, but I really enjoyed it and look forward to reading more. Great story Summer. I look forward to reading more and I hope that Oliver gets a second chance at love.

A Review of “Fire or Ice”, by S. J. Mullins

I agreed to read a copy of this ARC in return for an honest review. Ava and James have a lot to over come before they can get their HEA. Their lives are very different when they first meet as teens and they plan to be together when Ava finishes school. They plan to keep in touch until she can move to Tampa to be with James, but after awhile James, decides that he needs to keep Ava safe from his family and not bring her into his world, of riches because he is afraid that his father will be too rough on her. She is crushed, but moves on and finds a life for herself in Chicago, until her childhood friend calls her and asks for her professional help to help one of his good friends and clients. When she arrives in Tampa she finds out that the person she is there to help is James. James and Ava finally work things out and they find their way back to each other after a lot of work and drama.
This was a really good book and I hated to put it down once I started reading it. The story was interesting and it kept me wondering what was going to happen to James and Ava as well as Caleb, Amanda, Derek, and Charlie.

A Guest Post on The Importance of Beta-Readers – Parallel Lies by Georgia Rose @GeorgiaRoseBook

I do tea break writing. Much of it is piecemeal and most of the time I have my manuscript open and if an idea pops into my head when I’m working I quickly flick across to it, add whatever it is in, then turn back to what I was doing. Sometimes I manage two hours writing in one stretch then do nothing for a week.

As you might imagine working like this is hardly conducive to keeping a hold on the threads of a story. And this is why I use beta readers (test readers) at a very early stage.

I finish my first draft, then I do a quick edit. Because of the way I write I have been known to stop part way through an idea or peter out mid-sentence so I like to make sure I have actually completed the story. It’s not much to ask, is it? And then I send it to my beta readers. Now, some of you will be gasping in horror at the thought of showing anyone your first draft but I do tidy up behind myself along the way as I write so it’s really not that bad. The important thing for me is that being so short of writing time I need input early on. I don’t want to waste time rewriting or editing pages that don’t work in the first place.

Reader

I also want to gauge reader reactions to my story and the characters. For this I need to know that I can trust my beta readers to tell me the truth. I understand could be difficult for them as they are people I know in real life, but those are the rules and with each book they get better at doing so.

My betas have a month (although one of them took far longer than this…ahem… resulting in me tapping my foot, somewhat impatiently!)

I ask them to read it as a reader would. I don’t care at this point about the misuse of apostrophes, the lack (or excess) of commas or anything else (although some of them simply can’t help but wield the red pen!) I just want them to take in the story and flag up anything that hits them in the face as unrealistic, a contradiction, a repetition or just plain wrong.

Editing

I do a feedback session with each of them once they have completed their task to see what they made of it all. This can be pretty brutal (and generally puts me in a terrible mood) but it’s essential as it gives me an initial insight into what the wider reader reaction is going to be.

Reader 1

This time I’d given out five paper copies and one digital copy as I’d given them the choice but in hindsight I think paper copies work best as they are easier for people to scribble over with notes and reminders of what they wanted to say to me.

The feedback is always interesting as without fail every reader picks up something different. I had a wide range of reactions to Parallel Lies. One pretty much loved it all and I think given the changes I then made to it will be even happier with the ending. One truly hated it. They didn’t like Madeleine or what she got up to one little bit. Although they did admit to liking the last third of the book. The others were all somewhere between those extremes but fortunately towards the upper end of liking it.

As writers we know we can’t please everyone. It would be ridiculous to think we could so I was happy with this and it has helped prepare me for what may follow from the readers that pick up Parallel Lies.

Reading

It’s easy to dismiss input if it is not what you are wanting to hear but I was particularly interested in the feedback from the person who hated it. The protagonist in Parallel Lies is Madeleine and she is concerned about how she would be judged in the community she lives in if they found out what she really was so this beta-reader of mine showed that concern to be completely valid. Job done.

Beta readers are invaluable to me as part of my book writing process and I’d be very interested to hear if anyone reading this uses them, and if so how they go about doing so?

Parallel Lies Ebook Cover Small

My name is Madeleine, Madeleine Ross. It is a name chosen with thought and because it is classy, and that is what is needed here…

Madeleine Ross has life exactly as she planned it.

Cosy cottage, friendly village, satisfying job.

Company… when she wants it.

It’s an enviable existence for an independent young woman, and one she’s keen to protect.

Enter Daniel – strong, dependable and a danger to everything she’s built. He’s not something she was looking for, but hearts can’t be controlled and maybe, just maybe he might be worth letting into hers.

But, all is not what it seems. Because Madeleine is hiding a lifetime of secrets. Deep secrets.

And they never stay buried for ever.

Her darkest secret returns, like the proverbial bad penny. He is her first love, shadowy, dangerous, the baddest of bad boys. No matter how far she runs, or how well she hides, she can never escape him.

Or her past.

Here he is, on her doorstep, with a proposition she is powerless to resist but which could devastate the future she hoped to have.

Can Madeleine satisfy the old love while keeping the new?

You can’t always get what you want but, desperate to preserve the life she has worked so hard for, Madeleine is willing to risk everything to prove that she can.

*****

Pre-order Parallel Lies by Clicking Here

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http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/adc035ab1/

Georgia Rose 7

Georgia Rose is a writer and the author of the romantic and suspenseful Grayson Trilogy books: A Single Step, Before the Dawn and Thicker than Water. A short story, The Joker, based on a favourite character from the series followed and is free to download from Amazon.

Her fourth novel, Parallel Lies, a standalone to be released on 12 September 2017, encompasses crime along with Georgia’s usual blending of genre.

Georgia’s background in countryside living, riding, instructing and working with horses has provided the knowledge needed for some of her storylines; the others are a product of her overactive imagination!

She tempers her dislike of Trifle (particularly the jelly soaked cakey bit at the bottom, shudder!), kites and the word wipe, with her love of milk chocolate (nothing fancy mind), anything horse related and the word loquacious.

Her busy life is set in a tranquil part of rural Cambridgeshire in the UK where she lives with her much neglected husband and dog. Their son, currently at university, comes and goes and their daughter, having delighted them all for long enough, has eventually moved out, got married, and is discovering the joys of being all grown up and having a mortgage!

*****

Thank you for inviting me on your lovely blog, Karen, it has been a pleasure to visit you and get to chat to your readers.

Thank you for visiting Georgia. I am glad that you had the time.

MY Review of Parallel Lies:

Great book! The life of Madeleine Ross, Maddy, is complicated and secretive. She doesn’t let too many people know the real her. She thinks her life is perfect the way it is, now that she has a home of her own and is on her own. She ran away from a man that she felt wasn’t right for her and she created a life for herself in the Country. Although she does worry about how her new neighbors and friends will look at her should her past or real job be discovered. She lives a simple life, has friends, a job she enjoys, and sex on her terms. Things are changing for Maddy though and she has to decide if she’s ready to share the past or her job with others and let them in all the way.

There are a lot of things going on in this book. It is well written and keeps your attention throughout. I give this book a 5 star review because I loved reading about Maddy and her life. She has to figure out if Dan, her new boss and love interest is the “One”. When she figures it out, will it be too late? I look forward to reading more of Georgia Rose’s books and I really hope that there is more to come in Maddy and Dan’s lives. I would like to see what will happen now.