Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Review: Scarred by Carol Lynne

Scarred
Carol Lynne
Series: Cattle Valley #18
Publisher: Total-E-Bound
Publication Date: August 9, 2010
Kindle
Source: Personal Library
Genre: LGBT
Characters: Zac Alben, Jakob Cox
Challenge: 50 States, 100+
My Rating:

Zac Alben loved his life in Cattle Valley until he made the ultimate mistake and introduced his partner in life, Terry, to his on-the-job partner, Jakob. He hoped the two men would hit it off, but he had no idea the meeting would forever change his life.

Scarred and broken, Zac shows the facade of a man on the mend. He returns to work, joins the community in celebrating Cattle Valley Days and wakes nightly in a cold sweat.

Pushed away at every turn, Jakob Cox still doesn’t know what happened the night Zac nearly lost his life. Despite Zac’s cold shoulder, Jakob takes it upon himself to drag the man he loves back into the land of the living.
Zac is healing from a horrible accident that has left him disfigured. Not only that, but he blames the man he is in love with, Jakob, for what happened to him. Even though he blames Jakob he's still in love with him and cannot stop thinking of him.

The two of them eventually find their way back to each other and make a go of the relationship. They had a rocky beginning because at the time Zac was already in a relationship and Jakob was a third they occasionally invited into their bedroom.

The story of these two was an emotional journey. With Zac being diagnosed as bipolar and Jakob trying to fine that balance to let Zac function and not constantly worrying about him harming himself. But Carol seemed to make it work without losing any of the steam.
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Waiting on Wednesday {36}: Chasing Fire

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. {Button courtesy of Bewitched Bookworms}



Chasing Fire
Nora Roberts
July 5, 2011

There’s little else as thrilling as firefighting – at least to Rowan Tripp. The Missoula smoke jumpers are in Rowan’s blood: her father is a legend. She’s been fighting fires since her eighteenth birthday. At this point, returning to the wilds of Montana for the season feels like coming home – even with reminders of the partner she lost last season still lingering.

Fortunately, this year’s rookie crop is one of their strongest ever – and Gulliver Curry’s one of the best. He’s also a walking contradiction, a hotshot firefighter with a big vocabulary and a winter job at a kids’ arcade.

But everything is thrown off-balance when a dark presence lashes out against Rowan, looking to blame someone for last year’s tragedy. Rowan knows she can’t complicate things with Gull – any distractions in the air or on the ground could mean the end – but if she doesn’t find someone she can lean on, she may not make it through the summer….
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Tuesday, February 8, 2011

January Reads



Wild Man Creek by Robyn Carr

Colin Riordan came to Virgin River to recuperate from a horrific helicopter crash, the scars of which he bears inside and out. His family is wonderfully supportive, but it’s his art than truly soothes his troubled soul. 

Stung personally and professionally by an ill-advised affair, PR guru Jillian Matlock arrived in town via golden parachute. She’s bought an old Victorian with a promising garden and is looking forward to cultivating something other than a corporate brand. 

When Jillian finds Colin at his easel in her yard, there’s an instant connection. But both are holding romance at arm’s length— looking to simplify, not complicate, their lives. And Jill may yet be lured back to Silicon Valley... 

No one arrives in Virgin River without a story, and no one leaves—if they ever do—unchanged.



How to Marry a Duke by Vicky Dreiling

Tristan, the Duke of Shelbourne is a man with a mission: find a wife he can tolerate as long as they both shall live. Love is not necessary--nor desired. But how to choose among a dizzying array of wealthy-yet-witless candidates? Hire London's infamously prim and proper matchmaker. Then pretend she's not the most captivating woman he's ever met...

Helping a devilish Duke create a contest to pick his perfect mate is the kind of challenge Tessa Mansfield relishes. Her methods may be scandalous, but she's determined to find the notorious bachelor more than a wife--she'll bring him true love. Yet when Tessa watches the women vie for the Duke's affections, she longs to win his heart herself. And after a stolen kiss confirms Tristan's desire, Tessa knows she has broken a matchmaker's number one rule: never fall in love with the groom.


