ARC Review: Suit (Serpents of Chaos MC #7)

Suit (Serpents of Chaos MC #7)

Chantal Fernando

Blurb:

As a bratva princess I always knew I'd eventually be married off, but never to a biker.

After only meeting Suit once and overhearing him say he'd rather be matched with my younger sister, we're not exactly off to a good start.

Now I'm living in his biker clubhouse, his past conquests being thrown into my face.

But the more I get to know Suit, I see a side of him that makes me think this arranged marriage may not have been the worst thing.

The problem is he wants this marriage in name only.

And me?

I want all of him.

Themes: Bikers, Arranged Marriage

Rating: 4.25 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

I’d been looking forward to Suit’s story for a while now, knowing that it was going to be a doozy after the hints we’d gotten in previous stories and of course the buttoned-up ones are always the sexiest to see lose their cool.  Chantal Fernando’s Serpents of Chaos series has continuously been a surprise as each of these men has had a unique experience with the spicy and sassy women that have stolen their hearts and driven them crazy.  Honestly what is better than a quiet mousy woman that is finally allowed to break out of her shell so that she can finally show the truth of her personality in a surrounding that will foster her strength and celebrate her uniqueness instead of punishing her for it.  Suit never imagined that he would be forced into an arranged marriage in order to serve his club, but when they are approached by the local bratva leader with an offer that they can’t refuse, he suddenly finds himself facing a wedding and a marriage.   Originally, he thought he would be getting the (kind of slutty) outgoing sister, but on the day of his wedding he is even more surprised to discover that instead he is being married off to the quiet, shy, bookish Elena, the “good girl” that he is now terrified he will despoil.  Elena is forced into her sister’s place at the wedding to the biker when she runs off an elopes, leaving Elena as the consolation prize, but she is determined to make the best of her escape from her father and the Bratva, even if her new husband doesn’t seem to want her in any sense of the word. She likes her new biker friends and family and is more than willing to let the women of the club led her to let her dark side out, but the more she opens up the more she tempts Suit and the more she wants the man that doesn’t seem to want her beyond a one-night stand that left her brokenhearted. Now Suit and Elena are circling one another and trying to come to terms with what their marriage really is meant to be and how their chemistry and emotional connection will move forward.  The more time they are around one another the more they come to like and respect one another, but Suit has so many hangups and Elena will only accept him breaking her heart so many times before she finally accepts it isn’t meant to be.  But Suit is quickly learning that Elena is the woman that he needs to make his life worth living and he will fight tooth and nail to make sure that she stays beside him and knows how much he loves her. 

I loved this story of two characters, each coming to terms with the truth about themselves as well as learning that the mask they have worn for years doesn’t have to be the truth of their lives forever. Elena has spent so many years in the shadows of her family, hiding her light to make sure that she wasn’t a target, but quietly learning skills and information that would allow her to protect herself and be an asset to her new family someday.  She is deeply intelligent, skillful, and feisty when faced with a problem, but she is also tender hearted when it comes to relationship and emotions she hasn’t experienced much.  Seeing her with the other Old Lady’s was hilarious but also sad at times as she has to learn that she can make others take notice of her without giving up who she is or what she stands for.  Suit was a bit of an A$$ through most of the story, taking and taking until finally someone forced him to open his eyes and see the damage he was doing to Elena and any chance he might have of a happy future with her. While he was strong and protective, his possessiveness and arrogance were destructive and needed to be squash until he accepted that he needed to return her love or set her free to live her life.  I was thrilled when these two were finally on the same page and I loved watching them finally come together in love and respect so that they could have their HEA and all the passion and heat that will obviously go along with it. I am dying to see them together in the coming novels, especially Angel’s because I suspect we will see some heat spreading around that.  Chantal keeps the spiciness and the craziness at just the right level so you know you are having an out of norm adventure without it being ridiculous, but honestly where can I find me some of these bada$$es?

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review.  No compensation was provided.

