Publisher: Carina Press

Guest Review: Custom Built by Chantal Fernando

Posted December 16, 2020 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Custom Built by Chantal FernandoReviewer: Tracy
Custom Built by Chantal Fernando
Series: Fast & Fury #1
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: November 23, 2020
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: First person
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 208
Add It: Goodreads
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three-stars

After losing her job, saying goodbye to a lifelong dream and having an all-around cruddy year, Bronte Pierce needs a break. A job at Fast & Fury might be just the thing to reset her life, even though she knows nothing about custom motorcycles. But taking a job isn’t the same as keeping it, and her fresh start quickly turns into a fresh nightmare.
Starting with her boss. Crow is hardheaded, stubborn and brutally honest. He may be easy on the eyes, but he runs with an MC and he’s anything but friendly to Bronte. She suspects he has a softer side—just not for her.

Her whole life, Bronte has known that the only person she can truly count on to save the day is herself. But when a single murder turns into a conspiracy and the threat to her life is more than she can handle alone, it’s Crow who comes through—and her newfound family might just become her greatest strength.

Bronte has been let go from her job as an assistant to a private investigator.  The PI is one of her good friends so she understands, but it still hurts.  She’s cautiously excited when she gets a job at a custom bike shop (through her uncle and cousin).  There she meets Crow.  She thinks he’s hot but he’s not very nice to her.  He seems to like everyone else but her, which sucks.

Crow is part of the Knights of Fury MC, which owns the shop and he pretty much runs the place.  He is attracted to Bronte from day one but knows that he shouldn’t get involved with an employee.

When Bronte’s dad dies she is devastated, and Crow is there to take care of her. This strengthens the ties between them that have started to grow, and they finally come together.  When Bronte decides that her dad’s death wasn’t an accident and decides to look into it, Crow and the rest of the MC back her in any way they can.  They are determined to get to the bottom of it and Bronte and the MC are all in.

This was a good story, though pretty simple.  It was definitely a fast and easy read.

Bronte and Crow were pretty darned cute in this story.  They started off not exactly enemies, but definitely not friends.  I loved how he came to take care of her after her dad died.  He was sweet, caring and I loved him.  Bronte wasn’t a bad character, but I just didn’t like her as much.  They were adorable together though, so that saved it for me.

I’ve read Fernando previously (the Cursed Ravens MC series) and while I liked the story, I wasn’t a big fan of the writing in this book. Especially toward the end of the book, there were scenes that I thought were superfluous for the overall story.  Very everyday kind of things that while mildly interesting, but didn’t further the story at all.  I kept thinking the story had ended but it kept going and added even more of Bronte in distress.  It was a bit OTT for my liking, but that’s just my opinion.

In the end a decent read.  I’ll probably read the next book in the series because I liked the other secondary characters.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Fast & Fury

three-stars

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Throwback Thursday Review: Fatal Affair by Marie Force

Posted June 25, 2020 by Casee in Reviews | 3 Comments

Throwback Thursday Review: Fatal Affair by Marie ForceReviewer: Casee
Fatal Affair by Marie Force
Series: Fatal #1
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: October 21, 2016
Format: eBook
Source: Purchased
Genres: Romantic Suspense
Pages: 357
Add It: Goodreads
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three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

*This is an updated cover of this Kindle edition.*

Washington, D.C., Metro Police Detective Sergeant Sam Holland needs a big win to salvage her career--and her confidence--after a disastrous investigation. The perfect opportunity arises when Senator John O'Connor is found brutally murdered in his bed, and Sam is assigned to the case. Matters get complicated when Sam has to team up with Nick Cappuano, O'Connor's friend and chief of staff...and the man Sam had a memorable one-night stand with years earlier. Their sexual chemistry still sizzles, and Sam has to fight to stay focused on the case. Sleeping with a material witness is another mistake she can't afford--especially when the bodies keep piling up.

*** Every Thursday, we’ll be posting throwback reviews of our favorite and not-so-favorite books. Enjoy! ***

This review was originally posted on June 25, 2010.

I have enjoyed Marie Force in the past. Her books seem to be outside the box to me when it comes to the romance genre. When I read the blurb for Love at First Flight, I was like “are you blanking kidding me?”. Yet Force had the talent to write a storyline without squicking me out. Something that is much appreciated.

