Tag: Virna DePaul

Guest Review: Lip Action by Virna DePaul

Posted June 19, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: Lip Action by Virna DePaulReviewer: Tracy
Lip Action by Virna DePaul
Series: Kiss Talent Agency #1

Publication Date: April 23rd, 2017
Pages: 195
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars


Marissa

Appearance is everything to my upper-crust mother, but when she insists I take back my pedigreed-but-cheating ex? I’d rather stab myself with a salad fork. So I blurt out I’m dating someone new. Someone like…that smoking-hot, vaguely familiar guy across the restaurant, who could be the next James Bond.

Turns out he’s the star of my favorite, cheesy, sci-fi soap opera. (Don’t judge me.) One minute I’m fantasizing about Borg and his green-hued abs. The next, Simon Dale is making me an offer my sex-starved body can’t refuse.


Simon

I’m up for a breakout movie role that’ll launch me off the B-list, but I don’t need a script to read the scene between Marissa and her mum. Even though I’m a London gutter rat who never rubbed elbows with a Royal, I easily slip into the role of Marissa’s doting boyfriend. Why? I need a favor in return— a steady girlfriend, just long enough to convince the producers I’ve changed my wild ways.

Trouble is, I’m going all Method on this relationship—and close to losing the one thing that could break me. My heart.

Marissa is kind of Hollywood royalty because of her family’s money.  She doesn’t feel that way and just wants to live her life as a normal person.  Her mother, however, has very different ideas.  When Marissa tells her mother that she broke up with her long-time boyfriend because she found out he’d been cheating on her for 6 months her mother freaks out like it’s the end of the world.  Not that he’d been cheating on Marissa but that she broke it off.  Nice mom.  Not.  Marissa’s mom is insisting that she get back together with her boyfriend but Marissa refuses.  She sees a guy in the country club they’re at and makes up a story saying that she’s already seeing someone new.  Due to a set of circumstances she actually meets the guy and it turns out that he needs a fake girlfriend as well.

Simon is an actor on a TV show where he’s an alien.  He really needs a big break doing some serious film work but no one believes he can do it.  He’s got a playboy reputation and the producers of the one big film he’s being considered for think his reputation will be bad for publicity.  Simon’s not the person they think he is.  He grew up in the streets of London but he got him and his sister out.  He lives simply and saves his money as he doesn’t feel he deserves better.  When he meets Marissa he tells her that it’s all fake but the more time he spends with her the more he can’t get her out of his head.  Unfortunately they’re ruse depends on the producers believing them as well as Marissa’s parents never finding out who he really is.

This was a cute story.  It was a pretty simple fake relationship story but I like the way the author threw some curve balls in there for us.  Having Simon grow up as a London gutter rat was an interesting aspect of the story and of course that effected almost all of his decisions.  He was a good guy and not an actor that made some money and then lived lavishly.  He lived above a bar and saved his money.

Marissa was a woman who had lived under her mother’s thumb for so long she truly didn’t know how to get out from under it.  Being with Simon made her look at her life differently and want to stand up to her mother and do what she wanted with her life.  She grew a lot during the course of the book and I liked who she was at the end.

The relationship with Marissa and Simon started out as just playing a part, then just sex and then more.  Of course neither admitted it which is always frustrating when that happens with characters but I liked that they worked it all out in the end.  Overall it was a fun book and I definitely enjoyed reading it.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

three-half-stars

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Review: Bedding the Wrong Brother by Virna DePaul

Posted August 1, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Genres: Anthologies (multiple authors)

Melina Parker has always excelled in two things: research followed by hands-on application. She prides herself on being a lady in public, but after she’s dumped yet again for being a lady in the bedroom, she’s ready to go back to school.

Determined to find her inner sex diva, she enlists her childhood friend, Max Dalton, to tutor her after hours. Instead, she ends up in the wrong bed and gets a lesson in passion from Max’s twin brother, Rhys Dalton, a man Melina’s always secretly wanted but never thought she could have.

