Ten New Adult Free/Cheap E-Book Mini-Reviews

It seems like about 9 e-books is about when it is time for me to do a little post like this.  Some of these are part of a series again, some new series, some related back to past ebook series I've reviewed.  Once again I'll give you the synopsis from Goodreads, then my quick review.

Logan (Wild Boys After Dark #1) by Melissa Foster:

This book was okay.  I liked the story, but it didn't blow me away.  I will probably want to read on in the series though.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Stella “Stormy” Knight is an expert at hiding—her feelings, her past, and her identity. Sometimes all that hiding takes its toll, and she needs to come out from under that heavy suit of armor and cut loose—but it never takes her long to put it right back on and disappear without a trace.

Private Investigator Logan Wild is relentless in his pursuit to discover the truth for his clients. He works hard, plays even harder, and always walks away unscathed and untethered. Until he meets mysterious and sexy-as-hell Stormy, who leaves him craving more than a one-night stand.

Passion ignites, secrets are shared, and their deep connection is impossible to ignore. But in order to have a future, Logan must uncover Stormy’s dark past—and when he does, he’ll hold her fate in his hands.

Wednesday (Timeless series #3) by E.L. Todd:

This is the third book in a series I started for the last e-book review post I did.  Book 2, Tuesday, left on a pretty good note. This one takes us back down on the roller coaster of the relationship, but in the end it worked out pretty well.  I was a little disappointed that there didn't seem to be as many steamy bits in this one, like since they were together we didn't need to read that? But that is part of what I'd enjoyed with these, so that was one negative.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

It took me a long time to forgive Hawke—a very long time.


But now that I have, I feel nothing but unbridled joy. Everything is exactly as it should have been two years ago. He’s just what I need, and not just now, but forever.


Until disaster strikes.


We promised each other forever, but will Hawke honor that promise when his world comes crumbling down? When the ground cracks below his feet, will we still stand?


Or will we fall? 

Storm (Storm MC #1) by Nina Levine:

So this was about a girl who had run from a life where her father was the leader of the motorcycle club, and also a life where she'd been attacked and had a crazy ex-boyfriend.  But when that crazy ex starts killing people, her family thinks she is next, and want to bring her home.  The story wasn't bad.  Just don't know that I care for how the women are treated in this society, and not sure that I'd read any more of this series. But the writing wasn't bad, so I might give the author another chance if she has a different series or book.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Madison Cole’s family is the Storm Motorcycle Club. Her father is the President and her brother is the VP. She grew up surrounded by bikers, crime and violence. Two years ago she walked away from her family and the world they live in. Her soul was shattered, her heart was broken and she had an addiction she couldn't shake. She picked up the pieces and put herself back together. Now her family wants her back. The club is being threatened and they send a club member to return her home to safety; the one person that could destroy everything she has worked so hard to build.

Jason Reilly has sacrificed a lot for the motorcycle club he calls family. Two years ago he made the biggest sacrifice of all; he gave up the woman he loved for them. Now he is being sent to bring her back and he is conflicted. He thought he was over her but discovers their connection is as strong as ever. Their love was all-consuming, passionate and fiery. It was also their undoing and he doesn't know if either of them is strong enough to battle the demons that ripped them apart, to find love again.

Madison and Jason are brought back together by a force out of their control; one that pushes them to a breaking point. Can they overcome their past and discover a love worth fighting for or will the harsh reality of their world finally and completely break them both?  

Switched at Marriage series by Gina Robinson:
So far I've only read the first two, I think they were both free?  Or else I got a credit and bought the second one.  I will want to go on, as each one is pretty short, and definitely leaves you with lots more to find out. 

A Wedding to Remember (Switched at Marriage #1):

I like that the story was someone had stolen the main character, Kayla''s identity and married the other main character, Justin, in Las Vegas.  And what is unique is that they did know each other, and he had been interested her in college, even though he was definitely not her type. But now he's a billionaire, so it won't look good for either of them to do a quickie divorce.  She'll look like a gold-digger, and it's not the image he wants to put out either, so they agree to one year before they will end the marriage.  One issue with these so far, is the lack of sex scenes.  Here's the blurb for this one from Goodreads:

Welcome to the exciting and romantic world of the Jet City Billionaires…

She always dreamed of a lavish wedding with a handsome groom. So how did she end up married to a billionaire without a wedding at all?

