Monthly Archives: December 2018

Review : Dirty Rich Obsession: All Mine (Dirty Rich #8) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Dirty Rich Obsession : All Mine
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Julie Patra Publishing 12/26/18
Length:   289 Pages
Series:  Dirty Rich #8

Overview

In this lifetime there is one person who will own you, who will know you, who will understand you like no one else could possibly understand you. That person for me is Carrie. I didn’t want to love her. I didn’t want to need her. But now that she’s my world, no one is going to take her from me. Yet the minute I propose, that’s exactly what the universe tries to do. It tries to take her from me.

My father and the many enemies my life as my father’s son has created wants to take her from me.

They’ll be sorry they tired.

She’s mine.

All Mine.

And everyone, including Carrie, is going to know.

My Thoughts
I love that we get the continuation of Carrie and Reid’s story.  They started off their lives and relationship in a place of pure hatred of one another, fueled by a war between their fathers, and of course that turned into something great when they realized that they were on the same team and that their sparks were something real.
This second installment of their story takes us to Japan first where they are trying to close out the biggest deal of their careers, a buyout of a convention center.  It can’t go easy of course though since we know that Anthony, Carrie’s brother lives in Japan and there’s a bit of love lost there for all sorts of reasons.  Upon touching down in Japan, we see that things are about to come to a head, and how Reid and Carrie handle it will set the tone for the rest of the story.
Add to that the fact that these two are newly engaged and few people if anyone knows which means that as soon as they do, there will be a mix of emotions, and the ‘happy couple’ will be put in the line of fire since neither one of their fathers will be happy with this news.
As if that wasn’t enough, once they’re back in NYC, a person from the first book comes back and hits at them hard, going after Carrie to get to Reid and when that doesn’t work, he goes after everyone connected to Reid.  If you recall, Ellijah from the first book has issue with Reid because of his wife, and then with Carrie for that same reason as well as being locked out of the Japan deal. Elijah seems to have gone off the deep end, is unstable, and as a result, in come our favs from Walker Security and we get to enjoy more of Savage and Blake again.
Roller coaster for sure since their business is being hit, and a merger may be a great saving option.  their personal lives are being hit, and Carrie gets to the point where she decides that maybe it’s not worth the trouble to be together and perhaps they should walk away.
If that weren’t enough, Reid’s darkest secret it outed and he’s forced to address it, answer to it and hopefully come out the other side from it.
In typical fashion and form of our amazing author, Lisa Renee Jones takes us on a continued journey of love, passion, fear and anxiety while weaving in the story lines of the other characters that we’ve met along the way in the series.  It’s hot and amazing and i hope that we get more of this couple along with learning Gabe’s story and maybe Smith and Savage as well.  Enjoy!

Review: Falling Under (Walker Security #3) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Falling Under
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  EverAfter Romance 3/1/18
Length:   214 Pages
Series:  Walker Security #3

Overview

Ex-special forces, Jacob King, is a man who keeps to himself, having learned the hard way that letting people close to you, trusting them, might just get you killed. A lesson he learned when members of his Special Ops team turned dirty, while others, men he considered friends, died. He made them pay. He made them hurt. He put them in jail. And so he doesn’t trust anyone anymore. He keeps his women hot and fast, his friends few to none, and his clients through the elite Walker Security at a professional distance, but safe.

It works for him. Until it doesn’t.

His newest job should be simple and cut and dry. Jewel Carpenter, the daughter of the CEO of Carpenter Enterprises, is receiving death threats. He’s to protect her and find out who is issuing the treats.

Simple. Cut and Dry.

Until it’s not.

Until the chemistry between he and Jewel is all about love, hate, and sex. But even as he fights the attraction to Jewel and discovers there is more to her than meets the eye, the real threat comes not from the threats she’s receiving, but the connection she has to him. Because his past has come full circle, and those men he’s made pay for their sins now want him to pay. And what better way than the woman in his bed?

