Category Archives: Throwback Review

Throwback Review, Zombie

#WOTR21 #zombies #2ndChance #ThrowbackReview – Savage by Jade Jamison

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Savage

This is an alternate cover edition for B00VF8CLC6.

Kill or Die

Nina Hardwick has had a rough life since leaving high school, but inside she is still the girl looking for a silver lining. The past several years have left their toll on her psyche, and just as she feels like she’s climbing out of a deep abyss, her life and the lives of millions of others fall into shambles as a virus overtakes the country and leaves a plague of undead armies scouring the land.

In a desperate attempt to get away from the infected, Nina and some neighbors speed out of town, nearly killing a man on a motorcycle. When they stop to rescue him, Nina realizes that he is the one man from her past she never got over, the guy who should have been her high school sweetheart until she messed it up. But this unrequited love, Kevin Savage, says he doesn’t even remember her. Or does he?

Nina, Kevin, and her neighbors head to the wilderness and fight to survive not only the plague but also hunger, cold, their inner demons…and even each other. Will they survive and, more importantly, will her heart?


Goodreads



I received this book from the author for an honest review.OMG! I. AM. BLOWN. AWAY by this book.

I am a big Jade fan but this book is soooo different from anything I have read of hers. I have pretty much read all the books in her library but like 4 so to say I know her writing style wouldn’t be a lie. The anxiety and tension of this book totally sneaks up on you and then BOOM you are a stressed out MESS!! This book is VERY slow but it’s very purposeful in its pace. We, the reader, are in Nina’s mind. We ARE Nina. We get to see her reasons for why she does things and why she feels the way she does. She is a very broken woman because life hasn’t always been easy and she kinda has some “what if’s” playing in her head…..alll those what ifs are about our yummy Mr. Savage……..

Nina and her neighbors end up almost running over Nina’s biggest life regret, Kevin, when trying to get to help Nina’s elderly aunt. The story is the 4 of them making due in a survival situation during the worst possible time to be in the Colorado Mountains. Yes they are homebound essentially and dealing with a few “biters” but the story is not really about the virus but the people. The story is about what people will and won’t do to survive. How people can change to go with the new world or how they break and go a little insane with the new world. I totally think that the characters in this book are actual representations of what can happen if this situation were to arise. The best of couples can fall apart and strangers can become your ally and trusted companion.

Now to all of you “I am not gonna read it because it has zombies in it”…get over it. Zombies are a minimal part of the story. PEOPLE and SURVIVAL are the point of this story. I can tell you I was messaging Jade completely freaking out at parts and then bawling at parts of the story. This book was a book I was eagerly waiting to read. I will not deny it but to say it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be isn’t a lie. I expected a different kind of a book…more action and fighting but what I got was an amazing look into the souls of people. The heart of what makes us a society of good or not good people. I feel that this book is showcasing a whole new level for Jade’s writing abilities. She can write some hot and naughty rockers we all have no doubt but this book and its main character, Nina, is just so deep and inspiring. It really knocked my socks off…..

“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” While you’re more likely to see Jade headbanging instead of Dirty Dancing, she—like Baby—won’t be put in a corner…or a box. So even though you can’t really stick her books in one genre, you could say she mostly writes steamy Contemporary Romance—and, while you’re at it, you’ll notice in her stories that Jade freaking loves Colorado, hard music, coffee, bad words, and CHOCOLATE!!! And so do her characters.

Oh, and there’s always a glimmer of hope…because if life doesn’t have that, what’s the damn point?

Paranormal, Throwback Review

#WOTR21 #Paranormal #ThrowbackReview – Beauty Loves the Beast: A Wylde Paranormal Love Story

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Beauty Loves the Beast (Wylde Paranormal Love #1)

Carter

Avoidance had become my norm. After too many tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, I’d checked out—on everyone and everything—on life. Ex-navy SEAL. Totally broken man. I’d hit rock bottom so many times, I was sure I was about to fall straight to hell. It would be a welcome reprieve.
Then she found me. Beautiful, insane and more broken than I was. She needed my help. I needed her humanity.
How she found me was anyone’s guess. But she had. She needed rescuing. She needed a hero. I was none of those things.
But for the first time in many years, I wanted to be. I wanted to be her hero.

Georgia

Becoming an undercover agent for the CIA had been my dream until everything went wrong—wildly wrong. Trapped in a cage with nothing to do but anticipate more torture from the ones I was supposed to trust, I had no choice but to escape—again. This time I’d succeed or die trying.
They’d turned me into a beast and it was time to show them exactly what I could do.
Finding the beautiful man who could help me end my pain was something I’d never expected—or wanted.
It was a complication for normal people. I wasn’t normal. I would never be normal.

