Book Review: Bare (Raw #2) by C.A. Harms

Congratulations to CA Harms on the release of BARE!

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BRYNN

He was my weakness.

The one desire I fought the hardest, but craved the most.

There was an unexplainable pull whenever I was near him.

I was addicted to him. I was crazed by his touch. I longed for his kiss.

Until he broke me...

He was cold and callus. 

What we shared was nothing but meaningless acts. 

A facade. I was a ploy in his game of control. 

I had no choice but to move forward. 

I had to forget the impact he had on me.

More importantly, I had to forget him. 

Only that was easier said than done…

Each night when I closed my eyes, 

I’d hear the kind words he’d whisper, I’d feel his gentle caress as he held me close.

But the dreams always ended the same. 

I would see him walking away, without looking back. 

ALEC

She tested my limits from the start. 

The more I fought the attraction, the more intense it became. 

She defied every rule I set for myself and challenged my need for control. 

She made me want the things I had denied myself for too long, 

so I did the worst possible thing.

I broke her heart. 

What should have been my way out only left me feeling bare.

My desire to have her magnified. 

It was time to pick up the shattered pieces of my life and face the harsh reality of my choices.

But my biggest fear of all was that with Brynn, it was now too late to go back...

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

He’s a menace…. Just last weak he told Brianna that her hair looked like milk chocolate, and the Friday before that he told Draya that her eyes looked like emeralds and he wanted to get lost in their beauty… He’s an eleven-year-old boy that thinks he’s a man. All Casanova-like, spilling his cheesy lines to one girl after the next.

Yep, they also have the perfect heel, so the next time you see that creep you can stomp on his toes hard, and twist. Make him squeal like the dirty little pig he is.

I can’t get them out of my head… They’re always there in the front of my mind playing over and over… Like a repeating scene in a damn movie that you can’t pause and never ends.

Holy Christmas… Santa exploded with greatness in here.

My Review:

Although both installments featured active storylines and were super steamy and packed with angsty drama; with a longer and more romantic storyline spiked with cleverly amusing humor, more relaxed characters, and a sharp uptick of sweet and steamy wooing, I enjoyed Book #2 Bare considerably more than I had Book #1 Raw.  I remain a bit conflicted with the main character of Alec, he was a total ass in the first book and although still an ass, he gradually improved throughout this book, until he really screwed the pooch, again… But I admired how he sincerely tried to win over the lovely Brynn by remembering things she liked (like kissing her forehead), and being so sweetly attentive and trying so hard to please her before he was apparently re-struck with the stupid stick.  

Empress DJ

Bare is the sequel to Raw! 

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EXCERPT

I redirect my gaze to my brother only this time I push back. “You wanna hit me, hit me.” I lean in closer to him, ensuring he reads the determination in my eyes. “If you want to yell and fucking scream then do it, but know one thing, you will be moving out of my way so that I can get to her. Because not you or anyone else for that matter is gonna to keep me from her.”

“Noone but Mandy that is,” he adds just before releasing his hold on me.

“I told you it wasn’t like that.”

“You were with her all day,” he adds. “Yet you never felt the need to tell anyone about the plans I’m sure you’ve had for days to meet her. If that’s not guilt for doing something you knew you shouldn’t then I don’t know what is.”

We stand there, head to head in the small space near the entry door to the room. Aric glaring at me as if at any moment he would attack, and at that point I wasn’t so sure I would stop him. I felt defeated because he was right, I fucked up.

“Alec,” the sound of Brynn’s voice causes both of us to move toward her, as I quickly survey the damage. No longer did her stomach show the evidence of our child and the reality of what had taken place while I was unreachable hit me.

MEET THE AUTHOR:

C.A. Harms is like any other addicted reader. She enjoys happy endings and HEA love stories. She hasn't always been a lover of Romance and had once been addicted to a good Mystery. Just recently she has taken on a new liking and now is a full-blown Romance novel addict.

She lives in Illinois and enjoys spending time with her husband and two children. You will always find her with her kindle or paperback in hand as it is her favorite pass time.

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Book Review: The Sometimes Sisters by Carolyn Brown

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The Sometimes Sisters

by Carolyn Brown

Release Date February 27, 2018

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A bittersweet inheritance reunites three estranged sisters in a novel of family, trust, and forgiveness from New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown. 