Despite craving the occasional adventure, Melina’s a small-town girl who wants roots and a family. Rhys and Max, on the other hand, are celebrities who travel from one city to another, changing bed partners as easily as plane flights. Rhys is outwardly the more reserved of the two but, unable to believe his good luck when he finds Melina waiting for him, he gives Melina her first taste of multiples right out the gate. Come morning, she’s so mortified that she threw herself at Rhys that she blurts out the truth about her tutoring experiment. Not about to let her get away from him, Rhys convinces Melina that when it comes to sexual lessons, he’s more than man enough for the job. His biggest challenge is teaching Melina that when it comes to pleasure, the key to his own is hers.

Can a woman who’s always longed for hearth and home find satisfaction with a man whose entire life has been about moving on to the next big thing?

Melina recently broke up with her boyfriend when she found him with another woman. He told her that if she hadn’t been so bad in bed then he wouldn’t have strayed. Ass. Anyway, apparently two other men told her the same thing so now she’s got a complete complex about sex. She wants to learn how to please a man in bed and since she has her eye on a professor at the university she works at she wants to be her best.

Melina has always loved her friend Rhys, she’s just never known how to tell him. Now it’s been years since they’ve been close so when her friends challenge her to “practice” sex so that she’ll get good for her professor Melina asks Max to help her out. Max is Rhys’s identical twin and while they are nothing alike in personality no one can tell them apart but Melina. Max agrees to the help a friend out but then plays them both and sends Rhys in as his pinch hitter. Max just didn’t bother to tell neither Rhys nor Melina that he was doing this, thinking that he can finally get them together.

Rhys is thrilled that Melina has finally come to him and Melina’s shocked that she’s feeling so much with her friend Max (she doesn’t have her glasses on so she can’t tell them apart) so they’re both surprised when they discovered the switch. They’re both mad but Rhys doesn’t want to let Melina get away so agrees to continue “teaching” her for the rest of the weekend. This leads them both to showing more of their feelings for each other than they’re comfortable with but Rhys is willing to try to work on the relationship and the obstacles that stand in their way. Melina, however, has major issues though and can’t see how things will ever work out and this keeps them apart.

I really enjoyed this friends-to-lovers story. I thought the whole set up with Max making the switch with his brother without either Rhys or Melina knowing about it was horribly sneaky but I understood why he felt the need to do it…and he felt guilty for something that had happened long ago.

Rhys was such a conflicted man. He loved being a magician but being on the road constantly took its toll – or at least it was beginning to. He really enjoyed being behind the scenes and coming up with the tricks more than he liked being in the limelight. Getting closer with Melina was his dream. He’d loved her for so long but they’d drifted apart in their awkwardness. Being able to spend the weekend with her – even if it was under the guise of “teaching” her was A-OK with him. He really was a good man with a good heart and that came out in spades in this story.

Melina was a good character as well but I did have a problem with her self-esteem issues. She wasn’t good enough, skinny enough, beautiful enough, etc. She just needed to be herself and let all that garbage floating around in her head go and she would have been fine. Now for this story it worked because it put her into Rhys’s arms but the self-doubt kind of got old after a while.

Overall, however I really liked the novella and had a great time reading it.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Virna DePaul 

(Originally released in 2010 under the title This Magic Moment.)

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What I Read Last Week

Posted July 29, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 3 Comments

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to physical therapy for a rotator cuff issue. Well, the therapist discharged me back to my doc – not because I’m better but because I wasn’t getting any better. Ug. So he injected my shoulder with cortisone and told me not to move my arm for a week and to stop taking my naproxen. A) Not move my arm for a week? Really? Damn near impossible! B) I lasted 4 days without the naproxen and was in such pain I finally broke down and took one. sigh I just want it better! Oh and I’m bringing this edition of WIRLW to you one-handed (as my other arm is in a sling to try to keep it immobile) – so if there are a lot of typos, so sorry.

