Ooh! Insanely suspenseful and cleanly romantic, Master's File details a private security agency's pro-bono efMasters of Badass with a minor in romance
Ooh! Insanely suspenseful and cleanly romantic, Master's File details a private security agency's pro-bono efforts on behalf of a wronged ex-wife and her son. Mix high-level medical skills, high-level retrired Army Ranger skills, high-level tech/hacker skills, the Russian mafia, the Cuban mafia, a loser ex-husband with gambling debts and unlimited gall - the result is explosive! Explosive action. Explosive personal chemistry. And just plain explosives! Woo-eee, you are gonna love this book! It's part of a series, but works perfectly as a stand-alone, except that once you've read it, you'll want to read all the series... Thanks to Hidden Gem for the ARC, the thrills and the romance - this review is my personal, voluntary, and uncompensated recommendation: GET THIS BOOK!
Merged review:
Masters of Badass with a minor in romance
Ooh! Insanely suspenseful and cleanly romantic, Master's File details a private security agency's pro-bono efforts on behalf of a wronged ex-wife and her son. Mix high-level medical skills, high-level retrired Army Ranger skills, high-level tech/hacker skills, the Russian mafia, the Cuban mafia, a loser ex-husband with gambling debts and unlimited gall - the result is explosive! Explosive action. Explosive personal chemistry. And just plain explosives! Woo-eee, you are gonna love this book! It's part of a series, but works perfectly as a stand-alone, except that once you've read it, you'll want to read all the series... Thanks to Hidden Gem for the ARC, the thrills and the romance - this review is my personal, voluntary, and uncompensated recommendation: GET THIS BOOK!...more
Love this crazy, sexy, improbable and wild story! What's not to love? Kabillionaire sheiks? Frenemy twin teen girls?T'monique Stephens does it again!
Love this crazy, sexy, improbable and wild story! What's not to love? Kabillionaire sheiks? Frenemy twin teen girls? Surprise fatherhood? Mafisoso buddies? Dueling hitmen? Arranged marriages? Bad marriages? Struggling single parenting? Mold in the attic? Red-hot romance? Jet-setting and shopping? At the heart of it all, "plain Jane" and a dutiful royal heir who find out what really matters - tryst, family, and real love. I couldn't stop reading, heart-in-mouth the whole way through. The world is full of "plain Janes" - may T'monique Stephens never run out of stories to tell....more
Here's Rosa: twenty-eight, up-and-coming couture designer, starry-eyed optimistic virgin looking for her forever love.The princess and her teddy bear?
Here's Rosa: twenty-eight, up-and-coming couture designer, starry-eyed optimistic virgin looking for her forever love. Here's Leo: pushing fifty: hard, suspicious-minded, guilt and grief-plagued Mafia head enforcer, done with love and happily-ever-after. So, of course, their first meeting ignites an incendiary attraction that goes... nowhere, until Mafia politics and a dire threat to Rosa's family results in a forced fake marriage. Well, the maybe not so forced, or so fake. Rosa and Leo's fabulously romantic love story set in the criminal underworld of Venice held me enchanted. I stayed up late, glued to my e-reader, (which left me with scorched fingers from the heat between the two of them). This voluntary, independent ARC review recommends The Fixer, with a NSFW reminder....more
Carter is a typical hit-it-and-quit-it guy with an obnoxious persona that hides a good heart. Jo is a dependable family bulwark, a hFools fall in love
Carter is a typical hit-it-and-quit-it guy with an obnoxious persona that hides a good heart. Jo is a dependable family bulwark, a hardworking businesswoman, hand has a prejudice against men. They have their reasons, but reasons and attitude can't stand against the reality of their lives, or their growing recognition that surface lust is becoming MORE. It's sweet, and hot, and a fabulous story as author Jeana E Mann chronicles the course of two fools happily foiled by love. This a "Read This Now" voluntary ARC review...more
Thing is a monster. Throughout history, he has been Death, one of the Four Horsemen. Ksenia may be human, but this PakhLife and love after being Death
Thing is a monster. Throughout history, he has been Death, one of the Four Horsemen. Ksenia may be human, but this Pakhan's daughter is a cold-blooded assassin. Their strange meeting sets in motion a journey to wreak vengeance, and a remarkably tender and sensual love story. Only Stasia Black can humanize monsters so beautifully, and Thing's story is one I will never forget. This is a voluntary ARC review, and my personal vote for Thing as the "Monster Romance of the Year"...more
What a double thrill I got from this book! Jade the hacker hits Vegas with a plan, and three of the town's hottest male stars backThe heist! The heat!
