Tuesday, March 17, 2015

{Review}{Giveaway} Getting Dirty by Mia Storm


Dirty
A poem by Blaire Leon

If sex is dirty, why would I do it with someone I love?
If sex is dirty, then didn’t we all come from the dirt?
What if I like the dirt?
What if I want to get dirty?
What if I want to roll in the mud until I’m so fucking filthy that I’ll never be clean again?

When twenty-five-year-old graduate assistant Caiden Brenner asked Blaire Leon how old she was, she said she was a senior. He chose to believe she meant in college. They connect over Lord Byron’s Don Juan and, as their conversations become increasingly thicker with sexual innuendo, Caiden finds himself obsessing over a totally off-limits undergrad who’s bold, beautiful, brilliant, and one of the most passionate poets he’s ever met.

But it turns out Blaire hasn't been totally honest. She's the seventeen-year-old valedictorian of her high school class, taking courses at Sierra State while awaiting her acceptance to Stanford.

Will Caiden get too deeply into Blaire to back away before he finds out the truth? Or will their connection be enough to seduce him into risking his entire future on Jail Bait?


This was me throughout the entire story...



Heart beating erratically...


Wanting to pull my clothes off...


Fanning my face to cool my raging libido...

The smut in this book was perfection. One handed reading was the star of the show but the storyline was also interesting. Getting both sides of the taboo nature of this story and how lives can be ruined by what happens was thrilling. 
Even the smartest of girls are said to fall prey to a man who is much older. He is considered the predator, the villain. Even though the girl was just as predatory, if not more than he was. But because he is older, he should know better. 

Being inside both characters was intriguing. I'm glad it wasn't just one-sided because it was easier to see where the other person was at when both point of views were established. But with that being said, I didn't get how easily they fell for one another because they spent more time pushing each other away than really talking. Their sexual chemistry was definitely well established but I would have liked more moments, more stolen glances, more conversation... More of them establishing their emotional connection rather than their sexual one. 

The story seemed rushed but also dragged in some places, it was a little disjointed in some places but it was still addicting and sexy. I read it in about a day because I wanted to see what was going to happen. 

The author made the heroine book smart and opinionated, which endeared me to her and I liked how she challenged everything, rather than becoming a whiny girl when things started to go south.  She stood her ground and even though the law was against them, she didn't go down without at least fighting in her own way. 

It made me think about society and the rules for being underage and dating someone older. It brought back memories of when I was in high school and I was dating someone four years older than me. My parents flipped out and I had to stop seeing him because of our age difference. I didn't see the reasoning because my parents were four years apart, I was mature for my age and the guy wasn't taking advantage of me because if I said no, he respected my wishes. It drove me nuts and made me want to do it anyway but I didn't want to ruin his future. To this day, we are still friends and hang out every once in a while. And it is ironic that my husband is actually older than the guy I used to date but my parents had no problem with my husband because I was 18 when I started dating him... (three years apparently made a difference in maturity...)

It is a delicate balance between how old people should be when they date and a one size fits all that may not be what is best in every situation. Especially in the states that you do not need to press charges in order to get in trouble for being with someone underage. 

On the flip side, I don't want to see some predator trying to date a child when that person is a grown ass adult. Like I said, it is a delicate balance of what is considered "wrong" or immoral. 

See, makes you think, right?...


Overall, I give this controversial book a 4 "sizzling, makes you think" Stars!!!



EXCERPT
“What year are you?” I don’t even realize I’ve said it until it’s out of my mouth.
Her eyes flick from the book to mine. “A senior.”
I feel my eyebrows arch before I can stop them. “You look younger.”
She bites her lips between her teeth for a moment. “Is that good or bad?”
“Neither, I suppose.” But my insides burn, knowing that she’s not as off-limits as I originally thought. It’s nearing the end of January. Commencement will be here soon enough. She graduates and all bets are off.
“So…” she says, twisting a finger into the ends of her hair. “I know you like old, dead poets. How do you feel about hearing something fresher?”
I lean toward her. “Such as?”
“I’m reading in a poetry slam tonight. It’s just something over at Tino’s in Jonestown on the fourth Friday of every month. There’s no prize money or anything, but I perform something new pretty much every month.”
“A poetry slam…” I want to say yes in the worst way, but it feels dangerously like a date.
She must read the hesitation in my eyes. “If it’s too weird, no worries. I just thought, since you like poetry…”
She leaves the thought dangling. Like a noose. And I jump right into it. “Yeah. Why not?”
The answer to that rhetorical question is that it’s not May yet and she hasn’t graduated. I’m risking everything I’ve worked the last three years toward. My entire future. But the voice of reason is being drowned out by the raging waves of something rolling up from the deepest layers of my being like an undertow. Something base and essential. And unrelenting.
“Do you want to meet me there?” she asks, standing from her seat and giving me a better view of the entire exquisite length of her.
“Yeah…that’s probably best.” Plausible deniability. No, Dr. Duncan, I didn’t have any clue she’d be there. Just went to hear the poetry.
“Great,” she says as she gathers her book and shoves it in her bag. “It starts at nine. There are usually five or six poets and it’s a random draw, so I don’t know what time I’ll be reading.”
I nod without standing, no longer able to tame my erection. “I’ll be there at nine.”
“You know where Tino’s is?”
Electricity crackles under my skin. I’m really doing this. “Yeah. I’ll find it.”

