Release Day Blast, Review & #Giveaway: ☆Be My Hero☆ by @lindakage and ☆Surviving Love☆ by Ada Frost

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Eva Mercer’s a mess. She’s single, nineteen, seven
months pregnant, and living off the good graces of her cousin. In the midst of a complete attitude overhaul—or at least trying to change—the last thing she wants to think about is men. She’s done with them. For good. Or at least she was until Pick.

For ten years, Pick Ryan has dreamed about this girl. He knows how she smells, what it’s like to hold her in his arms, how she tastes when he kisses her. But he’s never actually met her. He doesn’t even know her name. He just knows she’s the one. It’s his brand of luck that she would walk into the bar where he works on the very day he gets married to someone else.

Pick and Eva come from completely different worlds,
and yet the connection they share draws them together too tightly to matter. Nothing can keep them apart—except maybe a three-month-old boy whose life depends on just that. And so, their love becomes forbidden.
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Review
5 stars
You don’t even know what your mere presence does to me. You’re my sanity.

If you’ve read To Professor, with Love then just like me you’ve been dying to get your hands on Pick’s book ever since. I’m a huge fan of Linda Kage’s writing and this book further proves why. While some may not like the particular twist that was added here, I absolutely adored it. It spoke to a hopeless romantic part of me that I never even knew I had.

My favorite part? Patrick “Pick” Ryan. How do you not instantly fall for everything that he is?

He appeared to be a bad boy straight from the wrong side of town. But there was something NOT bad boy about him. He simply didn’t look like the type who didn’t give a damn about life. His deep brown eyes held too much compassion and vivacity.

If ever there was a perfect sump up of who he was, that was it. Sure he’s tatted up and pierced, but this is no bad boy asshole. Pick had a gentle heart and an even gentler soul. A protector. He was THE perfect match for Eva.

Eva is not quite the spoiled rich girl that she had appeared to be at first. This is a girl that is truly broken. Just how broken? Well you certainly don’t get eased into her history. The very first few pages offer you a very harsh glimpse into the reality that is her life.

Eva has very good reason to distrust men and shy away from relationships. With her history, it’s no wonder that she believes even the nicest of men hide a bastard beneath the good looking surface, even her cousin’s boyfriend, Mason.

Pick couldn’t be more different. This is a man that not only believes in true love, he yearns for it. Years ago he got a “glimpse” of what his life could be when he met his soul mate, and he’s been looking for her since. So when his “vision” walks into the bar where he works, he knows he’ll stop at nothing to be with her.

I knew exactly what it felt like to thrust inside this woman. I knew exactly how she looked when she bit her bottom lip when she came, how her muscles clenched around my cock and her breasts arched against my chest. Yet I’d never had sex with her, never actually seen her naked, never even kissed her.

What follows is a touching and beautiful love story between two very unlikely people. While Evan and Pick couldn’t have been more different, they are more similar that they realize.

I couldn’t get enough of them. What could have been a story that was insta-everything, truly wasn’t. Linda managed to paint a believable and truly heartwarming connection between two people that were the perfect addition to feed the other’s void. It was in a word; perfect.

Readers that want more of Mason and Reese will get that here IN SPADES. But the focus was on the love story of Pick and Eva. I can’t begin to describe to you how much I loved it. And this is coming from someone that rarely enjoys “sweet”. Yet this is what it was. It was a sweet romance with a touch of steam and a little angst with some WTF twists thrown in that you’ll never see coming. It will keep you glued to the book from beginning to finish. I’m head over heals in love with this series.

I’m really looking forward to Quinn and Ten’s books next. Linda Kage is definitely now one of my go-to authors when I want a NA book that I’m pretty much guaranteed to love. I simply can’t recommend this book enough. Read it and see what all my gushing about. Trust me. You’ll love Pick as much if not more than I did.

**ARC courtesy of author in exchange for an honest review**

About the Author
I grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now I live in Kansas with my husband, daughter, and our nine cuckoo clocks. My life’s been blessed with lots of people to learn from and love. Writing’s always been a major part my world, and I’m so happy to finally share some of my stories with other romance lovers.

What do you do when you find out you’re pregnant,
your boyfriend rejects you, your sister is beaten half to death and the most annoyingly gorgeous man takes up residence in your house? Well ladies, there is only one thing to do, pull up your big girl knickers and show the world your middle finger.

