#DGRFave & Review: The Revenge Pact by Ilsa Madden Mills

December 7, 2020 by · Leave a Comment

THE REVENGE PACT
Series: The Kings of Football #1
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult Romance
Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills
Release Date: December 3, 2020

River Tate is a god on campus.
The king of football.
A tattooed bad boy with gunmetal eyes that see right through you.
The only chink in his armor is her, the girl he pretends doesn’t exist, the forbidden one with the shy smile and lavender hair.

Anastasia Bailey is a nobody.
The queen of nothing.
An outsider with the face of an angel and a body made for sin.
The only chink in her armor is him, her boyfriend’s frat brother, the football player who hates her.

But when Anastasia’s life comes crashing down, River’s the one who sweeps in and picks up the pieces.
Torn between loyalty, lies, and secrets, he battles the temptation to take everything from her when they make their revenge pact.

He can’t tell her no.
Because revenge (or love) is, sweet, and once you get a taste, the craving never ends.

The Revenge Pact is first in a series about three college football players.

 AMAZON 

There’s something real between us… The question is, what am I willing to do about it?

When I tell you that this book owned me. When I tell you that this story was absolutely EVERYTHING. When I tell you that River Tate is the ultimate book boyfriend that you will never be able to move on from. When I tell you this was easily my favorite book I’ve read from this author. When I tell you that this book is an absolute must read. BELIEVE. ME.

River Tate is a dangerous man. And the best thing I can do is stay away from him.

The second I started reading this story, I knew it would be different. River and Anastasia are going down as one of my favorite New Adult romance couples. It was THAT good.

I’m a sucker for a strong female and a tortured male plot, but this was so much more than that. It was all things forbidden, angsty and packed with enough emotion to make you turn each page with bated breath.

Anastasia and River’s relationship is tumultuous to say the least. He pretends that he hates her and she pretends like his presence doesn’t effect her. She also happens to be dating his frat brother. But if you’re thinking this is a love triangle or cheating book, think again.

River is a god on campus but he’s so much more than his image. This is a man with so many layers, you feel like every chapter offers more depth. He’s such a beautiful soul that I couldn’t help but fall for him immediately. His perseverance and honor make him one of the most beloved people on campus. He’s always there for his brothers and teammates. So it doesn’t matter how much he wants Ana, he can never go there.

Ana is a bit of a black sheep with lavender hair. She’s beautiful and smart, but her family is anything but conventional. She struggles to find a place for herself in the midst of the expectations from those around her. And when everything comes crashing down on her, the one person there for her is the last one that she expects.

This was an incredibly emotional and poignant slow burn romance. I fell so hard for both of these characters. Their imperfections and strengths, their pain and happiness. All of it was blended together so flawlessly that I couldn’t set the book down for even a second. You know when you read a book and you just have this feeling, like this power punch of emotion that goes through you like electricity? I had that the entire time reading this. These characters were so incredibly memorable and their romance was so incredibly powerful, that I felt a sense of loss when I finished because I couldn’t part with them.

If you’re looking for a new adult romance that’s packed with feels and a book boyfriend that will own your heart from the very first page, you need this book in your life!

Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Ilsa Madden-Mills is best known for her angsty new adult romances and romantic comedies.

Eight of her eleven novels have placed in the Amazon Top 10 Best-seller List: Dirty English #1; Fake Fiancée and I Dare You #2; I Bet You, Filthy English, and Very Bad Things #6; Boyfriend Bargain #8; The Last Guy, her collaboration with Tia Louise, #4.

A former high school English teacher, she adores all things Pride and Prejudice, and of course, Mr. Darcy is her ultimate hero.

She’s addicted to frothy coffee beverages, cheesy magnets, and any book featuring unicorns and sword-wielding females. Feel free to stalk her online.

