Carries Book Reviews

Shattering Truths
Kyrian Lyndon
(Deadly Veils, #1)
Publication date: January 30th 2017
Genres: Suspense, Young Adult

She was left fighting her demons alone . . .

For sixteen-year-old Danielle DeCorso, the old house in Glastonbury was an eerie place to grow up. Coping with mental health challenges exacerbated by a traumatic family dynamic, Danielle watches from the window for two men in a dusty black sedan who keep circling the house and harassing her with phone calls. The two predators drugged her and her cousin, Angie, and then lured them from Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport to a secluded cottage on Long Beach West. She remembers feeling dizzy, the room spinning. She recalls screaming, crying, fighting, and then slipping in and out of consciousness. Angie, however, has no recollection of the incident.

When Danielle attempts to jog Angie’s memory and convince their best friend, Farran, that the two strangers had victimized them, no one seems to believe her. Alone in her pain, Danielle remains guarded, obsessed, and withdrawn. Soon she is sinking deeper into a tumultuous world of adolescent isolation and change. Grief, guilt, and anger send her spiraling into an even darker place.

Tormented by terrifying nightmares, she fears she will lose her sanity, or possibly her soul. Is she having post-traumatic stress hallucinations, as one of her friends suggest, or are her recurring nightmares as real as they seem? Trapped in an unyielding emotional bondage, Danielle continues the fight to reclaim her power. Startling revelations awaken her newfound spirit, inspiring a once naïve girl to grow into a woman of defiance and courage.

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Author Bio:

Kyrian Lyndon is the author of Shattering Truths, the first book in her Deadly Veils series. She has also published two poetry collections, A Dark Rose Blooms, and Remnants of Severed Chains. Kyrian began writing short stories and fairy tales when she was just eight years old. In her adolescence, she moved on to poetry. At sixteen, while working as an editor for her high school newspaper, she wrote her first novel, and then completed two more novels at the ages of nineteen and twenty-five.

Born and raised in Woodside, Queens, New York, Kyrian was the middle of three daughters born to immigrants —her father from Campochiaro, Italy; her mother from Havana, Cuba. She has worked primarily in executive-level administrative positions with major New York publishing companies. She resides on Long Island in New York.

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Shopping for a CEO’s Wife
Julia Kent
(Shopping for a Billionaire, #12)
Publication date: April 25th 2017
Genres: Adult, Romance

Snowbound. Sounds so romantic, with visions of cuddling before a roaring fire, hot chocolate spiked with brandy, and a secret elopement.

Wait. What?

My fiancé’s father won’t stop trying to turn our pending wedding into a three-ring media circus so he can get free publicity for his family’s Fortune 500 company. My mother has decided she’s done with All Things Wedding and asks her teacup Chihuahua for mother-of-the-bride advice.

They’ve all gone certifiably mad.

Then the stress from the wedding puts my mother in the hospital, I scream at my future father-in-law in front of a camera crew and the video goes viral, and the romantic wedding that started with Andrew’s grand Pride and Prejudice proposal looks less like Jane Austen and more like Dostoyevsky.

So what do you do when you’re a fixer and you can’t fix something?

You give up on it.

Not on Andrew, silly.

The wedding.

Shopping for a CEO’s Wife is the 12th book in Julia Kent’s New York Times bestselling Shopping series. As Shannon and Declan enjoy their newlywed bliss, Andrew’s father wants to exploit Amanda and Andrew’s nuptials, much to Amanda’s chagrin. Can she learn to stand up to her future father-in-law and fight for what’s right? But the real question is: will Spritzy the teacup Chihuahua end up being a flower girl?

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Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Julia Kent writes romantic comedy with an edge. From billionaires to BBWs to new adult rock stars, Julia finds a sensual, goofy joy in every contemporary romance she writes. Unlike Shannon from Shopping for a Billionaire, she did not meet her husband after dropping her phone in a men’s room toilet (and he isn’t a billionaire). She lives in New England with her husband and three sons in a household where the toilet seat is never, ever, down.

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Dax
Nana Malone
(The Player Series)
Publication date: February 28th 2017
Genres: New Adult, Romance, Sports

Money, power, prestige…trouble. Dax Coulter is … The Player.

Forget prodigal son, forget black sheep. Most of the Coulter family would just as soon disown Dax for his bad boy, womanizing ways. But, with his career in jeopardy and the Coulter legacy on the line, he needs to turn it all around. Too bad the one person who can help him, has legs for miles and curves for days…and is his best friend’s little sister. For once he can focus on the game and not on her body right?

