PRIDE ~ by Sienna Valentine {The Brody Bunch Series #1}

Overall this should be a decent 4 star read 
(especially based on it being a shortish one) 
but it hit one of my 

5 star criteria* so fuck it!!!...

5 stars it is! 

I really enjoyed the story, there was something about the whole Amish girl/bad boy angle that totally worked. Being a Brit and having nothing like the Amish over here probably doesn't hurt either as I'll admit their way of life fascinates me in a good way - sometimes I just crave a simpler life but, perhaps in reality not that simple!!

 What really sold this one for me was finding tears on my face and hearing myself sob out loud during a scene where they were making love. It was so beautiful and intense, I was consumed by it. 

It wasn't even a really long scene, but it touched me. 

Don't you just love it when that happens? 

I've reread it three times and the intensity between 

Reid and Sarah is totally genuine and heartfelt, 

I loved it - the bad boy did good! 

I had never believed in souls. 

But there, in Sarah's arms, 

I was utterly convinced she 

had just touched mine.

OMG, be still my beating heart, that's one beautiful thought from Reid.

 I'm sold for the 2nd and 3rd books in the series.

Thanks SV! 

*For info, my five star criteria thoughts.

 If a book grips me emotionally by making me really laugh out loud throughout, sob or cry my heart out, hate loving it so much I could break my Kindle over it, makes me that good kind of anxious so much so that I need the end to come faster to see how it turns out because I'm so far over the edge of my seat that I'm likely to fall off, then it's a 5! If it makes me loose sleep (or be late for work!!) or feel so gripped that I can't put it down, or gives me major book butterflies, so overwhelming me that I'm compelled to keep going back over the good bits, never wanting them to end, then it's a 5!! 

And of course nothing feels better than when a book makes me breathless with happy erotic excitement wow, the joy of that makes our life in books such an awesome one that we really do need more stars!!!

Shattered By You {Tear Asunder #3} by Nashoda Rose

A 10 star - blown me away again - read!

I felt every. single. moment of that. 

Nashoda blows me away every time! 
Her writing and storytelling skills are second to none - perfection. 

Sometimes I'm so into a book that I don't write notes, don't highlight anything and don't stop reading until it's finished! 
Some books are worth loosing 
sleep over, this is one of those.

It's like I get to the end and think... 
If there's a secret recipe to writing
 the perfect book, then Nashoda knows it 
off by heart.

More, more, more please!!

And make yourself happy!...

Grab it now and settle in for a terrific roller-coaster read!

Or just about to start the series?

Save with the boxset...

Debut Novel~ARC Review: ~ Salvation ~ {Heal Me #1} by Stephanie John

 

It’s hard to believe that this is Stephanie John’s first book! It's a beautifully written contemporary erotic romance. I won't be surprised if we see her at the top of romance bestseller lists in the future. 

 In her debut novel Stephanie brings us the story of 

Nate - the hot, rich, loyal

 but broken (yay! love that!) CEO 

and Kara – his sexy, smart, but damaged 

Finance Director, who’s determined to stay single after a previous relationship ended badly. 

 

Honestly, this had my name written all over it!

I was so happy to see this arc offer, 

 I love office based erotic romance with 

not so perfect characters!

The story’s told from Kara’s POV which worked

 really well and brought us realistic closeness between her and Nate and also Mai her best friend – what a great girl! I’d love to read her story too.

 

Okay, I need to have a little rant! YIPPS!...

It drives me nuts when books are a bit too long for no other reason than to write what's already been done to death - like the Pretty Woman moments in this one... we don’t always need a shopping trip or to

 know that penthouses are 'the best'!! 

And I’d rather have a couple less sex scenes in a 

book than somewhat repetitive one's. 

(They had so many, that it seemed at one point 

 like they'd never get off each other!!!)

A few less (that are breathtaking) will leave me in awe, a few too many and I get bored UNLESS each scene is completely unrivaled - and that's very rare!

Anyway, that’s my half star off and my rant over!

 And not to say that this isn't paced well, 

because it flew by for me, it’s very hot, 

sexy and readable.

All in all, it’s a terrific story, with plenty of great banter between the characters (loved!), plenty of story to get your teeth into and (to be fair) plenty of sex to curl your toes through 

if that's 

what you're looking for!

There is a cliffhanger at the end of this one - but it isn't major so I'm looking forward to book 2 to sort that out and give me my HEA! 

LOVE that it's a duet too, 

there aren't enough of those around. 

Thanks so much for offering us your debut novel Stephanie!

His Gift~His Ransom (A Dark Billionaire Romance series 1-6) by Aubrey Dark

“I’m going to take you to the edge of darkness,
my Lacey. My little artist.
You’ll see the colors I can paint with my touch.”

First off, in my honest opinion 

(coming from someone that reads a lot of dark romance!) 

this isn't a dark read at all!

But it is one of those that's two sides of the same coin...

On one side we've got Lacey, the curvy tomboy street artist LACE, who's uncomfortable in anything that isn't street gear! She's struggling to make ends meet and falling for a billionaire was never on the cards for her! 

Besides (like the majority of us) she doesn't believe for a moment that he could possibly love her back anyway. 

And on the other, Jake. 

A lonely billionaire who doesn't believe in love 

because he's lived almost his entire life without it.

 

Unbeknownst to Lacey, Jake's also KAGE 

a notorious and famously anonymous street artist.

Throughout this serial read I felt a lot of empathy for Lacey, she's somewhat gripped by her jealousy and concern that she's setting herself up for a fall. The social circle that Jake's immersed in are nothing less than the perfect, elegant, wealthy people that you'd expect him to have and he's really no better than that - she sees him as perfect too. 

Being a girl that helps her friend out (not so simple... there's a dress involved! 'Grrr') by delivering a cake from her bakery to his party the last thing she expects is that he will think that she's his 'gift' (read: high class ~BDSM and whatever else one desires~ hooker!) for the week from his good friend! 

And so begins a intriguing, somewhat gripping story that I couldn't put down until all 6 were read! There's a decent back story to the series, secrets are unfolded - it becomes clear that all is not how it seemed - I liked that, because ultimately they were falling for each other!

There's no major cliffy's, it's continues smoothly and gets better each time. 

But! 

I admit, I did spend the best part of the series right along with Lacey thinking is this real or is he stringing her along?

If it's too good to be true and all that...

I won't give the story away, it's nicely written, simple, mostly just the two main characters which I think helps it along... 

There's some lovely hot and dirty bits!

(she is of course a virgin for a chapter or two!)

There are moments where my heart broke for Lacey, especially when it felt like the classic 

'being in a room full of people but feeling completely alone' 

It was very real.

Loved that this story does (of course!) have a HEA! 

And it's a beauty! 

It completely settles all of Lacey's concerns...

LOL PHEW! 

I'll look forward to more from this author!