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Wednesday, September 30, 2015

REVIEW: Dare Me by Stella Rhys

Dare Me by Stella Rhys



Release Date: September 30, 2015

Synopsis:
CALLUM 
Lake and I never had a chance at normal. She was drop dead gorgeous from day one – our maid’s granddaughter who became my mother’s spoiled living doll. I hated that girl with all my heart and at the same time, I worshipped every inch of her skin, every word that she spoke. I lived for her and the twisted game of truth or dare we created to feed our f***ed up needs for shock, shame and one-upping each other. Lake was my drug, my bad lifestyle choice. 

And I’d fallen in and out of love with her a thousand times till the day she disappeared. 

LAKE 
I know I ruined Callum Pike and going back to New York may be the worst decision I’ve ever made, which is saying a lot. But I’m willing to risk it. I never wanted to leave and now that I can, I’m going back – to be with the man I made, who made me. I know I screwed him up. I know he's hardened and become cold. I know the love we had is gone. But I need him now more than ever and no matter how much it hurts, no matter what kind of sick or satisfying way he decides to torment me, I’m going to fight through it. 

I’m going to repent for the way I broke him and I’m going to find the Callum Pike I loved again – even if it tears me apart. 

**a standalone novel**


Excerpt: 

Prologue

Let me start by saying that Lake and I never had a chance at normal.  I blame my mother's generosity.  Growing up, she let Lake stay at our place while her grandma cleaned, so for as long as I can remember, she was at my house from after school till Elena went home at night.  I didn't care when were kids.  I could ignore her.  But as we got older and Lake grew beautiful, my mother's fondness multiplied. She paid for ballet lessons.  She brought her on vacations with us to Paris, St.Barts.  She went out of her way to hunt down anything Lake ever mentioned she wanted or liked or so much as looked at.  Maybe it wasn't my mother's generosity so much as her undying need for a daughter.

And a stunning one at that.  Lake's honey waves were just a shade darker than her skin and she had a raspy voice that lilted out between perfect heart-shaped lips. I probably hit puberty early because of her.  Sprung countless hard-ons that had her name written all over them.  So for the height, build and sexual appetite that landed me all those older girls in high school, I should've probably thanked her but I vacillated between lust and cold, hard resentment my entire adolescence.

Because everything I worked hard for, Lake was simply given. 

It was like that from the start but got worse in high school. I'd spent three hours a night for a year applying to Mercer School but when Lake was sixteen, she said she liked our uniforms so my mother bought her way in.  She had Lake's casual stays at our house turn into something permanent when Elena got sick.  She tore down a wall so Lake's new room could fit a walk-in closet.  She had me look after Lake at school and report back on how she was doing. I lied and said that she was just being the perfect girl my mother dreamt of instead of telling her that Lake had every guy in school and half the teachers lusting after her with the way she walked around, back arched and tits pushed halfway out her uniform.  All verbal warnings with that girl.  I got written up for taking a piss without permission but Lake walked around Mercer with her nipples an inch from showing and teachers only smiled and motioned for her to pull her shirt up.

I f***ing hated going to school with that girl.

She infiltrated my home life and I knew from day one that it was a matter of time before she wormed into my social circle.  It took a week before she was a staple despite the fact that she played no sports and was a "proud Christian virgin" for Christ's sake.  She had nothing in common with any of us.  But she did have a tight little body and the face of an angel hiding a dirty secret.  Whenever she felt mischievous or had some sort of bad thought, those big eyes would narrow into this cat-like bedroom gaze that was what my dad wound up blaming before the divorce.  But that's another story.

Plain and simple, I hated her.  I hated that she dated my best friend and bonded with my girlfriend. I hated that my friends hit on her every chance they got and became horny idiots if she was home when they came over.  I hated that I eventually lost my best friend because I had to kick his ass for pressuring her for sex.  Because of my mom, this girl became my responsibility and I wound up hating her as much as I f***ing loved every inch of her skin and every goddamned word that she spoke.

Like I said, we had no chance at normal with the way we grew up. While she worshipped my mom like a goddess, Lake was smug and cheeky to me.  She was a teenage girl and all too pleased with the fact that she was beautiful enough to control people - with the fact that she got ayes for every request of mine that was met with no.  So I grew to enjoy tormenting her as payback.  I liked how her cheeks looked flushed pink.  I told our friends all the dumb things she said after ripping from my bong.  In class, I picked her for every question on the book that I knew she couldn't answer.  Since loved to tease so I locked her out of her room in her towel. I did anything I could to piss her off.

