Carries Book Reviews

Burned by Fire
Danielle Annett
(Blood & Magic #3)
Publication date: September 30th 2016
Genres: New Adult, Urban Fantasy

Aria’s pyrokinetic ability has always been hard to control, and being pulled in so many directions, isn’t making it any easier. Now she has to help Inarus, a foe turned friend who is being targeted by the Human Alliance Corporation—the very organization he once worked for.

But the HAC has more than just Inarus in their sights. Aria finds herself going deep into enemy territory to save a witchling child with never before seen powers, that the HAC has kidnapped to further their own ends.

Aria has been hired to save a child once before, and she failed. That failure has haunted her even to this day and she won’t let herself fail again. With the HAC closing in, and complications between herself and the Pack rising, Aria has no choice but to succeed. A child’s life is on the line and Aria will risk everything to save that life.

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Previous books in the series:

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EXCERPT:

I trudged up the stairs to my apartment and wiped wet tendrils from my face. Water sloshed in my boots, a reminder of today’s most recent adventure. I’d had the pleasure of bodyguard duty for a water nymph, which was no easy task given that, in her eyes, I was a glorified babysitter, and we happened to be staying in a cabin that was mere feet from the Spokane River. It was the middle of January, and I’d taken the polar bear plunge more than once today. I was chilled to the bone, wet, hungry, and I sorely needed a good cup of coffee, or three.

Only one more flight of stairs to go. I could already taste the coffee on my tongue and feel the hot spray of a warm shower against my skin.

As my apartment door came into view, the hairs on the back of my neck rose and my body went on high alert. Something was off, and dammit, wasn’t that just my luck. I stood in the hall, a chilling breeze whipping my wet hair around my face from the open balcony doors and stinging my cheeks. Shit, it was cold.

I narrowed my gaze. Why were the balcony doors open in the middle of winter? It was like a blizzard out there. I stepped closer toward the balcony, intending to shut the doors, when a splash of red to my left caught my attention instead. There was blood on the doorknob leading into my apartment. This couldn’t be good.

I took a deep breath and debated just turning around. I was too tired to deal with anything else today. Was it too much to ask for some dry clothes and a hot cup of coffee? For chrissakes, I’d take a cold cup of coffee at this point. Then again, it was my apartment, and with my luck, there would be a dead body inside and I’d be framed for the murder. Why couldn’t stuff like this happen at a decent time of day when I was fully rested?

I pressed my ear against the door. Well, really it was more like I slumped against the door, but the result was the same. I listened for any signs of movement. The wooden door was cool against my cheek. Silence greeted me. Hmm, maybe there really is a dead body, I mused with a sick sense of morbid curiosity.

Author Bio:

Danielle Annett is a reader, writer, photographer, and the blogger behind Coffee and Characters. Born in the SF Bay area, she now resides in Spokane, WA, the primary location for her Blood & Magic series.

Addicted to coffee at an early age, she spends her restless nights putting pen to paper as she tries to get all of the stories out of her head before the dogs wake up the rest of the house and vye for her attention.

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Bad For You
Candy J. Starr
(Fallen Star Series, #4)
Publication date: October 3rd 2016
Genres: New Adult, Romance

I’d loved Devon forever, from the front row of his concerts. So, when fate gives me the chance to be his fake girlfriend for three months, I know I can make that relationship real. As I get to know Devon though, I realise how big the gap is between his image and reality. I loved Devon the rock star but could I love Devon the man?

I was in love with a ghost, the memory of a lost love. Julie. When she died, my heart had been buried with her. I had sex with a lot of woman but they were gone before the condom came off my cock. Then my dirt bag manager had the stupidest idea ever: a fake girlfriend to save my reputation. I played along to keep my fans happy but this fake girlfriend is unlike any woman I’ve met before.

If you like fake girlfriend romances, dirty rockers and stories of redemption, you’ll love Bad for You.

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EXCERPT:

“You’re drooling,” he said. He pursed his lips as he looked at me but his eyes sparkled. He was amused.

“Am not.”

“Oh, you totally are. And I find it offensive when a woman drools over something that’s not me.”

I laughed. I’d drool over him plenty. Now we would have dinner together and everything would be perfect. My skin prickled with his closeness and my body was on hyper alert. Having his gaze locked on me was a fantasy come true. I wanted to freeze his moment, maybe put it in one of those snow globes. Just Devon and I, so close that our bodies almost touched in his now-clean kitchen. I wondered if he’d kiss me.

“Do you want to fuck me?” he said, his words a challenge and the look in his eyes enough to make me break out into a cold sweat.

“Um… ah… no!”

“You lie.”

Of course I was lying but I couldn’t blatantly say to him that I wanted nothing more for him to throw me on my back and rip my panties off me. That would be the best possible outcome right now because my panties were getting wetter every minute. Was he thinking about fucking me? Was that why he asked? I should say yes. Embrace this opportunity, and Devon, with both hands. My whole body burnt. I couldn’t breathe.

“Good,” he said, before I could answer him. “Because this arrangement is just business.”

Author Bio:

Candy J. Starr used to be a band manager until she realised that the band she managed was so lacking in charisma that they actually sucked the charisma out of any room they played. “Screw you,” she said, leaving them to wallow in obscurity – totally forgetting that they owed her big bucks for video equipment hire.

Candy has filmed and interviewed some big names in the rock business, and a lot of small ones. She’s seen the dirty little secrets that go on in the back rooms of band venues. She’s seen the ugly side of rock and the very pretty one.

