Review: Forgiving Lies by Molly McAdams

Forgiving Lies by Molly McAdams

Series: Forgiving Lies #1

Publication date: October 29th, 2013

Pages: 287

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

A matter of secrets...

Undercover cop Logan "Kash" Ryan can't afford a distraction like his new neighbor Rachel Masters, even if she's the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. To catch a serial killer, he needs to stay focused, yet all he can think about is the feisty, long-legged coed whose guarded nature intrigues him.

A matter of lies...

Deceived and hurt before, Rachel would rather be a single, crazy cat lady than trust another guy, especially a gorgeous, tattooed bad boy with a Harley, like Kash. But when his liquid-steel eyes meet hers, it takes all of Rachel's will-power to stop herself from exploring his hot body with her own.

A matter of love...

As much as they try to keep it platonic, the friction between them sparks an irresistible heat that soon consumes them. Can Kash keep Rachel's heart and her life safe even as he risks his own? Will she be able to forgive his lies... or will she run when she discovers the dangerous truth?

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Review:

I received a copy of this book from the publishers to read and review in preparation for a blog tour for the sequel.

I had heard such wonderful things about Molly McAdams and her New Adult books that when approached to review Deceiving Lies, I accepted right away. The publishers immediately sent me Forgiving Lies so I could follow the series easily. I am, currently, still waiting on my copy of the sequel I am supposed to read and review for a tour. I started reading the book as soon as it came in.

Kash is used to pretending he is someone else. As an undercover cop, he is well versed in moving to a new place and keeping his past a secret. He has never had the desire to deviate from protocol until he met Rachel. Kash is in Texas trying to find a murderer by pretending to be a bartender with his best friend and partner, Mason. He is also hiding from a hit that was placed on him and his partner after breaking up a drug ring. He was meant just to case the bar and wait for the murderer in question to appear so he could make an arrest. Instead, he starts spending more and more time with his spunky neighbor, Rachel. He never wanted to bring a woman into his life due to the danger of it, but Rachel makes him wonder if it is possible to find happiness and love outside of his work.

Rachel has had a rough time with men lately. She was attacked and knows if she tells anyone, they won't believe her. She knows she needs to keep her distance from men entirely. Especially the bad boy next door, Kash. But for some reason she is drawn to him and finds the safety she so badly needs.

The friendship between Rachel and Kash grows until the attraction is undeniable. But their relationship is anything but easy. Rachel's attacker is on the prowl again and has his sights set, once again, on Rachel being his. Kash has to keep his true identity a secret to protect Rachel, but the secrets and unforgivable lies may be this couple's undoing.

I absolutely adored this book! Rachel was a wounded dove in need of care and respect. Kash was just such a guy to provide that. The danger each of them presented with Rachel's attacker and Kash's murderer was thrilling and riveting. I found myself transfixed and hungering for more and more story.

There was only one aspect of the book I didn't care for and that was how dramatic Kash's lies seemed to be. I didn't find them to be as big of a deal as the female protagonist did. Perhaps that was simply because Rachel had a rough go of things and just didn't like having opened up when Kash didn't. I can understand it, but I didn't really enjoy the wedge of tension it caused between one of my favorite fictional couples.

Forgiving Lies is the beginning of a contemporary series that will astound and delight. HIGHLY recommended read.

Review: Tempt Me with Darkness by Shayla Black

Tempt Me with Darkness by Shayla Black

Series: Doomsday Brethren #1

Publication date: August 26th, 2008

Pages: 384

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

He's an immortal knight hungering for satisfaction...

As soon as Marrok sees Olivia Gray's dark windswept hair and burning violet eyes, he's sure they've met in eons past. He's felt her soft gentle curves writhing in pleasure beneath his own hard powerful body... Morganna! For centuries, towering Marrok, once the mightiest of King Arthur's warriors, has endured a terrible curse cast upon him when he spurned the witch.

She's a modern woman about to discover ancient magic...

Olivia shares a mystical--and irresistible--connection with brooding Marrok. Soon after the sexy warrior appears in her erotic dreams, he abducts her, demanding she uncurse him. Their intense passion is more powerful--and intimate--than either of them has ever known. Olivia may be the key to unlocking the diary that will break Morganna's hold on his life. But in the wrong hands, the book also holds the power to destroy all magickind. As they search for answers, a ruthless wizard returned from exile is building an army of evil. When he discovers Marrok and Olivia have the diary, only their love--with the help of a powerful group of magical Brethren--can save them.

