TLC Book Tours Book Review: Sinful Scottish Laird

About Sinful Scottish Laird

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: HQN Books (February 28, 2017)

A young widow puts her sexy suitors to the test in New York Times bestselling author Julia London’s scintillating return to the idyllic Scottish Highlands. 

Widowed and forced to remarry in three years’ time or forfeit her son’s inheritance, Daisy Bristol, Lady Chatwick, has plenty of suitors vying for her hand…and her fortune. But a letter from a long-lost love sends Daisy and her young son to her Scottish Highland estate to buy time for his return. Along the way she encounters the powerful Cailean Mackenzie, laird of Arrandale and a notorious smuggler, and she is utterly—though unwillingly—bewitched.

Cailean has no use for any Sassenach in his glen. But Daisy’s brazen, flirtatious nature and alluring beauty intrigue him. When her first love appears unexpectedly at her estate, Cailean knows that a passionate woman like Daisy cannot marry this man. And to prevent the union, Cailean must put his own life at risk to win her heart.

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Review: Finally a historical romance that has romance in it. I should have known that Julia London wouldn't disappoint.

Cailean and Daisy are a fabulous duo. He had a bad relationship with an English woman and Daisy is a widow, whose husband left a will that states that she had to marry within three years of his death or forfeit her son's inheritance.

That was the main reason I wanted to read this book. What husband is going to tell his wife to remarry STAT after his death or else their would be nothing for their child? I wish there would have been some explanation as to why Chadwick would have cut off his heir, if his wife didn't remarry. That was the only thing that struck me as odd.

Before I go into the review, I have to say that early on in the book there were two things that appealed to my tv geek. When Daisy was asking Belinda about Cailean's allure..I went all "Miranda" geeky, as Stevie, who was Miranda's bff was always going on about allure.

Then there was a mention of "Your Auntie Grizelda."  That's one of the silliest songs by The Monkees.

I can't believe how much I liked this book. It is everything I like in a historical romance. Granted, it suffers from the one issue I have with most books in this genre these days. Its a little too long. I'm a lover of the regency romance that was only about 200 pages long. (I grew up on these). Even the standard historical novels weren't as long. They got their point across, they had hot sex and the HEA.

I was oddly surprised that Cailean and Daisy didn't really have sex until the book was nearly half through. The chemistry between these two was amazing, even as Cailean fought against it. I also loved how he really took to Daisy's son Ellis. It was so easy to see that these two belonged together no matter what.

From the get go, I knew that there was something not right with Robert, Daisy's love from before her marriage. I wish he wouldn't have turned out to be such a fink, from the time he appeared in Scotland, I knew he wasn't all she was hoping he would be.

But I'm not complaining, because this book was such fun.  If you like historical romance, don't miss this book!

Rating: 5 flowers

Tasty Book Tours Excerpt Reveal: Her Secret Ranger

Kissing the sexy soldier was a dare she couldn’t resist…

HER SECRET RANGER

The Men of At Ease Ranch #2

Donna Michaels

Releasing March 6th, 2017

Entangled Lovestruck

Kissing the sexy soldier was a dare she couldn’t resist…

By-the-book event planner Beth Brannigan’s best friend dared her to kiss a cowboy. She should have said no. Instead, she said please…again and again. If her brother finds out she’s dating—okay, kissing—okay, sleeping with—one of his military buddies, he’ll kill her. Assuming he doesn’t kill his friend first.

Former Army Ranger Brick Mitchum isn’t a relationship kind of guy. But then he meets Beth and starts to wonder if maybe it’s time he settled down. She’s mysterious. Unpredictable. Curvy in every way he needs… And hiding something. He’s just got to figure out what. 

“I know what we should do. Let’s play truth or dare.”

Crud.

Beth drew back and adamantly shook her head. “Let’s not.”

“Come on. We could both use something to lighten things up. So, let’s see…” Her friend’s gaze narrowed as she tapped a finger on her chin. “I can’t help but feel there’s something you’re not telling me about the Roadhouse. The fact you knew about the line dancing has my Spidey sense tingling. So…truth: Did you meet someone there the last time you were in town?”

Damn. She’d forgotten about her friend’s astute superpower. “What are you talking about?”

Rachel’s amused, albeit determined, blue gaze bore deep. “Either tell me the truth about that weekend or take a dare.”

Double damn.

Beth didn’t do dares. Ever. She’d always taken the “truth” option of the game during their adolescence. She couldn’t risk reprimands or hospital bills back then. Not much had changed. But she wasn’t about to reveal her sexy cowboy weekend, either. With a lift of her chin, she held Rachel’s gaze. “Dare.”

