Day / February 2, 2011

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Two-Step Temptation By Emma Jay

Format: E-booktwosteptemptation
Opens with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novella
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Samhain Publishing Ltd.
Hero: Eric Viera
Heroine: Haven Reynolds
Sensuality: 4
Date of Publication: December 8, 2010
Started On: February 2, 2011
Finished On: February 2, 2011

Yeap, you guys guessed it right. This novella from Samhain Publishing caught my eye solely due to its uber-beautiful cover. Reading the blurb I was sold and have been on the look-out for its release date since then. February is definitely going to have a huge impact on my book budget with several great romances which I am keeping an eye on coming out within this month.

My first Emma Jay definitely started out with a bang and finished in a riot of beautiful colors leaving a huge smile on my face. Mr. Sex-on-legs aka Eric Viera might have had a thing or two to do with that fact as he strode into the story in his long, lean form, close-cropped brown hair and his sexy little goatee and deep blue eyes that just begs a girl to get into trouble of the right kind with him. Being an anthropologist means that Eric rarely stays around in one place for long unless it is to study behavior of some forgotten tribe of people.

Elementary school principal Haven Reynolds finds herself definitely in trouble of the right variety when she meets the sexy Eric Viera at their friends Jared and Christine’s engagement party 8 months back. A two week affair had left Haven certainly begging for more and eventually her heart had gotten involved and it had killed her to see Eric go on his anthropology trip to the Costa Rica afterwards. Though she would rather die than admit to the fact Haven knows that Eric owed her nothing when both of them had gone into the purely sexual affair with their eyes open.

Eight months later, Eric again walks into Haven’s life, this time for the wedding of the couple whose engagement brought these two together in the first place. Haven with her shields strongly in place face an even more appealing and a sexier version of Eric who has no intention of letting the best thing that has ever happened to him walk away from him as he is looking for something a bit more permanent with the woman who rocked his world 8 months back and the woman who has occupied all his thoughts since after. It is a highly enjoyable and a sensual journey done very well by Ms. Jay I must add that these two take and I loved every minute of it!

Things that made this book rock:

1- Eric Viera. No two ways about it. Mr. Sex-on-legs is definitely what he is! His at times gentle and other times no-holds-barred methods of seduction just makes me want an Eric of my very own! ^_^

2- Haven Reynolds. Though she is wary of getting her heart trampled upon, that doesn’t stop her from having a little fun with the only man who rocks her world. That makes her my kind of heroine and getting her happily ever after at the end was just icing on the cake for me.

3- The sizzle factor. Awesome hawtness throughout the story. Dancing has never sounded as good as it did in this story!

4- The beaaaaaaaautiful cover! Love it!!

Things that could have  made this book more awesome? I would change not a single thing about this book!

Recommended for fans of awesomely hot novellas. This one is just sinfully delicious!

Have definitely added Emma Jay’s list of published books to my wishlist!

Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes&Noble | BooksOnBoard | Kobo | Samhain

outstandingread

by mvbookreviewer

My 2 Favorite Things in the World – Music and Books!

Anyone who knows me well enough knows that I am a huge fan of music. In a country where Indian movies and Hindhi songs used to take the lead when I was growing up, I opted to listen to English songs, maybe because of my love for a language as beautiful as the English language proves to be. Though scholars of the language may cringe and roll over in their graves at the content of some of the songs that I listen to, nevertheless they provide an escape without which I don’t think my life would be complete.

That being said, as you all know very well, books or rather books of the romance genre come hand in hand with my method of escapism from the real world. All those who stumble across my review site would know that I tend to read all sorts of romances if it delivers a hotter than sin alpha hero & a story worth my while which would stay with me for a long time.

And so it happens that my favorite two things converge a lot as in I happen to listen to music a lot as I read. Sometimes the music that I listen to whilst reading tends to make a huge impact on the way that I feel about a book.

For instance whilst I was reading Sing My Name by Ellen O’Connell, her latest American-Western historical romance, Ijust was listening to Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars and for me the song just perfectly described how the hero Matthew Slade feels about the heroine Sarah Hammond. Even now as I listen to the song on and off, I am reminded of the novel and the impact Matthew Slade made on my senses. *Sigh*

Moving on, I come to Breaking Benjamin, my utmost favorite rock band in the world. Benjamin Burnley’s voice coupled with their awesome music and lyrics that make a deep impact on the listener goes a long way in making Breaking Benjamin my favorite music to listen to whenever I feel in the mood for rock or whenever I need an uplifting from some funk I find myself in at that moment. That being said, I was listening to Dear Agony their latest album when I raced through the Ice series by Anne Stuart with her ruthless heroes who ALWAYS manage to make my heart go thud-thud at the merest thought of them. Into the Nothing featured in this album is a song I relate a lot with Black Ice, the first novel in the series. It somehow manages to capture the reluctant hero that the story makes out of Bastien and my love for him an everlasting one! It was only much later that I found out that Anne Stuart herself listened to a lot of Japanese rock music & whatnot when she was writing the series and I guess I hit it spot on when I was reading this great series.

