Tag Archives: Skye Warren

Review: Caught for Christmas (Stripped #3.5) by Skye Warren

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Title: Caught for Christmas
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  CreateSpace Publishing 5/31/26
Length:  122 pages
Series: Stripped #3.5

Overview

I’ll be home for Christmas…

The plan is simple. Break into the club and steal the money I need to save my father. The ex-military bouncer isn’t going to stop me, even if he is hot as hell.

If only in my dreams…

Except he has a curious knack for knowing my next step.

And there’s something dark underneath his desire, something dangerous. If he catches me, he might not let me go.

My Thoughts

We met West in the last book and we saw his close relationship with Blue and of course wanted to see him have a story of his own. His temperament is quite the same as Blue’s and that means that we can only hope that he’ll find someone as amazing as Lola/Hannah.

Bianca is one of the dancers at The Grand – the newly transformed burlesque club rather than the straight strip club that it once was. Bianca’s story doesn’t come to full depth here since this is a novella, but what we learn is that she’s got a dodgy past – her parents taught her at a young age how to steal, how to break into places as a means of getting them out of financial troubles. She’s working at the Grand where she makes good money but since she’s at the mercy of her ‘parents’ – she lives on nothing, no food, has a crap apartment and really struggles.

It’s just before christmas which means that we know her parents are going to do something to make the holiday worse. Ever since they moved to tanglewood and her parents saw the opportunity with stealing money from The Grand, they positioned Bee to figure out how to break in and get 50 thousand dollars. This means that they will have to run again, any friends that Bianca made will be history and Ivan will be after her forever once he knows it’s her. which of course he will.

She’s planted roots a bit here, and while she’s not super close to many of the girls, she has friends. She has stability in a sense and she resents her family for doing what they do. Her mother comes to her one night saying that the people they owe money to have kidnapped her father, so they have to move the operation up a bit. We know this can never end well. and that’s what happens.

Bianca is set up, by West, and now she has to pay the price. She doesn’t know if he’s going to turn her in or turn her over (his knee) and that’s where this novella takes shape. There’s an attraction and then there’s fear of being rejected and both of those paths cross with this pair.

Eyes are opened to lies, and fears are put to rest and we are left to wonder which is more important, family or self. all the while, enjoying some nice naughty bits between two adults who clearly like one another and deserve to have something good in life. Now….I get to read book #4 in the series and see what clara is up to. Enjoy!

Review: Pretty When You Cry (Stripped #3) by Skye Warren

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Title: Pretty When You Cry
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Skye Warren 11/02/15
Length:  250 pages
Series: Stripped #3

Overview

I came from a place of dirt floors and holy scriptures. They told me the world outside was full of sin, and the first night I escape, I find out it’s true. Ivan saves me, but he does more than that. He takes me. He makes me his own girl.

My conditioning runs too deep. Ivan sees what I am.

That’s the thing about showing a mouse to a cat. He wants to play. And it’s terrifying, even for me. Because the only thing darker than my past is his.

My Thoughts

Well, this was an interesting story to say the least. From all I knew about Candy, I didn’t expect her past to be what it was, and it really shaped this story quite nicely. I saw in other series the bond that she and Ivan have and it’s one for the record books, but to watch how it came to be, how they met and what that evolution looked like, well it’s something that really does seem quite compelling.

We start Candy’s story as she’s run away from home with the assistance of her mother – but her home wasn’t a normal place – not even talking about upper or lower class here. She was born into a religious commune of sorts, and she was taught that the more she sinned, the more she was punished, and as she grew older, punishments were hinted at and taken out sexually.

Candy’s mother didn’t want her to live the life that she had, she wanted more for her daughter, so she helped Candy escape and that’s how we end up in Tanglewood and The Grand. She finds herself surrounded by a group of men one night who want to do all sorts of nefarious things, and Ivan somehow crosses her path. He protects her from them, brings her to the club and makes the decision to take care of her. He calls her ‘little one’ and just wants to be her protecter.