I have a request this week – if you’re the praying sort then please send up a prayer for David. David is my youngest daughter’s best friend’s father (make sense?) and a friend of the family. He was playing with his daughter and they were walking/running backwards, he fell and cracked his skull big time. He has bleeding on the brain and is in ICU. At last report he was improving slightly, which is good, it’s just slow going.

Ok so you’re here to hear about books, right? Then let me get on with it… 

First for the week was a story called Bedding the Wrong Brother by Virna DePaul. The story is about a woman who has been told that she’s bad in bed. She wants her best friend, Max, to teach her how to please a man but he plays a fast one and replaces himself with his twin, Rhys. Rhys and Melina have had the hots for each other for years but never did anything about it. Obviously they’re upset at the switch but it all works out and it was a sweet romance. 4 out of 5 

Next was Friday Night Alibi by Cassie Mae – the story of Kelli who runs an alibi service for wealthy kids in her town. You can read more in my review by clicking here. 4 out of 5 

Lover at Last by JR Ward is Blay and Qhuinn’s story…finally. I was satisfied with that relationship in the book but felt that she definitely could have spent more time on it. Ward always has a ton of other things going on in her books and this one was no different which was a bit frustrating. I must say that I think this is my fabor BDB cover – just uber-yummy. lol 3.75 out of 5 (read for Book Binge)

Next up was The Trouble With Being a Duke by Sophie Barnes. Anthony meets the woman he wants to marry at his mother’s masked ball but doesn’t know who she is. He finds her but even though he’s a Duke – especially because he’s a Duke – Isabella’s parents refuse to let her marry him. He doesn’t give up though and I loved that about him. Flavored with a bit of Cinderella at first it was a great story (releases 8/27/13) 4 out of 5 

Smokin’ Hot Firemen: Erotic Romance Stories For Women is an anthology edited by Delilah Devlin filled with lots and lots of – you guessed it – smokin’ hot firemen. The anthology on the whole was really good with only a few stories I could have done without. Definitely erotic but could be sweet as well. I liked it. 4 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

A friend of mine recommended a series called The Rocker by Terri Anne Browning to me. I read book 1, then immediately picked up 2 and then 3. The stories are full of editing and spelling errors which could have easily been fixed and there’s an inordinate amount of crying. That being said, I couldn’t put them down! lol 

The Rocker That Holds Me is book 1 and shows us 4 rockers, Nik, Jesse, Shane and Drake who make up the band Demon’s Wings. From the time they were all living in a trailer park they took care of Emmie (Ember) who was abused and starved by her druggie mother. The boys grew up and became famous and when Emmie was 15 she came to live with them and helps them in tons of different ways. They all love her deeply but Emmie has always loved Nik in a “not a friend” way as well. The book gives us great yet heart breaking background on Emmie, her journey to adulthood as well as how hard it is to see the man you love sleeping with groupies constantly. This is Emmie and Nik’s story but we get a boatload of everyone else as well. 4 out of 5 

The Rocker That Savors Me is book 2 and is Jesse’s story. The group has bought a home in Malibu and Emmie hires Layla as a housekeeper. From the moment that Jesse sees her he knows she’s the one. It takes Layla a little longer but eventually she falls as well. Layla has custody of her two sisters as well – 6 year old Lucy and 17 (at first) year old Lana. Problems with Layla and her father (and her father and Jesse) come up as well as a misunderstanding. This one was much lighter than book one with far less drama. Don’t get me wrong, there was definitely drama, but not as much as book 1, not still really good. 4 out of 5 

The Rocker That Needs Me is book 3 and this one is Drake and Lana’s story. Lana is 18 now and though Drake and Lana tried to be friends they just couldn’t keep it that way. After Lana gets her heart hurt when Drake sleeps with a groupie while drunk (he’s ALWAYS drunk) she decides that a local college is out and she decides to go to NYU to get away from the daily sight of Drake. This lasts until Drake takes a gig as a judge for a rocker program (kind of like the X Factor or America’s got talent but with rockers) and ends up in NY. The story was good but both the hero and heroine drove me nuts at time. Neither was all that mature – even though Drake was 32 he’d spent most if not all of his adult life in a bottle and didn’t know how to handle some things. I understood this but it was still annoying. lol We get to see all the characters from every book in all the books and I love that. It’s not like they cease to exist just because it’s not their HEA. They’re a family and they are close knit and stay that way. I’m looking forward to Shane’s book. 3.5 out of 5 