Giveaway



About the Author: 
Mia Storm is a hopeless romantic who is always searching for her happy ending. Sometimes she’s forced to make one up. When that happens, she’s thrilled to be able to share those stories with her readers. She lives in California and spends much of her time in the sun with a book in one hand and a mug of black coffee in the other, or hiking the trails in Yosemite. Connect with her online at MiaStormAuthor.blogspot.com , on Twitter at @MiaStormAuthor, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MiaStormAuthor




Thursday, March 12, 2015

{Review}{Giveaway} Djinn and Tonic by Jasinda Wilder


Detective Carson Hale knows Leila is hiding something from him. He's in the hospital after a strange and inexplicable attack destroys his favorite bar, the Old Shillelagh. While the attack leaves Carson with stitches, bruised ribs, and a concussion, Leila is mysteriously uninjured, and she either can’t or won’t offer a satisfactory explanation. While her lies and evasions are setting off his detective instincts, her body sets off other alarms.

Leila Najafi has a lot of secrets and a complicated past. She ran away to Detroit to get away from her family, but she's been been discovered by the one man that could destroy her. Sexy detective Carson Hale blows into her life at the worst possible time. Now Leila is forced to make a decision that could both cause heartbreak and war. 

I really don't know where to begin with this book... I almost stopped reading it a million times because it had subject matter that irritates me and it was driving me bat shit cray cray.. 
BUT, I am glad I didn't because by the end, I was really enjoying Carson and Leila's story. 

Well, lets come out with the one thing that drives me crazy, and that is insta-love... I literally cringe and want to run away from the book when the big "L" word is thrown around after only a five minute conversation (no that didn't happen in this book, but almost). I didn't feel the connection between the two characters. They barely talked before they were claiming to never want to live without one another...

It just seems fake or rushed or any number of insincere things... 
Yes, I know people believe in love at first sight but this wasn't even "like" at first sight because they met each other before this book and then all of a sudden they were obsessed with each other after one kiss?? 

huh?? 



I guess that was one HELL of a kiss... lol

BUT with that being said, continuing with the story, I got "it" towards the end. They have a strange relationship, a fast-paced, rushed relationship that went from 0-100 in a matter of moments. And even if it was crazy fast, it had a lot of chemistry, just wish I could have felt it a little more. 

Another thing that bothered me with this book was Carson... He seemed like an intelligent guy in the previous story, I liked him in that book. He was putting clues together and trying to explain the unexplainable. But then in this story, he seemed slow on the uptake. Leila would do things and he was like, "oh, I guess she's not human"... 

Ummm... wow, welcome to the club captain obvious... haha.. 

He is a very analytical guy and even when she did things right in front of him, he was still so lost. 

Poor guy...

The story itself was fast-paced, full of romance with little paranormal aspects sprinkled in here and there to make it a little stormy (PUN intended).  I thought there would be more paranormal and more explanations told in this book but it is solely based on a relationship, rather than djinns and ifrits... 
So, even people who do not care for paranormal stories, will like this series because it has a lot more romance than anything else. 

The sex is freaking, outrageously hot but I didn't expect anything less with a Jasinda Wilder novel. When her name is on it, you know the book is going to be epically humid... 
Just have your husband or B.O.B on standby because you will definitely need it. 



But, even with the lack of information that I wanted, more questions than answers, and even with the insta-love, I still enjoyed this book because the ending made it much more enjoyable. I am looking forward to the last one and really hope I can find out about this feud and how everything is going to come together or go down in the end. 