Throughout this story we watch how he makes her into a woman that she’s not sure she wants to be. She left the commune because Leader Allen was ruling everything that she did although he wanted to do so much more to her. Ivan on the other hand while providing for her, he gives her a spark of something unknown, but doesn’t act on it. Leaves Candy questioning why she allows herself to be controlled by men all the time.

She tries to run away several times, only to have Ivan come back and get her, but we see how she enjoys the punishment that he gives, so sometimes you have to wonder if it’s all real escape or just foreplay.

In the last novella, we saw someone coming after Candy – someone that she assumes is from her past – who has discovered where she lives now and wants to bring her back or worse. Ivan spends the bulk of this story fighting how he feels about Candy personally, to doing everything in his power to protect her from whomever is after her and whomever is damaging his club.

We watch the roller coaster of emotions with these two – they play cat and mouse quite well. We watch how they are separated and how their paths take them to very different places – happiness on one side and misery on the other. We get a glimpse into what a future could look like with the right attention, but we also know that neither is able to compromise. Definitely one of those stories that keeps you moving really quickly through the book.

The ending though gives us hope, but then gives us uncertainty. We see where the series is going to take us when another one of the supporting cast becomes a main, and she runs away. So thankfully this is an old series, so I can get the next books to dive in now, and that’s what i’m going to do. Enjoy!!

Review: Even Better (Stripped #2.5) by Skye Warren

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Title: Even Better
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Skye Warren 9/30/15
Length:  67 pages
Series: Stripped #2.5

Overview

A story about how coming together can break us apart…

An old military friend of Blue’s comes to stay with us, and suddenly I have two muscled men surrounding me. Before I can take a breath, we’re diving into something dirty together–something dangerous. Dangerous because three is a crowd.

This is Blue’s best friend, and one of us will have to leave.

My Thoughts

I do enjoy a nice novella in between the larger stories since they give us an extension of what we just read, and often a lead into the next book. that’s exactly what we have here and i’m sooooo for it!

If you’ll remember, in book 2, we watched how the years have changed (and yet not changed) Hannah and Blue and how they some how get thrown back together by forces that Hannah can’t control. I mean, it’s pointless to try to control or fight a man like Blue right?

We watched how they circled each other and how they finally managed to gravitate towards one another, giving themselves a resolution that was appropriate for their story. Now we see how life continues on for them, Hannah especially since the path her life was on before being committed with Blue was very different.

She’s now living with him in his really nice condo, and is able to take classes since she no longer has to be the sole provider for Ms Owens care. She’s in a safe and quality home now, and that means that Hannah has her life back a bit. The challenge of course is that Hannah’s never had the opportunity to do things for herself so we watch her struggle with her place in life, the future and what she means in value to Blue.

That changes a bit of course when Blue’s military best friend comes to stay with them while he’s getting back on his feel and working for Blue’s security firm at The Grand. West is just as troubled and tormented as Blue and we see that’s not yet at the healing phase that Blue is at coming out of service.

This of course is where the air in the room gets tense, thicker – because we learn that these men used to share in a sense, and there’s interest in sharing Hannah. She’s open to it of course since she likes the attention if she’s able to control it, and she wants to make Blue happy. What happens next is a dynamic shift and we don’t know how that will have an impact on friendships and relationships at all. There’s nothing juicier than a threesome story and this one while it isn’t exactly as we see often in this genre, it gives you the tease and the hint of what you need and want.

This novella wraps up with Candy – giving us a glimpse into the story that we’re about to get for her. We don’t know much about her aside from her habit with drugs and that she seems like she’s teflon. nothing can bother her. She and Ivan circle each other, very much the same as how Hannah and Blue did, so we know that when things happen, they will explode.

We’re left in a scene where someone has broken into the club overnight and has left a message for Candy in the form of a bible verse. That means she knows exactly who’s after her and now we’ll get her history and story in her next installment. I cant wait to see how this plays out – enjoy all!!

