4 stars

Book Review – The Redhead series (Books 1 & 2) by Alice Clayton

August 3, 2012 by Aestas · 2 Comments

THE UNIDENTIFIED REDHEAD (REDHEAD #1) BY ALICE CLAYTON

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5 fun stars!

What a fun book!! The perfect blend of funny (hilarious actually!), sassy, sexy, goofy and swoony! Definitely a great lighthearted read for after a very emotional book 🙂

The book had me laughing out loud more times than I could count. Its a fun, romantic story about Grace Sheridan, a 33 year old actress giving Hollywood a second shot, and Jack Hamilton, the 24 year old next hotshot bigtime Hollywood star actor. They meet by chance at a party and have this really flirty, fun connection. She’s never even heard of his big movie and to him, seems like the most ‘real’ girl he’s met in a long time. And after a few weeks of (brilliant and hilarious) banter, its clear they are both very into each other and want to explore things further. Banter turns to serious flirting, which turns to romantic beach strolls, which turns an adorable relationship.

I really loved that the relationship really “built” itself. It didn’t just – poof! – happen. The progression was realistic and so much fun to read.

“He pushed me back up against the door, slamming me against the doorbell. I heard it ring out.
“Coming!” I heard Holly say as she clicked across the floor to the front door.
“Not quite, but she’s close.” He chuckled, removing his hand and leaving me breathless and rosy cheeked.”

Jack is totally swoony – he’s smart, funny, charming, totally into her, down-to-earth… all round awesome guy!

“He had known exactly what I needed and when I needed it. It was as if he was put on this earth for the sole purpose of giving me pleasure. Who am I to argue with intelligent design?”

Grace was a totally non-annoying heroine – very tongue-and-cheek, very real, with a wonderful POV.

“The guy looks young enough to be your kid, Grace.
Yes, but only if I’d really slutted it up in junior high…”

I loved how committed they were to each other – especially once they started getting serious and admitting their commitments. It was so refreshing having a story that didn’t create drama from jealous ex’s, stupidity on the part of the characters, etc. I mean, sure there’s a bit of worry (he IS an uber-famous hot guy who every female on the planet is lusting after… so that’s bound to create some insecurities, also there’s media scrutiny, their age difference, etc ) but he’s so quick to reassure her and never does anything to make her feel or think that he’s anything other than committed to her. Its very sweet… and at the same time, utterly hilarious. Seriously at times, it was like they were young teens teasing each other over the silliest things that literally made my cheeks hurt from laughing.

And there was SO much sex – not too much, but enough that it was a pretty hot read. Car sex. Wall sex. Bed sex. Closet sex (yes, closet sex). Shower sex. Bathtub sex. Hotel sex…. I’m sure I’m missing some here, but you get the picture lol.

“That night went down (pun intended and acknowledged) in history, forever known as, Hamilton:5/Sheridan:Lost Track After 17. It was probably the best night I ever spent in a bed with a man.
And on the floor with a man.
And up against the door with a man.
And, God, watch over and protect us, on the floor of the closet with a man.”

The book ended on a bit of a cliffhanger… she got a big job in NYC and leaves at the end of the book while he stays in LA but I’ve been assured that the ending of book 2 is a HEA so I’m looking forward to starting it tomorrow and seeing Grace and Jack handle their long-distance relationship. I predict oodles of phone sex 😛

I wavered back and forth a bit on the rating… at first I wasn’t sure if I should give 5 stars to a book that didn’t make me clutch at my heart or have have super emotional tears, but then I realized that was totally unfair. Why should only the emotional books be given 5 stars. To me, this was a perfect 5 star FUN read 🙂

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

THE REDHEAD REVEALED (REDHEAD #2) BY ALICE CLAYTON

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4 stars

“He was everything I’d ever wanted, and everything I hadn’t even known I needed.”

With both their careers growing at opposite ends of the country, Jack’s huge Hollywood movie premiering in LA and Grace’s Broadway show in NYC, they have to deal with making a long-distance relationship work, with learning to trust each other, with only seeing each other every couple weeks/months, with Jack’s growing fame and intense media scrutiny, with nosy and lying tabloids, with with the general insecurities that come with a fast growing whirlwind relationship.

