Title:

Author: Caitlin Crews

Genre: Contemporary romance

Series: Book 1 of 2 about the Whitney heiresses. Larissa’s story “Heiress Behind The Headlines” is out already in UK. Comes out in US in October 2012.

Synopsis: Becca Whitney has always lived with the knowledge that her blue-blooded family disowned her as a baby. So when she receives a summons to return to the ancestral mansion she’s intrigued.

Theo Markou Garcia needs a wife – or at least someone who looks strikingly similar to his infamous fiancée. Becca would be the perfect replacement…

The deal: masquerade as the Whitney heiress in exchange for your own true fortune – but do not fall for your husband!

Review: A thoroughly enjoyable read!

You get a clue this isn’t your average marriage deal Harlequin story in the blurb but it’s not until you read chapter 2 that you realise how raw and cold Becca’s relationship has been with her uber-wealthy aunt and uncle.

Theo is a driven guy who worked his way up from poverty to running the Whitney media empire…and he’s not about to let a comatose fiancee stop him from gaining full control.

Hate him right? You’ll fall in love with Theo right along with Becca, even as he irritates her with his focus on turning her into Larissa.

It’s Becca’s mother’s brother and sister who really make you want to pelt something at them. Unbelievable!

Knowing they’re in an impossible situation, Becca risks it all to experience passion with Theo and in the process, they fall in love.

But they can’t act on that love nor express it to each other amidst the charade for shares.

Their path to a happy ending isn’t easy but it’s worth it.

Trust me. You want to read this book and you’ll definitely be on the look-out for Larissa’s story afterward.

Caitlin Crews’s www.caitlincrews.com website didn’t lie when it described her work as “passionately sensual romance”.

Grade: A+

Excerpt: “The house had not improved since she’d seen it last. It loomed over New York City’s tony Fifth Avenue like a displeased society matron, all disapproving elegance and a style that dated to the excesses of the Gilded Age. Becca Whitney sat in the vast and chilly parlor, stuffed with priceless paintings and fussy, disturbingly detailed statuary, and tried to pretend she couldn’t feel the way her two so-called relatives were glaring at her. As if her presence there, as the illegitimate daughter of their disinherited and long-disparaged late sister, polluted the very air.

Maybe it did, Becca thought. Maybe that was one reason the great hulking mansion felt like a soulless crypt.

The strained silence–that Becca refused to break, since she’d been called here this time and was thankfully no longer the supplicant–was broken suddenly, by the slight creaking sound of the ornate parlor door.

Thank God, Becca thought. She had to keep her hands tightly laced together in her lap, her teeth clenched in her jaw, to keep the bitter words she’d like to say from spilling out. Whatever this interruption was, it was a relief.

Until she looked up and saw the man who stepped inside the room. Something like warning, like anticipation, seemed to crackle over her skin, making it hum in reaction. Making her sit straighter in her chair.

“Is this the girl?” he asked, his voice a low, dark rumble, his tone brisk. Demanding.

Everything–power, focus, the strained air itself–shifted immediately. Away from the horrible aunt and uncle she’d never planned to see again and toward the man, dark and big and goose bump-raising, who moved as if he expected the world to shuffle and rearrange itself around him–and with the kind of confidence that suggested it usually did exactly that.

Becca felt her lips part slightly as their eyes met, across centuries of artifacts and the frowns of these terrible people who had tossed her mother out like so much trash twenty-six years ago. His were a rich, arresting color, an electric amber, and seared into her, making her blink. Making her wonder if she’d been scarred by the contact.

Who was he?

He was not particularly tall, not much over six feet, but he was…there. A force to be reckoned with, as if a live wire burned in him, and from him. He wore the same kind of clothes they all wore in this hermetically sealed world of wealth and privilege–expensive. Yet unlike her fussy relatives, in their suits and scarves and ostentatious accessories, everything about this man was stripped down. Lean. Powerful. Impressive. A charcoal-gray sweater that clung to his perfectly shaped torso, and dark trousers that outlined the strength of his thighs and his narrow hips. He looked elegant and elemental all at once.