Review: Three to Get Ready (Hughes #3) by Skye Warren

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Title: Three to get Ready
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Dangerous Press 2/16/23
Length:  145 pages
Series: Hughes #3

Overview

There’s a ticking time bomb in Finn Hughes’s head.

That means he has to prepare everyone. Eva. The baby. The company, which is in an uproar after the announcement. He needs to get them ready. Because when the curse hits, it will be too late to say goodbye.

My Thoughts

This is one of those stories that feels like you don’t know when the next hit is coming – but you know that your cast of characters are more than capable of managing the fallout. Finn and Eva are perhaps the strongest in each of their families, partially because of innately who they are but partially because of the responsibility that was forced on them through the role they play in the center of their worlds.

I’m going to take a quick step back on this book for just a second because something parallel to real life happened this past week that directly related to this story in a sense. We know that dementia is the leading factory of the Hughes family narrative, and for those of you who are up to date in pop culture, you know that Bruce Willis just came out announcing that he has been diagnosed with Dementia. So we now can see the effect that this has, on the quality of life, the longevity of life of all those that are affected, and hope that like this story portrays, elevating the understanding of a condition can help find new and less traditional means to slow down negative progress and improve life, even if a diagnosis is terminal.

Back to the story – so we were left off from book 2 where Finn was forced to give his father a ‘proper’ retirement sendoff since the CFO and others were asking questions about his lack of appearance and visibility within the company. That backfired as his father Daniel didn’t have the longevity needed for clarity and being lucid and his condition was revealed. This causes the expected blowout with the press, with the finance world, with everyone.

On one hand we have Finn who’s been running the company successfully for years, and now has to be second guessed. We have the Hughes family that needs to do some sort of damage control. We have the Morellis who are on the same wavelength with a need to do PR against this and we have Eva who says ‘just let it blow over’.

Which path do they go? well the one that Eva sets in place since she’s the voice of reason. She’s also pregnant and we know better than to argue with a pregnant woman.

The trajectory of this story is a lovely one. We watch how Eva and Finn navigate the world that they are in now, dodging bullets (theoretical for once – not actual) and growing together. Often at this point in stories we watch couples get torn apart, seeing that there are too many obstacles to be successful, but yet they are able to make it work.

We watch how the families have their own agendas to find a path forward and we watch how Finn trying to make the necessary arrangements with the company to stay in control. We see Hemingway grow up and we get insight into the past for the Hughes family, both for Finn and his promises as a child to his father as well as where Geneva, his mother came from and how she was raised. Gives us a pretty good glimpse into how they became the people that they are.

The underlying thee in this third installment though is the notion that there is a Hughes curse, that Finn is destined to have dementia and there’s a fear that if Eva is pregnant with a boy (WHEN she is pregnant with a boy since that’s all that Hughes have) that he too will have Dementia. This puts Eva on a quest to invest even harder for a treatment to cure or slow progression and we get to watch how she goes down that path.

This finale to the series gives us hope, makes us emotional and show you strength. I think that they paid the right attention to the right details here, all wrapped with the precise level of sensuality and chemistry that was needed at the right moments. Now this of course means that i have to figure out which siblings I haven’t read about yet and get to those series – so off I go. Enjoy!

Review: Better When It Hurts (Stripped #2) by Skye Warren

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Title: Better When It Hurts
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Amber Shah 6/3/15
Length:  198 pages
Series: Stripped #2

Overview

A forbidden romance about pain that binds us together…

Five years ago we lived in the same house. He was the ultimate bad boy.

And my foster brother.

Now he’s back. Tougher, harder, meaner. All of it aimed at me, because I was the one who sent him away. It’s payback time. He wants his pound of flesh, and I am helpless to say no.

My Thoughts

It’s really nice to see how Lola (Hannah) and Blue’s story began / evolved, changed throughout their years together. From their prologue, we saw when they first met, when their paths first crossed and how a decision made by Hannah to protect herself had implications to Blue’s future. now we find ourselves five years in the future and we get to see how that’s all turned out.