SWITCHED AFTER THE ALTAR...

Kayla Lucas can't believe she's being divorced by a man she never married. That's some new kind of low. And certainly not by Justin Green, Seattle's youngest billionaire and the city’s most eligible nerd. Sure, Jus had a crush on her in college, but someone has to be pranking her—she hasn’t seen him in years. She's ready to play along until she walks into a meeting with Justin and his lawyer. Justin is much hotter than she remembers. And has proof he’s legally married to her. He has a proposal—stay his wife for a year and he's willing to pay. But how are they married? And just what will it cost her to accept? Could she possibly lose her heart to a guy like Jus?

The Virgin Billionaire (Switched at Marriage #2):

So we kind of left off at a specific moment in the last one, and now we join back in as the two have to start making appearances as a married couple.  Kayla thinks that the publicity ideas she has will be good, but isn't quite sure how far she is willing to go in this fake marriage.  Especially when there is obviously a girl in Justin's life that seems to really like him, and when she meets one of his billionaire friends that really seems much more her type.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Sure, she's married. Sort of. That doesn't mean she's dead.
FLIRTING AFTER THE ALTAR…
Kayla is in over her head. Being a billionaire’s wife of convenience for a year isn’t the fantasy job she expected. Sure, the pay is good. If she can last the year and not get caught in the lies she and Justin are telling.

But she’s off men, so it should all be good. Until she meets Justin’s hot billionaire friend, Lazer Grayson, and the chemistry between them is immediate and undeniable.

With such intense competition from his hot friend, can Justin possibly win Kayla’s heart?

London Bound (London Lovers #3) by Amy Daws:

This is the third in a series that I started back in May.  While we have the same characters as those others, Becoming Us and A Broken Us, this time we center the story around one of the friends from those books, and this story can actually be read without reading the others.  This time it is Leslie, and we did get a glimpse at her first meeting with Theo in the first two books. But in this book we see her background and why she went to London, as well as what her problems with guys are, as well as what problems this Theo has.  I'm not sure I'm a fan of how this story went really.  It was kind of weird and abrupt in certain areas. But, I'll probably continue with the series, as I do like the characters.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

When Leslie Lincoln, a spunky, red-headed American, suffers an awkward moment with an arousingly-sexy British man—she thinks her life can't get any more pathetic.

She's done with men.
She doesn't need them.
She especially doesn't need their muscular thighs.
No siree, she's going to forget all about the brooding, complicated, and seductive "Theo" who captivated her on the dance floor of a London nightclub.

Keep telling yourself that, Lez.....

Immersing herself into a new type of romantic cleanse, Leslie thinks she'll never lay eyes on Theo again. But somehow, he's managed to bulldoze his way back in—her cheetah-print onesie pajamas be damned.

He wants more.
She wants to run.
But he can’t seem to let her go.
Both of them have a past—and neither want to share.
How can love possibly survive in darkness?   

Dare to Love series by Carly Phillips:
As I mentioned in my last mini-review post like this, I have found I'm really into the rock star romance I guess. And so when the one that I first read came up for free, I got it and read it.  So I didn't read these in order, not that I think you actually HAVE to.  But I will probably end up going and reading them all.  I think the first one later popped up free, or else I bought it with a credit I ended up with, not sure.  But I will review them in the order I read them.

Dare to Rock (Dare to Love #5):

This time the rock star is actually one who is ready to get out of the business, as he's done being on the road, and really wants to get back to the one girl he always loved and to prove to her that he wants her back and will be what she needs.  Grey's career however has contained many fans, some a little crazy, such as one stalker that will come out of the woodwork to threaten Avery, as well as all the fans that want to blame Avery for supposedly causing the band to break up. But she isn't truly the reason, there are many others, including a druggie member that they are tired of working with until he gets help, as well as a slimy manager that Grey is ready to be done with.  Avery doesn't really want to be in the limelight either, as she had to deal with that in her past, when it was found out that her dad had another family.  She has very overprotective brothers as well, who don't like her being with Grey either.  The brothers, and I think other family and friends, are who the rest of the series will center around.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Avery Dare lives a quiet life in Miami as an online fashion/makeup video blogger. She has good friends, a close, large family and if her love life is lacking, she likes it that way. But when she receives an invitation to one of her ex's concerts along with an invitation to meet him back stage, she decides to take the risk… and comes face to face with the reality of his rock star lifestyle - the press, the crowds, and the half naked groupies.

