Happy Christmas

Just a quick post to wish you all a very happy Christmas, whether you celebrate the holidays or not I hope you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends. I wish you great food, and lots of bookish presents and more than anything I wish you a wonderful 2017 (I can't be the only one who is more than ready for this year to be over!).

Happy Holidays!!

Review: The 12 Dares of Christmas - Leigh W. Stuart

Tis the Season to be Daring

Lauren Hall has one wish for Christmas this year—raise money to build a new, no-kill animal shelter for the town of Sycamore Cove. And she is prepared to do anything to make it happen. Even dare a man she just met to perform a strip tease for the local knitting society.

Gabe Nicholson has one wish too—obtain the job of a lifetime to launch his career. Only his wishes get snowballed when his best friend's little sister hands him a pair of stripper pants and a bottle of eggnog-flavored body oil.

It’s all sugar plums and mistletoe until a scandal caused by Lauren’s fundraiser threatens to ruin it all. With Gabe's work opportunities disappearing before his eyes and Lauren's fundraising efforts tanking, their game of dares stands to burn them both. Unless it ignites a spark of Christmas magic.

Visit Leigh W. Stuart's website for more information.

Review:
Lauren has been doing everything she can to raise enough money to build a new animal shelter for her hometown, the shelter they have is in very poor condition and she wants to create something so much better. The local knitting society have been incredibly supportive of her efforts and she's arranged a fun night for them to show her appreciation but when the stripper doesn't turn up it looks like she's going to be in trouble. Until her brother's best friend Gabe walks in and she dares him to take the stripper's place.

There are a few things I look for when I pick up a Christmas story, I want something funny and sweet and it has to have plenty of holiday spirit, and The 12 Dares of Christmas hit the spot perfectly. This is a really light hearted and fun read but it has plenty of heat to it too and I loved both of the main characters. There is no unnecessary drama but instead you'll find lots of humour, some fun side characters, a sweet romance and an almost naked man jumping out of a giant cake.

Lauren and Gabe make a great couple, I enjoyed the chemistry between them and I absolutely loved the back and forth between them as they kept daring each other to do things. This is definitely a story I can picture myself rereading in the future and I'll be watching out for more from Leigh W. Stuart in the future.

Source: Received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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Review: Visions of Sugar Plums - Janet Evanovich

It's five days before Christmas and things are not looking merry for Fugitive Apprehension Agent Stephanie Plum. She hasn't got a tree. She hasn't bought any presents. The malls are jam-packed with staggering shoppers. There's not a twinkle light anywhere to be seen in her apartment.

And there's a strange man in her kitchen.

Sure, this has happened to Stephanie Plum before. Strangers, weirdos, felons, creeps, and lunatics are always finding their way to her front door. But this guy is different. This guy is mysterious, sexy--and he has his own agenda. His name is Diesel and he is a man on a mission. And Diesel is unlike anyone Stephanie has ever met before in her life. The question is, what does he want with her? Can he help her find a little old toy maker who has skipped out on his bail right before Christmas? Can he survive the Plum family holiday dinner? Can he get Stephanie a tree that doesn't look like it was grown next to a nuclear power plant? These questions and more are keeping Stephanie awake at night. Not to mention the fact that she needs to find a bunch of nasty elves, her sister Valerie has a Christmas "surprise" for the Plums, her niece Mary Alice doesn't believe in Santa anymore, and Grandma Mazur has a new stud muffin. So bring out the plastic reindeer, strap on your jingle bells, and get ready to celebrate the holidays-Jersey style. Visions of Sugar Plums-the world of Plum has never been merrier!

Stephanie Plum Series:
One for the Money
Two for the Dough
Three to get Deadly
Four to Score
High Five
Hot Six
Seven Up
Hard Eight
Visions of Sugar Plums (Between the Numbers book 1)
To the Nines
Ten Big Ones
Eleven on Top
Twelve Sharp
Plum Lovin' (Between the Numbers book 2)
Lean Mean Thirteen
Plum Lucky (Between the Numbers book 3)
Fearless Fourteen
Plum Spooky (Between the Numbers book 4)
Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Sizzling Sixteen
Smokin' Seventeen
Explosive Eighteen
Notorious Nineteen
Takedown Twenty
Top Secret Twnty-One
Tricky Twenty-Two
Turbo Twenty-Three
Hardcore Twenty-Four

Visit Janet Evanovich's website for more information

Review:
It's five days before Christmas and Stephanie, the world's worst bounty hunter, has been tasked with apprehending Sandy Claws. Hunting down a toymaker just before the holidays isn't much fun but she needs the bounty he'll earn her so that she can afford to celebrate Christmas. As of right now she doesn't have any decorations, she's relying on her parents for dinner and she hasn't bought a single present so the situation is getting critical.

Visions of Sugar Plums is all the fun of a Stephanie Plum novel sprinkled with a whole lot of Christmas magic. I'd forgotten how much I love the Between the Numbers novels, Diesel is a great addition to the series and I love the mysterious vibe he gives off with the way he seems to appear and disappear at will. Throw in shopping with Lula, Grandma Mazur's new stud muffin, Valerie's surprise, a couple of appearances by Morelli and some elves starting a riot and you're in for a treat.

