Romance book reviews. Reviews of books that make my heart race, have a beautiful love story, and a happy ending.
AND THE WINNER IS >>>>>>>>>>>>>>
****Isabella J****
aaaand just cuz its the first ever Giveaway that I’m hosting, I decided to draw up a BONUS WINNER!!
AND THE BONUS WINNER IS >>>>>>>>
****Nadia K****
Congratulations on your new copies of
I’ll be announcing the June Giveaway tomorrow morning – stay tuned!! It’s gonna be AWESOME for fans of swoon-worthy Alpha men!!!!
4 stars
The story of a high-class male prostitute who falls in love with the reporter hired to write an article on him.
Adrian is every woman’s fantasy come true – he’s gorgeous, well-mannered, fabulously talented in bed, and for price of one thousand dollars per hour, he can fulfill their every secret desire, wish and pleasure. He works at Avalon, a high class club catering to women’s pleasure. Billie is a reporter hired to write an article about Avalon and the life of its companions. As Avalon’s most desired escort, Adrian is selected to be interviewed. From the first moment they meet, they feel drawn to each other. But despite their feelings, the nature of what Adrian does inevitably is a huge barrier between them. And throughout the story we see their journey as they follow their hearts to find what they want most from life and each other.
During the interview, Adrian tries a little to get Billie to give in to their clear mutual attraction. But he holds back knowing she isn’t quite ready.
“Ask me what happen next, Billie…”
“What happens next?”
“Nothing.” His whisper brushed her forehead, his embrace gentle, non-threatening. “You’re too frightened. But I know what you want, how much you want it. I can take one look at you and know what you need.”
And that really is the core of the fantasy – a man who not only can do whatever a woman wants, but much more importantly who knows and can anticipate what she wants.
I liked that both Adrian and Billie were pretty smart about everything. Neither of them really made any stupid decisions that made me want to throttle them.
I liked how throughout the book, we discover who Adrian really is. On the outside, he’s this god-like fantasy man, but its not the real him. Throughout the story, Billie peels away the layers of his facade until she finds his true self.
“The fantasy was human after all…a prostitute. A gigolo. A beloved brother and son and uncle… with too many secrets and too much sexual prowess. A man she was falling in love with.”
But at his core, Adrian feels utterly unworthy of Billie.
“She wasn’t the kind of woman who could give away sex without giving away her heart, and he liked that in her, that vulnerability….Maybe, at the very bottom of it, he knew a whore – even a high-priced one – didn’t deserve a woman like Billie. She was reality, gritty and truthful and tangible. He… he was a phantom born out of… imagination.”
“I’m nothing. I have nothing of value to give you. No heart, not an ounce of love in me. It’s all been fucked away.”
I loved that Billie never judged him for his choice of work. She accepted him for who he was, flaws and all and just fell in love with him allowing him the freedom to come to his own choices about what he wanted most.
“I love you, Billie. Give me the chance to make you happy. To show you who I really am – the man who can’t live without you. The man who deserves your heart.”
Overall the story was good, I’m glad I read it, I never felt bored, but it didn’t elicit any strong emotion from me. I didn’t laugh or cry. But I did really like it 🙂
If you liked Finding Home and Fallen From Grace, you will probably like this book too.
4.5 stars
“Erin called us soul mates, but I…I’ve always known it was more than that. It’s like we share the same soul, and when we’re apart, each half is looking for the other.”
What an emotionally intense rollercoaster of a book!
I read the whole book with my heart in my throat, either holding my breath, choked up, or in tears. My heart was literally pounding for most of the story. I read the whole book in one sitting – couldn’t put it down!
Melanie and Daniel met when they were 15-16 years old and fell in almost instant true, undeniable, unstoppable love. They know unquestioningly that they are each other’s forever. Even when tragedy strikes and their lives are forces apart, neither of them can forgot the other. Memories and thoughts of each other consume them, not allowing them to move on or truly live without the other. Melanie ends up trapped in a loveless marriage to a controlling, abusive bastard named Nicholas and Daniel ends up throwing his whole self into his career, but feeling empty the whole time inside.
“My body trembled as all the regrets of my life washed through me, my heart feeling as if it were on the verge of failing. My soul cried out to her. It had never stopped its search for her in nine years, and I could still feel her calling out for me.”
But when fate brings them together at a chance dinner party 9 years later, the moment they see each other, they both realize that neither of them ever lost the love they had for each other and they will do anything and everything within their power to fix the wrongs that happened and be together again.
“ Seeing her was like seeing a reflection of myself, a mirror of my pain, my loss, my regret. A mirror of what stirred within me now – this love that had refused to die. She had found me. I had always felt her heart calling to mine just as mine called to hers, this power bringing us together once again.”