“I just miss you. I miss being in your bed,” he said quietly, and I could hear the desperation in his voice. I felt it too. It was not just the physical love he gave me, but the simple touches we took for granted when we saw each other all the time. I missed him washing my hair almost as much as the intense orgasms he had granted me daily.”

I did want to throttle Grace a fair bit in this one, but her insecurities were understandable. But still, she made some pretty stupid decisions. Thankfully, despite being the younger one, Jack was so heart-warmingly mature and loyal and fought so strongly for the relationship and to convince Grace of his love for her.

“Those fangirls think he’s all sexy scientist man, and really, he’s just a British goober who adores his girlfriend.”

Overall it was a fun read, it was romantic, more drama-packed packed than the first one, but Grace and Jack were still their crazy, fun selves ensuring some hilarious, cute, swoony scenes, great banter, a whole lot of sex, and a happy-for-now ending (there is going to be another book in the series).

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Book Review – Sweet Dreams (Colorado Mountain #2) by Kristen Ashley

July 26, 2012 by Aestas · 4 Comments

“You can trust me, Laurie.” His voice got deeper, that growl vibrating through it. “Swear to God, baby, there will never be a time when you can’t. Yeah?”

All her life, Lauren felt like something special was going to happen to her. But afters years of living her life, searching for what she wanted and not finding it, Lauren decides to change tactics. After her divorce, she packs up her life and decides just look for nothing – just to live in peace somewhere out of the way.

She falls in love with the small town of Carnal in the Colorado mountains and gets a job as a waitress at a biker bar. On her first day, in walks the gorgeous biker and bar owner Tatum “Tate” Jackson who is shockingly rude and insulting to her (which is probably the understatement of the year!) but after recovering from the initial shock of the incident, Lauren stands up to him beautifully and so starts their slow building relationship…

But when a super insanely utterly chillingly CREEEEEEEPY rapist/serial killer attacks someone in their town, the cops come to Tate – who turns out to be a (damn good) bounty hunter adding plenty of drama and a bit of a mystery to the story.

I gotta say I had issues with the first half of this book. I still liked it, but there were times when Tate SERIOUSLY pissed me right the hell off. Like REALLY. He was just such a JERK!!! I’d literally sit there in shock over something he just said or did. And then, to rub salt into the wound, in the first half of the book, before he ‘came around’, instead of apologizing for what he did, he’d try to tell her to just ‘deal with and get over it’. Arrrgh!! He was crude, unapologetic, frustrating, unfair and very hypocritical. But then, he’d go and say/do something so totally sweet that it would melt your heart… and then go back to being a jerk!My heart got yanked around a lot and honestly, there was a point when I was reading where the only thing keeping me going was my faith in KA’s writing cuz I just knew she’s find a way to make me love him… and indeed, she did.

“Are you the good guy, the sweet guy who takes care of me or are you this guy who’s kind of a jerk?”
His answer was instantaneous. “I’m both those guys, babe.”

“Tatum Jackson, you’re lucky you’re a smokin’ hot, badass, biker, bounty hunter who looks good in jeans… and I love you or you would be seriously not worth it.”

At about half way though, I did finally totally fall in love with Tate. He started to open up about himself and his perspectives. Not all his previous behavior was necessarily ‘wrong’ per say – but when made it intolerable to me was that if he did something questionable but had good reason for it, he wouldn’t explain himself. But I think there was a point where he realized that and he started explaining his side, respecting Lauren more, treating her more fairly and the more she also started to understand him, the more and more functional their relationship got.

“You said you were waitin’ for something special and he took away your chance to figure out that you were carryin’ it with you all this time. You are special, Laurie.”

Honestly the second half of the book just seemed so different than the first… I absolutely loved it!! I mean, in the beginning, I could see that Tate had good intentions, or at least not bad ones, behind his jerk behavior, but in the second half of the book, he changed a little and lost the jerk-‘tude and while still remaining all bossy and possessive and deliciously Alpha.

