Tuesday, June 2, 2015

JUNE 2 || release day • reviews

Happy release day to:

http://mnonmklreviews.blogspot.com/2015/06/june-2-release-day-reviews.html#1

One More Shot by Veronica Denault jump to review }
Operation One Night Stand by Christine Hughes { jump to review }
The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter { jump to review }
The Marriage Contract by Katee Robert jump to review }
 

One More Shot by Veronica Denault

Publisher: Forever Yours (6/2/2015)
Series: Hometown Players, book 1
Genre: Sport, New Adult Romance
Source: NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | add to goodreads

Rating: 

They say you only get one shot at making your dreams come true.

Jordan is determined to take two.

Drafted by the NHL at eighteen, Jordan Garrison was headed for fame, and there was only one person he wanted to share it with-Jessie Caplan. He was crazy in love with her, and had finally told her so. They shared an amazing night . . . and then everything fell apart. 

Jessie tries not to think about the night she gave herself to Jordan-or how he broke her heart. She tries not to think about it, but she does. Especially now, when she's staring into his sky-blue eyes for the first time in six years. After so much time and torment, she can't tell if she loves him or hates him. But Jordan has learned enough to know a connection like theirs is rare. He was lucky to find Jessie once. No way will he lose her again.

This past year, I've grown to really love new adult romances; pair it with my favorite sport, and you're bound to have a good book. This story? Definitely a favorite.

Jordan and Jessie were the best of friends growing up; when things turned from friends to more when they were teenagers, they thought they would be together forever. Fears among other things had Jessie running and not looking back.

Now, Jessie's grandmother passed away and Jordan, out with an injury, is the only Garrison boy available to be a shoulder for the Caplan girls, and as the Garrisons and Caplans were close growing up, it is expected that he shows up.

The last thing Jordan wanted was to see Jessie again. When she left, she broke him. He tried burying her in as many puck-bunnies and celebrities as he could, but he could never outrun her memory.

Jessie has been watching her ex-best friend's career. Seeing all of his exploits on blogs and in magazines hurts her heart, but her opinion on men has never been stellar. She had only wished Jordy wouldn't be like that.

These two coming back together was explosive. Between harboring hard feelings from the past, but realizing the love they had wasn't something that could just go away... I loved it. 

One fun aspect to this book is that while it is told in first person-present tense, there are many times that the story goes back six years and is told in a memory-type first person-present way. I think you get a better feeling for the love that these two had, and can compare it to their newer adult feelings.

I'm excited to continue this series!




Operation One Night Stand by Christine Hughes

Publisher: Forever Yours (6/2/2015)
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Source: NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | add to goodreads

Rating: ★★

IT'S TIME TO CHANGE HER SEXUAL KARMA

Caroline Frost had it all-until her boyfriend banged the superskank intern, and poof! Caroline's happy little bubble disappeared. Now it's been six weeks of weeping, a mountain of ice cream, and a permanent buttprint on the couch. Enough is enough. She and her ladybits need an intervention-now.

Enter Operation: One Night Stand: Find a man who is hotness personified and have some much-needed sexy time. The only problem is that Caroline is torn between a flirtatious, well-built guy and the ridiculously hot bartender serving her shots. This was supposed to be all fun and no games, but like the perfect scotch on the rocks, no good fling finishes without a twist . . .

Let my just start this by saying one thing first:

This bad boy ended up much cuter than I had anticipated.

My goodness gracious, you (well, at least 'I') was drawn into the story. At first, you have a mourning Caroline. She caught her fiance, who she'd been with for five years and works with, in bed with the intern. Six weeks later, and she's still drowning her sorrows in Cold Stone-like ice creams (or maybe you're a Marble Slab or Maggiemoos kind of person). Her roommates/friends have had enough and decide she's going to have a one night stand.

The three of them are going to go out to the bar and she's going to find one person -- this target of hers will be the one she'll attempt to sleep with for the night. If he declines, he declines, but she has got to get back out there. She's not to look for a relationship, just a one night bed partner.
At the bar, she finds someone she wants to call 'it' and with the help of the (super attractive, very flirty) bartender, starts a game of suggestive shots with the man.
 
What I most loved about the beginning has got to be, hands down, Bartender Brian. I liked him from the beginning. I take that back, I loved him. Yes, he was a flirt -- but surely Caroline could have put 'flirting for tips' and 'flirting because he likes you' in two separate categories, but eh... She didn't. Even after the hot body shots...
 
Anywho. In a twist, Caroline learns that Brian is actually friends with Ryan (her target turned one night stand), which really makes the fact that she called out Brian's name in the throes of passion a little trickier...
 
So yes. I loved the frienships Caroline had with her girls, I loved the friendship Ryan and Brian had, I loved the way Brian was with Caroline -- from beginning to end. This was a cute, fun read; a cute, fun read that made it into my 're-read' category on the Kindle, and will certainly make the Favorites of 2015 list.