ARC mini-Review: Falling for Love (Dare to Fall #2)

Falling for Love (Dare to Fall #2)

Carly Phillips

Blurb:

Billionaire Romance · Surprise Pregnancy · One-Night Stand · Second Chance Love · Protective Alpha Hero · Scandal · Emotional & Sexy

I never meant to fall into bed with a stranger.

But the night I meet Jack Dare in Charleston, I stop thinking—and start wanting.

One look, one drink, one kiss—and I forget the rules I’m forced to live by. For one reckless night, I let myself breathe and allow myself to come undone.

But by morning, I’m gone.

Because if Jack knew who I really was—the ex-fiancée of a powerful man who still controls my life—he’d either walk away… or stay and get destroyed right along with me.

Two months later, I’m standing on his Miami doorstep with secrets. I’m pregnant and running from a man who’s bound to catch up with me.

That’s when I discover the kind of man Jack Dare really is.

He’s the man who fights for me. Who protects me. And refuses to let me go.

Themes:  Contemporary

Rating: 4 stars

Heat Rating:  

Review:

 I have been looking forward to this story for  a while, knowing Lucas’s partner’s were going to give us a tale to remember, but there were certainly some surprises for us in this one. Carly Phillips always has an amazing point of view when she begins a new series and when she brings her lovers togethers. Jack Dare was destined to be a seriously steamy story, but when he meets Taylor Monroe his mind and heart are stolen in all the best of ways. Taylor is a woman with far too much on her mind when she meets Jack and they have a beautiful but unexpected night together while he is on a scouting trip for a new location for their new club. She never actually expects to have to see him again, but when she suddenly discovers that Jack left her with a lasting gift from their night together, she has to track him down in Miami despite knowing that she will be putting him in danger. Now that she is back in his life and carrying his child, Jack will not be letting her go anytime soon and sets out solve all of Taylor’s problems, but the powerful enemy they are facing pushes back and the danger mounts for both Jack and Taylor until it becomes entirely too likely that they might not have a chance at the HEA they both want so badly. The love between Jack and Taylor built so organically and brilliantly that you never question how two characters that just meet become so deeply intertwined with one another so quickly. Jack is the kind of guy that all women hope to have for their own partner, always putting them first, he’s intelligent, loving, and willing not just to fight for them but with them against all enemies. Taylor is an intriguing mix of fearful and brave as she has to find a way to get herself out from under the thumb of the powerful adversary that has taken over her life, without putting Jack in danger or endangering the life of her unborn baby. She is clever, affectionate, sweet, and despite standing to lose all she knows and loves refuses to back down from a bully once she truly has something to live for. The heat and passion they share is intense from the beginning and obviously will keep their relationship fiery for a long time to come. This series is coming to a close with only one small novella left, but even so this has been one of the best series by a favorite author I’ve enjoyed in a while. Whatever comes next from Carly once this series ends, I know that it will be magic and I will be lining up early for a chance to read it.

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.

ARC Review: Return (Stingrays Hockey #6)

Return (Stingrays Hockey #6)

Mari Carr

Blurb:

His comeback was supposed to be behind the bench—until she put his heart back in play.

Dean Fields thought he’d already played his final hockey period.

Forced to retire at twenty-nine after a brutal, career-ending injury, Dean traded skates for a clipboard, grinding his way through assistant coaching jobs across the league. He built a life in the shadows of the game he loved—controlled, disciplined, safe. Because if hockey had taught him anything, it was how quickly everything you want can be taken from you.

Coming back to Baltimore as head coach of the Stingrays was supposed to be just another step forward. It wasn’t supposed to bring her back into his life.

Vivian Hale had once been off-limits in every possible way—his teammate’s little sister, too young, too bright, and already falling for someone else. Dean had noticed her anyway. Always. But timing had been cruel, and by the time he understood what he felt, she was gone—married, building a life that had no place for him.

Now she’s back too.

Five years a widow, raising her spirited daughter Pip on her own, Vivian has spent long enough grieving the life she lost—and convincing herself it was enough. Love was something she had. Something she buried. Something she wasn’t sure she’d ever risk again.

But Dean isn’t the same man she once knew. And she isn’t the girl who watched him from afar.