At eighteen, Grey Kingston left everything he knew and loved behind to seek fame and fortune as a rock star, and he found it as the lead guitarist and singer for the band, Tangled Royal. Fans adore him, women throw themselves at him, and he can afford everything he couldn’t growing up. Yet at the height of his career, he’s ready to walk away and return home to a simpler life… and the woman he left behind, if he can convince her to give him another chance.

Except moving on isn’t as easy as Grey would like. When Avery is threatened by a stalker, it becomes evident Grey’s fans not only don’t want him to retire, they don’t want Avery in his life either. And Avery isn’t sure she wants the pressures that are part of Grey’s life… but she doesn’t want to lose him again, either. Can their recently renewed love survive the fallout? 

Dare to Love (Dare to Love #1):

In this book we meet one of Avery's brothers, Ian Dare.  Ian first lays eyes on, and finds he is extremely attracted to a girl named Riley, who is best friends with his half-brother Alex.  Ian has never given Alex or his other half-siblings a chance, because their father had chosen Alex's family over Ian and his siblings and mother.  But now he must try to be friendly, partly in order to try to get Riley to give him a chance.  Riley had a rough life growing up, and Alex had always been there for her.  It will be Ian's job to help her with what is in her past, as well as get her to fall in love with him.  I actually enjoyed this one better than the other, even though it started out slow for me, and I stopped it and came back later.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

New York Times Bestselling Author Carly Phillips turns up the heat in her newest sexy contemporary romance series, and introduces you to the Dare family… siblings shaped by a father’s secrets and betrayal.

Since finding out his father had another family on the side, Ian Dare swore to be the upstanding, responsible man his cheating parent had never been. When it comes to his relatives, he gives his all but in relationships he offers the bare minimum. But one glimpse of sensual Riley Taylor arouses his dominant and protective instincts and Ian is entranced. He will do anything to possess her … and does. But any future with Riley must include him extending an olive branch to the half-brother who is a constant reminder of the pain he’d rather forget.

Independent and always in control, Riley Taylor makes no apologies for choosing men carefully. Relationships have never been a priority and she believes herself hardened to domineering men – until she meets charismatic Ian Dare. He manages to turn a simple kiss into an all out assault on her senses and when he takes control in the bedroom, she’s stunned to discover she likes it. As their affair heats up, they soon realize they complete each other in ways neither imagined. But Riley’s past is closer than she cares to remember, and her struggles with Ian’s dominance might just cost her everything.   

Dirty Sexy Saint (Dirty Sexy #1) by Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde:

So this book right here totally sells me on books by Carly Phillips.  This was a five star, very HOT read!  We've got three brothers for the stories in this series, and the first brother was nicknamed "Saint", because he seemed to take in every person or animal that he found on the streets that needed help.  Including the main female character in this, Samantha.  I loved the chemistry, I loved how Clay/Saint was completely honest about how he would be with her and all that she should expect from him.  I loved the brothers, and I love how it all worked out with Samantha's family in the end.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

New York Times bestselling authors Carly Phillips and Erika Wilde bring you a dirty, sexy, smoking hot SERIES featuring three bad boy brothers bonded by shocking secrets and their damaged past. Sinful, addicting, and unapologetically alpha, these men are every woman’s erotic daydream ... And your ultimate dirty fantasy.

Are you ready to get Dirty Sexy with a Saint?

Clay Kincaid knows he's more a sinner than a saint. Especially when it comes to women. With a rough and damaged past that has left him jaded, he doesn't do committed relationships. But he does like sex—the hotter and harder, the better. He likes it fast and filthy, which is why he refuses to even touch someone as sweet and guileless as Samantha Jamieson. Until he discovers that she likes it just as down and dirty as he does. Let the sinning begin . . .