He gazed at her, his head cocking slightly to one side as he considered her, and Becca knew two things with every cell in her body. The first was that he was dangerous in a way she could not quite grasp–though she could see the fierce intelligence in him, coupled with a certain ruthless intensity. And the second was that she had to get away from him. Now. Her stomach cramped and her heart pounded. Something about him just…spooked her.

“You see it, then,” Becca’s pompous uncle Bradford said in the same patronizing tone he’d used when he’d thrown Becca out of this very same house six months ago. In the very same tone he’d used to tell her that she and her sister Emily were mistakes. Embarrassments. Certainly not Whitneys. “The resemblance.”

“It is uncanny.” The man’s remarkable, disconcerting eyes narrowed, focused entirely on Becca even as he spoke to her uncle. “I thought you exaggerated.”

Title:

Author: HelenKay Dimon

Genre: Romantic suspense

Synopsis: No woman could deny the appeal of the sexy deputy sheriff Jonas Porter. But to Courtney Allen, Jonas has one major flaw—his badge. Years ago, Courtney’s father was wrongfully convicted of a crime and she vowed to never trust a cop again. But when Jonas becomes the only man to believe in her father’s innocence, Courtney begins seeing the brooding lawman in a whole new way.

Jonas knows in his gut that the real killer is still out there and determined to finish what he started long ago. To protect Courtney and bring the criminal to justice will require all the skills he can muster. And that means focusing on the job. Not the woman who makes him forget his troublesome past and arouses in him a passion that is anything but professional.

Review: This book gets off to a quick start, with Courtney making a run for it after a deputy sheriff (Jonas) shows up at her door to check up on a Margaret Taynor.  Courtney is obviously hiding from a man, perhaps an abusive spouse, the truth of which is revealed as the H/H navigate various perils.

This is unexpected, given the synopsis on the back cover and is an indication of just how much actually takes place in 252 pages.

I liked that HelenKay Dimon took turns writing the story from both main characters’ perspective, starting with Jonas at the end of a long shift before switching to Courtney in a panic over possibly having been found by a mysterious man from her past.

While  I am all for doing it yourself and not depending on the hero to do all the ‘saving’, there is a reason law enforcement officers go through training, so when Jonas advises Courtney to let him handle certain situations, she should’ve listened.

Ah well, “When She Wasn’t Looking” was still an enjoyable read, complete with a happy ending for two people who fell in love while solving a mystery and facing danger.

Grade: A-

Thanks for having me here today and letting me talk a little about my newest release, WHEN SHE WASN’T LOOKING.

The book is a Harlequin Intrigue. Intrigues are different from the other books I write because the suspense element is so integral to the storyline that you can’t really separate it from the romance. People talk a lot about Intrigues being 50 percent suspense and 50 percent romance. I have to be honest and say I never think in terms of percentages. I’m betting if I did I’d be paralyzed while writing. Just imagine me sitting at my computer and deleting paragraphs because I think a scene is 58 percent romance instead of the “required” 50 percent. Yeah, I’m that much of a knucklehead.

Instead of breaking out the math, I think of Intrigues are as a mix of genres where each scene has to move both parts of the story forward. Some aspects don’t change no matter what I’m writing. I want a strong heroine who doesn’t need a man to be happy but is smart enough to grab a good one when he comes into her life. A sexy and in-control hero who knows true love when he finally finds it. Flawed and imperfect people who find each other. Maybe a super alpha dude. Maybe a survivor heroine. So long as they grow with each other until I can’t imagine them apart, I’m good. Add in some shooting, a car chase and an explosion or two and I’m a very happy reader.

I’m thinking this comes from me early love of mysteries and thrillers. I read those for years before I ever tried a romance. When I started reading romance, I followed some of my favorites authors as they wrote increasingly romantic suspense – emphasis on the suspense – books. Authors like Sandra Brown, Linda Howard, Karen Robards and Tami Hoag. They missed romance and suspense so well in those early books. In fact, I’ve read Hoag’s LUCKY’s LADY and Robards’ ONE SUMMER often enough to have them nearly memorized.

