Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Spotlight Post & Review ~ Chocolate Lovers by Tara Sivec

TARA SIVEC



Seduction and Snacks (Chocolate Lovers, #1)Seduction and Snacks (Chocolate Lovers #1)

Claire is a twenty-something, single mom that grudgingly helps her best friend sell sex toys while she attempts to make enough money to start her own business to give her foul-mouthed, but extremely loveable (when he's asleep) toddler a better life. 

When Carter, the one-night-stand from her past that changed her life forever, shows up in her hometown bar without any recollection of her besides her unique chocolate scent, Claire will make it a point that he remembers her this time.


With Carter's undisguised shock at suddenly finding out he has a four-year-old son and Claire's panic that her stretch marks and slim to none bedroom experience will send the man of her dreams heading for the hills, the pair will do whatever they can to get their happily ever after.


Warning: contains explicit sex, profanity and enough sarcasm to choke a horse.

 Amazon.com
 Amazon UK



Futures and Frosting (Chocolate Lovers, #2)

Futures and Frosting 
(Chocolate Lovers #2)

Carter, Claire and Gavin have formed the perfect little family. Their friends are getting married and everyone is growing up, maturing and ready to face the future. Or are they?

From bachelorette party hell, porn addictions, dinner roll baseball and botched wedding proposals to finding out everyone's extended family is chock full of crazy, Carter and Claire begin to question the strength of the ties that bind them. Unfortunately, these ties have nothing to do with fuzzy handcuffs and everything to do with the mounting differences between them.


Will their friends make a mess of things with their inappropriate comments and need to know everything, or
will they convince the couple that happily-ever-after sometimes  really can start with beer pong?



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Troubles and Treats 
(Chocolate Lovers #3)


Drew and Jenny have spent years being the envy of their friends with their out of control sex lives - well, not really. Mostly it makes their friends want to throw up in their mouths a little.

With two little kids and two busy lives, for the first time, Drew and Jenny aren't on the same page in the bedroom. Drew will stop at nothing to get his previously amorous wife back in the sack, and Jenny will do anything for a full night of sleep.

Carter and Claire, and Jim and Liz are their usual (un)helpful selves and are full of advice for the discontented duo, wanting nothing more than to help restore order to the usually happy couple's lives.

In the third and final installment of the Chocolate Lovers Series, will Drew and Jenny find the spark that's been missing in their marriage, or will the trouble they're having cause a stickier situation than the time Jenny poured honey all over Drew and he fused himself to a tree?










Hearts and Llamas (Chocolate Lovers #3.5)


Join the Chocolate Lovers gang as they celebrate Valentine's Day in their usual fashion - with hair pulling, cage fighting and farm animals!





Love and Lists 
(Chocoholics #1)

Love and Lists is the first book in the Chocolate Lovers spinoff - Chocoholics: The foul-mouthed offspring tell their stories.
Twenty-five-year-old Gavin Ellis has always had the love and support of his family ever since he was a little boy and couldn't stop talking about his penis. He's also always had their unsolicited advice and uncanny knack of embarrassing him at all costs. Now that he's an adult and trying to convince the love of his life to love him back, things haven't changed very much from when he was younger.

When Gavin's best friend Tyler suggests he make a to-do list of items that will ensure he wins the girl, Gavin is one-hundred-percent on board: after a few six packs.

After puking in the shrubs, a bad experience with Viagra, a Sex-Ed course gone wrong, and a slew of other mishaps courtesy of his family and friends, Gavin is pretty sure this list will be the death of him.

Sometimes, trying to make someone love you with a list isn't always the best idea. Especially when "Show her your penis" is the first "to-do" item..




Passion and Ponies (Chocoholics #2)

Ava Gilmore has the perfect life. She’s surrounded by people who love her, she’s having sex on a regular basis and her Coach bag collection just grew by three. The problem? She’s expected to follow in her family’s footsteps at Seduction and Snacks, working with sex toys and baked goods. 

Ava loves vibrators and cupcakes as much as the next person, she’d just rather play with them than sell them. With her shopping addiction reaching an all time high and her credit card bills piling up, Ava decides to put her obsession to good use and start a fashion blog. But she has one other problem - the guy she’s having sex with has a My Little Pony addiction.

While dealing with her family’s disappointment and confusion over her choices, she finds support in the unlikeliest of places – Tyler Branson. Tyler has slowly wormed his way into her bed, her a$$ and her heart and he refuses to leave. Tyler has his own family problems to deal with and for the first time ever, Ava finds herself feeling bad for the annoying, immature guy and chanting “Friendship is magic!” during the sex she’d swore to stop having with him.

Ava needs to get her life in order once and for all before she finds herself doing something she never wanted to do – fall in love with a Brony.




                                       

Author Bio

Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.

After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. She is the author of the Playing with Fire series and the Chocolate Lovers series. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book.