Not Planning on You by Sydney Landon was next and this story is about Gray who has had a thing for his soon to be co-worker, Suzy, for almost a year. She’s refused to go out with him but she finally caves. After an accident where she is then laid up and he takes care of her quite sweetly she falls in love with him. Unfortunately he’s got a woman from his past who’s stalking him and then says that the baby she’s carrying is his. Gray then turns into an ass and treats Suzy horribly, imho, and there’s nowhere near enough groveling at the end of the book. This was a decent read but Gray pissed me off. lol 3 out of 5 (read for Book Binge) 

Last for the week was Defiant in the Viking’s Bed by Joanna Fulford. This story was about an Earl’s niece, Astrid, who is promised in marriage to a horrible man, just like her uncle. She plans to run away with another Earl, Leif, to be his mistress as even that is preferable to her fiancé. Leif is captured and the uncle makes him believe that Astrid set the whole thing up. When Leif escapes he takes Astrid as his captive to pay her back for her scheme. This story was even better than I thought it would be. Leif has issues with marriage and family because of his first wife and of course believes that Astrid betrayed him, which she didn’t. He eventually sees the truth but won’t commit to her which causes strife. Definitely put this one on your to-be-bought list if you like a good Viking story. (releases 9/17/13) 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Awakening by Serena Grey
Anybody But Him by Claire Baxter
The Care and Feeding of an Alpha Male by Jessica Clare

Happy Reading! 
 

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Review: Arrested by Love by Virna DePaul

Posted June 5, 2013 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

COPPING TO IT

Though Claire Fullerton, a respected journalist, isn’t afraid to walk on the wild side, she’s terrified that unleashing her inner vixen will expose her to getting hurt. But when Claire is captured by a notorious gang of bikers, she recognizes a friendly face from her darkest fantasies: undercover cop Ty Williamson, who has managed to infiltrate the gang to bring them down from the inside. Now Ty’s determined to bind Claire to him and prove that he wants all of her: the good with the bad. In fact, the badder she is, the better they’ll be—together.

At one point reporter Claire Fullerton had done an in depth article about the biker gang called the Demonic Guardians and the gang wasn’t too happy about it. When Claire finds out that the leader of the gang is in jail she heads over to spy on the gang because their sexuality and exhibitionism excites her.

Claire’s a good girl – or at least that’s what she tells herself – but she wants to be bad. She’s afraid if she lets the sexual side of herself out to play she’ll lose part of who she is. Not true at all and it’s proven when she’s caught sneaking around the game compound and told to submit to Ty Williamson. Ty is an undercover cop who at one point dated Claire but she broke things off and refused to see him after one date. He definitely wanted more so when Claire shows up at the compound he’s both concerned and excited.

Ty and Claire get down and dirty and it’s pretty exciting for both of them. This is an erotic romance so of course there was a ton of sex, including a ménage with Ty’s fellow undercover cop friend, Luke, but I liked seeing Claire come out of her shell and realize that her “kinks” weren’t bad at all and Ty was more than happy to fulfill them. I thought the story ended just a bit abruptly but I liked it anyway.

COP APPEAL

People used to call her Sure-Thing-Sarah, but the only thing Sarah Larson’s sure about these days is the torch she’s carried for undercover cop Luke Anderson. Four years ago, Sarah made the biggest mistake of her life: leaving Luke to marry another cop. Now, a year after her divorce, Luke’s back in her life—ready to convince Sarah that he’s the one when it comes to love. But Sarah has a big fear—that her dangerously possessive ex-husband is out to make sure that her second chance at happiness is destroyed forever.