Connect with Ilsa:
Amazon | Instagram | Goodreads | Bookbub | Book+Main | Website 

Stay up to date with Ilsa by joining her mailing list: http://bit.ly/2ZWaTYh

Join her Unicorn Girls Group on FB, the best way to keep up: http://bit.ly/37B6Nay

Sign up for phone alert for book releases (max of 4) Text ROMANCE to 21000

Leave a Comment · Filed Under: All Reviews, Contemporary Romance, DGR Favorites, New Adult · Tagged With: , , , ,

Review: I Promise You by Ilsa Madden-Mills

October 13, 2020 by ·

I PROMISE YOU 
Genre: Contemporary, New Adult Romance
Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills
Release Date: October 12, 2020

New adult football romance! Complete standalone!

WSJ bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills returns with an all-new swoony romance between the football hottie and the mystery girl he kissed years before.

Dillon McQueen: Babe. I promise. You want me.
Serena Jensen: Um, who are you?

There’s a legend at Waylon University: the first girl you kiss freshman year at the bonfire party is the one you’ll never forget. She’ll crawl under your skin and never leave. She’ll spark a passion so fierce you’ll burn the world down to possess her.

You might even put a ring on it.

As in all things with fate, timing is everything. That kiss can go horribly wrong. She might run in the opposite direction. And boy, did Serena run.

Dillon is Waylon’s hotshot quarterback with something to prove. All he wants is to graduate and make it to the NFL. What he doesn’t need is to finally meet the mystery girl he kissed at the bonfire freshman year. Isn’t it enough that she’s haunted his dreams for more than a thousand nights?

Fate laughs in his face when he runs into the quirky girl at the Piggly Wiggly. Surrounded by his entourage, he’s got all the Oreos in his cart; she gets revenge by buying every six-pack of his favorite beer.

Obviously, that legend is a curse. She’s not his type. She hates him. Worst of all, how can she not remember him when she left a Serena-shaped hole in his heart for the past three years?

So why can’t he stop trying to win her?

Will this quarterback score the girl or make the biggest fumble of his life?

 AMAZON 

He’s part smooth charmer, part uncertain college boy, and it ticks all my boxes.
Help.

Same, girl. SAME.

First of all, I am kicking my own @ss right now because how am I just discovering this series? Ok so maybe it’s not a series since it’s not marked as one. But if you haven’t read I Bet You, I Hate You, and I Dare You, you haven’t lived. Just saying.

It seems I’m always on the search for the perfect New Adult sports romance that can combine all of the feels with perfectly dozed steam and this book checked all of my boxes. I fell so hard for these characters, both the main and the secondary. I fell SO HARD.

If you’ve read the other books I mention, you’ll remember Dillon McQueen as the party loving, quick to smile golden boy. I just knew this boy was going to have more layers than an onion, but I simply wasn’t prepared for just how many there were. This is one character that has so much depth, that with every layer you peel back, you’re simply ravenous for more. On the surface he seems like a party boy that likes to sleep around and has no problem using his good looks to get what he wants. But beneath that is the heart of someone that’s still figuring himself out. He’s unsure. He’s vulnerable. And he’s so damn adorable in his uncertainties, that you just want to hug him.

People see me as some kind of, I don’t know, hotshot guy, but deep down there’s only a few things I want: football, my dad’s approval, and someone authentic.

Serena has been there, done that, and has the t-shirt. Literally. She’s a little older and a lot wiser, so when the college golden boy sets her in his sights, she’s having none of it. The banter and bickering between the two of them was FIRE. I lived for their back and forth. Serena has her own insecurities but this is a woman that gives as hard as she gets and I loved her for it. She made Dillon work for it.

I adored this story, simply adored it. The swoon, the feels, the hilarious banter. All of it effortlessly woven together to make for one addictive read that I never wanted to end. I immediately went back and read the other three books because I simply had to meet the three secondary characters that make an appearance in the beginning of this book. If you’re looking for that perfect NA sports romance, look no further! Welcome to your next addiction.

Wall Street Journal, New York Times and USA Today best-selling author Ilsa Madden-Mills is best known for her angsty new adult romances and romantic comedies.

Eight of her eleven novels have placed in the Amazon Top 10 Best-seller List: Dirty English #1; Fake Fiancée and I Dare You #2; I Bet You, Filthy English, and Very Bad Things #6; Boyfriend Bargain #8; The Last Guy, her collaboration with Tia Louise, #4.

A former high school English teacher, she adores all things Pride and Prejudice, and of course, Mr. Darcy is her ultimate hero.