“You’re safe, Lauren,” he murmered and my eyes lowered back to his. “You weren’t safe with him, but honey, swear to God, you’re safe with me.”

I really did love Laurie’s character. She was very strong and ended up being the ‘rock’ in a lot of very tough situations. She was strong enough to help Tate through a lot of hard things, strong enough to help him control his temper, strong enough to stand by and push deeper until Tate fully respected her and strong enough to believe in herself and start her life over and find her something special.

Once they got their relationship to the fair and functional level, the story just became reeeeally good… and heart warming, and swoony and funny and HOT!!

“I get drunk on one and a half [martinis] and I mean drunk .”
He smiled at me. “Then we’re hittin’ the home store sale.”
“We are.”
“Martini glasses. Fuckin’ you normal is hot. Make up sex is un-fuckin’-believable. Drunk sex might just kill me.”
“Tate – “
“Though, won’t mind dyin’ that way.”

I loved that neither of them were your classic young-ish hero characters. Both of them were in their mid-40’s and both of them had been burned and hurt a lot in the past making them cautious and understandably untrusting. But they both come to a realization point where they couldn’t let that control their relationship and although their romance is very slow-building, it was really wonderful to see them both get a second chance at love.

And also, there is a lot of family stuff that happens that was just BRILLIANT. Honestly, I’d say that KA writes some of the absolute BEST family scenes/interactions of any author out there. She just ‘gets’ it and writes them in a way that just tug all your heart strings…. there are some REALLY intense scenes that just had my either grinning or clutching my heart with misty-eyes for several chapters.

I really liked how you learned more and more about them as the book went on. There were a lot of ‘big reveals’ and twist and turns to the story… I really liked how everything was not laid out in the beginning but you’d discover something new every few chapters that added layers and intricacy to the story.

But, I have to say that sweet as the epilogue was, it kinda fell a little flat for me… it was sweet, and wrapped up the story nicely but I was expecting more somehow… my heart didn’t clench and I didn’t get misty-eyed.

I loved much of this book even though I struggled with Tate’s behavior in the beginning. The relationship was very slow building with a bit of an enemies-to-lovers kind of storyline, and the ending wasn’t quite as heart-warming as I wanted it to be. That being said, even though the beginning was rocky, a lot of the story was absolutely amazing so I’m kind of torn about how I feel about it. Overall, I’d say I really liked this book… a lot at times, less at other times… but overall it was just really good 🙂

Rating: 4+ stars

** COLORADO MOUNTAIN SERIES **

Note that the series is in the process of being traditionally published so the covers are still switching over.

Book #1 — THE GAMBLE (Max & Nina)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #2 — SWEET DREAMS (Tate & Laurie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #3 — LADY LUCK (Ty & Lexie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #4 — BREATHE (Chase & Faye)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #5 — JAGGED (Ham & Zara)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback

Book #6 — KALEIDOSCOPE (Deck & Emme)
Buy for Kindle

Book Review – Collision Course by S.C. Stephens

July 16, 2012 by Aestas · 3 Comments

“Looking back at that moment, I think I’d been waiting for death to take me too, not for someone to rescue me. I think I’d been shaking in that sear, praying for some internal injury to make itself known. Waiting for some part of me to bleed out, so I could close my eyes and join my girlfriend, wherever she’d gone.”

Three months after a fateful car crash (where he was driving in a freak storm) that claimed the lives of his beloved girlfriend, best friend and his girlfriend, Lucas is still unable to even consider moving on. Haunted by the memories of his loved ones, the what-ifs, and the constant judgment by everyone in his school, Lucas struggles through the aftermath of a tragedy everyone is blaming on him. On his first day back at school, meets a new girl, Sawyer, hiding out in the boy’s bathroom. Something about her seems different than everyone else, and in a completely non-judgmental and understanding way, she can see his pain and reaches out to help him. She’s the only one who truely believes him when he says he wasn’t drunk during the accident and he feels this strong connection to her even though he doesn’t really know anything about her – as if on some level, she can really understand his pain.

