Love Burns Series: Caged Love #2 Genre: Erotic, Contemporary Romance Author: Mandi Beck Release Date: September 21, 2015
Love.
It’s my name.
It’s what I fight for.
It’s Frankie.
I’m a fighter. Trained to always keep my cover. To anticipate, see the next hit coming. I never expected her past to come at us swinging like it has. I’m about to take on two of the most important fights of my life. My girl and the belt. I know that I can handle it. That I’ll never stop fighting. But, what do you do when your life, your love is threatened and you can’t take the hits – she has to? You shut your eyes and fucking pray like hell that she’s strong enough, fierce enough to come out on top.
I went to war for her. Now it’s her turn.
Mandi Beck has been an avid reader all of her life. A deep love for books always had her jotting down little stories on napkins, notebooks, and her hand. As an adult she was further submerged into the book world through book clubs and the epicness of social media. It was then that she graduated to writing her stories on her phone and then finally on a proper computer.
A nursing student, mother to two rambunctious and somewhat rotten boys, and stepmom to two great girls away at college, she shares her time with her husband in Chicago where she was born and raised. Mandi is a diehard hockey fan and blames the Blackhawks when her deadlines are not met.
Love Hurts is her debut novel and she is currently working on the next in the series along with whatever other voices are clamoring for attention in her mind.
Love is beautiful, shattering, moving, haunting. Love is everything.
This beautifully written and emotional book is everything that I love about second chance romance. Everything. I’m not sure where I’ve been that I’m only discovering this fantastic author and this series now, but boy am I glad that it’s finally on my radar. Everything about this book worked for me; the writing, the secondary characters, the story, the romance, and most especially the H/h. Simply put, I adored it.
Oliver has always been Estelle’s older brother’s best friend…until a kiss changed everything. They had a few stolen moments together and then everything changed when Oliver walked away. Estelle may have moved on and got engaged to someone else, but she never got over Oliver.
I loved the alternating flashbacks from past to present in both their POVs. It truly allows the reader to be fully engrossed in their story and fall for both them just as hard. The writing is beautiful and flawless and it gripped me from the first chapter alone. I simply couldn’t put this book down.
If you’re looking for a touching and beautiful second chance romance, this series is an absolute must read. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to dive straight into 
Since the very first book, this is what it’s all been leading up to; the dramatic conclusion to the Capital Confessions series and boy was is a doozy. I had some ideas about where it may all lead and some I was correct on while some caught me completely unawares. Falling For Danger was action packed, sexy, and filled with enough twists and turns to keep your reading well into the night…which is exactly what I did.
Kate Reynolds lost her soul mate four years ago when her fiancé and childhood sweetheart, Matt, died on a Special Forces mission in Afghanistan. Her life changed irrevocably since that day and all she’s been living and breathing the past four years is her determination to get down to the truth of what truly happened to cause his death. Everything she’s been doing has been with hat goal in mind; her Capital Confessions stint, her CIA job, and her determination to bring her corrupt senator of a father down along with his secrets. As much as I hated what Kate did in 
The highly anticipated conclusion to an addicting series is here and boy did it end with a bang. Pun most definitely intended. You know what I love? When a series is perfectly wrapped up with a great conclusion without being cheesy and that’s exactly what I loved about the third and final volume of A Desperate Man. We first met Evan in 
Evan and Reagan have been through quite a lot through the series, all of it leading up to the huge bomb of a reveal that these devious authors dropped on us at the end of volume two. And Volume three picks up right where that left off; in the aftermath of Reagan’s…lie…and leaving both of them to deal with the ever growing passion that continues to brew between them, even if it may be slightly clouded by snark and barbs every now and then.
But it never loses the spark either 😉
Now before you start reaching for rotten tomatoes and pitchforks, allow me to clarify my rating here. See, here’s the thing, I liked this book. It was wonderfully written and being my first book by this author I already know I’ll be reading all her others. I’m also completely hooked on this series and absolutely loved the set up as well as all the secondary characters. I also truly enjoyed both MCs here. At this point you’re probably sitting there and thinking, then why the hell are you marking this only 3.5 stars?
Well…bluntly put…it was just too sweet for my tastes. *ducks flying tomatoes*
Now I loved that this wasn’t a source of shame or secret for him. He owned it. It wasn’t a secret and he didn’t make it one, nor does he make it a given to spread it around campus either. The problem? I just don’t buy it. Ugh. I’m sorry! It’s that damn cynic in me, but a college junior, surrounded by football groupies, all his teammates are male sluts, but he’s a virgin because…reasons.
But this was also wonderfully…refreshing. This is my second time reading about a male virgin and I believe Jen Frederick pulled it off very well. Knox is just one of those characters that you can’t help but love. He goes after what he wants with a single-minded intent and feels no need for immature mind games that you’d find with most heroes in the NA genre.
What ultimately brought my rating down was 2 specific things.
In the book’s defense I am not, nor will I ever be a fan of insta-love, no matter how well it’s pulled off. And it IS pulled off wonderfully here. It’s just not my cuppa. I can’t help it. I gave it the old college try (pun intended) but could never really see past it. Perhaps because he was also a virgin on top of everything else? Whatever the case may be, I suppose I just wanted a little more interaction between them before this came into the mix. Like say, at least 12%?
The only reason you brought me here tonight was because you thought it would appease me. Throw the vicious dog a bone and it’ll soon be eating out of your hand!”
Joya’s Chasing Love has been easily one of my favorite Brazen series this year. The last time I enjoyed a series this much was when I read Elle Kennedy’s After Hours series. It’s deliciously sexy with fantastic characters, smoking hot sex, and a fun story to wrap everything around. I eagerly anticipate each release and to say that I’ve been dying to finally get my hands on Ryder’s books would be a mild understatement. It’s always those quiet, good ole’ boys that have that yummy dirty side to them so I knew that Ryder would not disappoint. And boy he sure as hell didn’t!
For Ryder the only thing more precious to him besides his reputation is his control. He’s only lost control once and it it almost cost him everything. When his friends set him up on a blind date and a case of mistaken identity lead him to have the hottest sex of his life with a dark haired beauty that shatters his control, the last thing he expects is to see her the next morning working in his sister’s diner.
I loved seeing all of my favorite couples from the previous books but Whitney and Ryder definitely stole the show. Their chemistry was positively combustible. I loved both these characters and I definitely loved them together. Whitney was so much fun and she wasn’t afraid to push Ryder’s buttons even when he was too stubborn to do anything about it. But ultimately his control would always snap and the result was something that never failed to get my ovaries going…
If you haven’t read this series yet, I’m not sure what you’re thinking. You NEED to. Trust me. Your ovaries will thank me. Chasing Mr. Wrong was another fantastic addition to what’s quickly becoming my ultimate guilty pleasure series. I love it! And I simply cannot wait for more.
