VBB Weekly – 02.08.2015
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The ultimate anti-hero meets his match . . .
Pre-order Now >
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Must-Read-Right-Now Recommendation
If you follow me on social media, you’ve probably already seen me gush about this brilliant series written by C.S. Pacat. For me, it’s a rare perfect series. The writing, the characters, the fantasy, the plotting… it’s all perfection. Every page drips emotion as we see these two princes find their way to each other. Yes, this is a male/male romance and I’ve heard some of you say that you’re not sure if it’s your thing. I had never read a male/male romance myself, but frankly, after reading Laurent and Damen’s story, I can tell you it’s a moot point. The beginning of the series is the most sensually decadent and dark, but the rest of the story is a romance between two very different people with similar core beliefs. The tension is consuming and the honesty of their exchanges just cuts you clean in half. Trust me and give this series a try. The only thing you’ll hate me for is the ginormous ache you’ll feel in your heart once you finish!
Bookish News
- USA Today HEA Excerpt: Find Her by Lisa Gardner
- USA Today HEA Excerpt: To The Stars by Molly McAdams
- Exclusive Excerpt: One Day Soon by A. Meredith Walters
- Exclusive Excerpt: Adore by Nina Lane
- Join the VBB Vixens for a chat with K.A. Tucker on He Will Be My Ruin on 2/10
- Special Feature: Christina Lauren talk about the inspiration behind Wild Seasons series
- Exclusive Interview + Excerpt + Giveaway: Captive Prince Trilogy by C.S. Pacat
New Reviews
- Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman (YA Historical)
- Find Her by Lisa Gardner (Psychological Thriller)
- Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard (YA Fantasy)
- The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig (YA Historical/Fantasy)
- Wicked Sexy Liar by Christina Lauren (Adult Contemporary Romance)
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A sultry story about the kind of love that makes even the strongest men come undone.
Read the prologue >
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Releasing This Week
Bend Me, Break Me by Chelsea M. Cameron (Available Now)
One girl.
Lonely.
Broken.
Lost.
One boy.
Determined.
Guilty.
Lost.
Two hearts.
One terrible secret.
It will either bring them together or tear them apart.
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Beyond the Stars by Stacy Wise (Available Now)
A new adult romance from Entangled’s Embrace imprint…
Falling for him wasn’t in the plans…
Most girls would kill for the opportunity to work for Jack McAlister, Hollywood’s hottest actor, but twenty-one-year-old Jessica Beckett is ready to kick him out of her red Ford Fiesta and never look back. She should be spending her junior year in France, eating pastries and sharpening her foreign language skills. Instead she’s reluctantly working as Jack’s personal assistant, thanks to her powerhouse talent agent aunt.
Jack is private, prickly, and downright condescending. Jessica pushes his buttons—she’s not the type of girl to swoon over celebrity heartthrobs, precisely why her aunt thought she’d be perfect for the job—and Jack pushes right back.
But as she begins to peel away his layers, Jessica is shocked to find she craves her boss’s easy smile and sexy blue eyes. The problem is, so does the entire female population. And what started out as the job from hell soon has Jess wondering if a guy like Jack could ever find love with a regular girl like her.
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Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman (Feb 09) – YA Historical Romance – Read my review
Top Recommendation
In this stunningly creative debut, Nicole Castroman reimagines the origins of history’s most infamous pirate—Blackbeard—and tells the story of the girl who captured his heart and then broke it, setting him on a path to destruction.
When Edward “Teach” Drummond, son of one of Bristol’s richest merchants, returns home from a year at sea, he finds his life in shambles. Betrothed to a girl he doesn’t love and sick of the high society he was born into, all Teach wants is to return to the vast ocean he calls home. There’s just one problem: he must convince his father to let him leave and never come back.
Following the death of her parents, Anne Barrett is left penniless. Though she’s barely worked a day in her life, Anne takes a job as a maid in the home of Master Drummond. Lonely days stretch into weeks and Anne longs to escape the confines of her now mundane life. How will she ever achieve her dream of sailing to Curaçao—her mother’s birthplace—when she’s trapped in England?