In return, she worked her charm harder.  She customized how she behaved around everyone in my life so they were thoroughly enchanted.  She acted like an innocent angel to them but to me she was a smirking, lilting, devil. And till the day she shattered me to pieces, we kept at our game.

It started when Lake's Aunt Paula came to take over cleaning.  Unlike fiery Elena, she was boring.  Presented no challenges.  She did what we asked, gave us whatever we wanted.  She was so dim she reached right up to hand us whatever we pointed to, too absent to realize she was giving a bottle of Ketel to two fifth graders. So we started the game of truth or dare. 

What naughty little thing would finally get Paula's attention? Stealing the joint from her purse? Lake dared me to swipe it and I dared her to take the first hit.  The next year, we graduated onto sneaking out of the house with Paula's cash, running down the street to buy soda, candy and condoms just to see what they looked like. Years later, I'd let her watch me put one on.  I dared her to give me something to look at, to get me hard enough to show her how a rubber worked. Jesus f***, did she come through.

Yeah. The challenge most definitely took a turn by high school.  It had nothing to do with getting in trouble but pushing each other past our furthest physical, emotional and sexual boundaries, the lines of which grew fainter with every minute we spent together. It helped that we always picked dare.

Because for every "truth" you said, the other person could pass a turn and that made for a boring day with no scandal or shame, which was everything Lake and I grew to fear.  We needed those things.  Thanks to each other, we grew up f***ed in the head, living off the daily adrenaline of shocking, arousing and one-upping each other.  I dared her to streak down Sixty-First Street in just her school skirt.  She dared me to jerk off in front of the window.  I dared her to flash Mr. Price her tits.  She dared me to have an affair with Miss Kane. I said she couldn't seduce my girlfriend.  She proved me more than wrong.  By college, we had a handful of threesomes under our belt.  But I always favored having Lake to myself because that was how it was meant to be.  I was the first to see her body, the first to touch it and show it pleasure. I was the one who took her virginity when she was ready and the one who knew every part of her, inside and out.  That body belonged to me.

Growing up, that was my truth.

By the time we turned twenty-one, I'd fallen in and out of love with Lake a thousand times and she knew it.  But she still chose to disappear one day, without a word to

 me or my mother, who took a couple months to turn grey and spiral into depression. She had invested love and time into Lake, chosen this exceptional girl over her husband. And Lake had shown her gratitude by vanishing one rainy morning. She took things of ours with her - things worth a small fortune - but we didn't blink twice over it.  All we wanted was to find her but after she sent a message asking us to stop, we did. 

And I went back to hating her with a passion a million times deeper than any one I'd ever loved her with.  On top of that, I went on to accomplish every goal that, depending on her mood, she said I would or wouldn't achieve.  I broke all the hearts she claimed I was going to and I became the cruel, powerful man she declared I'd be when we were only thirteen.  And I managed to do it all without missing her once. I wouldn't let myself so much as think of her.  Lake was a bad lifestyle choice.  An addiction. And I had to stay sober to build my empire, make my fortune and care for my mom.  Which is exactly what I did.  I found a way to love my life stripped of the twisted girl who made me, who I made.

But as of this morning, she's back in Manhattan. 
And despite the war I went through to forget her, I have to have her.

In every way that exists.





About the Author: 
Stella Rhys is a romance writer who lives in Manhattan and should pay rent to most downtown coffee shops. Born and raised in New York, she's a sucker for glitz, glamour and steamy, fast-paced love.

Author Links: 

Lia's Review


Whoa baby, hold on to your panties because Stella Rhys has penned one heck of an erotic tryst in her new book Dare Me.

Since their teenage years Callum and Lake have played a sexy little game of Truth or Dare, only no one ever chooses truth. What follows are a series of more daring dares and lots of one upmanship between the pair. Nothing is off limits. And the challenges get sexier and sexier. Until Lake leaves and then resurfaces some years later. Can their little game pick up where they left off, even when love is on the line?

I really liked this story! I loved the layers that were added with their past flashbacks. There was a great little suspense aspect added too. These two were a sexy, provocative pair. The only real complaint I had was there was a rather large cast of characters and was sometimes hard to keep track of. A good, solid 4 Star read. Go ahead and give it a try. I dare you.

~ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars


RELEASE DAY BLITZ: Twisted Boundaries by Michelle Horst

Title: Twisted Boundaries

Author: Michelle Horst

Genre: Dark Romance

Release Date: September 30th, 2015

Twisted Boundaries Cover Twisted Boundaries Full Cover

Synopsis
I live a life of darkness.