In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking
she’ll do and naps she’ll take when she ever gets spare time.









REBECCA 

It's official. I'm an idiot!  ** Hangs Head In Shame ** 

I was gifted the Chocolate Lovers Set last year and only started them now. Where the hell have I been? Living in a cave obviously because everyone but me seems to know about this author, so, just in case anyone else has missed her then Shoo, Shoo, Go off and buy them, NOW!!!!!!

Seductions and Snacks is hilarious. I smiled, giggled and laughed out loud no matter where I was or who I was with. Well written, funny as f**k and pure fun & frivolity wrapped with a strong story about life and relationships. I will now be stalking Tara Sivec whilst reading the rest of the Chocolate Lovers Series, moving on to The Chocoholics and then the rest of her back catalogue.

I adored her writing style and have offered my children to her as slaves in homage to her writing skills and as an apology for my not finding her before. So trust me, read it and you will smile for days afterwards ............................



































Provoke by Missy Johnson Blog Tour

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Book: Provoke

Series: Provoke, Book #1

Author: Missy Johnson

Synopsis: Mace Jordan was not the type of guy I expected to sweep me off my feet. I knew of the crowd he ran with, and they were bad news. But beyond that tough, biker exterior was a sweetheart, and one that treated me like his princess.

I liked being the good girl with the bad boy, but I never expected this. What I saw on his computer…I thought I knew him.

But I was wrong. So wrong…

If there was ever a bad time for me to fall for a chick it was now, but from the moment I saw Leeta, she had me. There was something special about her, and I had to have her. But I also had a job to do, and I couldn’t let her distract me from that. I couldn’t let her discover that side of me either. But she’s not stupid, and I know she’s getting close. God knows what she’ll do if she discovers the truth.

Or what she thinks is the truth.



20342016


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REVIEW


If you've ever read any of Missy's books, you know that she tends to put an unusual twist in her stories.  The whole plot isn't unheard of, but the web workings inside have a unique spin.  This story is no exception.  It's definitely different.  I didn't really understand the reasoning behind why some of the characters did the things that they did, but watching their follies from the sidelines was interesting.  I feel that it had the potential to be an exceptional read if some parts would have been tweaked and expounded upon.  The emotions and conclusions seemed rushed in my opinion so the reader doesn't feel what the characters feel.  Besides that it was quite entertaining.

Leeta is an attorney, a prosecutor for the Director of Public Prosecutions, and the daughter of a decorated army officer, a Colonel. Mace is the son of a notorious gangland killer who is the head of the infamous Jordan family.  Both his father and brother are in prison, and he presumably is nothing but a motorcycle repair shop owner.  His family is so bad that she wrote a paper about his great grandfather for her Criminal Law class at university.  Somehow, someway, these two end up a couple (and the story hasn't even gotten to the crazy part yet).  Btw, he isn't her most outrageous hook up.


What was it with me that attracted these guys?


The two of them end up intertwined in the biggest fiasco to end all fiascos.  I cannot say that I understand anyone's position, but it was a fresh experience having no idea what was going to happen next, who's going to do what and when.

This book is to be book 1 of a series.  I'm not sure what the next will be about, but several characters were introduced besides the 2 main, and the mystery that pulled the characters in the story has not been solved.  




***ARC was given by author for an honest review***



About the Author

Missy lives in a small town in Central Victoria with her husband, and her confused pets (a dog who think she’s a cat, a cat who thinks he’s a dog…you get the picture).

When she’s not writing, she can usually be found looking for something to read.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

REVIEW ~ CRAVING REDEMPTION by NICOLE JACQUELYN




CRAVING REDEMPTION
  (THE ACES MC #2)


  NICOLE JACQUELYN



Asa and Callie had nothing in common. He was an Ace, raised in the club and loyal to it above all else. She was a high school student with braces on her teeth and a narrow view of the world.

They should have never crossed paths.

But when Callie decides to defy her parents, and Asa goes on an errand for the club, their lives collide. He saves her, and she mesmerizes him.

They part believing they’ll never see each other again.
Neither could have predicted the chain of events they’d put in motion.

Now the two have to navigate the dark waters of a relationship built on tragedy and need without drowning in guilt for things outside their control.

How do you love someone when the worst decision of your life was the reason you met them?



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     CRAVING CONSTELLATIONS
(THE  ACES MC #1) 


"How is it, that someone can make decision after decision attempting to get away from their past and somehow end up right back where they started?" 

When Brenna decided to leave the only life she'd ever known, she never thought she'd ever be back. Now, five years later she's running from her clean cut husband straight back to the motorcycle club that raised her... and the man she left behind.

She left with a secret, and as soon as she returns the truth will break her carefully constructed life wide open.



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MY REVIEW
As this was released last month I’m a little late to the party with this review but better late than never! 