I’m always on the lookout for newer romantic suspense authors, like Allison Brennan and Cynthia Eden. If someone has a recommendation, please pass it on!

***We are giving away either a copy of When She Wasn’t Looking or a book off her backlist. Simply leave a recommendation for romantic suspense books for HelenKay.***

No woman could deny the appeal of the sexy deputy sheriff Jonas Porter. But to Courtney Allen, Jonas has one major flaw—his badge. Years ago, Courtney’s father was wrongfully convicted of a crime and she vowed to never trust a cop again. But when Jonas becomes the only man to believe in her father’s innocence, Courtney begins seeing the brooding lawman in a whole new way.

Jonas knows in his gut that the real killer is still out there and determined to finish what he started long ago. To protect Courtney and bring the criminal to justice will require all the skills he can muster. And that means focusing on the job. Not the woman who makes him forget his troublesome past and arouses in him a passion that is anything but professional.

Series: Psy/Changeling bk 11

Author: Nalini Singh

Genre: Paranormal

Adria, wolf changeling and resilient soldier, has made a break with the past—one as unpredictable in love as it was in war. Now comes a new territory, and a devastating new complication: Riaz, a SnowDancer lieutenant already sworn to a desperate woman who belongs to another.

For Riaz, the primal attraction he feels for Adria is a staggering betrayal. For Adria, his dangerous lone-wolf appeal is beyond sexual. It consumes her. It terrifies her. It threatens to undermine everything she has built of her new life. But fighting their wild compulsion toward one another proves a losing battle.

Their coming together is an inferno…and a melding of two wounded souls who promise each other no commitment, no ties, no bonds. Only pleasure. Too late, they realize that they have more to lose than they ever imagined. Drawn into a cataclysmic Psy war that may alter the fate of the world itself, they must make a decision that might just break them both.

Nalini Singh is a master storyteller who gets better with each book she writes. In her much anticipated next installment of her beloved psy/changeling series, she once again delivers a fabulous story.

In the aftermath of the battle between Henry Scott’s Pure Psy and the changelings, Nikita and Anthony there is a lot going on in this book.

The main story is between Adria and Riaz and while I liked their romance even through there is no mating bond between them their romance is exactly what they need for who they are.

The sparks that fly between Riaz and Adria are hot enough to make your pages catch fire, even when they want to kill each other. I do have to say that their relationship wasn’t one I was expecting. When they finally got together it looked like it was going to be great until a wrench is thrown into their relationship by appearance of Riaz’s mate, his married mate. I have to say that I loved how Riaz convinced Adria that he didn’t care that they didn’t have the mating bond.

What kept me reading however is all of the other stuff that happens in the book. All of the Arrows, LOTS of Aden and Vasic (which makes me really happy) plus some other arrows that are game changer. Then there is all the Hawke and Sienna scenes which are hilarious.

Then there is the Kaleb and the mystery surrounding the person he is looking for. Oh and the Ghost.

Overall this is a really good book that I devoured in one sitting and want will be reading again soon. If you love Nalini Singh then you won’t want to miss this book as it sets up what is going to happen next in the series.

Grade A

He kissed her until she felt boneless in his arms and he wasn’t sure he had the strength to hold her up—until their mingled breaths came shallow and fast. One final flick of his tongue across her lips and then he broke it off.

He moved back a step because his body had had about all the contact with Anna’s body it could take without exploding, and he smiled at the dreamy expression on her flushed face as she opened her eyes.

“Now I’ve kissed you,” he said, his voice rough with anticipation of something that wasn’t coming next.

“Yes.” She smiled and he thought it was even prettier when she’d just been thoroughly kissed. “Now you can stop avoiding me.”

“Now I can mow the lawns,” he said, and she wrinkled her nose. “And you can get back to painting—safely this time—before your brush dries out.”