Louise Beaumont is renowned for her sharp wit, smart mouth and sassy personality. She comes out swinging in an argument, even when she’s wrong. But even some events in life can knock her on her arse. And fighting through the sludge of emotional pressure she’s had poured over her is taking its toll.

Johan Senior is broken. A man with a deeply
traumatic past, shadows and monsters haunt his every waking hour. That is until a heavenly angel is sent in the form of a loud mouthed chestnut haired vixen, who threatens his manhood countless times. But his heart grabs onto her and refuses to let her go. The only problem is, his mind needs to allow him the pleasure of human touch, and to take that terrifying step of allowing someone into his heart.Part of the Surviving series but can be read as a standalone novel.
About the Author
Hi! What to say about myself…I don’t really have anything interesting to offer other than I love to read, and create stories for others to enjoy. I’ve always been told I have a vivid imagination, I just lacked the confidence to pursue putting it onto the the written page. But finally I embarked on making a single dream come true.
I love to read, and write. I only read romance, any genre really, but it has to have a beautiful romance. I also demand a HEA, even if it takes two or three books to get there. Reality is too broken and jaded without having to live through the trauma and angst in a book for it to end unhappily.
Giveaway

Review: Rough Canvas by Joey W. Hill

 

When his father dies, Thomas is forced to abandon a burgeoning art career in New York. As difficult as it was to give up his lifelong dream, it’s nothing next to walking away from the man he loves.

Marcus taught him to embrace who he is, a sexual submissive who responds to the touch of only one Master.

But why would the sophisticated Marcus need some farm kid from the South?

Then Marcus shows up and offers him a way to continue his art career and help his family.

There’s only one hitch-he asks Thomas to spend a week with him in the Berkshires. Thomas knows he should refuse.

But he’s never been able to say no to his Master.

 
 
 
No matter what happens, I can tell you this. I will always love you. No matter what you feel you need to be, where you need to go, I’ll always know you’re mine. I understand that now.

How do you go about reviewing a book that touched you on such an emotional level, you’re still trying to work through it?

Captivating
Riveting
Emotional
Erotic
Beautiful

Hands down one of THE best MM Romances I have had the pleasure of reading to date

In a word…

INCREDIBLE

Having read a few books by Joey Hill in the past, I knew going into this to expect a book that was as intense as it was well written. What I truly was not expecting was the range of emotions that this story would bring out in me.

Joey took 2 characters and painted an emotionally gripping story that will keep you reading from beginning to end completely unable to set it down.

I fell in love with Marcus in Holding The Cards. I couldn’t get enough of him; the dry wit, the potent sexuality, everything about him…just GAH

Thomas was by far one of the most endearing characters I’ve read. The way that he came off both strong and vulnerable is no small feat for an author to show.

I’m in complete awe of this book. No amount of words from me will ever do it justice. I can sit here and regurgitate the plot for you, but I won’t. I can sit here and attempt to write a lengthy review that this book deserves, but I won’t. Because this is a book that you need to experience for yourself to even begin to come close to understand why I felt about it the way that I did.

When I’ve come inside you, lain on you, felt you tremble, felt that silence between us that has everything…you don’t think God is there? If there is a God, I’ve felt It then, and I know you have too.

I was a highlight slut through the whole book. There is not one chapter that I didn’t highlight in this book. Not.A.One.

I knew that when I finally got Marcus’s full past it would break my heart. And my GOD. It did and then some. I was an emotional, hysterically sobbing mess for a large part of the book (mainly the last 15%).

Sometimes when you lose everything, the last thing you want to do is remember. And telling is remembering.

This is no light read, and it’s certainly not for the faint of heart or those never having read BDSM before. What it is, is a poignant, emotional, brilliantly written love story between 2 people that that are broken in their own way but learn to heal one another. Just beautiful.

All I can tell you is read it, read it, READ it.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to deal with what will most likely be a book hangover from hell after finishing this. And I thank you

Review: ★Louder Than Love★ by Jessica Topper

In this powerful debut novel, a young librarian grieves the loss of her husband…and discovers a love that defies classification.

It’s been over three years since a train accident made a widow of Katrina Lewis, sending her and her young daughter Abbey back to the suburban town of her youth…the only place that still makes sense. Lauder Lake is the perfect place to hide and heal.