My Thoughts

I love love love this series and getting to know the other parts of Jacob makes it that much more interesting.  He’s got his purpose and talents in Walker Security which we’ve seen in action before, and seeing him come to the help of Jewel at the request of her father, well it humanizes him a bit more.

Jewel is a mystery to us and that’s ironic since she’s a detective.  She’s doing what she loves in being in the force, following in the footsteps of her Uncle, but she’s also doing so against the wishes of her father – whom really feels that she needs to be doing something safer – something that doesn’t put her in the line of fire every day.

In this story – we have to wonder if it’s a recent action that’s put her in the line of fire or if its something from her past – something tied to so many other things that happened in her past that makes her unsafe.  We are brought along this journey starting first at a point 2 years in the past when Jewel’s uncle is laid to rest after being killed on the job.  She sees a man across the cemetery that gives her a bad feeling but she can’t quite pin it down.  Fast forward to seeing the same man in the shadows after leaving a note on her doorstep making her wonder what’s exactly going on.

We’re now 2 years later and learn that Jewels’ been receiving threats and in walks Jacob and the Walker men – set to protect her.  She doesn’t accept it without a fight and the journey that we’re on from here is funny, risky, filled with twists and confusion and of course the requisite heat and passion.

I think that it goes without saying that all the men who are part of Walker are damaged in a way that civilians would see as a bad thing but that those who have lived the life of danger and pain would see it as a good thing – a badge.  Jacob’s story is deeper than most – darker and twisted in ways that we didn’t know. and given that his whole existence is top secret, Jewel has her work cut out for her to find common ground.

Maybe that’s why these relationships work.  Jewel is a control freak and needs it yet being around Jacob means that she has none.  She cant find intel on him, and she can’t find the answers to the cases that she’s working on and maybe it’s easier to blame him for it all.  She knows that she’s in danger yet is too proud to allow anyone to get in the way to protect her.  There are hints along the way leading her from one person to another but each time we get a clue, i think that we all know that it’s a trap and fear for the outcome.

When we hone in on the Slayer, the man who’s stalking and taunting Jewel, if you didn’t think that Alpha Jacob was a 24/7 thing already, it’s more so now.  There’s a sizable twist when the identity is unlocked, and making that link back through time is one that i didn’t even really think about.  It’s really great to see how far back and complex Ms Jones makes our characters.

Then there’s the fact that there’s chemistry that they tried to fight for perhaps 72 hours.  Neither one was willing to cross the line on a job, yet there’s no way that they could have kept their hands off each other.  Jacob says its’ for her own protection but what we both know means that they are so magnetic that there’s no force that could keep them apart.  Until there is, and we see Jacob disappear, push Jewel away and basically exile them both.

There’s heat in this book, deep dark heat that’s a different tone than some of the others.  We have the same speed and progression of the story which makes it a thrill to read, but the way that these characters mesh is a little new and that makes is nice.  I feel like i want to read more and more about them since i don’t want their story to be done.  So, hopefully there’s a walker security #4 in the works….and Enjoy!

Review: Dirty Rich One Night Stand: Two Years Later (Dirty Rich #7) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Dirty Rich One Night Stand: Two Years Later
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Julie Patra Publishing 12/5/18
Length:   200 Pages
Series:  Dirty Rich #7

Overview

One and done. It was supposed to be one night. I knew his type. You don’t fall in love with a man like Reese Summer, but I did. He swept me off my feet, seduced me, refused to take no for an answer. We became a power couple. The syndicated crime reporter. One of the country’s top criminal attorneys. The fantasy became happily ever after until the next big trial of the century. Reese is defending a woman accused of killing her father for billions. I’m reporting on the case. And then the world around us explodes. The trial turns to danger right as a secret from Reese’s past shocks me.  Someone who wants to destroy our happily ever after. Someone wants to end me.