When they were growing up, Dana, Harper, and Tawny thought of themselves as “sometimes sisters.” They connected only during the summer month they’d all spend at their grandmother’s rustic lakeside resort in north Texas. But secrets started building, and ten years have passed since they’ve all been together—in fact, they’ve rarely spoken, and it broke their grandmother’s heart. 

Now she’s gone, leaving Annie’s Place to her granddaughters—twelve cabins, a small house, a café, a convenience store, and a lot of family memories. It’s where Dana, Harper, and Tawny once shared so many good times. They’ve returned, sharing only hidden regrets, a guarded mistrust, and haunting guilt. But now, in this healing summer place, the secrets that once drove them apart could bring them back together—especially when they discover that their grandmother may have been hiding something, too…

To overcome the past and find future happiness, these “sometimes sisters” have one more chance to realize they are always family.

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My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Granny used to say that the person who stirs the shit pile has to lick the spoon.

He made it in eight minutes and would have arrived there sooner if he hadn’t gotten behind a pokey old woman who didn’t have any place to go and a year to get there.

Did you think it was all rainbows and unicorn farts after you left? The only thing that changed was that I got all the bitchin’ instead of sharin’ it with you.

You can do better… He’s not for you, Aunt Tawny. He’s got a cat and he lives with his mama.

She’d worn a white robe and the preacher said that she was leaving all her sins in the water and would be a new creature when she arose from it. At ten years old, she’d often wondered how the water felt holding the sins of so many people and where it went when the preacher pulled the plug and let it all go. Did it wash into the rivers, where the sin jumped on people as they swam?

She loved the sound of his soft drawl. Maybe she could take him home. He could sit beside her bed and read the phone book to her until she fell asleep.

My Review:

I enjoyed this cleverly paced small-town family drama that was packed with quirky characters, heart-squeezing histories, irreverent homespun wisdom, and amusing observations.  Three grieving and desperate women arrived at a small-town Texas lake resort with each hoping for a chance at a fresh start in life.  They had previously called themselves sometimes sisters, although they were actually three half-sisters who were only together one month each summer while staying at the rustic lake resort of with their much-loved grandmother, “Granny Annie.”  Each was envious of the others but had never looked too deeply as nothing was as it had seemed. 

But Granny Annie has just passed away, and the three women must return to run the resort together or get nothing at all, which posed quite the challenge, as they had not been successful in spending more than a few minutes together without an argument breaking out.  Each arrived at the resort out of options, out of money, and weighted down with shameful secrets, regrets, and old resentments.  Little did they know that Granny Annie had been keeping the biggest secret of them all.  My favorite character was not one of the sisters but the elderly cook who had been known to them all their lives as Uncle Zed, I adored him, even if he was the cause of the first ugly cry I’ve sobbed out in years.  

Empress DJ

About the Author:

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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Brown was born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma. These days she and her husband make their home in Davis, Oklahoma, a small town of less than three thousand people where everyone knows everyone, knows what they are doing and with whom, and read the weekly newspaper to see who got caught. 

A plaque hangs on her office wall that says I know the voices are not real but they have such great ideas. That is her motto and muse as she goes through the days with quirky characters in her head, telling their stories, one by one, and loving her job. 

She has been married almost half a century to a retired English teacher that she calls Mr. B and he does not read her books before they are published because she cannot afford a divorce. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them busy and young.

When Carolyn is not writing she likes to sit in the backyard and watch the two tomcats protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, other cats, spiders and blue jays.

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Book Review: Fighting Irish (The Summerhaven Trio #1) by Katy Regnery

Fighting Irish

(The Summerhaven Trio #1)

by Katy Regnery

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Amazon 

Apple iBooks / Kobo / B&N

FIGHTING IRISH, The Summerhaven Trio #1

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Blueberry Lane series comes a new trio of romances featuring the Haven triplets!

Rory Haven and Brittany Manion knew one another as children…
…but it’s been a long time since their childhood summers at Summerhaven.

The Havens weren’t the children who attended exclusive Summerhaven Camp in Center Sandwich, New Hampshire. They were the children of the owners, expected to “pull their weight” and absolutely forbidden to fraternize with the paying guests. But that didn’t keep Rory from having a quiet, unrequited crush on gorgeous, popular, insanely-rich, Brittany Manion for three tortuous summers.