When we first see Sarah she’s hiding from her ex-husband in a crappy motel. He’s threatened her and she’s scared. She finally decides to tell the cops what he’s been up to (him being a cop himself Internal Affairs gets involved) and she trusts them to keep her safe. The one cop that she let get away is Luke Anderson. When Luke hears that Sarah has been divorced for a year he immediately shows up on her doorstep reminding Sarah about the promise that she made to him about “if I ever get divorced from Richard” and what he could do to her if that happened.

Sarah’s unsure about having Luke back in her life. He’s the only man she ever loved but her insecurities come out with a vengeance as they did the first time they were together. She thinks she’s not good enough for him and fears he’ll get bored over time. Luke sets out to prove to her that he could never be bored with the woman he loves and he can keep her happy both in and out of bed.

I liked this story a lot. I liked Luke and his protectiveness toward Sarah and his lack of fear of rejection from her. He just kind of blew in and expected her to succumb to his charms. It may have been incredibly arrogant but deep down he knew how she felt and I kind of liked his take-charge attitude. Sarah was a good character as well but the entire book, I felt, was more focused on the men even though all 3 stores were romances. This story also featured a ménage with Luke’s cop friend Noah which led us into the 3rd short story.
 
COPPING ATTITUDE

As a former centerfold, Jenna Mills is a pro at deflecting male attention, and with good reason. A painful past has made her mistrustful of all men—and hell-bent on getting revenge on one in particular. But first she needs help overcoming her fear of physical intimacy. And honorable cop Noah James might just be the perfect place to start. Noah’s used to making a woman feel safe, in bed and out. But when Jenna makes him an indecent proposal, Noah’s willing to give her everything she’s asking for . . . and more.

Noah has it pretty bad for his friend Kate’s friend Jenna. Jenna has refused his request for a date a couple of times, as she had with other guys as well. That doesn’t stop Noah from hoping. When he’s asked back to Kate’s house one night to “help” Jenna he’s a bit confused but as it’s inferred that they’ll be spending the night together he’s all for it. He thinks that he and Jenna could have something more than one night together but he’s willing to take what he can get.

It turns out that Jenna had been raped about a year ago and since then had not been able to let a man touch her. She never did think sex was all that great but as she has some plans to take down a judge, and she thinks it will involve sex, she knows she has to get over her fears. Kate talks Jenna into letting Noah be the one to help her and finally Jenna agrees.

I think this was definitely the most realistic of the three stories. It was definitely all about sex but the story had more depth, I felt, than the other two. Noah was a good man and happy to help Jenna even if it did test his control. They were perfect together and the chemistry between them was evident in the story. I did feel that at one point Jenna went too fast from mouse to lion but it all turned out in the end.

Overall it was a pretty decent set of stories. If you’re looking for a good, yet short, erotic romance this would be perfect for a quick read.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Virna DePaul 
 

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What I Read Last Week

Posted June 3, 2013 by Tracy in Features | 3 Comments

I’m DONE with dance! Yay! Ok, my youngest is still in her tumbling class but no more competitions, rehearsals for competitions and we had the recital yesterday so life will resume as usual. I couldn’t be happier! lol The team did really well yesterday at the recital so that was nice.

Right now I’m looking out the window wondering what the hell is up with our So Cal weather???! It was 109 on Saturday – OMG so effin hot! Then it was a relatively mild 85 on Sunday and now it’s overcast and about 65 degrees. WTF?? It just can’t seem to make up its mind, that’s for sure.

My oldest is now out of school which apparently means, now that she will be a sophomore in high school, that she can do anything she wants. Did you know that happened? Yeah, me neither. Oy. I think of the trouble that child can get into and it gives me chills – and not in a good way. I think I have about a thousand more gray hairs in my head just from this past weekend. lol I’ll survive the teen years, right?