I started Fatal Affair almost as soon as I got it. It dragged for me for about the first hundred or so pages. I found myself wondering where Marie Force went and who took her place. The book was just blah. Too much talk of politics and political agendas. Not enough murder and mayhem. That changed (thank you God) about mid-way through the book. Suddenly the book that couldn’t get any slower took off like a rocket.

Sam Holland has returned to the police force after one of her orders inadvertently got a child killed. The public outcry was for Sam’s head. The mother blames Sam and wants to kill her. When high profile Senator John O’Connor is killed, Sam is put on the case. She has to make this one good b/c everyone will be watching her every single move. So it’s just her luck that the guy that found the body is a one night stand from six years ago. One that she’s never forgotten.

Nick is devastated by the death of his best friend. He has long since considered the O’Connor’s family. I think that this is why the book got bogged down. It was in the details. I know too much about what it takes to be a senator’s chief-of-staff. I know too much about John’s family. There was just too much, which definitely took away from the storyline.

Nick called Sam repeatedly after their one night together but never heard back from her. It has always chafed him that she blew off their incredible night together. It’s only after they’re thrown together over John’s murder that they both realized that Sam’s ex-husband was behind her not getting the messages. This is basically a reunion story, the kind that I love.

The complexity of being an alpha male with a female that is a cop is really fascinating. I thought that Force did a good job of writing from both Nick and Sam’s point of view. Sam instinctively protects Nick even if it puts her in danger and Nick wants to protect Sam.

By the time I finished the book, I was much happier than when I started. I do look forward to the next book in the series which continues Sam and Nick’s journey. And what a journey it will be.

3.75 out of 5.

Fatal

three-half-stars

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Review: House Rules by Ruby Lang

Posted March 23, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 2 Comments

Review: House Rules by Ruby LangReviewer: Rowena
House Rules by Ruby Lang
Series: Uptown #3
Also in this series: Open House
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: February 10, 2020
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 152
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

ROOMMATE WANTED to share a gorgeous sun-filled apartment in Central Harlem. Must love cats. No ex-husbands or wives need apply.

Seventeen years ago, different dreams pulled Simon Mizrahi and Lana Kuo apart. But when Lana takes a position as a chef back in Manhattan, her apartment search puts her right in her ex-husband’s path. Music teacher Simon is also hunting for a new place to live, and when Lana proposes they be platonic roomies, well…it’s not the worst idea he’s ever heard.

A sunny uptown two-bedroom sounds far more appealing than the cramped, noisy space where he’s currently struggling to work. Still, Simon has seen firsthand that Lana’s a flight risk, so he agrees on a trial basis.

Three months. With strict boundaries.

Living together again feels wonderfully nostalgic, but when the ex-couple’s lingering feelings rise to the surface, the rules go out the window.

Of course, chemistry was never their problem. But while Simon’s career feels back on solid footing, Lana is still sorting out what she wants. With their trial period soon coming to an end, they’ll have to decide if their living arrangement was merely a sexy trip down memory lane or a reunion meant to last.

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the

Carina Press Romance Promise

: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

This book is approximately 47,000 words

House Rules is the third book in the Uptown series by Ruby Lang. It’s also a second chance romance that features a divorced couple who become roommates to share bills. I read the last book in this series and enjoyed it so I was looking forward to reading this one as well. Like Open House, this book was a really quick read but Ruby Lang did a great job of making me come to care for both Simon and Lana.

They were both normal people with normal people problems. Simon is a music teacher and he’s been living in the same apartment for most of his life. He wants to move on, find his own space in New York that wasn’t his father’s so he starts looking around but when his search makes him realize that he probably can’t afford to leave his late father’s rent secure apartment, he gets bummed out until he runs into Lana, who is back in New York and looking for her own space to rent. Running into Simon was the last thing that Lana wanted but knowing that they both need a place to live and can actually help each other with bills, Lana does the unthinkable. She asks Simon to be her roommate. Her strictly platonic roommate. They both live different lives and will be in the apartment at different times so they won’t even need to see each other or interact with each other to live with each other. So they do it. They sign the lease and they become roommates. Only there’s too much history and too many feelings that are still kicking around in each other their hearts so now they have to figure out where to go from here.