My Thoughts

I love Reese and Cat, the way that their relationship started carries through to where they are now.  It’s clear that they have a strong relationship that was based on attraction first but intense mutual respect as a secondary.  There’s no question that they are a match well made and the challenges that they face in their second book together reminds us that it’s never easy even when you feel like you are solid.

In addition to the case that Reese is working, and we know that he never defends someone who is guilty, there’s so much more going on.  Cat has a secret of her own that she’s afraid to tell Reese because it’s something that they hadn’t talked about and something that’s being taken away as a result of a stalker reappearing in Reese’s life.  threatening all that they have together and putting questions in everyone’s mind about what’s real.

One of the really wonderful things about this series – and these attorney’s cases specifically  is that we all know that they won’t represent someone who’s guilty.  so it’s partially about proving the prosecution wrong, but it’s also about putting to the forefront who actually committed each crime.  this story does exactly that – gives us an opportunity to find out who killed this heiresses father – when we know it wasn’t her.

this stalker actually has  really big role in the story – there are threats against Reese sure, but she comes after Cat and tries to break everything that they built up together, and the way that our author writes this makes us feel the stability in the relationship but also makes us wonder what the breaking point is for everyone.

The thread that’s always pulled through though is the heat and romance, the trust and love that’s shared between them and Lisa Renee Jones manages to give us a story with so much depth and intrigue that you find yourself reading it faster than imagined.  I’m not going to lie, i hope this isn’t the last installment in the Cat and Reese saga.

I will warn you though – while this book is noted as number 7, you will get a spoiler of things if you read book 6 (The Bastard) which i read a while back – since there are scenes that cross over….just a warning! Enjoy!

Review: Pulled Under (Walker Security #2) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Pulled Under
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  EverAfter Romance 11/28/17
Length:   214 Pages
Series:  Walker Security #2

Overview

He is blond, tattooed, and dangerous. She’s beautiful with a penchant for leather and lace and could be his destruction…

Asher wasn’t always a member of the elite Walker Security team, he was a billionaire’s son, who rebelled against his father’s controlling hand, and ended up in New York City’s underground of drugs, rock n roll, and danger. But that is long behind him, and while his tattoos and long blond hair remain, he’s now a chameleon, far more comfortable in a suit and tie than a leather jacket.

Or so he likes to tell himself.

But now Walker Security needs him back inside the underground club scene for a police case they’re working. Women are dying, and a new drug on the streets is the cause. When Asher is pulled back into this toxic world he meets Sierra, who is as beautiful as she is mysterious. A woman who calls to a darker side of him, long suppressed, unleashing it in what becomes wicked hot passion and obsession. But Sierra has a secret, one that leads her, and Asher, to a dangerous place, and game, with dangerous players, and the game is about life or death.

My Thoughts

I love this series and i can’t believe that i forgot that we had it in the list.  I read the first one such a long time ago but after reading just about every book that Ms Renee Jones comes out with and nods to the Walker gents, well i had no choice but to get sucked back in and i’m so glad that i was.

We get to know Asher a bit more and he’s always been a bit elusive.  all good reasons backing it, but still it’s intriguing.  Sierra enters the mix and she’s definitely more than we bargained for and i think that her mystery and her backstory makes this one of the more complex installments to the series.

Asher is working under cover trying to find enough evidence to nab an assumed serial killer, so we find ourselves in a grunge bar where he’s blending into the scene quite well.  He’s making great progress getting into the inner circle of our suspect when his world is turned upside down by the entrance of SIerra – a smoking hot bartender who’s not giving any information up and clearly is skittish about something

And so it begins – this journey that we go on with them, where Asher of course dives into Alpha Male mode and wants to protect Sierra from whatever her ghosts are, dig under her skin to get in her head and do something about the intense chemistry that they have.  Sierra wants none of that of course since she’s been on the run for 9 months and isn’t’ willing to let anyone get hurt or pull in the line of fire because of her.  She thought she was safe but clearly that’s not the case.