Recluse rocker Adrian “Digger” Graves survived the implosion of his music career, but his muse has long lain dormant. Until Kat hires him to play at her library—not on the basis of his hard rock credentials but rather, because of the obscure kids’ TV jingle he wrote years ago. In a case of mistaken identity, Adrian stumbles into the lives of Kat and her comically lovable daughter.

Using tattoos as a timeline, Adrian unfurls his life for Kat. But as the courtship intensifies, it’s unclear whose past looms larger: the widow’s or the rocker’s. Will their demons ever rest, or will they break these soul mates apart?

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Review

5 stars

“You’ve got all this…this love – no, it’s louder than love. It’s passion and beauty built up inside you that deserves to burst out.”

So if you’re anything like me, you probably took a look at that book cover and synopsis and thought you’d be getting an angst filled NA story with a somewhat shy and mousy heroine and a tatted and tortured hero, right? Well you, my friend, couldn’t be further from the truth because this book was not that at all. It was so much more. It was a beautiful, lovely, emotional, and captivating story of love lost and learning to move on again. It was in a word, wonderful.

I’ll be honest, this is not my typical read. But I am so glad that I misjudged that cover and read it, because I would have missed out on an amazing book and a fantastic new author. This is NOT a New Adult novel. I’m not really sure why that genre even appears by this book. This is a contemporary romance with grown and mature MCs.

3 years ago Katrina Lewis lost her husband in a devastating train accident, leaving her a widow and a single mother to her young daughter Abbey.
Seeking solace sends her to the one place that still makes sense to her, her childhood home in Lauder Lake.

When a character and song behind her daughter’s beloved cartoon leads Kat to the idea of inviting the singer of the jingle to perform at the library she works in, her life takes a surprising turn. Through a case of mistaken identity, she meets recluse rocker Adrian.
I can’t help it, this is the image that burned itself into my mind when I read about Adrian. Just give him lighter hair and blue eyes, and yup!

To say that I loved Jessica Topper’s writing would be a gross understatement. I adored the realism with which she portrayed both of these characters. Kat and Adrian were written in such an endearing and pragmatic way, it was hard not to fall in love with them. The way their relationship developed was lovely and realistic. There was no insta-lust, insta-love, insta-anything.

Do you believe in love at first sight?”
“Hmmm, no. I don’t. I believe love involves the commitment of many senses, as well as your head and your heart, so I wouldn’t just rely on my eyesight.”

Jessica managed to write a love story for Kat and Adrian without taking away any of Kat’s love for her husband that passed away. It wasn’t downplayed at all. Kat loved her husband and grieved his loss every day. Yet you can completely understand what makes her fall for Adrian.

When I first read the blurb and saw Kat was a librarian, I imagined yet another somewhat awkward, slightly geeky, introverted heroine. She was not that at all.

I wasn’t sheltered. I was orderly.

She was such an endearing heroine, you can’t help but immediately like her.

Adrian was just amazing. He has battled a multitude of demons in his life, drugs being one of the biggest. Yet the way he is with Kat is not at all what you might expect. He was tender and romantic, but it didn’t seem contrived or fake. It was just perfect.

That’s not to say that this book didn’t have it’s level of steam. It did. But it was written in this understated way that it never took away from the romance.
There was no unnecessary angst thrown into the mix. I honestly can’t think of anything I didn’t like in this book. It was so refreshing to read about 2 grown and mature MCs without any unnecessary drama thrown in to take away from their story.

Kat was an amazing heroine. Your heart broke for her and what she went through. Her pain wasn’t sugar coated or glossed over. I particularly loved the way that her relationship with her daughter was written. I know I’ve said it a multitude of times already in my review, but it was so real, you feel everything right along with her. She had her good moments and her bad moments and I found myself tearing up reading about her struggles.

Kat’s daughter Abbey was the perfect addition to the characters. She was the third character that rounded out the book. I particularly loved the way Adrian was with her. Their relationship was adorable; the way Adrian fell in love with her as much as he did with Kat.

I really cannot write enough praise for this book. It’s a must read. A wonderful, romantic story about a second chance at love. I can’t recommend it enough.

Copyright © 2015 · Dirty Girl Romance

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