Ruby Lang has a great writing style that I enjoy very much. I plan on going back and reading the first book in this series because I haven’t yet. I really enjoyed a straight up romance with two characters that I was able to connect with. And I did. I connected with different aspects of Simon and Lana’s lives and I was right there with the both of them through all of their story. This was a charming contemporary romance that I ate right up from beginning to end. If you’re in the mood for a sweet second chance romance then look no further than this one. It’s super cute and perfect for some social distancing fun. I definitely recommend.

4 out of 5

Uptown

four-stars

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Review: One Last Chance by Therese Beharrie

Posted March 19, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 0 Comments

Review: One Last Chance by Therese BeharrieReviewer: Rowena
One Last Chance by Therese Beharrie
Series: One Day to Forever #1
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: February 17, 2020
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Of all the charity events in all of Cape Town, Zoey Roux had to bump into her husband at this one

Six years ago, Zoey Roux secretly married her best friend Sawyer. But all that did was destroy the best relationship she’s ever had. They went their separate ways, but Zoey never could go through with a divorce. Seeing him again at her sister’s charity event is a shock, but also enlightening: no matter how much she still loves him, it’s time to let him go.

Zoey was Sawyer Wilson’s first love. She broke his heart, but his feelings never died. Love was never their issue—only timing. Seeing her again is a shock: in a perfect world, she would run back into his arms. Instead, she’s asking for a divorce.

But a lot can happen in twenty-four hours: old wounds can heal, first loves can be reunited. And a second chance might just lead to happily ever after.

This book is approximately 74,000 words

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise!

One Last Chance is the first book that I’ve ever read by Therese Beharrie but it’s the third book in her One Day to Forever series. The series is about a trio of sisters who find their one true love. This book features the baby sister of Roux bunch, Zoey. It’s a second chance best friends to lovers romance and I liked it. Sawyer and Zoey were great characters and it was super easy for me to fall right in with their story.

Sawyer has been in love with his best friend, Zoey Roux for as long as he can remember. He waited her out, because he felt that she wasn’t ready for how powerful his feelings were for him. He knew that if he were to have told her how he felt, she would have run away from him and more than anything, he wanted her in his life. Any way that he can have her so he stayed in the friend zone until six years ago. Six years ago, Zoey found about Sawyer’s feelings and she returned them so even though Sawyer knew that Zoey was jumping into a relationship without really thinking, he jumped right in with her because his heart belonged to her anyway. They had a wonderful few months together before it all fell apart and then they both went their separate ways because it was too hard for Sawyer to be around her.

Fast forward and it’s six years later, and they run into each other. They’ve never really talked about what happened between them with their families so it’s big awkward when they run into each other. They spend the day trying to dodge each other, run away from the feelings that are still there and then dealing with their past, their present, and figure ou their future. This whole story is told in the present day in one day but there are chapters from their past sprinkled in between as well. I liked seeing where they are now and what happened to bring them to where they are now. Seeing the story unfold like this had me turning the pages as fast as I could read them.

There were times when I wanted to strangle both Zoey and Sawyer. Zoey for thinking she knew what was best for Sawyer and at Sawyer for not being upfront with Zoey about what happened, how he felt and what he wanted from her. He gave and gave and gave to everything to her but he never spoke up about what he wanted. Other than that, I liked seeing the other couples and I’m mighty interested in going back and reading their books. Even though this was the only book in the series that I read, I didn’t feel like I missed anything by not having read the other books so this one reads great as a standalone. Beharrie has a bubbly writing style that fit exactly what I was in the mood for so I’m glad that I read this one.

4 out of 5

One Day to Forever

four-stars

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Review: Headliners by Lucy Parker

Posted January 28, 2020 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Review: Headliners by Lucy ParkerReviewer: Rowena
Headliners by Lucy Parker
Series: London Celebrities #5
Also in this series: Pretty Face, Making Up , The Austen Playbook
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: January 20, 2020
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Point-of-View: Third
Cliffhanger: View Spoiler »
Content Warning: View Spoiler »
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 400
Add It: Goodreads
Reading Challenges: Rowena's 2020 Goodreads Challenge
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
Series Rating: four-stars

Sparks fly when two feuding TV presenters are thrown together to host a live morning show in Lucy Parker’s latest enemies-to-lovers contemporary romance.