Asha Wix is used to following all the rules. And with a family like hers that isn’t easy. She’s learned that to be seen and have merit, she needs to eat, breathe, sleep football. When she’s given the chance to change the reputation of league bad boy, Dax Coulter, she sees a chance to shine. Too bad, the sexy bad boy has her thinking about breaking all the rules and doing something a lot naughtier than sleeping football.

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EXCERPT:

The awkwardness stretched between them until Asha couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Well, goodnight then. I’ll see you around at work, I’m sure.”

“I’ll walk you out and get you a car out the back.”

“That’s not necessary. I’ll be—”

He shook his head, cutting her off. “You were seen with me out front. The paparazzi will be waiting.”

“Okay. Well, thank you.”

Dax ushered Asha to the back of the bar. As they shuffled through the crowd, the only thing she could feel was the warm press of his hand on her back as he guided her. Currents of electricity spread from that spot on her back to the rest of her body.

Holy hell, this was all kinds of inconvenient. Inconvenient is an understatement, honey. Her body was responding to him in a way that she’d never felt before, and it was more than inconvenient. More like a disaster. She’d felt the pull of attraction earlier today, and naïvely, she thought she’d be able to ignore it. Shove it under the rug. No such luck.

Dax was a professional athlete. That meant he went through women like Kleenex. And an uptight virgin was not going to get his attention for very long. Not like she’d intended to still be a virgin at twenty.

Okay, so maybe she hadn’t really done anything about that fact, either. She figured it would happen someday. But someday got replaced with studying, and doing everything in her power to gain her father’s love. She hadn’t really had time for boys.

Oh, and her brother was Damon Wix, so most guys avoided her, for fear he’d annihilate them.

At the back door, Dax spoke to one of the security guards, who then nodded and went outside.

“They’ll get you a cab, and let you know when it’s here.”

She blinked up at him and cleared her throat. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do the knight-in-shining-armor thing, but it’s appreciated.”

“Well, you were my dat—uh, meeting, person, thing, so…uh…” He sighed. “You came with me, so I’m making sure you get home safe. Look at me being the good guy.”

And just as soon as the sincerity was there, it was quickly driven out. Not to worry; now that she knew it was there, lurking under the surface, she knew she could get it back.

Luckily, the hallway wasn’t as crowded as the VIP area or the main club, but a mix of busboys, security, and wait staff ran back and forth at a quick clip. One of them bumped her, shoving her into Dax’s big body. Thanks to his quick reflexes, he steadied her in an instant, only for her to realize that her body was pressed against his like a plaster mold.

Dax stared down at her, his eyes going darker. More focused. His lips parted, and Asha couldn’t control the wild swing of her erratic heartbeat. Low in her belly, something hot and slick pulled at her, making her want…things. Things with him. Things she had no business wanting. Her nipples pebbled to hard peaks against his chest, as she fought for breath.

Luckily, she wasn’t the only one affected. Even as his pupils dilated, his breath came out in choppy spurts. When he finally spoke, his voice was low, rough. “Asha—” It was part question, part, I’m going to do very dirty things to you. Or, maybe that was just in her head.

He leaned his head down, and for a moment, Asha dared to breathe, dared to hope—

“Hey, Coulter, got that cab for you.”

In a flash, Dax set her away from him, and Asha’s head swam as she tried to focus. He licked his lips and took a very deliberate step back. “Let’s get you safely in a cab, yeah?”

Even as he shut the cab door behind her, Asha couldn’t help but wonder, what the fuck had just happened?

Author Bio:

USA Today Best Seller, Nana Malone’s love of all things romance and adventure started with a tattered romantic suspense she “borrowed” from her cousin.

It was a sultry summer afternoon in Ghana, and Nana was a precocious thirteen. She’s been in love with kick butt heroines ever since. With her overactive imagination, and channeling her inner Buffy, it was only a matter a time before she started creating her own characters.

While she waits for her chance at a job as a ninja assassin, in the meantime Nana works out her drama, passion and sass with fictional characters every bit as sassy and kick butt as she thinks she is.

Want to know when the next book is coming? Hit up her Newsletter here. You’ll only get updated when there is a new release or a special promotion for her Sexy, Sassy Readers. http://eepurl.com/2PeXb

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