Cover Reveal: Monsters & Angels by Anne Marie Andrus
Monsters & Angels
Anne Marie Andrus
Publication date: October 2017
Genres: Historical, New Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Fledgling nurse Sorcha Alden knew she had the skills to save lives, but she never dreamed that her own life would be the one in danger.
Driven by tragedy to honor her family name, Sorcha embarks on a journey that takes her from the bleak but familiar streets of New York, through the sultry and seductive city of New Orleans, and into the brutal jungles of Nepal. Forging friendships and carrying on her mother’s mission of healing was her dream. Plunging into a love affair with the mysterious Dr. Ashayle could have been a fairytale.
Being murdered and waking up as a blood-thirsty monster—became her living nightmare.
Torn away form a life that had just begun, Sorcha returns to New Orleans as a newborn vampire, forced to start over in a cutthroat underworld of devilry and decadence. Complicated politics, bitter rivals and jealous ancestors stand between her and the promises she’s still determined to keep.
In a realm where the boundary between good and evil is as murky as the Mississippi River and immortal does not mean invincible, will Sorcha ever risk her shattered heart and love again? Can the magical harmony of the Crescent City give her enough courage to fulfill her eternal destiny?
Author Bio:
Anne Marie has been an equestrienne, chorale singer, candy-striper, EMT, and baseball fan. Roaming the back roads of New Jersey with her family, she found great respect for antiques, historical locations and the stories they hold. Her current list of
favorite pastimes include coffee, bourbon, and Les Miserables–which requires more bourbon. She has been known to attend sporting events just for the flyover. The boat she and her husband christened Glory Days, is her escape from the chaos of everyday life.
The inspiration for Anne Marie’s debut novel, Monsters & Angels, is her fascination with vampires and her passion for everything New Orleans. When she isn’t writing, she can be found working nights with the critical care team in a busy trauma center.
Project Pandora (The Olympus Experiments, #1) by Aden Polydoros
Project Pandora by Aden Polydoros
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Tyler Bennett has spent most of his life going from one foster home to the next without having anyone in his life that he can trust so he’s mostly a loner. Tyler has been unaware though that there is something about himself that even he doesn’t realize, he’s a member of Project Pandora and is being controlled and used as an assassin with no memory of the events until now.
As Tyler begins regaining memories and control from the voice giving him order he realizes that he’s not the only one being used by Project Pandora. Tyler finds that he’s going to have to learn to trust others within the group if there will be any hope of them surviving the Project.
Project Pandora is the first book in the Olympus Experiments by Aden Polydoros. The series begins following four young adults with the chapters changing the point of view between them as their stories begin to unfold and find out how they are involved in the project. The story is a bit of suspense mixed with some romance with the relationships forming between the characters.
I did start off this one finding it a bit confusing in the beginning trying to remember which characters was which as each of them also have a Greek code name used when they are under the influence of the project. Then there is also parts between chapters where the “subjects” in the project are also referred to as a number so that also added in trying to keep track of who was being referred to at which point.
The story however was a fun one to follow as it built throughout the book. The opening pages throws the reader right into an assassination and builds the intensity of what and where could this go from here. I did find myself at the end with that thought too of that’s it….where’s this going to go from here on out as it is obvious there’s much more for the author to tell in any following installments.
After reading this installment to the series I decided on giving it 3.5 stars but I have a feeling that now that I am more familiar with the characters and how the story works the ratings will probably go up from here.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
Adjunct Lovers by Liz Crowe Release Blast with giveaway
A brew that brings two lovers full circle.
ADJUNCT LOVERS
A Brewing Passion Novella
Liz Crowe
Releasing July 18, 2017
Totally Bound
When Ross
and Elisa open their new business in Detroit, they believe they’ve embarked on
a dream life, complete with their beloved, precocious daughter. But owning and
running a restaurant is not for the faint of heart, and Elle quickly becomes
laser-focused and obsessed, while Ross spends his days consulting, or
concocting new beers on his pilot system—and wondering why she won’t agree to
set a date for their wedding. When their restaurant—named “Komfort” for its
focus on the comfort foods of various cultures—is featured on a nationally
televised tour of hot new eateries, its popularity shoots into the
stratosphere, and Elle’s stress level reaches a breaking point.