A Creed in Stone Creek by Linda Lael Miller

When single attorney Steven Creed becomes the guardian of an orphaned five-year-old boy, he trades his big-city law firm for a ranch near his McKettrick kin in the close-knit community of Stone Creek, Arizona. Taking care of little Matt and fixing up his run-down ranch house with its old barn loosens something tightly wound inside him. But when Steven takes on the pro bono defense of a local teen, he meets his match in the opposing counsel—beautiful, by-the-book county prosecutor Melissa O’Ballivan. It’ll take one grieving little boy, a sweet adopted dog and a woman who never expected to win any man’s heart to make this Creed in Stone Creek know he’s truly found home.


Dark Peril by Christine Feehan

Dominic, of the Dragonseeker lineage—one of the most powerful of the Carpathian lines — is desperate to go to the very heart of the enemy camp and learn their plans. There’s only one way to do so: ingest the parasitic blood of a vampire. He knows that it is a mission from which there is no return. With little time before the blood takes effect, he’ll get the information he needs, relay it to the leader of the Carpathians, and go out fighting. There is no more honorable way to end his life.

Solange Sangria is one of the last of the jaguar people, a royal pureblood, a dying species that cannot recover from bad decisions made over hundreds of years. She has long been alone, fighting to save the remaining shapeshifters from the hands of Brodrick the Terrible: her own father, who slaughtered her family and everyone she loved. Wounded and weary, she plans one last battle, hoping to stop the man who has made an alliance with the vampires, accepting that she will not come out alive.

They are two warriors who have lived their lives alone. Now, at the end of their time, they find each other — an obstacle neither saw coming, and which neither can hope to ignore.


Coming Undone by Lauren Dane

After his parents' death, Brody gave up a promising career to care for his family. Now, with his siblings grown, Brody owns his own business, and for the first time in years he's alone. Elise has come to Seattle with her daughter to find peace. After years as a world-famous ballerina-and trapped in a marriage gone bad-she's looking for neither love nor attention. But she finds both in the handsome, honest man who befriends her with no strings attached. 

Brody and Elise discover in each other the wild, physical passion they need. But it'll take a shadow from Elise's past to make them look beyond what they need-to what they truly desire.


Just a Taste of Me by Stormy Glenn

Reece knows Keeley is his mate the moment he meets him. But Keeley is not only human, he's a man. 

Alpha of his own pack for just three months, having a man for a mate is a headache Reece doesn't need. But not claiming his mate is not an option. However, Keeley is unlike any man he has ever met, from the top of his gorgeous honey blond hair to the bottom of his fire engine red painted toenails, Keeley is hot! 

Reece becomes even more enchanted with his new mate when Keeley loses his temper with Reece and hits him with a cookie sheet. Just when Reece accepts being mated to a man and starts to care for him, Keeley is attacked and nearly dies. Reece discovers a plot that involves more than just the death of his mate, but also his entire pack. 

Can Reece save Keeley and his pack, or will he have to choose between them?


A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action by LuAnn McLane

Macy’s chance for love is slipping from her fingers. College football coach Luke Carter has a penchant for hot-bodied babes, not curvy hairdressers like Macy. And some big-time schools may be luring him away. Then a country singing star’s hair emergency turns into a big break for Macy.

Making it in Nashville boosts Macy’s confidence, but when Luke interviews for a job at a local university, she’ll have to put up or shut up—or lose him forever…


Into the Wild by Beth Ciotta

When River Kane's fiancé abandons her at the altar for being tooconventional, she's heartbroken. But everything changes when her estranged archaeologist father sends her his journal—filled with cryptic maps and a note indicating he's in mortal danger. Worried, River faces her greatest fears and flies to the Amazon to find him. But she needs a guide. Someone completely unlike danger-seeker Spenser McGraw.
A charismatic treasure hunter who thrives on risk, Spenser hosts the popular TV show Into the Wild, dedicated to locating lost treasures and mythical icons. But River's father's life depends on discretion, and too-sexy Spenser is all about publicity. Forced to team up, they embark on a jungle adventure ripe with temptation and danger…ultimately discovering a hidden treasure that could alter history—and a steamy love neither expected.


