Carries Book Reviews

Safety. Anonymity. Invisibility. 

Hannah forced a laugh to cover the unease gripping her by the throat.

Apparently, her laugh sounded as phony as it felt for Cade’s smile fell. Gaze somber, he lifted his left hand, stroking his thumb over her chin. “You okay?”

She wanted to laugh it off, but she’d lied to him enough. The second time around, she gave him a more honest smile, though it still wobbled a bit. “I’m nervous.”

His fingers tightened in hers. “Mmm. Me, too.”

The quiet tone of his voice caught her, filling her with questions. “May I ask why? You don’t look it.”

Cade pushed the door open fully and pulled her inside the suite. She barely registered the click of the door falling shut before his large, warm hands slid into her hair. A bare breath later, he pressed her back against an adjacent wall.

“Because I’ve been dying to do this.” He covered her mouth with his, and any thought of being nervous flew right out the window.

The kiss on the street had been sweet, a taste, passion withheld. The kiss of two people trying each other out for the first time. This one was a hot brand. It promised pleasure lay in her future. His tongue traced the seam of her lips, a question and a tease in one hot stroke. When she opened on a soft sigh, he plunged inside, his tongue dueling with hers. Goose bumps chased each other over the surface of her skin.

If his kiss alone weren’t enough to overwhelm her senses, his hands moved, stroking over her. Down her sides, over her hips to her butt, only to stroke back up her stomach and skimming the underside of her breasts. His body surrounded her, blocking out everything but him, and Hannah let herself get lost. She sought him out, as well, feeling over his firm pecs to his flat abdomen. She yearned to discover the hard muscle and warm skin beneath the fabric of his shirt. Yearned to discover all those luscious places that would drive him mad, make him gasp and groan. She wanted to remember every tiny detail for when he eventually went back to San Diego and she lay alone in the dark, craving exactly this.

“I’ve been dying to get my hands on you.” He murmured against her skin as his lips skimmed across her jaw and down her neck. “Do you know how torturous it is to be so turned on by someone you can’t even see? You have a way with words, Miss Miller.”

His use of her name had a shiver running over the surface of her skin. She yearned to hear him call her name in the grip of an orgasm. Her hips pushed forward, seeking contact with his body. When the softness of her belly brushed the hard bulge in his pants, she couldn’t contain a moan.

He nipped at her bottom lip, then pulled back and took her hand. “Come on. Before I fuck you against this wall.”

To Katie With Love by Erica Lucke Dean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Katie James is out celebrating her birthday with her co-workers from the bank the drinks start flowing and somehow she gets talked into singing. As Katie starts her song in walks a man that looks like the one in her dreams, one that looks like he stepped right out of one of Katie’s favorite romance novels. When the man turns around though she finds it’s one of her clients, Cooper Maxwell, that Katie has had a crush on for the last year.

The next thing Katie knows she awakens in a strange bed after having a drink too many to calm her nerves around Cooper. She then finds that it was Cooper himself that brought Katie home to care for her since he didn’t know where she lived. The two soon find themselves rushing into a relationship after both hiding their feelings for the past year but Katie soon finds that Cooper is full of secrets. Will she be able to trust him or is he too good to be true?

Erica Lucke Dean has a way with her characters that make me truly just love everything about them and their stories. Katie was the typical shy and unsure lead but she was also quite adorable with her fumbling and her wild imagination and Cooper is a too good to be true sexy male lead. The rest of Katie’s co-workers were also hilarious in their own ways.

The one thing I was slightly disappointed in was that I had read another book not too long ago that had basically the same outcome as this one. I felt early on that I knew how the story was going to turn out but to be honest Erica Lucke Dean did the story and characters so much better than the other I’d read and after looking them up, this was actually even published first so even guessing the ending this is still getting five stars from me.

Overall, a wonderfully fun read, often very humorous with great characters and while there is sex involved it’s more implied than described for those that don’t enjoy anything too graphic.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

NOW IN TRADE PAPERBACK!

From the peaks of erotic ecstasy–to the point of no return . . .

Power. Passion. Pleasure beyond imagining. Billionaire playboy Rafe Contini offers all this–and more–to the beautiful Nicole Parrish, a young American traveler with a taste for adventure that matches his own. From the private yachts of Monte Carlo to the palatial estates of Geneva to the glittering penthouses of Bangkok, Rafe has shown her a world of unimaginable sensual delights. Now, he is ready to take her to the next daring level. Of danger. Of desire. Of deliciously erotic self-discovery.

Nicole has never known a man as sexy, as strong–or as commanding–as Rafe Contini. Night after steamy night, he turns up the heat, tests her boundaries, and pushes the limits of her body and soul to the point of sweetest agony. But when this masterful lover sweeps her away to a secluded island getaway–where anything can and will happen–Nicole must decide just how far she wants to take this game. And just how much she can bend Rafe’s rules . . .

He slowly exhaled, nodded, then sat down on the bed and touched her cheek with his fingertips. “It’s always more complicated with you. Raw, urgent. It freaks me out, that’s all.” He smiled and his voice softened. “So first, how about we work on your idea of foreplay, then we’ll practice mine.”