There’s so much more going on than meets the eye here – it’s intense because a story line that follows a serial killer is exciting enough but we learn that Sierra was married to  a man that she calls The Beast, who is connected, powerful and a Billionaire so he has the means to silence and control her.  All she wants is out since she knows that he’s a bad person who’s killed others and wants to kill her for knowing too much information, but she won’t let Asher in far enough to know who the beast is and how to stop him.

Written in true fashion of our author, the story is fast and intense and amazing.  There are so many twists and turns throughout that by the time we get to the end, and the unexpected happens, it’s overwhelming to the senses in a good way and (and maybe a bit bad) that we can only hope those we love don’t end up on the wrong side of things.

Asher’s backstory with his father comes to a head in this book – we knew that they didn’t end things on good terms, that he became a SEAL to get out from under his father’s thumb, but that also helped him truly understand Sierra more than she even realizes.  sierra sadly was naive to things when she met The Beast and as a result, she’s mixed up in things that no one should ever deal with and there’s no safe way out.

Blake and Kara play a huge role in this book, Kara again using her FBI skills to be a decoy.  Royce comes in and out. the other strong burly men are core to the story, letting us know hints here and there about who will have the next installment of the series and how it has potential to end up.

Heat, passion, chemistry, fear, manipulation, lies – all that and more are in this 2nd book of the series and i CANNOT wait to see what comes next.  Enjoy!

Review: Dirty Rich Cinderella Story: Ever After (Dirty Rich #5) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Dirty Rich Cinderella Story:  Ever After
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  CreateSpace Publishing 10/10/18
Length:   189 Pages
Series:  Dirty Rich #5

Overview

Get ready for a steamy honeymoon, and a heart-stopping welcome home for Cole and Lori!

The unexpected is about to happen and while Lori has faced the demons of her past, she and Cole will face those of his past now.

My Thoughts

Well, that summary doesn’t give us much to go on, which is a blessing and a curse.  The story where we see Lori and Cole come together is one that’s so intense, complex and thankfully full of a happy ending that we can just hope that they have their happily ever after.  Well, there’s way way more to go on with this continuation of their saga.

We start off in Paris where they are enjoying their honeymoon, a trip that they’re able to take after closing a successful case where a man who was innocent continues to be found that way.  It’s such a high profile case though that there’s unrest and protesting back in the US, that Cole at least gets advance warning that not all will be well upon their return.  Bodyguards are put in place and we get to see the Walker Security men back in full force.  Savage and Smith are fast becoming our favs.

Even before they head back to the states, we see Cole go into protector mode, which is something that has never worked for Lori.  Yes she trusts and loves him unconditionally, but we also know that control is something that she needs to survive and without it, her life is upside down.  Cole takes control away from her before they get home, and then once they are home because Lori’s attacked by a family member of one of the victims of the case that they just won.  All heck breaks loose and there’s a fast and furious hunt for who’s truly behind everything.

In this continuation saga too, we get Cat/Reese back in a big way, along with Reid who we sort of saw this parallel timing from his story w/ Mia.  I think that it’s really impressive how our author was able to write all these stories that are essentially parallel path without spilling too much to make it moot to read.

The even nicer thing about this plot is that there’s yet another twist that we never saw coming – the Ashley story line.  we knew that she had left the firm to go to Paris with her boyfriend who turned out to not be who he seemed.  As a result, we recall that Ashley needed the firm’s legal counsel to get back to the states and clear of charges.  what charges – we never really learned.  Well, in this story – it gets even dicier for Ashley since her ex seems to be back and there’s a deeper story than anyone could have imagined and to be honest, deeper still that i don’t know that we’ll ever get answers.  Who is he, what did he do, what was Ashley’s role and what does she know that she’s not telling us.