Could two broken pieces make a whole? Could we truly disappear with the government hunting us down like animals?
He was Beauty and I was the Beast. Happily ever afters didn’t happen for people like us.
Or did they?


Goodreads


Amazon

I am a huge fan of twisted fairytales and was not disappointed by this one. Loving the paranormal and the role reversal! There are two completed broken and messed up people just trying to survive. 

Georgia thought she was doing exactly what she loved by being an undercover CIA agent but ended up trapped and experimented on. When she makes the escape she runs to Carter, the broken ex-Navy Seal. As their worlds collide, they both become the hunted. And here my friends, is when the action picks up as well as Georgia’s snarkiness and her death wish. 

“Your life would be simpler if we offed me. Just saying.” “Maybe I’ll off you tomorrow,” I replied, … “But today, I’m finding complicated quite interesting.

This is full of action with tons of sarcasm but with the sweet love story in the background that we all have come to love. Even if they don’t make it, they will take their stolen moments together. I am hooked on these and am very much looking forward to the next in this series. Bring on the crazy hawtness!

Robyn writes because the people inside her head won’t leave her alone until she gives them life on paper. Her addictions include shoes (the expensive kind), Coke with extra ice in a styrofoam cup, and bejeweled reading glasses.
A former professional actress, she now lives in the south with her family and too many animals to count. Writing gives her a chance to have a job where working in her P.J.’s is acceptable. You can follow Robyn at http://www.robynpeterman.com and at Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Robyn-P….

Throwback Review

#WOTR21 #ThrowBack #Erotica – Anaconda Nights by Elissa Daye

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Anaconda Nights

Some say ignorance is bliss, at least that’s what Tinley tries to tell herself when she sees the fresh meat on display at Anaconda. When she steps on the party bus, she has no idea it will be leading her to an exclusive resort with escorts that cater to a rich woman’s every need.

At first, she is afraid to give in, but when Adam enters the scene she can’t seem to get enough of him. His hard body, sweet silky voice, his eyes…if she could actually see them. All the men at Anaconda wear masks to protect their identities while keeping them mysteriously sexy at the same time.

All the same, she can’t help but wonder what would happen if she just tore the mask off. Would she be pleased with what she saw, or would the person beneath the mask lead her down a whole other rabbit hole altogether?

Goodreads

I received this book from the author for an honest review.

When Elissa asked if I would like to read her new steamy novel, I said sure thing.  Who can pass up steamy right???  I liked the premise of the story and the whole “mystery man” so I jumped in.

Our girl Tinley is a hot mess.  She is so worried that people don’t take her seriously because she is a woman, that she works herself to the bone.  When her sister is getting married and is having her bachelorette night, she forces Tinley to come.  She doesn’t tell her where they are going which is essentially a legal reverse brothel.  Instead of the ladies doing the servicing, it’s the men who are.  Needless to say, Tinley freaks.  When she meets her “escort” for the night she is a bit stunned at how good of a time they had and books another weekend with him.

Seeing Tinley realize she can be a woman, feminine annnnd formidable in the workplace was priceless.  Tinley reconnects with herself and soon embraces her sensual female side thanks to her time with Adam.  When the next weekend happens and we find out who Adam is really…..welllll, I think we all saw it coming .

Seeing Tinley deal with her feelings and emotions while making major life changes after her weekend was awesome.  We also see Tinley making Adam work for a chance at a future with her.  The couple have some serious issues because she is worried she can’t satisfy man who has been “hooking” up with multiple ladies or so she thinks.

I enjoyed the story and liked the ending scene.  It was really sweet but super funny as well.

Ever since childhood, I have enjoyed reading stories as an escape from life. When I was a teenager I started to write my own stories that kept me entertained whenever I ran out of books to read. When I was accepted into Illinois Summer School for the Arts in my Junior year of High School, I knew I wanted to become a writer. I graduated from Illinois State University in December 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education and began my teaching career, hoping to find moments to write in my free time.

After seven years of teaching, I decided to focus on my writing and made the decision to put my teaching years behind me so that I could create the stories I had always dreamed of. I am now happily married and a stay at home mom. I try my best to master the art of multitasking to get everything accomplished and write in any spare moment I can find.