He was, she thought, beautiful beyond belief. Reaching up, she took his face in her hands and drew him down.

Leaning forward, he wondered how life suddenly could change so every kiss became incalculably meaningful. He’d never done much kissing. It was too personal or maybe too clichéd for the games he’d played. And now strangely he felt like a poet, wanting to leave a record to the world of each, tender, passionate, heart-stopping kiss.

She kissed him sweetly, lightly, brushing his lower lip with the tip of her tongue.

He angled his head, meeting the fullness of her mouth with the barest whisper of pressure.

Then she gave a low groan, slid her fingers through his slicked-back hair, hauled him closer, and shoved her tongue into his mouth—forcing the pace.

And in case he hadn’t noticed, she hissed, “Hurry, hurry.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, half-smiling, thinking maybe soul mates wasn’t just an empty phrase. In a smooth, lithe ripple of biceps muscles and upper body strength, he swung between her legs, positioned his cock in the slick crease of her pussy, and pushed in smoothly. She was tight. He was big. A perfect fit when it came to flame-hot sensation.

He glided into her lush heat slowly, deliberately, her body yielding by exquisite degrees until he was fully inside and she was gasping softly.

And die-of-pleasure bliss was torching their brains.

Then he slid his hands under her ass, dragged her hard into his stiff cock, felt the shudder slide up her spine, and, arching his back, whispered, “Open your legs wider. Wider.” Flexing his powerful thighs, he plunged forward, drove in hilt deep, and firmly lodged, murmured, velvety and low, “Feel that?”

She moaned long and low as pleasure flooded her pussy, curled her toes, set every nerve in her body alight. She even thought about answering him for a brief lucid moment before he gently rocked from side to side and bliss engulfed her and she purred instead.

Best of times, he thought. He was going to fuck her until he couldn’t move; that’s how good it was.

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The Hidden Twin by Adi Rule
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Eighteen years ago a set of twins were born to a couple that the father was human and the mother was what was called an Other. When twins are born to a human/other couple one twin will be human but the second will become what is known as a Redwing. Redwings are feared and thought to be monsters so when discovered they will be killed at birth. The mother of this set of twins though gave her own life to protect her daughters.

Raised by her father with her sister Jey the Redwing twin was never even given her own name. She has lived in hiding her whole life barely ever coming out of their home. One day when her sister coaxes her out she runs into two priests when returning home that attack and try to capture her. This event starts a chain that brings our Redwing into a plot to save her city.

The Hidden Twin sounded very intriguing and had such a great looking cover that I couldn’t help but want to read it. However when finished I just came away with an it was OK feeling unfortunately.

While the writing was good and on the surface very descriptive, unfortunately I felt myself waiting to find out more of the world in which this was taking place. It also felt like it got off to such a slow start and took me a while to figure out the characters and plot. There were also still a lot of questions left for me when it ended that might have made me love it more if ever answered.

Overall, a bit different of a story but I would have liked more depth to fall in love with it.

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

Into the Dim by Janet B. Taylor
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

Hope Walton’s mother was believed to have been killed in an earthquake eight months ago. Her father has moved on with his life and met someone new but Hope still believes there’s a chance her mother could be alive.

After the service for her mother Hope receives an invitation from her mother’s sister to come for a visit while her father travels. Not wanting to be left with her grandmother that has never accepted Hope into her family since Hope was adopted, she battles her anxiety and boards a plane to meet her mother’s family.

When Hope arrives at her mysterious aunt’s home she is told that her aunt had to leave for a few days. Hope is full of questions, especially when it’s let slip that her mother had been there right before her supposed death but no one is answering Hope’s inquiries until she stumbles upon some strange artifacts and costumes beneath the manor.

Only after Hope’s discovery do her newly acquired family let Hope in on their secrets. They are a group of time travelers and her mother has been trapped in twelfth century England, left by another group of time travelers who have been in somewhat of a feud with Hope’s family.

After scanning a few reviews before picking this book up and reading it myself I was a little iffy going in as to what I would find. I have to say when finished though I’m glad I gave it a fair shot and read it all the way through because I really enjoyed the story once it got going. In the end I decided to rate this one 4.5 stars.

The beginning gets off to a bit of a rocky start which is what seems to be turning some readers away from the book. Hope almost seemed a lot younger than she is supposed to be to me but we learn that she’s been home schooled by her mother her whole life and not allowed to have friends with anyone her own age and also has a slew of anxieties and phobias. She makes a few questionable comments in the beginning but there is actually logic behind them so I overlooked them myself and waited to form an opinion.

Hope at one point says boys prefer “girls like my cheerleader cousins. Size two. Blond. Busty. Brainless.” Ok, if you were raised in a family that treated you as an outcast your whole life because you weren’t like them then it’s a bit understandable that you would be jaded towards that type. Again later she makes a comment about the “slutty girls” at a school, well that’s after the boy she had just met denied knowing her unless she went to that school and they had “hooked up”.

After the rocky start and finally getting into the time traveling I really enjoyed Hope as a character along with all the others in the book and the story line. Perhaps the beginning could have been a tad better but once the story takes off it’s a completely enjoyable read with a lot of adventure and a great look into a historical era. Looking forward to see where this series heads in any future books.

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