When all-grown-up, recently-engaged Brittany books the off-season summer camp for her upcoming spring wedding, she immediately recognizes Rory as the scorching-hot boy who wouldn’t give her the time of day. Meanwhile, Rory, who senses that Brittany’s nuptials are less about Mr. Right and more about Mr. Right Now, launches the fight of his life to win the heart of the girl he’s always wanted.


My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

I’m not a fighter by nature. Never was, never will be. That’s probably why I never fell in love. Love is the biggest battle there is.

Rory, you’re a dumbass if you think all fights require fists and fury. Some fights are quiet, but the battle’s still being waged.

My Review:

Oh, what fun!  Katy Regnery has started a new series of stand-alone books featuring triplets of Irish descent, and what a diverse set of triplets they are, although close and patiently supportive of each other.  I enjoyed this light and sweet story of secret childhood crushes reconnecting ten years later as adults.  The premise was interesting, the characters were appealing and likable, and the writing was easy to follow and observant and insightful with a minimum of angst and conflict, and sprinkled with playful banter and a bit of steam.  It was a delightful way to spend a rainy afternoon.  

Empress DJ

~THE SUMMERHAVEN TRIO~

Book #1: Fighting Irish (Rory and Brittany)

Book #2: Smiling Irish (Tierney and Burr)

Book #3: Loving Irish (Ian and Hallie)

SERIES INFORMATION: 

Three siblings. 

Three seasons.

Three stories.

Calling all devotees of the hit TV show, “This is Us” . . . New York Times bestselling author Katy Regnery has a trio of siblings she’s dying for you to meet!

Irish-American triplets, Tierney, Rory and Ian Haven (trí ciarde, in their mother’s native Gaelic) grow up as “children of the help” at Summerhaven, an ultra-exclusive camp for rich, city kids in New Hampshire.

Years later, distinct personalities, an unusual upbringing and complicated family dynamics will challenge their hopes for lasting true love.

FIGHTING IRISH

Coming Feb 2018

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SMILING IRISH

Coming April 2018

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LOVING IRISH

Coming June 2018

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*Hot contemporary romance intended for readers 18+.

About the Author:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.

Twenty-five books later, Katy claims authorship of the multi-titled, New York Times and USA Today Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling ~a modern fairytale~ series; and several other standalone novels and novellas.

Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s boxed set, The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1-4, became a New York Times E-book bestseller.

In 2016, Katy signed a print-only agreement with Spencerhill Press. As a result, her Blueberry Lane paperback books will now be distributed to brick and mortar bookstores all over the United States.

Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese kitten create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.

Author Links:

Website/Newsletter Signup: http://katyregnery.com/
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Book Review: One Hundred Reasons (An Aspen Cove Romance Book 1) by Kelly Collins

One Hundred Reasons 

(An Aspen Cove Romance Book 1)

by Kelly Collins 

Goodreads

Amazon

Fresh starts, hope, and happily ever afters…

Nurse Sage Nichols life changed when she lost her favorite patient and inherited a bed and breakfast in a town she didn’t know existed. She traveled to Aspen Cove intent to sell so she could hurry back to her life in Denver. Little did she know, she was about to find everything she ever needed in the tiny mountain town with a big heart. Sage found herself in a place where caring for your neighbor was a way of life. In her case, that happened to be surly Cannon Bishop, the man of her dreams.

Cannon Bishop was a man who learned long ago that hope was a dangerous thing. Closed off from the world after a family tragedy, Cannon lived a lonely life as the owner of Aspen Cove’s only bar and son to the town drunk. When Sage Nichols breezed into town, she offered the possibility of more if he’d only open his heart. Cannon's protective walls tumble and suddenly a brighter future of healing, hope, and peace was possible…if only Sage would stay.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

…the air was filled with a scent that seemed to be synonymous with the elderly. Sage tried to figure the smell out, but the closest thing she could ever come up with was Bengay for arthritis mixed with contraband candy.

She confiscated the candy and reminded David Lark that a man with diabetes shouldn’t feed his disease. “Come on! I gave up women. I gave up alcohol. I gave up swearing. I’m dying.” He watched her tuck the candy bar into her pocket.

When Sage opened her mouth, the man popped a Life Saver from its wrapper straight into it. The cherry flavor coated her tongue. She wasn’t sure if it was supposed to ease the pain or shut her up. It did both.

I work for peanut butter cups and Skittles… I’m cheap, but I’m not easy.