Hannah is now working at The Grand as it’s the place where she’s able to make money to take care of the one foster mom who ever cared about her. She tries to stay detached from everyone and everything because she knows the dark side of any sort of relationship, but then there’s Blue. The man that she believes hates her but the same man that’s some how shown back up in her life and she’s sure it’s no coincidence.

We remember Blue from the foster home and we know that the choice Hannah made to put herself in a safer situation ended up sending Blue to the military. It was a way to keep him out of trouble and to hone skills that have some how managed to work towards everyone’s benefit. What it means now though is that not only is he security for The Grand, he’s Hannah’s personal protector again.

This story takes us through their journey of hating each other, knowing that they are still drawn to one another but not being sure if its’ because they believe there’s a debt that has to be paid or if there’s something more.

Hannah finds herself in situations that are unsafe that require Blue’s help and of course that means that he takes actions that could have consequences to his freedom which is something Hannah’s not willing to stand for. She fights with him and for him as he does for her and we watch them go around and around and around.

Where we net out at the end of their story is one that’s expected but bitter sweet regardless. There are hints at what’s to come (much of which I already know since i’ve read Ms Warren’s series out of order) but still a great lead in to some exciting stuff. So on that note – enjoy!

Review: Heartbreak (Stripped #1.5) by Skye Warren

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Title: Heartbreak
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 3/27/16
Length:  100 pages
Series: Stripped #1.5

Overview

Some wounds never heal…

She’s stuck in another foster home. He’s the new boy with a bad reputation.

Falling in love in the wrong place and the wrong time never felt so good.

My Thoughts

We met Hannah and Blue in the first installment of this series, of the first real installment and we saw that there was an interesting dynamic between them. They gravitated towards one another but they also had this anger, this lust that was back handed and it added to the tension. We knew that Hannah came from the Foster world and it made sense that Blue did as well. At the time of the first book, I didn’t fathom that they may have known each other prior to The Grand, but what we get in this prologue novella is their story – how it began.

We find ourselves with Hannah, in a foster home where she’s a teen, and she’s being tormented by the son of the dad in the family. He’s above them all, he has power that no one in the foster service has and he tries to yield it. That means that Hannah’s not safe in the house, that at any moment Matthew, the son will go after her and try to rape her.

Welcome Blue – he comes to the house one day and there’s an instant connection. One of intrigue, one of attraction but one of mutual benefit. Blue promises to protect Hannah and they grow a bond, a friendship that we know has potential to become more.

The challenge of course is that Blue has a past and one that forces him to walk a tight rope to stay on the right side of the law, eventhough he’s a minor. What happens in this first book changes their trajectory and a decision that Hannah makes to protect …..I don’t know who…..means that the path they were on is severed. Which of course takes us to their longer story – which i’ll dive into now. Enjoy!

Review: Tough Love (Stripped #0.5) by Skye Warren

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Title: Tough Love
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Createspace Publishing 3/21/15
Length:  120 pages
Series: Stripped #0.5

Overview

A story about the sacrifices we make for love…

I sneak out of my room every night. My father’s guards don’t see me. My sister doesn’t see me.

No one sees me, except him.

He’s the son of a mafia foot soldier. My father is the boss. I shouldn’t even know Giovanni. And I definitely shouldn’t kiss him. Our relationship is doomed to fail, but that won’t stop me from trying.

Not every girl wants to be a princess. I just want to be free.

My Thoughts

Reading this after reading the first book in the story doesn’t actually hurt anything, but what it does is give us context to the moments that changed the lives of both Honor and Clara. We remember meeting them in Tanglewood when they’ve run away from the life they knew, from the fear that they had living in their father’s world and being subjected to whatever decisions were being made on their behalf. It’s a sad existence, a scary one, and it was really nice to see how Honor and Clara took control. Or Tried.

In this prologue novella of sorts, we get to see how Clara was living her life in the weeks leading up to their escape. To see what kind of girl she was living in a world where she had hints that she wasn’t ‘one of them’ and yet she had no choice but to be what they expected her to be. She had a rebellious side that brought her closer to Gio, one of the ‘soldiers’ in her father’s army and that came with it’s own risks for her and him.

