Blog Tour + Early Review & Giveaway: Steal Me by Lauren Layne

Posted in 4 hearts, Blog Tours, Giveaways, Reviews by Lacey

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Welcome to today’s stop on the blog tour for Steal Me by Lauren Layne!
Check out my review for this fantastic book below, as well as a giveaway!

Steal Me by Lauren Layne
Series: New York’s Finest #2 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 24th 2015
Publisher: Forever

IN HOT PURSUIT

Being a cop might be in Anthony Moretti’s blood, but protecting and serving the city of New York has always been more than just the family business. If that means his love life stays locked up, well then that’s just another sacrifice made in the line of duty. That is, until he sets eyes on the gorgeous new waitress at The Darby Diner and suddenly Anthony’s morning coffee is leaving him a whole lot more hot and bothered than usual.

Though waitressing at The Darby isn’t exactly Maggie Walker’s dream job, it pays the bills and gives her time to work on her novel. Now if only she could stop fantasizing about gorgeous Anthony Moretti every time he sits down at her table, she’d really be in great shape. But when he needs her help identifying a criminal threatening The Darby—and Maggie recognizes her ex-husband—she fears her fresh start might be a pipe dream. Faster than a New York minute, Maggie and Anthony find themselves in one perilous pursuit that only gets hotter with each and every rule-breaking kiss.

Buy Links:
Amazon • Barnes & Noble • iTunes • Kobo • Google Play

Is there any book Lauren Layne writes that I can’t love!? I honestly don’t think it’s possible. Every time I pick up a Lauren Layne book, I know I’m going to be entertained and satisfied. Her books are always so sweet and hilarious – and her New York’s Finest series is her funniest yet. I had high expectations after adoring the first book, Frisk Me, and I couldn’t wait to get my hands on Steal Me. And of course I ended up loving Steal Me just as much as, if not more than, Frisk Me. Steal Me had me laughing and swooning – if you love men in uniform (who doesn’t), this series is a must read.

He could be a cop…
…or a boyfriend.
Or was the operative word.
He couldn’t be both.

Captain Anthony Moretti’s job as a cop is his life. His family and the NYPD are his top priorities. He has no time for women, least of all Maggie Walker, a waitress who can’t do her job and annoys Anthony to no end. Anthony is usually an in-control kind of man – he’s quiet, authoritative, and a little moody… but around Maggie, he can’t stop himself from being a total jerk. He’s flustered and completely out of control around her, and he doesn’t like the way she makes him feel. The gorgeous waitress throws him off like no other.

Maggie Walker is an aspiring writer, and she’s made a fresh start in NY. She’s never truly known love in her abusive past, so she’s charmed by the Moretti family, who comes by every week to the diner she works at. Well, she’s charmed by all but Anthony, whose good looks fire her up and make her clumsy around him. But when she identifies a criminal as her ex-husband on a case Anthony is working on, the two of them are thrown together and the sparks between them fire up until eventually their chemistry can’t be ignored.

I had so much fun reading Maggie and Anthony’s story. It’s a little slow in the beginning, with Anthony reluctant to start anything with Maggie, but he can’t resist her. The two of them are so sweet together – she cracks his stubborn, uptight shell, and he supports her and her career like no one has before. Maggie shows Anthony that he’s capable of love and that he can have love in his life, but he just has to be willing to fight for it.

“You’re…”
She looked at him through hazy eyes. “Hmm.”
“Everything,” he said quietly.

Another thing I loved about Steal Me is the Moretti family. Everyone in this family is so freaking hilarious! The grandmother is probably my favorite of them all. She’s so inappropriate and blunt, I loved her. And it was great to see Ava and Luc again! The secondary characters add so much light-heartedness and giggles to the story.

Lauren Layne writes such wonderful contemporary romances. They are truly a joy to read – whenever I finish a book of hers, I’m left with a smile on my face. Each of the books in the New York’s Finest series is well-developed and you love the characters right from the start, no matter how much of a jerk they are (*cough* Anthony). If you liked the first book, you definitely need to read the second! I, for one, can’t WAIT to get my hands on Vincent and Jill’s story.

Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.

Reading Order: New York’s Finest series

#1 ~ Frisk Me: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ Steal Me: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ Cuff Me: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads

Lauren Layne is the USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance.

Prior to becoming an author, Lauren worked in e-commerce and web-marketing. In 2011, she and her husband moved from Seattle to New York City, where Lauren decided to pursue a full-time writing career. It took six months to get her first book deal (despite ardent assurances to her husband that it would only take three). Since then, Lauren’s gone on to publish ten books, including the bestselling Stiletto series, with several more on the way in 2015.

