Safe With Me by Kristen Proby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I’ll be damned if I’ll screw this up for her. I’m too fucked up for anything long-term, and she deserves nothing less.

Book Blurb:

My Review:

I’ve been looking forward to Caleb and Brynna’s story for a while now. Kristen Proby definitely knows how to write a steamy as hell romance. While I can’t say this book will be making to my favorites list, I did enjoy it.

When a tragic event forces Brynna and her twin daughters to fear their safety, they pick up their life in Chicago and move to Seattle where Brynna’s cousin lives. It’s been a year since the incident that sent them into hiding, and Brynna is finally starting to settle into a somewhat normal life until a threat rises up again and she has no choice but to accept protection in the form of her walking fantasy, Caleb Montgomery.

Brynna has been lusting after Caleb for months, but Caleb insists on a hands off friendship. He doesn’t think that he’s capable of a relationship; his experiences as a SEAL left him broken and damaged. He doesn’t think that he has anything to offer Brynna or her girls. But that doesn’t mean that he stops wanting her any less.

Caleb still suffers horrendous nightmares from his past tours. He thinks he’s broken, damaged, not worthy of someone like Brynna.

Brynna was a wonderful heroine. She was strong, in a very understated way. She wasn’t a pushover or whine when she didn’t get her way. I loved the way that she handled Caleb and his problems. She was understanding and patient.

Caleb was just pure sex on a stick. Kristen Proby definitely did not disappoint in the sex department. This book was HOT. When Caleb finally gave in to the red hot passion between them IT.WAS.ON.

These two just burned up the pages together. It wasn’t just all Caleb, I really liked how Brynna went after what she wanted and didn’t shy away from getting it.

Brynna’s girls were adorable, and I especially enjoyed Caleb’s interaction with them. It was incredibly sweet.

We also get to catch up with all the characters from the past books and find out how their relationships have developed, which was great.

So why only 4 stars? Well, while I loved Caleb and Brynna, and Brynna and Caleb together, and the super steamy scenes, I just didn’t connect that much with this book as I did with Rock with Me.

I think my biggest quibble was the “suspense” part of this book. I felt like it was really glossed over and just a quick filler. In the beginning, it explained Brynna’s move, and then the reason for Brynna to need Caleb’s protection, but then it sort of just fizzled out? The way that it resolved just felt entirely too glossed over. I just felt like something was missing. It seemed like there was all this build up, and then in the end the quick resolution just fell slightly flat. I’m not even sure why I think that, and I very well may be in the minority with my opinion. But whatever the reason may be, it still just didn’t feel like a 5 star book for me.

What I’m very happy about? The little teaser we get into Matt’s book in the end. Sweet baby jebus! I am ALL about the dirty and kinky cops.

Bring it on! I cannot wait.

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Perfect Regret by A. Meredith Walters

Blessed are the hearts that bend; they shall never be broken.

That awkward, confused looking person in that gif? That’s me right now. Minus the penis and plus some more hair. Why you ask? Well because I’m in a bit of a loss as to how to rate a book like this.

I loved, absolutely loved the first book, and I really enjoy the author’s writing. I loved everything about this book. Well everything aside from one tiny weenie little thing: the heroine, Riley. She drove me out of my ever loving mind! Now, it will be fair to say that I seem to have a short fuse for annoying and weak heroines. But here’s the thing…Riley was not weak. If anything she was the polar opposite of that times infinity on steroids.

Riley Walker has just been dumped. To say that she’s not handling it well is an understatement. She’s supposed to be the girl that doesn’t make mistakes, that leads the perfect life, that has her goals and priorities in order, and knows what she wants from her life. She had all of that, plus the perfect on paper boyfriend…until her perfect boyfriend tells her that their relationship has become boring and dumps her. So of course she’s going to wallow in some self pity for a while.

And to commemorate my recent descent into early spinsterhood, I had compiled a list of the most obnoxious and annoying songs ever written. Nothing says heartache and the overwhelming urge to disembowel yourself with a butter knife quite like an hour of Celine Dion ballads.

But then, to add insult to injury, she finds out that her ex just asked her very annoying coworker out. So what’s a girl to do? Well get drunk and have a very hot one night stand with the person she least expected to pay any attention to; Garrett Bellows.

Time to take a ride on the Garrett Express all the way to Fuck Me town

Riley never thought to give him the time of day. After all he’s a townie, a pot head, and no goals in mind aside from being the guitarist of Generation Rejects…but is that really all that was to him?