With a dramatic sigh, she retrieved the brush and the paint bucket and started up the step ladder he’d placed for her. “Painting’s not as fun as kissing.”

“Better for the wood.” When she snorted, he rolled his eyes. “You know what I meant. So…later, you want to sit out on the dock with me and listen to the Red Sox game on the radio like we did when we were kids?”

“I thought you had cable.”

“I do, but there’s nothing more pure than listening to the game on the radio.”

“Sure. I’ll want to shower first and make sure I’m not covered in paint, but it sounds like fun.”

A few hours later, Cam set his favorite webbed chair in place, followed by a small cooler and his radio. He usually parked himself in the center, but he set up mostly on his side so Anna would have room for her own chair.

Not quite ten minutes later, he heard the slider open and close and he knew she was on her way down.

When he heard her footsteps on the dock, he turned, intending to ask her if she remembered the bug spray, but that question died in favor of a far more pressing one. “What the hell is that you’re wearing?”

She looked down at her shirt with a confused expression. As if she didn’t know. “My shirt? It’s pretty old, so I usually only wear it for sleeping now, but my stepdad bought it for me years ago.”

“It’s a Yankees T-shirt.” He could barely get the words out.

“That’s because we’re Yankees fans.” She snapped open her chair and set it next to his as if that was still okay. “We never watched sports when I was little—the games I listened to with you was about it—but then Mom married Kent and we moved to Connecticut. He loved baseball and he taught me to love it, too.”

“You’re a Yankees fan.”

“Yup.”

“I kissed a Yankees fan.”

“Yup. Really well, too.”

It was too late for mouthwash, so he did the next best thing and wiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Get off my dock.”

She paused in the act of arranging her cooler and snacks to glare at him. “It’s our dock.”

“Fine. You stay on your half. Move your chair over.”

He didn’t even make it to the first inning. The radio announcer was going through the line-up and, when he got to Jeter and Anna made a little woo-hoo sound, Cam got out of the chair and walked away.

“Damn Yankees fan.”

Her laughter followed him all the way to the house.

Anna Frazier is used to living life at 100 mph, but being downsized out of a job in the financial industry has her permanently stalled. With nowhere to go, go, go, Anna hails a cab to her grandparents’ neglected New Hampshire camp to plan her next move. It seems like a good idea—until she realizes there’s no takeout to be had and the boy next door has grown into a sexy but surly recluse.

Cameron Mayfield knows he can kiss his peace and quiet goodbye when Hurricane Anna blows in. She was loud and bossy as a ten-year-old—and besides developing some attractive curves, she hasn’t changed. Cam’s not looking for a relationship, especially not with a woman like Anna. He nearly broke down on that road once before. So why can’t he stop thinking about her?

It’s not long before their sizzling attraction leads to smoking-hot kisses. But as the days get shorter, Anna must decide if she’s found a new road to happiness, or just taken a detour.

But one of my absolute favorite things in the world to do is to pick up a book that I love and re-read it.

Whenever I pack up my books for a move I find those treasures that I’d forgotten I had as I add books to the shelves and they are hidden behind new books. This discovery always makes the packing of the books take longer as I HAVE to read those books I’ve just found hidden on the bookshelf.

When you pick up a book for a re-read it’s like reconnecting with an old friend, one that you haven’t seen in a while but who you love.

One of the jems that Ire- discovered on my shelf is the Steele Street series by Tara Janzen. The boys of Steele Street are one of my favorites. Another that I re-discovered was The Boscastle Family by Jillian Hunter. Because of the amount of dust on the books I know that I haven’t read them in a while but I will be rectifying this as soon as I get them back from Helen (so read fast Helen ).

Who are some of your favorite re-reads?

Title:

Author: Natasha Tate

Genre: Contemporary romance

Synopsis: Super-exec Stephen Whitfield and high-flying colleague Colette Huntington both understand the rules of their attraction. One: it will never be anything more than a fling. Two: either can walk away at any time they wish.