Caught (Sex and Bullets #1.5) by Jo Raven:

I really liked this one, and I really want to go on and find out what is next, as this kind of has a cliffhanger ending. But, when I look at the cover of the next book, the model on the cover is soooooo unattractive to me, that it will make it hard for me to read and not picture him instead of the hot guy I pictured as I read this one.  But we'll see, the sex scenes were definitely very steamy.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

The moment I met HAWK, I was CAUGHT.
That was the night my boyfriend called me frigid in front of everyone at my favorite restaurant, and Jamie Hawk Fleming came to the rescue. Casually as you please, he proposed an arrangement: no attachments, no feelings. Only hot, awesome sex.
That’s fine with me. I want to get over the humiliation my ex-boyfriend caused me, prove to myself I’m not frigid, and—let’s be serious, who can say no to a mouthwateringly handsome young millionaire? It’s surely an experience, right? Even if he doesn’t want to be my boyfriend, just my fuckbuddy.
I’m perfectly fine with that.
If only my head—and my heart—didn’t have other ideas…

And those are the free/cheap e-books I've read over the last two or so weeks.

Nine New Adult Free/Cheap E-book Mini-Reviews

So at the end of my Kindle Unlimited trial subscription, I had a series that I wanted to get through very quickly before they expired and I would have to buy them.  That is why there are nine books I'm going to talk about. Although a few of them are from the same series.  Once again I'll give a short review, followed by the blurb from Goodreads. Also, each book can be read alone, or in any order.  You just get a little bit of a spoiler for the books before I guess by reading the books out of order because you know which people get together.

Sinful Serenade series by Crystal Kaswell:
So I honestly never really thought I would be quite so into the rock star romance, but in these ebooks, they are quick and easy reads.  Often very good!  Now, I actually started with the second book in this series, possibly because that one was free and the others cost?  Not sure.  But since I did, I'm going to review them in the order I read them.  Each book in the series tells the story of one of the guys in the alternative rock band called Sinful Serenade.  I was introduced to the band with Kara and Drew's story.

Strum Your Heart Out (Sinful Serenade #2):

I liked the best friend turned boyfriend/girlfriend story.  As usual in one of these stories, at first the hookup goes okay, until something happens that it doesn't.  With Drew being in a band, the lead guitarist of the band, it makes it harder for him to settle down. It was as I read that we got a little bit of a picture of her friend Meg and the lead singer of the band Miles, and their very sexy relationship, and that is how I learned it was a series, and that I'd skipped the first one. I really enjoyed the story, it was fun and sexy.  Only problem I had with it, and the others in the series, were editing issues with grammar, etc.  Here's the blurb:
Moving in with your sexy, tattooed rock star best friend? No problem. Not if you're ready to give up eating, breathing, and sleeping...

College senior Kara Kendrick is not about to let lust ruin a good friendship. Yes, her rock star guitarist best friend Drew Denton is stubborn, guarded, and quick to threaten violence on anyone who hurts her. He's also trustworthy, protective, and several degrees hotter than the sun.

When Kara gets kicked out of her apartment, Drew insists she move in with him. But her crush isn't quite so manageable with him sweating through his push-ups. Or stepping out of the shower clad in only a towel. Or tackling her on the bed, tickling her to make her confess.

There's no way they can be together. Not if she wants to keep her secrets. No matter how much her body begs her to throw herself on his bed, no matter how desperately she wants to rip off his v-neck and rake her hands over his defined torso, Kara is staying just friends with Drew.

Until she's not. Until they're kissing and touching and about to do something that will change their friendship forever.

Sing Your Heart Out (Sinful Serenade #1):

It was actually nice to go back and start with this first book in the series.  This is the story of Meg and Miles, the lead singer of the band.  Of course since I'd already read the first book, I knew that Kara was going to get with Drew.  Meg actually ended up meeting Miles because of her roommate Kara, who was best friends with one of the guys in the band.  And their first meeting was a total "meet-cute" or maybe that should be called a "meet-sexy/awkward" in this case.  Meg walked in on Miles having sex with another girl at a party.  Meg is a virgin, and so Miles has a lot of fun embarrassing her.  Miles kind of becomes Meg's sexual teacher, reminds me of Nate in Before Jamaica Lane by Samantha Young.  Here's the blurb for it:
Good girls don't date rock stars.
They certainly don't have rock star friends with benefits.
Still a virgin at 21, Meg Smart walks a straight and narrow path. She aces her classes, excels at her part time job, and carefully avoids trouble--no drinks, no drugs, and especially, no boyfriends.

Rock star Miles Webb doesn't do "boyfriend." He skips over intimacy and love in favor of easy distraction--a beautiful woman under him, screaming his name.

Meg is drawn to the pain in his gorgeous, tortured voice. But the man she hears on the radio is nothing like the player she meets at a mutual friend's house party. When she walks in on one of his trysts, she's embarrassed enough to die. His merciless teasing leaves her blushed and frustrated, but she's intrigued by his wit, his confidence, his casual offer to give her a night she'll never forget.