She’d arrived and disrupted his status quo, making him realize it had been status woe.

My Review:

I adored this sweet small-town romance as I have every other Kelly Collins book I have ever picked up.  Her characters tend to be flawed, wounded, endearing, and doing their best in a difficult situation and the main characters of this entertaining tale, Cannon and Sage, fit this description as well.  The storylines were fresh, relevant, emotive, and thoughtfully observant with hits of humor and steam.  I am excited about this new series of stand-alone stories and am already looking forward to the next installment.  

Empress DJ

ABOUT KELLY COLLINS   

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Kelly Collins writes with the intention of keeping the love alive.

Always a romantic, she is inspired by real-time events mixed with a dose of fiction. She encourages her readers to reach the happily ever after but bask in the afterglow of the perfectly imperfect love.

Kelly lives in Colorado with her husband of twenty-five years. She loves hockey, shiny objects and has a new-found appreciation for green smoothies.

Book Review: A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

A Piece of the World

by Christina Baker Kline

HarperCollins 

Amazon

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 Paperback: 352 pages

 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (January 30, 2018)

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

"Exquisite. A must-read.” --Kristin Hannah

“This paperback edition includes a color reproduction of Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World, along with a Q&A with bestselling author Kristin Hannah and a bonus short story, “Stranded in Ice.”

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the smash bestseller Orphan Train, a stunning and atmospheric novel of friendship, passion, and art, inspired by Andrew Wyeth’s mysterious and iconic painting Christina’s World.

"Later he told me that he’d been afraid to show me the painting. He thought I wouldn’t like the way he portrayed me: dragging myself across the field, fingers clutching dirt, my legs twisted behind. The arid moonscape of wheatgrass and timothy. That dilapidated house in the distance, looming up like a secret that won’t stay hidden."

To Christina Olson, the entire world is her family farm in the small coastal town of Cushing, Maine. The only daughter in a family of sons, Christina is tied to her home by health and circumstance, and seems destined for a small life. Instead, she becomes Andrew Wyeth’s first great inspiration, and the subject of one of the best-known paintings of the twentieth century, Christina’s World.

As she did in her beloved bestseller Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline interweaves fact and fiction to vividly reimagine a real moment in history. A Piece of the World is a powerful story of the flesh-and-blood woman behind the portrait, her complicated relationship to her family and inheritance, and how artist and muse can come together to forge a new and timeless legacy.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

Sometimes a sanctuary, sometimes a prison, that house on the hill has always been my home.  I’ve spent my life yearning toward it, wanting to escape it, paralyzed by its hold on me.  (There are many ways to be crippled, I’ve learned over the years, many forms of paralysis.) … You can never escape the bonds of family history, no matter how far you travel.  And the skeleton of a house can carry in its bones the marrow of all that came before.

It is a terrible thing to find the love of your life, Christina… You know too well what you’re missing when it’s gone.

The day we bury her is dreary: a colorless sky, gray-boned trees, old sooty snow.  Winter, I think, must be tired of itself.

… I put my hand over his, and he lays his other hand over mine.  I feel the way I do when I lose something – a spool of thread, say – and search for it everywhere, only to discover it in an obvious place, like on the sideboard under the cloth. 

My Review:

This was my first exposure to Christina Baker Kline’s talents and I became an instant devotee.  The writing was emotive and often tinged with melancholy, lushly descriptive, thoughtfully observant, cunningly crafted, and intricately detailed.  A fascinating mix of fact and fiction, I have since spent far too much time Googling Christina Olson and Andrew Wyeth’s iconic artwork.  I was immediately immersed in this beautifully and insightfully written book from the first person POV of Christina, a girl/woman with few options and limited mobility.  Christina lived her entire life in the same house with her slightly odd family in small-town rural Maine and had continued to live under extremely harsh conditions without indoor plumbing, running water, or electricity, long after others in her area were enjoying these luxuries. 

Christina was possibly the most obstinate woman of her time.  Unsteady on her weak limbs following an life-threatening and undiagnosed illness at the age of three, she despised pity, denied most offers of assistance despite frequent mishaps and injuries from falls, refused to seek medical assistance when offered, and in her later years when her legs were no longer of use to her she steadfastly refused to use a wheelchair and drug herself about by her elbows, up and down stairs and even across fields to visit her neighbor.  I ached for her and wanted to pop her in the back of the head at the same time for her stubborn pride. I was provided with a review copy of this captivating book by TLC Book Tours and HarperCollins.