Only, Colette hasn’t counted on walking away pregnant. And, to Stephen’s frustration, after Colette, other women don’t seem to provide quite the same satisfaction.

 TBRG: Who has been the biggest influence in your life?

DB: Definitely my brother, Nash.  He’s always been there for me, even when we went to separate foster homes.  He brought me old clothes and food.  He looked out for me in every way he could.

TBRG: What is the one thing your family would be the most surprised to know about you?

DB: You really want me to go there? I was responsible for someone’s death.

NB: No, you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

DB: I should have done something.

EB: Get over yourself.  I had to.  You can’t live with regrets, they’ll eat you alive.

TBRG: Where is the one place you have always wanted to go, a place on your bucket list?

DB: What’s a bucket list?  Kidding.  I don’t know.  I’d say Vegas but I’m not much of a partier anymore.  Learned my lesson there.  Maybe some place with a beach.

NB: He’d bring Liza so he could watch her in a bikini.

EB: In that case make it a nude beach.

DB: Do you want me to regret forgiving you?

TBRG: Who’s your favorite author to read?

DB:  I’m not much of a reader.

NB: John Grisham.

DB: You’re such a lawyer.

TBRG: What book are you reading now?

DB: Not reading.

EB: Snickers.

TBRG: If you weren’t a cop what would you be?

DB: Lost.  Being a cop saved me.

TBRG: What is your guilty pleasure?

DB: Sex.

EB: Sex.

NB: Sex.

DB: And nothing guilty about it.

TBRG: Movies or tv and which movie or tv show is your favorite?

DB: Ocean’s Eleven

NB: Doesn’t that go against you being a cop and all?

DB: Shut up.

TBRG: If you had a day to do whatever you wanted what would you do?

DB: Sex.

EB: He has a one track mind.

NB: He means sex with Liza.

TBRG: How’s your relationship with your brothers now?

DB: They’re still pains in the ass as you can tell from this interview.  But they’re my brothers.  Ethan and I have come a long way.  Nash and I have some things to work out – as I learned throughout the book – but we’ll get there.  I have faith.

NB: So does Ethan.

EB: Very funny.  Seriously I’m grateful for this second chance.  We’re all doing pretty good.

NB: Definitely getting there.

TBRG: How did you feel about Carly telling your story?

DB:  She liked telling my story best.

TBRG: What do you want us to know about you?

DB: Looks can be deceiving.  I’m not the easy going brother everyone thinks I am.  I have a lot of baggage and I’m still working through it.  Nobody knows that though.

TBRG: Using 3-5 adjectives how would you describe yourself?

DB: Focused, determined, loyal (to those who’ve earned it), and Repentant.

NB: Like a puppy dog.

TBRG: Using 3-5 adjectives how would you describe your siblings?

DB: Ethan’s a miracle worker.

EB: That’s not an adjective.

DB: You turned your life around, you turned Tess around, I’m in awe.

NB: I may be sick.

DB: You’re not so bad either, when you stop taking yourself and everyone else so seriously.

TBRG: Using 5 adjectives how would you describe Liza?

DB: Beautiful, Independent, Brave, Feisty, Loving.

TBRG: What do you love most about Liza?

DB: Her ability to see the best in people, even her no good brother.

EB: Don’t let her hear you talking about him like that.

DB: I saved his ass and she knows it.

NB: Because you love her.

DB: Yeah.  I do.

TBRG: Can you tell us which of your co-workers has agreed to let Carly tell their story first?

DB: You want that secret? The book is called PERFECT FIT and the first two up are Cara Hartley, a damn good cop and Sam Marsden’s brother, Mike.  You haven’t met Mike yet but Cara has … turns out they share a past – make that a night – OK that’s it.  I can’t talk about this anymore.  You know, Blue Wall of Silence and all that.

TBRG: Ok this is a question for all three of you, if you each had to plan a romantic night out what would it be?

DB: Liza loves a night in doing nothing but drinking wine and making love.  Works for me.

