mignon mykel { reviews }: review || EXQUISITE KARMA { blog tour } by Ann Mayburn

Thursday, April 21, 2016

review || EXQUISITE KARMA { blog tour } by Ann Mayburn

Honey Mountain Publishing | April 21, 2016 | MC Romance
Iron Horse MC, book 4
★★★★1/2

SOURCE: BARCLAY PUBLICITY

~Author's Note-Exquisite Karma is part 2 of Beach and Sarah's story. Part 1, Exquisite Redemption, should be read first for the most enjoyment.~

Sarah
Life as the old lady of Carlos 'Beach' Rodriguez, National President of the Iron Horse MC, was everything I never knew I wanted. Not only did I have a good man who treated me like a queen and loved me like crazy, I also had a vast-extended family of rough and tumble bikers who accepted and welcomed me into their world without judgement. Unfortunately, good things don't last for a girl like me and just when I finally felt like I'd found my happily ever after my psychopath of a mother had to show up and destroy it. She betrayed me, betrayed the club, and put everyone I've ever loved in mortal danger. Our only chance of surviving this is for me to find her and recover the weapons that Iron Horse was moving for the Russian and Israeli mafia that she helped steal. I can only hope that Beach can forgive me for her sins.

Beach
I should have known Sarah would never betray me, would never work with her junkie mom to steal from the club, but I let my temper run my mouth and now my woman's gone. Normally I'd go after her, but the Russian and Israeli mafias want their merchandise back and if we don't find it they'll wipe us off the face of the earth. To make matters worse, there are traitors in the Iron Horse MC that are feeding our every move to our enemies, kidnapping our women and children, and killing our men. I have to stay here in Austin and try to save our people while Sarah is out there, somewhere, alone, hunting down some of the most dangerous men in the world. I can only pray that God takes mercy on my wicked soul and protects my baby girl from those seeking to cash in on the massive bounty on her head before I can find her. 'Cause if they find her first death would be a mercy compared to the nightmare her life will become.

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo
{ add to goodreads } .

{ about ann mayburn } .

With over forty published books, Ann is Queen of the Castle to her husband and three sons in the mountains of West Virginia. In her past lives she's been an Import Broker, a Communications Specialist, a US Navy Civilian Contractor, a Bartender/Waitress, and an actor at the Michigan Renaissance Festival. She also spent a summer touring with the Grateful Dead-though she will deny to her children that it ever happened.

From a young Ann has had a love affair with books would read everything she could get her hands on. As Ann grew older, and her hormones kicked in, she discovered bodice ripping Fabio-esque romance novels. They were great at first, but she soon grew tired of the endless stories with a big wonderful emotional buildup to really short and crappy sex. Never a big fan of purple prose, throbbing spears of fleshy pleasure and wet honey pots make her giggle, she sought out books that gave the sex scenes in the story just as much detail and plot as everything else-without using cringe worthy euphemisms. This led her to the wonderful world of Erotic Romance, and she's never looked back.

Now Ann spends her days trying to tune out cartoons playing in the background to get into her 'sexy space' and has accepted that her Muse has a severe case of ADD.

Ann loves to talk with her fans, as long as they realize she's weird, and that sarcasm doesn't translate well via text.

{ review } .

The first four books in this series are essentially two two-part stories, so while you may see the series order as this being book 4, you do need to read book 3 at the minimum -- because it is in Redemption that Sarah and Beach's story "truly" begins (and that is in quotes because let's be honest, their story has been around since book one).

Quick background: Sarah and Swan are sisters, Beach and Smoke are MC brothers. Sarah and Swan also have family dealings in the mafia, so not only do you get this MC romance, you get a touch of mafia in there too, especially in this particular story...

I truly have enjoyed these stories. Sarah and Beach are such a fun couple. They have a number of trials to go through, and during them, we get to see just how deep Beach's love for Sarah is (not without a few DB moments, of course, as men are prone to).

The writing style of Karma isn't flashy. It's not swoony or angsty... it simply feels real. The emotions -- the positive ones and the negative ones -- were all done extremely well. I loved seeing Sarah's evolution, but more than that, I loved watching Beach. On top of that, we get to see "the other side" to some dilemmas that Swan and Storm go through. Overlapping, done well and correctly, is one of my favorite writing tricks an author can do. Lastly, there's the big bang mafia dealings in this book. I enjoyed the heart pumping adrenaline that we witness Beach's mind go through.

The next in the series features Lyric, a nineteen year old who has had quite the secluded life. The little teaser we're given at the end has me so excited to read Innocence -- and c'mon, that title can't be any more perfect for her book (her leading male too... mm, I can't wait to watch him fall for her).

{ giveaway } .

a Rafflecopter giveaway

No comments:

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

View all my reviews