Empress DJ

About Christina Baker Kline

Christina Baker Kline is the author of six novels, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Orphan Train as well as A Piece of the World. She lives outside New York City and spends as much time as possible on the coast of Maine. Learn more about Christina at www.christinabakerkline.com.

Connect with Christina on Facebook, and follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Book Review, Giveaway: The Lost Castle by Kristy Cambron

The Lost Castle

by Kristy Cambron

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble | iBooks

Paperback: 384 pages

Publisher: Thomas Nelson (February 6, 2018)

Broken-down walls and crumbled stones seemed to possess a secret language all their own. What stories would they tell, if she finally listened?

Ellie Carver arrives at her grandmother’s bedside expecting to find her silently slipping away. Instead, the beloved old woman begins speaking. Of a secret past and castle ruins forgotten by time. Of a hidden chapel that served as a rendezvous for the French resistance in World War II. Of lost love and deep regret . . .

Each piece that unlocks the story seems to unlock part of Ellie too—where she came from and who she is becoming. But her grandmother is quickly disappearing into the shadows of Alzheimer’s and Ellie must act fast if she wants to uncover the truth of her family’s history. Drawn by the mystery surrounding The Sleeping Beauty—a forgotten castle so named for Charles Perrault’s beloved fairy tale—Ellie embarks on a journey to France’s Loire Valley in hopes that she can unearth its secrets before time silences them forever.

Bridging the past to present in three time-periods—the French Revolution, World War II, and present day—The Lost Castle is a story of loves won and lost, of battles waged in the hearts of men, and an enchanted castle that stood witness to it all, inspiring a legacy of faith through the generations.

My Rating:

Favorite Quotes:

“Don’t borrow trouble,” Grandma Vi had always said. “Don’t borrow— but be sure you don’t set out to buy it either.”

Tears, the real kind— the ones that meant everything was about to change and she must weather it all with newfound courage— refused to leave them be.

My Review:

The Lost Castle was not an easy or relaxing read, as the storylines were active and highly eventful while taut with tension, peril, infirmities, family drama, and three unexpected and inconvenient romances. Ergo, it required additional effort and attention to keep it straight; however, it was well worth the time and cranial investment. The book covered three different timelines and involved a French vineyard, the family who operated the vineyard, a ruined castle, and three different feisty females who made all the difference. I cannot imagine the staggering amount the research required to pull this one together.  

The first two timelines were rife with wartime stressors occurring during the French Revolution and WWII, while the final timeline involved solving those lingering mysteries during the present day.  The writing was atmospheric, highly emotive and deeply felt, scenically descriptive, and so vividly detailed that I fell right into each story feeling as if I could smell the flowers feel the vibrations of the bombs, and hear the gunfire. The characters were uniquely appealing, endearing, enticing, heroic, and continually intriguing to me. Their tales frequently squeezed my heart, although near the end it also stung my eyes, burned my throat, and had my chin quivering. 

I enjoyed my time in France but I also picked up a few new words to add to my British Isles Vocabulary List, as one of my favorite characters was Irish.  My first new addition was “chancer” a British term for an opportunist who takes advantage or manipulates others to their own benefit; then “olagonin’” meaning moaning/complaining; and finally “craicing” an Irish word for having fun.  It’s always a bit of craic to pick up new slang.  

Empress DJ

Giveaway

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About Kristy Cambron

Kristy Cambron has a background in art and design, but she fancies life as a vintage-inspired storyteller. She is the bestselling author of The Ringmaster’s Wife, named to Publishers Weekly Spring 2016 Religion & Spirituality TOP 10. Her novels have been named to Library Journal Reviews’ Best Books and RT Book Reviewers’ Choice Awards Best lists for 2014 & 2015, and received 2015 & 2017 INSPY Award nominations. Kristy’s first Bible studies, THE VERSE MAPPING SERIES, will release in 2018.

Kristy holds a degree in Art History/Research Writing, and has 15 years of experience in education and leadership development from a Fortune-100 Corporation. Kristy lives in Indiana with her husband and three sons, and could probably be bribed with a coconut mocha latte and a good read.

Visit Kristy online at www.KristyCambron.com, Twitter: @KCambronAuthor, Facebook: Kristy-Cambron-Author, Instagram: KristyCambron.

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