NB: Kelly would love it if we went back to the London Hotel in New York City where I proposed.  Champagne on ice, room service, and just us.  Perfect.

EB: I’d take Faith back to our honeymoon spot – a private villa in Turks and Caicos – complete privacy, skinny dipping, our own butler.

DB: Rub it in, why don’t you?

EB: Hey I offered to send both of you there – is it my fault you’ve all got too much pride to take me up on it?

DB: I can plan a romantic trip for my woman all on my own.  But thanks, man.

Thank you to Ethan, Nash and Dare for joining us today. We have a fun treat as well. We are giving away a copy of either Ethan or Nash’s book plus some of Carly’s goodies, just tell leave a message for Carly. Contest is open to US only. 

Police Officer Dare Barron has had a crush on Liza McKnight ever since he was a teenager. But despite his lifelong attraction, the closest he’s ever come to interacting with her is watching Liza regularly bail out her brother at the station.
 
Dare’s dark past with Liza’s brother, Brian, has always kept him from pursuing her. But suddenly Liza finds herself in need of protection and Dare appoints himself as the man for the job.  And while the sizzling attraction between Dare and Liza draws them together, the past that Dare and Brian share threatens to keep the two apart forever.

Series: Rosewood Trilogy bk 3

Author: Laura Moore

Genre: Contemporary

TROUBLE ISN’T THE ONLY THING ON HER MIND

The youngest and wildest of the Radcliffe sisters, Jade is the last to return home to her family’s sprawling Virginia horse farm and its unsettling memories. She never planned on a night of passion with a stranger before starting her new life as a teacher and riding instructor–or the shock of recognizing the man who gave her so much pleasure standing in her classroom.

Officer Rob Cooper is stunned. Not only is the woman who rocked his world his daughter’s second grade teacher, she’s the troubled teen whom he blames for his wife’s death years ago.  Worse, he wants her more than ever in the light of day.  Time has softened Jade’s hard, rebellious edge–she’s spirited, honest, and sexy to distraction.  But will the feelings ignited in the heat of desire be enough to heal a past that needs forgiving?

Let me tell you a little about Trouble Me, Book Three in the Rosewood Trilogy.

It’s Jade Radcliffe’s story. Jade, Margot and Jordan’s younger half-sister, started the series as a troubled and unhappy teen.
In Trouble Me she’s now a young woman who’s pretty much gotten her act together. A recent college grad, she’s determined to shake the wild reputation she earned as a teen and take her place alongside her sisters training horses at Rosewood Farm and teaching at the local elementary school. Jade plans to be a model citizen, a real paragon.

The only hitch in her plan is that on her way home a terrible lightning storm forces her to spend the night in a hotel near Norfolk, Virginia. And when she meets a handsome stranger in a bar she learns that the summer lightning storm raging outside is nothing compared to the electricity that sizzles when they touch.

Though Jade thinks she’s just indulging in a final one night stand before assuming an ultra respectable persona, it turns out that her handsome stranger is not such a stranger after all…

Laura Moore’s Novels are such treasures written with true artistry. The latest installment, Trouble Me, Show’s hot the Author truly loves what she does.
Jade Radcliffe had a rocky start following the deaths of her parents, She fell into a path that could lead nowhere but jail. Her teenage years were troubled, But her stepsisters were always there to help her battle the demons. After she graduates college, Jade is a beautiful young woman that has come into her own. She has decided to start a children’s riding program at Rosewood. The horse farm she was raised on. She has also taken on a substitute teacher position in pursuit of her career in education as well. She has everything lined up planed out and ready to go until the man she spent an unforgettable night with appears in her class room and she’s standing face to face with Robo-Cop.

Rob Cooper has loved and lost. In truth he was still morning the loss of his beloved Beth even 5 years later. Leaving him to raise their beautiful you daughter Hailey. He’s tried to move on. His very focused on his job a police officer as well as his duties being a single parent. Everything he’s known for the past 5 plus years changes when he meets his little girls substitute teacher. Jade had caused him countless headaches in her teens. However Jade is no longer a surley teen with chopped and dyed hair. She’s grown up to become the woman that rocked his world and become the object he desires beyond reason.