Both of them know there is deep pain in each other’s pasts but they don’t push each other about it, instead are just always there for each other and fall into a close friendship. But Lucas is still grieving and is unable to move on from his girlfriend. He loved her, really did, and he gets lost in his memories of her.

“I remembered her breath, her smell, her laugh, her eyes, her love… A love never spoken out loud, but evident in every move she made around me.“

Throughout a lot of the book, Lucas dreams vividly her, and his other friends that he lost – continuing his connection, conversations, relationships with them, unwilling and unable to let go when to him, they still feels so real despite him rationally accepting that they have died.

“Who’s to say what’s more real, if life and dreams feel the same?”

The book follows Lucas’ journey as he struggles to face the reality of having been ‘the one who lived’, and as this beautiful, yet also damaged girl he meets, Sawyer, helps pull him out of the clutches of misery and back into life.

“Why do you always have to get after me?”…
“Because I’m your best friend. And sometimes that means I have to tell you things you don’t want to hear… You lived, Luc,” he clutched my shoulders, a tear dropping to his cheek. “…so live.”

SC Stephens is a very gifted author able to get you right insider her character’s mind – feeling, thinking and going through exactly what they are going through with them. You feel their point of view as though it were your own.

Its also quite refreshing that this whole book is told from the guy’s POV. Its something we don’t get to see a lot of and the book reads literally like you are right in his head – you know every thought he has.

This book deals with a lot of heavy themes – it brings to light the damage of bullying and the ease with which gossip can twist facts into nearly complete fabrications barely resembling the original event and it focuses on how someone would deal with grief after a tragedy and how to move on with life while still honoring the memories of those who died.

It also asks a lot of questions: Why did this happen? Was he meant to die? Was he meant to live? Is life worth living now that they are gone?

Despite the fact that Lucas’ story was really sad, I did’t quite feel “that feeling” of having my heart ripped out that I was expecting until the end (when I did end up crying). I think the whole “car accident” senarios in books might be the reason why I didn’t feel as strong a connection to the characters in the beginning (another example of this would by If I Stay) because despite knowing in my heart that its a horrible tragic story, the result of having come into the story at the point of or right after the accident, I don’t feel quite as strong a connection to the characters who died, and as a result, as a reader I feel sympathetically sad, rather than feeling personally sad as though I knew the characters in the crash… I don’t know if that makes sense though… but still, its kinda how I felt.

And then, I guess because by the end of the book, I felt like through Lucas’ dreams I had really ‘met’ and gotten to know the characters that had died, I felt a lot more emotionally connected to the last third of the book than I did to the beginning and did in fact end up in tears a few times.

If you are looking for a straight up romance, this probably isn’t it. Its YA (Characters are 17 years old) but with steam. Its different than your usual romance because at first, despite their connection and the fact that they do really like each other, Lucas pulls back from entering a romantic relationship with Sawyer because he still feels like he’s ‘with’ his girlfriend who died. It is a romance in a way, but I’d say its equally focused on his healing process as it is on their romantic story.

Its basically how Lucas deals with what happened, how he grieves, how he learns to let go and how he heals… and a lot of that is through/with the help of this new girl he meets – and in that way, its a slow building romance. And yes, the ending is a HEA 🙂

Rating: 4 stars. Standalone.

Book Review – Unleashed (Ross Siblings #1) by Cherrie Lynn

July 6, 2012 by Aestas · 3 Comments

Almost 4 stars

“This has to be the craziest, scariest, sexiest, most emotionally exhausting and unbelievably orgasmic vacation I ever had.”

Another great fluff read! A super hot ‘n’ steamy, best-friend-to-lovers romance about the healing of two broken hearts. A great light read for in between intense books.

For those of you who have read Rock Me, this is the first book from that series, about Brian‘s older brother. The books in this series do not need to be read in order though – they are each stand alones.

Basically, Kelsey and Evan have liked each other since they met 10 years ago – but Evan didn’t find himself worthy enough of her and Kelsey was too shy to do anything about it so 10 years later, she finds herself divorced from her husband (who was also Evan’s best friend) because he cheated on her with Evan’s finacee. When Kelsey gets a call from Evan asking if she wants to go on a week long vacation to Hawaii with him (which was supposed to be his honeymoon with his ex-fiance), she is wary but can’t resist spending a week with the guy she’s secretly been in love with all these years. Together, away from the world, they are able to let go of their pain over their unrequited love and past mistakes and finally give in to their true feelings for each other … leading to some serious steam and a sweet HEA.