What starts as familiarity—shared history, old almosts, quiet understanding—quickly turns into something deeper, something impossible to ignore. This time, there are no rules about teammates or timing. Only fear, second chances… and a little girl who might just change everything.

Dean never believed he’d get a shot at the life he once ruled out.

Vivian never thought she’d want one again.

But sometimes, the hardest thing isn’t moving on—

It’s allowing yourself to return.

Themes: Contemporary, Hockey

Rating: 4.25 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

It’s always wonderful to see two people that have been friends for so long finally look at one another and see so much more, realizing that their connection can become so much more. Mari Carr has an ability to take us on an adventure through the lives of her characters as they go through the emotional changes and allow us to experience the way their hearts change and grow right there with them. At the end of the previous novel that Vivian was coming out of her shell off and her longstanding period of mourning after losing her first husband. I was very concerned that it would be too much for her and she might have to back away from her budding romance, but turns out that wasn’t the problem in this story at all. I enjoyed following along with these two as they both worked through all of their fears and past mistakes in order to find their way to one another and their HEA. I am dying for the next story and can’t wait to find out which of these hockey hotties will find love and get their world shaken as they find the woman that will change their lives forever.

Dean Fields has devoted his entire life to hockey, even at the expense of a relationship with his daughter as she grew up, but now that he is the coach of the team he is able to change his life a bit. Vivian Hale has lived and lost a lot in her young life, she’s a scientist by trade, a widow with a young daughter, and sister to a hockey star, but she has just recently begun to wonder if she has forgotten that she is also still simply a woman. When a hot night in Boston put Vivi and Dean together, neither of them ever conceived of the way their lives would change and the needs it would bring to the surface for them both. Now they are both finding that the deeper they get into their secret relationship the more their feelings get involved, so the question becomes will the relationship be sustainable or will they decide it was simply a fling? And if they decide to keep their relationship going are they able each get over their pasts in order to have a meaningful future or will their fears forever stand in their way?

Dean and Vivi were both interesting and multilayered characters with serious issues to work through individually and together so that they were able to have a relationship together. Dean has lived his entire life for his career, even though he did what he thought was best in difficult situations, but now he is having regrets and fears that he truly let down people that he cared about in the past. He forfeited a deep relationship with his daughter while she grew up, providing for her, but not really being there for her and now he is questioning if that makes him the type of man that doesn’t deserve to be a father. While he is a sweet, caring, smart, and brave guy, he  doesn’t always think the straightest when it comes to his irrational fears he allows them to drive him to make dumb decisions. Vivian is the best kind of heroine, one that has had far too much thrown at her in life, but she is finally allowing herself to come out of her mourning and get back to her life. She is determined to stop allowing her loss to drive her future especially when she has a man that is offering her an ecstasy and chance at a future that she wants again, one filled with love and happiness. She is intelligent, sassy, charming, loving, and watching her with her family show us that she is the lynchpin of her family and always will be.

Return is truly a story of two people that are rejoining the relationship world by jumping into the deep end all at once and finding love together. A widow with a young daughter that has finally decided to allow herself to fall in love and move forward to live life once again, and in doing so finds herself losing her heart to the most unexpected of men. Vivian had a crush on Dean years ago when she first met him, but after falling in love then losing that love, she never imagined that crush could become so much more once she allowed herself to open her heart to him again and give their love a chance. Dean never looked at Vivian as anything more than a sweet young woman and his teammate and friends little sister, but once he does look at Vivian as a woman, his eyes are no longer able to see her as anything but the most interesting and beautiful creature he’s ever seen. However, with the mistakes he’s made in the past he’s not sure he deserves Vivian and Pip or the happiness that he feels building a life with them, so he’ll have to let his past go in order to forgive himself and have a chance of that beautiful future. The passion between Dean and Vivi is there from the very first moment, even when they are hiding it from those around them, and it is obvious that fire will continue burning in their relationship long into the future. I’m dying for the next story in this series because with each story it only gets better and better, but I expect nothing less from Mari Carr, especially when it involves hot hockey players.

 *eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.