Neither of them wants a relationship, so they strike up an arrangement: They'll be friends with benefits, nothing more, nothing less. There are only three rules: no secrets, no feelings, no falling in love.

Only neither one of them can quite abide by the terms.

Rock Your Heart Out (Sinful Serenade #3):

In this book we get Willow and Tom's story.  So, Willow is Drew's sister.  She's needing somewhere to go if the job she's applied for doesn't work out, and so when she meets up with her brother, she ends up going on the tour with him.  Willow is a photographer, and so she is lucky enough to get hooked up with the official tour photographer as kind of an understudy/assistant.  Tom is the drummer in the band, and he's pretty much a man-whore.  Except he's just gotten a new piercing, and is unable to have sex for awhile until it heals.  He's hot, of course, and he knows it.  He can tell that Willow gets steamy thoughts about him when she looks at him, but he's not going to do anything besides be her friend and help her brother take care of her on the trip.  Partly because her brother is a bit of a hothead and would be pissed if he thought someone was taking advantage of his younger sister, especially a player like Tom.  Here's the blurb:
There's a naked rockstar in my hotel room.
And he's pierced.

Willow Denton needs to get out of town fast. Her only option is joining her brother's band on tour. Ten weeks with misbehaved men doesn't sound so bad. Until she walks in on the drummer naked and sporting a spanking new piercing. There's no way the player rock star will ever think of her as more than his BFF's little sister. Better to focus on her photography. As soon as she stops thinking about him in her bed, against the wall, in the backseat of his car...

Sinful Serenade drummer Tom Steele is a wrecking ball. Bossy. Pushy. Hot as the molten center of the Earth. He's not afraid to use his body or his fame to get what he wants-- a different girl every night of the week (and three on Sunday). The man may be a whore but he can control himself. He's going to keep an eye on Willow, be her friend. That's it.

Their sizzling sexual chemistry makes this whole platonic things hard.

But there's no way he'll cross the line with the girl he's supposed to protect.

Play Your Heart Out (Sinful Serenade #4):

The final book in the series is the story of Jess and the band's bassist Pete.  We know about Pete from all the other stories.  And you kind of want him to get a good woman.  But their relationship is going to be one of convenience.  The band's manager, a slime by the way, wants Pete to get a good girl for his image.  Jess is needing the money to get into law school, and Pete offers to help her out if she will pose as his girlfriend.  Of course, the relationship will get physical, because why not have all the good stuff along with the pretend!  Both Pete and Jess have past relationship issues, and that will keep them from being able to transition easily from pretend to real relationship.  It's fun though, because you get to see what is going on with all the other band members and their relationships in this book too.  But again, you can read this alone.  Here is the blurb:
He parties like a rockstar.
She's there to make sure no one finds out...

Jess James has her eye on the prize. She is finding the money to pay for law school. Period. It doesn't matter how lonely she feels three thousand miles from home, how exhausted she is from working overtime as a cocktail waitress, or how deep the knife wound in her back cuts. She is going to be a lawyer, whatever it takes.

Only she doesn't have what it takes. She can barely afford to pay her rent.

Sinful Serenade bassist Pete Steele has enough to pay Jess's rent and buy her a small island in the Caribbean. The famous, talented rock star has everything... except the one thing his manager wants. Pete rose to fame as a devoted boyfriend. Doesn't matter that his ex slept with his best friend. He needs to stop screwing his way through Los Angeles to keep the record company happy. The sweet blond waitress is exactly the girl he needs on his arm if he wants to clean up his dirty reputation.

Their arrangement is simple: he pays her tuition, she plays his girlfriend. They'll lie to the world but not to each other. Especially not when they're alone, in his bed, him figuring out exactly which buttons to push to get her moaning his name.

Jess is good at keeping up appearances. She can play the enigmatic rock star's girlfriend. But Pete shouldn't play games with a girl who's been broken before...