From the moment Teach and Anne meet, they set the world ablaze. Drawn together by a shared desire for freedom, but kept apart by Teach’s father, their love is as passionate as it is forbidden. Faced with an impossible choice, Teach and Anne must decide whether to chase their dreams and leave England forever—or follow their hearts and stay together.
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Legend (#6, Real) by Katy Evans (Feb 09)
Can love really conquer all?—Book Six in Katy Evans’s breakout New York Times bestselling series that began with REAL.
Maverick “The Avenger” Cage wants to rise to the top and become a legend in the ring. Though he keeps his identity well guarded, he’s known on the fighting circuit as the new kid with a chip on his shoulder and a tattoo on his back that marks him as trouble. He’s got a personal score to settle with the Underground’s one and only Remington “Riptide” Tate.
As Mav trains, he meets a young girl—the only other new person in the town—and sparks fly. When things get heated between them, he finds out she’s none other than Reese Dumas, the cousin of Remington Tate’s wife. A girl who’s supposed to root against him and a girl he’s supposed to stay away from.
But Mav fights for the woman in his heart and the monsters in his blood. The world’s eyes are on them, and the victor will go down in history as the ultimate fighting champion—the ultimate LEGEND.
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The Death of Lila Jane by Teresa Mummert (Feb 09)
From New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Teresa Mummert comes a cautionary coming of age tale.
Lila Jane is spending her summer vacation preparing for high school. She does everything asked of her, but her parents rarely give her credit for her efforts. She decides to sneak out with a friend to attend a local party and shed her little girl image, to become a woman once and for all. What starts out as a fun escape soon escalates into a life on the run with a boy she barely knows.
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Ink & Lies by S.L. Jennings (Feb 09) – 99¢
From International Best Selling Romance Novelist, Hope Hughes, comes a gripping, heartfelt tale of two lovers, fighting for the freedom to…
No. Scratch that. Too cheesy.
…two people, torn apart by the tumultuous tides of life, only to discover refuge in…
WTF? What does that even mean? DELETE.
…two people, confused as shit as to where they should be and who they should love and none of this means a damn thing because it’s all lies!
Lies.
I’m not Hope Hughes. I’m not some fierce woman romance machine. Hell, I’m not even a woman.
I’m a liar.
And while I refuse to believe my own BS, deceit masked in heartfelt phrases of love and devotion, I want to make her believe them. Because maybe–just maybe–if she can find the soul within my words, she’ll also be able to find the truth scribbled on my heart.
You see, I once lived for the perfect plot twist.
I just never expected to actually live it.
This is my story. Well, maybe her story. I just wish I could make it our story.
The one I’m still writing.
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To The Stars by Molly McAdams (Feb 09) – Read an excerpt
He promised to wait for her.
She told him he was wasting his time.
Not waiting for him ended up being the biggest mistake of her life.
When they were younger, Knox Alexander swore to Harlow Evans that he would wait for her to turn eighteen so they could be together. But that was two and a half years away, and Harlow couldn’t ask him to give up all the fun and thrills of going away to college for her. As the years passed, Knox remained a constant in her life but when her eighteenth birthday came around, Harlow’s heart belonged to someone else.
Every day for the last four years, Harlow has been haunted by that fateful choice. And though he may appear unaffected by what happened in their past, Knox has always tried to fill the void Harlow left. But when he comes stumbling back into her life and refuses to leave, will Harlow finally let him into her heart…?
Can be read as standalone. Covers issues of abuse.
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Adore (#4, Spiral of Bliss) by Nina Lane (Feb 09)
Recommended Series
Liv and Dean have everything…almost. With a rambunctious toddler, crazy work schedules, and too many responsibilities, they’ve lost sight of their passionate, intimate marriage. And Professor West is none too happy about that.
Determined to lure his wife into hot new adventures, Dean struggles with his need to have Liv all to himself and the reality of sharing her with the world.
Then he gets an opportunity that could change their lives…and Liv is faced with the prospect of her white knight going places where she can’t follow.
Must be read in order.