Plus, the last book is about Nadira and OMG she is one kick ass Djinn!!! I loved her in this book and I am really looking forward to her story!!!


You can get the first book in the series below, I recommend reading that one before diving into this one!! 







Giveaway

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

{Review}{Excerpt} The Deal by Elle Kennedy


THE DEAL
Off-Campus Book #1
Elle Kennedy

She’s about to make a deal with the college bad boy…

Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns her on. But while she might be confident in every other area of her life, she’s carting around a full set of baggage when it comes to sex and seduction. If she wants to get her crush’s attention, she’ll have to step out of her comfort zone and make him take notice…even if it means tutoring the annoying, childish, cockycaptain of the hockey team in exchange for a pretend date.

…and it’s going to be oh so good

All Garrett Graham has ever wanted is to play professional hockey after graduation, but his plummeting GPA is threatening everything he’s worked so hard for. If helping a sarcastic brunette make another guy jealous will help him secure his position on the team, he’s all for it. But when one unexpected kiss leads to the wildest sex of both their lives, it doesn’t take long for Garrett to realize that pretend isn’t going to cut it. Now he just has to convince Hannah that the man she wants looks a lot like him.




I am so giddy after reading this little gem!! 
I thought this book was going to be another one of those books that is about a cocky jock that is to stupid to see what is in front of his face... But it wasn't... Not really...

Garrett is just...everything. Hannah is...everything and them together are...


The banter is what makes this book everything that it is. I am such a freaking whore for amazing banter and these two had it in SPADES. The heroine had a personality that wasn't whiny and pretentious. 
She was broken before but it didn't let it DEFINE her. I always read these stories where the heroine is broken and needs someone to help fix her and by the end of the book, she finds someone, and they live happily ever after. 

This book wasn't like that.

 We get to see someone who has already healed. It was nice to be taken on a journey to see what happens to a person who has had a tragic past and has overcame it. The afterwards is probably as important as the recovery journey and I am glad the author didn't dwell on the tragic past. It happened, she healed, and now she was just searching for something else. 

It was inspiring... 

Also, the freaking sexual chemistry was through the freaking roof. I needed a cold shower or my battery operated friend, since my husband was at work, because OH MAH GOSH!! 


I was eagerly turning the pages to see what was going to happen next and I didn't want to put this book down. Everything was just perfect in the way it was delivered that I can say, without a doubt, it is one of my favorite books I have read this year! 

And I have to say that I am a HUGE anti-insta-love type person because it just doesn't seem plausible. I can't even stand to watch The Bachelor because it seems so fake and engineered to me. But this author made me feel the connection, FEEL the love, FEEL everything and I didn't even second guess the timeline of the relationship... 


I didn't even realize the characters had only been hanging out for a week before they were... well, I will let you see what they were doing. But once I found that out, I didn't get that icky, OMG it is too soon feeling in my gut, I was actually waiting to see when they were going to rip their clothes off... 

 NO whiny heroines. There is a cocky jock that makes you want to slap him but also lick him at the same time so you are confused on what to do with him. But I am pretty sure you will choose to get him naked because, well, no one can refuse a cocky jock with a big ego but an even bigger heart.


I give this story a 5/5 "I am such a banter whore" Stars


EXCERPT


Thirty minutes before my shift ends, I find Garrett Graham in one of my booths.

Seriously.

Does this guy ever give up?

I have no desire to go over there and serve him, but I don’t have much of a choice. Lisa,

the other waitress on duty, is busy tending to a group of faculty members at a table across the room, and my boss Della is behind the baby-blue Formica counter dishing out slices of pecan pie to three freshman girls sitting on the tall swivel stools.

I set my jaw and march up to Garrett, making my displeasure obvious as I meet his
twinkling gray eyes. He runs a hand through his cropped dark hair and flashes a lopsided grin.

“Hey there, Hannah. Fancy meeting you here.”

“Yeah, fancy,” I mutter, yanking my order pad out of my apron pocket. “What can I get

“A tutor.”

“Sorry, that’s not on the menu.” I smile sweetly. “We serve really good pecan pie,

though.”

“You know what I did last night?” he says without acknowledging the sarcasm.

“Yep. You were text stalking me.”

He rolls his eyes. “Before that, I mean.”

I pretend to think it over. “Um…you hooked up with a cheerleader? No, you hooked up

with the girls’ hockey team. No, wait, they’re probably not ditzy enough for you. I stick with my original guess—cheerleader.”

