Blog Tour: The Wright Boss by K.A. Linde!

 

  A new stand alone office romance from USA Today bestselling author K.A. Linde... I’ve always had one rule: Don’t mix business and pleasure. But then Landon Wright comes home to his family’s construction company with a broken back and a beaten heart and ends up as my new sexy boss. As the office gets heated, I’m thinking about throwing the rulebook out the window. If only there weren’t a million reasons this could never work. We may have shared a single perfect kiss, but I can’t let our intense connection cloud my judgment. Not with everything I’ve worked for on the line. Dating your boss is so very, very wrong…even if he feels so Wright.    

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This is the second Wright brother book. If you haven't read the first, you should stop and go do that. Anyway, this is Landon Wright and Heidi's book. Landon is a professional golfer but because of a back injury, he's basically put on disability. Heidi works for Wright Construction. But after one passionate kiss shared on New Years Eve, Heidi and Landon decide not to pursue anything. Mostly because Landon is still married and Heidi isn't that kind of lady.

That is until Landon leaves his wife, moves back closer to his family and decides to go into construction at his brother's company. Ultimately becoming Heidi's boss. Which is a big no-no with the company policy. But you just can't control that feeling once you get it.

There are stolen kisses and heated glances. But a secret relationship can only go so far until you're found out Landon and Heidi learn. Catastrophe happens of course but you have to read and see how it turns out. 

I really liked this one. But I only gave it 4 stars where as book one was 5 stars for me. i just found something missing in the writing this time around. The attraction between the characters was there but sometimes I just lost that feeling. I wasn't as excited when it came to this story. But I'm still on board for book three.  

  K.A. Linde is the USA Today bestselling author of more than fifteen novels including the Avoiding series and the Record series. She has a Masters degree in political science from the University of Georgia, was the head campaign worker for the 2012 presidential campaign at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and served as the head coach of the Duke University dance team. She loves reading fantasy novels, geeking out over Star Wars, binge-watching Supernatural, and dancing in her spare time. She currently lives in Lubbock, Texas, with her husband and two super adorable puppies.

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Book Review: Escorted by Claire Kent!

Escorted (Escorted #1)
Author: Claire Kent
Publication Date: December 15, 2012

My Rating:

She hired him to take her virginity...but now she wants even more.
Lori might be a popular romance writer, but she's never been anything but a flop with sex and love in her personal life. Still a virgin at twenty-six and increasingly frustrated by her inexperience, she decides to take matters into her own hands. She hires a talented, sexy male escort to take care of her inconvenient virginity.
She assumes one time with Ander will be enough, but she never dreams how much pleasure he can make her feel. Once isn't nearly enough. Twice isn't enough either. Soon, she becomes one of his regular clients.
Lori knows that nothing would be as foolish as falling in love with her paid escort, but she's never been wise with her heart. And, despite his professionalism, he doesn't seem entirely immune either.

Everyone has their own fantasy of how their first time is going to go, well everyone except Lori, who just wants to get it over with, at least at first she did. Lori, is a bestselling romance novelist, who is seeking experience in sex, since she is still a virgin at the age of twenty-six, so with the help of her cousin, she finds an escort, Ander, who comes highly recommended.

Book Review: Daring Fate by Megan Erickson! (@MeganErickson_)

Daring Fate (Silver Tip Pack #1)
Author: Megan Erickson
Publication Date: November 14, 2016
Source: Author in exchange for a honest review.

My Rating:

We all have tragic backstories in today's world.
I wake up chained to the wall of a dark cell aware of two things: I failed my sister, and I smell my enemy.
When I’m taken to meet Dare, the alpha of the Silver Tip pack, I’m sure I’m about to lose my throat. The last thing I expect is for the Alpha to recognize me as his fated mate. No way is he going to let me go now, and I still have to find a way to rescue my sister.
As I plot my escape to save her, I find that if I leave, Dare could be killed by power-hungry members of his pack. And now he’s more to me than my fated mate—my heart is involved. With time ticking by on my sister’s life, I have to make a choice I never thought I’d face—my sister’s life or my mate’s? That’s if I can survive the undead shifters intent on killing me first...

Holy… I don’t think there are enough words to describe this book. For over a year I have been raving about anything Megan Erickson writes. But when I saw she was stepping out of contemporary and into the paranormal, I didn’t know what to expect. I have never read an adult paranormal book before. Let along an adult paranormal book with a M/M romance between werewolves. I can definitely check that off the list now.