Available at:

Review:

In my quest to read as many Book Bash Authors as I possibly could before the convention, it was only a matter of time before I dove into some of Shayla Black's books. I was a little put off by the cover simply because I have an aversion to men with long hair. I waffled a bit and then finally said 'to hell with what I feel about the cover' and started to read it anyway.

Black's world of the Doomsday Brethren opens with Marrok. He is a soldier from King Arthur's army who has lived much longer than he would have liked. He has watched everyone he loves and cares for die and turn to dust while he remained. All he wants is for the curse the witch, Morganna, placed on him to come to an end. He wants to die in peace and never have to wake another day on this Earth. Eventually, he dreams about a raven haired beauty with familiar violet eyes who beckons to him and tell shim she is the key to his curse's undoing. Thinking he is coming up against Morganna in an attractive disguise he captures the young woman and demands she free him. All the while he struggles with the attraction that threatens to overshadow his desire for release from his eternal existence.

Olivia never thought the droolworthy man who abducted her would turn her life upside down in so many ways. She feels so much for him in such a short period of time that she offers to help him break the curse any way she can. She may not be the witch he thought she was, but she is destined for greatness in the magical world. She will help free Marrok from his curse, even if her heart breaks with the idea of him submitting to death.

Olivia and Marrok's quest to open the Morganna's diary to release Marrok from his curse leads to an evil entity who has designs on the diary for entirely different reasons. Now they must keep the diary safe not just to avoid losing the one tool that could help Marrok, but to save magickind entirely from utter destruction. All the while, the two must learn to trust one another or else lose each other forever.

There was so much suspicion in this book. Who was the rat in their ranks? Was Marrok or Olivia completely unselfish in their actions? Every member of the Brethren had beef with someone else within their numbers. It was chaos. I got frustrated on more than one occasion with Marrok and Olivia always suspecting the other of working against them or questioning their feelings. But, of course, that sort of drama is what kept the story going. It wouldn't be very thrilling if they all just trusted each other completely from the beginning. However, I did want to smack Marrok and Olivia on more than one occasion.

I enjoyed the world that was created. I liked that it was a nice break from vampires and werewolves. I also gushed a little at a small Harry Potter reference within the pages. This book actually does read a lot like an erotica version of Harry Potter. Possibly why I liked it so much?

Tempt Me in Darkness is a page turner from start to finish. It brings into question loyalty and love to the extent of sacrifice and solidarity.

Review: Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

Reason to Breathe by Rebecca Donovan

Series: Breathing #1

Publication date: June 4th, 2013

Pages: 456

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

"No one tried to get involved with me, and I kept to myself. This was the place where everything was supposed to be safe and easy. How could Evan Mathews unravel my constant universe in just one day?"

In the affluent town of Weslyn, Connecticut, where most people worry about what to be seen in and who to be seen with, Emma Thomas would rather not be seen at all. She's more concerned with feigning perfection--pulling down her sleeves to conceal the bruises, not wanting anyone to know how far from perfect her life truly is. Without expecting it, she finds love. It challenges her to recognize her own worth--at the risk of revealing the terrible secret she's desperate to hide.

One girl's story of life--changing love, unspeakable cruelty, and her precarious grasp of hope: Reason to Breathe is the first installment of the acclaimed Breathing Series.

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Review:

I purchased this book along with the second in the series to read before meeting the author in June at Book Bash. I have been branching out into the contemporary genre for a while now so I figured this book would be a good addition to my library when I saw it. I had made it my personal goal to read at least one or two books from almost every author there in an attempt to be able to express my honest opinions to the authors when I meet them. I figured Reason to Breathe was worth a gander.

Emma has had an incredibly hard life. Her father died when she was very young and her mother became a shell of a person afterwards. When her mother decided the comfort of random men and the answer to her problems were at the bottom of a bottle Emma was sent to live with her father's brother and his wife. She didn't know the hell she was entering at twelve years old. Emma's aunt is a tyrant in her life and her uncle is blind to what is going on around him. Emma's aunt, Carol, has no qualms about physical violence and unleashes her wrath on Emma any chance she gets. To avoid undue stress to her young cousins, Emma stays silent about the abuse. All the while she is attempting to achieve perfection in hope of leaving her tumultuous living environment for that of an Ivy League school. She didn't plan for Evan.