After reading Nicole Jacquelyn`s debut novel Craving Constellations last year and loving it, like many, I was looking forward to the continuation of The Aces MC story. This is Grease and Callie’s story.

We met them at the end of Craving Constellations (which I loved) and this book takes us back and tells us how they got to that place. They each make a decision that at the time seems inconsequential but turns out to shape their relationship and lives for years to come. Callie is 16 not girl not woman - that awkward age that we all remember - pushing boundaries, thinking the world is your oyster and that nothing bad ever happens. Grease is 20, already knows bad things happen and that sometimes the world is not all unicorns and rainbows. The way their relationship plays out I became totally engrossed, so when the story caught up to the end of Craving Constellations I had not realised how far into the book I was. I was totally frustrated when it then finished relatively fast as it reached present day and wanted to throw my kindle at the wall!!  I still would have liked more I won’t lie but, in a series, we have to trust the author and as the next story is Casper’s (and I was so OMG when we found out who he is!!) then I’m sure will see more Callie and Grease in that one and trust this one to have finished where it did.

There are so many MC books out there at the moment it’s hard to know who to read and who not to but if you like a grittier read that’s not all prettied up then Nicole Jacquelyn tells a good story and will leave you wanting Casper with a vengeance !

As this was released in February I have seen a few reviews commenting on the ages of Callie and Grease being a problem for them, I live in the UK and 16 is the legal age for sex over here not 18 as in the US so while it’s a very personal issue, for me, I didn’t see any problem with it. I met my husband aged 15 and 33 years later we are still together so the reality is that relationships can and do start that young and some stand the test of time, those relationships at that age with hormones running riot will involve sex but that’s just my opinion.
                                                             

Incomplete (Incomplete #1) by Lindy Zart


3 1/2 Stars

Blurb:

There are three absolute truths in Grayson Lee’s life:


1. His existence was a mistake.

2. No one is good enough for his best friend, Lily Jacobs, especially not him.

3. He loves her anyway.
 
******
 
Things that I love/like about this story:
 
*The funny and sarcastic banter between Grayson and Lily.
*Aidan, Grayson's little brother.
*I like how Lily knows what Grayson is thinking and when he needs someone to just hold on to or to just be there, with no words exchanged.
*How he finally stands up to his parents.
*The short conversation Grayson has with his principal concerning the school lockers. I LOL'd with it.
 
A few lines that enteratined me:
 
"If I'm smart, that means I'm right most of the time." I open my mouth, but he continues. "And I think you're going to be famous, so I'm probably right, since I'm smart and everything."
 
"Touché." I have just been bested by an eleven-year old. The kid is smart.~Grayson and Aidan
 
"You said fuck."
 
"Yeah. Don't say that."
 
"You did."~Grayson and Aidan
 
Grayson is an ass at times towards Lily because he feels like he isn't good enough for her so he says hurtful things.
 
"Why did you kiss me?" she repeats sharply.......
 
"Because you're a good enough replacement for Ana."
 
^^^^Total jerk move!
 
I gave this story a 3 1/2 star rating because even though I enjoyed majority of it, I felt like the story dragged in places and was repetitive at times with how Grayson feels about certain people and situations. But I would definitely recommend this book to those who likes a good Y/A read. It kept me entertained and lately that has been lacking in the books I've been reading lately.
 
******
 
About the Author
 
Lindy Zart has been writing since she was a child. Luckily for readers, her writing has improved since then. She lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two sons, and one cat. Lindy loves jearing from people who enjoy her work.
 
Links:
 
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Thursday, March 20, 2014

Something like Normal by Monica James Cover Reveal

Coming May 2014...

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20802709-something-like-normal

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SYNOPSIS


* Book #1 in the Something Like Normal Series *

Mia Lee has a secret…

A secret she’s kept hidden since she was eight years old, however, Mia will no longer allow that secret to define her.

An irrevocable decision has left Mia Lee a fugitive and on the run—a circumstance that should leave her weak and scared, yet Mia has never felt so alive.

Under the pseudonym of Paige Cassidy, Mia is ready to live the life she’s never had, and she’s determined not to allow her tainted past dictate her promising future.

Paige is on a Greyhound bus heading from L.A. to South Boston, Virginia, to start a new life. A life that includes finding her mother, who abandoned her at age three. But what she finds, is four people, who will change her life forever.

Yet no one can outrun their past…

Especially one filled with bitter memories, which refuse to remain hidden.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Monica James spent her youth devouring the works of Anne Rice, William Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson.

When she is not writing, Monica is busy, running her own business, but she always finds a balance between the two. She enjoys writing honest, heartfelt and turbulent stories,hoping to leave an imprint on her readers, and her inspiration comes from every day life. 

Monica James resides in Melbourne, Australia, with her wonderful family, and menagerie of animals. 

She is slightly obsessed with cats, chucks and lip gloss, and secretly wishes she was a ninja on the weekends.

CONNECT WITH MONICA