If that’s not exciting enough of a plot line, we have the insane amounts of heat and chemistry between Cole and Lori to keep us going.  They have the most intense scenes together that if you didn’t believe that heat and passion could leap off a page, well here’s proof that all is possible.  Baby scares, romance that’s taken to another level, scenes that are elevated up a notch – and well, we get to the end of this book way faster than imaginable.  So….on that note, on to the next and i hope you enjoy this!

Review: Dirty Rich Betrayal (Dirty Rich #4) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Dirty Rich Betrayal
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  CreateSpace Publishing 9/26/18
Length:   214 Pages
Series:  Dirty Rich #4

Overview

A DEVASTATINGLY SEXY AND EMOTIONAL SECOND-CHANCE STANDALONE ROMANCE.

Grayson Bennett.

He’s a billionaire, a lawyer, the king of the world to some. A professed lifelong bachelor. A man who took his father’s business and fortune and turned marginal success into an empire. Now someone is threatening that empire and he’s going to burn them to the ground. But he’ll need the help of one person. He’ll need her.

That woman is Mia Cavanaugh, criminal attorney, ex-lover, a woman who believes he betrayed her, a woman who could burn him to the ground, but she won’t. Because she loves him. Because he loves her, and it’s time that she sees the truth of the past.

Now, he’s handing her the key to his future. He’s giving her the chance to burn him to the ground. He’s letting her see the real man beneath the surface that not even she’s seen in the past. She has to decide what to do with that man. Love him or destroy him.

My Thoughts

I love this series and i love seeing how the stories continue to be so separate but really joined because of the characters and their story lines.  Here we get to the nitty gritty of Grayson – the powerful billionaire that we’ve met previously but never quite got to the crux of what makes him tick.

Grayson we know is a man of morals, a man who’s made his money off the success of his father’s firm and his smart moves to expand and grow what they can do.  Having that strong foundation of WHO He is makes him into a guy that we really want to root for and hope that whatever caused a rift with him and Mia isn’t true.

Then there’s Mia – we knew nothing about her before and really not hint at all about what could be her story – so it’s nice to get the fresh approach to the series.  Mia is a girl who’s beyond intelligent – but has had a rough go at getting her footing in her career that when she literally bumps right into Grayson on day one of work, she’s afraid for what it will mean for her in the future.

The way that this installment is written is a bit different than that of the others.  We get a lot of past and present alternating chapters since we need to understand what happened between them years ago to fully grasp the implications of today.  There’s a lot of love – more love potentially than we saw in the other couples, but there’s also so much hate and distrust because of choices made and people who wanted to get in the middle of things that they are on rocky ground – only held together because of chemistry.

If that weren’t enough, i mean – we have one of the most explosive relationships ever here, we also have an investigation against Grayson by his mortal enemy – a guy named Ri who’s always been jealous.  Ri is trying to take Grayson down with the Feds and that’s actually what brings Mia back to him after all this time.  She’s trying to protect him but doesn’t know exactly from what.

This is a story of a deeply involved couple trying to find their way back together while trying to protect each other from forces that are unknown.  No one knows what story Ri’s trying to create against Grayson and the danger that we’re presented with as a result is riveting and exciting.

We have Walker Security back in play and a few of our favorite characters from past stories – Blake and Kara appear once again, as do Adam and Asher.  I love these guys because they are trained to be lethal and have a skillset that accomplishes what few others are able to do.  All while being human and romantic and hopeful.

There’s love, there’s death, there’s uncertainty about where people will land, what companies will remain intact and who will be partnering with whom.  The only way to find out of course is to read – so please do that!  Enjoy!

Review: Dirty Rich Obsession (Dirty Rich #3) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: Dirty Rich Obsession
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  CreateSpace Publishing 8/17/18
Length:   350 Pages
Series:  Dirty Rich #3

Overview

A MAN OF CONTROL. A WOMAN WHO’S ABOUT TO TAKE IT.

Reid Maxwell is one of the top corporate attorneys and one of the most eligible bachelors in New York City. He likes his wins big, his women beautiful and in bed, not out, and most importantly the deep burn of his past buried. Until one woman, a most unexpected woman, challenges him in ways that might just destroy the invincible Mr. Maxwell.