Garrett

We’ve found something in each other that we want. Hell if I understand why. Out of all the fish in the sea, I had to hook you. One giant, snarly toothed piranha ready to bite my fingers off.”

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Unattainable by Madeline Sheehan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Love, they say, has the potential to kill a person if they aren’t careful. I wasn’t careful. I let that love blossom uncontrollably until it was in full bloom, exploding from within me, with nowhere to go.

Well Madeline Sheehan has done it again, she has taken broken, damaged, and completely imperfect characters and managed to write a dark and gritty book that you will not be able to put down until the very last page.

I was not a fan of Tegan from the past books, and I’ll be honest that I wasn’t thrilled to be reading a book with her as the main heroine. But I love this series, and I loved Cage, so I thought what the hell. Well I am eating my words, I’m not too proud to admit that, because this book was fucking awesome!

Cage is the son of Deuce, the president of the Hell’s Horsemen MC, and he’s also the asshole manwhore responsible for breaking little Tegan’s heart at the tender age of 16.

Considering the woman didn’t have a sound below screeching, it’d be hard not to. She’s a vulgar, rude, mean, mouthy little bitch. But considering what she has been through in her 24 years, it’s somewhat understandable. Tegan is the the daughter of Dorothy, a “club whore” and has been in the MC life since she was eight. She has also been in love with Cage just as long, up until he shattered her world and her heart when she was 16, and she hasn’t been the same since. She learned one very tough lesson from all of it

You stupid bitch. You ignorant, stupid bitch. Love isn’t a fucking answer. It hurts more than it doesn’t, it’s harder than it is easy, it takes work, guts, and perseverance.”

Tegan escaped to California for college and to be as far away from the club as possible. To say that she hates them and the life they lead would be putting it mildly. But now she’s back at the request of her mother, who’s still dealing with the fallout and issues following her gunshot wound the head courtesy of Jase’s wife a year ago, and Tegan is forced to come face to face with everything that she had hoped to forget.

Wow wow wow! The side story of Dirty and Ellie was one of the best parts of this book for me. I think they were the saving grace to Tegan’s constant screeching, yelling, and swearing. Ellie is Danny’s friend from UnBeautifully; she was the reserved and somewhat shy one of the group of friends. Dirty was a character that I barely paid any mind to from the past books…until he pretty much stole the show in this one.

My heart broke for him with every new bit of information I read. He was such a broken, dark, and damaged soul.

He was nothing. He was shit. He was a damaged, deranged, sick motherfucker who deserved to be put the fuck down. He shouldn’t have lived for as long as he had; he didn’t deserve to share the same earth with people like Ellie.

Ellie was the light to his dark. I absolutely loved her and the way she treated Dirty. Their story was gut wrenching and beautiful at the same time. My heart broke for each of them and what they were going through.

Every day she was faced with his beautiful face, his long, lean, sculpted body, and his personality, so damaged, so fragile, she couldn’t help but want to fix him. He was a woman’s worst nightmare— beautiful on the outside, ravaged on the inside. A deadly combination.

Their story was the perfect yang to the ying of Cage and Tegan. Had it been just Tegan and Cage, the book would have been something close to 3.5 stars for me. But Dirty and Ellie added that dark and damaged softness that this book so needed to bring it to a beautiful 5 star read.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way. Madeline Sheehan has a writing style that’s dark and gritty but at the same time so incredibly emotional that I’ve come to fall in love with it. There’s been plenty of MC books I’ve read before and after, but not one of them compares to her books. Not even close.

There was so much that happened in this book that I don’t want to go into since I don’t want to spoil or give anything away, but prepare yourself for another roller coaster of emotions.

ZZ, oh sweet baby jebus! I cannot wait for his book. The event that took place toward the end of Unattainable

I can’t even imagine what his book will bring. Wow, just fucking WOW!

And of course there was more Dorothy, Hawk, and Jase. I can’t wait to see what happens with them.

Madeline Sheehan just keeps getting better and better with each new book. Yes, her characters are far from perfect. Yes, they will piss you off more than make you happy. And yes, her stories will gut you and at the same time make you feel eeeeeeverything. You will hate it, you will love it, and you will be unable to set it down.