Last but not the least comes my eternal love for Crispin Phillip Arthur Russel III (Bones) from the Night Huntress series and anything to do with him. As it happens, this is also one series that I holed myself up in my room to race through as I practically gobbled book 1 – 4 in the series because simply put, I just couldn’t get enough of Bones! Now there’s something we all didn’t know huh? Anyhow I for the world of me don’t even know why, but this crazy tune Good Life by Leslie Millis featured in the movie What a Girl Wants was a song that I was practically hooked on when I was reading the Night Huntress series. And even now when I listen to that tune I can practically envision Bones striding towards Cat with all his lethal charm focused on me, errrm I meant to say Cat, with the sides of his leather jacket flapping in the wind, with his collar pulled up to graze his fantabulous cheekbones, mmmm.. shall I go on? So its practically a given that I am dying for the 22nd of this month to get here to get my hands on This Side of the Grave, the 5th book in the series!

I don’t think that it’s only I as a reader that feels the same way about books and music. I for one know of authors who have their own play-lists while writing their novels. For instance Pamela Clare very recently published on her blog the track list which she was listening to whilst writing the latest book in the I-Team series; Breaking Point which is to come out this May. I got some cool tracks off of her list and would definitely be listening to them whilst I read the book when it comes out.

So here’s to good music that works as a soothing balm on your soul or lets you pound out your anger and frustrations in life in a more productive manner and to great books that offer you a world to get lost into – as far away from reality as possible!

by mvbookreviewer

Review: A Not-So-Perfect Past by Beth Andrews

Format: E-booknot so perfect.JPG
Opens with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: Serenity Springs Series
Hero: Dillon Ward
Heroine: Nina Carlson
Sensuality: 3.5
First Published on: April 2009
Started On: 31st January 2011
Finished On: 1st February 2011

I can see why this book received the 2009 RITA award for the Series Contemporary category. As I delved into my first Beth Andrews story, delighted was I to find such a well crafted one, a hero that I needless to say salivated over and a heroine who was real enough with genuine problems and fears that she needed to overcome to find everlasting happiness and love with the man who even though is not perfect, is the one for her.

Ex-convict Dillon Ward has spent 5 years in prison for killing his stepfather. Dillon moves back to Serenity Springs after he is released and 2 years on, people still avoid him like the plague and he goes out of his way to isolate himself because being in prison, continuously having to look after your own hide changes a man for better or worse. Dillon is a man who has never had it easy in life. Dillon’s father had died when he was 4 years old from a drug overdose and his mother had turned to vodka to drown all her sorrows leaving Dillon to look after his younger sister Kelsey who gets her own happily ever after in book 1 of the series which I have yet to read.

Single mother Nina Carlson is the new owner of Sweet Suggestions, a bakery in Serenity Springs which is Nina’s salvation. Blonde, curvy and full-figured, Nina has always been the good and golden girl of Serenity Springs. Nina had dropped out of college to marry her ex-husband Trey Carlson, the self important and arrogant psychologist of the town who not only abuses her emotionally and physically but leaves her to marry the tall, thin, sexy and successful Dr. Rachel Weber which puts a huge dent in Nina’s self esteem as a woman. Nina is a woman who continually wages an internal battle within herself with the need that arises in her to assert herself and become independent from the shackles that bind her and what she has always been till now.

It is because Nina bows down to pressure from her ex-husband Trey and her well meaning family members that she decides to remove Dillon from her building, the tenant which she acquired along with the purchase of Sweet Suggestions from her grandparents. Nina has never really come to know Dillon that well and with half the town afraid of him, Nina goes along with the flow until circumstances force Nina to look up and see Dillon for who he really is. Dillon who acknowledges that he has a strange fascination for the town’s good girl but refuses to do anything about it finds himself on the losing side of the battle when emotions and feelings he had thought long since buried rise to the surface making him hope and believe that he is indeed worthy of the good things in life if he could have just a little bit of courage to let go of his past and move on.

Stuff I liked:

1- Dillon Ward. I always love my heroes to be a little bit tortured and just a tad dangerous. Hell, the more dangerous the better. And Dillon proves to be as sexy as they come and brings to the story that elusive quality which makes a romance come alive in the little ways that matters so much in the end.

2- Nina Carlson. What I loved about her was the fact that I could see her struggle with very real problems that many a women go through in the real world and come out the winner in the end. Because she tries so hard to be a better woman, to be more independent and to rid herself of her dependent nature on others, its no small feat that she accomplishes within the story that unfolds.

3- I loved the sizzling variety of sexual tension in this book. From the many a Harlequin Super Romances that I have read, this one comes out on the top in delivering sensuality that knocked my socks off as I read along. I always love it when the tough hero loses control and that is exactly what happens in this delectable story towards the end!

4- Loved the character development. Harlequin Super Romances always deliver on that and this one’s no exception to the rule. Because of this very reason, this line from Harlequin is rapidly becoming a favorite of mine.

What could have made this better?

The lack of an epilogue rankled me in this one because I so wanted to see how Nina and my deliciously sinful Dillon with Nina’s two adorable kids fare in the end. Would have definitely made this novel a much more complete one in my opinion.

amazingread