Simply Irresistible by Jill Shalvis

In one fell swoop, Maddie loses her boyfriend (her decision) and her job (so not her decision). But rather than drowning her sorrows in bags of potato chips, Maddie leaves L.A. to claim the inheritance left by her free-spirited mother-a ramshackle inn nestled in the little coastal town of Lucky Harbor, Washington.

Starting over won't be easy. Yet Maddie sees the potential for a new home and a new career-if only she can convince her two half-sisters to join her in the adventure. But convincing Tara and Chloe will be difficult because the inn needs a big makeover too. 

The contractor Maddie hires is a tall, dark-haired hottie whose eyes-and mouth-are making it hard for her to remember that she's sworn off men. Even harder will be Maddie's struggles to overcome the past, though she's about to discover that there's no better place to call home than Lucky Harbor.


Consent to the Cowboy by Abby Wood

Surrounded by beer-swilling, skirt-chasing cowboys her whole life, barmaid Daphne Norris has no intention of ever settling for any of the men in her Podunk hometown. So when bronc rider Will Hanson sends shock waves to her core with just one glance from his striking green eyes, no one is more surprised than her.

But Will is no ordinary cowboy, and he can see that Daphne is no ordinary small-town girl. He can sense in Daphne the quiet strength and devotion needed to satisfy a man like him, a man who needs to be on top, in every aspect of his life.

Daphne hasn't ever succumbed to her submissive desires before, and Will awakens her in ways she never imagined. While she's not prepared to give him her heart, she agrees to Will's offer of three days of intense pleasure, and then she's walking. But Daphne falls hard and fast, and now she has a decision: return to a normal life, or give up everything for Will...


Don't Make Me Choose Between You and My Shoes by Dixie Cash

New York City is miles from Salt Lick, Texas, in more ways than one, but Debbie Sue Overstreet and Edwina Perkins-Martin are rarin' to go. The best friends/beauty shop owners/private-eye partners have been offered an all-expense-paid trip to the National Association of Private Investigators convention in the Big Apple. Debbie Sue sees the invitation as validation, but Edwina has one goal: to get her feet into a pair of super-glam designer shoes, not easily had back home. Yee-haw! 

As a sign of things to come, the two Texas tornadoes don't even get out of the state without causing pandemonium at the Dallas airport. And once they land in the Big City they meet Celina, a small-town librarian who's broke and bereft from getting robbed, and Cher, an amiable "working girl" with a heart of gold. Taking them under their wings, they head right for trouble as Edwina nearly starts a riot in the hotel bar. 

But the Big Apple hasn't seen nothin' yet! While helping shy Celina hook up with a hunky young police detective, the Domestic Equalizers bumble their way into a murder investigation that could end up leaving Debbie Sue deceased and Edwina stone-cold in her new Jimmy Choos!


Scarred by Carol Lynne

Zac Alben loved his life in Cattle Valley until he made the ultimate mistake and introduced his partner in life, Terry, to his on-the-job partner, Jakob. He hoped the two men would hit it off, but he had no idea the meeting would forever change his life. 

Scarred and broken, Zac shows the facade of a man on the mend. He returns to work, joins the community in celebrating Cattle Valley Days and wakes nightly in a cold sweat. 

Pushed away at every turn, Jakob Cox still doesn’t know what happened the night Zac nearly lost his life. Despite Zac’s cold shoulder, Jakob takes it upon himself to drag the man he loves back into the land of the living. 



Believe in Me Laura Moore

After learning of her husband’s affair, Jordan Radcliffe is crushed, but she knows she must stay strong for her three young children. So she moves back to Rosewood, the idyllic horse farm where she grew up. Wishing only to recover and reassess her life, Jordan feels an undeniable attraction to architect Owen Gage—and does her best to ignore it. Her heart is too fragile to love again.

Yet when Owen, who himself is wary of any romantic involvement, offers her a job she badly needs, Jordan has no choice but to accept, even though it means she’ll be working alongside him every day. And that closeness could intensify the connection between them—a desire as unnerving as it is powerful.

