Author Archives: Kristin

Sneak Peek Wednesday: Don’t Read the Comments by Eric Smith

22 January, 2020 1:41 am , Leave a Comment ,

Don’t Read the Comments
by Eric Smith
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication date: Jan. 28, 2020
Genre: Young Adult

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she’s playing Reclaim the Sun, the year’s hottest online game. Divya—better known as popular streaming gamer D1V—regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game’s vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she’s trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.

Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho’s entire life. Much to his mother’s frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun—and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.

At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds…and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron’s dreams and Divya’s actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line…

And she isn’t going down without a fight.

 

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Posted in: Excerpt , Tagged:

Review: Blitzed by Alexa Martin

20 January, 2020 1:35 am , Leave a Comment ,

Blitzed
(Playbook #3)
by Alexa Martin
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Publication date: Dec. 3, 2019
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Maxwell has finally met an opponent that he can’t best in this new football romance from the author of Fumbled.

According to Brynn Larson, Maxwell Lewis is more trouble than he’s worth. She doesn’t care if he’s a football god with a rock-hard body that brings most women to their knees. After an encounter that ends poorly, she’s not interested in giving him a second chance. The last thing Brynn expects is for him to turn up at her bar months later, hat in hand. It doesn’t matter if he brings more customers to her business–she’s still not going on a date with him.

Maxwell knows he made a mistake. He’d been waiting to make his move on Brynn since the day he laid eyes on her and he was finally ready to go for it until he screwed up. He wishes he could tell her the truth about what happened that night, but he just can’t. He can’t tell anyone, so he’ll make amends and hope she’ll forgive him.

Brynn’s not like other women, though. Playing for the Mustangs doesn’t impress her and gifts make her scoff. Max will have to bring his A game if he hopes to win her over.

 

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Posted in: Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Bound for Glory by Tess LeSue

17 January, 2020 1:48 am , 3 Comments ,

Bound for Glory
(Frontiers of the Heart #4)
by Tess LeSue
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Publication date: Dec. 3, 2019
Rating:

An unwilling legend and the woman who made him one face off in this epic conclusion to the Frontiers of the Heart series.

He has many names. They call him Deathrider, White Wolf, The Plague of the West. He’s the ice-eyed killer of the plains; the ghost of the trail; the restless spirit who haunts the frontier from California to Missouri, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake. They say he seeks vengeance for his murdered people; they say he never sleeps; they say he moves silently through the night and changes form to run with the wolves. And that he is as beautiful as Lucifer.

At least, so they say. Ava Archer wouldn’t know; she’s never seen him. But that doesn’t stop her from writing about him. The Plague of the West is her bread and butter, and after more than a dozen dime novels, she thinks she probably knows Deathrider better than he knows himself, even if she wouldn’t recognize him on the street. If only rumors of his death would stop getting in the way of a good story….

Those damn stories make Nathaniel Rides With Death’s life an absolute misery. Thanks to his unwanted notoriety, he’s hunted like an animal by an endless stream of gunslingers looking to make a name for themselves. When someone close to Nate is shot by one of the gunslingers, Nate decides it’s time to hunt down the novelist at the root of all his troubles. He has a plan to end this farce once and for all.

 

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Posted in: historical romance , Tagged: ,

Sneak Peek Wednesday: A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison

8 January, 2020 8:10 pm , 5 Comments ,

A Love Hate Thing
by Whitney D. Grandison
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Publication date: Jan. 7, 2020
Genre: Romance

When they’re stuck under one roof, the house may not be big enough for their hate…or their love.

When Tyson Trice finds himself tossed into the wealthy coastal community of Pacific Hills, he’s ready for the questions, the stares and the feeling of not belonging. Not that he cares. After recovering from being shot and surviving the rough streets of Lindenwood, he doesn’t care about anyone or anything, much less how the rest of his life will play out.

Golden girl Nandy Smith has spent most of her life building the pristine image that it takes to fit in when it comes to her hometown Pacific Hills where image is everything. After learning that her parents are taking in a troubled teen boy, Nandy fears her summer plans, as well as her reputation, will go up in flames.

Now with Trice living under the same roof, the wall between their bedrooms feels as thin as the line between love and hate. Beneath the angst, their growing attraction won’t be denied. Through time, Trice brings Nandy out of her shell, and Nandy attempts to melt the ice that’s taken Trice’s heart and being. Only, with the ever-present pull back to the Lindenwood streets, it’ll be a wonder if Trice makes it through this summer at all.

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Review: Ultimate Courage by Piper J. Drake

6 January, 2020 4:29 pm , 5 Comments ,

Ultimate Courage
(True Heroes #2)
by Piper J. Drake
Publisher: Forever
Publication date: Jan. 26, 2016
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Rating:

LOVE IS AN ACT OF BRAVERY

Retired Navy SEAL Alex Rojas is putting his life back together, one piece at a time. Being a single dad to his young daughter and working at Hope’s Crossing Kennels to help rehab a former guard dog, he struggles every day to control his PTSD. But when Elisa Hall shows up, on the run and way too cautious, she unleashes his every protective instinct.