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These Vicious Masks by Tarun Shanker (Feb 09) – YA Historical Thriller
England, 1882. Evelyn is bored with society and its expectations. So when her beloved sister, Rose, mysteriously vanishes. she ignores her parents and travels to London to find her, accompanied by the dashing Mr. Kent. But they’re not the only ones looking for Rose. The reclusive young gentleman Sebastian Braddock is also searching for her, claiming that both sisters have special healing powers. Evelyn is convinced that Sebastian must be mad, until she discovers that his strange tales of extraordinary people are true—and that her sister is in graver danger than she feared.
Jane Austen meets X-Men in this thrilling Victorian adventure from debut authors Tarun Shanker and Kelly Zekas!
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Black Rabbit Hall by Eve Chase (Feb 09) – YA Historical Suspense
For fans of Kate Morton and Sarah Waters, here’s a magnetic debut novel of wrenching family secrets, forbidden love, and heartbreaking loss housed within the grand gothic manor of Black Rabbit Hall.
Ghosts are everywhere, not just the ghost of Momma in the woods, but ghosts of us too, what we used to be like in those long summers . . .
Amber Alton knows that the hours pass differently at Black Rabbit Hall, her London family’s country estate, where no two clocks read the same. Summers there are perfect, timeless. Not much ever happens. Until, of course, it does.
More than three decades later, Lorna is determined to be married within the grand, ivy-covered walls of Pencraw Hall, known as Black Rabbit Hall among the locals. But as she’s drawn deeper into the overgrown grounds, half-buried memories of her mother begin to surface and Lorna soon finds herself ensnared within the manor’s labyrinthine history, overcome with an insatiable need for answers about her own past and that of the once-happy family whose memory still haunts the estate.
Stunning and atmospheric, this debut novel is a thrilling spiral into the hearts of two women separated by decades but inescapably linked by the dark and tangled secrets of Black Rabbit Hall.
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Searching For Mine (1001 Dark Nights novella) by Jennifer Probst (Feb 09)
The Ultimate Anti-Hero Meets His Match…
Connor Dunkle knows what he wants in a woman, and it’s the three B’s. Beauty. Body. Boobs. Other women need not apply. With his good looks and easygoing charm, he’s used to getting what he wants—and who. Until he comes face to face with the one woman who’s slowly making his life hell…and enjoying every moment…
Ella Blake is a single mom and a professor at the local Verily college who’s climbed up the ranks the hard way. Her ten-year-old son is a constant challenge, and her students are driving her crazy—namely Connor Dunkle, who’s failing her class and trying to charm his way into a better grade. Fuming at his chauvinistic tendencies, Ella teaches him the ultimate lesson by giving him a special project to help his grade. When sparks fly, neither of them are ready to face their true feelings, but will love teach them the ultimate lesson of all?
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Some Sort of Love by Melanie Harlow (Feb 09)
You might think I had it all—a career I loved, a supportive family, the Nixon metabolism but not the Nixon ears, and a salary that supported my lavish taste in designer shoes, fine wine, and lacy lingerie … but I had no one to share it with.
Until the day I ran into him—my one night stand from college with the crooked smile, let’s-get-out-of-here eyes, and dirty, dirty mouth.
Cute and cocky then, today Levi Brooks is six feet four inches of hot bearded fantasy. A sexy single dad with broad shoulders, strong hands, and a fantastically big … heart. (I mean, it’s massive. And generous. And it pumps so hard … um. Sorry. Lost my place.)
Being a good father means everything to him, but he’s keeping me at a distance because he thinks I deserve someone better — a man who can give me more time, more attention, more of himself. He doesn’t believe he could ever be enough.
But he’s wrong.
He’s everything.
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Find Her by Lisa Garnder (Feb 09) – Read my review
Recommended Thriller
Flora Dane is a victim.
Seven years ago, carefree college student Flora was kidnapped while on spring break. For 472 days, Flora learned just how much one person can endure.
Flora Dane is a survivor.
Miraculously alive after her ordeal, Flora has spent the past five years reacquainting herself with the rhythms of normal life, working with her FBI victim advocate, Samuel Keynes. She has a mother who’s never stopped loving her, a brother who is scared of the person she’s become, and a bedroom wall covered with photos of other girls who’ve never made it home.
