Love Me Tender - Alison Kent

Book Blurb:
Leaving behind her exciting career as a New York City fashion editor, Eden Karr - pregnant with twins - moves to small town Texas and opens a clothing boutique. Life in Arbor Glen is a far cry from the fast pace she's always thrived in, and she wonders if she's made a mistake - until sexy carpenter Jace Morgan strides into her store.

One look at beautiful Eden, and Jace know he's found his woman. Trouble is, she's still yearning for New York and his roots are now firmly planted in the Texas Hill Country. Somehow, he's got to show Eden that life here with him could be rich and full, and that the growing love they share is strong enough to keep them living happily ever after.

In My Own Words:
Retreating to small town America, seemed like the best idea to Eden.  She left her big career and big heart ache behind in NY when she found out she was pregnant and the father refused to make an honest woman out of her because he was married.  A fact she didn't know until that faithful day when she asked him, with her heart on her sleeve, to marry her and be a family with their unborn baby.  Moving to Arbor Glen was the best decision she has made.  She started up a clothing boutique and quickly started making life long friends with some of the residents.  When lots of business means lots of inventory, Eden decides she needs some work done to The Fig Leaf.  Jace is just the man she needs.  With haunts of his own in his past, Jace doesn't feel he can be a good friend, to anyone, and tries, without success, to distance himself from Eden and her unborn babies.  The two become fast friends with a spark that neither can or want to put out.  Will Eden's hold on NY hold her back from true love?  Will Jace's thought that he can't be good enough for her overcome his need for her?

Notable Quote:
Jace closed the door behind her and turned to Eden.  "What was that?"

"That....was a teenager."

Review:
I really liked the story of Jace and Eden.  The secondary characters were great, and you really got the feel that you were in the town and could really picture everything the writer was trying to get across.  I enjoyed watching the struggle Jace had with himself and when he finally gave up and couldn't stand it anymore, and Eden welcoming him with open arms.  I did tear up a little when he delivered her a special gift for the twins.  I had two issues with this book.  At times, for lack of a better word, the book was a little wordy.  The author seemed to describe things to death, to the point where I skimmed quite a bit.  My second qualm was some of the dialogue closer to the end was pretty cheesy.  When I pictured Jace in the beginning, I didn't picture him as someone that would cave so quickly in the way he spoke to his lady love.  I agree that to a degree some cheese is necessary because it is a love story, but it came to a point that I skimmed some of that too.  I did like the story, and I was surprised there wasn't a love lost point, where the biological dad showed up, but that didn't take from the story at all.  I enjoyed watching Jace and Eden fall in love and I really enjoyed watching Eden fall for the town.

Circle of Desire - Carla Swafford

Book Blurb:
As the top assassin at The Circle, a shadowy group of mercenaries, Olivia St. Vincent can hunt down anyone. She's been trained since she was a teenager to kill without feeling, to interact with men without love. But when she's kidnapped by the enigmatic leader of a rival organization, she learns she's been lied to for years. She never worked for the good guys.

Collin Ryker believes the sultry woman he's abducted knows more than she's telling about The Circle and its plans for complete domination. Over time, as they work together, Olivia's tenacity and vulnerability captivate him. But if he isn't careful, Collin will fall into the biggest trap of all: caring for a woman who can betray him to his greatest enemy.

In My Own Words:
On her way back to base, Olivia is abducted by a team of people that she believes are the enemy.  As the top assassin for The Circle, she takes out some of the worlds most dangerous and despicable men, or so she thinks.  While in captivity with OS, the company that branched off from The Circle, Collin Ryker must get Olivia to not only be a team player, with HIS team, but get intel she may have about The Circle and it's chief operator.  Olivia is shaken to her core when she realizes that the work she has done for many years, hasn't been for the good of mankind.  The only thing that can make her whole again, is love.  Can Collin provide what she needs?

Notable Quote:
"Damn, she's going to be pissed again.  We can't keep knocking her out." Collin scoped her into his arms. "let's go.  Thank goodness we've got a private plane back."

"I'm all for dumping her out over Texas." Rex followed, leaving the cleanup for his crew.

"Now what has Texas ever done to you?"

Review:
This book had many facets of suspense involved, which I really liked.  For a while, you weren't sure if Olivia was working for the good guys or the bad guys.  The secondary characters were easy to like, Rex...I have a soft spot for him.  The romance scenes were spicy and well written.  I guess my complaint about it would be that the sex scenes seemed to be....forced.  Like they were added just to have them in there.  Some of them, I remember saying...huh?  Like I said, they were well written, I just thought a lot of them were unnecessary and out of place.  The budding relationship with Collin and Olivia was fun to watch.  The unease of both of them, not sure who to trust, and the quips between them both, was very entertaining.  I am curious to see where this series goes, there were lots of twists and turns in this one, and intrigue is high for me for the 2nd book.

Under Fire - Rita Henuber

Book Blurb:
Coast Guard helicopter pilot Olivia Carver is on a very personal mission. Her twin brother, an undercover officer, was murdered by a drug cartel and she won't stop until she finds the man responsible for his death.

In the course of her own investigation, Olivia meets informant Rico Cortes. He's mysterious and sexy and despite her reservations, the two share a night of passion. But Rico turns out to be more than a one-night stand. He's a DEA agent, deep undercover in Miami's drug world, and possibly the one man who can help Olivia find the justice she seeks.

When Rico realizes his cover is blown, he isn't sure whether it was someone in the cartel or an inside agent. Olivia is the only one he can trust and together they venture on a dangerous, rogue mission to infiltrate a drug lord's inner circle…with Olivia as bait.

In My Own Words:
The one thing that Commander Olivia Carver wants in life, is to get justice for the murder of her twin brother, Danny.  What she didn't expect was to meet a tall, dark and handsome DEA agent that is undercover in the same organization that she needs to take down.  When Rico sees Olivia in the bar, his original intention of sending her packing with a stiff warning, goes out the door.  After a steamy night of sizzling passion, Olivia is ready to give herself a pat on the back for her first one-night-stand success.  When Olivia encounters Rico again, it is in not so friendly circumstances.  When he turns to Olivia for help, she must decide if getting in bed with the devil is worth the intel he may provide.  Having to go undercover herself, she realizes how much she has come to care for Rico, but when she is made, will the training and love persevere?

Notable Quote:
"Commander, if it's all the same to you, you get in that kind of trouble again, call the Marines.  Once flying with you was enough.  And, we aren't all that great.  It's just that everybody else sucks."  He winked and without another word, turned and hobbled away.  (SEAL rescuer to Olivia)

Review:
I LOVED THIS BOOK.  I can't wait to see what else this author comes up with.  I was surprised to find out this is her debut book.  This book has it ALL.  I was hooked from the first few pages when Olivia showed she was a pilot not to be messed with.  Olivia is a strong woman full of spunk and sass with the know-how to back it all up.  Rico is a tough as nails DEA agent that is sexy, with a killer smile and to many secrets for him not to be irresistible.  The secondary characters were just as much fun to read about. Mouse is a KICK!!  I was so happy for his own happy ending.  This book had non-stop action and some steamy hot sex scenes.  The banter was refreshing and Rico and Olivia had great chemistry.  My only complaint about this book, was it ended rather abruptly.  I am hoping that means we are being set up for another book :)

Don't Tell - Karen Rose

Book Blurb:
It was a desperate plan. But Mary Grace Winters knew the only way to save herself and her child from her abusive cop husband was to stage their own death. Now all that remains of their former life is at the bottom of a lake. Armed with a new identity in a new town, she and her son have found refuge hundreds of miles away. As Caroline Stewart, she has almost forgotten the nightmare she left behind nine years ago. She is even taking a chance on love with Max Hunter, a man with wounds of his own. But her past is about to collide with the present when her husband uncovers her trail and threatens her hard-won peace. Step by step, he's closing in on her- and everything and everyone she loves.

In My Own Words:
With not only her life at stake, but also her young son's, Mary Grace makes the decision that will change their lives.  She made the decision to die.  When she was reborn, she became Caroline and once her new life was set in motion, there was no stopping her.  While working at the university, she meets Max, who is now her new boss after the sudden and painful death of her mentor and dear friend.  She begins to trust and in that, begins to love.  Just as her life is on track, Mary Grace's life comes back to haunt her.  Will she be strong enough to face her past while keeping a firm hand on her future?

Notable Quote:
Petey nodded sagely. "And your shoulder must hurt, too."
Max's brows drew together in a mild frown.  "Why would my shoulder's hurt?"
"Daddy says you have a chip on your shoulder the size of a mountain."  (out of the mouths of babes lol)

Review:
I happened to have started this series out of order, mainly because I didn't know there was an order.  So after I read "You Belong To Me", I HAD to have more.  When I went to Karen's website, I immediately saw my mistake, but it was also a blessing, that meant there was MORE!!!

Don't Tell had everything you could want from a romantic suspense book.  A deep rooted hatred for evil that Caroline must overcome if she ever wishes to find true love.  This was almost painful to watch play out.  I have a great deal of respect for women in these situations and I feel that Karen Rose, did an amazing job of portraying the very real evil that lives behind closed doors.  I loved Caroline's support system and the fact that Dana didn't take ANY crap from Caroline and told her like it is.  Tom, amazing, resilient, protective Tom.  An amazing young man, and wonderfully written.  Then, the story with Max.  I loved that the author didn't rush the love story, but let it happen naturally.  The secondary family characters were a riot.  I hope Dana and David get a story, I think that could be...explosive!!

Night Moves - Stephanie Tyler

Book Blurb:
Kell Roberts has walked the thin line between life and death for so long that it now feels like home. He is a soldier, a survivor, and a loner. Still, Kell cannot turn his back on the beautiful woman caught in his firefight against the drug lords of Mexico. She says her name is Teddie, but Kell senses there’s much more to her story—and it’s about to pull him into a mission he didn’t sign on for: keeping her alive.

Teddie knows this lean, mean rescuer just saved her life, but the steel glint behind those soft gray eyes seem to be hiding something deep. The men after Teddie are deadly, but the man who holds her life in his hands and tempts her with his wicked touch is even more dangerous. He could make her dream about living and loving again. And if they can survive, maybe, just maybe, they can stop fighting the world and each other—and simply surrender.

In My Own Words:
Teddie is a US diplomat's daughter who has lost her entire family and is forced into witness protection.   She used to be a photographer/videographer. She’s strong-willed and determined to get vengeance on the ones responsible for her family’s murders, no matter the cost to herself.  Armed with a photo, a phone number of a "reliable" helper and her stiff back bone, she sets off, out of the "security" of the witness protection and directly in to the arms of Kell Roberts.

Kell Roberts is ex-Delta turned private contractor. He’s gruff and has learned early in life that the only one he can trust and depend on is himself. Guilt has been chipping away at him, causing him to turn away from his best friend, whom he almost lost in an ambush attack on his former team and also initially from the woman who turns out to be his anchor and love of his life.  The night Kell and Reid are set to end the lives of two very bad men, Teddie literally runs right in to them.  He has two choices, help her or leave her.  He can't bring himself to leave her.  The spark isn't instant, but the flame grows.  Can Kell forgive himself before he looses the only love he has ever felt for a woman?

Notable Quote:
And then it was time to stop playing cat and mouse with the marshals and lost them for good.  That was accomplished too easily and he cursed the fact that no one knew how to track anymore.  Fucking economy was ruining training.  (glad to see that the economy isn't only hitting us lol)

Review:
Night Moves is a part of the Shadow Force series, and I loved this one from the beginning.  The prologue did a beautiful job of showing Kell and Reid's lives before the military and how their friendship developed in to the lifelong friendship they have today.  The love story with Kell and Teddie wasn't an in your face romance, and I thought the balance of romance and suspense was right on.  I think my favorite part was when Reid announced that since Teddie belonged to Kell, she was to be protected by his brothers, and then it was done.  That is family, blood or not, family just the same.

I loved how Night Moves set up a book for Reid perfectly, and I sincerely hope he gets his own HEA and is snagged by a sassy marshall with a backbone made of steel and a heart of gold.

Sweet Revenge - Christy Reece

Book Blurb:
Jamie Kendrick went on a trip to hell at the hands of Stanford Reddington, a monster protected by money and power. Now, asking for Last Chance Rescue’s help, Jamie makes plans for her revenge. And Dylan Savage, one of LCR’s most skilled operatives, is given an assignment he despises but can’t refuse—to train the lovely Jamie but thwart her revenge plot at all costs. With tender ruthlessness, he pries open her most intimate secrets, and the attraction they’ve both tried to deny explodes into a scorching love affair—an affair that Dylan has to end. Months after Jamie stormed away from Dylan and LCR, the two meet again—at the home of Stanford Reddington. In the grips of hurt, anger, desire, and undercover danger, Jamie and Dylan will risk more than broken hearts: they’re risking everything to stop an evil fiend from destroying more lives, including their own.

In My Own Words:
After being held hostage by the savage monster, Stanford Reddington and his vile son, Jamie hatches a plan to not only bring him to justice for what he has done to her, but what he has done to countless women and children.  For her plan to work, she needs the help of the organization that helped to rescue her and reunite her with the sister she thought was dead.  Last Chance Rescue (LCR) does the impossible, they find, and rescue victims when all other avenues have been used up.  When Jamie meets with the boss, Noah McCall, and lays out her plan (most of her plan), he agrees to have one of his best operatives train her.  During the training, she thinks she is breaking through his tough barrier, and finally getting through to the man, she is irrevocably in love with.  When she finds out, he not only doesn't trust her enough to run her own mission, she believes he has been sleeping with her only to gather further intel.  She leaves, to only see him again, several months later, at Stanford's compound.  Shock turns in to pissed off, then on to camaraderie while they try to escape with their lives, and the information to help find the women who have been taken from their lives.  An unlikely accomplice helps seal the deal, but is it to late for true love?

Notable Quote:
"Finish your spaghetti.  You might need the nourishment." (for training or for bedroom games??)

Review:
This is the 8th LCR book, and brings us one book closer to the end of the series.  I for one will be totally bummed when this series finally comes to and end.  I loved everything about this book.  I think it is hilarious how Noah, the big, dangerous Noah McCall, who fought his HEA the entire way, is a matchmaker.  The banter between Jamie and Dylan was off the charts good.  I think my favorite parts were when Jamie surprised Dylan with what she had learned and was able to actually take care of herself and not be a liability.  The next book is going to be bitter sweet, then end of an amazing series, but the beginning of a new chapter in the author's life too.  Excited to see what Christy Reece brings us next.

Kissing Kelli - Kathy Carmichael

Book Blurb:
Rodeo champion and wealthy rancher, Bobby Gray Nelson, is used to women setting out to lasso him. But when he meets feisty Kelli Palmer, she refuses him on every count. He's always up for a challenge and is determined to woo this beautiful veterinarian who he thinks could be his soul mate.

Kelli Palmer doesn't believe love is in the chute for her. She's devoted herself to the animals she cares for and the family she adores. So when her sister claims dibs on the handsome cowboy, Kelli reins in her attraction and tells him to skedaddle.

Losing is not an option for this gorgeous cowboy. He comes up with a 5-step plan to place his brand on Kelli's heart.

The problem is, he can't even make it to the first step. Never fear, though. He's got a Plan B.

Can Kelli stand her ground -- even after his toe-curling kiss?

In My Own Words:
Dr. Kelli Palmer seems to have everything her little sister would love to have, brains, beauty a veterinary medicine degree, even the horses like her better.  So when Kelli goes to the family's 4th of July BBQ, and runs in to a handsome cowboy, how was she to know that he was taken?

Bobby Gray is a wealthy rancher that is looking to make his ranch stay on the map for generations to come.  The thing that would seal the deal, would be royalty.  It doesn't matter that Kelli has more of a chance of taking the throne as Elvis does being alive.  He wants her at the dinner with the banker, and he knows how to make it happen.

When sparks fly, will Kelli look at loyalty to her sister before passion and love?  Will Bobby Gray think of his family's heritage before his "soul mate"?

Review:
If I could use one word to describe this book, it would be cheesy.  The story line was weak (I mean, come on, the little sister has a hissy fit and flies to Germany to avoid her sister.)  The romance is non-existent (how can someone love someone else off of a few non-dates and ONE kiss?)  The family dynamics is just plain crazy, the level of money these families throw around is ridiculous.  I was put off by the cover, was even higher on the cheesy scale, but tried to live by the "don't judge a book by its cover."  To bad I didn't pay closer attention.  Not sure I will look for more books by this author.

Forged in Fire - Trish McCallan

Book Blurb:
Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

In My Own Words:
When parts of a dream Beth has start coming true, she feels she HAS to warn some men that she sees die in her dream.  Her biggest fear is that they won't believe her and dismiss her as a nut.  Little does she know LC Zane Winters has his own psychic abilities and had already been alerted to something hinky on his flight, that he is taking with 2 of his platoon buddies.

While trying to help the team figure out the who/what and why, Beth realizes there is much much more to Zane.  And in the middle of a planning session, she is told that Zane believes she is his soul mate and her life is no longer her own, but she belongs to him. "HUH"??  But, while tracking down the bad guys, she becomes a believer when Zane enters her mind in their own, very cool psychic connection.


Notable Quote:
Except...if she was dreaming, wouldn't he be a jacked-up, massively muscled vampire warrior, rather than the testosterone laden, far-to-alpha-but human- pain-in-the-derriere?

Rating:
I will be the first to admit, I was very skeptical about this book.  I am not normally a paranormal lover, and went in to reading it with a very closed mind.  I couldn't have been more surprised when I loved it.  My book pals will never believe me when I tell them, I can't wait for the next in this series.  The psychic connection between Beth and Zane is wickedly awesome.  Their banter and his "your mine" attitude ratcheted up the lust level for me.  There was so much going on in this book.  My heart broke when the SAC watched the video of his wife, and then when she put all of what had been done to her aside to help the others.  I sincerely think my favorite part was when Mac blew off the bad guys balls, I gasped and giggled at the same time.  My only issue with this book, was that it seemed to end rather abruptly.  I am hoping the next book will pick up where this one left off, although waiting isn't my best attribute.