The timing of this story is all around the engagement for Honor and Byron – a man that we learned was absolutely no good for her. He has motivations that tie not only to Honor but to Clara as well and we watch how those plans are slowly being put into place. What he doesn’t expect, what no one expects is that Honor and Clara have the guts to run, the means to run, and when they do…..the story unfolds.

So on that note, young love, hope and a desire for freedom are really what kicks this series off for us. Enjoy!

Review: Love the Way you Lie (Stripped #1) by Skye Warren

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Title: Love the Way You Lie
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Amber Shah 3/9/15
Length:  244 pages
Series: Stripped #1

Overview

A dark romance about the lies that lead us down…

I’ll do anything to stay hidden, even if that means working at the scariest club in town. Then he shows up, mysterious and yet strangely familiar. And so damn sexy.

When he looks at me, I forget why I can’t have him. He’s beautiful and scarred. His body fits mine, filling the places where I’m hollow, rough where I am soft.

He’s the only man who wants to help, but he has secrets of his own.

He has questions I can’t answer.

I’m running from my past, but his might catch me first.

My Thoughts

I’ve clearly read all of Skye Warren’s books / series out of order but it’s ok, i’m learning! This is the first installment of the series related to The Grand, a location that we’ve come to know and love throughout Samantha’s story and an opportunity for us to see a bit more about Ivan. The scary gent. This isn’t his story though, so we’ll have to wait a book or two before we get into that one.

What we have in this first installment to the series is a story about Honor, the girl not the name, although it’s interesting that her parents named her that given their heritage. She comes from a family that has ties with the Mafia, so she’s incredibly valuable to her father and what she can do for him, and as a result, she’s engaged to a man that’s not the best for her. He’s a cop gone bad, he doesn’t treat her well, and after a variety of circumstances, she’s forced to run, taking her younger sister with her. She’s treated like an object and not one that’s beloved. She overhears her father and fiance talking about her, (until she realizes that it’s her sister they’re talking about), and that causes her to fear for their safety even more. There’s a mystery surrounding her mother’s death and disappearance and that scares Honor on top of all else that she’s going through.

Their only chance for survival is to stay under the radar and get away. We find ourselves in Tanglewood, at The Grand, the strip club that Ivan owns, and she’s working there to make ends meet. She’s a classically trained ballerina so this isn’t quite the style dancing that they had in mind for her, but it’s what helps her provide a roof over her and her sister Clara’s head.

While it’s not an ideal place for them to be, especially given that Clara is still in high school, it’s a place where Honor has managed to survive, until one day when a man comes in to the club and shifts the energy. Distracts her and makes her wonder if she’s met him and what he’s after. That’s where our story takes a turn.

Kip, he’s our man in charge here – he is known by Ivan, by others apparently, but no one tells Honor the relationship. She is warned away from him, told that he’s dangerous, yet some how she doesn’t listen since she’s drawn to him and he’s able to get under her skin just a little bit. Kip is a rogue guy for us, we don’t know his background and his motivation. We don’t know who he’s connected to but we know that he’s also drawn to Honor.

When we find out who he is, we see things take a dark turn. When we find out who he brings around as a result of his connections, we see that he should not have been trusted. What we get to towards the end of this story is a shootout, a death, a question of what the future will hold and then beginning of a relationship, and the hint of another. The who’s and the how’s are yet to be determined but I think that we get a good jumping off point to get into the rest of these stories. Enjoy!

Review: Silver Lining (Diamond #3) by Skye Warren

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Title: Silver Lining
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Amber Shah 11/17/20
Length:  224 pages
Series: Diamond #3

Overview

Elijah North has survived starvation and torture. Now he faces his darkest challenge: the possibility of life without Holly Frank. The woman he loves hangs in the balance. The family he found mourns in the distance. And the future he built crumbles in the wind.

