Fast Friday 5 with Pepper Pace!

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Hot and molten mercury

Murder by Ritual by LeTeisha Newton

Blurb: 

on the scene of a grisly quadruple murder Eris Herrington thinks she’s been pushed too far. Strands--humans who now had the power to walk as animals or, like her, could see into anything they touch--haven’t been public for long. A killer among them won’t be good.

Eris realizes she’s been manipulated for this case in order to join the Strand Special Core, and Ken Satou will be her partner. She’s ready to walk away, but Ken won’t stand for it. If he has to seduce her into submission to solve this case that is exactly what he’ll do.

The Good:

This paranormal romance is a well thought out and fun read. One of those mysteries that became a “I just have to know,” spurring late nights and early mornings with my ipad. And it did not let me down; with a nice twist and a good plausible ending.

To be honest, it took me until page 24 to get really invested, here is the line that had me hooked, Ken describing Eris’ eyes, “as hot and molten mercury” I was mesmerized. And can this author write good kiss! “One of his palms cradled the of her head, the other her right cheek holding her face to his as he plundered her mouth…” (Pg77). Talk about hot and steamy! And did I mention that the characters ‘love’ scenes are plentiful and well written?

Fav character: Dr. Heming, I do love myself a hunky geek add in vampire and its off the charts lust for me. Yes, I love the strange characters and the bad guys, they have no filter and say exactly what I’m thinking!

The  bad:

I deducted a star for all the reiteration; I was beaten over the head with the idea that they are mates. Okay, I get it!

And I deducted for awkward sentences, “Any person who is possible to come into the special core as an agent is submitted to a background check…. (pg69)” I believe the word that should have been used was ‘candidate.’  “Any candidate of the special core is submitted to a background check…. (pg69)”

Which brings me to my next point, the book got too wordy at times. However, this can be resolved with a beta reader and an aggressive editing eye..

I'm jus sayin:

I was blown away by the world building in this book and am glad I was introduced to such an imaginative author.

Want to judge it for yourself? Head on over to Goodreads, Amazon, or B&N!

Conquered by the author

Balian is a dragon shifter, An enemy of Princess Kisah's people, but once he glimpses her beauty he will risk his life to claim his destined bride.

Kisah sees the golden warrior’s swagger in battle, glorious and beautiful, but its determination to  woo her that captures her heart.

The novella's sample got me all hot and bothered and the book had much of the same affect. 

A sexy stranger, a brutal contest, a mocha skinned princess with long flowing hair Ahem, sounds like this was this based on me so you know I devoured it!

Kudos to Fox, loved this book so much that I bought another and another to read and enjoy!

Buy@Amazon, or check it out at B&N, or how about good reads!

Ravaged by Jaide fox

C-mac and I were huge fans of the Starz original series "Spartacus" in all its glory. Obviously we watched for different reasons;

Cmac: "What did he just say?"
Me: "there's dialog in this show?"
Cmac: "Be serious, What did he say"
Me: "Seriously, I'm only watching for the man meat, beefcake, to ogle these studs muffins. Stop sighing, you sound so exasperated"
Cmac: "So degrading. Do you ever think of anything else? 
Me: "shopping and shoes. Stop rolling your eyes! You asked"
Cmac: "I'll just rewind it"
Me: "ooh, goody! More muffins!

So with the last episode of the muffin show having been aired in march I was missing a little blood and sex in my life. Enter "Ravaged (pleasure masters(futuristic BDSM Alpha Shifters)" by Jaide fox.

The story of a gladiator winning the ultimate prize, a willing sex slave. Did I mention that he has a magical member? Uhm, yeah! Read and enjoyed!

Like finding a good man

Good books, like good men are hard to find.

Good men with jobs and good credit, like consistently talented author's are harder to find

Yet, I have met the works of Naima Simone ( have you read "Sweet Ultimatum? read my review). Her latest book, Gabriel: Secrets and Sins was offered to me as an ARC; I pounced. Literally, I was that girl in elementary class with her hand held high, squirming, and begging the teach; pick me! Please pick me!

And, Entangled Publishing obliged and I dove in!

Leah Bannon is an ex-cop turned PI investigating the unsolved murder of her beloved Uncle Richard  Gabriel Devlin—-the man she loves but can never have—-inexplicably stands in her way.

Only four people know the truth about Richard’s mysterious disappearance—-Gabriel and three childhood friends, who happen to all know our heoine, but have sworn to take that secret to the grave. A hidden enemy draws deadly secrets to the light, even if he has to kill to make it happen.