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Tackle It Tuesday {6}: Tiger Eye by Marjorie M. Liu


Tackle It Tuesday is a meme I started here, that's a play off of a similar meme of the same name hosted by Janice and Susan at 5 Minutes for Mom.

Here at the Book Obsessed version of this meme, the idea is to "tackle" books that have been sitting on your shelves collecting dust waiting to be read. Or to "tackle" those we've started, but yet to finish because life has gotten in the way. Also to help encourage blogger interaction, which is always a plus.

Anyone can participate!! Just link your posts in the comments section!


Tiger Eye
Marjorie M. Liu
Shelved since September 8, 2008
Long ago they roamed the earth — dragons, tigers . . . shapeshifters — men who wore the forms of beasts. Their world was magic. Now it is gone. But some remain . . .

He looks out of place in Dela Reese’s Beijing hotel room— exotic and poignant, some mythic, tragic hero of an epic tale. With his feline yellow eyes, he’s like nothing from her world. Yet Dela has danced through the echo of his soul and knows this warrior will obey her every command.

Hari has been used and abused for millennia. But he sees, upon his release from the riddle box, that this new mistress is different. There is a hidden power in Dela’s eyes—and with her, he may regain all that was lost to him. Where once he savaged, now he must protect; where before he knew only hatred, now he must embrace love. Dela is the key.

For Dela, he will risk all.
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Monday, February 7, 2011

Review: Restrain Me by Alyssa Brooks & Larissa Lyons

Publisher: Ellora's Cave
Publication Date: July 1, 2009
Kindle
Genre: Erotica, Western
Characters: Sommer St. Claire, Boaz McKenzie
Challenge: 50 States, 100+
My Rating:

Submissive urges. Hidden desires. With the help of one rugged West Texas cowboy, Sommer’s about to discover hers.

Fed up with his meddlesome family, mounting responsibilities and meager sex life, Boaz “Bo” McKenzie roars into Rustlers Junction with a single goal in mind—to find the hottest filly in town and ride her senseless. A sound spanking might be in order as well.

Outrageously betting she’ll bed the next man to walk through the door, normally reserved Sommer vows to cap off her stay at a local dude ranch with a ride on a real cowboy. But it’ll be Bo riding her, rough, randy and all through the night.

Neither expects how explosive their encounters will be or where they’ll lead…with Bo branding Sommer as his, flesh and soul.
Sommer is on vacation in West Texas at a dude ranch when she meets Boaz. Sommer has led a dull, boring life that she decides has got to change. Her friend Suzy, whom she met at the Lucky Lady Dude Ranch, takes her out to the Bottoms Up bar, where they engage in a friendly wager. Sommer has to have sex with the next single man to walk int the bar. Just Boaz's luck, it happens to be him.

The two of them hit it off hot and heavy from the start. They engage in some light bondage play and some human branding. Even with the bondage play, it wasn't over the top. Although the branding is something new, but not completely unheard of. During one of their extremely hot encounters, Boaz marks Sommer's bottom with the Bottoms Up brand.

When Boaz's bible-thumping grandmother catches them between the sheets, Sommer pretends that they are engaged to be married. They do this because his grandmother threatened to disown any and all her grandchildren who indulge in premarital relations.

I really loved all the McKenzie clan, except of course Grandmother Dori. I hope these authors continue forward with the Bottoms Up Ranch and provide books for all the grandchildren.
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Musical Monday {2}: Sex On Fire

So what's Musical Monday? It's a weekly meme hosted by Tipsy Reader. With this meme, you pick the book you are currently reading, or just finished, and match it with it's musical mate. Think, "if this book had a soundtrack, what would be the theme song?"

The Book:
Restrain Me by Alyssa Brooks & Larissa Lyons


The Song:

Sex On Fire by Kings of Leon


+ show lyrics


The Reason:
I chose this song because in the book, the lead female, Sommer, lets her cowboy lover, Boaz, brand her bottom with his ranch's logo. So, Sex On Fire seemed only fitting. My alternative choice would have been Sign Your Name Across My Heart, since that is pretty much what Boaz did, only with her bottom.
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