Faced with
a mutual inability to communicate beyond their robust sex life, Ross issues an
ill-considered ultimatum: the restaurant or him. Stunned when she refuses to
consider such a ridiculous demand, he’s forced to come to terms with his own
selfish tendencies. Hoping to repair the damage he’s done, he concocts a new
beer inspired by her, using a recipe for a classic German-style Kölch. He
crafts the final product using a special ingredient designed to catch Elle’s
attention. It does. But not necessarily the way he’d planned.
“Adjunct
Lovers” fills in the story begun in LIGHTSTRUCK, and provides a closer look at
Ross’s and Elle’s complex personalities as they make their sexy way toward
happily ever after—with the help of a very special brew.
The job was a hell of a lot more than she’d bargained for—although to be fair, she had been warned by plenty of people familiar with its daily grind. The mornings were her favorite time here. The kitchen sparkling from the night’s cleaning, the tables bare, the chairs flipped over on top of them. The place still held a bit of mustiness from its many years sitting empty but they were overwhelming that with nearly three years’ worth of their own odors—drywall, paint, floor refinishing, which were all subsumed by the daily fact of food being prepared, served and eaten.
She and Ross had built this. It was theirs. And yet, now it was more ‘hers’ and a lot less ‘his’. She understood his need to get back to brewing and supported it but she missed his daily presence, supporting her, in ways she’d never thought she would.
She moved over to the secondhand couch, used by her and countless others for cat naps during down times, and closed her burning eyes, marveling at what a relief it was not to be looking at lists, recipes and spreadsheets.
Just for a minute. Just a quick rest.
She fell into a light sleep within seconds, dropping into an odd half dream-state, where she could still hear the prep staff talking, laughing, slamming things around. Music suffused her drifting brain, matching whatever had been dialed up on the streaming service behind her.
She felt Ross’ arms around her, cradling her, his lips at her ear, crooning to her in his country-boy German accent. As she relaxed in his embrace, he kissed her, sending a sharp spike of lust down her spine. Dream-Ross undressed her gently, stroking every inch of skin he exposed, following that with his lips, tongue and teeth. She shivered and reached for him, wanting more of him. Wanting all of him.
But now he was frowning at her, withdrawing. His mouth moved but she couldn’t hear his words. He was making that crazy-ass ultimatum again. They were fighting. Anger swirled around and between them, poisoning the pleasant eroticism of the moment before. It wasn’t as if they’d never fought. It was more like these arguments held an edge of real frustration as opposed to brief or imagined aggravation. She hated it. She hated herself for being so short, so tired all the time, so obsessed, as he liked to put it, by the damn restaurant.
“But it was your god damned idea, Hoffman,” she reminded him in her dream. “What do you think? I’d just open it and waltz away from the thing, letting it run itself?”
“No,” he said, his voice low, tight with unhappiness. “That’s not what I think.”
“Then what do you suggest? I mean, I’m sorry if you’re feeling neglected. But I can’t take my eyes off this. I can’t. You understood, once upon a time, but all of a sudden you’re being a total child about it.”
Dream-Ross reached for her, tugged her close, their naked skin warm as they wrapped themselves around each other and fell into their bed. “I want to get married, Elisa,” he demanded when she straddled his hips and eased herself down his long, thick shaft with a sigh. “I want that one simple thing. Why won’t you give that to me?” His deep blue eyes were wide, his breathing shallow. She rolled her hips in silence, giving them the friction they both sought. “God damn it.” He yanked her down. The ropey strands of her dreadlocks curtained them when he jammed his tongue into her mouth, before rolling them so he was on top, the way he preferred to come, buried deep inside her.
She reached back and grasped the headboard, lifting her lower body up, wanting him deeper, groaning as she came in a glorious burst of energy at the same moment she felt him join her, releasing into her with a hoarse cry of pleasure. This was her man, her Ross, her life. It was all she wanted, nothing more. She opened her eyes and pressed her hand to the tight, red curls of his beard. “I love you,” she said in a whisper.
He frowned. “Then marry me. Today. Tomorrow. This weekend. I’m sick of waiting.” She opened her mouth to say “yes, anything you want. Just please never leave me.”