Can Two people that have suffered so much apart become a whole together?
Jade and Rob have such chemistry that it’s hard to see how they ever hated each other. Both try to move past their dark history to move on with their lives. This book was wonderfully written with love and compassion draws you right in.

What a treat for all who read.

Grade A+

Series: The Connaghers (book 3)

Author: Joely Sue Burkhart

Genre: Contemporary Erotica, BDSM, Menage

Synopsis: The day one of her old clients gunned down a cop, former defense attorney Vicki Connagher lost everything—her passion for justice, and her lover, Detective Elias Reyes. The dead cop’s partner.

Even though she’s following her dream to start her own fashion line, it’s tough with heartache as her only companion. Until she brings Jesse, a wandering street artist, in from a freak Texas snowstorm. His submissive flirting brings out dominant tendencies she never knew she possessed, yet she hesitates to let him take her as far and as hard as she wants to go.

Some homeless junkie in Vicki’s house? Not on Elias’s watch. Pride kept him away, but as long as Jesse is staying in Vicki’s downstairs shop, he’s staying with Vicki. On the couch, but it’s a start.

As the days go by, the three work out an uneasy alliance. But Vicki’s joy at having Elias back in her life is tempered with a growing desire to have it all. Elias in her bed, and Jesse under her command. The only question remaining is if her tough alpha cop is willing to embrace all that she is…

Product Warnings
Explicit sex, BDSM, a tough alpha cop, a reluctant Domme, and a smoldering submissive street artist willing to do anything to belong to her.

Review: Wow. Every review I read before reading  Yours To Take myself was right! Joely Sue Burkhart skillfully weaves together the lives of these three very different individuals in a passionate, erotic, genuine way that has you rooting for Jesse, Vicki and Elias to find their own ‘fairytale together.’

The struggle of someone who finds themselves living on the streets is skillfully told without being preachy, helping you to understand Jesse without taking into detail about his daily struggles before moving in with Vicki.

I love how Elias had to find a way to open up to Vicki, especially after thinking a ‘little’ guy like Jesse couldn’t possibly pose a threat.

And Vicki…the woman who never knew she had some of those Connagher traits in her after all. At times vulnerable, at times needing to dominate, she finds an outlet for this and more in her unexpected relationship with two very different men. Oh, and did I mention the sex is ‘hawt’? It is.

Well done Joely Sue Burkhart and I look forward to reading more books by you. This being my first was a great introduction.

Grade: A+

Excerpt: “Bracing herself mentally, she raised her gaze to his face as she walked toward him. (Jessie’s) eyes, so bright, so hot and intense, were made darker and richer by the silk in her hands. Her chest constricted with an answering surge of attraction, deeper and more compelling every time she looked at him. If he’d stop looking at her like that, begging her with his eyes to devour him whole, then maybe she could pretend nothing had changed.

He was just a good guy who’d fallen on hard times. She was just a good Samaritan. He didn’t have to get in the middle of her romantic mess.

Her cheeks burned at the thought. The image of him and Elias both touching her seared her mind, burning her to ash. She’d never once thought about such a thing, but now………………..

Her breath seized up in her throat. She’d dated Elias off and on for months and he’d never told her his feelings. He’d never show such vulnerability. He couldn’t let down his guard long enough.

“I know your heart. No one else has even considered helping me in five years. That’s proof of what kind of woman you are, and I want to belong to you. I’m yours to take, Vicki, if you want me.”…………..

He whispered his fantasies into her ear. “I like sex rough, hard, sweaty, up against a wall, frantic, wherever you’ll take me. I love you in control, taking what you want, demanding I give it up, everything, for you.”

“I can’t take advantage of you like this. It’s wrong. You trusted me—”

He couldn’t help but laugh and shift his hips forward, pressing his erection into her stomach. “How could something that feels this good be wrong?”