Their big reunion was heart clenchingly beautiful!
“He stood above me, his body visibly trembling. “This is forever.” “
I loved the deep connection that they had. The pull they both felt for each other. The intensity of their love for each other was both gut-wrenching and absolutely beautiful!
The writing is beautiful, I really love this author’s style. She sucks you right into the story and into the characters minds and makes you feel everything that the characters are feeling. While I LOVED her other book, Take This Regret, I still did really really liked this one and am eagerly looking forward to whatever book she may decide to write next.
“I can’t live without you. I haven’t lived a day without you.“
Their story is told in the present day with flashbacks to their past piecing together their story.
I had issues with this story though. I didn’t like that the main reason that Melanie and Daniel were kept apart for 9 years was because of miss-communications and misunderstandings. It is kind of excused by the fact that that they were young, which they were (16-17 when the initial drama went down), but still, at that age I would have talked that issue or any other issue through with my guy. I didn’t like that they let assumptions and someone else’s words come between them without directly talk with each other about the issues.
Also, on another note, I’m not a fan of super evil bad guys who keep trying to break the main couple up, steal them away, or hurt them physically – something which both Nicholas and Vanessa did successfully. I can handle a certain amount of that in a story, but I felt it was a little too much here..
Most of the drama in this story resulted from the unfortunate results of pretty stupid actions caused by gut-wrenching grief, hurt and fear. I felt like even given all the horrible circumstances life threw at them, they should have handled the issues more responsibly.
This being said, the story was still wonderful, emotional and heart wrenching and I’m so glad I read it!!
There is a HEA ending though , but its not quite the perfect fairy tale that most romance novels have. Its bittersweet, but still beautiful. And they do end up together and happy. This I’m saying because its a very important detail to me 😛
“Life’s a roller coaster. Best damn ride in the park. You don’t close your eyes, hold on and wait for it to be over, babe. You keep your eyes open, lift your hands straight in the air and enjoy the ride for as long as it lasts.“
A wonderful book with an amazing conclusion to a seriously badass series!
The last line of this book brought tears to my eyes. Boy does Ms. Ashley know how to write an epilogue!!
I absolutely adored how she brought ALL the characters that we have seen since the beginning of the series together. Throughout the whole series, they all help each other out here and there but in the finale of this book ALL the Alpha badasses joined forces and it was pretty freaking epic!!
“We’ve hit the hot guy motherlode.” **SHIVERS**
Kane “Tack” Allen is the badass biker in charge of Chaos – a motorcycle gang and car shop where Tyra meets him after applying and getting a job running their office.
I loved Tyra! She was smart, sassy, sweet yet vulnerable, can-do, didn’t back down, and gave as good as she got. She was a fun heroine to read and definitely was the perfect match for her big badass biker.
I’ve always liked Tack since we were first introduced to him in book 1, Mystery Man, but the thing that made me fall in love with him was seeing the way he was around his kids and his family in his home life. Just absolutely melted my heart and left me grinning from ear to ear!
“I’m noticing a theme to Life with Kane Allen,” I remarked.
“Yeah, that theme is I got your back. I take care of you. You sleep easy. You eat good. And you feel safe. You tellin’ me you got a problem with that?”
This book is also full of brilliant side characters. We see reoccurring ones like Elvira (who may be one of my fav female characters ever!) and also meet new ones like Tyra’s Aunt Bette and Uncle Marsh who were absolutely perfect, Tack’s kids Rush and Tabby whose stories I would love to read one day, Tack’s psycho ex-wife who was so crazy she actually had me laughing hysterically at times… not to mention the Russian mob and loads of badass bikers.
I have to admit I had a few issues with this book. I didn’t like the appelations the bikers use for their significant others “old man” and “old lady” just really didn’t work for me and I inwardly cringed every time I read it. Also, I felt like there were points where Tack a bit too much of a jerk and his world not respectful enough of women for my taste. But that being said, he was hawt and he grew on me a lot, especially once they had the big ‘talk’ and we got to see his side of the story and what it was that had happened in his past to shape him into the man we all know as Tack. His behavior often had me saying “oh he did NOT just do/say that?!” but in the end, I felt he both grew as a person and redeemed himself. Together, he and Tyra found a beautiful compromise of their worlds.
“I will be there in ten . And what I mean is, when I get there in ten, your ass better be there.”
Oh boy.
“Are you coming on your bike?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m in a tight, short, little acquamarine dress with high heels. I can’t get on a bike.”
“You’re in a tight, short dress and high heels?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll be there in five.”
And his serious protectiveness of Tyra along with his no-bullshit attitude and unwillingness to let anything come between them stole my heart.
“You belong to Chaos. No one touches what belongs to Chaos. No one . They don’t touch it. They don’t hood it. They don’t bind it. They don’t even breathe in its space unless they have Chaos permission…
“I’m Chaos?”