What a double thrill I got from this book! Jade the hacker hits Vegas with a plan, and three of the town's hottest male stars back her up. They have her back with the high-stakes casino scam, and against the Russian mafia. They have HER (and she has all of them) in the sexiest, hottest, most loving ménage that ever scorched my e-reader. This is a voluntary (and utterly blown away) ARC review, and my solemn pledge to read the next book....more
Dante is the deal broker for the Venice mafia. Valentina is their resident hacker. He wields weapons and threats; she rules computLove and retribution
Dante is the deal broker for the Venice mafia. Valentina is their resident hacker. He wields weapons and threats; she rules computers, drones, and the digital world. It's their fierce hatred of one another that preoccupies their minds and hides a truth: a decade-long attraction that will be the death, or the survival, of everything and everyone they hold dear. It all depends on the deal they broker with each other. My ARC of The Broker nearly burned up my e-reader - this is a scorching hot novel of suspense, blood, wits,and love....more
Stefan, the crime boss with serious guilt issues, seeks extreme pain in a BDSM style D/s relationship. Domme Jewel knows from thIn bondage to the past
Stefan, the crime boss with serious guilt issues, seeks extreme pain in a BDSM style D/s relationship. Domme Jewel knows from the get-go that Stefan is HER sub, and maybe her future. He's rich enough, powerful enough, and sexually submissive enough. Jewel has her own issues and demons, and being a Domme gives her the power and control she's never really had in her own life. But past actions breed present problems, the love affair is poisoned by real-world criminal history, and it's a hard painful road to understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, and lasting love. Trigger warning: Extreme pain and deliberate, consensual physical abuse are central to this powerful, ultimately loving relationship. This 5-star voluntary ARC review is based on the assumption that readers understand and accept that "your kink may not be my kink, but you have the right to be who you are". Those who must judge by their rigid standards only? This is NOT your book....more
Ok, it's another ARC review of a thriller/romance with the good guys against the Mafia. But the good guys are a gal named Harper, along with a Busted!
Ok, it's another ARC review of a thriller/romance with the good guys against the Mafia. But the good guys are a gal named Harper, along with a DEA agent named Jake. Jake and Harper have a past, and we're all set up for reunion of the high-school sweethearts, a take-down of evil crime bosses, and a HEA, right? Hold it right there! Not so fast, readers. This is no modern fairy tale, and things get REAL in this book. It ain't that easy to go undercover with your former best friend. Or to wipe out a crime family, especially if you're connected. Or to undertake a mission that endangers your own innocent family. Love, loyalty, hard choices and some gruesome demonstrations of what you're up against - these are the recurrent themes, the source of the pain, and the Mother of all Monkey Wrenches thrown into the works. Read this when you want crime drama/romance you can sink your teeth into!...more
Kerry is a loner with a secret. A very well connected loner: she's knows people in the art world, people iA deviously delicious shifter action romance
Kerry is a loner with a secret. A very well connected loner: she's knows people in the art world, people in the Mafia, people in law enforcement and people who may want her dead. Some of these people are acquaintances, some of them are family, some are her protectors, some are her keepers, and one of them is really a werewolf. Trouble is ,Kerry has no idea which of them is really on her side. Through twists and turns, bullets and kidnappings, threats and blackmail, only the wolf has her back. Still, it takes her till the last dizzying, crazy, hot-hot-hot minute to figure it out, and you'll be on the edge of your seat the whole time. But fear not - HEA wlll pre-empt your heart attack, and you'll gasp with relief when the girl finally gets it, and the wolf gets his mate. This is a voluntary and enthusiastic ARC review....more
T'monique Stephens' latest iteration of the Syndicate crime boss who falls for the "plain Jane" is a supersexy romance -True love and other priorities
T'monique Stephens' latest iteration of the Syndicate crime boss who falls for the "plain Jane" is a supersexy romance - I had steam coming off my e-reader! - and a wild, action packed crime drama that wouldn't let me stop reading until I finished it. The love story is wonderfully authentic, as Jane the good-girl eldest daughter meets and falls for Nick, the bad-ass wealthy mob underboss whose undying loyalty is to his brothers in crime. Jane agonizes over her kick-over-the-traces new love, and her family's disapproval, and does he really love plain old goody-two-shoes her. Nick agonizes over who has dibs on his time and attention, and who deserves his ride or die loyalty, his Jane, or his job. There are lives on the line - more that just his or hers. There are no clear answers until betrayal, bullets, and babies force the issue. There's no fairytale HEA - the body-count and bruises preclude that. Instead, Ms. Stephens goes for the messy truth - there's joy in survival, freedom in choices, and yes, dammit, love DOES conquer all. I was offered an ARC of this book but I had already borrowed it from KU. My review is, as always, my honest and independent opinion....more