She slid her right hand down his back and wrapped her fingers around the waistband of his pants, hauling him tighter against her. “I’m going to hell for this.”

“Then you might as well enjoy me fully.”

Laughing raggedly, she buried her face against his neck. “Hold me, Jesse. Just hold me. It’s been so long.”

Wrapping his arms around her as tightly as she held him, he didn’t ask any questions. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel like he was pushing her to choose him over her cop. But if that son of a bitch had been neglecting her, then Jesse would be more than happy to fulfill her every need.

“I’m going to go upstairs and make some calls, so feel free to help yourself to the laundry, take a nap, whatever you’d like. First thing tomorrow, I want you to see a doctor. Then we’ll go shopping so your baggy pants don’t make me think about how easily they’d fall down, and we’ll go by VCONN and you can meet my brother. Right now, I need…to think. About all this.”…………………….

“You aren’t laughing at me, are you? I kissed him. No, I slammed him up against the wall like you did last night, only instead of splitting his lip open, I damned near bit it off.”

Elias laughed harder. “Did he thank you for it?”

“Yeah, yeah he did. In fact, he begged me to do it again. Why aren’t you pissed?”

“Oh, Vik, I don’t know. It’s not like I have any right to be pissed at you for kissing another man when I haven’t been around in months. Besides, you’re too upset for me to be mad, and he’s not a bad kid. No, he’s a real good-looking kid, a nice tender morsel.” He laughed harder, like one of his buddies had told him the most hilarious joke he’d ever heard. “Making love to you has always been like wrestling a hungry crocodile. Did you shock the hell out of him?”

Stricken, she could barely breathe through the tightness in her chest. “I’m that bad?”

“Aw hell, no, Vicki, you’re that good.” His voice was as tender as she’d ever heard him. “You’re the hottest, sexiest, most passionate woman I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. But you’re not a soft, passive woman in bed, far from it. Half the fun is wrestling you for dominance, and the other half is making sure you enjoy the consolation prize as much as I am. Any smarter man would never have left you simmering all these months. It’s as much my fault as yours that you’re so attracted to Jesse.”

“So you’ll come over tonight? Please?”

He let out a wicked, low laugh that made her blood smolder. “Oh, I don’t know, Vik. Your couch isn’t that comfortable. Besides, you’ve got that hot cabana boy to tend to you now. Why do you need me?”

“I won’t make you sleep on the couch tonight. I swear.”

“We’re going to be loud, babe,” he purred, drawing a rough groan from her. “I’m going to make you scream. We’re going to hit every surface of your bedroom, hell, your whole apartment, and your boy’s going to hear every whimper, thud, curse and shout of release. Are you sure you’re up for that?”

Her nipples were so hard the lace of her bra felt like sandpaper. “Can you come home now?”

Now it was his turn to groan. “I wish I could, but I’ve got a meeting with the lieutenant in five minutes. I expect we’ll go out on a tip this afternoon, so don’t hold dinner for me.”

“Elias, please, you have to come tonight.”

“I will,” he promised. “It might be late, but as soon as we’re done with the bust, I’ll drive straight to you.” He hesitated, an edge coming to his voice. “You know he’s probably loaded with STDs or worse. God only knows what he’s been exposed to in prison, let alone the streets.”

“I know,” she whispered, lying back on her bed. “I’m taking him to the clinic tomorrow. I already made an appointment.”

“You’re serious, then. Jesus, Vik.”

“I know.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her temple with her free hand. “What does this mean for us?”

“Hell if I know. I’d say I should simply take the hint and get the hell out of Dodge, but you’re begging me to come over tonight.”

“I’ve missed you.” Her voice broke but she refused to bitch and moan about the past. Elias had chosen to bail on her. He’d played both judge and jury and blamed her for everything that had gone wrong, but she couldn’t stop loving him. Even when he’s an uncompromising ass. “I don’t want to lose you all over again.”

“But you want him too.”

Her relationship with Elias had always had a lot of failings, but one thing she’d never done was lie to him. “Yeah, I do.”