Monthly Archives: October 2019

Review: One Woman (Naked Trilogy #2) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: One Woman
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Julie Patra Publishing 9/17/19
Length:  225 Pages
Series:  Naked Trilogy #2

Overview

The second book in the Naked trilogy…

Emma and Jax came together in the midst of secrets and lies, but in a castle in Maine, they seek passion and sanctuary. What they find is a mystery that could stretch beyond all their expectations. And what Emma finds is danger.

One Woman begins where One Man ended, with Emma one step from death and Jax the only man who can save her.

My Thoughts

When we left off the first book, things were intense. We were at Jax’s home – the same Castle in Maine where we know that Hunter died and the same property that Emma’s father wanted to buy for reasons unknown. Emma finds herself at the wrong end of an encounter with the other North brother Brody – and she’s on the same ledge that Hunter ‘jumped’ from.

So we pick up right there, wondering how far Brody is going to take his threat, and if Emma will survive. Did Savage get there in time or did Jax? well, of course the answer is yes since this is only the beginning of book two.

Even though Emma’s managed to get away from Brody now, we know that she’s not safe. He hates her more than you can imagine, and thinks that there’s a diabolical reason for her being at their estate. Even though Brody wants to do his won thing, he doesn’t want Emma any where near them.

Add to that, York is still a problem and we think that chance is still a problem. We have had zero resolution or close out of anything that pertains to either and we know that there’s still so much that can come to a head with both that we need to reconcile that stuff and fast. Regardless of how solid Jax and Emma think they can be, and how solid they want to be, there’s too much holding them at arms length with the secrets that are out there.

Secrets – those continue to come at them in full force. Someone leaves an envelope with a note for Emma, and we learn that there’s nothing in the envelope, not even a note. Who’s trying to play with their minds. Savage and company try to dig deeper and they still haven’t landed that one yet. There’s a new foe in this story that arises, Echo – a man who’s worked for the North family for as long as Jax can remember and he’s got his eye on Emma. He threatens her and comes at her with notions of things that she should know, but she of course has no idea what he’s saying so that makes things dicey. and then he goes missing.

Some secrets come out, and we haven’t yet heard the end of what they will do to business for everyone. York pushes people too far and that means that walls will be drawn up even further than they were before. Sides are being forced and you can only imagine that there will be implications far worse than we imagined for everyone once ALL the secrets are exposed.

Throughout this story though we see the relationship between our couple grow stronger and stronger. Their connection isn’t just for the physical connection that they have. It’s so much deeper. They do something for each other than wasn’t ever something that either hoped for and that means that not only are they moving fast, they are moving forever.

Just when we think that we may be closing in on the true reason behind the desire for the castle, and as a result, the cause of Hunter’s death, another twist is thrown at us and another person comes into the mix that we don’t yet have an identity for. So, what that means for us, we have to wait two months (or maybe just one month now) for the third and final installment to come out to see how this all plays out. I’m excited to see where it goes and i hope you are. Enjoy!

Review: One Man (Naked Trilogy #1) by Lisa Renee Jones

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Title: One Man
Author:  Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year:  Julie Patra Publishing 6/11/19
Length:  225 Pages
Series:  Naked Trilogy #1

Overview

One man can change everything. That man can touch you and you tremble all over. That man can wake you up and allow you to breathe when life leaves you unable to catch your breath. For me that ONE MAN is Jax North. He’s handsome, brutally so, and wealthy, money and power easily at his fingertips. He’s dark, and yet, he can make me smile with a single look or word. He’s a force when he walks into a room.

Our first encounter is intense, overwhelmingly intense. I go with it. I go with him and how can I not? He’s that ONE MAN for me and what a ride it is. But there are things about me that he doesn’t know, he can’t know, so I say goodbye. Only you don’t say goodbye to a man like Jax if he doesn’t want you to. I’ve challenged him without trying. He wants me. I don’t want to want him, and yet, I crave him. He tears me down, my resistance, my walls. But those walls protect me. They seal my secrets inside. And I forget that being alone is safe. I forget that there are reasons I can’t be with Jax North. I forget that once he knows, everything will change.

Because I need him.

​Because he’s my ONE MAN.

My Thoughts

I do love a new spin off story that has main characters that we’ve never met before. There’s been no mention of either the Knight or North families is books past so that means that we get a fresh story with it’s own unique twists and turns. The nice that thing we get here though are the artifacts of people who HAVE been in other series. The Walkers and Walker Security come in handy here in the sense that we have them doing work for our mains. Savage being the one to come up the most (and he’s definitely one of my favorites). Then there’s Eric Bennett who had quite the role in another series. So all good stuff.

We join this story at a point in time in the plot’s life where People have recently died on both sides of the coin. Emma, our leading lady recently lost her father, a man who ran their empire and who had many many secrets. She’s always been a bit of the red headed step child in the family, so uncovering his secrets proves to be a challenge, and once that her brother Chance seems to not want to properly help.

That’s how we come to Jax, our leading man, who also has dealt with death. His father passed away and his brother commit suicide (or at least that’s what everyone’s been told). There are connections that we don’t yet know between the families, and Jax seems to think that Emma may have some of the information, but when he meets her, there’s so much more there than a pawn, and we see a romance develop faster than most.

The twists and turns that we go on in this story are intense. Emma has secrets of her own that keep threatening to come back up and it’s her goal to keep those secret and away from being used against her family. At the same time, Jax has made it clear that he will still be with her regardless of those secrets and swears that he won’t use them against her. No one trusts each other and that makes things dicey.

There are supporting players here that i feel will become pivotal.

Chance – Emma’s brother knows more than he’s saying, and perhaps it’s because he doesn’t know what he knows.

Randall – Chance’s right hand man and a man who Emma’s father held in high regard. He definitely knows a lot, and likely is at the core of everything that’s going on, and yet, we don’t know what his motivation is.

Marion – A woman who married into her fortune, has business partnerships with Knight hotels and had an affair with Emma’s father. She’s definitely afraid for certain bits of information coming out and thinks that she can use her business as a threat, but i think that we’ll see that won’t play into her favor

York – Marion’s nephew, Emma’s ex fiancee and a man that no one should trust since he’s proven that he’s got dark tastes, an ability to get around security and laws and is overall a bad guy.

With so many people playing into the mix, we can’t forget that Jax still has another brother who’s alive and while he’s not interested in the same parts of the family business, he’s out for revenge and information and he’s bound to make an appearance.

We run from San Francisco to Maine, and it sounds like we’re going to jump to Germany soon. All to find out what’s going on with the death of Jax’s brother Hunter, to find out how the Knights are involved and to find out if what Emma and Jax have is real. Their chemistry is intense, it sparks off the page and that’s something special. They have this level of trust for each other when they know nothing about the other, and have more reasons to be enemies than friends.

We need to read on to see how it plays out and who gets stuck in the cross fire. Where we are left in this first installment though is literally on an edge. Two Hundred feet up, with someone being pushed off the ledge. Who will survive, who will save lives and who will be left in the dust. Only book 2 will tell us and i’m off to read it. Enjoy!

Review: Wife (Betrothed #1) by Penelope Sky

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Title: Wife
Author:  Penelope Sky
Publisher/Year:  Penelope Sky 9/23/19
Length:  187 Pages
Series:  Betrothed #1

Overview

I was twenty-one when the gypsy read my future:

As punishment for your crimes, you will only love one woman…but she’ll never love you back.

I didn’t believe a word of it.

Until I met Sofia Romano almost ten years later.

I fell hard for this woman. Would die for this woman.

But she left me.

Now years have passed and Sofia needs a husband. Her father is gone and her mother is trying to marry her off to a man that can protect their family, protect their company. 

She’s looking for someone powerful.

Check.

Someone rich.

Check.

Someone handsome.

Double check.

Now it’s my chance to have the only woman I’ve ever loved…and I’ll make sure she feels the same way.

I have a lifetime to make that happen.

My Thoughts

I’m a huge fan of Penelope Sky which by now i’m sure that you guys have all realized so I’m happy that there’s a new series for me to sink my teeth into. In this new series Betrothed, we’re taken back to Tuscany, the setting for just about everything in her world, to see how the underworld mixes with the ‘proper world’ and how once secrets are reveled, life is changed.

This story takes place in a few different time periods. We open the story with our leading man Hades and his friend Damian on a trip to Morocco to celebrate Hades 21st birthday, and there his life is changed forever, but he doesn’t really know what that will feel like just yet.

Then we push forward a bit to where we meet Sofia, when she’s just eighteen and thinks that she’s mature but still has so much more to learn. She meets Hades at an event at her father’s hotel and is so attracted to him that she wants to pursue him, yet he makes her realize that she’s still got so much more to learn before that’s realistic.

Then we fast forward a few more years to see how Sofia has grown up now, out of university and trying to get a chance to run her family business now that her father has passed, she’s gotten an education, and wants to learn everything from her stepfather. Her mother seems to think that it’s a silly concept, to be left to whomever she marries, and there’s a lot there behind her words that we don’t know yet but will find out. Strong women are fully capable to run a business, but once we learn more about how the financing of the hotel has been done and who does business there, well it’s quickly becoming clear why there’s a need for a strong powerful man.

This is where Hades comes into play, but not in the right context. Sofia and Hades cross paths again and well, now that she’s experienced life, they some how manage to combust together, allowing the intense chemistry that’s been building for years come to a head and explode. What they have together is hot and intense and the exact connection that they both say they need. Neither is looking for a relationship with strings so what they have is great. until it isn’t.

Hades feelings come on strong and he’s quickly falling faster for Sofia than she is him. This i actually a huge trait that we have in most of Ms Skhy’s books if i’m honest. The man is the one to admit his feelings first and then he finds that it’s an uphill battle from there on to make things work as they should.

He pushes her too hard and she pushes him away. He gives her one chance to redeem herself and it seems to work, again until it doesn’t. When Sofia is almost raped and hurt, Hades comes to save her and we all think that a corner has been turned, but no – Sofia’s walls are still up. Hades doesn’t read it the same way and makes a proclamation that changes the course of this story for good.