The bugger’s grin grew wicked as satisfaction gleamed in her eyes. “I dare you to kiss the next cowboy who walks through the gate.”

Beth gasped. “I can’t do that! What if he’s married?” She jumped to her feet and headed to a nearby trash can to toss her garbage. “Not happening.”

Rachel followed and shrugged. “You have to. You chose dare. But, I’ll amend it to: you have to kiss the next single cowboy who walks through the gate. We’ll watch for wedding rings. And just because you’re not looking doesn’t mean you can ignore the da…amn.” Her friend blinked. “Wow, Beth. I almost wish you’d given me the dare. Turn around and check out your ‘single’ cowboy.”

Without giving her the chance to protest, Rachel grasped Beth’s shoulders and physically turned her to face the gate and one hell of a sexy cowboy. Well over six foot of solid muscle that rippled under a black T-shirt and a pair of jeans hugging lean hips and thighs, the guy oozed hotness she felt with an invisible wave of heat.

Her throat went dry. It was…him. The cowboy from two weeks ago. Seriously? What were the chances he’d walk back into her life at that exact moment? “Uh…”

“I know, right? And there’s not a wedding ring in sight. Now go over there and kiss him.” Her snickering friend pushed her after the hunk striding toward the livestock section of the fair. “Go on before he gets away. Or is that what you wanted?”

She gulped. Pulled herself together. The knowing tone in her friend’s voice revealed she expected Beth to chicken out.

Wrong.

Any other time, yes, she’d lose the dare. It was childish and irresponsible, and she didn’t have time for foolish games. But she did have time to help her friend de-stress. Her friend who was also her client. It was Beth’s duty to put her client at ease. So, technically, it was her duty to kiss the sexy cowboy whose body she knew as well as her own.

That was her story and she was sticking to it.

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

Rachel squealed and clapped her hands.

Grasping bravado with two fists, Beth set her shoulders, lifted her chin, and marched after the hot guy striding away from her down the fairway. So what if she’d decided he was part of her past? The opportunity was too good to pass up. Things like this never happened to her.

Zigzagging around fairgoers, she avoided running into two children wearing a blue coating of cotton candy, and closed in on her prey. Her confidence rose with each step. Not only had she received her first ever dare, she was actually in the position to have the upper hand on the challenge.

A flicker of guilt and a touch of anxiety mixed with excitement. She pushed them both aside and smiled when the cowboy suddenly stiffened and came to a halt. It was as if he could feel her presence as sure as she could feel his. Not wanting Rachel to see the guy’s expression, Beth didn’t give him a chance to turn around. She slid in front of him, her anxiety fading at the pleasure curving his mouth into a sexy grin, dimpling his cheeks.

“Hello, Brick,” she said.

Then she cupped his deliciously scruffed jaw, pulled his face down, and kissed the ever loving heck out of him.

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Goodreads Giveaway

Donna Michaels is an award winning, New York Times & USA Today bestselling author of Romaginative fiction. Her hot, humorous, and heartwarming stories include cowboys, men in uniform, and some sexy, primal alphas. With a husband in the military fulltime, and a household of nine, she never runs out of material to write, and has rightfully earned the nickname Lucy…and sometimes Ethel. From short to epic, her books entertain readers across a variety of sub-genres, and one has even being hand drawn into a Japanese translation. Now, if only she could read it.

Tasty Book Tours Excerpt: Can't Fight This Feeling

CAN'T FIGHT THIS FEELING

Spikonos Brothers #2

Miranda Liasson

Releasing March 7th, 2017

SHE WANTS TO MOVE ON…WITH SOMEONE BLAND AND BORING…

Widowed psychologist Maggie McShae is ready to find someone who won’t make her heart beat fast, her knees grow weak, or make her feel hot and cold at the same time. No one she can really love, because love brings too much pain.

Drew Poulos, son of a billionaire, is hiding out in Mirror Lake, working at his brothers’ brandy company. He inspires those very feelings Maggie’s determined to avoid. The hunky businessman, who left his high society bride at the altar, is the last person she’d ever seriously date…but he might just be perfect for a fling…

HE NEEDS A DATE FOR HIS BROTHER’S WEDDING…WITH SOMEONE WHO CAN CALM HIS QUIRKY FAMILY…

Drew’s too heartbroken to ever trust any woman again, but the sexy psychologist is the perfect person to deflect his family’s attention as his brother marries the woman Drew once thought was his.

