18 & Over Tag-Along: September 24-26, 2010

A new tag-along for the adult crowd!! It's being hosted by Laurie @ Bitten by Paranormal Romance.

Here's the Rules

This is a tag along for a specific group. In order to do tag along you have to primarily have a book blog that reviews and post adult content. In other words, if you read books like erotic and adult romance and have adult pic., then you can play tag along. Sorry YA readers, but if you read both (I know some of you do) you can tag along also. Just make sure you have both YA and adult romance on your blog.

Review: Seducing the Sheik by Carol Lynne

Title: Seducing the Sheik
Author: Carol Lynne
Series: Bodyguards in Love #5
Published: July 12, 2010
Publisher: Total-E-Bound
Source: Publisher
Format: Kindle
Genre: LGBT
Characters: Gavin Burk, Ali Zahar
My Rating:

Heat Level: 2/5
Synopsis:

It's a daily battle for Prince Ali Zahar to hold power of Jurru. After two men from Three Partner's Protection are injured while guarding him, there's only one man left who will take on the challenge, Gavin Burk.

With no friends or family, Gavin lives his life volunteering for dangerous missions. He's learned not to get close to anyone and as a result leads a very solitary life, but the passion stirred by Prince Zahar threatens the control Gavin has worked so hard to maintain.

Before Gavin has a chance to come to terms with his desires, he and the prince are forced to take shelter alone, in a hidden fortress, deep in the desert. There, Gavin's control is tested and fails. Life will never be the same for the ruler and his bodyguard.

Browning Automatic Rifle in hand, Gavin Burk slowed his breathing.

Gavin Burk has been living as a recluse in the Alaskan mountains until his friend and Three Partners operative, Jack, comes to ask a favor of him. There has been an attempt made on the life of the Sheik of Jerru and Gavin is the only man who can save him. He immediately heads out to the island of Jerru and is instantly attracted to Sheik Ali upon seeing him smile. But Gavin is there to do a job, and that is to protect Ali not to become involved with him. He has to keep his mind on saving Ali's life, not on ways to convince Ali to become a part of his.

Ali and Gavin's relationship progresses rather quickly. Within a day or two of meeting each other, they had already become intimate with one another. They both discover they are in love with one another very early on, but neither of them discloses this information to the other. I didn’t really find there was any time for a true connection to form between Ali and Gavin, due to the relationship happening so quickly.

Seducing the Sheik, is lighter on the sex and heavier on the action compared to the previous books in this series. Although that is to be expected, since it is indeed a series about bodyguards, but it did lack some of the "in love" that is also a part of the series.

Overall it was just a good read. I got to peek in on some of the characters from the previous books in the series, which is always a plus. It provided lots of detail of the island of Jerru and the mountains of Alaska. But what it didn't provide a lot of was steam.

Waiting on Wednesday: Volume 1 Issue 19

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Jill @ Breaking the Spine. It is showcases upcoming releases of books that I'm looking forward to. It is somewhat similar to one of my previous posts, Anxiously Awaiting.

Title: Call Me Irresistible

Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Release Date: January 18, 2011

Lucy Jorik is the daughter of the former President of the United States.

Meg Koranda is the offspring of legends.

One of them is about to marry Mr. Irresistible—Ted Beaudine, the favorite son of Wynette, Texas. The other is not happy about it and is determined to save her friend from a mess of heartache.

But even though Meg knows breaking up her best friend’s wedding is the right thing to do, no one else seems to agree. Faster than Lucy can say, “I don’t,” Meg becomes the most hated woman in town. A town where she’s stuck with a dead car, an empty wallet, and a very angry bridegroom. Broke, stranded, and without her famous parents at her back, Meg is sure she can survive on her own wits. What’s the worst that can happen? Lose her heart to the one and only Mr. Irresistible? Not likely. Not likely at all ...

Call Me Irresistible is the book Susan Elizabeth Phillips' readers have long awaited. Ted, better known as “little Teddy,” the nine-year-old heartbreak kid from Phillips’ first bestseller, Fancy Pants, and as “young Teddy,” the hunky new college graduate in Lady Be Good, is all grown up now—along with Lucy from First Lady and Meg from Glitter Baby—and ready to take center stage in an addictive tale fans are sure to love.

Teaser Tuesday: Mad, Bad, and Blonde by Cathie Linz

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB @ Should Be Reading. To participate, all you have to do is the following:

• Grab your current/upcoming read

• Open to a random page
• Share 2-3 "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (You do not want to ruin the book for others.)
• Share the title & author so that others who enjoy your "teaser" may add the book to their TBL pile.

Sure, she'd refused to have sex in his car, but what did that really prove? That she still had some remnants of common sense and self-discipline left? So what?

page 209; Mad, Bad and Blonde by Cathie Linz

Review: The Spy Who Saved Christmas by Dana Marton

Title: The Spy Who Saved Christmas
Author: Dana Marton
Published: October 12, 2010
Publisher: Harlequin
Source: Publisher
Format: Kindle
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Characters: Lara Jordan, Reid Graham
My Rating:

Heat Level: 2/5
Synopsis:

Single mom Lara Jordan is shocked when her first love comes back from the dead. Then bullets fly, and her sons are kidnapped. She’ll do anything to get them back by Christmas – even if it means working with the man who betrayed her, the supposedly dead father of her children.

Undercover agent Reid Graham’s impossible mission just became tougher. For the first time, he has something to lose: the twin sons he never met, and the only woman he’ll never forget.

His hands were stained and rough-skinned.

Lara Jordan, a single mother of twins, finally agrees to a date with a nice, although boring, man after the death of her first love two years prior. While out on this date she comes face to face with the man she believed was dead, Reid, who just so happens to be the father of her two year old twin boys. Over the course of the night things go from bad to worse when their twins are kidnapped. From that point forward, Lara and Reid are on a mission to save the twins.

The Spy Who Saved Christmas is a fast-paced, action packed romance. There didn't seem to be a single second when there wasn't some sort of action going on. This is not one of those so-called romantic suspense's where the action seems like it's an afterthought. The action in this book stayed front and center.

Reid is your tortured romantic lead who doesn't believe he's deserving of love or a family because of things in his past. Lara is your strong devoted single mother who will do whatever it takes to get her sons back. I felt that neither of them ever stopping loving the other, although neither would admit to it. What I really enjoyed about this story was the fact that it kept you turning the pages just to see what would happen next. I liked Lara and Reid together, although I didn't always agree with some of the stunts Lara pulled in trying to get her sons back. I still feel that they were well written characters. Even one of the secondary characters, Cade, was so well written that I found myself wanting to know more about him and his story.

Overall it's a good well-paced suspense just in time for the holidays.

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In My Mailbox: Volume 1 Issue 22

In My Mailbox (IMM) is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi @ The Story Siren. Every week I'll post what books I've received either by mailbox/library/store.

I'll try to post an entry of IMM every Sunday that I receive books by mail of that week.

Listed below are the books I received this week.

Books via Public Library

Strange Neighbors by Ashlyn Chase

Sugar Creek by Toni Blake

Mad, Bad, and Blonde by Cathie Linz

Dark Peril by Christine Feehan

Beautiful Malice by Rebecca James

Carnal Sin by Allison Brennan

Orchard Valley Brides by Debbie Macomber

Books via Half Price Books

I Love This Bar by Carolyn Brown

My Deepest Love: Zack by Marie Rochelle

Knock Me for a Loop by Heidi Betts

Running Wild by Sarah McCarty

Wild Instinct by Sarah McCarty

Books via Harlequin Ambassadors

Her Best Friend by Sarah Mayberry