Lauren currently lives in Chicago with her husband and spoiled Pomeranian. When not writing, you’ll find her at happy hour, running at a doggedly slow pace, or trying to straighten her naturally curly hair.

Website • Facebook • Twitter • Goodreads

Print Set of FRISK ME & STEAL ME
$5.00 Starbucks Gift Card and a Writers Gift Set

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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23Nov2015

Review: Corrupt by Penelope Douglas

Posted in 5 hearts, Reviews by Lacey

Corrupt by Penelope Douglas
Series: Devil’s Night #1 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 17th 2015
Links: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads

Erika

I was told that dreams were our heart’s desires. My nightmares, however, became my obsession.

His name is Michael Crist.

My boyfriend’s older brother is like that scary movie that you peek through your hand to watch. He is handsome, strong, and completely terrifying. The star of his college’s basketball team and now gone pro, he’s more concerned with the dirt on his shoe than me.

But I noticed him.

I saw him. I heard him. The things that he did, and the deeds that he hid…For years, I bit my nails, unable to look away.

Now, I’ve graduated high school and moved on to college, but I haven’t stopped watching Michael. He’s bad, and the dirt I’ve seen isn’t content to stay in my head anymore.

Because he’s finally noticed me.

Michael

Her name is Erika Fane, but everyone calls her Rika.

My brother’s girlfriend grew up hanging around my house and is always at our dinner table. She looks down when I enter a room and stills when I am close. I can always feel the fear rolling off of her, and while I haven’t had her body, I know that I have her mind. That’s all I really want anyway.

Until my brother leaves for the military, and I find Rika alone at college.

In my city.

Unprotected.

The opportunity is too good to be true as well as the timing. Because you see, three years ago she put a few of my high school friends in prison, and now they’re out.

We’ve waited. We’ve been patient. And now every last one of her nightmares will come true.

This book. This. Freaking. Book. Corrupt fucked me up, no joke. This is Penelope Douglas, one of my all-time favorite authors, so I had ridiculously high expectations for this book – and she met every one of them and then some. Corrupt is seriously a mindfuck of a book – it’s dark, twisted, perverse… and I loved it. I seriously loved this book! The second I finished this book, I couldn’t stop saying WOW. My mind was blown.

“Own who you are,” he commanded. “And don’t apologize. Do you understand? Own it or it will own you.”

This is the kind of read that is best to go in completely blind. The twists and turns the author has in store for you in this book will leave you breathless – and aching for more. But if you need to know anything… know that PD has created a new cast of perverse characters that you can’t help but love: the Four Horsemen, otherwise known as Michael Crist, Kai Mori, Damon Torrance, and Will Grayson III. These four glorious, dark, vengeful men have it out for Rika Fane, and they’ll stop at nothing to take her down.

“I’m hungry, Rika,” he said, pressing his hard body into my back, his lips hovering over mine. ”I want everything they tell me I can’t have, and I see that hunger in you, too.”

The romance between Michael and Rika is… corrupt, to say the least. A normal boy-meets-girl-and-they-fall-in-love story they do not have. What they do have is intense, emotional, raw, and passionate. You can feel how much these two are meant to be together, and every time they are, they set the stage on fire. They have heaps of chemistry that leaps off the pages, and I honestly never wanted their story to end.

Corrupt is a fascinating beginning to the Devil’s Night series. It’s an insane, wild roller coaster of a ride that you never want to get off of. Lucky for us, this won’t be the end to this group of characters.

Reading Order: Devil’s Night series

#1 ~ Corrupt: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ Hideaway: Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ Killswitch: Goodreads (Feb. 11, 2019)
#4 ~ Nightfall: Goodreads (release date TBA)

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19Nov2015

Audiobook Review: The Deal by Elle Kennedy

Posted in 4 hearts, Reviews by Lacey

The Deal by Elle Kennedy
Series: Off-Campus #1 (full reading order below)
Audiobook Publication Date: November 3rd 2015
Length: 12 hours and 52 minutes
Narrated by: Lorelei Avalon
Links: Audible • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
Source: I received an audiobook in exchange for an honest review

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, cocky captain 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.

The Deal is one of my top favorite reads of the year – I read an early copy of it before it was published, and it blew me away. It’s one of the BEST NA books I’ve ever read – and the sequel is just as good. So when I heard that it was going to be available as an audiobook, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it.

The Deal is a standalone NA sports romance between a hockey player and the girl he’s trying to get to tutor him in a class he’s failing. It’s hilarious, sexy, sweet, and most of all, so down-to-earth and believable. I really felt Hannah and Garrett’s characters – I fell in love with them and was swept away by their slow-burn romance. I loved that in the beginning, Hannah didn’t want anything to do with Garrett, who’s a little bit of a jerk and player. But as they get to know each other, they become actual friends, which I love in romances. And when chemistry heats up between them, and they start to fall for each other, they learn that they can be so much more.