Evan is the light in Emma's dark world, besides her best friend, Sara. But Evan doesn't understand her world. He doesn't understand the strict rules Emma has to follow nor why she is always so fearful of her aunt and uncle's reactions to her teenage rebellions. He just wants her to trust him, but Emma can trust no one but herself. All she can do is exist from one day to the next and hope that she can make it until the day she can escape. Evan is a distraction she doesn't need but one she can't seem to stay away from.

Where the synopsis appeals to my inner romantic and bleeding heart, the story itself was a bit lackluster. I was immediately drawn in by the plight of Emma. She had to toe the line between her world of abuse and tight reigns while trying to achieve greatness so she can go further in her life. She was a bit naïve for my taste. She didn't recognize when she was receiving male attention and had absolutely no clue how to navigate the dating pool. She would rather deny a relationship exists than acknowledge it. She pushes people away and bottles everything up. For an abuse victim, I was expecting to like Emma immediately, but that spark just didn't happen for me.

The romance between Evan and Emma seemed forced. It didn't flow well at all. Normally when a female protagonist rejects a connection with her male counterpart she is still inexplicably drawn to him. That didn't happen here. When Emma said, "I don't like him" she bloody well proved it.

The writing was sporadic and non-sequential. There would be scenes referenced by the characters that were never actually in the book. It was them simply talking about something that happened that was not actually written in the text. I did a lot of back flipping trying to find one scene in particular that was vital to the story that was just nowhere to be found.

However... the cliffhanger at the end makes the possibility of reading the second book not entirely implausible.

Review: Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire

Series: Beauitful #1

Publication date: May 26th, 2011

Pages: 416

Synopsis (according to Goodreads):

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn't drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs--and wants--to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby's resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis's apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Available at:

Review:

This is one of those books where you hear so much good buzz about you have to read it. But since I am a blogger with copious amounts of review books to read, I never really get to read for pleasure. So this delight was pushed to the back burner until Book Bash 2014 caused it to resurface. I have a determination to read as many books by authors attending as I can so I don't end up asking them to sign a book I haven't even looked at past the cover. I had never read anything by Jamie McGuire so I was anxious to do so before BB14.

Within the first pages we are introduced to Abby Abernathy. Externally she is the girl-next-door, but on the inside she has a dark past full of danger and pain. She has moved away from Wichita to attend Eastern University hoping for a fresh start where nobody knows of her or her infamous father. She has been raised around unpredictable, reckless people her entire life so when she first lays eyes on Travis Maddox she knows to stay well and truly far away from him. Problem is he is intrigued by her keeping this Casanova at arm's length. Abby refuses to allow herself to notice the way Travis makes her feel because she knows if she gives in and sleeps with him she will just be another notch on his bedpost. Unable to keep him away she settles for a friendship. But what starts as nothing but best buddies turns into anything but.

Travis has had his share of women. He is the campus stud who has never dated and only ever had one-night-stands. Unfortunately, the one girl he wants now doesn't want him. The unusual "Pigeon", as he calls her, is the only girl who has ever held his attention longer than it takes to get them naked. He demands to have her in any way possible. That even includes a reluctant friendship. But all the while this unfeeling cad starts to wonder if love is not such an impossible thing for him. Maybe Abby is the one who can soothe his hurt and tame the beast.

Abby and Travis have a lot of healing to do and perhaps with the help of each other they can allow themselves to trust what is developing between them. Maybe they can allow themselves to trust what is developed between them. Maybe they can allow themselves to feel loved without fear for the first time in their lives.

I absolutely loved Abby and Travis as a couple, he was a smug player in the beginning and through Abby not taking any of his nonsense and calling him on everything he did she didn't agree with, he grew into a man. Abby also learned to eventually not let her past rule her life. I loved watching their feelings for each other grow. I cried for them and that is the best part of a book. When I feel so emotionally invested in a book that I feel joy and sorrow right along with them, that is the markings of a truly superior book.

Jamie McGuire reached the status of one of my favorite authors in leaps and bounds with Beautiful Disaster. It is a New Adult book that will make you fall in love with the genre and idolize the world of adorable Abby and tantalizing Travis.