Only for You (Forever and Always #1) by E.L. Todd:

This is a story where the woman, Scarlet, and the guy, Sean, are best friends.  They sleep together, but then Sean gets weird, and of course then they have issues. Scarlet works with a jerk of a boss, and Sean might have a bit of an anger problem, or maybe he just likes to fight.  He's obviously into Scarlet, but he thinks it is more casual than Scarlet feels it is.  We get the story from both of their points of view.  Overall though, the writing wasn't that great.  One of my pet peeves, the dialogue doesn't sound like how people actually talk.  Not to mention that the sex scenes have really awkward dialogue as well.  Now at the end of this book was part of another story, so that is how I ended up reading the next couple of ebooks I review in this post.  Here's the blurb for this one though:

Scarlet has been my best friend for ten years.

Sure, I'm attracted to her.

Sure, I really care about her.

But it's never been more than that.

On one stupid night we have too much to drink. Shots are downed and the liquor is flowing. And before I know it, I'm going for it. It sounds like a great idea, at least in the moment.

But what will happen when we wake up tomorrow?

Timeless series by E.L. Todd:
I've only read the first two, and I had to read that far because of how book one ended up.  Book three I guess does continue the story, but since book two ended on a happy enough place, I was able to step back and move on to other books.  So here are my reviews for the first two, which I must say I liked much better than the book above by this same author.  Oh one thing, I don't know that I picture Hawke with tattoos like the cover shows.  Maybe I missed something in reading it as quickly as I did. But I do like the guy on the cover, so it's okay!  I guess at some point I'll go on in the series to find out what happens to Hawke and Francesca in the 3rd book. Then I think the next two are the actual story of her brother and best friend. And the last two are another guy that we meet in book 2 and who he will be with.

Monday (Timeless #1):

The bad thing was that this was just the first half of the book on the end of the last book I talked about, Only for You, and so I ended up giving in and buying the e-book because I had to know what was going to happen after how this part left off halfway through.  The main characters are Francesca, or Frankie as she prefers to go buy, and Hawke.  We get the story from both of their viewpoints.  Frankie meets Hawke at the coffee shop where she works. They flirt a little until she gets brave and asks him out on a date.  But it turns out that Hawke assumes she just is in it for a one night stand, and when she makes him see that's not true, the date is over.  Hawke comes from a messed up life, and so he knows he's not good enough for her because of that.  Turns out, though, that Hawke is Frankie's brother Axel's friend. And when Axel brings him home for Thanksgiving, things get weird.  Frankie tries to just be friends with Hawke, but of course that is hard to do with their attraction.  When things go wrong, it all blows up in their faces.  And that is kind of how it ended!  Here's the very vague blurb for this one: 

I don’t believe in destiny.

In fate.

Or in soul mates.

But I believe in Hawke.

My life has never been whole since my parents left forever. I have my brother, someone I can barely tolerate most of the time, and I have my best friend, Marie.

And I have myself.

But when Hawke walks into my life, there’s an immediate connection. Our eyes lock and an unspoken conversation is exchanged. For the first time in my life, I actually feel something.

But he doesn’t.

He keeps me at arm’s length and pretends there’s nothing between us when there clearly is. I’m not the kind of girl to wait around for any guy, so I don’t.

But that doesn’t mean he isn’t in the back of my mind.

Our paths cross again in a way neither one of us expect and it changes everything. Was it destiny that made it happen? Was it fate?

Or was something else?

Tuesday (Timeless #2):

We pick up with Frankie heartbroken, but finally having moved on from Hawke.  Her brother, who in the first book was pretty much a manwhore, is now a serious boyfriend to Frankie's best friend Marie.  Frankie is living in NYC with her own very successful bakery.  But now that her brother Axel and Marie are getting married, Hawke is going to be back in Frankie's life.  At first she thinks she's okay with it, that she's over him and can deal with it. But when he comes back and acts all concerned and friendly, like he can pick right back up where they left off, it hits her that she's not quite as over him as she thought.  She soon figures out that they can be friends, and how to deal with him, and soon things get closer to where they should be.  Not only that, Hawke will go out of his way to prove to her that he only loves  her, and wants to be what she needs.  Here's the blurb, again, kinda vague.

Getting over Hawke is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do.

I couldn’t breathe, sleep, or eat. Every day was more agonizing than the one that followed. But somehow, after two years of suffering, I finally got back on my feet.

And I moved on.

Now I’m living in the city and running my own bakery. Life is good again. I’m surrounded by good friends that I love, and every day is even better than the last.

Until everything changes.

Now I have to face him after two years of silence. I have to look him in the eye and act like he has no effect on me. I have to hold my head high and pretend he didn’t shatter me into a million pieces.