This book is slightly shorter than the main novels in the series but it's perfect reading for this time of year and it's pretty much guaranteed to put a smile on your face. It's definitely put me in the mood to dig out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree so perhaps I should have waited until december to read it :o)

Source: Purchased

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Review: One Hot December - Tiffany Reisz

Hard as steel . . . and hotter still!

Never mess with a woman who carries a blowtorch in her backpack. Welder and artist Veronica "Flash" Redding's playful sense of evil sometimes gets the better of her. Like when her insanely handsome, wealthy, suited-up boss gave her the most sensuously wicked night of her life . . . then dumped her. Yep, revenge is a dish best served hot.

Only Ian Asher isn't letting Flash get away quite so easily. He's not ready to forget the intensity between them. The searing heat when they touch. And the deliciously demanding control Ian wields in the bedroom. Now he has only the holidays to convince Flash that they belong together . . . and that even the most exquisite, broken things can be welded back together.

Men at Work Series:
Her Halloween Treat
Her Naughty Holiday
Ian's Dream Girl (Free online short story on the Harlequin website)
One Hot December

Visit Tiffany Reisz's website for more information.

Review:
Flash is an artist who loves using her welding skills to create metal sculptures in her spare time. A girl's got to pay the bills though and she also enjoys her day job working as a welder for a local building company. Work got a little more interesting when Ian took over the role as her boss, she was attracted to him from the beginning and after a night out drinking with colleagues they ended up spending a scorching hot night together. Unfortunately for Flash Ian dumped her the following day and now things are extremely awkward between them.

Ian had been fantasising about Flash for months before they spent the night together but fraternisation with coworkers is strictly forbidden and as Flash's boss he has to set a good example to his workers. He regretted having to walk away but he was in a position of power over her and he refused to take advantage of it. Then Flash hands in her notice and Ian knows he can't let her walk out of his life, he just has to find a way to convince her to give him another chance.

Each of the books in the Men at Work series do work as stand alones so although I'd happily recommend all of them you can read them in any order you like, I would suggest reading the free prequel short story Ian's Dream Girl (which you can find on the Harlequin website) before starting One Hot December though. It lets readers see the first night that Flash and Ian spent together which is a nice bit of background information not included in this book which picks up the pieces six months of awkwardness later.

I've enjoyed all of the books in this series but I have to say that unfortunately this was the weakest of the three. I really liked both of the characters, it was great to see a woman who is so confident in herself and not intimidated by the men around her. Flash is a tattooed tomboy on the surface but she's so much more than that and it's always nice to read about multifaceted characters, she is someone you can easily imagine being friends with and that always makes me enjoy a story more. Ian is great too, I don't think he handled things very well after their one night stand but he does explain his actions and it was obvious he was trying to do the right thing. I liked how open they were with each other and that when there was a misunderstanding between them it wasn't dragged out into a load of unnecessary drama.

I think my main issue was that the banter between them felt a little forced in places. It was still fun to read and did make me smile at times but it was also very similar to the flirting between the first two couples in the series. Where it hit the spot perfectly in the first two books there was something just a tiny bit off in this one. I know that's a very vague complaint but I can't seem to find the words to clarify it better than that. This is still a fun read and overall I've absolutely loved the entire series, the books are all very light hearted, hilarious and sexy too. I'm a huge fan of Tiffany Reisz and she continues to be a must buy author for me. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

Source: Received from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

Other Reviews:
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Review: Ian's Dream Girl - Tiffany Reisz

Ian's Dream Girl is a free online prequel to One Hot December and it can be read on the Harlequin website HERE. It doesn't have it's own cover and blurb so I've included the details of One Hot December for you below.

Hard as steel . . . and hotter still!

Never mess with a woman who carries a blowtorch in her backpack. Welder and artist Veronica "Flash" Redding's playful sense of evil sometimes gets the better of her. Like when her insanely handsome, wealthy, suited-up boss gave her the most sensuously wicked night of her life . . . then dumped her. Yep, revenge is a dish best served hot.

Only Ian Asher isn't letting Flash get away quite so easily. He's not ready to forget the intensity between them. The searing heat when they touch. And the deliciously demanding control Ian wields in the bedroom. Now he has only the holidays to convince Flash that they belong together . . . and that even the most exquisite, broken things can be welded back together.

Men at Work Series:
Her Halloween Treat
Her Naughty Holiday
Ian's Dream Girl (Free online short story on the Harlequin website)
One Hot December

Visit Tiffany Reisz's website for more information.

Review:
Ian's Dream Girl is a free online prequel to One Hot December, the third book in Tiffany Reisz's Men at Work trilogy. Each of the books can be read as stand alone stories because there are only brief mentions of previous characters and no spoilers but I would highly recommend reading Ian's Dream Girl before starting One Hot December. You can find it on the Harlequin website HERE so you've got nothing to lose by giving it a try.

