Book Blitz with Giveaway: Bella Italia by Camille Taylor

Book info:
Title: Bella Italia
Author:  Camille Taylor
Series:  Heavenly #1
Publication date: May 30th 2017
Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

Small-town wallflower, Adelaide Montgomery has lived an uneventful life—until she witnesses the murder of her best friend…
Adelaide clings to the simple security of a home and a wish for family—desires that sent her former fiancé into another woman’s arms.
Happy to remain in Heavenly, Australia for the rest of her life, she reluctantly gives in to her best friend, Rachel’s pleading to join her on a trip to Italy. A decision which will alter her life forever.
Gorgeous men can be deadly killers in disguise…
When her best friend returns to their hotel suite with two male companions the night doesn’t go as planned and Rachel is murdered in cold blood.
Able to identify the killer, Adelaide finds herself a target, barely escaping with her life.
In order to protect his witness, Rome Inspector Antonio Cardellini hides Adelaide at his family’s winery. Though Antonio is a professional and Adelaide is under his charge, his feelings quickly surpass the limits of his job. Knowing one day she will return home, he struggles to distance himself, but the trial and his family continue to throw him and Adelaide back together.
Will Antonio put his badge above his heart? Or will he risk it all—his career, Adelaide’s life, and the possibility of a future together—all for a chance at love?

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes and Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

She stared into his deep blue eyes, feeling the warmth of them. Her stomach somersaulted. Holding him this close was dangerous. She tried to warn herself but her body refused to listen to the commands her brain was sending out. He watched her intently. What was he thinking? Her heart beat sped up until it was pounding in her chest. The heat from his body liquefied her muscles and his manly scent, so intoxicating to her filled her lungs.
Pressed up against him, she could feel every hard pane of his chest. Her breath caught in her throat as desire flooded her. She shifted, an urgent ache gathering between her legs. Her mouth dried even as her belly quivered. Moving her hands from around his neck, she cupped his jaw.
Adelaide swallowed with difficulty. He wasn’t pushing her away—nor was he encouraging her.
Insufferable man.
Whatever happened between them would be her choice she knew. She—Adelaide Montgomery—for the first time in her life needed to make the first move and the idea both thrilled and terrified her.
“Adelaide—”
She cut him off when she crushed her lips against his. She didn’t think, just felt. Allowing desire to take her where it wanted to go. While afraid of rejection, the fear of always wondering ‘what if’ overrode her reservations and made her bolder than she’d ever been before. She took what she wanted, and she wanted him.
His lips were soft beneath her own as his hand on her back pushed her more firmly into him, stoking the fires within, feeling almost brazen as she sucked on his tongue and he moaned.
She deepened the kiss, one hand sliding into his hair and tilting his head for better access. His tongue rasped against hers, sending delicious tingles down her spine. She had never kissed like this before—never had been kissed like before. What more had she never experienced before? It was one thing to be told what you were missing, it was quite another to be teased with the promise.
Antonio’s hand slowly inched up her thigh and beneath the towel, finally resting on her bottom. A hot rush of liquid heat pooled between her thighs. Every touch made her feel beautiful and cherished. Her body burned with delicious heat, a firestorm of sensation and yet she didn’t want to put it out, only to feed the flames more until it was consuming her. Until her entire consciousness was blind of all things except this burning need.

Author Bio:
Camille Taylor is an Australian sexy romantic suspense author who lives in the Nation’s Capital with her fluffy sidekick. She spends her time reading, writing, blogging and procrastinating on Pinterest looking at nail art, books, home improvement tips and cake decorating. A bookworm, she enjoys most genres, particularly romance and mysteries and is HEA chaser so you’ll always find one in her books. She started writing at sixteen and is currently working on her Harbour Bay and Heavenly Series, both set in Australia. Camille is also an incurable genealogist and has traced her heritage to England, Scotland, Ireland and Russia. She loves scrapbooking, hockey, tae kwon do and travelling.