He might be the sexiest man in London, according to his fan site (which he definitely writes himself), but he’s also the most arrogant man she’s ever met.

She might have the longest legs he’s ever seen, but she also has the sharpest tongue.

For years, rival TV presenters Sabrina Carlton and Nick Davenport have traded barbs on their respective shows. The public can’t get enough of their feud, but after Nick airs Sabrina’s family scandals to all of Britain, the gloves are off. They can barely be in the same room together—but these longtime enemies are about to become the unlikeliest of cohosts.

With their reputations on the rocks, Sabrina and Nick have one last chance to save their careers. If they can resurrect a sinking morning show, they’ll still have a future in television. But with ratings at an all-time low and a Christmas Eve deadline to win back the nation’s favor, the clock is ticking—and someone on their staff doesn’t want them to succeed.

Small mishaps on set start adding up, and Sabrina and Nick find themselves—quelle horreur—working together to hunt down the saboteur…and discovering they might have more in common than they thought. When a fiery encounter is caught on camera, the public is convinced that the reluctant cohosts are secretly lusting after one another.

The public might not be wrong.

Their chemistry has always been explosive, but with hate turning to love, the stakes are rising and everything is on the line. Neither is sure if they can trust these new feelings…or if they’ll still have a job in the New Year.

Headliners is the fifth and I think it’s the final book in the London Celebrities series by Lucy Parker. This book follows Sabrina Carlton as she falls in love with the man she despises above all over men, Nick Davenport. They are rival TV presenters who bicker back and forth but their rivalry kicks into high gear when Nick drops a story that takes Sabrina’s family by the throat and squeezes. The story Nick drops hurts Sabrina’s family and it’s something that Sabrina hasn’t gotten over so when they’re forced to join forces on a morning TV show, in order to keep their jobs and neither of them is happy about it.

Nick’s career was on a fast track to him getting his own travel journalist gig where he would be writing investigative news. He would have followed in his father’s footsteps but nobody is more surprised as Nick to learn that he is actually enjoying hosting the morning show with Sabrina Carlton of all people. Sure, they had a rough start where anything that could go wrong, did go wrong but with Sabrina’s help, Nick is doing his own investigative journalism trying to figure out who is trying to wreck their show. It’s an inside job for sure and the deeper Nick and Sabrina dig to find out who the bad guy is, the closer they seem to get with each other.

I really enjoyed getting to know both Sabrina and Nick in this book. Seeing them both front and center was a lot of fun. I didn’t think that I would love Nick as much as I did because I couldn’t stand him at the end of the last book but Lucy Parker did a fantastic job of redeeming his character for me and I’m glad because I really, really loved him. He was probably my favorite part of the book. I loved him on his own, I loved him when he was with Sabrina. I loved seeing him with his niece, with his brother, and his mother. He was a fleshed out character that melted me at every turn and I just adored him.

Sabrina was a fantastic character on her own. She’s the big sister who loved and supported her sister in every way, but she struggled with her relationship with her father and I was glad to see that Lucy Parker included that relationship in Sabrina’s overall character arc. I was glad to see her and her father work through their issues and come out stronger on the other end. Sabrina was such a strong character and I really enjoyed seeing her work through her different issues within herself, with Nick, her father and I loved that through it all, she was still the Sabrina that we knew and loved. She was just so much more in the end.

The romance between Nick and Sabrina was hot and I was here for it all. I thought they complimented each other well and when they became each other’s person without realizing it at first, I was thrilled because I really enjoyed seeing them together. This was such a strong addition to this series and if it’s the end, I thought this story ended the series on a high note. I adored seeing everyone from the other books in this one and I have come to care about all of these characters so I will miss the hell out of them. All in all, this was a great book and if you haven’t read this series, I highly recommend that you change that. Everyone should know and love these characters, Nick and Sabrina will capture your heart just like they captured mine. So good!

Final Grade

4 out of 5

London Celebrities

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