“Was my dick just in you?”
I fought an annoyed growl and said, “Uh… yeah.”
“Then you’re Chaos.”
See what I mean? Crude, but protective and really kinda sweet lol.
Seriously though, at the end, seeing Cabe “Hawk” Delgado, Brock Lucas, Mitch Lawson, and Kane “Tack” Allen working together gave me mega shivers!!! Kristen Ashley knows how to write EPIC BADASS at its finest! I actually SQUEED out loud when Hawk came on the page. I adore him! He is definitely my favorite of all the men even though I love them all 🙂
“… because Hawk, Brock and Mitch stormed that house at Tack’s side. This meant, to Tack, they were different kinds of brothers. Not of blood. Not of the cut. But that bond was unshakable all the same.”
“Bottom line, no one fucks with my woman.”
As with all the previous books from this series, the writing is smooth, fast paces, doesn’t drag, and keeps you flipping the pages. I read the book almost in one sitting despite it being a decent length.
I absolutely can’t wait to read the spin-off biker series, Chaos, that will come next featuring Shy (serious swoon material!!) and Tack’s daughter Tabby.
Rating: 4.5+ stars
READING ORDER FOR ALL KRISTEN ASHLEY SERIES
** Dream Man Series Reading Order **
Each book is a standalone about a different couple but
it is recommended to read the series in order.
Book #1 — MYSTERY MAN
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #2 — WILD MAN
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #3 — LAW MAN
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Book #4 — MOTORCYCLE MAN
Buy on Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review
Wow!!! Today’s new release list has me super excited! There are a lot of awesome-sounding books on it!!! Also, there are a lot of limited time sales happening right now that include many of my favorite books, books from my to-read list, and also a few new books that sound intriguing so here, I’ve updated the previous list with several new additions for you to check through!
Happy reading!!! 😀
❤ LATEST TOP RECOMMENDATIONS ❤
CHANGING COURSE & STOLEN COURSE by Aly Martinez
SQUEEE!!!! I totally LOVED these two books!! Once I started them, I couldn’t put them down!!! They were each unique but both had a wonderful balance of heart wrenching angst, smoking hot swoon-filled romance, and humor… and I totally fell for the heroes, Brett and Caleb. I just love the protective, tortured heroes (and these ones are both cops!)… *dreamy sigh* …. They make my heart melt!!! These books are both standalones but the stories are strongly interconnected and the heroes are best friends so it’s best to read them in order!! Here’s my review of the first one and I just posted the second review 🙂 * YOU GUYS HAVE TO READ THESE!!! *
CARNAGE by Lesley Jones (Read my review)
“I was eleven years old, but I knew without a shadow of a doubt I was staring into the eyes of the boy I was going to love forever.” — This book gave me a 5-day book hangover and it’s definitely one of my favorites of the year now! It was a passionate, gut-wrenching love story. A non-stop, messy, emotional, beautiful, devastating roller coaster ride from start to finish and honestly, I LOVED it!!!!! It made me FEEL every emotion. It took over my life and heart. But please note that this is not your typical romance story. It completely shattered all my book rules and is just not the kind of book that I usually read so please go into it with a very, very open mind.
LOVING MR. DANIELS by Brittainy C. Cherry
I absolutely loved this book!!! A beautiful story that took me by surprise in the best of ways. It was so much MORE than just a forbidden student-teacher romance. It was a love story and it was a life story. All kinds of love, all kinds of life. I laughed, I cried and I totally loved it!! It’s a standalone and you can read my review here. I highly recommend checking it out, especially if you were a fan of Slammed!!
…
4 stars
Big, tall, tattooed badboy, Van, meets Evie, a 19 year old virgin from an abusive, strict, religious home and the sparks fly in this pretty freaking hot, very sweet and tender read about breaking free and following your heart.
The beginning was a little slow, with a too much inner monologue from the heroine, Eve, but about 25% of the way in, I started to really like it once she and her hot, tattooed, sweet and adorable badboy started to get serious.
I loved how tender and patient Van was with Eve, never pushing her into anything she wasn’t absolutely ready for, and how he just quietly showed her that a world beyond the one she grew up in, where she could make her own decisions and be her own person was possible if she wanted it.
“…you’re just waiting for things to turn bad, honey. You’re just waiting – and that’s okay. I got time to prove that’s not going to happen.”
The book leaves you with warm, happy and satisfied feeling. Its quite short, about 150 pages and very quick paced.
It didn’t make me grin or cry, but it did make me smile and kept me turning the pages. I’d say its a good read for in between very emotional books or if you are just looking for a light evening read.
Copyright © 2024 · Aestas Book Blog
