contemporary romance
A-Z Challenge: “A” is for “Aiden” – Book Trailer Reveal for Gina Maxwell’s “Fighting for Irish”
Aside Posted on Updated on
He’ll fight for her life. She’ll fight for his love.
Former MMA fighter Aiden “Irish” O’Brien hasn’t stepped into the ring since he accidentally took someone’s life in the heat of rage. When his friend calls in a favor that sends him south to check on family, Irish figures he’s got nothing to lose. His life is on the ropes. The least he can do is make sure the sexy redhead is safe.
Kat MacGregor has forty-eight hours to settle the twenty thousand dollar debt her deadbeat ex-boyfriend owes a crime boss. If she doesn’t, she’ll pay for it—with her life. Kat’s halfway out the door when a sexy new guy walks into the bar and insists he’s there to help.
Irish is forced to fight in the underground MMA circuit to win the money she needs. But he’s been lying to Kat. About who he is, about knowing her sister, about why he comes home bruised every night. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him, but breaking her trust will cost him the most important fight of his life: the one for her heart.
Here is the link to my 5-Star Review. Enjoy the book trailer for “Fighting for Irish!”
About the Author:
Growing up she dreamed of helping people escape reality with her acting abilities…until college when she realized she had none to speak of. Another ten years passed before she discovered a different means to accomplishing the same dream: writing stories of love and passion for addicts just like her. Her debut novel, Seducing Cinderella, landed on the USA Today and NY Times Bestseller lists in less than a month.
Now she splits her time between writing more books and acting as Boss of the world’s first organized romance mafia, the Maxwell Mob.Thanks to the support she receives from her amazing family, Gina is finally able to live her dream of bringing a little romantic fantasy to the world, one steamy novel at a time.
Find out more about Gina on her website, follow her on Twitter, and Pinterest and like her Facebook page.
Happy Release Day to Olivia Cunning!
Olivia Cunning’s Sinners are going to the chapel and going to get married!
So, the paperback proof copy of Sinners at the Altar just arrived on my doorstep. Freaking finally… *grumble, overnight airmail my ass, grumble*
And all those lines that were on the digital proof’s cover are nowhere to be seen on the hard copy, so in celebration of the release (of the breath I’ve been holding since Friday *cough*) of Sinners at the Altar, I’m giving away 10 autographed copies of the book w/ a Sinners on Tour wristband. (Two are in the picture so you can see both sides.)
And since I’m feeling generous, I’m giving away 20 additional wristbands. 1 per winner.
So that’s 30 prizes up for grabs!
Well, you do have to enter…
Click on the link below to enter for your chance to win.
Sinners at the Altar Release Day Giveaway!
Good luck!
And yes, it’s open internationally.
5-Stars for Hayson Manning’s “Winning the Boss’s Heart” – Book Review
Mason Christian has twelve weeks to flip something old into something new, and then he’s getting the hell out of Footsteps Bay – a tiny New Zealand coastal town. Not even his temporary secretary and personal assistant–the feisty, luscious Billie McLeod–will deter him, but there’s no denying she makes him feel alive. More alive than he’s felt in three years…My Review
With her second book, Winning the Boss’s Heart, Hayson Manning took us to her beautiful home country of New Zealand. Set in the bucolic coastal town of Footsteps Bay, Mason Christian hired Billie McLeod to work as his personal assistant on a project he hoped would be completed quickly.
Billie was a heroine who knew her own worth. After suffering some personal setbacks, she was saving money to finish her degree, and working for Mason seemed like the fastest way to earn the most money. She fearlessly challenged Mason and the sarcastic nicknames she created for him, were inspired. Nothing like treating the boss with the same impersonal disdain, as he treated his employees.
Mason was a deeply broken man, sublimating his emotions in his work and keeping people at arm’s length. As his feelings for Billie grew, he was forced to confront some painful events from his past. Little did Mason know that fate would intervene, to give him a compelling second chance at love story. Ms. Manning beautifully constructed and sensitively handled, Mason’s heartbreaking past.
Billie and Mason’s interactions ran the gamut of emotions from trepidation, to antagonism, to friendship, and finally, acceptance, and love. Lovingly meddlesome townsfolk and growing spicy, sexy action rounded out this terrific story.
With Wife in Name Only, Hayson Manning became a must-read author for me. After, Winning the Boss’s Heart, she became a must-preorder or must-1-click author for me. I highly recommend her books for well-developed characters, richly illustrated locations and secondary characters and multilayered storytelling,
Hayson Manning grew up in a small New Zealand town in a family of scientists and engineers Hayson was told firmly that her ‘day dreaming’ phase would end. Soon, she’d be entranced by the inner workings of the periodic table and be spellbound by quantum physics. But Hayson loved living in the lands she created. Oh, the creatures that stopped by. The princes and princesses, unicorns and Frank a friendly chain-smoking shark.