Yass, this is so good. I heart words, prose, poetry, floetry and this book has all of that wrapped up in a good mystery with a not so typical heroine.

I love that sweet, exotically beautiful Leah is the hardened cop, so strong, yet feminine. I like that Gabriel is falling apart, needing Leah, yet too stubborn to admit that it is time to move forward and take that chance before its too late.

Wow, I enjoyed this book. Seriously- can't wait to read this again and again.

p.s. my views were in no way influenced by the author or the publisher. Cause you know I try to keep things real!

click the link to read this book via Amazon or barnes and noble

Not that tempted

Tempting the Jaguar by Katie Reus

This was an okay read. Nothing special about the hero or heroine, though it turns out someone thinks that she's very special. The action was miniscule and the love scene's were well detailed, but there just

was not enough book for me to get excited about this book. Overall, its a good easy read.

Click the cover to view this book on Amazon. And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

Yeah, the cover made me read it. Don't judge me!

This is one of the best covers that I've had the pleasure to imagine touching in real life. The model and character remind me of Christiano Ronaldo, a hottie futballer from Portugal. Hubby watches a lot of futbol, so I have a lot of premier league crushes and thought I would give this book a go!

First, let me give you an example of one of my baseball conversations with my hubby:

C-mac: What's the score?

Me: Five to one, Reds.

C-mac: Inning?

Me: Bottom of the fifth, two outs

C-mac: Who's pitching?

Me: Arroyo.

I know that some of you fell asleep reading that. Others have no idea what any of that means. Now here is a convo about Futbol:

C-mac: What's the score?

Me: One all

C-mac: Who scored?

Me: I have no idea, I was too busy day dreaming about Joe Heart's abs. Who does David Beckham play for now?

C-mac: What? That guy's not that good anymore.

Me: Quite avoiding the question. Fine, whatever. When do they take off their shirts?

C-mac: Seriously?

Me: Yeah. 

C-mac: At the end of the game. About an hour from now.

Me: Oh. Take off YOUR shirt..................

Bow-chica-wowow.

I enjoyed this read. As usual the love scene's were top notch. Well done Ms. Brown! To read this book click the book or here. And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

In case you were wondering:

Joe Hart

David Beckham

Christiano Ronaldo

Add caption

Suck what up more?

Suck it up by Emma Hillman

Love story between Dr. Nathan and his nurse Kellie, its part of a series about a particular pride. Kellie has a lot of problems and really bad luck. Her lion is gay, but she isn't. Nathan is perfect, other than the God problem he has when he mates Kellie without telling her or discussing it with the rest of his pride.

There were a lot of interesting twists and characters, SPOILER ALERT, the antagonist is a woman! Yay! Amnd Hillman buck tradition and creates a un-formulaic storyline and the sex in the book is good. But this is a novella and the price was kind of high for the amount of story you get, so I deducted a star based on that.

Overall,  an ok ready.

I only found one error:
Location 1089 "...they were always so full of themselves, so egomaniac" ---> should have been egotistical or egomaniacal.

Click on the title or image to visit this book on Amazon.com. And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

He's so my type....

He's so shy by Lena Matthews

Gillian and Lennon are co-workers. She mistakes him for being shy and decides to make him her project. He plays along. This is a good dirty book! I love the character, both the hero and heroine are well thought out with their motivations clearly made at the beginning of the story. Gillian likes the 'white guy' but won't admit it, so she takes him out for drinks and finds out that he's not shy at all. I admit my favorite character is her friend, she could by my wing-women any time. The big reveal in this book involves a party at a friends house, No I would NEVER participate in that kind of party. But the freak in me enjoyed reading about it. I also loved that the shero of this book was not afraid to find her love; I'm over women who run away from a good man. i would love to read more from this series.

There were a few errors:

Location 343 "And blind as a bat is she thought he could possible find any.....---> should be "possibly"

Location 1273 "Every since their little office escapade..." --> "Ever since"

The error at location 1373 is too adult to quote, but the wrong word is used, should be "fingering"

My new favorite word and  Favorite line of the book, Location 1226 "a fast convert to the religion of assianity"- Yeah, I will be using this to describe C-mac cause I converted him personally!

If you enjoyed this read click here. And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

False starts for the first week of April.....

Abandoned but not alone by Theresa L. Henry

A whole lot of telling without saying anything.

An immature annoying  heroine
1. Good thing you're an adult cause your parents couldn't afford to feed you
2. Hiding behind a grown stranger
3. A blurted chicken story

I have no idea the time and place the story takes place or any idea what any of the characters look like. DNF'd (Did not finish)

Needing Nita by Norah Wilson

Here is an example of the writing in this book "She'd only had" ---> translates to---> 'she had only had'

Enough said.