Contemp. Romance, Review, Throwback Review

#WOTR20 #SeriesStarter #Review #FreeKU – Being Nobody (Witness #1) by Heather D’Agostino

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Being Nobody (Witness, #1)

Samantha Connelly has been on the run since she was seven years old. Forced into Witness Protection after her father saw something he shouldn’t has caused her to learn to blend in. She’s moved, changed her name, and her appearance more times than she can count over the last nineteen years all along wondering if it will ever end. Her handler, Kevin, along with her parents have assured her that it won’t be forever, but as the years tick by she’s slowly given up hope that she’ll ever be normal.

Now at 26, Sam has moved to Chicago and is working at the Rusty Nail as a bartender calling herself Mallory. Her father passed away two years before leaving her to finish what he started…put away the ‘bad guys’. Living on the run in hiding has been harder than she ever imagined, and finding love has always been out of the question. Who would want to be with someone they couldn’t be honest with? She’s resigned herself to being alone, until… Brian walks in.

Brian Sellers is everything Sam has been trying to avoid her entire life. He’s clad in leather and torn jeans, donning several tattoos… all-in-all a bad boy. When their eyes connect one evening, everything she’s ever told herself falls to the wayside as an indescribable draw pulls her to him. He’s sexy and domineering, and something about him reminds her of a boy she used to know.

The more time she spends with Brian, the more she wants him, but…Brian is not everything he seems to be. When Sam happens to see the tat on his wrist, the same tat that her father saw all those years ago, she realizes she’s flirting with the enemy. Brian has no idea that he’s hanging out with the one girl his boss wants dead.

Can Sam hide her identity from the first man she’s had real feelings for? What will Brian do when he finds out who she really is? Can love really conquer all?

Being Nobody is the first book in The Witness series.


Goodreads

Amazon

I was lucky to beta read this for the author and offer an honest review.

I fell in love with this author reading her Shattered Series. I love that dynamics she builds with her characters. I love that she can weave a story and get you completely and utterly hooked and then *BOOM* lowers the bomb and leaves you screaming at her….yup that is what I did! I emailed her and was all shouty capsing her about this book!! I will say that she DID give me a spoiler for the next book because I MAY or MAY NOT(not denying or confirming) have threatened her with bodily injury!! LOL

So this book is a new venture for our author. She is stepping outside of her comfort zone and is writing a new series/genera. I will even say that the sex was a little bit hotter in this book too!!! *wink* Mallory aka Sam is hiding from the drug dealers who her dad testified against. The family went into the Witness Protection until the bad guys could be found. Well our Mallory has lived several lives and has had multiple personalities because the bad guys keep catching up with her family. Well her new cover is Mallory, bar tender in a locals only kinda bar. Well a hottie biker strolls in and Mallory is allll for the one night stands. She fell in love once and due to her family and their predicament, she had to leave this love of her life. Sooo no attachments, just sex is her motto. Well our hottie biker is kinda involved in bad stuff. Mallory learns that he is involved with THE BAD GUYS she is running from……yikes!!!

Our girls is freaking out. If she tells the Witness people, she will be jet setted off to another life in less than 24 hours. But she is starting to fall for our tall, dark, drink of water biker with a heart of gold. Brian is everything you could want in a boyfriend…well except for working for drug dealers that is!! LOL

The story is so solid and woven together then when we the reader start to put the pieces together it is to late….The author drops the boom and leaves us SCREAMING!!!!!

I will say, if you like a little spicy/naught fun, some suspense, hot biker, sassy female character, then this is a jackpot for you the reader!! But be warned, you will be SCREAMING at the author and you may or may not *wink* want to email her with death threats too

Heather D’Agostino is an avid reader turned Bestselling Author of the Contemporary Romance Series The Broken Series, The Shattered Series, The Second Chances Series, The Cook Brothers Series, and Romantic Suspense series The Witness Series.

She attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she received a Bachelor’s of Arts in Elementary Education with a minor in Mathematics.

She currently lives in Central New York with her husband, two children, two dogs, and three cats. When she’s not writing she can usually be found at the dance studio, soccer field, or one of the many other places that she plays ‘Supermom’.

Apocalyptic, Throwback Review, Writers on the River Attending Author

#WOTR19 #ThrowbackReview – Persuading Tomorrow by Jennifer Laslie

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Persuading Tomorrow

When the unimaginable happens and Jordan loses her best friend on the night she had planned to tell him her feelings, it leaves her to wonder if she’s the guilty party, but her memories of that night are fuzzy. In an attempt to leave her past and the hateful stares of her peers behind, she moves across the country to live with her mother in Esterwilde, Pennsylvania. It’s a small close-knit town, but there no one should know about her past, or so she thought.