But, of course, everything she writes is fiction.

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Our Options Have Changed
Elisa Reed & Julia Kent
Publication date: October 5th 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Having it all is a fantasy, right?

Chloe Browne knows all about fantasy. Fantasy is her job.

And she’s very, very good at what she does.

As director of design for the O Spa chain, a sophisticated women’s club that is trending its way into being the Next Big Thing, Chloe’s ready to take on the world.

One baby at a time.

Her home study’s done, and she’s about to adopt, a thirty-something single mother by choice. Who needs to put her life on hold for the right guy when the right baby is waiting for her?

Besides, talk about fantasy.

The right guy?

Pfft. Right.

And then in walks Nick Grafton, with those commanding sapphire eyes and wavy blonde hair and a sophisticated mouth that only smiles for her.

He’s perfect.

But the last thing Nick wants is to start fresh with a new baby as his college-age kids fly the coop. A single father for more than fifteen years after his wife walked out on her family, Nick finally tastes freedom.

But he likes the taste of Chloe more.

* * *

Our Options Have Changed is a full-length standalone contemporary romance, the first in the On Hold series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Julia Kent and journalist-turned-fiction-writer Elisa Reed. It is a loose spinoff from Julia Kent’s Shopping for a Billionaire series, with cameo appearances from favorite characters.

**BONUS ALL-NEW NOVELLA** from Julia Kent’s New York Times bestselling Shopping series! Read Shopping for a Billionaire’s Honeymoon. This 100-page bonus comes at the end of Our Options Have Changed. When Shannon can’t get workaholic Declan to give her the sexy honeymoon time she wants, she takes matters into her own hands — with hilariously disastrous (or disastrously hilarious?) results.

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EXCERPT:

O is a twenty-first century club for sophisticated women. A fourth space for women of a discerning taste.

Home is the first space. Work is the second space. Third spaces are locations like coffee shops and malls.

O is the fourth space. The space where you can arrive. Rest. Relax. Indulge. Be someone you can’t be in the other three spaces.

Based on our membership rates, we’re onto something. Our investors are, shall we say, pleased.

O does have a public presence, thanks to our retail environments. In Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, and soon in New Orleans, sophisticated consumers can spend hours—and hundreds of dollars—browsing our selection of “elegant accessories for intimate pleasure.”

That’s right—sex toys. That’s what the masses call them. Except at O, we cater to a clientele that doesn’t want to be one of the hoi polloi. They want to be unique. In the know. Enlightened and cosmopolitan on the surface.

But a wildcat down…below.

Which makes a Grade C unacceptable. No one wants to be average.

Especially down below.

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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The Masterminds by Olivia Wildenstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Joshua Cooper has been in the middle of a investigation of a mob runner that is coming dangerously close to two of his best friends, Ivy and Astor Redd. The two girls are twins who have both in their own ways become involved in Joshua’s investigation, Ivy had sold a quilt to the mob runner, and Aster hits him with her car in a motel parking lot.

Meanwhile, Brook Jackson is a judge on the Masterpiecers’s art competition that Ivy was accepted as a contestant. Brook has done his share of questionable activities but now he wants to prove himself to Ivy and clear his name so he cuts a deal with Joshua. Now it’s Joshua’s job to prove the real thieves and help the twins.

The Masterminds is the second book in the Masterful series by Olivia Wildenstein. This book starts off before the events in the first book, then through what was going on and then expands past the end of that story all while switching the POVs that the story is told from the twins in the first book to Joshua and Brooke in this installment.

I’d recently read another series that did something similar to this one and with each of these series I have had my moments of doubt when I think why reread things I had already read. But again the author has proven me wrong in thinking I’m going to get the same story when it truth this felt a lot like reading a completely different book with the change of angle and story focus. Great job making something new and compelling while refreshing the story from before and continuing it onward with this installment.

Overall, this was a great series whether reading both books or just one or the other of them, both stories had their own feel and took on a life of their own after switching characters which I was very impressed with and again had the pages turning reading to see what would happen in the end.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

All I Want for Christmas: A feel good Christmas romance to warm your heart by Jenny Hale
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

Leah Evans has been planning on having the usual family Christmas at her grandmother’s plantation in Virginia but knows that it’s not going to be quite the same this year after the passing of her Nan. While still reeling from the loss Leah receives some more crushing news, Nan had revised her will at the last moment and decided to leave half of the plantation to Leah’s old childhood friend, David Forester.

Leah hasn’t seen David since they were children and doesn’t know why Nan would go against what she’d told her for years. Her plans for continuing the family business and raising her daughter in their family home are quickly in danger when David refuses to compromise and wants to buy Leah out of her share of the plantation.

All I Want for Christmas should have been an easy five star holiday read for me but I was left with a bit of disappointment with this one. Sure we had childhood friends drawn back together over the holiday that eventually turns into something more but the story spent a lot of time building to that.

Leah is a single mother who she and her daughter had been told through the years that they would inherit the property and business. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the young struggling mother who has already lost her grandmother she was close to but is now getting her future possibly taken from her which leads me to David… David on the other hand was not a favorite character of mine being so determined that the inheritance would go his way with no compromise at all, not a very warm feeling for most of the book towards him due to this.

Still this was a well written clean holiday romance, just a bit too slow for my taste to leave the beginning controversy and become the more you expect from the story. In the end I decided to give this one 3.5 stars just due to the slow build.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.