Elisa’s past never stays in her rearview mirror for long, and she refuses to put anyone else in danger. But with Alex guarding her so fiercely yet looking at her so tenderly, she’s never felt safer . . . or more terrified that the secrets she keeps could put countless people in grave peril. The only way for both to fully escape their demons will take the ultimate act of courage: letting go and learning to trust each other.

 

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Posted in: romantic suspense , Tagged: ,

Review: The Dream Hunter by Sherrilyn Kenyon

3 January, 2020 12:58 pm , 3 Comments ,

The Dream Hunter
(Dark-Hunter #10)
by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Publisher: St, Martin’s Press
Publication date: Feb. 6, 2007
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Rating:

In the ethereal world of dreams, there are champions who fight to protect the dreamer and there are demons who prey on them…

Arik is such a predator. Condemned by the gods to live eternity without emotions, Arik can only feel when he’s in the dreams of others. For thousands of years, he’s drifted through the human unconscious, searching for sensation. Now he’s finally found a dreamer whose vivid mind can fill his emptiness.

Dr. Megeara Kafieri watched her father ruin himself and his reputation as he searched to prove Atlantis was real. Her deathbed promise to him to salvage his reputation has now brought her to Greece where she intends to prove once and for all that the fabled island is right where her father said it was. But frustration and bad luck dog her every step. Especially the day they find a stranger floating in the sea. His is a face she’s seen many times…. in her dreams.

What she doesn’t know is that Arik holds more than the ancient secrets that can help her find the mythical isle of Atlantis. He has made a pact with the god Hades: In exchange for two weeks as a mortal man, he must return to Olympus with a human soul. Megeara’s soul.

With a secret society out to ruin her expedition, and mysterious accidents that keep threatening her life, Megeara refuses to quit. She knows she’s getting closer to Atlantis and as she does, she stumbles onto the truth of what Arik really is.

For Arik his quest is no longer simple. No human can know of a Dream-Hunter’s existence. His dream of being mortal has quickly turned into his own nightmare and the only way to save himself will be to sacrifice the very thing he wanted to be human for. The only question is, will he?

 

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Posted in: Paranormal Romance , Tagged: ,

I blinked and now it’s 2020!

1 January, 2020 9:56 am , 3 Comments ,

 

I feel like as I get older, the years go by quicker. 2019 was a year where if you blinked, you missed it. Maybe I’m the only one that feels that way, but it felt like every time I turned around, it was a new month. This year I had some health issues pop up, which slowed down my reading to practically nonexistent. There was also a moment where I thought I would have to move again, and I was dreading it, but thankfully everything worked out and we could stay where we are for a couple more years. I experienced Disneyland for the first time, and it was magical. I enjoyed it so much, that my bestie from NY came out to visit and we went to Disneyland. We ended the year with taking in a kitten that was found in the middle of the night, in the middle of the desert. We’re still fostering her, but our cat has not been happy, regardless of how many pheromone diffusers I bought and put up around the house. To say that this year was a bit chaotic would be putting it mildly. I didn’t get a whole heck of a lot of reading in this year. I read 58 books when I set my Goodreads goal to 125. However, I’m hoping that 2020 will be the year of books for me.

 

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Posted in: meme

Review: On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

16 December, 2019 4:12 pm , 6 Comments ,

On the Come Up
by Angie Thomas
Publisher: Balzer + Bray
Publication date: Feb 5. 2019
Genre: Young Adult
Rating:

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

On the Come Up is Angie Thomas’s homage to hip-hop, the art that sparked her passion for storytelling and continues to inspire her to this day. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; of the struggle to become who you are and not who everyone expects you to be; and of the desperate realities of poor and working-class black families.

 

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Posted in: YA Contemporary , Tagged: ,

Review: Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

13 December, 2019 7:07 am , 3 Comments ,

The Right Swipe
(Modern Love #1)
by Alisha Rai
Publisher: Avon
Publication date: Aug 6, 2019
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules:

– Nude pics are by invitation only

– If someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice

– Protect your heart

Only there aren’t any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night… and disappears.

Rhi thought she’d buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later, still big, still beautiful—and in league with a business rival. He says he won’t fumble their second chance, but she’s wary. A temporary physical partnership is one thing, but a merger of hearts? Surely that’s too high a risk…

 

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Posted in: Romance , Tagged: ,

Review: Faker by Sarah Smith

9 December, 2019 12:53 am , 7 Comments ,

Faker
by Sarah Smith
Publisher: Berkley
Publication date: Oct. 8, 2019
Genre: Romance
Rating:

Emmie Echavarre is a professional faker. She has to be to survive as one of the few female employees at Nuts & Bolts, a power tool company staffed predominantly by gruff, burly men. From nine to five, Monday through Friday, she’s tough as nails–the complete opposite of her easy-going real self.

One thing she doesn’t have to fake? Her disdain for coworker Tate Rasmussen. Tate has been hostile to her since the day they met. Emmie’s friendly greetings and repeated attempts to get to know him failed to garner anything more than scowls and terse one-word answers. Too bad she can’t stop staring at his Thor-like biceps…

When Emmie and Tate are forced to work together on a charity construction project, things get…heated. Emmie’s beginning to see that beneath Tate’s chiseled exterior lies a soft heart, but it will take more than a few kind words to erase the past and convince her that what they have is real.

 

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Posted in: Romance , Tagged: ,