When Zyler runs into the new girl in town he can’t help but feel a connection, but he also knows her past harbors a horrible secret. He’s heard the rumors, but doesn’t believe them. Seeing Jordan in pain kills him and all he wants to do is take it away.

Jordan soon realizes that no matter what she does she’s not going to be able to outrun her past. Can Zyler show her that despite the hate and ignorance in the world that life is still worth living? Will she ever figure out the truth about the night that took away her best friend?

Goodreads

I received this book from the author for an honest review.

This book is about the pain that Jordan is dealing with after the death of her best friend. She feels the guilt and loss of him plus blames herself for his death after a night of partying. She can’t take it and so she moves across country to stay with her mom. Between the guilt, depression and whispers from the kids at her school she needed a fresh start.

Poor Jordan can’t catch a break because once she shows up at her new school it seems they too know her secrets. However, one boy, Zyler, doesn’t care and wants to get to know the new girl no matter what.

I think the book does a good job with the emotions Jordan is dealing with and in scene really delves into why teens would think death is easier than life. I loved Zyler and his positive force in Jordan’s life. I also loved that even though he has major troubles he is willing to always remain optimistic in life. He is kinda the ying to her yang.

The books has a villain we totally hate but it also shows the “other side” of the bully. The girl’s why’s for her horrible treatment of Jordan. We can see how teenagers are so focused on themselves to see what other people maybe dealing with.

I liked the little mystery thrown into the book and there is a cliffy at the end but I am a fan of cliffys so it doesn’t make me mad. It makes me wanna know what happens to the Jordan and Zyler.

Jennifer Laslie is a crazy cat lady who lives in Louisville, KY with her wonderful husband and two children. When she’s not thinking about cheesecake or cats, she can be found in the bookstore in the Young Adult section, coffee in hand.

Contemp. Romance, Part of a Series, Review, Throwback Review

#ThrowBackReview #Contemporary #TwinsieKristiFavorite House of Payne:Max (HoP book 6) by Stacy Gail

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TRIGGER WARNING: This book contains flashbacks of violence and drug abuse, and the impact of these factors on family members. If you have issues with these elements, this book is not for you.

Chicago’s premiere tattoo studio, House Of Payne, is across the street from the Mad Cow diner, but it might as well be on another planet as far as waitress Paradise Simone is concerned. She’s a good girl from Waukegan with a past she’d rather forget, and a future that goes only as far as the next day. What does she know about superstars and paparazzi?

But Pari does know danger when she sees it, and tattooist Max Kulagin has it written all over him. A proper Waukegan girl should know to steer well clear, but she can’t resist Max when he leaves beautiful, intimate art sketched out on cheap diner napkins.

Beautiful, intimate art…of her.

Max knows ugliness. He was born in it. Raised in it. Had it shoved down his throat every goddamn day. So when he stumbles across true beauty, he worships it. There’s a deep sensuality in the waitress who likes to suck on her pen whenever he’s around, and he’s just the man to bring that beauty out in her. She might be a lady in the street, but one look at Pari tells him she’s going to be a freak in the bed.

And in the shower.

And while he’s driving with her head going to town in his lap.

The life Max leads might be in the spotlight, but it’s Pari who gets caught in the glare. When her past catches up to her, it’s her life that holds all the excitement, and not in a good way. But there’s no force on earth that can take Max’s beautiful Paradise away now that he’s finally found it.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader’s Copy of this book

Sooo, Max is probably some I’ve been waiting forever to read it seems, ever since he started talking to Essie in Steele’s book!!!  I knew what I thought he was going liked from his first words and I’m glad to say he was so much MORE!!!!  I also had pictured who he was going to look like, hello Josh Mario John!!!

Pari, she is someone who has been through some deep s**t, but she didn’t let that break her.  She is someone that has become stronger than even she knew.

Pari works as a waitress at The Mad Cow, love the name, a diner across the street from the House of Payne shop.  Max has been coming to the diner for a month and during that month he has left her little drawings on napkins.  Sometimes funny drawings, sometimes drawings of her, and sometimes very naughty drawings of her.  

As you can tell from the drawings that he leaves her, Max is a artist.  He is one of the premier artist at the House of Payne, the top tattoo shop in Chicago if not the world.