They sold my brother for money.
I was kept to make money for them.

I thought I escaped it all, but the monster is back. I'm not worth anything to him anymore, so now he's going after my brother.

There are only two things I fear; the darkness and water.
I'm not scared of pain.
I'm not scared of death.

I'm prepared to die and to make sure that monster goes with me.

Authors Note and WARNING: Twisted Boundaries is a work of fiction intended for adult readers above 18. It contains dark and sensitive subject matter that may make readers uncomfortable.
Contains explicit language and descriptions of sexual situations.

*** Standalone ***
*** No Cliffhanger ***
*** HEA ***

This book is not for everyone. Please only read it if you can handle the subject matter and are able to keep an open mind whilst reading. If you want a perfect love story, this is not it.

Buy Links:

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Dark Boundaries Cover
He stole me.
He broke me.
I'm being auctioned for Fifty thousand dollars.
Now, I don't belong to anyone but strangely enough I wanted to belong to him.
It's his eyes ... I lost myself in them

Authors Note and WARNING: Dark Boundaries is a work of fiction intended for adult readers above 18. It contains dark and sensitive subject matter that may make readers uncomfortable.
Contains explicit language and descriptions of sexual situations.

*** Standalone ***
*** No Cliffhanger ***
*** HEA ***

This book is not for everyone. Please only read it if you can handle the subject matter and are able to keep an open mind whilst reading. If you want a perfect love story, this is not it.

Buy Links

AMAZON US | AMAZON UK


Cruel Boundaries Cover
He’s my cousin and I love to hate him.
He bullies me.
He tries to break me every chance he gets I remind him constantly that he’s adopted. It’s the only weapon I have against him.

Authors Note and WARNING: Cruel Boundaries is a work of fiction intended for adult readers above 18. It contains dark and sensitive subject matter that may make readers uncomfortable.
Contains explicit language and descriptions of sexual situations.

*** Standalone ***
*** No Cliffhanger ***
*** HEA ***

This book is not for everyone. Please only read it if you can handle the subject matter and are able to keep an open mind whilst reading. If you want a perfect love story, this is not it.

Buy Links

AMAZON US | AMAZON UK


authorpictureprof Michelle Horst
Michelle Horst is thirty seven years old and is from the land of milk and honey. She's been in love with reading from an early age. She has a passion for other cultures, but she has an ultimate soft spot for nature and animals. She first tried her hand at writing in early 2009 and as the first words started to form into a book, she knew she was hooked. Dreams spilled onto pages, and that was the beginning of a wonderful journey. One filled with joy. One filled with passion and heart stopping moments. But most of all, it's filled with such pride and peace as a story comes to life, and characters fill your life, living in the very walls of your mind, living in the minds of your readers. There is nothing as satisfying as that. Thank you for each and every story you share with me. Sunshine Smiles from around the world and back, Michelle ;).

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RELEASE DAY BLITZ REVIEW: Loch by Harper Bentley

Title: Loch (The Powers That Be #3)
Author: Harper Bentley
Release Date: Sept 30, 2015
Find on Goodreads
Loch Powers was the hottest guy I’d ever seen in my entire life.

And I hated him with every fiber of my being.

I'd practically known him since birth. Heck, we’d literally shared a crib as babies at his mom’s daycare.

Then I’d crushed on him hard when we hit middle school but he wouldn’t give geeky, glasses-wearing me the time of day. When his mom made him take me to the sixth grade dance, he’d humiliated me and I vowed to never talk to him again.

The next year when my family moved away, I told myself that if I never saw him again it’d be too soon.

Now I’m back and attending the same college, but I’m no longer the skinny, ugly girl who was so infatuated with him. And I’m so over him it’s not even funny.

But now that I’m no longer the ugly duckling, he’s set his sights on me, and I’m just not sure what to do with that.

Harper Bentley has taught high school English for 22 years. Although she’s managed to maintain her sanity regardless of her career choice, jumping into the world of publishing her own books goes to show that she might be closer to the ledge than was previously thought.

After traveling the nation in her younger years as a military brat, having lived in Alaska, Washington State and California, she now resides in Oklahoma with her teenage daughter, two dogs and one cat, happily writing stories that she hopes her readers will enjoy.






Lia's Review


Oh Loch. Loch. Loch. Loch. You may just be my new favorite Powers Brother. I wanted to hate you, but oh how I loved you.

