REVIEW! SAFE AT LAST BY MAYA BANKS

 

The third book in the beloved #1 bestselling author's sexy, romantic suspense Slow Burn series…

They say young love doesn't last, but a girl from the wrong side of the tracks with unique abilities and the hometown golden boy were determined to defy the odds. For Zack Covington, Anna-Grace—his "Gracie"—was the one. Until one night forever alters the course of their future, when a devastated Gracie disappears without a trace, leaving Zack to agonize over what happened to the girl he loved. As the years pass, his desperate efforts to find her uncovered nothing.

Now working for Devereaux Security, he stumbles across a painting featuring a special place only he and Gracie would know. The image is too perfectly rendered for it to be coincidence. His Gracie must be alive. When he finally tracks her down, he is shocked—and heart-broken—to discover the wounded shell of the girl he once knew and still loves. Her psychic gifts are gone, and worse, she believes he betrayed her all those years ago.

Zack has enemies, and once his weakness is discovered, Gracie becomes a target for revenge. He'll have to save her before he can earn her trust and her love. And he vows they'll never be torn apart again.

 I am a fan of Maya Banks.  I love her books and I was grateful for the chance to read Zack and Gracie's story.  

Zack is the all American golden boy and Gracie is the "wrong side of the tracks" girl that he falls in love with.  One minute Gracie is there and the next Zack's whole world is different.  He struggles to find his place in a world that doesn't involve Gracie and finds that nothing is the same.  When he finds out that Gracie is alive, he knows that their love is meant to be and wants a second chance with Gracie.

Couple of things about this story.  First, it triggered for me.  Just a heads up to folks that have had a bad experience, this did it for me.  It was hard for me to read for a bit.  I liked Zack but sometimes I wanted to reach through the book and smack him in the head.  Move on, man!  I liked Gracie but there were times when I just couldn't connect with her.  I found that she didn't seem to have as much faith in the love of her life as I thought she should have had.  Everyone reacts differently to a trauma though, so I shouldn't judge.  While I like the security angle that Zack works, I would have like to see him as a professional football player.  That would have been awesome. :)

This was a different kind of Maya Banks read for me.  While I liked it, it was not my favorite in the series.  I look forward to more in the future.

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COVER REVEAL! JULIANA BY VANDA

Juliana

By- Vanda

Genre- LGBT/Literary Fiction/Historical

Expected Publication Date-  September 14, 2015

It’s 1941 and Alice “Al” Huffman comes from the potato fields of Long Island with her childhood friends to make it on the Broadway stage, only to find she has no talent. She meets Juliana, the glamorous, perpetually-on-the-brink-of stardom nightclub singer whose voice sounds to her like “warm milk slipping down the whole of my body.”

Juliana, a sexual risk-taker with a secret, easily reels in a mesmerized Al who has never felt a love like this before.  Al is determined to hang onto Juliana no matter what. The only problem is that Juliana is more a woman of her time than Al could ever have expected.

Through Juliana, Al enters a secret world that includes men who wear frilly bathrobes and grass skirts and women who smoke cigars and wear pants with the zippers in the front.  Cameo appearances are made by Liberace, Ethel Merman, Talulah Bankhead, Lauren Bacall, Angela Lansbury and other 1940s celebrities.

COVER REVEAL! AMERICA'S FIRST DAUGHTER BY STEPHANIE DRAY & LAURA L'AMOUR (@TastyBookTours)

Tasty Book Tours is Pleased to Present...

AMERICA'S FIRST DAUGHTER

Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie

Releasing March 1st, 2016

William Morrow

Historical Fiction 

In a compelling, richly researched novel that draws from thousands of letters and original sources, bestselling authors Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie tell the fascinating, untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s eldest daughter, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson Randolph—a woman who kept the secrets of our most enigmatic founding father and shaped an American legacy.

From her earliest days, Martha “Patsy” Jefferson knows that though her father loves his family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still. As Thomas Jefferson’s oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate in the wake of her mother’s death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France. And it is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that she learns of her father’s liaison with Sally Hemings, a slave girl her own age.

Patsy too has fallen in love—with her father’s protégé, William Short, a staunch abolitionist intent on a career in Europe. Heartbroken at having to decide between being William’s wife or a devoted daughter, she returns to Virginia with her father and marries a man of his choosing, raising eleven children of her own.

Yet as family secrets come to light during her father’s presidency, Patsy must again decide how much she will sacrifice to protect his reputation, in the process defining not just Jefferson’s political legacy, but that of the nation he founded.

