This week at Smexy…
A review – Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews (urban fantasy)
B+ review – The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand (contemporary)
B review – Run to You by Charlotte Stein (erotic cotemporary)
B review – Midnight Frost by Jennifer Estep (young adult pnr)
B review – Along Came a Spider by Katie SeRine (paranormal)
B review – Guardian Demon by Meljean Brook (paranormal)
B review – The Redemption of Callie & Kayden by Jessica Sorensen (New Adult)
C review – The Mistress by Tiffany Reisz (erotic contemporary)
C- review – Deal with a Demon by Celeste Easton (paranormal romance)
D review – How to Lose a Bride in One Night by Sophie Jordan (historical)
Interview with Angela Campbell
The Ink me Tour with Sidney Bristol
News from Mandi: I DNF’d In His Command by Rie Warren. I’ll be posting a review on Monday on why I DNF’d but to summarize – I was lost in the story and I found the romance more crude than sexy. And I was darn bummed because I want to support m/m books by the big publishers. But this one did not work.
Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews was amazing and fabulous. This writing team are great story tellers. I can not say enough good things about this series. Tori reviewed it at Smexy with an “A” and I agree. I wrote up brief thoughts at Goodreads.
Behind his Blue Eyes by Kaki Warner kicks off a new historical western series for her, but man – I could not get into this one. SO bummed. I’m a huge fan of this author and thinks she has a great voice but this one bored me. Review coming.
Masked Cowboy by Sarah Anderson features a deformed, scarred hero who has worn a mask for the past three years and a heroine who is a vet. She meets him while on the job and there is chemistry. I really liked this one – review coming this week.
Last year I read On the Island by Tracy Garvis Graves, which really surprised me. I loved it and I wasn’t expecting to since it features a young hero who falls for his teacher after their plane crashes on a deserted island. But the romance is done so well and believable. She has a new book coming out this September called Covet. It deals with a marriage in trouble (I lurve me a marriage in trouble trope). This one has emotional cheating – but again, I love her voice and I think she handles it quite well. My only compliant is that the end is so rushed…I wish she would have shown the husband and wife reuniting more. Review will come next month.
I just finished Breathless by Eve Carter and it wasn’t for me. Jesse is quite the bad boy (Drugs, alcohol, mahwhore) but to me – he wasn’t a sexy bad boy. Just an immature, loser bad boy. I couldn’t root for him. Review coming.
This weekend I’m reading Risk & Reward by Alisha Rai and Caught up in You by Roni Loren. Two authors I’ve greatly enjoyed in the past.
I didn’t know you read On The Island. A friend of mine did, and she so struggled with it, so I never picked it up. I thought the set up was intriguing though. Hmmmm…maybe I’ll rethink it.
There is also a novella prequel to On the Island – Uncharted. It was released on July 2.
I have read On the Island, and I really enjoyed it. While I haven’t read Uncharted yet, I plan to read it as soon as I get the time.
I thought I would get squicked out at the student/teacher dynamic of On the Island, but it is done very well. I thought it was a lovely story. Their struggles to survive kept me turning pages to see what would happen next. You should give it a try!
I loved Magic Rises too! It was awesome! Y’all had a great review (which I agree 100% with)! I’m in love with this series!!!
I read Magic Rises yesterday, and loved it very much as well. You did not have a great reading week, I hope next week will be better Mandi.