There’s now hated. They’re at am impasse. There’s no hope for redemption. And there’s jealousy.

We’re taken taken two years into the future again when Sofia’s stepfather passes away unexpectedly, Sofia’s mom is alone and deems herself too old to find them the right protection for the family and puts the weight of the world on Sofia. Sofia is forced into a situation that she never wanted, feared and abhorred. The question becomes who will save them and who’s going to be on the other side of the coin to hurt them and take them down? We know that the mafia in Italy is something intense (thank you for all the other series that we’ve read to learn the true depth and breadth of what it is that they handle and do to those who don’t comply).

Will the hate between Hades and Sofia be the family’s ruin? Will the premonition that Hades got when he turned 21 turn out to be true and what will that mean for the progression of things. How much can Sofia take before she breaks and who’s going to be the one to break her? So many questions and so few answers. I need book 2 to be out already so i can see how this plays out. Enjoy!

Review: Rebel (Legend #4) by Marie Lu

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Title: Rebel
Author:  Marie Lu
Publisher/Year:  Roaring Book Press 10/1/19
Length:  332 Pages
Series:  Legend #4

Overview

Respect the Legend. Idolize the Prodigy. Celebrate the Champion. But never underestimate the Rebel.

With unmatched suspense and her signature cinematic storytelling, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Marie Lu plunges readers back into the unforgettable world of Legend for a truly grand finale.

Eden Wing has been living in his brother’s shadow for years. Even though he’s a top student at his academy in Ross City, Antarctica, and a brilliant inventor, most people know him only as Daniel Wing’s little brother.

A decade ago, Daniel was known as Day, the boy from the streets who led a revolution that saved the Republic of America. But Day is no longer the same young man who was once a national hero. These days he’d rather hide out from the world and leave his past behind. All that matters to him now is keeping Eden safe—even if that also means giving up June, the great love of Daniel’s life.

As the two brothers struggle to accept who they’ve each become since their time in the Republic, a new danger creeps into the distance that’s grown between them. Eden soon finds himself drawn so far into Ross City’s dark side, even his legendary brother can’t save him. At least not on his own . . .

My Thoughts

OH.MY.GOODNESS. Thank goodness we got to re-enter the story here with Day and June because they had major unfinished business in the epilogue of book 3 and there was no way that fans were going to be ok with that ending. Knowing that our amazing author Ms Lu was busy writing another story (which was also amazing), I was patient and that patience paid off.

We enter this story about ten years in the future. Day (Daniel) and his brother Eden are living in Ross City in Antarctica. The most advanced new country in the world – a society based on Virtual Reality, a Level system to keep you in classes, and as a result, a society that’s both thriving and failing at the same time. If we learned anything from the Republic, we know that there will be unrest and that will result in the wrong people coming into power and that will result in a catastrophe.

That wrong person is our main villian here – Dominic Hann – the man who rules the Undercity – the portion of Ross City that’s made up of people who don’t have levels high enough to survive. They can’t get medication, they can’t get food and shelter and they can’t aspire to be anything more.

The story we have here is one told in alternating chapters between Daniel and Eden. They are brothers who at the core love each other, but who have such different views on life because of their experiences in the past. Daniel wants nothing more than to protect Eden, and Eden wants to live his life. It’s that ‘living’ that gets them into trouble. Eden is noticed by Dominic while in the Under City and that means that he’s on a radar for skills. Skills that we were seeing in the previous books – his innate knowledge of tech and computers and his ability to make things that others can’t. That’s something that he thrives in here in Antarctica and he’s actually scored an internship back in the Republic because of what he can do. The challenge though is that his interaction with Dominic means that nothing will come to pass as it should.

Daniel on the other hand is now part of AIS which is a government agency. Like the FBI or CIA. he’s there to keep order, to hunt criminals and to protect the president. That’s one thing that he has in common with June as she’s in the Republic to protect Anden still. He is hunting Hann and when his brother gets mixed up in that gang, things get dicey.

Now back to June. The last we saw of her and Daniel was back in the epilogue of the last story. Daniel’s memory had been wiped because of illness and intervention and he didn’t have any sense of what June was to him anymore. Devastating!!! June knew that was a likely occurrence when she agreed to help him get treated, meaning that sh was going to sacrifice her love and future, which inevitably they both did. The great thing about their love story though is that even without the clear memories, Daniel still knew that June was special and this fourth installment lets us see how that plays out.

So you can imagine the excitement that we have in this story. We have the Utopia society come crumbling down because of interactions with the under city and Dominic Hann. (thank you Eden for being such a genius) and we have the potential to see romance rekindled. Add to that breaking laws, fleeing to the Republic and being back as square one where it all began. Watching governments struggle and society crumble. Far too many people die in this story and far too many truths are found to be lies.

But on the flip side, we see new relationships form, new alliances taking shape, we see the future for what it can be and that’s something that’s amazing. This is the closure and finale that this story truly needed and i’m THRILLED that Ms Lu finally got to finish it. Enjoy!