I was really hoping that this audiobook would have dual narrators (which I love) since The Deal is told in both Garrett and Hannah’s POVs, but it only had one female narrator. This was a little disappointing, since I would’ve loved to listen to Garrett’s voice, but I was hoping Lorelei Avalon could pull off narrating both POVs. Unfortunately, this is the first audiobook I’ve listened to where I didn’t like listening to the narrator. Lorelei Avalon’s voice is a bit nasally and sounds a lot older than what 20-somethings sound like, and she couldn’t narrate the male dialog at all. Narrators can make or break an audiobook, and sadly her voice just didn’t fit well with either of the main characters.

So while the story is a 5 star read, the narrator definitely brought this audiobook down a bit. I’m really hoping that if The Score is made into an audiobook, it’ll have a different narrator (and hopefully a male one too)!

Reading Order: Off-Campus series

#1 ~ The Deal: Book Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ The Mistake: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#3 ~ The Score: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads

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19Nov2015

Release Day Review + Giveaway: Hearts of Blue by L.H. Cosway

Posted in 4.5 hearts, Giveaways, Reviews, Spotlight by Lacey

Happy Release Day to L.H. Cosway – Hearts of Blue is live!

As a special treat, L.H. Cosway will be writing a bonus scene! There will be a poll on her FB page to vote for a male POV scene!

Which scene from Hearts of Blue would you most like to read from Lee’s perspective?

The football riot scene.
The warehouse rave scene.
Karla & Lee’s ‘first time’ at the night club.

Vote in the tour poll for the male POV scene HERE.

Hearts of Blue by L.H. Cosway
Series: Hearts #4 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 19th 2015

She upholds the law. He breaks it.

Two blue hearts, both alike in bravery
In not-so-fair London, where we lay our scene
From gun crime to petty theft
Where family is blood and survival makes hands unclean
In this place, we find two hearts who should be foes
And yet, amidst the turmoil their love still grows
Misadventure abounds and the divide will bring them strife
But with luck, death doesn’t always mean an end to life.

Hearts of Blue is a standalone contemporary romance that tells the story of star-crossed lovers Karla Sheehan and Lee Cross, a police constable and the thief who steals her heart.

Buy Links:
Amazon • Amazon UK • Barnes & Noble • iTunes • Kobo • Smashwords

I’ve adored every one of the Hearts books by L.H. Cosway, but I think Hearts of Blue might be my favorite one so far. I LOVED Karla and Lee together – they are the sweetest couple EVER! I’d been looking forward to their story ever since I read about them in King of Hearts, because a romance between a police constable and a thief? YES. PLEASE. I freaking love the opposites-attract trope, and L.H. Cosway has written one that is an absolute joy to read. If you’re a fan of the series, you absolutely must read Hearts of Blue – it’s an exciting, sexy, and heartwarmingly sweet romance that I loved.

“Give me a chance, and I’ll prove to you that everything you think you see is blurred by perception.”

Karla Sheehan sees things in black and white, which makes the job of a police constable perfect for her. She gets to uphold the law, protect the innocent, and send the not-so-innocent to jail. But what happens when her black-and-white heart starts to fall for someone who lies on the gray side of the law?

“You make me feel so fucking alive,” Lee said fervently, his words muffled by my skin. “Made for me.”

Lee might be only a few years younger than Karla, but he’s lived through so much. He’s had to take care of his family since he was just a boy, and he’s never stopped. When he loves, he does it with everything he’s got, and he’ll do anything to protect what he loves. And from the moment Lee meets Karla, he sets his eyes on her, determined to make her see that what they have, the connection that they’ve formed from the start, is something worth exploring.

I loved Lee and Karla. SO much. They are witty, sassy, so much fun read about – they’re the kind of characters that you wish were real. And I couldn’t believe how ridiculously sweet this book was – I love that Lee falls so hard for Karla, trying to protect her from the bad parts of his life all the while making her love him back. The thing that surprised me the most about Hearts of Blue was definitely Lee’s character. I was expecting him to be some obvious bad boy, but he’s actually so much more than that. He’s not just a bad boy to Karla’s good girl – he’s got depth, and his heart is loyal like no other. He is now my favorite hero of L.H. Cosway’s so far.

The world isn’t blue, isn’t lonely any more, and though I was supposed to be the thief, she was the one who stole my heart.

Hearts of Blue is a satisfying, fun, and unique romance I couldn’t put down. Every time I pick up an L.H. Cosway novel, I know I’m going to be entertained. Her stories are unlike any other and are simply unforgettable. If you haven’t tried her books yet, you are missing out!

Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.

Reading Order: Hearts series

#1 ~ Six of Hearts: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Audible • Goodreads
#2 ~ Hearts of Fire: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#3 ~ King of Hearts: My Review • Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#4 ~ Hearts of Blue: Ebook • Paperback • Goodreads
#5 ~ Thief of Hearts: Goodreads (2016)
#6 ~ Hearts on Air: Goodreads (2016)

L.H. Cosway has a BA in English Literature and Greek and Roman Civilisation, and an MA in Postcolonial Literature. She lives in Dublin city. Her inspiration to write comes from music. Her favourite things in life include writing stories, vintage clothing, dark cabaret music, food, musical comedy, and of course, books.

She thinks that imperfect people are the most interesting kind. They tell the best stories.

Website • Twitter • Facebook • Goodreads • Amazon Page

1^st prize:
Signed paperback copies of the entire ‘Hearts’ series.
L.H. Cosway swag.
$25 Amazon gift card.

2^nd prize:
Signed copy of Hearts of Blue.
L.H. Cosway swag.
$10 Amazon gift card.

ENTER HERE

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17Nov2015

Release Day Review: After Tonight by Annie Kelly

Posted in 3 hearts, Reviews by Lacey

After Tonight by Annie Kelly
Series: Flirting with Trouble #1 (full reading order below)
Publication Date: November 17th 2015
Links: Ebook • Goodreads
Source: I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

She may be the teacher…

All Hyacinth “Cyn” Hendricks ever wanted to do was make a difference in the world. But when she joins the faculty of a Baltimore reform school, she discovers that she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Because the last thing she expects when she meets her newest student is to see the guy she met—and made out with—at a bar last week.

But he’s the one giving her a lesson…

To Cyn, Smith Asher is an enigma. The 20-year old doesn’t look like a high schooler and he certainly didn’t act like one the other night. Despite the smoldering chemistry between them, she knows she has to squash this dangerous infatuation before it gets them both in serious trouble. But her desire for Smith—and his lust for her—quickly grows too hot to ignore. And Cyn soon learns that there is one thing worse than teaching someone you’ve seen nearly naked…

Teaching someone you want to see nearly naked again.

I looove forbidden romances, so when I read the blurb for After Tonight, I couldn’t wait to start it. A forbidden love story between a teacher and her 20-year-old student… who she actually met the other night and almost hooked up with? Um, yes please!!! I had high expectations for this book, but… it fell a little short of them. Don’t get me wrong, this was still fun and sexy as hell, but I wanted something more. I didn’t really connect with the characters, so I wasn’t as into this book as I wish I had been. It was a little dull at some parts, intense at others, but overall, After Tonight was a very okay book.

Apparently, I’m going to teach Hamlet tomorrow to a room full of teenagers who couldn’t care less.
Oh, and one man who’s seen me almost naked.
Fucking hell.
I wonder if it’s too late to call in sick.

On her first day of student teaching, the last person Hyacinth expects to see is Smith Asher, the man she had an intense connection with the other night at a fantasy club. They may not have technically done anything that night, but she still let loose and let him see her naked… so she’s mortified to realize that he’s actually going to be her student. Now, Cyn is determined to ignore their chemistry and pretend like nothing ever happened between them, but Smith won’t let her forget. Even though he’s twenty, he’s intense, sexy, and very much hard to ignore. He riles Cyn up easily, and the forbidden-ness of their relationship only makes the chemistry between them burn hotter than ever.

“Every day I want you more, and every day I can have you less,” he murmurs.

I didn’t really like Smith, to be honest. He was pushy at times, and very hot-and-cold. His behavior was basically all over the place, so I couldn’t see why Cyn liked him, other than their attraction for each other. I didn’t get or connect with their relationship at all – it was basically only ever sexual between them. I expected a little more from this. I love forbidden romances, especially teacher/student ones, but After Tonight was only… okay. A little boring sometimes, but still plenty sexy. I will say, though, that I didn’t see the plot twist coming at all! That was probably the best part of the book – the author certainly surprised me with a twist I didn’t see coming, but was completely believable.

If you’re a fan of forbidden romances, this might not be the best book, but if you’re looking for something quick and sexy, I’d say why not. The writing was good, but the story and characters weren’t as good as I’d hoped. Still, I’m intrigued enough by the sequel that I will most likely continue the series and give it a try.

Quotes are taken from the arc and are subject to change in the final version.

Reading Order: Flirting with Trouble series

#1 ~ After Tonight: Ebook • Goodreads
#2 ~ Until Tomorrow: Ebook • Goodreads (March 15, 2016)

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