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Three Audiobook Mini-Reviews

As I mentioned last month, I'm totally behind on reviews.  So, once again I'm going to do some mini-reviews, this time three audiobooks, and while two of them are new adult/contemporary romance, the other is YA science fiction.  I'll do the YA one first, so that if you're not interested in the other two, then you can be done after that.  As usual, I'll give you my rating, my thoughts, and then the blurb from Goodreads.

United (Alienated #3) by Melissa Landers:

My rating:  5 stars
I totally loved the first two in the series, and while at first I had a bit of trouble maybe getting into this one, by the end I was loving it just as much, and I really like the way it ended.  The narrator on this audiobook sounded a little different than she did on the first two.  Not sure why.  And then she also kept pausing in spots that didn't make sense to pause, and then not pausing when she really should have.  But other than those narrating issues, I was glad to be back and see how Cara and Aelyx's story would end, would it be an HEA?  If you haven't read the first two, you can go read my reviews of them here, Book 1 and Book 2.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

After thwarting a deadly coup and saving the alliance between their worlds, Cara and Aelyx have finally earned a break. Their tiny island colony is everything they dreamed it would be―days spent gathering shells on the beach and nights in each other’s arms.

But the vacation is short-lived.

The treaty between Earth and L’eihr has awakened an ancient force that threatens to destroy them all. The Aribol, mysterious guardians charged with maintaining interstellar peace, deem the alliance a threat to the galaxy. They order a separation of the races, decreeing humans and L’eihrs must return to their own planets within the month or face extinction. In fact, they already have agents in place on Earth, ready to begin.

With the clock ticking, Aelyx and Cara assemble a team of colonists and race back to Earth, where they unite with old friends to solve the mystery of who the Aribol are, what they want, and the real reason the alliance has provoked them. As tensions build to a full-scale war, Aelyx and Cara must fight harder than ever―not just for their future, but for the survival of both their worlds.

Letting Go (Thatch #1) by Molly McAdams:

My rating:  4 stars
This book had me constantly leaving status updates on Goodreads as I read it.  I loved Jagger and Grey, but I did NOT like Jagger's sister Charlie.  There were also so many times that I wanted to cry in this.  While there was the one aspect that is always in stories that annoys me, even though I know, I know, it's part of what helps with the dram and suspense.  I hate  how people don't tell the important person whatever some secret is that will upset them, because really it's a pretty stupid reason why they don't.  And if they would just do it right away, they wouldn't probably have some of the problems.  But as I said, drama.  A great book otherwise!  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:

Grey and Ben fell in love at thirteen and believed they’d be together forever. But three days before their wedding, the twenty-year-old groom-to-be suddenly died from an unknown heart condition, destroying his would-be-bride’s world. If it hadn’t been for their best friend, Jagger, Grey never would have made it through those last two years to graduation. He’s the only one who understands her pain, the only one who knows what it’s like to force yourself to keep moving when your dreams are shattered. Jagger swears he’ll always be there for her, but no one has ever been able to hold on to him. He’s not the kind of guy to settle down.

It’s true that no one has ever been able to keep Jagger—because he’s only ever belonged to Grey. While everyone else worries over Grey’s fragility, he’s the only one who sees her strength. Yet as much as he wants Grey, he knows her heart will always be with Ben. Still they can’t deny the heat that is growing between them—a passion that soon becomes too hot to handle. But admitting their feelings for each other means they’ve got to face the past. Is being together what Ben would have wanted . . . or a betrayal of his memory that will eventually destroy them both? 

Roman Crazy by Alice Clayton and Nina Bocci:

My rating:  5 stars
I love Alice Clayton, but the synopsis of this book didn't grab me at first.  I don't always get into books about divorced women, as I'm single and never been married. They don't really speak to me because I don't identify with them. But, this story.  This Italian hunk, Marcello.  I've never been one to lust after Italian men, even though my dad's side of the family is very proud of their Italian heritage.  But now, well now I want my own Marcello.  My only gripe is one that I've had with some of Clayton's other books, the beginning is so much description of the place and other things, that it often really takes me a bit to get into it.  But it was totally worth the pay off, as her books always tend to be!  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Avery Bardot steps off the plane in Rome, looking for a fresh start. She’s left behind a soon-to-be ex-husband in Boston and plans to spend the summer with her best friend Daisy, licking her wounds—and perhaps a gelato or two. But when her American-expat friend throws her a welcome party on her first night, Avery’s thrown for a loop when she sees a man she never thought she’d see again: Italian architect Marcello Bianchi.