Loch's blurb was my favorite. Who doesn't love a good enemies to lovers story? However, I wasn't that big of a fan of his girl, Simone. She was so wishy washy. I needed her to have more of a backbone. She just wasn't strong enough for me. I needed just a bit more drama and a bit more angst from this story. Loch, the hero, I loved. The story I just liked. It was a fast read but it needed just a little more meat to it to back up that phenomenal blurb.

Now bring on Ryker!

~ 3.5 Stars

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

COVER REVEAL: The Submission Of Theodora by Siobhan Daiko


Title: The Submission Of Theodora
Author: Siobhan Daiko 
Genre: Erotic Romance 




It’s not every day a girl gets to meet the most powerful man in the world – but it’s not every girl that’s deemed useful. I’ve been deemed useful to the heir apparent to the Roman Emperor!
My skin prickles with awareness of him. 
His hips form a perfect V; his chest seems forged from iron. 
I long to touch him. 
I long to be possessed by him. 
I long to lose all sense of Theodora and be lost in Justinian. 
Crazy, impetuous, domineering Justinian. With each word he speaks, I drift deeper into the maelstrom of his mind.
They tell me he has unusual tastes. They tell me I must surrender to him. “But as a former courtesan  it’s usually been me in charge.”
But when his true plans for me reveal themselves, and the darkness in Justinian comes to the fore, he threatens my integrity… threatens my very spirit.
Will his darkness swallow me whole?
I’m about to find out.
***
Advisory: this novel contains vivid erotica, and some hard-core elements of BDSM, all consensual. 18+ only.


Release Date October 27






Siobhan Daiko is an author of romantic historical fiction and erotic romance. A lover of all things Italian, she lives in the Veneto region of northern Italy with her husband and two cats. After a life of romance and adventure in Hong Kong, Australia and the UK Siobhan now spends her time, when she isn’t writing, enjoying the dolce vita near Venice. The Submission of Theodora is her second book featuring famous courtesans of the past: strong women who held their own in a man’s world.


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RELEASE DAY BLITZ: Bound for Nirvana by Kendra Leigh

Release Blitz!


The End is Here!  Will Ethan and Angel Find Their Happy-Ever-After?


Title: Bound For Nirvana

Series: The Bound Trilogy, Book 3

Author: Kendra Leigh

Genre: Contemporary Adult Romance, Erotic Romance, Suspense

Release Date: September 29th

For readers 18 and over due to explicit sexual content


Relentlessly sexy. Emotionally deep. Tangled, twisted, intricately woven love story with romance and suspense.


BFN-Synopsis

 
The bonds of their love saw them through the ravaging storm to the promise of peace and the chance to breathe …

Photo of the cover of Bound For Nirvana, an upcoming contemporary adult romantic suspense novel by indie author Kendra Leigh

Angel once believed her soul belonged to the Devil. Now she willingly gives every part of her—mind, body and soul—to the man whose love mends her a little more each day.

Ethan knows Hell is no place for an angel, especially not his Angel. He would sacrifice his soul every day of his life in order to save hers. Fuelled by an almost obsessive desire, their need for each other ignites a passion that most couples could find destructive, but instead the flames of their possessive vigilance only seem to feed the fire of their insatiable hunger. The slaying of Ethan’s demons has made their fortress of love stronger than ever.

But Angel continues to paper over the cracks of her troubled past, running from the demons that chase her and the nightmares that plague her. When a twist of fate forces her to confront them, she finally begins to accept that her repressed memories need to be explored in order to attain the peace she craves.

But in her search for Nirvana, Angel discovers far more than buried memories. What happens when the worst nightmare you’ve ever encountered is the one you wake up in? When the past comes face to face with the present to reveal a web of diseased secrets and lies?
And the only road you can take leads to one destination … Hell.


Teaser 9

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BFN-Excerpt

“Angel?” Ethan’s low, husky tones startled me. He stood in the doorway wearing nothing but a pair of low-slung, faded jeans, the sight of him inciting my taste buds to drool desirously, like chocolate melting on my tongue. “Come here,” he instructed.

 Obeying instantly, I unfurled my legs and moved across the room toward him.  He gazed at me, his expression still inscrutable, and then slowly he moved around to my back. “Close your eyes.”