Someone was shaking her shoulder, yanking her out of the half-dream, half-memory. She hadn’t been able to say “yes” that night, either. She’d been so overwhelmed at the thought of planning a wedding she’d started crying, so he’d held her until they’d both fallen asleep, still skin-to-skin, sweaty and sticky. The next morning they’d had their first massive, ugly fight. And that had been, what, a month ago now? It felt like a million years, but also just yesterday.
Catch up on ALL the
Brewing Passion Romances
Amazon
best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing
expert, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the
University of Louisville currently living in Ann Arbor. She has decades of
experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.
Her early
forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre,
“Romance: Worth the Risk,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers
interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).
With
stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in
successful real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul,
Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe
backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and
complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the
imagination long after the book is finished.
Don’t ever
ask her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury.
Leave The Night On (Cottonbloom, #4) by Laura Trentham
Leave The Night On by Laura Trentham
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
Sutton Mize was wanting to do something special for her fiancee before their upcoming wedding so after tossing around ideas she decides to take his Camaro in to be restored. After arriving at the shop ran by Wyatt Abbott Sutton has the unthinkable happen to an upcoming bride, a pair of underwear are found under the seat of the car. Sutton knows right away being that they are a specialty order from her own boutique who they belong to, her own best friend.
Wyatt agrees to give Sutton a ride home so that she can have some time to think about what to do with what she has found out. While confronting her fiancee Sutton finds herself hurt but not heartbroken to find out that he has been using her friend as much as he seems to be using her too. Ending the engagement Sutton also tries to save a bit of dignity by telling him she had her own affair with Wyatt. Now to only get Wyatt to agree to pretending to be in a relationship for awhile.
Leave the Night On is the fourth book in the Cottonbloom series by Laura Trentham. I didn’t realize this was even a series when I picked it up to read but thankfully as with most romance/contemporary series the book reads find as a standalone novel as each in the series feature a new couple.
While I’m not a huge fan of jumping into a new relationship right after ending a serious one this book did a good job at making that not seem quite as bad to me. Sutton obviously was in her previous relationship more because it was what was expected of her than actually being in love. With starting something up with Wyatt it’s also done as the pretense of fake which I actually kind of like stories like this as it gives the characters time to develop feelings while being together.
Overall, in the end with the story and characters and all that was involved I decided to give this one 3.5 stars and would look into reading more by this author in the future.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy
First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy
My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars
Izzie and her three best friends, Vivian, Harry, and Graham, would do anything for one another and have always been on the outside of the social order but have had each other. When they were twelve Izzie, Viv and Graham had found the body of a young girl that had been murdered which drew Harry into the group when he came to investigate what the police and first responders were doing.
Now five years later the memory of that day and the girl Izzie had nicknamed Goldilocks still haunts the friends. The police hadn’t done a thing stating she was just another runaway asking for it and now the four friends have decided to do something about it. Forming their own secret society known as the Order of IV the begin to cause mayhem and bring attention to the murder long forgotten by the town.
First We Were IV by Alexandra Sirowy is a young adult mystery/thriller with a tad bit of romance and a whole lot of teen angst added into the story. The synopsis and idea behind this book is one that really should earn five stars from me when reading but unfortunately as with another of Sirowy’s books I have read this one fell short of that mark yet again.
First, I had the same problem when reading another by this author but the main character, Izzie, narrates most of the book and I just find her personality lacking. There’s just sort of a dullness or odd feel to the somewhat monotone narration but then it would pick up during the action and times with dialogue with the other characters.
Even with lacking a connection to Izzie I was finding the story quite interesting. There are several other things that this group of four have had in their lives that left them wanting answers and struggling with dealing with things to keep up interest as the Order is formed and begins their missions. But at some point during the middle I also felt it start to stall out not giving much progress to the things going on and perhaps dare I say getting a tad repetitive just giving the same details to these events.
Then I got to the end of this book….oh how I wanted this one to redeem itself with an awesome ending after being on the fence throughout the read. However, for this reader I found the ending quite unsatisfying. Some of the events leading to the end went a tad too far in my opinion so I’m not sure what I expected to pull this one out but it wasn’t what I found. The answers to the mystery side weren’t necessarily bad though, a bit unexpected but the overall just didn’t sit well with me. In the end I’d only give this one 2.5 stars, some great ideas but just not a fan of how it was all executed.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
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