Marcello was the man—the one who got away. And now her past is colliding with her present, a present where she should be mourning the loss of her marriage and—hey, that fettuccine is delicious! And so is Marcello…

Slipping easily into the good life of summertime in Rome, Avery spends her days exploring a city that makes art historians swoon, and her nights swooning over her unexpected what was old is new again romance. It’s heady, it’s fevered, it’s wanton, and it’s crazy. But could this really be her new life? Or is it just a temporary reprieve before returning to the land of twin-set cardigans and crustless sandwiches?


A celebration of great friendship, passionate romance, and wonderful food, Roman Crazy is a lighthearted story of second chances and living life to the fullest. 

Three great audiobooks, ones that kept me listening!  I've still got another four, plus one I'm listening to currently that I'm almost done with to review.  But this gets these done! 

Review: My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century by Rachel Harris

Book info:
Title:  My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century
Author:  Rachel Harris
Series:  My Super Sweet Sixteenth Century #1
Genre:  YA time travel romance
Published:  September 11th, 2012
Source:  E-book received free from Entangled Teen for honest review
My rating:  5 stars

I had wanted to read this book since I first saw it on display at the bookstore where I worked the year it was published.  So when Entangled Teen was asking people to do some reviews on it, I volunteered to read and review it.  I am very glad that I did, because I ended up enjoying it as much as I'd hoped. 

The main character is a girl named Cat. She is the daughter of a famous Hollywood actress and a famous Hollywood movie director.  Her mother, the actress, however isn't around.  Having always been very self-centered and more concerned about her own career and falling in love with every guy that came along.  So Cat lives with her father and her soon-to-be stepmother.  Cat likes how happy her stepmother makes her father, but isn't really excited for the big sweet sixteen birthday party that she wants to throw Cat.   One thing Cat had requested for her birthday had to do with a trip to Florence, Italy.  Her request on their first day there is to be able to go out and do some exploring on her own. And what she chooses is a guided tour where she gets to see Michelangelo's David.  At the end of the tour she notices a gypsy tent.  She decides for the fun of it to go check it out.  When she gets her reading, the gypsy has a strange reading, and for some reason tells Cat to make sure to learn whatever lessons she is given in the near future.  Cat is confused by all this, but she heads on out of the tent.

Only when she heads out of the tent, now she seems to be in a different time, no longer present day Florence, but now  Renaissance Florence.  A man is calling her name, and when she next looks down, she is no longer in her jeans and normal clothes, but in the appropriate dress for the time period.  She follows the man to a carriage, realizing that she is speaking and understanding Italian somehow.  It seems as if she has been transported into the body of a girl who had been orphaned.  And this girl actually turns out to be a member of Cat's own ancestors.  

She is taken to live with her aunt and uncle, and two cousins, a boy and a girl, both near her age.  She becomes good friends with the girl, Alessandra, and soon falls for the boy, Cipriano's, best friend Lorenzo.  There are mean girls in this time period as well.  One that even asks Cat to get up and sing in front of the rest of a party, something that Cat does NOT do well with, singing.  Cat's new family is wonderful, but she must realize what time period she is.  She tends to use the same kind of slang we use in modern day, often having to explain what things mean, or blame it on coming from her life in London where they do things differently.  She is lucky enough to still have her backpack with her phone and some magazines and cosmetics.  Of course her phone doesn't work, other than she is able to listen to some music.  

At one point Alessandra figures out that something is really off about Cat, and Cat gives in and explains to Alessandra that she is from the future.  Even so, being in this time, it is important to find Cat a husband, something that her uncle does, meaning well, although who he sets her up with is an older man that something feels off about to Cat.  