'Had'

1. 80% of the time its not necessary
2. Over usage- its annoyance to read over and over
3. Sometimes we write the way we talk to make our characters more realistic
4. Passive-aggressive: as the author its your story, take control and make me believe it
5. Feel a bit ameteur. I don't have the same complaint with GRRM or Anne Rice or James Patterson.

Please take my advice and re-read your work

The Admission by Jamallah Bergman

This book had so many errors, annoying characters, and No I'm not a hypocrite, I'm admit to being awful with grammar and I'm not charging for people to read my blog, it's free. So, if you're going to charge readers you will come under fire for having grammatical errors.

Location 470
"She stopped to straightening her clothes and took a deep..." should have been "Straighten"

The characters father is supposed to be verbally abusive (always negative and hurtful), but his lines to her aren't that hateful.

Location 680 or so:
"I like it the way it was, Cathy, I would appreciate it if you wire it the way it used to be for the party"

In my mind this is a case of "Don't talk about it, be about it" If the character uses his words as ammo than demonstrate that. Don't tell me 5011 (yeah, I stole that from my lil cousin) times that he's mean to her.  Show me.

Though this is a gorgeous cover and I'm not afraid to try something else by this author.

Happy Birthday Mr. Washington by C. Jackson

I wanted to like this book, but I couldn't do it. The Heroine is different and I usually like that, but I couldn't like the Hero. He breaks up with his girlfriend and goes out with a different girl on the very same day. That was a turn off to me. I also had a hard time with the sex scene's, they were boring and I hate boring sex!

Misses and some cursing..

I enjoy reading Ms. Brown's stories, they usually contain non-traditional AA heroine's falling in love with a-typical heroes. In the books i've reade their situations tend to be fantastical and challenge convention. In Kisses and Curses we meet jewelry designer Vivienne West who cashes in a small inheritence in NY to work a mining stake in Neveda. There she hires a minor to help her. Ezekiel  Proctor, is an ex-confederate soldier with a dark secret.

The romance moves fast with both character physically attracted to one another, but then it kind of falls apart for me. I found the 'love' scenes to be flat, their is an abundance of sex, but it's not well described enough for me to get hot and bothered.

Overall, it was just okay.

There were only a few errors:
Location 1968- "six dozen or so people industry people milled about

To view this book on Amazon just click the image or here! And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

Losing Bet

I finished this series a while ago and have had a hard time writing a review for "A beautiful disaster" and "Redemption by Francette Phal.

The problem stems from absolutely loving the first book, "A beautiful disaster." The characters, the storyline, and the bad guy (You know how I am about bad guys), were all so good that they kept me up at night, they woke me up in the morning (I admit to reading my Kindle fire with the covers over my head so the dogs won't know I'm up,) and it made me really, really want to reads it's sequel. But, within the first three chapters I knew that I hated "Redemption."  But, I digress.

Let's start with why I loved the first book, since I am a self-proclaimed 'nongirl.' Nongirl is a term that I made up to describe woman like me that don't like the big romatic overtures that fill the white pages of a book like "Twilight"; the screen of movies like anything staring Zac Ephron; or television shows like Vampire Diaries. I'm not a mushy type girl, I prefer a foot rub, book, or a giftcard to my favorite stores. And redemption kept me in my nongirl status.

Beautiful Disaster

 is the love story of Nicholas and Ellie, two teenage kids from very different backgrounds who come together as friends and end up lovers. There are several twists in this plot, so it can't be written off as another teen romance.

But, this book got me, Ellie's personality her tough life without a cliche sassy attitude. She is strong, she is confident, yet she is open to good friendships. The fact she'd lived through so much and group up so fast and remained an honestly genuine good person made me like her instantly. Nicholas. The rich good looking bad boy who takes a challenge to woo the new girl in school. Nicholas has everything and nothing. Money, friends, and a good name. But he's lonely and bored, unloved by distant parents. He gravitates to Ellie outside of the challenge, because of her open heart and resillence. The fact that Nicholas honestly warms to Ellie and her family made me like him outside of his beautiful blue eyes, shoulder length dark hair, and hard young body; though, his physical description did help me get into this story.

I will say that by the end of the book I kind of disliked Nicholas, his actions were despicable. However, the means justify the ends and a good story makes people talk and gets them thinking.

Redemption

First and foremost is the word 'had' it is used so often in this book that I now oficially hate it. I'm sorry to begin this review that way, but seriously, it was overused and it stands out in my head as one of the reasons I disliked the book.

