mignon mykel { reviews }: review || COUNSELLOR { blog tour } by Celia Aaron

Friday, February 26, 2016

review || COUNSELLOR { blog tour } by Celia Aaron

Celia Aaron | September 28, 2015 | Dark, Erotic Romance
Acquisition, book 1
★★★★★

SOURCE: XPRESSO BOOK TOURS

In the heart of Louisiana, the most powerful people in the South live behind elegant gates, mossy trees, and pleasant masks. Once every ten years, the pretense falls away and a tournament is held to determine who will rule them. The Acquisition is a crucible for the Southern nobility, a love letter written to a time when barbarism was enshrined as law.

Now, Sinclair Vinemont is in the running to claim the prize. There is only one way to win, and he has the key to do it — Stella Rousseau, his Acquisition. To save her father, Stella has agreed to become Sinclair's slave for one year. Though she is at the mercy of the cold, treacherous Vinemont, Stella will not go willingly into darkness.

As Sinclair and Stella battle against each other and the clock, only one thing is certain: The Acquisition always ends in blood.

Full disclosure: This book is a dark romance with elements of slavery, violence, BDSM, and super-hot sex. It is the first of a series and ends on a cliffhanger. If you're good with these caveats, enjoy.

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{ about celia aaron } .

Celia Aaron is the self-publishing pseudonym of a published romance and erotica author. She loves to write stories with hot heroes and heroines that are twisty and often dark. Thanks for reading.

Sign up for my newsletter at aaronerotica.com to get information on new releases. (I would never spam you or sell your info, just send you book news and goodies sometimes). ;)

You can find me on:
Twitter: @AaronErotica
Facebook: facebook.com/aaronerotica
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{ review } .

So this is one of those books that you can't say a whole lot in the review without giving a lot away. However, I will say this --

This is a great dark read.
I rather loved that while there's a step-brother romance brewing in the pages (spoiler alert -- it will come around again in the next book), it is not the focus in the least bit.
Our lead male is a great lead male -- and complex. I loved seeing his thoughts, especially when he begins to battle desire and want. He has his moments of dark comedy, too, which I loved.
Our lead female is a great lead female -- she's strong, feisty, independent... She puts her chin up and deals, tries saving another character, becomes a good friend for Teddy... All at the same time, she's confused and in the dark.
This 'acquisition' concept... This is like Hunger Games meets sexual slavery. So different and intense. Yet as a reader, you still have questions. We don't get the full answer about what all of this entails. We're almost as in the dark as Stella.

At that moment in front of the fire, I wanted the fairy tale. I wanted to be her knight instead of her demon. --Sinclair

Sin and Stella... These two battle emotions all while trying to fight for what they need to fight for -- him his rightful place in society, and she, her un-acceptance for what life has thrown her. She tries to play the game back, even, further showing how hard she'll fight.

Her fear was back. I needed it. I ate it up. It reminded me of what I needed to do, what I had to do. Even so, it tore at my heart, leaving a part of me shredded and raw... --Sinclair

Because we are left with questions -- we only go through one trial, after all, I immediately bought book two, and immediately devoured it. So I have some more answers, but still...

I needed her eventual downfall to be spectacular. I needed to win. --Sinclair

Oh my goodness. Probably my favorite dark read of the year thus far.

*I will be posting my review on the blog this weekend. You can cheat at find it at goodreads, though...

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1 comment:

GiselleFebruary 26, 2016 at 1:12 PM
This sounds awesome! I love dark reads and this sounds like one not to miss! Great review! :)
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a quick note from { mignon } ...

I AM NO LONGER ACTIVE IN REVIEWING

The last two years has been incredibly rewarding, giving me the opportunity to pick up new-to-me authors, as well as new-to-the-world authors. I have enjoyed supporting publishing houses as well as the indie author, and in doing so, I learned a lot about the marketing aspect of writing a book and selling it as a self-published author.

I have re-focused my journey to more writing-minded. I still read and review! But not nearly at the rate I was; three books a day has turned to three books a month.