But that is enough gushing from me. You will want to drop everything you’re doing and READ. THIS. BOOK. And I thank you

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Bound by Him by Red Garnier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

“There’s a little string” – he pointed at his chest and then at hers – “from here to here. I don’t need to tie you. We’re bound to each other, wherever we are, whether we like it or not.”



He’d been her one and only love. He’d been her safe haven. He’d freed her from hell and taken her to heaven, and then he’d left her for three years.

Andrew Fairchild fell for Whitney Donahue hard and fast. He knew right away that she is the only woman for him. Their love was strong and he knew he would do anything to protect the fragile woman that he lost his heart to.

But three years ago when a tragedy strikes Andrew was forced to make a difficult decision that took him away from her. But now he’s back and all he wants is the woman that is bound to his soul.

Andrew was Whitney’s first and only love, and she knows that she will never love any other man the same way. But Andrew broke her heart and her trust when he left her, and she is no longer the broken and fragile girl that she once was. But no matter how much her mind might fight it, her body and heart know that she still belongs to him. She may try to deny it the connection between still exists after these years, but the passion between them never burned out.

When a madman threaten’s Whitney’s safety, there is only one man that she trusts to keep her safe, and Andrew will stop at nothing to protect the woman he loves.

This novella was packed with action and suspense, and enough steam to set your e-reader on fire. I loved that Andrew didn’t hide his feelings or was the typical male slut hero. He loved Whitney with a passion and he wasted no time or words in proving it to her.

The story never felt rushed and it flowed very nicely. I enjoyed the characters and the plot. I am not typically one for serial novellas, but I love that these books are all pretty much stand-alones. You don’t have to wait 5 books to get a HEA. It hits the spot for whenever I need a quick and steamy read. I also liked that it had a story line beyond just Andrew and Whitney’s relationship. There was the added mystery behind the madman that blackmails Whitney. It was great that it wasn’t another one of those fluffy and quick novellas. I’m really looking forward to the next book. If you’re looking for a quick, steamy read with a great story, a sexy as hell hero then definitely give this one a try.

A solid 4 stars from me.

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Craving Constellations by Nicole Jacquelyn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

4.5 Raw, gritty, and completely captivating stars

“I know, baby. I know you need control. But with me, you aren’t gonna get it.”

In my head I reminded myself that he was taken, but I couldn’t get over the feeling that he had always been mine.

I went into this book with absolutely zero expectations. I’m a sucker for MC books, but after a recent string of very mediocre reads, I wasn’t expecting much from a debut novel.

Holy shit was I wrong. This book blew me away! It was raw, gritty, painful, emotional, dark, passionate, and unputdownable until the very last page.

Five years ago Brenna made the decision to leave the only life she’s ever known behind, in the hopes of building a different future for herself. Being the daughter of the vice president of a MC that runs guns is not exactly what she wants to be know for. What she doesn’t expect is to run back to her old life when the new one she though she was building comes crumbling down on her. Leaving behind a brutally abusive husband, she takes her daughter and runs back to the only family she’s ever been able to rely on.

Dragon is the Aces new lieutenant. When he first met Brenna at a club party he had just gotten his cut, and had no idea that the enticing woman that he felt such a pull to was his VP’s daughter. They share a night of passion only for her to take off and then reappear in his life with one huge secret.

Fuckin’ gone for five years. No one hears from you. Now, you come back, and I find out you had my daughter and didn’t tell me FOR FIVE FUCKIN’ YEARS?”.

Dragon is devasted that he was kept from his daughter for 4 years, and as much as he may blame Brenna for the decisions that she’s made and her betrayal he can’t seem to make himself stop wanting her.

Nicole Jacquelyn took two imperfect and fucked up characters and wrote them in such a way that you just couldn’t help but love them.

I am not typically a fan of heroines that are overly emotional but yet I felt for Brenna. Her life hasn’t been an easy one, and although she has made some mistakes she still struggles to bring back the strong woman that she once was. She left behind her life because she didn’t want to be the old lady on the sidelines while her man came home smelling like club whores. Dragon may not be perfect, but the magnetic pull between them is impossible for her to deny.

I went into the thing with Dragon looking for a little escape from reality, and I’d gotten way more than I bargained for. He wasn’t charming like Tony. He didn’t tell me sweet things. He was gruff and rude, and the things he said to me made me blush.

Brenna and Dragon are attempting to mend things between them, but
will the secrets that she still hold on to threaten to break them once and for all?

Their relationship was gritty, painful, emotional, but real.

