Review: Garrison's Creed (Titan #2) by Cristin Harber

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A SCORCHING HOT LOVE THAT STARTED SO MANY YEARS AGO...

A SPY RUNNING FOR HER LIFE
Nicola is an injured CIA agent on the run from a failed undercover operation. Her escape plan shatters when she slams into the man who buried her a decade ago. Cash Garrison. Her first and only love. Now, sexier than her best memory and cradling a sniper's rifle, he has questions she can't answer. Why was she alive? And armed?

AND THE MAN SHE COULD NEVER SEE AGAIN
Cash is an elite member of a black ops organization, The Titan Group. He thought Nicola died his senior year of college and swore off love to focus on a decade of military missions. But when she shows up behind enemy lines, bleeding out and wielding a weapon, his heart and mind are unsure how to proceed.

BATTLE BETRAYAL TO SAVE THEMSELVES
Titan and the CIA join forces to uncover a mole hidden in a network of international terrorists and homegrown mobsters, teaming Cash and Nicola again. They fight old wounds and re-ignite sparks while closing in on a double agent. When disaster strikes, Nicola's hidden past makes her the hunted target and Cash's best kill shot may not be enough to save them.

*Complimentary copy received from Netgalley for review purposes.

So, I guess I might as well go ahead and lay out my weaknesses for you, here and now.

#1.  I'm a sucker for stories set in Virginia.
#2.  I'm a sucker for a second chance romance.
#3.  I'm a sucker for blonde, muscled, gun toting, cowboy hat wearing, alpha manwhores. (well, I didn't used to be, but after reading this I am)

Yup.  I'm a sucker.  And I fell for Cash.  Hard.  Can I have him, please?  Can I?  Can I?  Can I?

Hang on.  I need a moment...

Alright, now that I'm a little calmer.

Cash (said on a dreamy, breathy sigh while I stare off into space).  That is all.

No.  That is not all.  Cash is awesome.  He is sexy.  He is strong.  He can shoot.  He loves Nicola.  And he's sentimental (aww).  What's there not to like?  Oh, the manwhore thing.  Eh, whatever.  He's forgiven.

Nicola.  Another kick-ass heroine.  She is badass.  She is smart.  She is tough.  She can hold her own with the big boys while at the same time being feminine and girly.

Action, suspense, danger.  It's all there and you never know when or where it will pop up.  Furthermore, you never know who will need saving and who will save the day.

Sugar?  Didn't see that coming.  Jackson?  Didn't peg that one either.
It was full of surprises.  I loved it.

And after all of that there is the teaser action for Westin's Chase.  I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Cristin Harber

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Review: Winters Heat (Titan #1) by Cristin Harber

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After putting her life on the line to protect classified intelligence, military psychologist Mia Kensington is on a cross-country road trip from hell with an intrusive save-the-day hero. Uninterested in his white knight act, she’d rather take her chances without the ruggedly handsome, cold-blooded operative who boasts an alpha complex and too many guns.

Colby Winters, an elite member of The Titan Group, has a single objective on his black ops mission: recover a document important to national security. It was supposed to be an easy in-and-out operation. But now, by any means necessary becomes a survival mantra when he faces off with a stunning woman he can’t leave behind.

When Titan’s safe houses are compromised, Colby stashes Mia at his home, exposing his secret—he’s the adoptive father of an orphaned baby girl. Too soon, danger arrives and Mia lands in the hands of a sadistic cartel king with a taste for torture. As hours bleed into fear-drenched days, Colby races across the globe and through a firestorm of bullets to save the woman he can’t live without.

*Complimentary copy received from Netgalley for review purposes.

A para-military organization who does good deeds and makes the world a better place through their own brand of vigilante justice.

KGI-esque? Why, yes, it is.

Does it matter? Nope. Not one little bit.

Why? Because who doesn't like a hot muscled alpha hero who puts his life (and his hot colleagues lives) on the line to save the woman he loves.

Colby Winters is our hot muscled alpha hero. Yay! He starts off as a hardass and basically melts for Mia. What I like about Colby is that once his brain semi-registers how he's feeling, he doesn't fight it. His strategy is to just play it out and see where it goes.

Mia Kensington is our heroine who is definitely not the typical weak-willed, crybaby heroine we get a lot of the time. Yay, again! She is actually a badass in easter egg clothing. She bosses these alphas around like she's in charge. However, her mind and her emotions over Colby seemed a bit wishy-washy at times.

Colby & Mia together were great. I loved the chemistry between the two, not to mention, the sex was hot. And Colby has a kid. It kinda just makes you love him more when you get to see him be gentle and tender with Clara.

I liked the secondary characters and the bits we saw of them were great for lead-ins to other books to come in this series. I can't wait!

Yeah, this is going to be a *must read* series for me.

Cristin Harber

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Review: Revenge (The Virgin #1) by J. Dallas

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I was seventeen when I met Drake Gallagher. Seventeen, naive, foolish…and in love. Or so I thought. That summer, and the months that followed, set the course of my life.

Ten years later, I’m still struggling to put the pieces of me back to together.

It’s time to stop struggling. It’s time to take control…and maybe, it’s time for a little revenge.

He doesn’t have time for naive little virgins?

Well, I’m not naive anymore.

*Complimentary copy received from Netgalley for review purposes.

Well, first things first, this is short, but for being so short it did pack a punch.

I liked it. A lot.

I'm not quite sure how to explain it. I think there is something about the utter heartbreak and devastation that Shannon went through that just pulls at me. It isn't gone into very deeply, but you can tell its there and you can tell it cuts her deep. And then I can feel her desperation when she is around Drake. That there in itself is something, this book made me feel what the character was feeling and that is not always easy to do.

