Tag: JM Stewart

Guest Review: Risking it All by JM Stewart

Posted December 10, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Risking it All by JM StewartReviewer: Tracy
Risking It All by JM Stewart
Series: Morgan Family #1
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date: September 16th 2014
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two-half-stars
Series Rating: three-stars

She’s everything he wants…

For years, Kyle Morgan has hidden his true feelings from the gorgeous girl next door that he grew up loving and protecting. But when she shows up at his apartment in the middle of the night, desperately needing comfort and support, his iron will begins to waver…

…and the only thing he can’t bear to lose.

Kyle was always the big brother Cecelia Anton never had, but suddenly her goofy best friend has become a sexy man she can’t keep her thoughts—or hands—off of. As their deep connection melts into uncontrollable desire, Ceci is willing to put it all on the line for a shot at true love. Only Kyle is keeping a terrible secret about Ceci’s past that could destroy not only their lifelong friendship but their happily-ever-after…

 

Tracy’s review of Risking it All (Morgan Family #1) by JM Stewart

Cecilia shows up at her best friend’s house stating she’s pregnant. As the reader I immediately assumed that the baby was Kyle’s but no, it’s another man’s baby. Cecelia needs support and Kyle wants to give it to her but he’s leery to let her lean on him too much as he has non-friendship feelings towards her and has for the past 3 years. It’s been killing him to see Ceci with another man but he’s afraid of losing her friendship if she finds out that he’s in love with her.

Ceci has her own feelings for Kyle but tries to push them down thinking that they’re feelings of comfort and love as a friend. When Kyle kisses her she loves it but again, passes it off as a fluke and nothing more.

Ceci is having issues with being pregnant. The father has taken off and while she knows that she will keep the baby, and Kyle has even said he will be the baby’s father and support her, she has a problem with the fact that she has no idea who she is. In her head her life began when she was 7 years old. She remembers nothing about her childhood before that and she feels the need to know about her past and where she came from. Did her parents not want her, was she adopted, what? Why does she keep having bloody nightmares constantly and are they dreams or memories?

Ceci had asked her grandmother, who adopted her when she was 7, about her past but whenever she spoke of it her grandma would change the subject. Now her grandmother has died and she’s no closer to the truth. Kyle is a cop so she asks him to help her dig up the past. He declines but this is because he already knows the details and has been keeping them from Ceci. He feels they’re too traumatic to share and is afraid that the truth will cause her to get stuck in those memories forever. He promised her grandmother that he’d never tell. Ceci is determined to get answers and when Kyle denies her she goes to his brother who is a PI. What the brother finds and what eventually Ceci realizes is that sometimes what’s in the past needs to remain there.

This was a very slow and at times a bit frustrating story. We were told about all of the good times that Kyle and Ceci had had over the years as best friends but when the book started it almost all entailed them being at odds with each other. We’re never shown any of that truly wonderful camaraderie that is supposedly between the two MC’s.

Kyle wants Ceci so badly and only wants to protect her. He’s torn because he gave her grandmother his word that he wouldn’t tell Ceci. Now I understand a deathbed promise but when it seems to be tearing your best friend apart wouldn’t you at least attempt to test the waters and see how she’ll handle the information? IDK, I was undecided as to whether Kyle was in the right or wrong on this one. His character was more the type to tell her and then be there for her than keep it from her but that didn’t happen. I could tell he truly loved Ceci but I was less sure about Ceci’s feelings.

Ceci was so focused on her life during the course of the book that it was hard to see the emotion she felt for Kyle. Yes, they did have sex, and it was pretty hot, but she seemed to always be pushing him away and that frustrated me. She was pretty self-centered and because of that I found myself thinking that maybe Kyle deserved someone who could focus on someone other than just herself. Yes, in her mind he’d screwed up but after everything they’d been through together I expected her to act differently.

The story was slow for me and the focal point of the book was more Ceci’s past and her trying to decide if having Kyle in her life as a romantic interest was good or bad. Her inner thoughts got tedious after a while and at those points I almost stopped reading. I guess for me I just didn’t see emotional connection between Kyle and Ceci. Because of that I found myself not truly caring whether they got together or not and that’s never a good thing in a romance.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

This title is available from InterMix. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

two-half-stars


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#DFRAT Excerpt (+ a Giveaway): Her Knight in Black Leather by JM Stewart

Posted July 25, 2013 by Holly in Features, Promotions | 25 Comments

DFRAT2013

Check out Her Knight in Black Leather by JM Stewart

 

Cat Edwards has spent her life playing the wallflower in an effort to escape the repressive weight of her mother’s tarnished name. Dragged to a bar by her best friend in an effort to forget a broken heart, the shy bookworm is determined to be someone else for the night, but quickly gets in over her head. She discovers chivalry isn’t dead after all when a mysterious stranger comes to her rescue. He’s wearing black leather and a mischievous smile that promises to be exactly what she needs.

 When his terminally ill father suffers a setback, Michael Brant returns to the town he swore ten years ago he’d never return to. He’s come back this time determined to make peace with the past, but being home brings up memories he doesn’t want to remember anymore. His first night in town, he’s captured by a damsel in distress. Cat’s beauty is made all the more alluring when he realizes she has no idea who he is. He can’t resist spending a single night in her arms. With her, he’s only a man, disconnected from his family’s name and the past that haunts him here.

As the town erupts with the news of his return, Michael’s dark past comes back to haunt him, putting Cat in danger. Someone is threatening her life and the life of her family. Desperate to keep history from repeating itself, Michael offers her his family’s name in order to keep her safe. When the lie spirals beyond their control, can they stop their hearts from becoming entangled as well?

 

hkiblRead an Excerpt of Her Knight in Black Leather:

Whatever happened between them left him caught. Kaylee’s death cut a hole in him he hadn’t patched. Ten years of trying to forget the unbearable guilt of his role in her death. He’d set boundaries on all of his relationships, liked them simple and uncomplicated. What he felt for Cat went beyond complex. He liked the idea of wrapping his life around her. To see what she clearly felt for him shining back at him in the depths of her eyes made the idea all the more tempting. The question was, did he even have the right to happiness when his selfish needs had gotten not one but three people killed?

 

He left Cat’s mouth to trail kisses down her long neck and across her shoulder, relishing the sweet, velvety feel of her skin. She clung to his shoulders like she needed him every bit as much as he needed her. He shut his mind off. He didn’t want to think anymore. He wanted to drink her in, lose himself in her.

 

He drew his lips up the side of her neck and scraped his teeth over her earlobe. “You know, nobody can see us back here.”

 

She pulled back, her heavy-lidded eyes searching his with uncertainty, unease. “Here?”

 

He drew her bottom lip in between his and sucked gently, lifted his hands and cupped her breasts in his palms, let his thumbs drag across the hardening tips. Her eyes fluttered closed, a soft moan escaping her as she dropped her head back.

 

“I need you.” He whispered against her skin as he bent his head to taste the exposed column of her throat. “Now.”

 

It was all the explanation he could muster. All he knew was he wanted her. Needed her. Needed to feel her body joined with his, to feel the intense connection between them. He wanted to lay claim to her body, her heart, her soul, and he wanted it with a fierceness that shook him. He needed to be a part of her, to take a part of her with him when he left.

 

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