Well I think
it’s official, Katee Roberts has nailed romantic suspense. I was on the edge of
my seat for the whole book. Every time I thought I had it all figured out I was
so very wrong. And I stayed wrong until the end. The scene setting was awesome
and I loved the added mystery of not just trying to figure out who the killer
was but also when, where and who they were going to strike next. And every time
they did I still was shocked and trying to re-evaluate who it could possibly be
and why.
As with all
of Katee Roberts books the romance was perfect. I loved that there was history
between Maggie and Vic however they didn’t have any major drama over it or
stupid misunderstandings. They just went about everything like adults and acted
in a way that just added to the respect I had for them both from the very
beginning.
The sexual
tension was so well balanced with the emotions of the story and as can always
be expected from Katee Roberts the sex scenes were smoking hot. I have been so
impressed with this series and I can’t wait to see it continue.
Will you dare to gaze upon the monster among the roses?
MONSTER AMONG THE ROSES
Fairy Tale Quartet #1
Linda Kage
Releasing July 24, 2017
“Do you know how to
get to the rose garden?”
“No, you can’t go
there. A monster lives there.”
Shaw
Hollander is desperate.
Broke,
unemployed, and determined to help his ailing mother, he falls on the good
graces of a wealthy benefactor who is willing to give Shaw a job at his mansion
in order to pay off his mother’s debts. Suddenly finding himself surrounded by
lavish riches, he has no idea what his duties truly entail until he’s sent to
the rose garden and meets the tragically mutilated Isobel.
This Beauty
and the Beast story holds true to the core of the fable while shaking off the
element of fantasy and dragging it into present day reality. Shaw and Isobel
are ready to let you climb into their four-wheel-drive pickup and take a ride
with them into their version of happily ever after, but only if you first dare
to gaze upon the monster among the roses.
Great.
I was lost. Shading my hand over my eyes, I decided the far right should take me
in the general direction I wanted to go. So I went that way, only to end up at
the edge of the house, but not where I’d started, and not close enough to the
rose garden to get me inside.
Strangely
enough, however, a boy played outside, using sidewalk chalk to color a picture
of…what the hell was he drawing? Maybe some kind of dying animal with blood
gushing from its side and an arrow sticking out of its back.
It
didn’t look right, whatever it was.
I
shook my head and jerked my gaze from the disturbingly morbid sketch. “Hey,
kid.”
The
boy jumped and looked up, hopping to his feet and backing away from me as I were the scary one.
No
idea who he was; he looked too young to be Mr. Nash’s son from the photos I’d
seen, plus he had white blond hair, the complete opposite shade of the young
man in all the pictures in Mr. Nash’s office. But he was here, so he’d have to
do.
Wanting
to appear as non-threatening as possible, I smile and waved. “Hey. Sorry for
bothering you, but do you know how to get to the rose garden?”
That
must’ve been the wrong question to ask. His face drained of color. “No,” he
said, shaking his head. “You can’t go there.”
What? “Why not?”
“A monster lives in there. Half her face is
melted off. She eats the thorns from the roses so she can spit them at people,
stabbing them in the neck to slice their throat open until they bleed out and die.”
O…kay.
Somehow,
I’d stumbled across one of the children of the corn. Nice.
Lifting
my eyebrows, I drew my own step in reverse. Time to retreat. “Dude, that’s
gruesome.”
Please don’t kill me. Please don’t
kill me. Please don’t kill me.
He
gave a serious nod. “It’s true. My mom’ll tell you she’s real too.”
“Oh
yeah?” Relieved he wasn’t claiming he’d sprouted from Satan’s cabbage patch but
actually had a mother, I glanced around for this wise, all-knowing parent of
his. Maybe she could tell me how to
get to the conservatory. “Who’s your mom?”
“The
cook,” he said, puffing up his chest as if that were the most important title
in the house. “She’s worked here for fifteen years. She knows everything about
this place there is to know. So…don’t go into the roses. You won’t come out
alive. Lewis, the groundskeeper, doesn’t even go in there.”
Aha!
So this place did have a gardener. I
knew it.
I
took a second to ponder why I was being sent to garden then, when Mr. Nash
already paid someone to maintain the place. But if Lewis refused to go into the
roses, as the kid had said, maybe it was rumored to be haunted or something,
and that was where I came in. Then again, why wouldn’t Mr. Nash just hire a new
groundskeeper who wasn’t so scared and superstitious? Then I stopped pondering
the whys. It wasn’t my place to question strange, rich people and their
strange, oddball orders. I was just here to do what I was told and save my mom.
Nodding gravely to the boy, I said, “Thanks
for the warning, kid. But I think I’ll take my chances. Which way?”
He
looked at me as if he’d never see me again because I was headed forth to my
death, then he lifted his hand and quietly pointed toward another opening in
the path of bushes.
“Thanks.”