It soon became apparent Hayson wasn’t going to be awarded the Nobel Prize for services to the atom.
She conformed and has worked as a demon word processor, sliced ham in a delicatessen, sorted freight, pulled midnight shifts in a bank and counted baked bean cans in a stock-take. She never stopped dreaming of writing alpha dudes and sassy woman.
She’s lived in Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne, London, California and is now in Sydney. All she ever wanted to do was write fun and flirty people who aren’t perfect but will fight for that one person who will love them for who they are.
Represented by Nalini Akolekar of Spencerhill Associates, that dream has come true, writing for Entangled Publishing. She loves a good glass of wine, dreams of winning the lottery, cries while watching Antiques Roadshow and cannot speak she’s sobbing so much by the end of Undercover Boss. She is also an expert at finding new and inventive ways to avoid exercise.
Find out more about Hayson on her website, follow her on Twitter and like her Facebook page. She loves to hear from her fans.
5-Stars for Gina L. Maxwell’s “Fighting for Irish” – Book Review
Former MMA fighter Aiden “Irish” O’Brien hasn’t stepped into the ring since he accidentally took someone’s life in the heat of rage. When his friend calls in a favor that sends him south to check on family, Irish figures he’s got nothing to lose. His life is on the ropes. The least he can do is make sure the sexy redhead is safe.
Kat MacGregor has forty-eight hours to settle the twenty thousand dollar debt her deadbeat ex-boyfriend owes a crime boss. If she doesn’t, she’ll pay for it–with her life. Kat’s halfway out the door when a sexy new guy walks into the bar and insists he’s there to help.
Irish is forced to fight in the underground MMA circuit to win the money she needs. But he’s been lying to Kat. About who he is, about knowing her sister, about why he comes home bruised every night. She’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him, but breaking her trust will cost him the most important fight of his life: the one for her heart.
My Review:
Like Irish’s favorite cranberry juice – Fighting for Irish (A Fighting for Love Novel) (Entangled Brazen) was a bitter, sweet, tart and delicious 5 stars!
We learned about Kat MacGregor, Vanessa MacGregor’s sister, in Rules of Entanglement (A Fighting for Love Novel) (Entangled Brazen). Kat’s upbringing, tough at best and cripplingly devastating at its worst, left her with deep emotional scars and a protective covering around her heart. She was on the run from the Tennessee Mafia and unable to communicate with Vanessa. A worried Vanessa, led Kat’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, Jax, to hire his friend Aiden O’Brien “Irish”, to find, follow and if need be, protect her, in Fighting for Irish.
Irish, a retired MMA fighter, was also hiding a tortured past and despite their best efforts their mutual attraction brought them closer. Together the tore down each other’s walls, brick by brick, exposing more deep seeded pain and allowing the possibility of love to blossom. Both Kat and Irish were beautifully broken characters who deserved healing, forgiveness and the opportunity at happily ever after, as they faced their pasts.
In true Gina L. Maxwell fashion, the sex was explosive. However, the slow, deliberate, yet gentle, buildup to their lovemaking was handled with care, respect and sensitivity for two characters who believed they were unlovable. Ms. Maxwell’s pacing of their relationship, amid the suspense, was impeccable. Of the three books in the series, Fighting for Irish was the most poignantly moving.
While Fighting for Irish, may be read as a standalone novel, I highly recommend reading the first two books in the series – Seducing Cinderella (A Fighting for Love Novel) (Entangled Brazen) and Rules of Entanglement, to get a complete sense of the previous relationships and characters that brought Kat and Irish together. In addition, I am looking forward to reading Xander’s story, as he will be another tough nut to crack, and deserves his own ladylove.
About the Author:
Growing up she dreamed of helping people escape reality with her acting abilities…until college when she realized she had none to speak of. Another ten years passed before she discovered a different means to accomplishing the same dream: writing stories of love and passion for addicts just like her. Her debut novel, Seducing Cinderella, landed on the USA Today and NY Times Bestseller lists in less than a month.
Now she splits her time between writing more books and acting as Boss of the world’s first organized romance mafia, the Maxwell Mob.Thanks to the support she receives from her amazing family, Gina is finally able to live her dream of bringing a little romantic fantasy to the world, one steamy novel at a time.
Find out more about Gina on her website, follow her on Twitter, and Pinterest and like her Facebook page.
Book Review – “Searching For Moore,” by Julie A. Richman
Link Posted on Updated on
My Mazel of the day goes to Julie Richman, for tearing my heart out to Bruce Springsteen, the soundtrack of my youth. I have some beautiful Mazel Shot Glasses from Andy Cohen’s Bravo Clubhouse, just for you, Missy.