Now that I got that off my chest; fast forward a few years and we find Ellie and her family living a great life. She has a loving fiance Devan and a good career as a teacher. Nicholas is the head of his own empire and living the high life of a billionare. He has put his love for Ellie behind him, only recalling the girl who loved him through look-alike prostitutes and callgirls. What? Yeah, you read that right. He walks away from love, then buys women who look just like the girl he left. He is still the good looking rich guy who is lonely and unloved.

Their paths collide and instantly Nicholas starts barging into Ellie's life making demands and eventually worming his way into her heart. Has he grown or changed since breaking ellies heart? Not that I can see and that's where it all went down hill for me, becoming the usual romance bore. Ellie has a great fiance who she cheats on to be with Nicholas who has not changed from the spoiled rich kid getting everything that he wants. Boo! I barely finished this book I was so annoyed.

Overall, skip both reads. There is no reason to get teased with "The bet"(click the title to visit the amazon page for this read) to be let down by "Redemption."

2 tails many twitches of my heart by R.E. Butler

A Twitch of Tail by R.E. Butler

This is the story of one witch, Tera, and two weretiger brothers Melo and Tahlon who live in Ohio.  

Normally novella's leave me wanting more, particuarly when the characters are compelling (or hot). Often times the stories seem incomplete or rushed, leaving me with more questions than answers, but I have found a few good novellas, so I give praise when it's due. 

I have to say that overall I enjoyed this novella, the characters were well thought out and the romance was easy to enjoy and the story felt complete. I enjoyed the fact that our heroine didn't run from love and that she had strength and character of her own without needing the men to define her. I also liked that she had previous menage experience, though it didn't go well the first go around, she tried again realizing that her men would treat her like a goddess and not a toy. Oftentimes the female of a menage gets treated as an object by the author, but this is not the case int twitch.

My only gripe is a minor one; I live in Ohio and am familiar with the Cleveland area and I want to know how you write a story about Cle-town with no African-American characters? This is a little offensive. R.E. Butler include some characters of color in your next story please. I'm avaliable if you need inspiration for a intelligent, sassy, full-figured woman of color who enjoys hot men and a good read with a little adventure on the side.

To check this book out @ Amazon click here! And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

Favorite new author!

Dark genesis by A.D. Koboah

This book is awesome! No really, it's so good that I laughed and cried and now I demand another. The characters rich story fully comes alive on the pages, you see and live with Luna, you fall in love with Avery and by the end you want nothing more than to hold him in your arms and keep him safe. The best way I can describe this is, if "Interview with a vampire" was the grandfather of "Vampire Diaries" and that book had a baby with "Wench" than you would get "dark genesis"

This is the story of an oppressed slave, Luna. She is a woman weighed down by the attention of her master and his son. Seeking solace in a burned chapel she pours her soul out over a stolen bible that she can't even read. Avery, tied to the chapel by his guilt hears her plea and decides to do something about it. Here our story begins...

There are some minor issues:

The epilogue is a tad confusing and I almost stopped there; it was a string of contradictions; relatives having good luck; they were millionaires, but dying tragically. Not lucky in my opinion. And, I didn't care for Dallas and her flippant attitude toward being rich and having a second sight. I hate people who complain about being rich. And people who ignore their instincts.

Dialect is a twofold problem:

1. The author is british and many of the words are spelled in the UK manner. I.e. 'realised' rather than 'realized' and meters are used instead of miles.

2. Luna speaks in a dialect. This can get old fast; though, I moved past this annoyance easily some of you may not.

Grammatical issues:

Location 918 "her face a mask of unalderated hated...." Should be 'hatred' or 'hate'

Location 3390 "..had succeeding in bringing it to its place" should be 'succeeded'

Overall:

I want my own Avery and I will be writing this author and demanding that she finish and publish the next installment in this series. C-mac has already got baby blue's, do you think he'll wear a long haired wig and let me call him 'Avery?'

To purchase this book online click here. And if you like what you read please hit the follow button. Thanks!

UPDATE!! Hubby scoffed when I asked him to put on a wig, in fact he was so outraged that I have been relegated to having to be "nice." Foot rubs, scalp massages, and waking up earlier than normal to make him breakfast and coffee. Boo! Toe jam sux.

No energy

"Naughty Nooners: peak energy" by Afton Locke 

I liked the idea of a short erotic read and found this Elloras Cave book available free on my Kindle, so I downloaded it and commenced to reading.

Ouch, this is bad. There is no goal in this book. A scientist is looking for a way to harnass sexual energy. The sandwich delivery girl wants to 'do him' so he convinces her to be a guinea pig for his experiment.