“Sorority sister, actually,” he says smugly. “But I’m talking about what I did before that.”

He raises one dark eyebrow. “But I’m very intrigued by your interest in my sex life. I can give you details about that another time if you want.”

“I don’t.”

“Another time,” he echoes in a dismissive tone, folding his hands on the blue-and-white-
checkered tablecloth.

He’s got big hands with long fingers, short nails, and knuckles that are slightly red and
cracked. I wonder if he’s been in a fight recently, but then I realize the busted-up knuckles are probably a hockey player thing.

“I was at study group yesterday,” he informs me. “There were eight other people there,
and you know what the highest mark in the group was?” He blurts out the answer before I can hazard a guess. “C-plus. And our combined average was a D. How am I supposed to pass this makeup if I’m studying with people who are as dumb as I am? I need you, Wellsy.”

Wellsy? Is that a nickname? And how on earth does he know that my last name is Wells?

I never told—argh. Damn sign-up sheet.

Garrett notices my surprised look and cocks his brows again. “I learned a lot about you in study group. Got your number, your full name, even found out where you work.”

“Congratulations, you really are a stalker.”

“Nope, just thorough. I like to know what I’m up against.”

“Jesus Harold Christ! I’m not tutoring you, okay? Go bug somebody else.” I point at the
menu in front of him. “Are you ordering? Because if not, then please go away and let me do my job in peace.”

“Jesus Harold Christ?” Garrett snickers before picking up the laminated menu and giving it a cursory glance. “I’ll have a turkey club.” He sets the menu down, then reaches for it again.

“And a bacon double cheeseburger. Just the burger, no fries. Actually, I changed my mind—yes to the fries. Oh, and a side order of onion rings.”

My jaw almost hits the floor. “You’re seriously going to eat all that?”

He grins. “Of course. I’m a growing boy.”

Boy? Nuh-uh. I’m only noticing it now—probably because I’ve been too distracted by
how insufferable he is—but Garrett Graham is all man. There’s nothing boyish about him, not his chiseled good looks or his tall frame or that ripped chest of his, which suddenly flashes to mind as I remember the picture he sent me.

“I’ll also take a slice of that pecan pie and a Dr. Pepper to drink. Oh, and some tutoring.”

“Not on the menu,” I say cheerfully. “But the rest is coming right up.”

Before he can argue, I abandon his booth and head to the back counter to place his order with Julio, our night cook. A nanosecond later, Lisa rushes over and addresses me in a hushed

“Oh my God. You know who that is, right?”

“Yep.”

“It’s Garrett Graham.”

“I know,” I answer dryly. “That’s why I said yep.”

Lisa looks outraged. “What is wrong with you? Why aren’t you freaking out right now?

Garrett Graham is sitting in your booth. He talked to you.”

“Holy shit, he did? I mean, his lips were moving, but I didn’t realize he was talking.”

I roll my eyes and walk over to the drink station to pour Garrett’s drink. I don’t look his
way, but I can feel those smoky gray eyes following my every movement. He’s probably sending 
​t​
elepathic orders for me to tutor him. Well, too bad for him. There’s no way I’m wasting the little spare time I have on a college hockey player who thinks he’s a rock star.

Lisa trails after me, oblivious to my sarcasm and still gushing about Graham. “He’s so
gorgeous. Like unbelievably gorgeous.” Her voice lowers to a whisper. “And I hear he’s
amazing in bed.”

I snort. “He probably started that rumor himself.”

“No, Samantha Richardson told me. She hooked up with him last year at the Theta
kegger. Said it was the best sex of her life.”

I have no response, because I couldn’t care less about the sex life of some girl I don’t
even know. Instead, I shrug and hold out the Dr. Pepper. “You know what? Why don’t you take his booth?”

The way Lisa gasps, you’d think I just handed her a check for five million dollars. “Are
you sure?”

“Yep. He’s all yours.”

“Oh my God.” She takes a step forward as if she’s going to hug me, but then her gaze
darts to Garrett and she appears to have second thoughts about broadcasting her terribly unwarranted joy. “I owe you so big for this, Han.”

I want to tell her that she’s actually doing me the favor, but she’s already dashing toward
the booth to wait on her prince. I watch in amusement as Garrett’s expression clouds over at

Lisa’s approach. He picks up the glass she sets in front of him, then meets my gaze and slants his

As if to say, you’re not getting rid of me that easily.