 As sparks fly, two injured hearts might just find that true love can be even better the second time around….

He got in her face. And oh, those big brown intelligent eyes up close, those chiseled cheekbones, so much more defined than her own, which really were such a waste on a man. That thick, pitch-black hair, so thick a woman’s fingers could get lost in there.

She tried to back up a step, but he moved forward. “Maybe. Let’s start by being honest with each other. Do you want me, Maggie?”

“We’re not talking about—that. Back off already.” She pushed on his chest a little. A mistake. Because it was hard as boulders and made her knees go weak. “Besides, you just—flinched when I touched you.”

“I think we need to do what you said, talk about it. I flinched because I felt what I think you feel too. That there’s something going on between us. What are we going to do about it?”

She flipped her hand dismissively. “It’s all that touchy-feely stuff we’re doing in front of your family. That has to stop.”

“This has nothing to do with playacting,” he said quietly. “And I think you know that. “That kiss on the court… It was real.”

“That kiss was…impulsive. Heat of the moment, fueled by our hard-won victory.” Joking now was not stopping the shivers that were running up and down her arms. Or the hot and cold coursing through her veins. Somehow, she sensed how it would be between them. Wild. No holds barred. And God help her, she wanted that.

She tried to pull some common sense out of her sex-addled brain. It would be a very bad idea on both their parts to forget their troubles with a sweaty round of sex, wouldn’t it?

Miranda Liasson loves to write stories about everyday people who find love despite themselves, because there’s nothing like a great love story. And if there are a few laughs along the way, even better! She’s a former Golden Heart winner who writes contemporary romance for Montlake Romance, Entangled, and soon for Grand Central. She lives in the Midwest with her husband, three kids, and Posey, a rescue cat with attitude.

TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Orphan's Tale

About The Orphan’s Tale

Paperback: 368 pages

Publisher: MIRA (February 21, 2017)

A powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphan’s Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival 

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep… When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night.

Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another—or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: If you are looking for a great read that involves WWII, you really have to read one of Pam Jenoff's books.

I  actually finished this book early this morning and I'm still unsure of the words that I can use how good it was.

Pam's books always have something to them that will get your emotions all riled up, and this book is no different.

Be prepared to cry, I know I did.

In a few words, this book was beautiful

Rating: 5 flowers

TLC Book Tour Book Review: Abby's Journey

About Abby’s Journey

Paperback: 238 pages

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing (February 14, 2017)

Twenty-year-old Abigail Turner has only known her mother, Claire—who died shortly after she was born—through letters, videos, postcards, and journals. Abby’s father, Josh, has raised his precious daughter himself, but his overprotectiveness has become stifling. Abby longs to forge out on her own and see the world after a childhood trapped indoors: she suffers from bronchopulmonary dysplasia, which means a case of the sniffles can rapidly escalate into life-threatening pneumonia.

But when Abby’s doctor declares her healthy—for now—her grandmother Millie whisks her away to Europe to visit the Christmas markets that her mother cherished and chronicled in her travel journals. Despite her father’s objections, Abby and Millie embark on a journey of discovery in which Abby will learn secrets that force her to reevaluate her image of her mother and come to a more mature understanding of a parent-child bond that transcends death.

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Steena Holmes offers a tender and heartfelt exploration of parental love and a daughter’s longing for connection in the poignant next chapter following Saving Abby.

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Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: I read Saving Abby last year. Check out my review here. Flash forward 20 years and we are now seeing how Abby is doing.  The story of how Abby came to be born was depressing to say the least, so I was expecting something similar here. The book is most definitely emotionally charged.

She has a chronic lung condition, that has kept her home bound most of her young life. She gets an all clear from her doctor that she can start to live a more normal life. For her that mean traveling to Germany with her grandmother on a trip that her mother had wanted to take years ago.

Abby's dream is see the Christmas Market's in Germany and Austria, and who wouldn't want to. Well, her father, who is terrified for her health, for one. I felt terribly sorry for Josh, because his life is so different from the one he had with Claire and it made me terribly sad for him. 

The trip also gives her a chance to see the places her mother wanted to see and get to know things about her mother as well. The excitement Abby feels is so real, that the reader becomes excited right along with her. (I wanted to make the trip with her)

In London, however, she reads a letter her mother wrote before she was conceived that leaves her confused. If you haven't read Saving Abby, some of this story will feel foreign to you, especially about.

The letters from Claire to her loved ones and Abby's journal really make this book feel personal. 

Abby is a much more endearing character then her mother was. Her rebellion at wanting the trip so badly and even her desire to live on her own were understandable.