I will start by publicly flogging myself for thinking this was a “New Adult” novel, featuring a bunch of entitled, horny, self-centered, shiftless college students. It is not. I will further admit that I purchased it on sale, thinking it was a New Adult novel, featuring a bunch of entitled, horny, self-centered, shiftless college students. Therefore, my Catholic girl penance is that I am writing this post at 4:45 a.m. ET, after staying up all night long to finish reading Searching for Moore Enough said.
Ok, I took a couple of cat naps last night and work from home. Don’t feel too badly for me.
Holy debut novel, Batman.
I mean, HOLY. FUCKING. DEBUT. NOVEL.
The premise is simple: what if you were only one Facebook friend request away from your true love – that one person who knew you better than you knew yourself – 24 years after you last saw each other? Would you reconnect with her/him, even if it meant uprooting the life you had been creating for yourself? If you were given that chance, would you take it?
Searching for Moore begins in the present day. Schooner Moore’s wife, CJ, is throwing a lavish party to celebrate his 43rd birthday. It is filled with “the beautiful people,” superficial individuals who only wish to be seen at this party to rub elbows with the rich and famous. Schooner Moore is both. What CJ and her “guests” fail to realize, however, is that Schooner dislikes the shallow displays of artifice that are his life and social circle. Then, his college buddy, Beau, casually mentions that he has chatted with Mia Silver, a classmate from college, via Facebook.
As Schooner reminisces, we are transported back twenty-four years into the past. He remembers their freshman year of college and the first taste of independence, of “finding himself,” meeting diverse people and learning about true love. Schooner meets and is immediately attracted to CJ, the quintessential, beautiful prom queen. They are the “perfect” All-American blonde couple, who would be featured in an ad for Ralph Lauren. He also meets Mia Silver, antithesis to CJ, sassy New Yorker, attending school in California, who marches to the beat of her own drum. CJ fits into his world, effortlessly, like a well-decorated room that lacks personality. Mia challenges his mind, steals his heart and completes his soul. Schooner and Mia are each other’s first true love. Then, Mia leaves him, without a word.
We return to the present day and Schooner sends Mia an innocuous Facebook friend request. A friend request that she is fated to accept. The story continues as the veil of time is lifted, a lifetime of betrayal by CJ is exposed, and that first true love is renewed.
Ms. Richman writes Schooner so that the reader is able to see the “real” Schooner that Mia sees. He has spent his life as a handsome shell, a chameleon who morphs into whomever he is expected to be. He has been incredibly successful in business, but we know he is so much more. Conversely, Mia is a ray of sunlight, warm, ebullient, full of life and loyal. She is successful, loved and will bring balance back into Schooner’s life. Unfortunately, not everyone is pleased with this reunion, especially CJ and Zac (CJ and Schooner’s son – who inherited his personality from CJ).
We live a lifetime through their story. There is the angst of first heart break, the ambivalence and acceptance of life’s circumstances, and the joy and hope for renewed, healing love. Then, Ms. Richman ends this rollercoaster ride of emotions with a cliffhanger the reader sees building from the middle of the story, but is incapable to stop. Searching for Moore is funny and quirky, profound, poignant and moving – all at the same time. It is the best book I have read about aging Generation-Xers, this year.
Exceptional debut for Ms. Richman! I need the second book NOW!!
The “cleaned up” versions of this review are on Amazon and Goodreads.
Team Werewolf for the win!
Just call me “captain, team werewolf.”
Let’s face it: vamps are dead. Sure, they bite, and that’s cool, but they’re dead. Werewolves? They have it going on. Big, brawny, hairy alpha males with still-beating hearts. Yes, please.
Not gonna lie: I’m writing a vamp novel right now, part of a spinoff to my Ushers series, and vampires have their own attraction and appeal. I’m not anti-vampire, but when it comes right down to it, I’m team werewolf all the way.
To celebrate all things wolfie, tell me about your favorite werewolf in the comments–someone from TV, books, movies? I’d love to hear your favorites (and maybe find some new books to stack on my TBR shelf). I’ll draw one lucky commenter to win ebook copies of the first two books in my Ushers werewolf series, Amazon and United.
Don’t forget to follow the rest of the hop and meet the…
View original post 24 more words
Contemporary vs. Historical Novels
I prefer contemporary heroines, with all the bells-and-whistles, trials-and-tribulations, and you-go-girl attitude of contemporary novels. Bodice rippers on pirate ships, featuring Fabio (or Fabio II, Fabio III, mini-Fabio, Fabio Jr,. etc.) can kiss my ass. I’m not attracted to periods of time without hydroelectric power or hot/cold running water, massage therapists and fast cars. That’s all.
Reading, Drinking and Dancing with a Chaser of Snark 