Flora Dane is reckless.
. . . or is she? When Boston detective D. D. Warren is called to the scene of a crime—a dead man and the bound, naked woman who killed him—she learns that Flora has tangled with three other suspects since her return to society. Is Flora a victim or a vigilante? And with her firsthand knowledge of criminal behavior, could she hold the key to rescuing a missing college student whose abduction has rocked Boston? When Flora herself disappears, D.D. realizes a far more sinister predator is out there. One who’s determined that this time, Flora Dane will never escape. And now it is all up to D. D. Warren to find her.
Can be read as a standalone.
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The Consequence of Seduction by Rachel Van Dyken (Feb 09)
Reid Emory has never had reason to question his luck with the ladies. As the owner of a lethal set of aqua-blue eyes and a devastating grin, this Hollywood heartthrob always brings his A game…but lately his luck seems to have run out. The actor is in need of some help, and there’s only one person he can trust to take his love life—and his career—to an explosive new level.
Jordan Litwright’s newest client is trying her patience. As a publicist, she’s more than content to stay in the background and let others shine. But when a publicity stunt backfires, she suddenly finds herself thrust into the spotlight—as Reid’s new love interest. And while other men usually overlook her, Reid is focusing in with laserlike intensity. There’s no denying they have serious chemistry.
But once Reid breaks into the big time, can they turn their made-for-the-media romance into a forever love?
Can be read as a standalone.
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I’ll See You In Paris by Michelle Gable (Feb 09)
Three women, born generations apart.
One mysterious book that threads their lives together.
A journey of love, discovery, and truth…
I’ll See You in Paris is based on the real life of Gladys Spencer-Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, a woman whose life was so rich and storied it could fill several books. Nearly a century after Gladys’s heyday, a young woman’s quest to understand the legendary Duchess takes her from a charming hamlet in the English countryside, to a dilapidated manse kept behind barbed wire, and ultimately, to Paris, where answers will be found at last. In the end, she not only solves the riddle of the Duchess but also uncovers the missing pieces in her own life.
At once a great love story and literary mystery, I’ll See You in Paris will entertain and delight, with an unexpected ending that will leave readers satisfied and eager for Gable’s next novel.
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Wreck and Order by Hannah Tennant-Moore (Feb 09)
A boldly candid, raw portrait of a young woman’s search for meaning and purpose in an indifferent world
Decisively aimless, self-destructive, and impulsively in and out of love, Elsie is a young woman who feels stuck. She has a tumultuous relationship with an abusive boyfriend, a dead-end job at a newspaper, and a sharp intelligence that’s constantly at odds with her many bad decisions. When her initial attempts to improve her life go awry, Elsie decides that a dramatic change is the only solution.
An auto-didact who prefers the education of travel to college, Elsie uses an inheritance to support her as she travels to Paris and Sri Lanka, hoping to accumulate experiences, create connections, and discover a new way to live. Along the way, she meets men and women who challenge and provoke her towards the change she genuinely hopes to find. But in the end, she must still come face-to-face with herself.
Whole-hearted, fiercely honest and inexorably human, Wreck and Order is a stirring debut that, in mirroring one young woman’s dizzying quest for answers, illuminates the important questions that drive us all.
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Where Futures Ends by Parker Peevyhouse (Feb 09) – YA SciFi/Fantasy
Perfect for fans of innovative storytelling, like Marcus Sedgwick’s The Ghosts of Heaven and David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks, Where Futures End is a collection of five time-spanning, interconnected novellas that weave a subtly science-fictional web stretching out from the present into the future, presenting eerily plausible possibilities for social media, corporate sponsorship, and humanity, as our world collides with a mysterious alternate universe.
Five teens, five futures. Dylan develops a sixth sense that allows him to glimpse another world. Brixney must escape a debtor colony by finding a way to increase the number of hits on her social media feed so she’ll attract corporate sponsorship. Epony goes “High Concept” and poses as an otherworldly being to recapture her boyfriend’s attention. Reef struggles to survive in a city turned virtual gameboard. And Quinn uncovers the alarming secret that links them all.