I nodded and got out of there before some of his creepiness started rubbing
off.
Fortunately,
he’d steered me in the right direction. I landed right at the outdoor entrance
into the glass gazebo. Propping the door open, I carted my supplies inside and
then paused to breathe deeply.
But
fuck me, it smelled good in here. You didn’t have to be a flower enthusiast for
this garden to amaze you. It was like the holy shrine of roses. A hallowed kind
of reverence filled my chest. Haunted or not, I liked it. It felt peaceful and
yet revitalizing.
Suddenly
intimidated because I didn’t want to mess anything up in such a perfect place,
my hands shook as I flipped back to the pages about rose care. The more I
skimmed, however, the more confused I became.
These
roses didn’t need a lick of my attention. They were all in excellent condition
as if someone already tended to them. Maybe creepy kid had been wrong, and
Lewis the groundskeeper came in here hourly to care for them.
Still…What
the hell?
I
frowned and slid my finger along the silken petals of a blood red rose.
Perfectly pruned, weeded, and watered. It was as flawless as a thing could get.
But
I couldn’t go tell Mr. Nash they didn’t need anything, could I? What if he
fired me for lack of work to do, or because he thought I was lazy and lying
about the roses not needing care?
I
looked around again, searching for anything to water, or clip, or re-soil. It
was crazy how thriving every single flower looked.
Maybe
this was some kind of test, and Mr. Nash wanted me to fail. What if he’d never
intended for me to work for him and the contract I’d signed to save my mom was
being burned in the fireplace in this office as I stood here like a dumbass
with nothing to weed.
Confused
and worried, and growing a little angry, I scowled at a wall full of pink vine
roses growing to my right. But they were honestly too pretty to be glared at,
so my mood settled.
I
bet Mom would love them. She was a fan of pink. And flowers. Plus, these were
the good-smelling kind. I’d be a good son if I brought home such a flower to
her. And it seemed as if they grew in abundance, not as if they were one of the
rare breeds Mr. Nash had spoken of. So I reached for a bloom to pluck it from
the vine without even thinking beyond how much it’d make my mother smile.
Behind
me, a voice growled, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Jumping
half out of my skin because I’d been certain no one had been in here with me, I
whirled around only to gasp, “Shit!”
The
creepy cook’s son hadn’t been lying.
In
front of me stood an irate woman with half her face melted off.
I grew up
on a dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now I live in
Kansas with my husband, two daughters, nine cuckoo clocks, and a cat named
Holly. My life's been blessed with lots of people to learn from and love.
Writing's always been a major part my world, and I'm so happy to finally share
some of my stories with other romance lovers.
I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, and I've been through a writing correspondence class in children's literature from The Institute of Children's Literarture, and then I continued my writing lessons by majoring in English with an emphasis in creative fiction writing from Pittsburg State University.
I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, and I've been through a writing correspondence class in children's literature from The Institute of Children's Literarture, and then I continued my writing lessons by majoring in English with an emphasis in creative fiction writing from Pittsburg State University.
I am such a
massive fan of fairytale adaptations. I think it's the slight predictability
with twists and turns to compare and interpret. And Linda Kage always writes
such beautiful, emotion filled stories that have me desperate for the happy ever after. I
just knew this book was going to be perfection.
This entire
story was told in our amazing hero, Shaw’s P.O.V. and as the twist goes he is
also our beauty. Now I have to be honest here he was so beautiful inside that I
never really considered his appearance but every now and then someone else
would mention it and I found it almost shocking. He just was so amazingly sweet
and sincere and caring about everyone around him it's hard to also picture him
with model good looks.
And poor
Isobel as our beast was amazing. Her inner strength to survive everything she
had been through humbled me. She started out so closed off but watching her
open up to Shaw was great.
The
secondary characters were so engaging and so much a part of the story I loved
and hated them and felt so many strong emotions reading this I really struggled
to put it down.
And the
brief lead up to the next book in the series has me running off to Goodreads to
see how long I have to wait to get my grabby hands on it. But for now I can't
wait to see everyone else's thoughts and reactions to this beautiful book.
Even though
I don’t read a lot of M/M romance I just can’t go passed Sarina Bowen’s. Her
writing is just so perfect and contains so much emotion I can’t get enough. And
the fact that every book has the slightest crossover always makes me feel like
I am in on an inside secret and I get a little thrill every time I come across
it.
This is the
second in the series and could be read as a true standalone, but why would you
want to? Josh and Caleb were amazing in Goodbye Paradise and they do have a few
cameo visits in this book so I really suggest you read that one first.
Axel and Cax
were beautiful together. Every interaction I could feel their chemistry and I
was so desperate to see them together that from the first word I couldn’t put
it down until I got my happily ever after.
These guys
went through so much individually that my heart just broke for them. Poor Cax
had so much against him I just wanted to wrap him up and take away all of his
issues. But Axel was so perfect and he not only understood where Cax was coming
from he went out of his way to make things better for him at his own expense.