I love how easy these two seem to come together it seems almost effortless, but let’s face it, it wasn’t.  Max has spent that month falling more for the girl with the purple hair and killer butt  than he has for anyone else and Pari has spent that month secretly keeping his drawings and falling for him too.

When her past comes back to haunt her Pari thinks about leaving the city to be safe, but after hearing about her past Max vows to do everything in his power to make sure she is happy, safe, and staying by his side where she belongs.

I don’t think I’ve ever smiled so much while reading a book, not laughed just smiled because these are two characters that I can plainly see in my head and having a picture of Max in you head is a good thing!!

Gail did a wonderful job with Pari’s backstory, showed how you can overcome anything, if you have people that love you and you can trust at your side.  She also wrote about the family that they have in the epilogue and it seems that Max and Pari get everything that could possibly want to make them happy.

I can’t wait to meet Tag in the next House of Payne story, I just know it’s gonna be a good one.

Goodreads

House of Payne 6 book series

A competitive figure skater from the age of eight, Stacy Gail wrote stories between events to pass the time. By fourteen, she told her parents she was either going to be a skating coach who was also a romance writer, or a romance writer who was also a skating pro. Now with a day job of playing on the ice with her students, and writing everything from PNR and cyberpunk to contemporary romance at night, both dreams have come true.

Throwback Review

#WOTR19 #FREE #Review #Throwback – Kill Devils Hills by Sarah Darlington

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Kill Devil Hills (Kill Devil Hills, #1)

He’s twenty-four. She’s eighteen.

His life is exactly the way he’s always wanted it to be…stable.
She’s quite possibly the very definition of unstable.

Noah saved her.
Georgina never wanted to be saved.

Growing up, Noah Clark was passed from one relative to the next until he finally ended up living with his abusive, alcoholic uncle in Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina. Thanks in part to the unwavering love and support of his best friend, Ellie Turner, Noah survived those years, escaped his uncle, and grew into the man he is today. Now he runs his own business and lives a pretty normal, no-nonsense life—one where he maintains a high level of control.

Georgina is Ellie’s younger sister. Four months ago, Noah saved Georgie’s life, but he thought that was where his involvement with his friend’s sister would end. Now Georgie has returned home from the recovery facility her parents sent her away to and Noah, still haunted by the night that connects them, can’t stop himself from continuously trying to protect this girl he barely knows. But is he willing to give up all of the control he’s worked so hard to build in his life and risk everything for her? Even more importantly, would she do the same for him?

Goodreads

THROWBAK REVIEW – July 2014

4.5 star rating but rounded up

I received this book from the author for an honest opinion.

WOW!! I picked this book for a blog tour based on that awesome blurb and boy was I happy I did. I fell in love with social outcast Noah. He just lept in from the first chapter…errr first PAGES and stole my heart and TBH the book. He was not your typical “hero” with the fact of the age difference to Georgie and just his quiet and kinda grumpy being but WOW!! Then when we hear what he tells Ellie at the bar about her sister, his Wild Card……OMG the thud of my heart and the swooning couldnt be contained.

This book I picked because I thought it would be this intense and deep book (and I kinda like deep and intense) but I was actually shocked at how easy and light it was based on the subject matter…suicide. Am I taking away from the novel, ABSOLUTELY NOT!! I was just shocked at what I thought would be but wasnt….make sense???? I mean I was expecting mega tears but got mega heart thumping instead…….

Georgie tries to kill herself but drunk Noah, her sisters BFF, walks in and saves her. The two then form an instant bond and four months later when she returns home from her “rehab” of sorts , they have this strange chemsitry…but wonderful chemsitry. Noah never notices Georgie before and WOW does he notice her now. Georgie always thought Noah was a hot and brooding but scary as heck guy. I loved the way the story of them and how they danced around what they were feeling with each other through the novel. My abso favorite parts were the bar scene and when Noah talks to her parents about his “intensions”…..But the scene that made me fall totally, 110% fast and hard was noah’s reason for sleeping on certain sides of the bed…OMG I just cant even begin to tell you how much I loved that man after that scene. It is a crazy kinda love.

I cannot wait for more from this series. I need to know about Ben and his mystery woman, Ellie and why she was smoking and of course I need more of Noah and his Wild Card.

Sarah Darlington grew up in a military family traveling the United States –although, she’s called Virginia home for most of her adult life.

She’s the proud mom of two very special kids. She believes in true love, soul mates, unicorns, rainbows, and that Hogwarts really does exist. Before having kids she worked as a flight attendant. And when she’s not writing, she’s busy plotting her next grand adventure.