This prequel is set six months before the start of One Hot December and it allows readers to see what happened between Ian and Flash when they're left alone together after a work night out and end up giving into the spark between them. It's a short but fun read and I just had to include my favourite quote for you:

“It takes a lot for a kiss to impress me.”

“Tell me what kind of kiss you like and maybe I have that in my repertoire.”

She shrugged. “A good kiss should be like a thunderstorm. First the air changes. You can feel the electricity in the atmosphere. Then there’s a rumble of thunder in the distance to warn you something big is coming. Everything gets a little darker, a little wilder. And then the lightning strikes and you know you’ve gotta run for it because shit’s about to get real. You think you can do that?”

I'll let you read the story yourself to find out whether Ian is up to the challenge Flash sets him!

Source: Read online for free at the Harlequin website

Other Reviews:
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Buy links for One Hot December
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Review: Something Nice - Tiffany Reisz

It's July, a couple months after Nora returns to Søren at the end of THE SIREN, and while in bed, Søren makes a trade with Nora. He'll do something nice for her and she'll do something nice for him. Of course Nora picks something sexual. But Søren surprises her with his "something nice" request. Read the excerpt below to find out what it is.

This story if for mailing list subscribers only. Sign up here: www.tiffanyreisz.com/mailing-list

The Original Sinners Series:
Seven Day Loan (Novella) (This novella was also released with the title The Gift)
Little Red Riding Crop (Free short story found on the author's website)
Submit to Desire (Novella)
The Last Good Knight (Serialized Novella published in 5 parts)
The Christmas Truce (free short story for the author's newsletter subscribers)
The Siren (The Red Years book 1)
Something Nice (Free short story for the author's newsletter subscribers)
The Angel (The Red Years book 2)
The Prince (The Red Years book 3)
The Mistress Files (Short Story Collection)
The Mistress (The Red Years book 4)
The Saint (The White Years book 1)
The King (The White Years book 2)

Visit Tiffany Reisz's website for more information.

Review:
I completely adore the Original Sinners series although I have to confess I've been putting off reading the last couple of books for a long time now because I just don't want the story to be over. I couldn't resist reading Something Nice though. This is a free novella (you'll get a copy by signing up for Tiffany Reisz's website) and it's set just after the end of The Siren when Nora has returned to Soren after a long absence.

Nora is struggling to fit back into her old life, she feels out of place in Soren's world and she's a little lost so Soren does a deal with her, she can have anything she wants from him and in return she has to do something nice for him too. Of course Nora's part of the bargain involves orgasms but she's confused when Soren's request is for her to attend the next church picnic. What follows is a really fun event that helps Nora remember why she always loved attending Soren's church. He gives her a way to reconnect with the parishioners who used to be her friends and helps her to realise that she's made the right decision coming back to him.

I enjoyed every minute of this novella and it just reminded me of how much I love the series. I think it's about time I finally got around to reading the last two books and I'm excited to see how things end for Nora, Soren and all my other favourite characters.

Source: This is a free short story that is sent to subscribers of Tiffany Reisz's newsletter

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Review: Dangerously Red - Kristin Miller

In part three of the new Dark and Dirty Tale serial by New York Times and USA best-selling author Kristin Miller, the time has come for Red to choose. But things are not always as they seem...

Before the night is through, I’ll join the Arcana wolf pack, declare a mate, and transition into a wolf for the first time. I must decide between Reaper, the devilishly sexy huntsman, and Lukas, the fiercely controlling Alpha. Both pleasure me senseless, taking me to heights I’ve never known. But I can’t have both.

Time is up, and I must choose.

But Lukas just dropped a bombshell. If I declare him as my mate, no other person is allowed to touch me. Ever. Not a handshake or a good-bye hug. Talk about stifling. Not to mention, the Omega has all but forbidden me to choose Reaper. As I stand before the pack, I must decide…the man who unleashes dark desires inside me, or the man I’m forbidden to love.

Get ready for scorching hot Alphas, a spitfire heroine, and a breathtaking ending!

A Dark and Dirty Tale:
Desiring Red
Dominating Red
Dangerously Red

Visit Kristin Miller's website for more information

Review:
It's time for Ivy to officially join the pack and that means choosing her life mate. But will she pick domineering alpha Lukas or will she go against everyone and choose Reaper, the man she started falling for first but is forbidden from mating?

I'm sorry to say it but I just don't have a very high opinion of this series, not only is it very overpriced considering each instalment is only about 55 pages long but I never got answers to my questions regarding the world building and there is absolutely no character development. Lukas and Reaper pretty much treat Ivy like a toy to fight over and I don't think either of them particularly care about her or want her to be happy. Reaper is marginally better than Lukas but the shine has worn off him since part one.

I'm also finding myself cringing at every sex scene, Ivy has gone back and forth between two men multiple times in the space of a single evening and not once have they used protection so it kind of turns my stomach a bit. It doesn't help that I knew exactly who she would end up with and who was causing trouble in the pack from the first instalment, I kept hoping to be surprised but it was all as predictable as hell and quite boring really.

I can't recommend this serial, it's over priced, the world building is shoddy and the characters aren't interesting or memorable. I'm disappointed.

Source: Received from publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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