I loved
watching these guys over come every obstacle and fight for their forever. This
whole book was so gripping and had the perfect mixture of sweetness and sexy
with plenty of emotion mixed in. This
whole series has been beautiful and I can’t wait to see what’s next from the
beautiful and talented Sarina Bowen.
About CASUAL IMPRESSIONS
In this electrifying novel from USA Today Bestselling Author Kennedy Layne, the Safeguard team is coming ever closer to catching an elusive serial killer who might very well be hunting one of their own…
Sawyer Madison has spent the last few months hunting down a sadistic killer. He and his team don’t seem to be any closer to solving this particular case that has hit a little too close to home. Fortunately, they had all served in the Corps. That kind of training and dedication meant none of them considered quitting before the mission was done.
Camryn Novak had spent most of her childhood, and a large part of her adult life, dealing with her overprotective brother. So when an admirer becomes a little too obsessed with her due to her high-profile career, she decides it would be simpler to reach out to someone a little less emotionally invested.
Sawyer never expected to bump into the sister of one of his teammates while traveling on assignment. Women like her were off limits—one shouldn’t mix business with pleasure. One burning touch was all it took to make his good intentions go up in flames. Unfortunately, it won’t just be her brother’s wrath he’s forced to face when an unknown perp targets Camryn—it might very well be the same psychopath they’ve been hunting all along.
Add CASUAL IMPRESSIONS to your Goodreads list here!
Get your hands on CASUAL IMPRESSIONS:
✦ Amazon ✦ iBooks ✦ Barnes & Noble ✦ Kobo ✦
About Kennedy Layne
Kennedy Layne is a USA Today bestselling author. She draws inspiration for her military romantic suspense novels in part from her not-so-secret second life as a wife of a retired Marine Master Sergeant. He doubles as her critique partner, beta reader, and military consultant. They live in the Midwest with their teenage son and menagerie of pets. The loyal dogs and mischievous cats appreciate her writing days as much as she does, usually curled up in front of the fireplace. She loves hearing from readers--find out how to connect with her at:Website | Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter | Instagram
Title: Wallflowers: Double Trouble
Series: Wallflowers #2
Author: CP Smith
Genre: Romantic Suspense/Comedy
Release Date: July 21, 2017
Blurb
“ ’Tis better to never have loved and lost than to live with
the regret of your stupidity.” ~ Sienna Miller, Wallflower
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, or in this case, Wallflowers to behave. Then again . . .
Sienna Miller spent her whole life being the odd woman out. Shunned and misunderstood by her family, she finally has a chance for a new start thanks to Calla and Poppy, her Wallflower sisters. Now all she needs is a Prince Charming.
Bo Strawn is a cop with a troubled past. He’s stubborn and set in his ways until a certain Wallflower shakes up his life for good. Bo’s finally got a shot at happily ever after. That is, he’s got a shot if he can solve a mystery surrounding the Wallflowers and keep his headstrong woman off the back of a horse.
Rated mature for language and sexual content.
They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, or in this case, Wallflowers to behave. Then again . . .
Sienna Miller spent her whole life being the odd woman out. Shunned and misunderstood by her family, she finally has a chance for a new start thanks to Calla and Poppy, her Wallflower sisters. Now all she needs is a Prince Charming.
Bo Strawn is a cop with a troubled past. He’s stubborn and set in his ways until a certain Wallflower shakes up his life for good. Bo’s finally got a shot at happily ever after. That is, he’s got a shot if he can solve a mystery surrounding the Wallflowers and keep his headstrong woman off the back of a horse.
Rated mature for language and sexual content.
Purchase Links
Also Available
Author Bio
CP Smith lives in Oklahoma with her husband and five
children. She loves football, reading, and card games. Writing for her is about
escape. She writes what she loves to read, and leaves the rest to those with
better imaginations.
Author Links
So as soon as I put down Three of a
Kind I immediately had to start Double Trouble and I can honestly say the high
standard I was expecting was met. The book kicked off with a short prologue
then jumps right in where we left off.
I do have to
admit I had a moment of doubt when I thought I knew where the story was going
and I was expecting drama central but I was way off and got nothing at all that
I expected. I ended up on the edge of my seat trying to guess what was going on
and the plot twists were so perfect I didn't see them coming.
Of course I
already knew I loved Sienna and Colt and since we were so thoroughly introduced
to them in book 1 I felt like we were old mates. And because the wallflowers
are so tight we got an amazing continuation of the first couple. In fact it
just flows so beautifully it was like the first story just continued from a
different point of view.
The almost cliff-hanger
at the end of this was awesome. I absolutely did not see that coming and it has
me so desperate for Poppy's book I am going to be stalking C.P. Smith like a
crazy person.
If you are a
fan of Kristen Ashley then this is your new favourite author.
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