The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter

Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (6/2/2015)
Series: Last True Vampire, book 1
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Source: NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | add to goodreads

Rating: ★★

As Michael's eyes lit on a female not twenty feet away, he knew without a doubt that it was her blood that called to him and her scent that had awakened him.This female had tethered his soul and returned it to him.

SOUL SURVIVOR
He is the last of his race. The one true king of the vampires. Michael Aristov roams the nightclubs of L.A. after dark, haunted by his past and driven by his hunger. The last of the Ancient Ones, he alone has survived the destruction of his race at the hands of the slayers. Now he is forced to hunt and feed like a common vampire, a creature of lust. Nothing in this world can fulfill his needs…until he meets a woman who's everything he's ever wanted. And more.

SWEET SALVATION
Her name is Claire Thompson. Her blood is so sweet, so intoxicating--the smell alone draws Michael to her like a moth to the flame. Sly, sexy, and seductive, Claire seems to be the only mortal who can satisfy his craving and seal his fate…forever. Can she be trusted? From their very first kiss, the last true vampire sweeps Claire into a world in which darkness rules desire--and where falling in love is the greatest danger of all…in The Last True Vampire by Kate Baxter.


In this Paranormal Romance, we have, as the title suggests, the last true vampire. Michael/Mikhail is the last of the ancient ones, meaning without his becoming tethered and mated to another, he couldn't turn the partial vampires into fuller vampires (at least, that was my understanding). Figuring he was going to fail and remain untethered the rest of his life, he has gone as far as starving himself of blood for the past century.

One night, he decided his starving was too much, so he goes to a club to find someone to feast on. In the process of feeding on an overly-fake human, however, his senses highten and he's drawn to another for the first time in a very, very long time.

The one he is drawn to is Claire -- a human and a hustler.

What I enjoyed most about Claire was the way Kate wrote her. Her thought process was written so extremely well. You understood, fully, that Claire was a hustler -- you understood her whys and hows, her reasons and her ways. And then later, you get a full understanding of her fears and her questions where Mikhail is concerned.

I enjoyed Mikhail and Claire's story. I loved that after centuries, Mikhail finally found his one -- and when the threat is there of her being taken away from him (as is the case in any good romance story), his greatest fear is being alone again.

It took me a moment to get in the correct frame of mind for this paranormal romance (that's on me, not Kate) but once I was in, I was in. I enjoyed every bit of this romance and am looking forward to the rest of the series.



The Marriage Contract by Katee Robert

Publisher: Hachette Group (6/2/2015)
Series: O'Malleys, book 1
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Source: NetGalley
Purchase links || amazon | add to goodreads

Rating: 

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katee Robert begins a smoking hot new series about the O'Malley family-wealthy, powerful, dangerous and seething with scandal.

Teague O'Malley hates pretty much everything associated with his family's name. And when his father orders him to marry Callista Sheridan to create a "business" alliance, Teague's ready to tell his dad exactly where he can stuff his millions. But then Teague actually meets his new fiancée, sees the bruises on her neck and the fight still left in her big blue eyes, and vows he will do everything in his power to protect her.

Everyone knows the O'Malleys have a dangerous reputation. But Callie wasn't aware just what that meant until she saw Teague, the embodiment of lethal grace and coiled power. His slightest touch sizzles through her. But the closer they get, the more trouble they're in. Because Callie's keeping a dark secret-and what Teague doesn't know could get him killed.


There are power families, and then there are the O'Malleys, the Sheridans, and the Hallorans. Callie Sheridan is set to be married off to a Halloran, but after witnessing something terrible, and then doing something more terrible, the impending Sheridan-Halloran alliance shatters. When the O'Malleys hear of this, immediately their father orders Teague to marry Callie -- making an O'Malley-Sheridan alliance. Teague tries to refuse -- his life mission has been to get away from this world. He would do anything to grab up his sisters and youngest brother and flee the hands of their father but unfortunately, the timing never works.

Teague doesn't expect to fall for Callie, though.

I really enjoy mafia-esque stories, and reading this one was no different. What I enjoyed most about this one was that our two key players wanted nothing to do with the life they were born into, and unfortunately could not get out of it. Teague's protective instincts kick in to overdrive where Callie is concerned, right off the gate; Callie falls for him fairly quickly but fights it.

When it comes down to it, Callie's need to help those she cares for will put her in danger -- but that's the life she's grown up in.

This was an exciting read that kept me gripped from the moment Callie donned a red wig... And I have to say, the James/Carrigan line? I'm pretty excited to see where that one takes us -- not only did the two of them have history, but James and Teague were friends once upon a time, against the wishes of their fathers. Like I said, it'll be an interesting story.

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