Carrie West is captive to Reid Maxwell and a debt between their families she doesn’t know exists. It should be so simple for Reid Maxwell. Claim the company that is now his. The problem: he’s now obsessed with Carrie, the daughter of the man he’s destined to destroy.

Now who’s captive to who?

My Thoughts

I love how each of these stories are stand alone but they are truly woven together. while you don’t need to read them in order, they make so much more sense when you do.  In this story, we’ve moved away from Cat / Lori / Reese / Cole.  Now we have Reid, Cat’s brother who’s just as hard headed now as he was when we first met him, courtesy of cat and the letter she had from her mother.  Reid is in the process of taking down her father’s adversary’s company, which means the downfall of our leading lady Carrie.  While she tries to get his attention before he takes over, he refuses, and finds himself cuffed.  literally.

Carrie is the kind of leading lady that we love.  She knows that someone’s out to screw with her business, with her family, with her livelihood and she’s not going to take it sitting down.  She bests Reid in a way that he completely doesn’t expect and that’s what launches the intensely heated and exciting story.  Sparks fly from the beginning and while we know that it’s fueled by hate and passion, we are drawn in to see how things play out.

In typical fashion of our author, we find that chemistry is the basis for how things continue on, but there’s also that sense of ‘i believe in you’ that we get similar to the previous two installments.  Carrie is good at what she does, she knows that she’s been manipulated, used and wronged, and she refuses to throw the towel in and let someone else take what’s hers.  Reid is the same type of man in theory – however his journey is much more vindictive.  He admits that he’s walked over people in the past, used secrets against them and been downright horrible, but of course as to be expected, he wants to let Carrie balance him out.

This story takes us on so many different paths, never being too clear and transparent about what secret or land mine will be around the corner.  We know that there’s something that Reid legally can’t tell Carrie that will blow her world up, and we want it to be something that’s able to be overcome but as more and more hints come, as their fathers come back into the story, the chance for even a remotely favorable outcome is slim to none.

It takes family getting involved.  It takes a building being burnt down.  it takes facing fathers and threatening them where it hurts the most in order to pull out answers on things, but the chances that this will be a happy ending go out the window.  Even the hope of saving her company isn’t enough of a motivation to keep her from walking at times.

I spent so much time rooting for both of our mains.  They both have dealt with so much that you just want them to get a bit of happiness.  There’s too much though that’s hidden for that to be an option and even when catastrophe strikes, there’s still a big gap.  Passion, heat, chemistry – these are all things that keep coming up in the hopes of pulling them back, but sometimes forces are far too strong.  So the question becomes what’s the price and who has to sacrifice?  Only way to find out is to read it.  enjoy!

Blog Tour: Owen by Kate Darlington

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Holiday Sale!! $0.99 this week only!
 
Title: Owen
Author: Kate Darlington (a collaboration between Alora Kate and Sarah Darlington)
Genre: New Adult Romance

☆☆☆Synopsis☆☆☆

When a beautiful, naked woman grabs you, presses her soft lips to yours, and strips off all her clothes … you don’t think, you act.
I had no idea my brother came early with his girlfriend to our family’s cabin.
I had no idea she wasn’t just another girl I’d picked up at the bar.
I’d been drinking.
These were all excuses. And by a stroke of luck, no one caught us together, and Joslyn didn’t seem to notice the difference between me and my twin. So maybe all is right with the world. Maybe I can pretend nothing happen and move past this.
Except…I like this girl.
$0.99 Holiday Sale!

Amazon: amazon.com/gp/B07GVQ9537/

About the Authors:
Kate Darlington is the writing duo composed of Alora Kate and Sarah Darlington. For four years now, they’ve supported each other as friends and critique partners in their separate writing careers. This past September, they teamed up, and released their debut novel as Kate Darlington.