These are stories about a world that is destroying itself, and about the alternate world that might be its savior. Unless it’s just the opposite.
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Morning Star by Pierce Brown (Feb 09) – YA SciFi
Red Rising thrilled readers and announced the presence of a talented new author. Golden Son changed the game and took the story of Darrow to the next level. Now comes the exhilarating conclusion to the Red Rising Trilogy: Morning Star.
Darrow would have lived in peace, but his enemies brought him war. The Gold overlords demanded his obedience, hanged his wife, and enslaved his people. But Darrow is determined to fight back. Risking everything to transform himself and breach Gold society, Darrow has battled to survive the cutthroat rivalries that breed Society’s mightiest warriors, climbed the ranks, and waited patiently to unleash the revolution that will tear the hierarchy apart from within.
Finally, the time has come.
But devotion to honor and hunger for vengeance run deep on both sides. Darrow and his comrades-in-arms face powerful enemies without scruple or mercy. Among them are some Darrow once considered friends. To win, Darrow will need to inspire those shackled in darkness to break their chains, unmake the world their cruel masters have built, and claim a destiny too long denied—and too glorious to surrender.
Final book in a series.
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Bait & Switch (#1, Alphas Undone) by Kendall Ryan (Feb 09)
Love is a trap, a trick only other people fall for. Former Navy SEAL Nolan has no such illusions. The only things real in his life are his beloved bulldog and the two women in his life. One is soft and innocent, someone he could build a real future with. But the other is dark and gives him all of the wicked things he craves behind closed doors. What starts out as casual quickly becomes complicated. Can he walk away from a sure thing for something that’s foreign territory?
Nolan thinks we met by chance. We didn’t. I sought him out, seduced him, and in return got the sanctuary I needed to survive. But now, impossibly, I’ve fallen in love with him. I don’t care that he has another lover, because when he finds out who I am, it’s going to ruin any chance I ever had with him anyway. She’s the least of my worries.
First in a series of standalones.
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Glass Sword (#2, Red Queen) by Victoria Aveyard (Feb 02) – YA Fantasy – Read my review
The electrifying next installment in the Red Queen series escalates the struggle between the growing rebel army and the blood-segregated world they’ve always known—and pits Mare against the darkness that has grown in her soul.
Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind.
Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat.Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?
Second full length novel in a 4-book series.
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Reign of Shadows by Sophie Jordan (Feb 09) – YA Fantasy
Destiny and darkness collide in this romantic, sweeping new fantasy series from New York Timesbestselling author Sophie Jordan.
Seventeen years ago, an eclipse cloaked the kingdom of Relhok in perpetual darkness. In the chaos, an evil chancellor murdered the king and queen and seized their throne. Luna, Relhok’s lost princess, has been hiding in a tower ever since. Luna’s survival depends on the world believing she is dead.
But that doesn’t stop Luna from wanting more. When she meets Fowler, a mysterious archer braving the woods outside her tower, Luna is drawn to him despite the risk. When the tower is attacked, Luna and Fowler escape together. But this world of darkness is more treacherous than Luna ever realized.
With every threat stacked against them, Luna and Fowler find solace in each other. But with secrets still unspoken between them, falling in love might be their most dangerous journey yet.
First in a series.
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Love Rekindled by Michelle Lynn (Feb 10)
Taylor Delaney is the love of my life.
She’s also the one I’ve hurt the most.
Two years ago, I made a disastrous mistake.
One I’m not sure I can make amends from.
But I have to try, because I’m nothing without her.
Brad Ashby’s here, in my hometown, asking for a second chance.
All those unresolved feelings for him have resurfaced.
Not that they ever went away.
I know I should run him out of the town, but I can’t.
He needs to know that I wasn’t the only one who was deceived.
Even if we gave our relationship another try, how can we rebuild what’s been destroyed? If we weren’t strong enough then, what makes us strong enough now?
Standalone second chance romance.
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Pre-Orders
(Click images to buy or for more info)
★ Visit THIS PAGE for the full list of releases ★
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Current sales list for Amazon U.S. Click on image to purchase; click here to search my reviews.
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Young Adult
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New Adult and Adult
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