I almost forgot (I’m such a bad aunt!) my niece graduated this past Friday night – valedictorian!  She’s so awesome!  She wants to be a vet and will be attending Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the fall.  Go Jessica!  Here she is with her brother who flew out from Pennsylvania to see her graduate.  What a good brother. 

Alright on to what I read: 

I started out the week by reading Faking It by Cora Carmack. This is book 2 in her Losing It series and it was a good one. The story was about a guy who is like the all American college student who gets roped into playing boyfriend for a girl who’s in a band and needs to fool her parents into believing that she is who they think she is. Make sense? She’s faked her true self all of her life and is still doing it. They are complete opposites but that doesn’t stop either of them. You can read my full review here. 4 out of 5 

Next up was The Mad Earl’s Bride by Loretta Chase. This is a novella length read that has us meeting Dorian who is going slowly insane as his mother once did. He is approached by a distant relative who would like him to marry Gwendolyn so that A) the family name can go on and B) she needs his money after he’s dead. Seems a bit crazy but it worked in the end. I really liked the story a lot and think this one is definitely worth reading. 4 out of 5 

Arrested by Love by Virna DePaul is a set of 3 erotic romance novellas all involving cops. We had the cop that infiltrated a biker gang, the cop that finally had a chance at the one that got away and the cop that helps the victim of an attack. It was a decent read and I’ll post my review for this one on Wednesday. 3.5 out of 5 

Bite Me by PJ Schnyder is the story set in London where they are having a zombie infestation. Most have evacuated but there are those still living and working in the city – some trying to figure out what’s causing the epidemic. In order to save people the werewolves have come out of the closet and are helping to keep the city safe. The Alpha of the London Pack, Seth, is out on patrol when he helps Maisie and some other folks with a hoard of zombies. This puts Seth and Maisie together and he finds he doesn’t want to let her go. This was a great little novella. It’s the first in the London Undead series (this comes out later this month) but I think it was a great start to an interesting paranormal series. 4 out of 5 

It Happened One Midnight by Julie Anne Long is book 8 in the Pennyroyal Green series and it was wonderful! The story of Jonathan Redmond, the trials with his father, the meeting and falling in love with a completely unlikely marriage candidate, Tommy (Thomasina), was just fab from start to finish. I loved it and recommend you read it when it comes out. 5 out of 5 

The Look of Love by Bella Andre is book 1 in her Sullivans series. The story revolved around Chase who found Chloe stranded on the side of the road. He helps her but she’s been hurt by her ex-husband in more ways than one and has trust issues. This doesn’t stop Chase from falling into insta-love. The story had potential and was decent but Chase bothered me with his undying love and frankly this should have been labeled an erotic romance because a large portion of the book is sex. My review for this will go up on The Book Binge on Thursday if you’re interested in reading more about my thoughts. 3 out of 5 

Last for the week was Fire & Frost by Jessica Sims, Carolyn Crane & Meljean Brook. Jessica Sims brought us the story of a were-liger who was supposedly sterile but was going into heat and trying to find someone within a week to not only satisfy the heat but make a good baby daddy. She was aided by the Alpha who was looking out for her best interests. Good story but too short! I wanted to know more about the Alpha, Vic, and why he hid how he was feeling for four long years! lol Next was Carolyn Crane’s novella about Veronica the witch and her super computers who can bring things to life by a picture. If you read Carolyn’s Code of Shadows book, Mr. Real, then you’ll recognize Veronica’s name. She was the aunt of the heroine in that book who left her the house and the computer. Good story and good action. Meljean brought us a story about a girl who is running from her father because he’s a bit cracked and wants her to replace her mother. Eww. Ok, there are really extenuating circumstances to her existence but still! One of her father’s minions has been in love with her forever and helps her out. Great story – very enjoyable. Overall I really liked the fire & frost theme. The way that each story showed us the frostiness in the relationships first and then the fire – very clever and well done. 4 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Agave Kiss by Ann Aguirre
Connected by Kim Karr
Remembering Love by Nadine Christian

Happy Reading!

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