She’s addicted to frothy coffee beverages, cheesy magnets, and any book featuring unicorns and sword-wielding females. Feel free to stalk her online.

Connect with Ilsa:
Amazon | Instagram | Goodreads | Bookbub | Book+Main | Website 

Stay up to date with Ilsa by joining her mailing list: http://bit.ly/2ZWaTYh

Join her Unicorn Girls Group on FB, the best way to keep up: http://bit.ly/37B6Nay

Sign up for phone alert for book releases (max of 4) Text ROMANCE to 21000

· Filed Under: All Reviews, New Adult, Sports · Tagged With: , , , ,

Review: Not My Romeo by Ilsa Madden-Mills

September 5, 2020 by · Leave a Comment

NOT MY ROMEO
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Series: The Game Changers #1
Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills
Release Date: August 18, 2020

Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills delivers a smart and sexy contemporary romance about a smoking-hot professional football player and the small-town girl he can’t resist.

We start off with a lie on Valentine’s Day.

My blind date isn’t the studious guy I expected: he’s a drop-dead gorgeous player with sinful amber eyes. Somehow we end up at his penthouse. I blame the gin and tonic.

The next day I learn he’s Jack Hawke—bad-boy professional quarterback with a murky past. The NDA he has me sign should be a warning that he isn’t a regular person. Please. I sign it Juliet Capulet, so goodbye, famous football player with abs of steel, and good luck tracking down this small-town librarian.

But Jack keeps showing up in places I least expect him. Just when I’m sure he’s gone, he waltzes into my community theater and wins the part of Romeo to my Juliet. How’s a plain, mostly innocent girl like me supposed to resist a man like him?

Is Jack my real Romeo… or will this gorgeous football player only break my heart?

 AMAZON 

He’s going to crawl inside my heart. He’s going to break it into a million pieces.

Ummm….excuse me? How and why is this my first Ilsa Madden-Mills book? I am shooketh! SHOOKETH! I’m now immediately rectifying my mistake by purchasing the woman’s entire backlist. True story. But I digress.

I totally misjudged this book based on the blurb. I was expecting just another famous jock meets nobody heroine fluffy romance. But this was so much more than that. It was packed full of feels and laugh out loud moments. It was adorably quirky and layered with plenty of emotion.

It’s a case of mistaken identity when Elena meets Jack. Elena is searching for her blind date, and thinks Jack is the weatherman that she’s been set up with. Elena is also a little bumbling, a touch awkward, but full of sass and fire. She’s impossible not to love from the very first page.

Jack is the bad boy of football. With a reputation that precedes him, he’s used to being eviscerated by the media. He’s also extremely misunderstood and the readers learns this as layers begin to peel back on him. Jack prefers to lay low but when a quirky beauty rushes to his table and questions him like she knows him, he plays along. And when he realizes he’s not quite who she thinks he is, it’s too late to turn back. He’s already riveted by her.

What’s supposed to be just one steamy night turns into something much more when their worlds collide shortly after.

Now usually I’m not as invested in the romance when the characters sleep together so early in the story, but the author pulls this off flawlessly. She does it so well, in fact, that the following slow burn just about killed me. If these two didn’t come together soon, I thought my head would explode.

They dance around each other for weeks. When Jack lands in Elena’s small town by pure happenstance, he knows he has to go after his chance even though Elena is not thrilled to see him. I loved the way that Elena makes him work for it. She may be quirky and awkward at times, but the girl has sass for days.

I loved all of the secondary characters, Jack’s best friend especially. The chemistry between Jack and Elena was incendiary, but their inability to communicate about their feelings until the end drove me a little batty. But I also understood why each of them struggled with this, as they both had their trust issues. Jack especially, coming off of the ex that he had. But I also appreciated that there really wasn’t any female drama with that, except for the issues it caused his image and career.

Ultimately, this was a fun, sweet and steamy read that I enjoyed immensely and can’t wait for Elena’s sister to get her story next.

Leave a Comment · Filed Under: All Reviews, Contemporary Romance · Tagged With: , , ,
Copyright © 2015 · Dirty Girl Romance

%d bloggers like this: