Once again, I'm a bit behind, so you're getting some mini-reviews. But this time, well let's just say that all of these were four or five star reads for me. Two are ones that I liked so much I had to buy physical copies of. One of those two is for an author that I hope to get to meet this weekend at the Kinky in Kansas City Romance Book Convention.
Royally Screwed (Royally #1) by Emma Chase:
My rating: 5 stars
This was my first book by this author, and I'm pretty sure I'm sold now. I mean I loved this book so much, I had to order a physical copy of it. I love the two person point of view, I really do enjoy those a lot. The humor was good, the emotional parts were good, and all of it was just so good. The sex scenes, very sexy, very hot. The ending, loved it, and it makes me very excited to get ahold of book 2 now! Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Nicholas Arthur Frederick Edward Pembrook, Crowned Prince of Wessco, aka “His Royal Hotness,” is wickedly charming, devastatingly handsome, and unabashedly arrogant―hard not to be when people are constantly bowing down to you.
Then, one snowy night in Manhattan, the prince meets a dark haired beauty who doesn’t bow down. Instead, she throws a pie in his face.
Nicholas wants to find out if she tastes as good as her pie, and this heir apparent is used to getting what he wants.
Dating a prince isn’t what waitress Olivia Hammond ever imagined it would be.
There’s a disapproving queen, a wildly inappropriate spare heir, relentless paparazzi, and brutal public scrutiny. While they’ve traded in horse drawn carriages for Rolls Royces and haven’t chopped anyone’s head off lately―the royals are far from accepting of this commoner.
But to Olivia―Nicholas is worth it.
Nicholas grew up with the whole world watching, and now Marriage Watch is in full force. In the end, Nicholas has to decide who he is and, more importantly, who he wants to be: a King... or the man who gets to love Olivia forever.
Dirty Strategy by Eden Summers:
My rating: 4 stars
This was a very short novella. It is a menage story about a girl named Miri who lives with two really hot professional football players. They're letting her stay there, but she doesn't feel right living there and not paying rent. Sure she does the cooking and laundry, but that's not the problem. The problem is that living with these two gorgeous men is just too overstimulating and it seems all she can think about is being with both of them. When she tells them she has to move out, they come up with an alternate living arrangement. Needless to say, it gets pretty hot and heavy. But it is over pretty quickly. And there could definitely be more. This was a free story that came from subscribing to the author's newsletter. If you like steamy menage stories, this is definitely for you, you should subscribe to Eden Summer's newsletter.
UnderCovers (Under the Covers #1) by Kayti McGee:
My rating: 4.5 stars
Okay, I hurried up to read this book because the author is coming to Kinky in Kansas City later this week. Once I read it, I had to order a physical copy to get signed. Especially when I heard the author had to back out as an author because she didn't have any books from her publisher to sell. So I ordered this print on demand just for this. As I started reading, I made several notes just in the first chapter of things I wanted to remember for a review. The book is set in Kansas City, which is a lot of what I loved, especially the quote about Eric Hosmer, one of the stars of our baseball team, the Royals. One thing was about how there are a lot of nurses that smoke, I know that is an overgeneralization, but my college roommate is one of those, and I know of plenty others. Then there is this quote:
"I've never been talented (read: patient) enough to pull off a sexy look, but Jane worked at Sephora during nursing school and always makes sure her bestie has a face to match her breasts."
I want that best friend. I am not and never have been talented with makeup, so I need her! And again, so many parts that mentioned my Kansas City Royals players that I just couldn't stop smiling. And all the different KC locales that are familiar. Loved it! Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Halfway through her first year on the job, Melissa Montclair decides the best part of teaching is winter break.
And the best part of break is the Perfect Ten she meets in a bar on New Year’s Eve. Why not celebrate a semester under her belt with a Perfect Ten in her pants? The one night affair is all she hoped for, until she walks into school a week later and sees Mr. Ten is Student Twenty-nine on her roll call.
She should be mortified—and she is—but that doesn’t stop her from banging him again. And again.
And again.
So much for job security.
Posing as an exchange student at Hamilton High is finally the assignment Officer Spence Vega has been hoping for. Now he has a shot at getting to the bottom of the town’s recent molly epidemic. There’s only a couple of problems: first, history is taught by the curvy bombshell he banged on New Year’s. Second, his growing suspicion is that she’s the dealer he’s looking for.
The job was supposed to be an easy in-and-out, not the teacher.
If only they could stop getting under the covers, staying undercover would be so much easier.
Fame and Obsession (Lords of Lyre #1) by Cora Kenborn:
My rating: 5 stars
I won a copy of this book from the author through a Facebook giveaway and I immediately started reading it. And, I was hooked. I could barely stop reading it to do anything else, like go to bed! There were a lot of good twists and turns, the characters had great backgrounds and issues. Ones that really didn't seem stupid to be worried about, like what you normally find in a romance story. These were the types of secrets that you would probably keep private, not share. I do really enjoy the rock star romances, and this one just fell right into that love. The person who turned out to be the stalker was definitely a pretty good twist. Can't wait to read on in this series, although it's not out yet, so I have to wait until March! Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
Struggling writer Phoebe Ryan abandons her southern roots and heads to New York, determined to leave her nightmarish past behind…
She was not expecting to meet a famous rock star, or to be coerced into ghostwriting his autobiography. But she tries to maintain focus on her dream of becoming an author, despite the attraction she feels for the sexy rocker, not to mention the baggage that comes with him.
Julian Bale’s world was shattered one drunken night, and it almost ruined him…
Weighed down by guilt, he blames himself for an accident he could’ve prevented. He will play the game, but swears his hot little ghostwriter will never get that story out of him. As much as he wants her, if he has to choose between his dream and hers, it’s no contest.
Phoebe and Julian give in to a forbidden attraction, and their public romance risks both their lives…
An obsessive fan is on the loose and now that the secret’s out, it’s made them both targets. The psychotic stalker is determined to have Julian for herself, even if she has to reveal their sordid pasts and eliminate Phoebe to do it.
He lives for fame. She lives to hide. Obsession lives to ruin them both.
I highly recommend all of these, although the one, Dirty Strategy, is definitely only for those who like menage stories.