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LAURA CROGHAN KAMOIE is a historian specializing in colonial and revolutionary America, Virginia history, and the history of slavery. She holds a M.A. and Ph.D. in American history from The College of William and Mary and has published two historical monographs, including Irons in the Fire: The Business History of the Tayloe Family and the Virginia Gentry, 1700-1865 (University Press of Virginia, 2007). Laura is an Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy. In her fourteen years of college teaching, she has taught numerous graduate and undergraduate courses on colonial America, revolutionary America, African-American Slavery, as well as seminars on Thomas Jefferson.

As LAURA KAYE, she is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over a dozen titles in contemporary and paranormal romance. Her books have won numerous industry awards, including the EPIC eBook Award, the Golden Leaf award, the PRISM award, and the HOLT Medallion Award of Merit. She is a frequent panelist at national writing conferences and a frequent instructor of craft and social media workshops. Laura lives just outside the nation’s capital with her husband and two young daughters.

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STEPHANIE DRAY is a bestselling and award-nominated author of historical women’s fiction. Her series about Cleopatra’s daughter has been translated into six different languages, was nominated for a RITA Award and won the Golden Leaf. As STEPHANIE DRAVEN, she is a national bestselling author of paranormal romance, contemporary romance, and American-set historical women’s fiction. She is a frequent panelist and presenter at national writing conventions and lives near the nation’s capital. Before she became a novelist, she was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the stories of women in history to inspire the young women of today.

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TOUR STOP! SKIN DEEP by @PamSparkman

  Title: Skin Deep

Author: Pamela Sparkman

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: July 20, 2015

Cover Designer: Sarah Hansen with Okay Creations

Cover

Synopsis

She hates me.

I’m in love with her.

Her life is a masquerade.

Mine is cloaked in secrets.

She thinks I can’t see her.

But she’s the only thing I can see.

he thinks we have nothing in common.

We have everything in common.

And I’m done being patient.

I'm determined.

She's stubborn.

You think you know us.

You don't.

The things you know about us are only Skin Deep.

*Warning*

 This book contains instances of self harm in the form of an eating disorder and may be a trigger to some readers.

Excerpt

Beth had been good at pretending to be this happy carefree girl – bubbly and energetic. Looking at her now, I saw a girl who was anything but carefree. She obviously had demons that haunted her, and I knew from experience that fighting certain demons can be almost impossible.

I listened through the door, making sure Lily had gone. “This isn’t over. Me keeping your secret from Lily is not a sign I’m letting this go. It’s a sign that I’m going to be a thorn in your side until you let me help you.”

Beth prickled at my comment and unfurled herself from the protective ball she had curled into. “I don’t need your help!”

“Yes, you do.” I took another step towards her. Beth took a step back. “And the way I see it, you don’t have much of a choice.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Do you want Lily to know what you’ve been doing?”

Beth’s eyes pooled with unshed tears. She looked hurt by my words. “Please don’t tell Lily,” she pleaded in a whisper.

“I’ll tell her everything unless you let me help you.” The look of fear and disbelief on Beth’s face made me feel like a total jackass.

Her expression changed again. She glowered at me like she wanted to set me on fire. “I hate you so much right now.”

Her words, she meant them. And hearing her tell me she hated me… it hurt, because somewhere along the way I had fallen in love with her.

“I know you do. But I’d rather you hate me for the right reasons, than like me for the wrong ones. I guess we’ll both have to figure out how to fucking live with that.”

  Review

 

I cried, I laughed, and I swooned!

This is not your average romance novel; it’s a thought-provoking, tear jerking, and profoundly emotional love story. Family values, love in its most rare form, and friendship are the core values Sparkman has exemplified with perfection.

The narration alternates between Hayden and Beth with acute precision, making the complexity of the story line flow naturally. Sparkman’s writing style made me ache for our hero and heroine as the intimate details of their lives unfolded. Their story is never rushed, which made the relationship more genuine, and completely addictive. Serious issues are dealt with tastefully, and the supporting characters make this novel complete.

I fell in love with this story almost immediately, and I highly recommend it to any lover of romance!

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About The Author

I grew up in Alabama and have always been an avid reader. I had a stack of those Little Golden Books and I can remember reading Three Little Kittens over and over and over again. It was my favorite.

Fast forward and the older I got the more in love with books I became. So, I'm admitting that I am a huge nerd. The only reading I don't like are those math word problems. And I'm okay with that because no one has ever asked me in real life... "If I give you two bananas and take away six apples, how long will it take the southbound train to collide with the northbound train if Johnny left his house at midnight?" It just doesn't happen.

So, yeah, books are my thing.

Oh and music. All kinds. Love.It.

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