I have to act like he doesn’t mean a damn thing to me.

Can I fool him? Can I fool myself?

Wilder by Vivian Lux:

This book was pretty good, and the lucky thing was that another book by the author was included at the end of the ebook!  Both were pretty good, although not perfect.  This one is the story of Scarlett and Keir, who is a rock star. And we get the story from both of their viewpoints.  They were childhood sweethearts, Scarlett almost running away with him to get married. But something happened, and the day he went to get her, she was gone.  Now Scarlett is working for a magazine in the same town where Keir lives in California.  Scarlett is running from an abusive boyfriend, trying to stay safe.  The magazine where she works with her best friend gets bought out, and when she has to sell a story to try to keep her job, she pulls in the ace in the hole she doesn't want to use, her friendship with Keir, and says she can get an interview with him. While Keir's brother Rane is usually the public one of the band, an interview with Keir, the more private one, gets Scarlett her job.  She goes to see him, but he's so mad that he almost cancels the interview.  He gives in though, and gives it to her. But then he decides he wants her back in his life, that he doesn't want her to just walk away, and so he calls her new bosses and asks to have her go on their tour with them to do a book.  She's mad, but also realizes this is a way to try to keep away from her abusive ex.  She doesn't tell Keir about him, and is a little irritated that he's forced her into this.  But soon he kind of wears her down. Although she doesn't want to tell him what the real reason she left him all those years ago was.  Wow, this has turned into a pretty long mini-review.  This was a good book though!  Here's the blurb:
Scarlett:

The whole world thinks they know him, but no one knows him like I do. Keir Wilder may be the lead singer of the biggest rock band on the planet, but he was once the boy next door. He was my first love. He put a ring on my finger. But I couldn't stay with him.

That was a long, long time ago.

Now I need help, and he's the only one who can save me. I know he will...

If he can forgive me.

Keir:

Five years ago I waited for her but she never showed up. I tried to find her, but she disappeared.

If she thinks she can just walk back into my life with no explanation, she is mistaken.

Sure I'll help her. I'll fix it. That's what I do. I'm a problem solver and I don't let go until things are the way they should be.

Like me and Scarlett, together again.

Now that I have her back in my life, I'm not letting her run away from me again. We're about to leave on tour and I don't care what the rest of the band thinks. Or even what she thinks.

She's coming with me.

Jax by Vivian Lux:

So, I was a little unsure about this one because it is billed as a "step-brother" romance, and it seems that is a whole genre?  Not that there is anything wrong, step-siblings are not blood-related, so it's okay. But, the fact that people are calling it out enough to make it a whole genre?  That weirds me out.  However, this was a good book.  The main characters are Jax, who is a rock star, and Liliana, who is an author, and her dad is a roadie getting ready to marry Jax's mom, who is also a music star.  Liliana and Jax were best friends, and kind of together back when they were younger, and right as Jax began his career as a rock star.  But when he told the press that he  had no one special in his life, and didn't even act like he was sorry about saying it when she confronted him, she left and never talked to him again. But now she has to go back and be with him while their parents are getting married. And she has to try to deny her feelings for him.  Not only that, but Jax really did like her a lot, in fact his first big hit was a song he wrote about her, for her.  But she hates it, thinking he wrote it to humiliate her.  The two will have to come to terms with their past issues, and then come to terms with becoming step-siblings and how that will affect any relationship they might be able to have.  I liked this one a lot.  I felt Liliana was very realistic.  I liked how she was a writer, and I kinda see myself and how I write, and why I write the way I do, the same reasons she did.  Here's the blurb:
He's JAX.

He's a rockstar. He's a screw-up. He broke my heart.

He's my new stepbrother.

Jaxson Blue is rock royalty: the son of one of the biggest names on the planet. He was my first...everything.

Then he broke my heart in the most public way possible.

I never want to think about Jax again.

Too bad his music seems to follow me wherever I go.
Now my hard-living roadie of a father is marrying Jax's rock star mother and the four of us have to co-exist in the same house for two weeks. Jax is still the same sexy, arrogant jerk I fell in love with, and I'm too weak to resist him for long.

So I make a deal with myself.

It's only until the wedding.

It's only a fling.

It doesn't mean anything.

I'm not doing anything wrong...right?

Those are the free/cheap/Kindle Unlimited books I read over the past two weeks.