I also loved her friendship with Sam, who is a character that was first introduced in Saving Abby.

I loved the young tour guide that had a crush on Abby. I wish there could have been a touch of romance there, because it could have provided some levity in this book. For all the happiness of the trip for Abby, there's always the undercurrent her poor health leaves on everyone, and you know that it will rear its ugly head.

That was once again my only gripe with the story. If Abby's lungs were bad and she'd need hospitalized I had a hard time wrapping my head around putting a sick girl on a plane. Heck with as sick as she was one of the days, she went to the Salzburg Market one evening.

I also liked that things were resolved with the letter and that part of Claire's past that is starting to affect the present.

This book was totally engrossing and a quick read. I hope there's more to this family's story to tell. 

Rating: 5 flowers

Tasty Book Tours Release Blast: Nova

The only heart he wants is the one he already broke...

NOVA

The Renegades #2

Rebecca Yarros

Releasing February 20th, 2017

Entangled Embrace

The only heart he wants is the one he already broke...

He's Landon Rhodes.

The Renegade they call Nova.

Sinfully gorgeous, broody, tatted-up, professional snowboarder.

Four-time X Games medalist—

Full-time heartbreaker.

They say a girl broke him once—

That's why he's so reckless, so driven, so careless with his conquests.

But I'm that girl.

They can call me his curse all they want.

He and I both know the truth—

He's the one who destroyed me,

And I'm not the sucker who will let that happen again.

***NOVA can be read as a standalone***

Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and a lover of all things coffee, chocolate, and Paleo. She is the author of the Flight & Glory series, which includes Full Measures, the award-winning Eyes Turned Skyward, Beyond What Is Given, and Hallowed Ground. She loves military heroes and has been blissfully married to hers for fifteen years.

When she’s not writing, she’s tying hockey skates for her four sons, sneaking in some guitar time, or watching Brat Pack movies with her two daughters. She lives in Colorado with the hottest Apache pilot ever, their rambunctious gaggle of kids, and an English bulldog who is more stubborn than sweet. They recently adopted their youngest daughter from the foster system, and Rebecca is passionate about helping others do the same.

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Book Tour Book Review: Courting The Cowboy

COURTING THE COWBOY

by Carolyne Aarsen

Love Inspired; January 17, 2017
$5.99U.S.; 224 Pages

ISBN-978-0-373-622566

Looking for inspiration, artist Ella Langton rents a cabin in the isolated Porcupine Hills of Alberta, Canada. She didn’t count on having neighbors, but rancher Cord Walsh and his three children are just a stone’s throw away.

Still healing from a tragic accident, Ella has no plans of reaching out, but she’s having a hard time keeping them out of her yard—and her thoughts. And when little Suzy ropes Ella into helping her with an art project, she can’t help her growing feelings for the girl’s rugged daddy.

With three persistent children, Cord and Ella may find their fenced-off hearts opening up sooner than they thought!

Review:  I have a fondness for the Love Inspired line of books. Courting the Cowboy is a lovely story of two people in need of healing. Both Ella and Cord have had problems in their past relationships. Ella holds a lot of secrets close to her heart and Cord had guilt about an argument before his wife's death.

Ella is in Porcupine Hills to work on her artwork, but Cord's children manage to keep her from doing much work for quite a bit of time. I really found Suzy and Paul to be darling and little Oliver is absolutely precious. I love when children in stories are really viable characters. Suzy and Paul and their art project, as well as their love for Ella's dog, Pablo.

There is very little romance here. Its more a progression of friendship that builds as Ella gets closer to Cord's family. It's not dates that bring about love,but more getting to know each other by spending time with one another. Its also Cord's children the do a lot of the healing in Ella's heart. To explain why Ella needs healing would spoil that part of the story, and I don't want to do that.  I think that its enough to say that Cord's children open Ella's heart after a lot of pain, just as Ella helps Cord heal from the loss of his wife 2 years prior.  Cord's children also inspire changes in her art.

It's the job offer combined with the secrets that Ella is keeping that provide the conflict here but it is brief conflict which is enough to show them that they really love each other.  I would have liked a little more romance between Ella and Cord before their happily ever after though, other than a few kisses that they shared.

This was a truly sweet story.

Rating: 4 flowers

CAROLYNE AARSEN lives in Northern Alberta where she was born, raised and married and has raised four children and numerous foster children. Her writing has been honed between being a stay-at-home mother, homemaker, gardener, crafter columnist and business partner with her husband in their cattle farm and logging business.