ARC Review: Pretend it's Forever (The Cage Family #5)

Pretend it's Forever (The Cage Family #5)

Carrie Ann Ryan

Blurb:

Sophia Cage doesn’t need a protector—she needs a night to pretend her world didn’t splinter. After her world burned, she found herself a single mom, a struggling dance studio owner, and unable to do the one thing that had brought her out of the darkness.

Dance.

When Carson walks into her life, all she can see is the broken person she’d been when they’d first met. She’s stronger than the ghosts of her past, at least that’s what she tells herself. Yet with each accidental encounter with the mysterious and dangerous man who’s inserted himself into the Cage family orbit, she’s finding it harder to walk away.

Carson Woods doesn’t trust people. He’s spent his life protecting his sister from their family and the world all while making sure his businesses are the best in their fields.

Then he meets her.

One wrong move with the shattered yet pieced together Sophia could not only fracture his working relationship with the only friends he has but harm the woman he tells himself he cannot crave.

Themes:  Contemporary

Rating: 3.75 stars

Heat Rating: 

Review:

I knew going into this that Sophia’s story was going to be filled with heartbreak and pain before she was able to heal and find her strength and power. Carrie Ann Ryan is the kind of author that knows how to build suspense, tear out a reader’s heart, and then show us all that the love we find in life the second time around is sometimes even deeper and more meaningful than what we think love is the first time. The Cage series is becoming so intense and complicated that I fear the ending of each story even as the love of each couple is fulfilled because we know that we will be getting a sneak peek of the trauma coming for the next couple. The love of a mother is shown strongly in this novel and it hits harder for me this time that in previous readings for me because I have recently gone no-contact with my own having finally come to the conclusion that some women truly just aren’t made to be mothers, while others will love and protect their offspring with their every waking breath until the end of their heart beats. I am looking forward to the next in this series as much as it terrifies knowing what is coming for Luna and Flynn, because their hearts and lives have some serious pain coming soon.

Sophia Cage Dixon has gone through a lot in her life working to become a principal dancer and then opening her dance studio, while trying to be the best mother and wife she could, but when her husband proves to be a bastard of the first order she has to rethink that portion of her life. Carson Woods first met Sophia at the lowest moment of her life and despite that he has never stopped wanting her, but he knows he has now chance with her. When he comes back into her life, quite by accident, Sophia doesn’t know how to handle the sexy and dangerous man, but she wants to handle him and she wants him to handle her. Willing to have one night together, both Sophia and Carson are not prepared for just how deep their feelings become and when it becomes so much more for them both, Carson breaks her heart in a vain attempt to protect them. However, sometimes it takes a brush with truly losing any hope at a future to make them both see that their love for one another is worth any fear and they give their relationship a true chance, but there is someone out there that doesn’t want Sophia to have a happy future and Carson and Sophia will have to face the ultimate fear once again to have a future together.

Pretend It’s Forever was one of those stories that move extremely quickly from the moment that Carson returns to Sophia’s life until the moment they are forced to admit their feelings for one another. I enjoyed getting to know Sophia a little bit more, but to be honest didn’t feel like I got to know her as much as I would have liked. While we learned about her past, her choices in life and how she is working get over her past relationship, I don’t feel like we got to know her as much as a woman as I would have likes, because it was obvious she was strong and willing to fight strongly for her life, but she didn’t fight as much for her hope for love or a relationship. Carson on the other hand I didn’t feel like I got to know much at all except as a brother and as a businessman, instead of a fully fleshed out character it seemed more like he was a surface character until the near end when we finally saw him wake up and admit his feelings for Sophia. I enjoyed the way he interacted with Sophia’s twins and his sister, and of course there were plenty of family interactions between the Cages and Woods, but in all I would have loved the book to be a bit longer for Sophia and Carson’s story to develop more. The passion was definitely there from the beginning and I can’t wait to see more of them in future stories when they return as a couple. I fear I will be sobbing my heart out when the next story begins after seeing the epilogue in this one (once again) because Carrie Ann insists on attempting to make us insane while we are forced to wait between stories. She truly is the most loveable of sadists!

*eARC provided by author for the purpose of an honest and unbiased review. No compensation was provided.