Now Cat must decide whether she wants to run away with Lorenzo, but in doing so, will he have to give up his dreams of being an artist?  And is it fair to the girl who Cat has taken over her life for now.  Cat also wants to get back home before anything like actually getting married to this guy takes place.  She soon learns that what she was so worried and upset about at home might not be as bad as she thought, that maybe her father's fiance is someone who really does have her best interests at heart, and maybe she can get past how her mother has treated her.

I really liked the story.  The characters seemed very realistic.  Even the mean girl, while yes, definitely a mean girl, was not necessarily doing anything that didn't make sense for a girl of that time period to expect.  I liked the love story, and I liked that Cat didn't expect things to just happen how she wanted and possibly ruin the way things were meant to go.  I like the way the author wrapped up everything at the end as well.  I look forward to reading more books in this series, and seeing what else could happen in another story. 

Review: Waterfall (River of Time #1) by Lisa Tawn Bergren (COYER Summer Challenge #1)

This is a book I downloaded for free quite a while ago.  I think it was one of the first books I downloaded for my Nook that wasn't an e-galley.  Now that I've read it, just as with other books like this I read for the last COYER challenge, I can't believe I waited for so long!

The main character is Gabi.  Her mother is an archaeologist, and so she and her younger sister Lia are spending their summer on a dig site in Tuscany.  But as the girls have been doing this their entire life, they know this isn't as glamorous as it seems.  They'll be stuck in a small town, away from anything that other kids their age will be doing.  When they get to this site there is a bit of an issue with a local official, which gives Gabi and Lia the chance to sneak off to get a look at the artifacts before everything is cleared out, something they normally have to wait for.  When they find these interesting handprints on the wall of the tomb, they each put one of their hands on the print that fits them, and when the stone becomes warm instead of how a stone is normally cool, things start to get weird.  Gabi pulls her hand away first, and lands in the past, 14th century Italy, where there is a fight going on for the land.  Her sister doesn't seem to be there. But she knows that she must find her sister.  She will have to learn how to live and speak with the people of this time, fortunately she knows Italian, and also figure out how to get their help to find her sister.  Of course there will be love, not only is it a love she shouldn't have because of the years of time between when they live, but he is also taken. There will also be bad guys out to take over the castello where she has been helped, and grown to feel a part of the family, as she helps them in ways she can as well  There is family intrigue, forbidden romance, and some interesting history woven in. 

While it is a Christian book, it is in a way that I totally liked. The main girl was not really religious but began to wonder in the book what was really out there. And I like the way it was done.  As someone who grew up very religious, attending a religious school from 1st-8th grade, but now questioning what I believe, it was done very realistically.  While I'm now not sure if I believe, I do still find myself praying for help, etc., just like Gabi did. 

I now have to wait until I can get a copy of the 2nd book to read.  Definitely a good read, a quick read, and highly recommended.

November is for Novellas Challenge #8: Radiant (Unearthly #2.5) by Cynthia Hand

Reading this novella made me realize how much I need to finish this series.  It almost made me do Wishlist Wednesday instead of Waiting on Wednesday this week.  But I didn't.  This was another good novella.  But because it had been awhile since I'd read the 2nd book, it did take me a minute to remember who Angela was.  This story is told from both Angela and Clara's point of view.  Which I kind of liked, because we get to read about how Angela met her "angel" boyfriend, well maybe not boyfriend, but guy she's in love with anyway.  It was nice to remember what had happened as we left off from the 2nd book as well.  In the story Clara is with Angela visiting her family in Italy.  Which is just so neat on its own.  And we go back and forth between the two girls.  Learning about Angela's angel named Phen, as well as getting to see what Clara is thinking about with her own "boy" that is no longer hers back home.  Also how Clara is doing with the loss of her mother and what she'd learned about her true father.  I know now that I'm going to have to get my hands on the 3rd book in the series, Boundless, soon.
Hey, you're here, and there is still time to join into my November is for Novellas challenge.  Just plan to read 4 novellas by the end of the month!  And there is a giveaway for the participants, and with only 2 participants besides myself right now, the chances are pretty good!