 Again, I complied without hesitation. I felt something soft brush gently against my eyelids, a smooth, silky fabric blocking out all remaining light as it tightened against my skin. He was blindfolding me. My heart struck my chest wall with a sudden instinctive foretaste of what was to come. The blindfold, his insistence that I wear my red shoes, his near-naked form in the doorway, suggested only one thing. But his talk of my needing to learn a lesson, his tone, and impenetrable mood hinted at something different. Nonetheless, my skin prickled with eager expectation as I waited for my next instruction in the darkness behind my eyelids.

 Suddenly, his voice startled me. He was closer than I’d imagined, his breath warm against my ear, his smell … exquisite. “How does that make you feel?” Misreading the question, I nodded to let him know I was okay.

 “No, Angel. Tell me how it makes you feel.” His voice was slightly harsher than before, more demanding. I thought about what he wanted me to say, trying to tune in to the sensations I was feeling, but struggling.

“Restricted,” I said finally.

 “Anything else?” He’d shifted, his lips grazing the lobe of my other ear now.

 “Dependent.”

 “Think beyond the blindfold.”

My mind searched for the answer, and then after a beat I whispered, “Aware. I feel more aware.”

 “Of what?”

 “You.”

 “What is it about me you’re more aware of?”

 “How close you are … Your scent.”

 “My scent? And what does it smell like?”

 Hesitating, I scrambled for words to try and describe it, eventually arriving at, “You.”

 I felt him smile briefly against my cheek and then he was gone.

Teaser 2

Order Bound for Nirvana Here!



Tag for Author Biography
Kendra-Photo-2
Kendra Leigh fell in love with books and the wonderful world of reading from a very young age. She was at her happiest when Enid Blyton whisked her away up into the magical lands at the top of the Faraway Tree with Moon-face and the rest of the gang. Books have been her constant source of escapism ever since. Currently residing in the UK, Kendra devotes her life to her devilishly handsome partner, scandalously beautiful daughter and cute as hell Shih-Tzu. As well as writing and reading, Kendra loves great TV, especially Dexter, Homeland and Breaking Bad.





 
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Cover of Bound For Hell, Book 1 of the Bound Trilogy by Kendra Leigh


Ethan Wilde. Billionaire. Business Man. Passionate. Powerful. Persistent.
One of New York’s most eligible bachelors.

Angel Lawson. Photographer. Gallery Owner. Burdened. Beautiful. Broken.
A woman bound by the ropes of her sins and forgotten past, fearful of her future.

A chance encounter…
Consumed by guilt and tormented by the bonds of a tragic past, Angel Lawson’s life has been a solitary journey, condemned to live without love. In order to preserve her damaged soul from further rejection, sex is as close to a man as she ever plans to get. She was already hell-bound for her sins. One more wasn’t going to hurt ... ... or so she thought.

When a passionate encounter throws her into the world of Ethan Wilde, Angel is helpless to resist the irrefutable desire and depth of raw emotion he ignites in her. Ethan is as intense as he is sinfully sexy. Irretrievably captivated by Angel, he seems just as intent on understanding her naked soul as he is desperate to possess every inch of her naked body. Angel craves his touch like a drug and yearns for the love he promises, but surrendering to the feelings he’s unearthed will mean exposing her fears and releasing the demons buried for a lifetime. Exposing her heart will leave it at risk of being broken. Will Angel choose to leave her life of solitude behind, or is the choice no longer hers?

Ethan Wilde is used to getting what he wants … and what he wants is Angel.

$1.99 UK  $2.99 US

Universal Amazon Link


Cover of Bound For Salvation, an erotic romance-suspense novel by Kendra Leigh

Hell was hot, but the flames of deliverance might be the ones to burn …

For the first time in living memory, Angel Lawson feels cherished. Ethan Wilde has taught her that love is possible for all, even the sinners among us. The bonds of his love free her from the shackles of her guilt. Inch by inch, he’s slid under her skin, folding himself around her soul like a soothing blanket. His love nourishes her starving heart, and his passion fuels the scorching flames of her deepest desires, driving her to the blissful edge of sweet insanity. Brick by brick, she tears down the protective wall she’s built around her heart, and the ice inside begins to thaw. To Ethan, Angel is the sole reason he exists, the blood in his veins, the drug to his addiction. He vows to mend her, to help her confront her demons and come to terms with a buried past that continues to haunt her. But what lies beneath the surface of Ethan’s past? Pasts left hidden to rot become dirty secrets. Secrets that can tear even the strongest love apart.

And secrets have a habit of revealing themselves when least expected ...

£2.99 UK   $2.99 US

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Teaser photo and quote from Bound For NIrvana, by Kendra Leigh

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