My Thoughts

Here we come to the final installment of this story – wondering what’s going to happen, who’s going to survive and what the cost is. We left Elijah and Holly at a point in their story when things had been good and then went to crap. There was a shooting, a death and a question of survival. Holly has been shot and Elijah needs to keep her safe while trying to keep her alive. She’s done what he set out to do, kill the colonel but what that means that they are both public enemy #1.

The journey that we go on from here is one of hiding, passion, fear and really fearing the unknown. They realize now that the life that they will have in the future means that they will never be at peace. They will never get to just be together without looking over their shoulder, but as long as they’re together, they are ok with that. Until…of course….they are torn apart.

Torture, lies, deception and never knowing if you’re going to see the person you love is the name of the game for the balance of the book.

There’s also another story here, one with London and Adam. We know that London is getting her head back on straight, trying to change her life and get back to a healthy mindset, away from addiction and to be happy. What she doesn’t know is that Adam is obsessed with her (in a good way of course) and that means that he’s going to protect her, watch her and claim her to be his.

When Holly finds out, of course that won’t be a good thing, but the question becomes in what shape will she be when she finds out and what will it mean to have Adam in her life too.

So….we watch how things play out, we learn the real identity of some of the people that we’ve grown to love in this story and we get to see what that means for the ending of everyone’s story. The finale and the epilogue give us what we need, for some of the characters and leaves us hanging off the edge for others. So….Enjoy!

Review: Gold Mind (Diamond #2) by Skye Warren

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Title: Gold Mine
Author: Skye Warren
Publisher/Year:  Book Beautiful 9/15/20
Length:  314 pages
Series: Diamond #2

Overview

Holly Frank is in trouble. The deadly kind.

She and her sister must evade the authorities and the criminals who want them dead. Including Elijah North. The man who took her heart in Paris, her body in a prison cell, and her trust without remorse.

He’s determined to keep her safe. Even if that means losing her forever.

Adam Bisset has his own dark agenda.

She’s caught between the two men, torn apart with every sensual push and pull. Each touch is a lie, each whispered tenderness a trap-but she can’t resist them.

Their lies are tearing her apart. Her enemies are catching up with her. And when she’s taken captive again, she finds out secrets to unravel it all.

My Thoughts

This is one of those series that you really can’t put down because you know that it’s a roller coaster, a train wreck, and yet it’s still so hot and romantic and exciting. When we left Elijah and Holly at the end of book one, we knew that Elijah was going to deal with some of the people who were hunting them, and Holly was trapped in the house, and she knew it.

London some how managed to get the code to get Holly out of the house and on the run they go. We are then finding ourselves about a year in the future, at least I think it’s a year and there’s so much that has happened. The girls have managed to evade being found. We know that Adam is looking for them. Elijah is looking for them, and who knows who else is…especially since we know that London got herself into trouble with loan sharks etc because of a drug habit.

We find ourselves in Italy, at a party where Holly is trying to trade the value of the diamonds that they still have for the amount of money that London owes one specific man, and that’s when things blow up in their face.

Adam appears, and surprisingly he protects them. Mind you, we learn that he has a thing for London, and through the course of this book, we learn more about him to see that who he is is further intertwined in things. Then, when Adam is trying to get the girls to safety, Elijah shows up, and well…that’s going to cause strife.

So we go on a journey to a ‘safe house’ trying to understand if they are safe, what Elijah wants, and how this is going to end. The irony is that Holly and Elijah never had a chance to be apart from the first moment they met. They are marked on one another, imprinted sort of, and where ever they try to go, they find themselves drawn to each other. That’s a theme in this story, when there’s another kidnapping, a threat or few….shoot outs and questions about who’s going to survive.

We get to spend more time with the North brothers in this story – understanding what they don’t know about each other, what they can do to make each other better and what they can do to protect one another. That also means that perhaps I need to dig up the series about Josh since he’s definitely intriguing.

Anyway, we find relationships growing, then some are torn apart. We learn secrets and we see that secrets are being kept. there’s a main character on the verge of death when we end this second book and that means of course I have to dive into the next to see what happens. Enjoy!