We weren’t making love. It wasn’t sweet or soft. We were fucking, hard. Every movement was rough and needy, and for once, Dragon wasn’t talking me through it. We just needed to be as close as we possibly could before the world came tumbling around us again.

I loved how the relationship between them, while having it’s fair share of bumps and turns, felt real. Dragon may have been a rough around the edges, says what he wants with no holds barred Alpha man, but the way he felt pain broke my heart.

His pain bled through the pages to me. And even though Brenna was the sole reason behind this, I couldn’t bring myself to blame her. They were both broken and tortured souls, and my heart went out for both of them.

He was like a wounded animal, and I was the hunter who’d wounded him. I didn’t know if he would ever forgive me.

There was a point in this book where Dragon did something that I would usually not be able to tolerate or understand in a hero. The fact that I not only forgave him for it, but understood his pain and remorse for it after the fact speaks volumes for the writing.

If you’re looking for an emotionally charged, beautifully written MC book then you really need to give this one a try. I am really looking forward to the next book in this series (hopefully it will be Grease?)

Fatal Strike by Shannon McKenna
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

That radiant smile scared him to death. All that “mine” bullshit. No longer an issue. Probably never had been. He was hers. After all his arrogant posturing. All hers.

Finally, 10 books into the series, we get a book for Miles. I’ve been intrigued by his character ever since he was introduced back in book 2. Taking into consideration how much I’ve absolutely hated Cindy, his then love interest, I’m so glad that he got a heroine totally worthy of him with Lara.

I love a good romantic suspsense, and Shannon McKenna can definitely deliver one hell of an action filled punch. But if you’ve been keeping up with the series, you have probably come to realize then when you read this series, you really must prepare yourself to leave the realm of believable. The villains in her book have been getting progressively more crazy…or actually

While enough background information is given to be able to read this as a standalone, many of the previous characters make an appearance. It’s hard for me to say whether it would get confusing, as I had read all the books. But Shannon McKenna does do a very good job with characterization and background without it being boring or repetitive.

Miles Davenport has always been a bit of a nerd in the earlier books. For those that have that image of him in their mind while reading, will have a hard time seeing him as the super sexy commando that he is in this one. I had no such problems. I thought that his journey from basement computer nerd to kickass hero is a very smooth and believable one.

Fatal Strike finds Miles still trying to recuperate after his ordeal in the previous book. After undergoing a horrendous torture, he wakes up from his coma as Miles 2.0.

But this is not happy news for him. He struggles with how to deal with his new psychic abilities, thinking that he must be going crazy. Especially when he begins getting very carnal visits in his mind’s fortress from a woman he can’t stop thinking about, or her failed rescue attempt.

Lara Kirk is being held captive by a psychopath for the past 6 months, undergoing experiments on her mind with a new drug that is supposed to increase her psychic ability. The experiments are slowly causing her to lose track of what’s fantasy or what’s reality; combining both into one shadowy world.

But when her mind leaves her body, it only knows of one safe place to hide; with a man whose virile presence is able to offer a calming and sensual escape from her reality.

When Miles realizes that his phantom visitor is in fact real, and Lara is still alive, he knows that he will stop at nothing to rescue her this time around.

I enjoyed how Miles wasn’t the typical arrogant and jaded Alpha male. Don’t get me wrong, he was still sexy as sin, but still somewhat unsure of himself. It was incredibly endearing.

Lara, although she went through hell for the past 6 months was a great heroine as well. She was strong, and tough, and I loved the connection between her and Miles.

If you’re expecting a realistic relationship progression, you’re definitely reading the wrong book. Expect to have sex scenes right after an ordeal or struggles with bad guys. I had no problem with this, since I knew in advance what I was getting into. And to be honest, I’ve grown to enjoy that in this series.

Why only 4 stars? Well I found myself getting a little bored at some parts. Fatal Strike is action packed, filled with suspense and super steamy erotic scenes. But certain parts were a bit too lengthy for me, and I had to skim pages.

We got a few peeks into Sveti and Sam’s budding “relationship”. And I’m really looking forward to their book. I’ve really liked Sveti’s character, ever since she was first introduced as a young child in Extreme Danger.

I do hope that the next book finally takes a step back from this psychic plot line that seems to be recurring ever since book 7. It is starting to feel slightly played out.

Overall, this was a great addition to the series, and I am definitely looking forward to the next book. Really hoping that it will be Sveti and Sam’s book.

ARC courtesy of Publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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