Book Review: The Secret Ways of Perfume by Cristina Caboni! (@cristinecaboni)

The Secret Ways of Perfume
Author: Cristina Caboni
Publication Date: August 11, 2016
Published: Transworld Digital
Source: First to Read

My Rating:

From Florence to Paris, a scent like no other can take you unexpected places . . .
Ten-year-old Elena lives in Florence with her cold and distant perfumier grandmother. Only when enveloped in aromas does Elena feel at home, and she has nurtured a unique gift: the ability to decipher the ingredients of a perfume, and experience the feelings it evokes.
Years later, Elena’s talent leads her to the cobbled streets of Paris. There she rediscovers an old, secret family perfume recipe that no other perfumier has been able to replicate.
As Elena begins to open her heart to new adventures she meets a man who is guarding his own secrets. From France’s sun-drenched lavender fields to the ancient heart of Italy, together they will follow a path of secret scents, distant memories and new hopes . . .

I received an ARC from Penguin's First to Read.

I like both of those covers. The one with the Eiffel Tower is the Hardcover edition and the woman in the field is the Kindle edition.

The story was a bit clichéd and formulaic (ha - a pun), but I still enjoyed it very much. Some parts were repetitive and dragged, but overall I liked the characters and the journeys they went on.

I was invested in the mystery about Elena's ancestor, Beatrice, and her lost Perfect Perfume, and how it affected generations of the Rossini women. The outcome was plausible and satisfying.

There were a few things I nitpicked about. I would have liked Elena and her mother to reconcile sooner so that the epilogue could have taken place a few years into the future. But I have my own head cannon for that.

The descriptions about the perfumes themselves were divine and delightful. I would usually read while commuting and I swear I could smell people's perfumes more acutely than usual because of the beautiful prose. It made me want to have my own personalized perfume. There was even one part of the story that took place in a bakery, and I swear I could smell pastries.

4 out 5 Perfect Perfumes.

Book Review: Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet by H.P. Wood! (@hilarywrites)

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet
Author: H.P. Wood
Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Published: Sourcebooks Landmark
Source: NetGalley

My Rating:

May 1904. Coney Island’s newest amusement park, Dreamland, has just opened. Its many spectacles are expected to attract crowds by the thousands, paying back investors many times over.
Kitty Hayward and her mother arrive by steamer from South Africa. When Kitty’s mother takes ill, the hotel doctor sends Kitty to Manhattan to fetch some special medicine. But when she returns, Kitty’s mother has vanished. The desk clerk tells Kitty she is at the wrong hotel. The doctor says he’s never seen her although, she notices, he is unable to look her in the eye.
Alone in a strange country, Kitty meets the denizens of Magruder’s Curiosity Cabinet. A relic of a darker, dirtier era, Magruder's is home to a forlorn flea circus, a handful of disgruntled Unusuals, and a mad Uzbek scientist. Magruder’s Unusuals take Kitty under their wing and resolve to find out what happened to her mother.
But as a plague spreads, Coney Island is placed under quarantine. The gang at Magruder’s finds that a missing mother is the least of their problems, as the once-glamorous resort town is abandoned to the freaks, anarchists, and madmen.

I received this book through Net Galley.

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet was a wonderful story. I really felt for many of the characters and their journey. I even loved the weird and mystical Curiosity Cabinet, which was a character too. The Cabinet and Timur's inventions reminded me a bit of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Because of that magical feeling I put aside some of my reservations about the end and how quickly some characters recovered.

They say write what you know and it shows. The author is the granddaughter of a mad inventor and a sideshow magician. I also loved the author's notes about what was historically accurate and what was historical fiction. I am interested in looking into some of her recommendations that helped her writing.

I have family in Brooklyn near Coney Island, so I have spent time there, and I loved reading the descriptions of the place. It felt like home and I became giddy as I recognized the places.

When Hoffman Island and Swinburne Island were mentioned I knew exactly where they were. In the early 1900s, the islands were used as a quarantine station, housing immigrants found to have been carrying contagious diseases when they landed at Ellis Island.

Magruder's Curiosity Cabinet is a spectacular story and definitely worth reading, especially if you like magical and anything Unusual.

4 out 5 Boxing Kangaroos

Book Review: A Fine Imitation by Amber Brock! (@ambrockwrites)

A Fine Imitation
Author: Amber Brock
Publication Date: May 3, 2016
Published: Crown
Source: First to Read

My Rating:

Set in the glamorous 1920s, A Fine Imitation is an intoxicating debut that sweeps readers into a privileged Manhattan socialite’s restless life and the affair with a mysterious painter that upends her world, flashing back to her years at Vassar and the friendship that brought her to the brink of ruin.
Vera Bellington has beauty, pedigree, and a penthouse at The Angelus—the most coveted address on Park Avenue. But behind the sparkling social whirl, Vera is living a life of quiet desperation. Her days are an unbroken loop of empty, champagne-soaked socializing, while her nights are silent and cold, spent waiting alone in her cavernous apartment for a husband who seldom comes home.
Then Emil Hallan arrives at The Angelus to paint a mural above its glittering subterranean pool. The handsome French artist moves into the building, shrouds his work in secrecy, and piques Vera’s curiosity, especially when the painter keeps dodging questions about his past. Is he the man he claims to be? Even as she finds herself increasingly drawn to Hallan’s warmth and passion, Vera can’t supress her suspicions. After all, she has plenty of secrets, too—and some of them involve art forgers like her bold, artistically talented former friend, Bea, who years ago, at Vassar, brought Vera to the brink of catastrophe and social exile.
When the dangerous mysteries of Emil’s past are revealed, Vera faces an impossible choice—whether to cling to her familiar world of privilege and propriety or to risk her future with the enigmatic man who has taken her heart. A Fine Imitation explores what happens when we realize that the life we’ve always led is not the life we want to have.

I received an ARC of A Fine Imitation through First to Read.

This is the first time I have enjoyed a book I received from First to Read. Though to be fair, this is only the fourth book I have received from them.

I got caught up in the mystery of the past and present. My predictions about were Emil were mostly correct, though the details were off.
I was complete correct about Vera's husband, Arthur, and that gave me satisfaction. I felt a range of emotions for the characters.
I certainly liked Vera and rooted her to be free. Her mother was cold. Bea was entertaining, but also lost and untamed.

The people in the building were amusing because they were exactly how one would expect high society to behave. It sort of reminded me of Downton Abbey (in New York City) meets Edward Scissorhands. Emil being like Scissorhands, the shiny new toy to amuse the tenants. Once they grew bored they question who he was, and their feelings quickly turned.

Overall I thought it was a good story. The pacing was steady, the jump back and forth in time was smooth, some of the prose was poetic, and the ending was not only plausible but what I was hoping for.

4 out of 5 murals.

Book Review: Sunset Park by Santino Hassell! (@SantinoHassell)

Sunset Park (Five Boroughs #2)
Author: Santino Hassell
Publication Date: December 11, 2015
Published: Dreamspinner Press

My Rating:

Raymond Rodriguez's days of shoving responsibility to the wayside are over. His older brother wants to live with his boyfriend so Raymond has to get his act together and find a place of his own. But when out-and-proud David Butler offers to be his roommate, Raymond agrees for reasons other than needing a place to crash.
David is Raymond’s opposite in almost every way—he’s Connecticut prim and proper while Raymond is a sarcastic longshoreman from Queens—but their friendship is solid. Their closeness surprises everyone as does their not-so-playful flirtation since Raymond has always kept his bicurious side a secret.
Once they’re under the same roof, flirting turns physical, and soon their easy camaraderie is in danger of being lost to frustrating sexual tension and the stark cultural differences that set them apart. Now Raymond not only has to commit to his new independence—he has to commit to his feelings for David or risk losing him for good.

I didn’t think it was possible to love something as much as I loved Sutphin Boulevard. I told anyone who would listen that they needed to read it. I guess I have to add Sunset Park to the list. Or basically anything he writes. I’m officially a groupie.

Book Review: Sutphin Boulevard by Santino Hassell! (@santinohassell)

Sutphin Boulevard (Five Boroughs #1)
Author: Santino Hassell
Publication Date: July 31, 2015
Published: Dreamspinner Press

My Review:

Michael Rodriguez and Nunzio Medici have been friends for two decades. From escaping their dysfunctional families in the working-class neighborhood of South Jamaica, Queens to teaching in one of the city’s most queer friendly schools in Brooklyn, the two men have shared everything. Or so they thought until a sweltering night of dancing leads to an unexpected encounter that forever changes their friendship.
Now, casual touches and lingering looks are packed with sexual tension, and Michael can’t forget the feel of his best friend’s hands on him. Once problems rear up at work and home, Michael finds himself seeking constant escape in the effortless intimacy and mind-blowing sex he has with Nunzio. But things don’t stay easy for long.
When Michael’s world begins to crumble in a sea of tragedy and complications, he knows he has to make a choice: find solace in a path of self-destruction or accept the love of the man who has been by his side for twenty years.

It’s been over a month since I’ve finished Sutphin Boulevard. Slacking on writing this review has nothing to do with being busy or anything. It is because it has taken that long for me to sort through the amount of emotions that this book left me with. When I picked this book up, I expected lots of smutty boy time. What I didn’t expect was glimpse of how addiction, grief and hiding true feelings can affect a person’s wellbeing. Is this a friends to lovers story? Yes. Is it more than that? Hell yes!