The only good thing about this book is that the male lead is very dextarious, otherwise its a confusing bore. Skip it.

No heat in Juneau.........

Shiya is the computer nerd in a family of shifter hunters. She starts her first field assignment, go to Alaska and confirm that the man she met is a shifter so her family can take him and his pack down. As an African-American geek or nerd, both apply to me, I liked the idea of reading a story about a nerdy girl getting a chance to strut her stuff.

I tried to like this book, but after the first few scenes I was beginning to not like the character or the writer's idea of "intimate" moments. Put yourself in this situation; You just meet someone for dinner that you've been talking to on-line. Its your first meal together, his best friend shows up and after a brief introduction joins you. Odd, yes, however you roll with it and would you allow both men to feed you. With bare hands. Shiya does and I found that to be less intimate and more weird and out of character for a girl supposedly a little shy and inexperienced. As a girl who was once inexperienced and who has dated on-line, No. Not ever. 

Then, their was the fact that Shiya had no voice or personality of her own. She took the assignment to prove to her family and herself that she was strong enough to handle field work. Yet, she allowed the men to make all the decisions and her only response to having absolutely no control over her own body was, "fine." For example, (location 1196) Each man seemed to be beyond letting her decide how far he went." This is a reason that I don't love menage's, because often time author's let the men treat the heroine like a blow-up doll.

Then their was the fact that the author used the word "hole" to describe her anatomy and the term "broke in" was used to describe her first 'back door experience.' And speaking of that sort of play, the particular situation described in location 1519 of the book is just plain unhygienic. I cannot abide when an author uses such primitive language to describe the most important organ to human existence. No, not being dramatic; without that "hole" we would not exist, so hail to the "v!"

I did find some minor errors like:

Location 537 "she knew they would drew conclusions from that..."

Location 647 "she shoved a fist into her mouth and just stared." Seriously, is she Linnie and Squigy?

Location 1542 ".......her eyes shut and tears on her cheeks."

And a catch phrase: "You know you wrong?" Annoyingly, it appears in several locations.

Overall I found this book more irritating than enjoyable and would recommend that you skip this read and try"A gaurdians desire" by Mya and "Fierce Heat" by Lizzie Lynn. Both books treat their women with respect and they are scorching hot!

Blown away

A Guardian's Desire

This is my first experience with an alpha female as the herione of the book and I loved it! Freya, our shero, is working an easy gig; gaurd some girls as they find a mate during a weekend pagent. The warrior in Freya is bored without highstakes action or a pretty boy toy that she can dominant. Enter Rayne, a beautiful witch shifter who throws himself in Freya's path; they become entranced with each other. The problem? Rayne's big dominant alpha, Fenris, who has plans to make Freya one of the pageant girls!.

Omg, this book is so good. The prologue threw me off at first, but by the end I was like, YES! Rayne, isn't just some pretty boy; he tall and muscular with a handsome face, sensitivity, intelligence and some satisfying techniques. Fenris is his total opposite, not pretty but strong like bull and calculating. The pair work their way into Freya's and mine. My favorite part is the courting, when Freya lets herself be free with Rayne and finally starts to accept Fenris. I have read the epilouge at least three times, the insecurities that Freya reveals to her mates is so heart warming; she finally let somone in and was rewarded by unconditional love from not one, but two gorgeous men who call her mate.

There are some typos, but they are minor compared to so many other books out there. I wrote the author with my sentiments ( A nice way of saying I gushed about how much I loved the book) and I mentioned the typos, she assured me that she has an editor and that they try to get to all of them, but some slip through. Ahem, (she straightens her imaginary tie) PLEASE PLEASE, PLEASE (falls to knees) let me help out with that! 

Great title:

Scar by Kassanna

Great cover, mediocre read. I liked the concept of this book; someone kidnaps the son of the alpha. Fre, finds a puppy locked in car parked at a strip club; love follows. A single father, Rhys also happens to be alpha of his pack; he falls for Fre without revealing his true nature. 

I really enjoyed the cover of this book and saw that it had been reviewed favorably, so I got a sample. It was an okay read, though the hero and shero never became real to me.

I enjoyed the character Keen, but wish the author spent more time developing all of the characters in the story.

It felt flat when I read the love scenes and the actions were just white words on the black kindle screen. I prefer for the words to come alive in my imagination and this never happened. 

Maybe, it was the myriad of typos and grammar problems, or, the mundane details that didn't move the story (Why do I care about the way he sticks his straw in a drink? Location 392. And, an "ode" is a song, not an aroma. location 432). Either way this was just an okay read, certainly not worth $4.

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