Drake, oh boy, Drake. My mind is just spinning, wondering about him and what has happened to him over the past ten years. I really need to know what is going through his mind. I must know. He can't be so clueless as to not know how he left her all those years ago but he acts as if she owes him some sort of explanation. It's odd really.

Yes, this is short and it does have a cliffhanger of sorts. It did leave me hanging, but not floundering and not without some measure of resolution to tide me over.

Do I want to read the next one? Absolutely, the sooner the better.

J. Dallas

Goodreads 

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Review: Blind Obsession by Ella Frank

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Obsession, defined as the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image or desire....

Chantel Rosenberg's passion for music and life had never shone brighter than the time she spent in Bordeaux France. It's a time when feelings arose and desires ran deep, a time that fundamentally changed her life.

A man living in seclusion, Phillipe Tibideau is haunted and plagued by memories he cannot disregard. Choosing to live a quiet life in his Chateau surrounded by the vineyards of France, he's left his passion for art behind.

However, the time has arrived to tell his side of a tale. A tale that has depicted him as a 'beautiful monster' and he's finally allowing someone close.

Close enough to ask questions. Questions he's not sure he wants to answer. Questions about her.

For up and coming journalist Gemma Harris, the pursuit of truth is what drives her and when a job of a lifetime presents itself there is nothing in the world that will stop her from taking it. Even if it does mean leaving her home for several months to stay at Chateau Tibideau, with him.

This is a story of what happens when three passionate lovers collide and the desire for truth, art and music merge.

Chateau Tibideau is a place full of unanswered questions, dark sinful desire and a beauty so hauntingly sad it will have you wondering how you will ever leave the same....

It is Beautiful. It is Sensual. It is Brutal. It is Dark. It is Erotic. It is Tragic. It is Twisted.
And I could not put it down!

I will admit that I was really, really conflicted throughout most of the book. I couldn’t decide whether I loved or hated Phillipe and Gemma. Then, somewhere along the way my thought process went haywire and I was trying to figure out what kind of game Chantel was trying to play and I’m not even sure that was a place my mind was supposed to go.

Really, it was going in some seriously creepy, dark, twisted directions.

Ella, was that supposed to happen? Was my mind supposed to go there?

By the end, I was convinced that I absolutely loved everyone regardless of the games they played (or didn’t) and their love, pain and loss (even possibly, their psychosis) had become my own.

The contrast between Chantel’s journal entries and Phillipe and Gemma’s interactions gave this book a few different edges. The journal entries were written almost poetically, they were just plain beautiful to read and to imagine. Phillipe and Gemma’s interactions seemed raw, harsh and brutal which was equally beautiful but in a painful way. And then you have Gemma and Chantel’s interactions (if they existed at all, which I’m still unsure of), which added another slightly twisted edge to this.

My mind is still processing this and it keeps going back to those dark, twisted places (which aren’t too bad after awhile).

Bottom Line:

This book was AWESOME. And I LOVED it.

Ella Frank

Goodreads | Amazon

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Review: Always Wanted (Xander Barns #1) by Sarah Tork

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Author's note 'This book is a dark satire. It contains coarse language and includes violent and sexual scenes that may be offending. Recommended for ages 18+'

If someone were to have told me a year ago, that by the end of this year I was going to break up with Ben my boyfriend of five years and leave my family home to move to a different city to start a new life, I’d have told them they were crazy. There was no way something like that could happen. Ever!

It did happen.

Twenty two year old university drop out Marisa Gellys' relaxed lifestyle takes a turn for the worse when she arrives early at Kyle Matthews’ annual Halloween Bash to find her boyfriend making out with another girl. Heartbroken she sets off to a brand new city to get away from her family who thinks she’s made the biggest mistake of her life, breaking up with Ben.

For the first time in her life, Marisa’s doing everything on her own and she loves it. A brand new city, a brand (sort of) new job, and a hunky, dreamy late night customer who shows her the kinds of things he likes to do.

This year will be nothing like last year.

My initial reaction (posted on GR 8/29/13):

So, I'm sitting here wondering wtf I just read. It started off okay and was somewhat promising. Then it just took a crazy loop de loop turn into what-the-f@ckeryville.

Normally this would have gotten 1 maybe 2 stars but because I was laughing so hard at the insanity it got 3.

My expanded review:

I'm not sure what the author's intention with this book was, but I don't think I'm overly concerned about it either. I don't say this to be ugly or anything. Its just that when you read this you have to take it for what it is. And frankly I'm not sure what that is.

From the moment Marisa meets Xander you just know that something good is going to happen with that, then with the chance encounter while traveling it makes you even more sure of that. You're ready for something warm and fuzzy at that point and then you get hit with "Xander's request", which turns this from being a serious romance into being very comical. You almost think he's joking with her (unless you're into that kind of kink too). At any rate, Xander does some pretty appalling and gross things, that make this almost seem like one of those National Lampoons movies. And it does leave you hanging at the end, but no big deal, right? It was just short, weird, and funny. You won't die without knowing what happens.

That's what I said 14 days ago, but over the past few days I've found myself looking at the author's blog and wondering when the next one comes out. As crazy as this story was, I do want to know more. We know (at least we think we do) that Xander and Marisa are supposed to end up together. Firstly, for the funny factor I want to know what other crazy shit Xander does to Marisa. Secondly, does he give up his kink or does she accept it? And thirdly, what happens with her family and Ben?

So where does this leave me? It leaves me wondering how this book has captured my attention the way it has. I guess the best comparison would be to say its kinda like Achy Breaky Heart. It is a dumb song, but people were obsessed with it at one time. And now, just the mere mention makes you cringe, but if you're alone and you hear it, you sing along cause you know all the words and its fun.

Sarah Tork

Goodreads | Amazon

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