I will no longer be accepting individual review requests (unless it's specifically author-to-author, then it will be highly considered).

I will definitely be posting reviews for commitments I have already made, though.

Thank you for understanding, & thank you to all those I have worked with over the last year plus!

~ Mignon

http://mignonmykel.com

GOODREADS updates

Dirty Saint: A Secret Baby Sports Romance by Vesper Vaughn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book almost failed to get my attention. Why?

The hero.

He is the exact public person I despise. You know the type -- all biblical with publicized praying and verses all over his public persona. Great. Good for you. Bet you're not like that behind closed doors...

Which is exactly what Esther thinks of him.

Saint and Esther attend the same super religious college. Esther is on the fast track to becoming a nun, and no I do not kid, and Saint, given name Francis, can do just about whatever he wants, because he is the star athlete and the school knows he has connections. What in the world can these two have in common? The actions of their parents.

But where Saint does what his father says, usually, because his father is pushing him toward a pro-football careers, Esther follows her parents (father) because if she didn't... Her life would literally be a living hell.

I really enjoyed these two, once we started to get to know Saint a little bit better. My only drawback with the book would be the last half goes by in super-fast time. While it helped to keep the story moving, I would have liked to see more of that time drawn out so the feelings and emotions of our two characters felt more genuine and real -- rather than simply a two month courting that their lives demanded.

I'm giving the book the full 5 stars because it came out of left-field for me. It was a book that I didn't expect to like, but the author wove it in a way that I fell hard for our characters both as individuals and as a couple. I liked watching Esther grow and find her voice in life, just as I liked watching playboy, always for the chase Saint, settle down and find a person to be terribly protective over. I loved him most in the last two chapters.

*ARC received in exchange for an honest review

Everything by Erin Noelle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Here's something you may know about me if you've followed my reviews -- I'm an epilogue reader. I will almost always read the epilogue first. Call me a spoilsport or no fun, or whatever but that's how I've been reading books for years. It's no wonder that when I write books, I tend to have the epilogue all figured out before I even start with "Once upon a time...".

That said... I read this epilogue and while I liked it, I just couldn't get past the ages of our characters. Couldn't do it. So I read the beginning. Still... If anything, the age of our characters was even more pronounced. I wasn't sure I was going to be able to read this. You see, I have an issue with "Happily ever after" and the hardly-twenty crowd, let alone an eighteen year old.

But that's my hang-up.

Another thing you may know about me? I will sometimes read a book in what I call a inside-out fashion. I jump all over the place until I find a snippet of story that absolutely grips me. And people -- there are a few of those parts in Everything. So because I found those gripping parts, I put my faith in Erin Noelle, and I started from page one -- and I gave Everett and Belle a chance.

And I'm so glad I did.

Everett and his twin sister have been making music forever -- literally. They're the children of a rockstar; music has always been their life. When their father's group decides to get back together (dad always said he'd go back when the twins were done with school), Mason tells the label -- if you take me, you're taking my kids: thus, giving Everett and Ashlynn the opportunity to take their music to a larger level than they have before.

Along the way, with a local gig, Everett meets Belle -- and so begins their story.

This is a story about growing up. This is a story about following your heart -- be it for a person or a career, or even both. It is about learning to trust the person you are giving your heart to, and about taking the ever-looming jump into unknown feelings. When you put your life, your wants, your desires in someone else's hands, the world opens up -- and it certainly does for Everett and Belle.

The part I most appreciated was that the author made Everett true to his age and situation. Belle was too, yes, but it was Everett and his new lifestyle that had me wanting to see true characterization for. He's a guy; he's a musician; he's new to love. He makes mistakes. And for those mistakes, I truly got on board with this story.

Everett and his Tinker Bell were incredibly cute. I liked that there's a decent time jump at the end, further allowing -- you guessed it -- growth of our characters. I'm excited to watch more of them when (if?) Ashlynn's story comes out.

*ARC received in exchange for an honest review

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Friday, February 26, 2016

review || COUNSELLOR { blog tour } by Celia Aaron

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