Its not too long, I read it in a couple hours. There is a LOT of steam – a hot-as-hell hot tub scene and their first sex scene takes up 20% (!!) of the book *fans self*

“Give me time to do this right. To give you everything you deserve. And I will, I promise.”

Book Review – Once Burned (Night Prince #1) by Jeaniene Frost

July 2, 2012 by Aestas · Leave a Comment

Almost 4 stars

“I want to know what your end game is.”
Another flash of teeth, this time showing his fangs. “To have you screaming my name within the hour.”

The Vlad we have come to love from the Night Huntress series finally gets his own series!

I liked it the book – it was a good light PNR read. But honestly, Vlad felt a little different here than he did in the NH series and this book just didn’t have quite the same heart-racing intensity that the Cat & Bones books have, but still, it did not disappoint.

An accident has left Leila scarred and with an ability to both electrocute people and see their pasts, futures, and darkest sins. Vlad is THE Vlad, the man behind the Dracula myth – but really a very old, very strong, psychokinetic vampire with a lot of enemies. When Leila is caputured by said enemies in an attempt to seek out and destroy Vlad, he swoops in to the (flaming) rescue and takes her back to his castle, determined to use her abilities to help him hunt the enemies down. What neither of them counted on was their attraction to each other and Vlad is determined to make her his.

Despite it having been almost a year since I read the last book in this world, I was very pleased that the writing made it such that it didn’t take long to reenter it and refamiliarize myself with all its rules.

The writing style is very laid back and fun, the story has fast-paced action, great dialogue and of course hot steam! *fans self thinking of the shower scene*

“Beautiful and diabolical. You make me impatient indeed to claim you.”
I shivered… If he used that same tone of voice in bed, he could probably get away with skipping foreplay.”

Vlad was his usual kick ass, arrogant, ruthless, bossy, smarter-than-his-enemies survivor, but in this book, we also get to see a different side of him as well and get insight into what happened in his life to make him into the vampire he is today.

“I’m the only authentic Vlad. Everyone else is merely an envious imitation.”

Leila was a wonderful match for him – she was soft, yet also very strong, stubborn, and kick ass in her own right.

“Two Leila’s seemed to be battling it out inside of me. The first was outraged that he still considered it a fair accompli that I’d give in to him, and the second… That slutty bitch was wondering what Vlad looked like naked.“

There were a lot of things they had to come to terms with – Vlad had to battle his inner demons that make him very wary of completely giving his heart over to love, Leila has to come to terms with the fact that the man she is falling in love with can also be a ruthless vampire, and there is a constant stream of danger keeping them on their toes.

And of course there was a BRILLIANT cameo from Cat & Bones that had me grinning and squeeing and totally wanting to go back and reread their series. Love love love that couple!!!! <3

The ending was a bit abrupt, not a cliffhanger, sort of a “happy for now but with lots of unanswered questions” ending.

Book Review – Rock Chick Redemption (Rock Chick #3) by Kristen Ashley

June 18, 2012 by Aestas · 4 Comments

Buy ROCK CHICK REDEMPTION (Kindle)

4.5 Stars

Another winner from Kristen Ashley!! You just can’t help but fall in LOVE with those Nightingale boys!!

I’ve been looking forward to Hank’s book since the beginning of this series and I was not dissapointed. I squeed, snorted, snickered and laughed my way through it – a perfect, fun action-romance read!

Hank Nightingale is basically the ultimate swoooony good guy – he’s a gorgeous, loving, straight-arrow, always-in-control cop with insane loyalty to his family and a huge heart. It was fun to see him come undone by this girl who just walked into his life 🙂

He meets Roxie when she comes into town to meet her uncle Tex (who we met as a delightful side character – ex-con turned artisan coffee creator – in the first 2 books of the series) who works at the coffee shop-bookstore run by Indy (the heroine from book 1). There, she runs into all the (uber-Alpha) boys from Nightingale Investigations…

“It looked like GQ was having a convention and all the best looking guys had decided to have coffee at Fortnum’s before going to seminars on how to cope with being really, unbelievably, fucking gorgeous.”