Bailey Monroe is a hitman's daughter. Her father, assassin extraordinaire Hank Michaels, abandoned her, paiIt's complicated - and it's F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S
Bailey Monroe is a hitman's daughter. Her father, assassin extraordinaire Hank Michaels, abandoned her, paid a woman to be her 'mother" till she turned eighteen, and when she finally tracked him down, he treated her like trash. Emmett Streeter ('Streets') is Hank's premier protege, a man with no family, no relationships and forty two kills to his credit. Against all odds, Bailey and Emmett are in love - and now you can see how things might get complicated. Tmonique Stephens vision of 'complicated' is an unstoppable express train ride through a world of shadow, violence and fear, punctuated by grenades of betrayal, and mined throughout with moments of tenderness, pride, and intense sexual heat. There is no rose-colored lens to filter any of this. The descriptions are vivid and real, the emotions are an ever-present undertow, the intensity level is pinned on 'Max' - it's Tmonique Stephens at her best, including the against-all-odds, 'Hail Mary' ending. This one goes on my "Re-read' shelf, along with the rest of the series. Thus ends my voluntary ARC review....more
Plain Jane in this iteration of the series is Jentry Playne, rebellious second daughter who ran off with a boyfriend and became an abused girAwesome!!
Plain Jane in this iteration of the series is Jentry Playne, rebellious second daughter who ran off with a boyfriend and became an abused girlfriend, a pimped-out streetwalker, and a tough-as-nails impoverished single mother. Harden Gage is THE BOSS of the New York crime syndicate, and as cold-hearted, ruthless, and violent as he needs to be. When they meet, it's unaccountably instant attraction - and neither can manage to pull away. Threats, bullets, family dramas, concerned friends - nothing will keep these two apart - provided they live through it all. All the nastiness of mob violence and hitmen on the loose, all the suspense, the uncertainty, the back-and-forth 'send her to safety or keep her close?' angst - WOW! It's all riveting, edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting addictive reading, along with a moving, love conquers all love story, and some red-hot sexy times. I loved the constant undercurrent of threat that beats below the life-affirming love relationship, and author Tmonique Stephens' uniquely understanding and sympathetic portrayal of a man and a woman who might best be called hard to like. This is a voluntary ARC review...more
I've not read anything by Gabi Moore before this, and Mafia romances generally don't appeal to me, but - WOW! Best Mafia bad boy/secret baby romance II've not read anything by Gabi Moore before this, and Mafia romances generally don't appeal to me, but - WOW! Best Mafia bad boy/secret baby romance I've ever read! Against All Odds has a clever if slightly improbable plot that moves along at a rapid-fire pace. There's an interesting cast of characters, with a dark hero and even darker heroine, both of whom are better people than they have allowed themselves to be in their past. Eve and Jack are great together, and the love story is both sweet and sizzling. Somehow the tone of this book manages to be light and hopeful despite the body count, and I'm so impressed that I'm looking for more of author Gabi Moore's books.
Run quick and grab this book! There is so much action here, and such great suspense, as US Marshall Kyle and fugitive socialite turned school teacher Run quick and grab this book! There is so much action here, and such great suspense, as US Marshall Kyle and fugitive socialite turned school teacher Jenny run from the crime lord determined to kidnap her. The betrayals fly as fast as the bullets as they go from compromised safe house to road-trippers, even hiding out as bikers - while trying to sort out who's after them and who they can trust. They're also sorting out some old feelings and ancient history, reconnecting on an intimate emotional level made more intense by the danger they face. I don't do spoilers, so I will only say that Kyle and Jenny are well-matched lovers, and both are strong, principled and fierce fighters for what they truly want - a life together. I'll admit that it took a minute for me to get pulled in to this book, but as the relationship between Kyle and Jenny progressed I began to enjoy the story - both the action and the romance - more and more....more