… but she finds inexplicably drawn to Hank. Its love at first sight for both of them. Problem is, she’s in a bit of trouble trying to ditch her loser criminal ex-boyfriend. Lucky for her, Hanks is a cop and is more than happy to help her out… and take her out to dinner, woo her into his bed, protect her, claim her as his woman and other utterly swoon-worthy things that only a true Alpha can do best 😛

“I’m having dinner with Hank but only because he’s persuasive-”
“I bet.”
“Its just dinner. Nothing more…”
“Dinner may be just dinner in Chicago but it ain’t in Denver. These boys don’t fuck around… Indy was livin’ with Lee after ’bout a day. Jet was with Eddie from my count, after less than a week. The way Hank’s lookin’ at you, I’m guessin’ less than 48 hours.”

And of course, it wouldn’t be a proper KA book without its fair share of car chases, kidnapping (s), hostage situations, shootouts, and crazy ex’s, now would it? lol

I seriously loved Hank! I loved how insanely sweet, thoughtful, caring and perceptive he was. He saw right through the emotional front that Roxie put up and into her heart and wouldn’t give up until she believed in them too. I love how he saw how much her previous relationship made her wary to put her heart out on the line again and he was willing to made every effort to show that he was worth it.

Roxie was also a great heroine. She had a fun voice and was stubborn and sassy enough to stand up for herself, but soft and lovable enough to be able to have some seriously heart-melting moments with Hank.

I loved that by this third book, you really feel like you KNOW all these characters personally – you get all their inside jokes and little gestures, and it just totally maximises the fun! I just loved the huge network of characters and all their inter-relations.

“…heard Ally say, “I’m gonna talk to Lee. The minute they find that asshole, I want my turn with him in the holding room.”
“Ally,” said Indy.
“Sugar, I’m talking to Marcus to-night.” Daisy broke in. “He’s gotta step his shit up. Ain’t gonna be no holding room for Billy fucking Flynn, not if I have anything to say about it.”

The dialogue in this book was awesome – so many laugh out loud moments! Also, we are introduced to new side characters – namely Luke Stark, the seriously HOT member of Nightingale Investigations who until now was recovering from a gunshot wound – I seriously cannot wait until his book! He is h.o.t. !!

And nobody writes family scenes like Ms. Ashley – I swear in all her books, the families just make me grin like an idiot.

“Son, let me tell you something. Even if you don’t care, pretend you do. Honestly, it’s the best way to go,” Dad, the voice of experience, decided to wade in. “She talks about toss pillows. You don’t care about toss pillows. You don’t even know what toss pillows are. Pretend that toss pillows are your highest priority in life.”

Really, if you just want a fun read full of Alpha males, swoony romance, and lots of action-packed craziness, this is a great series to start.

“This is crazy. You’re crazy. Denver’s crazy. All you boys skipped right over the last century, didn’t you? I think even the last million years. You’re cavemen”

I’m so looking forward to more from this series. I’ve really turned into quite the KA book addict!!

CASTING:

Hank –> Click here
Roxie –> Click here

Buy ROCK CHICK REDEMPTION (Kindle)

** SERIES READING ORDER **

Book #1 — ROCK CHICK (Lee & Indy)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #2 — ROCK CHICK RESCUE (Eddie & Jet)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #3 — ROCK CHICK REDEMPTION (Hank & Roxie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #4 — ROCK CHICK RENEGADE (Vance & Jules)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #5 — ROCK CHICK REVENGE (Luke & Ava)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #6 — ROCK CHICK RECKONING (Mace & Stella)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #7 — ROCK CHICK REGRET (Hector & Sadie)
Buy for Kindle | Buy in Paperback | Read my Review

Book #8 — ROCK CHICK REVOLUTION (Ally & Ren)
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